[quote style=”boxed”]”Take Action”. Most people have ideas. Very few will ever take action to make them reality.[/quote]
David Gass is a serial entrepreneur who has started businesses with $200 and grew them to multi-millions. His companies have been listed on the Inc. 5000 list of fastest growing companies in the United States three years in a row and he has received several awards for his entrepreneurial efforts and commitment to giving back to his community. Including “Rising Star of Las Vegas”, “Business Person of the Year” and named an Honorary Life Member of the Nevada DECA Association, a student run organization for High School students to learn about entrepreneurship, marketing and management.
He is the author of the books, “Building Business Credit for Business Owners,” “Success Steps to Business Credit,” “Success Steps to Business Financing,” and the ten book series “Building Blocks to Business Success.”
Mr. Gass started Business Credit Services, Inc. in the fall of 2000. He took BCS through the much choreographed stages of both the business credit building process and his 10 step building blocks to success from passion straight through to exit. After 8 years of business success he exited the company through an acquisition by the global corporate services provider Corporation Service Company (CSC).
Mr. Gass has been featured on television, radio, business newspapers and magazines around the country. He has been interviewed by Kiplinger, Fox News, CNN Money, Forbes, Business Week, Entrepreneur and more on the subjects of entrepreneurship, marketing, business finance and credit. He is an entrepreneur, consultant, author, and sought after speaker on the subject of entrepreneurship, marketing, business finance and credit.
David Gass’ is an investor of websites. He buys and sells websites and has a mastermind group he and business partner Chris Yates facilitate each month to provide tips, insight and opportunities for others to learn about how to flip websites, buy and sell websites and much more. To learn more about this group and some of the online flipping sites Mr. Gass is involved with visit Flipping Network.
What are you working on right now?
My current projects include co-founding Vision Group Management, a company focused on acquiring existing websites and teaching others how to buy and sell websites. Some of the sites included in the portfolio include: www.buyingandsellingwebsites.com, www.flipwebsites.com, and www.flippingnetwork.com.
In addition, I coach entrepreneurs and businesses across the world in the areas of business financing, online marketing and buying and selling websites.
What does your typical day look like?
My typical day starts around 5:00am. I’m up early to get in the office. I enjoy what I do and can’t wait to get started. The first part of the day is currently working with the company that acquired Business Credit Services from me. I’m working with them on several projects and it takes up a good portion of the day.
Once I’ve completed my daily projects for this group, I move to working on Vision Group projects. We are currently developing several systems to outsource major projects in the company, so I spend the majority of the time on strategic planning and systems creation.
Then I head home to spend time with my family around 4:00 or 5:00. We typically spend time playing in the backyard, in the pool, at the park or going for a walk. Then have dinner, put the kids to bed and strangely enough – start my work out around 8:30 or 9:00 pm. I finish up by 10:00pm. Before I go to bed around 11:00 or 12:00, I work on my own website projects, which I outsource 90% of the work, so it’s mostly responding to emails, then head to bed and start all over the next morning.
3 trends that excite you?
I’m very excited about seeing where mobile computing goes over the next few years. I believe the majority of companies are way behind on mobile advertising and connecting with their clients through mobile media. It will be interesting to see how online marketing becomes easier for these businesses to jump in and how consumers react to it.
I’m also interested in how Americans deal with the issues of health and obesity. I believe this is a huge problem, getting worse and worse everyday. Something is going to have to change. However, the government’s involvement isn’t the answer. The consumers need to decide it’s important enough to make changes and that won’t happen until there are solutions they want. I believe there will be entrepreneurs in the near future that will create innovative products that take off and create a whole new market for helping people stay healthy. There are plenty of companies trying, but nothing making a major shift nationally.
The trend continues in America for people to start their own businesses. Right now, there is no “go-to” company when an entrepreneur wants to start a company. In the next 5-10 years a couple companies will emerge as the front runners to be the “Starbucks” of start-up. I’m interested in seeing how these companies position themselves in the market.
How do you bring ideas to life?
“Take Action”. Most people have ideas. Very few will ever take action to make them reality.
What inspires you?
I am constantly inspired by the little things in life, I’ll watch a movie inspired by a true story, read a book, see an entrepreneur on TV or while posting updates on Facebook. Everything around me reminds me of entrepreneurs and their successes. I’m inspired by every other entrepreneur because of their passion for what they are doing.
What is one mistake you’ve made, and what did you learn from it?
Not staying focused. I’m constantly thinking of ideas for businesses. I have a notebook full of them. Many I see in the marketplace a few years later. The biggest mistake I made early in my entrepreneurial journey was to try and do too much. I’ve since kept a very specific strategic plan for the year and I stick to it. I remain focused and actually get a lot more done by doing so.
What is one business idea that you’re willing to give away to our readers?
I think I already mentioned this one. Someone needs to develop the “Starbucks” of business start-up. When you start a business there isn’t a single player in the market that you think of as the “go-to” or “must-see” company.
Someone needs to create a place to go to when you want to start a business. The place would have everything you need to do. Step by step instructions, licenses, bank accounts, everything.
I would go there, and I now have a pretty good idea of what I’m doing when starting a new venture. However, the time I’d save by going to one place would be well worth the costs involved with whatever someone puts together.
What do you read every day, and why?
The only thing I read everyday is emails. Unfortunately it’s because it’s become a habit. It get newsletters in my inbox each morning along with all the other email and a few of those based on the headlines will either get opened or put to the trash.
What is the one book that you recommend our community should read, and why?
There are so many I would love to recommend. If someone is starting a business they should have already read four books: Rich Dad Poor Dad, Think and Grow Rich, Art of the Start and Good to Great. These are must reads for any entrepreneur and are probably ones that most of your readers have already read or know they should.
The one book I would highly recommend because it’s a little different then the typical recommendation for entrepreneurs and was one book when recommended to me, I couldn’t put down. Endurance. This is a book about leadership and focus. Pick it up, read it and you won’t be disappointed.
What is your favorite gadget, app or piece of software that helps you every day?
WordPress. How amazing. You can build your own website, not have to know anything about html and get quality ranking with Google in a matter of months if not weeks. All with a FREE software. If you don’t have a wordpress site, you need one!!!
Three people we should follow on Twitter, and why?
@DavidGass of course. :
I’d also recommend @barrymoltz and @zappos
Who would you love to see interviewed on IdeaMensch?
Doug Carter www.dougcarter.com – he’s one of the best trainers I’ve ever had the experience of working with. He was a trainer with Dale Carniege, Anthony Robbins and has his own coaching business. He is a master trainer. One of the best.
When is the last time you laughed out loud? What caused it.
When on vacation with my family. I have three daughters, Skylar (1), Grace (3), and Mackenzie (10). One evening around bedtime my Grace yawns in front of all of us. Mackenzie says to her “You’re so tired”. Grace, the 3 year old, responds – “No – that was just a yawn my mouth forgot to yawn this morning.”
When starting a business what should be the number one focus for the business owner?
Most people would respond – profitability. However, I’ve learned with my own experience and by speaking with very successful entrepreneurs that known of us focused just on the profit. In fact, in some cases profit wasn’t even looked at the first several months. (Not saying that’s a good thing, it’s just reality). The number one focus for almost everyone was “to create value for the customer”. Buckminster Fuller, once said “The purpose of business is to create value. If you create value, profit will naturally follow.”
How do you balance personal and business life?
You don’t. By the nature of the question, balance means there is equal time and effort allotted to both. That’s not reality. There are some years where I spent 80% of my waking hours working and 20% with my family. There were other years it was the 40% and 60%. The challenge isn’t to figure out how to balance it with equal time, the key is to figure out what needs focus right now!
There will be times when you need to focus more attention with the family and less with the business. It’s critical that your family understands this in order to keep your personal life going well at all times. The last thing you want is to have a major crisis at work and your spouse yelling at you when you get home for not being home earlier.
The best advice I can give for this is to keep an open line of communication with frequent conversations. The more you communicate the better your relationship will be.
[box]Ps. David just got nominated for a Small Business Influencer Award. If you liked his interview, please vote for him here. [/box]
Connect
www.DavidGass.com
www.Facebook.com/businesscredit
www.Twitter.com/davidgass
Mario Schulzke is the Founder of ideamensch, which he started a decade ago to learn from entrepreneurs and give them a platform for their ideas.