Tips and Secrets to Be a Successful Business Owner

By Gregory Armstrong

If you truly want to change certain areas of your life to reach the financial freedom we all have dreamed about, are you willing to get out of your comfort zone and try the innovative ways of doing things?
If you’re serious about taking your life to a higher level, you will need to make a plan and stick with it. You will form positive new habits and be on your way to a financial life beyond your dreams.
When we fail to plan, we plan to fail. Don’t be one of those 90 to 95 percent of American households that operate without a detailed accurate written outline of income and expenses. The number-one reason for small business failure is poor record-keeping, which leads to overspending and getting in debt.
Set big dreams. When you do, it shows that you have greater confidence in yourself, which makes achieving them faster and easier.
If you can dream it, you can achieve it.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Oct 31, 2019
• ISBN: 9781796068207

Gregory Armstrong

My name is Gregory Armstrong. I’m a retired Houston firefighter, third generation. I worked two jobs nearly my entire life, and don’t regret it at all. I’m a person that believes in second chances, and willing to share the secrets to others to achieve their dreams that slipped by them the first go around. UPDATE 10.25.19: My name is Gregory Armstrong. I’m a retired Houston firefighter, third generation. I worked two jobs nearly my entire life and regret none of it. I’m a person who believes in second chances, and I am willing to share my secrets with others so they can achieve the dreams that slipped by them the first go-around.

Book preview

CHAPTER 1

Building a Foundation

If you do what you’ve always done, you’ll always get what you’ll always gotten.

—Anthony Robbins

It’s hard to plan your day until you have a plan for your future.

I was once told a story about a cone falling from a pine tree. A friend and I were asked, If there was one dream of what you could do with this pine cone, what would it be?

The friend mentioned a couple of things. One was to decorate it, put it on a Christmas wreath, and hang it on the door at Christmastime. Another was to make it into a decoration and put it on a Christmas tree. My idea was a lot different. I envisioned a whole neighborhood, with all-new houses being built in it and me doing all the painting. My vision was to plant the seeds from the pine cone and watch these trees grow and multiply. Years later, I would have all the lumber cut from the trees and build houses with it.

Have a vision.

Building a foundation will not happen overnight, but when it does, there will be no stopping it. Once you set that goal, write it down and immediately begin to create momentum. The foundation you build determines the outcome of any business you start. Looking back, it applies to anything you do.

Most of my childhood days were spent playing football, baseball, and basketball and running track. I loved sports and was determined to win in everything I participated in. In baseball, I would stay after practice and hit the ball so I could make cleanup batter or possibly be good enough to bat in that winning run in the bottom of the ninth inning. With basketball, I would stay after practice to shoot one hundred free throws to better myself and possibly win the game at the free-throw line.

I will never forget preparing myself for running track. During the summer, when I was out of school and working with my dad, on the way home, I had him drop me off over two miles from the house so I could run home. I knew that getting in shape during the summer helped me perform better in the track meets once school started, and it kept me in shape for all other sporting events.

After graduating from high school, I received three scholarship offers for basketball and one for track. I didn’t take any of them. I knew exactly what I wanted to do. I joined the Houston Fire Department two years out of high school and worked with my dad until I recognized, developed, and utilized the talent to run my own business. My dad was not only a loving father but an excellent role model, full of the excitement, enthusiasm, and confidence it took to build that foundation in life.

My friends and family knew I was serious about what I wanted to do when I decided to continue painting with my dad, then continued to paint two years later, after I entered the Houston Fire Department.

It has been thirty-eight years since I graduated from high school, and I’m still painting. People realize now that I made committed to a career and built a reputation of integrity and trust with them, which has been in the making for a long time.

People see the things that I have given up, which most people would not have, and realize the passions that I have strived to pursue—the fire department and my painting business.

Show appreciation to those who help you in your business. Various paint store managers give my name to customers looking for help, and in return, I occasionally bring lunch for the employees to show my appreciation.

After giving a customer a bid, thank him or her for allowing you the opportunity to bid the job. And most of all, thank God for allowing you to get the opportunity (or the work). This is something I do every day. All these things are forms of building a foundation for your company.

As you continue your success, you will be measured by the amount of trust you have earned and the effectiveness of your work. The customers I have now trust in me, knowing my foundation has been set; a foundation of trust is essential to a successful business. Your foundation determines how successful you will be.

CHAPTER 2

Lucky

For years, people told me how lucky I was with my business and getting consistent work. Luck is very predictable. If you want more luck, take more chances.

When the different paint stores put on their functions, such as dinners, luncheons, and supply shows, I attend every one I can, whether I need something or not. There is always a chance you will meet different sales representatives and managers and gain a relationship with them, which leads to referrals in the future—and a foundation from which to build. A successful business requires knowing your customers and delivering on your promise. You must continually invest in the quality of your relationships and maintain them.

One of my brothers loves to play lottery scratch-offs, and he plays them all the time. It seems as if he is very lucky when he does play, and when he wins, he lets you know. I think to myself all the time, How lucky can one person be? The only thing he fails at is mentioning how often he loses. Like everything in life, the more chances you take, the better the odds of winning.

CHAPTER 3

Keeping Up with the Joneses

I’m sure you all have heard the expression keeping up with the Joneses. This chapter explains the importance of providing a role model in your business to lead your employees in the right direction. This is not an overnight process. It may take a little time to develop, but it will pay off with the attitudes of the employees you work with and the growth of your company.

As I mentioned earlier, put out the best you can, and you will get the best results. Show up to work each day with that energetic, enthusiastic attitude. Start your day off by showing them that it’s going to be a good day. A negative attitude is going to set your presence for the remainder of the day. Your employees will want to be the person they see running that business.

Every person who has ever worked for me has wanted to be successful in some way, preferably by running his or her own business and not having someone tell him or her what to do. Later in the book, I will discuss this matter. For people to achieve their dreams and goals in life, they need to copy that successful person, and they need to remember to write their goals down and take immediate action. You will hear me say this throughout this book, because I really do believe action will not happen until you write down your goals.

If you envy successful people, your envy may be keeping you from doing the things you need to do to be successful. If you admire successful people, you create a positive force field of attraction, becoming more like the people you want to be like.

Hanging around the people you work and associate with will lead you to like them and be like them. On two occasions, I was employed with the fire department when two guys were transferred to the station, and I just knew that I was not going to like them based on the things I’d heard about them. I was judging a book by its cover. The guys turned out to be really great, and we remained very good friends throughout my career.

Being Yourself

I remember when I was a kid being asked at vacation Bible school, If you could be anyone else in the world, who would you be?

My answer to the teacher was Myself.

The kids laughed, but I didn’t understand why. I was happy with who I was and knew I was capable of doing anything I put my mind to. I could be like anybody I wanted to be, as long as I paid the price to make it happen. At the