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Interview with Entrepreneur
and Author Brian Collins
By Hillary Hart
Many people dream of starting their own business but lack the information to get started. A lot of the business books available are geared more towards individuals with a business background, filled with terminology and charts that aren’t useful for everyone.
Entrepreneur and author Brian Collins feels that everyone has at least one good idea that could be made into a business. He felt that the market was missing a straightforward book that was accessible and applicable to everyone without the daunting terminology, regardless of whether or not they had a business degree.
In his book, Step Off the Porch and Start Your Own Business, he shares with readers how he started a successful business from scratch not just one or two times, but four times, in four different arenas.
Readers can implement his six rules that are easy to follow and understand while learning about the ins and outs of business before they roll out their idea, ensuring their best chances of success by planning ahead.
You’re an entrepreneur who has managed to build four different businesses. Can you share with us more about your background, as well as what led you to write this book?
This book was not intended to be a textbook style of “how to” chapter by chapter structure or how to calculate linear slope equations on financing.
This is a simple guide on how to play Monopoly, basically. I wrote a book that says here are four separate businesses in completely separate arenas.
I’m a businessman and entrepreneur with an accountant and auditor background, and at age 31, I decided I didn’t want to do that anymore.
In a snapshot, anyone can read this book, regardless of their experience or background, and it shows that there are similar tasks and requirements in each business you start, no matter what it is.
You can scale it from a two-man operation to a 10,000-person operation, and you’re still going to go through the same challenges to get it structured and formed. I always refer to building the bakery in the desert.
You have to get your foundation down and your walls up before you can start producing donuts. Once you start making donuts, you can produce muffins and go from there.
There are six rules that I’ve coined that I’ve used for all four of my businesses that are simple and easy to understand.
I also discuss 10 to 12 topics in my book like corporate structure, marketing, taxation, where you’re incorporated, where you’ll get your seed capital from, your sales team, who owns this, who’s going to build the product, your sales team, your legalities, etc.
Every business runs into legal issues - whether it’s the staff, competitors, consumers - you have to be able to handle that. I handle all those topics for you to review before you launch your business.
I wrote this book saying to people, this is a simple, fast read that gives you a good idea of where you can start and theorize whether you want to be an entrepreneur or an employee. If you want to be a risk taker, you have to be prepared to step off the porch and move forward. The porch is the comfort zone.
My son and my brother said that I needed to write a book to teach people how to do their own venture. I’ve had people come to me and ask to talk with me for half an hour to figure out how to start a business.
I believe in paying back, and I was fortunate enough to have opportunities in front of me that I was able to jump on. There are so many people who are so close to being able to run their own business, but they don’t know how to get started or they’re afraid to get started. That’s why I wrote this book.
Your book mentions your six rules of success. Could you share with us a couple of those rules?
The first rule in my book is very simply, if you are going to start your business, you have to be prepared to chop wood all day long. I was a logger before university, and I had to chop wood in the cold rain or the hot sun. If you don’t have that type of energy, then don’t step off your front porch or leave your comfort zone, because it’s going to be problematic.
Another rule is don’t quit. You can always repackage, restructure, refinance, find more partners or new channels of distribution or find better manufacturing outlets, but every business you start will have problems. Don’t give up your dream.
Stare at that point in the horizon that you want to get to, and find a way to get there. Sometimes you have to stop and reevaluate, but don’t quit. If you quit, the game is over.
Four times I had to invent the wheel and then make it turn. I think I have the opportunity on a large scale to be able to help people. Even if you start your business as a side hustle, make one thing a week, then two, then four, then eight…once it’s carrying itself, then you can step back from whatever is paying the rent now and do it full time.
I saw on your website that you also offer consulting services to readers after they’ve read your book. What kinds of goals can you help readers achieve through your consulting?
I’ve helped mentor younger people with their focus and direction on getting started with their project. Often, they’re completely at a loss because no one in their family is an entrepreneur, and they might not know anyone else who is an entrepreneur.
Being an entrepreneur is a very different life. People take paychecks home every two weeks or so, and they see other people starting ventures and they often completely miss the point that they’re going to have to give up those paychecks they’re used to.
They will have to take whatever money and equity they have in their house to pledge it to get the financing they need to get started. If they don’t get it done right, they’re at risk for all of their assets.
There are lots of ways you can do it without risking all of your assets that I go into in my book. There are ways to bring people into your dream and you don’t have to risk the house that you’re sleeping in.
Most people who start their first ever business don’t realize the banks aren’t going to loan you the money. Banks don’t take risks. If you want to borrow $100,000, you have to give them 130% in some kind of tangible asset that they can liquidate if your dream doesn’t pan out.
Most people start ventures and don’t have that kind of asset behind them. I literally started my businesses with 10 bucks and I grew them from there. You need to look at all the topics I talk about in my book.
I also have some quotes in there from some very successful people. It was Vidal Sassoon who said the only place where success comes before work is in the dictionary.
My favorite quote that’s in the book is a Japanese proverb — nobody took credit for it — and it says that you fall down 7 times, and you stand up 8 times in your process to be successful.
Once you decide to step off the porch, it gets very exciting and exhilarating. Every time I’ve started something in each of my ventures, someone has told me to run from an idea. When that happens, I know I’m on the right track because that person who said that is more concerned about failing personally with anything they do than about me being successful.
Time is the only thing you really have at risk. Yes, you have financial assets at risk and liabilities, but you can fix most of that stuff as long as you have the energy and you’re willing to chop wood all day long.
If you had one business lesson you’ve learned that you wish you could’ve told your younger self before forging ahead, what would that be?
I would say that whatever business you’re going to start, do not be afraid to fail. Live your life being aware that if you fail, it only means you didn’t get it right the first time.
So many people are paranoid about what if something isn’t right. There are so many things that you will have to tweak. This doesn’t mean your business is failing, it just means that you have to spend more time at the front end to get things running smoothly and efficiently.
Everybody has the ability to start a new side hustle or just start something new. Everybody sees opportunities a little bit differently than the next person standing by them on the subway.
You only need one person to wonder why, for instance, the door opens this way instead of that way and figure something new out.
Those little nuances can revolutionize tiny little things, but when you magnify by billions of people around the world, it can be very rewarding to the people using the nuance and to you emotionally for helping them, and it doesn’t hurt if you earn a few dollars doing it, too. Everybody sees something that’s a little out of the ordinary.
Everybody has at least one good idea in them. They need not be concerned whether their rivals or peers think it’s a good idea. So many older people look back at their lives, and wish they’d taken more risks and done something differently, because what’s the worst that could happen? Don’t be afraid to try.
Steve Jobs once said that if you really look closely, most overnight successes took a long time. It’s a lot of work, but that doesn’t mean it’s not worthwhile. The liberation you get is worth it.
Time is the only element you cannot control. If you’re thinking of doing something, put the effort into it and get it organized before it’s too late. Don’t squander your time. All you risk losing today is time. Time is the single most important element in whatever venture you’re going to start.
If you don’t start today and you start tomorrow, you’ve lost one day, and you can’t get that day back.
Have you always had a passion for writing?
No, not really. My son’s mother, my second wife, Susan, passed away from breast cancer. While she still had some time and clarity, I asked her to put some notes down, about a chapter’s worth that I incorporated into a six-chapter book that I wrote for my son and my stepson and other family members.
There was a lot of care that came out of that book and I printed 10 copies that I passed around to other people going through similar things. That was my first book that I put together for family and friends.
This book, Step Off the Porch and Start Your Own Business, is the first one I’ve published because I wanted to help other people get to the point where they feel ready to launch a business because they feel they have a guide.
When I got started, no one gave me advice and I had to figure it out.
Can you tell us about your writing process for this book?
Once I decided I was going to write this book, I made an outline of four main topics and a couple minor topics. Once I had the outline done, which took me about a week, I had the book written in 4 months.
My son helped me edit, and he was very helpful. My wife, the love of my life, has known me through the last venture. She supports me completely and knows I’m an entrepreneur and risktaker and told me she thought it was a great idea to write the book.
She said that in most couples, someone has more appetite for risk than the other person, and if the book helps people understand how to do it more effectively and efficiently, if nothing else, it will help streamline the level of anxiety for the person who is partnered with the person taking the risk.
Do you have any other books you’re working on, or other projects?
I’m currently operating two gold mines in Nevada. We’re currently reconfiguring one, and the other one will be a mirror image of that one. That takes the majority of my time right now.
I’m available for consulting for people who have questions about my book. You’re never going to find a book like this in a bookstore because I’ve looked for one like it when I was launching my businesses.
This is a fast track for people who need advice without having to learn a bunch of things they don’t need to learn.
Where can readers find your book and connect with you?
If you go to my website 6stepbiz.com, you can see the book trailer and there is a buy page that will link you to where to purchase the book.
You can find me on social media at:
LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/brian-collins-265603259/
Facebook https://www.facebook.com/people/Brian-Collins/
Instagram https://www.instagram.com/briancollinsca/
Twitter https://twitter.com/BrianCollinsC
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