96: Starting Successful Businesses with NO Industry Experience with Jeff Fenster

There are often standard prerequisites for starting a company. First, you need to go get a degree for a certain field, then you need to find a job that is in that field, then you need to stay in that job for 10 years to gain connections, and finally, you can start a business. Jeff Fenster, serial entrepreneur and founder of Everbowl thought this linear path was a bit outdated. If anything, Jeff thought it was slightly backwards!

Jeff planned on becoming a lawyer in college, but once he had his first child, realized that being away from home wasn’t for him. He got a sales job and became the top sales rep in his company. When the company started dangling bonuses over his head, he felt uncomfortable and knew that he needed to start his own thing.

He ended up founding a company that directly competed with his former employer, then sold that company, started another, sold that one, started a few more, sold those companies, and many companies later, he started Everbowl, a craft acai bowl and superfood company based out of San Diego.

If variety is the spice of life, then Jeff is doing things right! He argues that the best thing you can do is go into a completely new industry, focus on a problem that competitors are overlooking, build systems to make the industry better, and carve out a portion of the market. This strategy has worked well for him as he’s profitably sold and started many different companies. If you want his breakdown on his formula to success, you’ll have to tune in to this episode!

In This Episode We Cover:

Why industry experience isn’t necessarily a prerequisite for success

How “fresh eyes” disrupt stagnant markets and industries

What to do before you try and solve a business’s problem 

Developing systems that beat competitors for you

Addressing the not-so-obvious needs of customers 

Focusing on company culture and core values when building a business

Leveraging your “relationship capital” for future opportunities

And So Much More!

Links from the Show

Amazon Alexa

Blockbuster

Netflix

Blackberry

iPhone

Best Buy

Amazon

Ikea

We Build Stuff

Neil Patel

Udemy

Etsy

Fiverr

Freelancer.com

 Check the full show notes here: http://biggerpockets.com/bizshow96

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