#3: What's Your Why?

Welcome to the Business of Business - Two Daughters & Their Dad Podcast!

The Dempseys - Staci, Jack and Jennifer -  talk about finding out "why" you might want to start a business.  They discuss how vital it is to find and know your "why" before learning how to start a business.  Your "why" serves as your passion during the hard times you may experience early on.  Finally having a strong 'why" will help you face and survive the headwinds that entrepreneurship is surely going to bring.

But who are the Dempseys?

Jennifer Faith Dempsey has been in the beauty industry for over 10 years. The last 3 1/2 years she has owned J.Faith Hair Studio. She brings her experience on how she balances entrepreneurship and motherhood.

Staci Joy Dempsey is an insurance agent, a mom and a busy non profit volunteer. She truly understands what it means to be an entrepreneur.  Staci serves as the podcast's host.

Jack Dempsey is the dad who heads up this busy family.  He is a founding partner in Dempsey, Weiss & Associates, an Elmer, NJ based insurance and investment firm begun more than 30 years ago.

The Business of Business podcast is sponsored by:

Dempsey, Weiss & Associates, Elmer, NJ,     856-358-3900

J. Faith Hair Studio, Logan Township, NJ     856-975-5965

Email us at: TwoDaughtersAndTheirDad@gmail.com

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Jennifer Faith Dempsey has been in the beauty industry for over 10 years. For the last 5m years, she has owned J. Faith Hair Studio. She brings her experience on how she balances entrepreneurship and motherhood. Check out Jen’s blog.

Staci Joy Dempsey is an insurance agent, a mom, and a busy non-profit volunteer. She truly understands what it means to be an entrepreneur. Staci serves as the podcast's host.

Jack Dempsey is the dad who heads up this busy family. He is a founding partner in Dempsey, Weiss & Associates, an Elmer, NJ-based insurance and investment firm that began more than 30 years ago.

Transcript

Staci Dempsey:   0:00
Hey there! And welcome to the business of business podcast. Here were two daughters and their dad seeking to inspire and educate you to follow your dreams of being in business by teaching you the business of being in business. The good, the bad, the humor are all parts of our unique perspective as an entrepreneurial family. Thanks for joining us. So grab a coffee. Turn up the volume. Here we go.   Welcome back, everybody.   I am your host, Staci J Dempsey. The J is very important. It brings the joy.   And I am joined here today with my dad, Jack Dempsey and my sister, Jennifer Dempsey. And today we want to talk about answering the question - Why start a business? So, Jack, I want to start with you - Why start a business?

Jack Dempsey:   0:53
Well, first I want to just talk about why.  I think that that's the most critical question any entrepreneur can answer - Why?  And the reason I say that is because people have ideas about businesses, start businesses and really develop the how to do the business but never take the necessary time to determine the why. And the reason the why so important is because when the challenges come, and they will come, any entrepreneur knows that there's gonna be a lot of challenges. There's gonna be a lot of setbacks.  In most cases the how you do your business is not going to help you. You have to go back to your why, you have to go back to this is why I'm doing this.   And in most cases, the why is not  - or let me put it this way - a strong why is not about money.  So if your why is I want to build a business and make a lot of money, then that's probably not going to get you through those challenging times.  Everybody wants to make a lot of money.  When you run up against challenges, that's probably not going to help you. It needs to be a why that is more impactful. It could be freedom. It could be that you want to be in a position to educate your children so they will never have any debt. It could be providing impact in your community's life and how your community operates.  Something that really has a deep seeded meaning. It could be to create jobs for people, things like that. That is usually the better themes for your why.  But you have to answer that question first.   And if you do that, then you stand a much better chance of facing and surviving the headwinds that entrepreneurship is surely going to bring.

Staci Dempsey:   3:21
Yeah, that's great. I know something that I've heard is one person's why might be for starting a business you think might be universal. So some people will say, Well, my kids are my; why I'm doing this for my kids.  And there's nothing wrong with that.  But,  the next person might say, I love my kids but they're not pushing me forward to want to really create this business.   It's something else.   So Jennifer, why did you start your business? What's your why every day when things are really, really tough?

Jennifer Dempsey:   3:58
You know, as we're talking about this topic, I have a memory pop into my head.  I worked in a salon for 7-8 years before I went and started my own business. 

Staci Dempsey:   5:18
So the why, or part of the why, is having the freedom to participate in doing fundraisers; giving back and participating in the community in  that capacity.  Is that right?    

Jennifer Dempsey:   5:30
Absolutely right.

Staci Dempsey:   5:32
That's that's definitely very, very powerful. I'm going to bounce it back to you, Jack.   35 plus years in the same industry, obviously lots of ups and downs. So what was what or is the why? And actually, I'm curious to know, has the why changed over the years?

Jack Dempsey:   5:52
Well, that's a great question, because I think it has changed. I mean, certainly starting out my why in those early years was really understanding that I could easily quit the insurance business because of how hard it was and go to work for someone else at a salary which would have been much more comfortable at the time.   But for some reason, deep down, I knew that that was not going to be fulfilling for me.  That working for someone else, even though there's nothing wrong with that, I  just didn't want my destiny to be in someone else's hands.  I wanted the opportunity to create something. And I was just fortunate.  I got into the insurance business right out of college.  It wasn't really a huge dream of mine, to get into that business. But for whatever reason, that's where I landed right out, right out of school.  I could quickly see that if this business of insurance was done correctly, it could just have impact in so many different ways.  It could have impact, certainly in my own life, through building something that I could look back on and be very proud of. It would have impact in client's lives because of the service and the professionalism and the competency that we could bring into their lives. And then certainly for staff and employees and hiring people - allowing them to fulfill their dreams the day have for themselves and for their families. So early on it was really just kind of not wanting to have my destiny in someone else's hands. But now, now it's has changed. I mean, certainly I look at things differently.  I have grandkids that I want to be able to do some things for I have, I have charities that I want to help and have impact with.  So there's just a lot of other things at this point in my life. But the why is still there in a very significant way, and that's what gets me up every morning, you know, with a lot of motivation and eagerness to get in there and an attack the day.

Staci Dempsey:   8:34
So when someone establishes, then their why, what do you think is that the turning point of starting a business then.  It is they have identified the why, then kind of what comes next?

Jennifer Dempsey:   8:55
Well, I don't know,  right off the top of my head.

Jack Dempsey:   9:01
Yeah I think that one of the other questions you would ask yourself after establishing your why is, is the business going to be able to do that.  Is the business going  to  get you there. You know, if your why is too take a start up business and provide a product or service that's unique, do you picture it and can you see it growing to be something big enough and meaningful enough to achieve your why?   So you have to have that vision that it can/will get you there. It has to have enough scale to be able to get you where you want to go and achieve that why.

Staci Dempsey:   9:53
Great. So right now, there's a lot of jobs being lost to technology.  There's a much younger workforce coming in that are looking for jobs. They're looking for flexibility. I guess a lot of people would be asking is now, the time has now the time to start a business. Even if I have a strong why is now still the time? What would be your immediate thought?

Jennifer Dempsey:   10:26
Well, I think it comes back to being passionate. Obviously, I talked to a lot of different people on a daily basis. And one thing that I find is there's a lot of people very miserable in their workplace. And, we talk about that often in the salon that being happy working, which we all spent a lot of time doing , means more than being miserable and comfortable, right?  So I think at any point, if you're going after something that you're passionate about, you can't stop thinking about - there's no better time to do it than right now.

Staci Dempsey:   11:13
Yeah, I agree with you. I know that force.  I have more than a handful of clients that, you know, they've had the big corporate drop jobs. They've made a lot of money over the years, and they've saved a lot of money, but their deep down passion was maybe working with horses and training horses  They kind of always did that on the side. And then here they end up leaving what maybe other people would consider a dream job with a dream income and they kind of just had a turning point where they were just done with it.  And they went and bought that farm, you know, not living in the city any longer, went out and bought the farm and and just started doing kind of what they've always wanted to do.  But at the heart, they're still business people. They still understand numbers and they were able to create a business around around their passion.  And so you have back to your point. There's a lot of people that are miserable, and they have a lot of money and maybe have had good jobs and lot of education. But that's still not it's not what they ultimately want to do every day.

Jack Dempsey:   12:27
Well, that's right.  Now I want to stay with that that question of a little bit longer because I think if you're just coming into that entrepreneurship idea and starting to think through it, you have to come into it realizing that there is going to be a significant amount of pain associated with it.   I mean, it is hard, it's tough.  So I just don't want anybody to come into entrepreneurship underestimating how hard it is. And again the significance of your why is what will help you get through that really grueling time of getting your business up and running.   So Jennifer alluded to it. Staci, when she said about you being happy if the business that you're thinking of doing does not have the potential to get you where you want to be in your why, then you really have to make sure that you make a decision. Because Jennifer, you'd be the first to tell anybody that it's becomes your life. Your business becomes your life.

Jennifer Dempsey:   13:58
Right

Jack Dempsey:   13:59
And so it has to be a why that you're willing to dedicate your life to.   So why don't you just give a couple examples of you know how your business has become your life,

Jennifer Dempsey:   14:13
Well, I think the first thing I want to say is when you set out to be an entrepreneur, I feel like there's a level of pressure that you have to work well with. I  always say I work best under pressure. That doesn't mean that it's easy, but you have to be able to take the pressure that owning a business gives you.  It was very easy for me to be behind the chair working 40 - 50 hours week because I love to talk to people I love to do  people's hair,  make people happy,  feel better about themselves - leaving the salon happier than when they came in.   And then as soon as I put my name on the sign, the pressure changed and it went from being behind the chair to not only being behind the chair 40-50 hours a week, but being in that back office, figuring out how to be in the business of hair and that became 7 days a week.  No days off.  It's really still there three years in; that is still what's happening.  The first year of owning a business, I didn't take one penny from the business.  Everything that I made behind the chair went right back into the business. So, yes, you need a strong why because when you are working harder than you've ever had in your whole life and you're not making any money then very quickly, you can say, OK, let me go work for somebody. 

Staci Dempsey:   15:53
That's great. So I have a quick question. It just popped into my head. So people will say, well, if you love what you do, then you'll never work a day in your life. Would you say that's true or false>

Jennifer Dempsey:   16:08
False, False. Only because I can truly say I love my job. But it's unrealistic to think that you're not going to have bad days, that you're not going to want to run away and cry that.  In any business that's going to happen. But the difference is do you run away and cry forever or do you say OK let me cry it out for one night then tomorrow I'm going to get back at it. So you're not always going to love everything that you're doing 24 - 7 but that is back to is your why strong enough to pull you through the hardships of whatever the business will bring,

Jack Dempsey:   16:51
Right.   And I mean, I think that's really the premise behind what we're doing here -you can love what you do, as Jennifer said she loves to do hair, but the business side of things is completely different.  I mean, I love being, you know, in front of a client and talking and hearing what their concerns are and  being able to build a plan to help them navigate the financial picture or other things that they're dealing with.  I love doing that. That is not work. But then I have to step out of that and step into the business of what I do.  . And so that's where the challenges come in. And that's again the reason for this podcast. We you have to understand that you can love what you do, but you're completely underestimate how hard the business of doing what you love can be.

Staci Dempsey:   17:50
Wow, well, well said Jack, well said.  Well, any final thoughts?   I think that's a great note to maybe wrap up this podcast but any other final thoughts on Why start a business?

Jack Dempsey:   18:07
Well, yeah, there's a lot more thoughts on why start one.   I mean, there's a couple of things I would say for people who are looking to do it because there's a lot of people who believe they want to be entrepreneurs.  They want to be in the business of something. They have visions of that they dream of being their own boss, a dream of having their name on a sign, the dream of the freedom that being an entrepreneur can bring.  But many people don't ever take action on it and the reason usually is because they either have fear that they're going to fail or they're just not ready to take that step financially. And so for those of you out there who are maybe in school just now or just been out of school for a little while, and, you think that you want to go down the road of entrepreneurship, than my best recommendation to you is to commit to living lean so that you can put as much money away.  You need to build margin, to position yourself financially to go into business. Jennifer mentioned that she started her business and did not take one penny from her business for the first year. Now, the reason she was able to do that was why, Jen?

Jennifer Dempsey:   20:02
Well, when I opened my business, I moved back home and lived with my mom. At how old was I then?    26 years old.   I cut all of my expenses to the bare bones of what I could possibly do.  Now, obviously, as a hair stylist, I get paid in tips. So I did have a little bit of money to pay my car payment, but not much more than that.

Jack Dempsey:   20:32
What I find is that people come out of  - especially younger people coming out of school - and they feel this pressure that they have to kind of jump into a life; that they just spent all this time getting educated, and they have to kind of jump into a life and get caught up. They need to get that job with a salary, and next thing you know, they're, buying a new car and living in a somewhat expensive apartment.  They're feeling like that's where I should be, even though in their gut,  in their hearts, they know that they would like to be in business for themselves.  But they're now into this kind of  place where all the money they're making is going out. Not because of really to make them happy, but because that's what they feel like.  Everybody expected this of them. So I would just say that if you believe you want to pursue entrepreneurship than you need to get lean, you need to reduce expenses. I call it living at the end of the toothpaste tube because if you ever get a brand new thing of toothpaste, you load that toothbrush up with toothpaste. But when all of a sudden you wake up and you've squeezed it down and you've squeezed it down. It's amazing how little toothpaste you really need to brush your teeth. And that's how you have to do your life because you need to have some margin. The reason people don't go down the road of entrepreneurship is fear.  One of the things that can take the fear way is to have financial margin where you know that you can survive with what you need on savings, and maybe some other some other people's help. You know why you're getting your business off the ground and so be prepared to  go lean and then you'll be able to go in business.

Staci Dempsey:   22:46
Great. Jen, any final thoughts on why start a business?

Jennifer Dempsey:   22:50
Yeah, I think we talk a lot about how hard it is to start a business. How scary it is. But I want to encourage anyone who has the heart to be an entrepreneur to just go for it. Do what you have to do,  figure it out. There's no plan in place on start here, then do this, and this is what you do next. You just have to start.  And if you believe in yourself, you believe in the dream. Then, don't let fear deter you from going for it.

Staci Dempsey:   23:25
Awesome. Very good. Well, thank you, guys, for joining us on our podcast. And we look forward to seeing and talking to you all soon way. Want to thank you for listening today? Please subscribe. Never miss an episode. Leave us a positive review and we want to say thank you to our sponsors, Dempsey, Weiss &  Associates and J. Faith Hair Studio.