Hello from Portland, Oregon!

Hello,

Since I’ve been listening to the podcasts, reading the blueprint, forums and continuously reaching out to Jessica and Josh, I feel that It’s probably wise to introduce myself to the rest of the community!

###Background


Prior to starting my business, I was Pre-med majoring in Mathematics at Portland State University- I’ve taken all the pre-reqs (other that organic chem) to apply to OHSU. Early last summer (sometime towards the end of April) I was looking on craigslist for a full time job that would put enough money in my account to pay for some of my expenses, I came across a home maintenance that was paying well over the minimum wage at the time, so I took my chances and applied to the company. The following week I started working with the owner- After a month me and the owner got fairly close, started talking business- and then he told me his background. We had similar backgrounds, growing up very poor and trying to help our parents with rent, while trying to figure out what to do with our life. At the time I was so focused on medicine, as I’ve put all my time and energy through-out my middle/high-school years, so I didn’t think of starting a business at the time.

A couple months later, he promoted me as a sales administrative position (I was dealing with lots of numbers, weekly profits, overall ROI’s for each week/month basis, and recalling passed clients to reschedule appointments) which was paying about $20.00 an hour. Obviously with no degree I felt pretty set and hoped to keep the job while I was going to continue school in the fall.
Unfortunately working full-time and spending another 40-50 hours a week scribing, studying, and shadowing never worked out. So I gave my notice and let my job go.

The following year I reached out to him (I was about to turn 20) and was re-hired for the summer (we kept in contact throughout the year and small talked about how life was going). After a month of being re-hired, we went out to lunch- he brought a binder with him and inside he wrote an entire plan on how to start a business, why I should consider looking into this business, and how much opportunity there was.

Towards the end of June, I let go of the Job and started my own business (July 12, 2016) and Continued to go to school. I worked 25-35 Hours a week on my business and the rest of the time towards my education. Towards the end of the semester, I decided to take a semester off and focus on my business.

Some of you may be wondering, what happened to School?- My goal in life is to spend as much time with my future kids, future wife, and my family (I turned 21 on August 21st (Solar Eclipse day :slight_smile: ).

Some of the reasons why I haven’t gone back to school are:

  1. Doctors have a 84% Divorce rate.
  2. I was going to be $344,000 In debt by the time I finished residency.
  3. I wanted to be able to build something to give to my future kids.
  4. I don’t want to work for the dollar.
  5. I want to build a business that will break our ‘poor’ generation stream.

He saw something in me that I never saw, sometimes it takes that one person that completely change your life for the better, and I couldn’t be more thankful for all the support, all of the negative and positive feedback people have given me.

I hope you enjoyed reading this as much as I wrote it.

Regards,

Christian

4 Likes

Hello Christian and welcome to the forum! Your 5 reasons resonate strongly. Glad you found a good mentor.

You can always go to school later. I got my Bachelors when I was 23 then I got my Masters when I was 50. Now I’m learning Squeegology.

2 Likes

Welcome to the forum.

Wow, I am very proud of you Christian, not only for the amazing story you have written yourself but for motivation and force you shared with us. I am not currently in a place where I can type out my entire story as you did. But I too have a similar story. I believe I may have even made a post about it when I first came here.

Anyway, long story short, my wife has a bachelors and a master degree in music, so you can imagine where society let her take those degrees. I have two associates degrees after only have a 6th grade education. I had countless jobs in customer service and hard physical labor. Continued to pursue my dream to make more money and work less time, so I can spend every moment I have left with my kids. My father died when I was ten, and worked way too hard for way too little, I wont be left with the same outcome.

If you ever wish to talk, hit me up Christian. I’m not the Smartest, Wisest, nor the most successful businessman, but I am trying. I push harder every day.
Salem Oregon Small Business Owner
Welcome to the forums, and the family!!

2 Likes

Hello Blue:

I would love to reach out to you since you are only about 30 Miles away, maybe we can grab coffee and talk about what we are doing and how we can help each other in the long run! If you are working in salem I’m currently letting go of a couple clients due to the long drive, let me know if this is something you would like to do!

I would enjoying getting together sometime for some Bottle Water. (I quit coffee back when i was 16).
Seriously though, if I get anymore calls for Portland jobs I can at least start sending them your way. I don’t get too many calls/contacts from Portland Metro area.

As for your offer on your clients, I would never turn down the opportunity to help another business take over clients he can no longer provide top service to. (In this case, the drive time etc etc, my same reasons for not portland!)

Do you offer squeegee washing or PW/WFP? And most likely you priced fairly so I could even just keep the current price to make it an easier switch for the clients.

1 Like

I use a WFP, but for the clients in salem i used a the traditional way! definitely, shoot me a text!