The piece of advice that I would give is, start. You have no idea what beauty lies beyond that first step. A lot of us are afraid to try. We are afraid of failing. We are afraid of a lot of things that could go wrong, but what if it goes right?

Definitely get everything in order right away. It kind of falls back on the worst business decision I made. Getting everything set up to where you have contracts that are in place. And you have a legal framework you can work off of to give you accountability. Then also give your clients accountability. The thing I wished I had done a little bit differently was I viewed my business in the very beginning as I needed to be a cheap as possible. And just kind of survive. Where I wish I had been I am going to invest all my resources into creating a great contract, getting invoicing set up to where it's reoccurring. Clients can save credit cards. Different processes that I did not do just because I did not want to spend the money that now I am having to spend the money and wish I had done it before.

My greatest fear is running out of innovation. To me, innovation is what keeps us afloat. It keeps me going every day. Sometimes that worried me. As I grow older, will I get more out of touch with what's happening in social media new apps coming up? How much do I want to keep up with? Technology continues to advance. So as you grow, you wonder how much of this technology do you need or handle? So my fear is not being able to adapt because once I stop adapting, that's when I will stop growing. Then it will be time for me to hang it up.

I want to always over-deliver and fear that I won't be able to do that. How I am handling it is I am actively looking for the right people to help me do that. I know I can't do it all myself and, my team can't do it all ourselves. So we are on the hunt for the right people.

Put Your Goals in front of you and your fears behind you. There is so much that has to happen in a business. And it takes a long time. It's years or a marathon. You have to find a source of motivation and inspiration. Two of those sources are goals and fears. If you can be motivated by those simultaneously, I believe it's a powerful combination to keep doing whatever you need to be doing. I think it's the stereotype and clique that businesses fail because you give up or you quit. There's truth in that, but I think to make it easier on yourself as a founder especially, really get clear on why you are in it.

I believe there are two reasons to do a start-up. One is you are passionate about something. You want to do a company and, you are willing to ram your idea down the throats of potential clients. That was UTD. The second reason is you see a niche and, you fill it. And that is, coach me strong. So I have had the opportunity to do both of these. You're passionate about something. Create a new product and try to market it. Be open to a niche. Create it, fill it, and then try to market it. The commonality of those two things, it does not matter which one you do if you are willing to go the long road for either one. The commonality is business start-ups are marketing projects.

This Ranger Instructor looked down at me and goes are you committed? I looked at him, and I mean, my face is muddy. I have stuff in my eye that I am trying to get out. I am hacking up stuff and, I say what do you mean Sergeant? and he goes look a chicken is dedicated because he gives an egg. A pig is committed because he gives bacon. He goes do you understand the difference? And I said, yes I do. I have never forgotten that and, those are words I still to this day live by.

I would say to some who have not yet started well, start, do it. The world needs you. They need your idea and vision. Whatever you have in your beautiful vision do it. If not now, when? We all could die tomorrow.

Make sure you carve out time for yourself and your family. When you are running a start-up you can get so focused and so in the weeds of running that business and it can be mentally all-consuming. You can't lose track of what is truly important. Carving out that time to go for a run. Carving out that time for a date night. Carving out that time that is super intentional for your kids. That is going to be beneficial to your family but, also for your business. It will give you that time away to relax your brain so that you can come up with better ideas for the growth of your company.

Raise capital but, raise capital in a way that you can build on it slowly. I started my entire company using square loans. I got my first one for eight hundred dollars. I worked and paid it off based on my credit card sales and, stuff like that afforded me another one for sixteen hundred dollars. Reallocated the money to what I needed at the moment and just kept building on it. I stayed away from raising big capital and raised what I needed at the moment or where I thought it was at and where my short-term goal was.