What’s up everybody? It’s Steve “The hurricane” here. And on today’s episode of “A Drink With The Hurricane.” We’re gonna talk about risk tolerance and no excuses, because they go hand in hand especially during a down economic time frame, so cheers.
Alright, so here we are. It’s 2020, it’s sometime in August and I know that your business, I know that your livelihood, I know that your personal life, your relationships with your spouse and your children and your extended family and your friends have 100% changed from where they were before the COVID-19 crisis began. And I feel as a business owner myself, I have to talk to you all about risk tolerance and no excuses, because here we are in the middle of this pandemic.
Now, every single business and every business owner was affected differently. Some of us from a personal standpoint, we might be immunocompromised. So we’re extremely concerned about catching the virus. We might have staff or employees who are extremely concerned. We have family members and relatives who might be extremely concerned. And then you have the opposite where there might be some people who are, who don’t care at all, and they’re like, I know that, whatever business as usual. Regardless, whether there’s a pandemic, whether the economy is bad, whether there’s a regulation change that comes from compliance standpoint. Whether there’s a new software that comes out or any other external factor.
Being a business owner is all about taking calculated risks and understanding one’s risk tolerance. What do I mean by that? And it’s a very subjective thing, which I know some people who are very analytical might have a hard time understanding. I wanna reduce the risk, so I’m gonna keep going and keep analyzing in statistics. And then you get what I call analysis paralysis, where you never actually make a decision to move forward because you’re just over analyzing. And that is a problem in itself, but that’s where it comes to risk tolerance.
If you are an entrepreneur and you’re watching this, you’re a business owner, you started your business. You obviously have some level of risk tolerance, meaning that you did your due diligence. You for whatever reason decided that home care and health care was the industry and the business model that you wanted to go into. You put up whatever startup funds that it took place. Some of us are working full-time and then we’re part-time in our business until we can generate enough revenue to go full-time. And many of us just took that leap of faith and went all in.
I know myself when I first started Hurricane Marketing Enterprises, the company that is branded on everything that I own and everything that I live, my name is Steve “The Hurricane”. And it’s been Steve “The Hurricane” since 2006 long before I started Hurricane Marketing Enterprises. I was the kind of person who went all in. I knew what I wanted to do. I knew that I wanted to help people. I knew that I knew how to market and sell and scale a home care business because I had already done it. I took a company that was doing six, 700,000 and took them to $5 million in a few years time. So I knew, I knew I had what it took to be able to do it. So I just jumped right in. I was confident in my abilities and confident that there was a need for people for my services and I just took that leap of faith. And I figured it out, went a 100% into it over eight years ago. And now everybody around, I have people around the world who watch my videos. I have people around the world who have come to my events. I have people around the world who are paying clients of mine using the Hurricane system, not just in the United States, but are in six other countries, outside the United States. And I have people in China and people in India and other places that I haven’t been to yet who are actually reaching out to me about doing work with them in their countries, to help them grow and scale their business. Because I took that risk to go out there and do what it took, just like you took the risk.
Now, to the no excuses, right. I’m gonna tell you my brothers and sisters in healthcare, my fellow entrepreneurs. There is always a reason why you can’t do something. Always a reason. When I first started Hurricane Marketing Enterprises, my son was 18, 19 months old. My first daughter was like three months old, and I didn’t even have my third child yet. My wife didn’t work because I was working. I had a job where I was making $180,000 a year that I walked away from. It was not the right time to do it, I had all these reasons why not to. People who were my power partners then not all of them but some of them who I thought were my friends and that I trusted thought that I was foolish for starting Hurricane Marketing Enterprises. They made fun of me. They commented negative things on social media, which just added to the reasons of, should I be doing this? I must be crazy to do this.
Over the years I spoken to so many of you home care business owners, and I’ve heard stories of people telling me that my family doesn’t believe in me. They tell me to sell the business and get a job. They don’t think I can make it. And I feel so bad for those people, because those are, and they’re not excuses, but they are excuses, right. Like they fall in the excuses category, but those are reasons why we can’t do it. And right now, what are we dealing with? We’re dealing with a pandemic, right? We’re dealing with lockdown situation. And this is a great time when people say, well I can’t do it, I’m gonna make an excuse. I can’t do it. I can’t do it because of this, because of this. You can find a way.
My company is thriving right now. And many other companies out there are thriving right now because we’re innovative. We are problem solvers. We find a way to get it done. I had to completely change the way that I do business. I used to do public boot camps. I’m not gonna be able to do one for a long time. So what am I going to do? Shut down for a year and a half and not help anybody? No way, not unless there’s not a drop of oxygen in my lungs will I just shut down and walk away from this, no way. Because there’s too many people relying on me who need my help to be able to go out there and help other people.
You find a way. And together we lift up, it was John Kennedy who said, “the rising tide lifts all boats.” We are in this together, you and me, all of us around the world. We can let this pandemic sink us and bring us down, or we can say you know what? There’s still people out there that need my help. I’m gonna find a way, I’m gonna operate remotely. I’m gonna hire caregivers electronically. I’m gonna do more Zoom calls instead of YouTube channels and make videos and everyday I’m gonna find a way to do it. And you know, I just got back I had lunch with my brother. My brother, he’s a contractor. We went out for lunch, we’re eating outside at a restaurant. This restaurant is Bonefish Grill. And this happens to be a good bonefish grill, and they figured out a way to do it. It was packed at 1:30 in the afternoon on a Wednesday afternoon, packed. And the service was excellent. Now I’ve been to other restaurants during this time, same thing scenario. And the service was lousy and the menu selection was off and everything, and then they oh well, you know it’s COVID, it’s COVID, it’s COVID, and it became an excuse. And I’m like, you know if you’re gonna operate, do it right. Find a way to do it. And there are support, there are people, I am out here to help you all right.
This is why this is is a motivational message because I know it’s hard, come on. I own a business too, I know it’s hard. You don’t think I was afraid? You don’t think I was worried? Of course I was afraid, of course I’m still afraid, I’m still worried. But having courage when there’s no fear is not courageous. Being courageous and having courage is succeeding in the face of fear and adversity. That’s what we have to do. That’s why we’re here. That’s why we’re entrepreneurs.
You took the risk to start your business, now stay with it. Be as innovative as you can, be as creative as you can, find a way to get it done. Because in what we do, we literally are saving lives. We are keeping our seniors home safe and sound so that they are out of the hospital and in the place that they call home, so they can age in place with dignity and grace. The rising tide lifts all boats. My brothers and sisters in healthcare we rise together. Now is our time. Find a way, get it done, if you need help come to the virtual bootcamp, call us. We are here to help and serve you. I love you all. I am grateful for all of you in my life, and I know we are going to get through this. Take care, God bless, cheers.
