The leaves turn crimson and vermilion. The wind nibbles coldly on the underdressed. Jack-o-lanterns and skeletons fill the decoration aisle. Fall is officially here, Wolfpack. Whether your favorite thing about Fall is the weather, the State Fair or the fact that your favorite holidays are coming closer, one thing is for certain: spooky stories are a must — no matter where you are.
With NC State Innovation and Entrepreneurship’s event, Startup Horror Stories, happening Thursday, October 30, on Centennial Campus, entrepreneurs everywhere can testify that nothing is scarier than starting up a business.
And who else to talk about terrifying adventures in entrepreneurship than an NC State alumnus, Brian Sytsma? Sytsma is a successful businessman who showcases a mastery of sales, finance and business strategy — but that success is not always the reality.
Sytsma connected with Innovation and Entrepreneurship, highlighting moments in his entrepreneurial career that would scare the socks off even the most seasoned businessmen. However, despite the mistakes, Sytsma’s story teaches us to keep pushing to make your dreams a reality.
Sytsma recalls an early meeting where he needed to not just bounce back, but to do so with grace.
“[I] botched the initial meeting where I confused who was the CEO and who was the CFO.”
“When you make a mistake like this, there’s no better way to handle it than to take a deep breath and own your mistake. Being a person who prides himself on preparation prior to a meeting, it felt embarrassing to feel how big of a blunder I had made,” Sytsma said. “They were very cordial about it, but you could feel the awkwardness past this. While the recovery during the meeting was lukewarm at best, it taught me a valuable lesson. Double-check your homework. Preparation decreases anxiety, especially in business.”
When asked about navigating client relationships, a certain disagreement with a client came to Sytsma’s mind.
He talked about a situation in which he and a client had a full-on argument, during which they wanted to throw out their entire financial plan and challenge his beliefs as an advisor.
“On a personal level, I’d say it still affects me to this day. When you truly lean into an advising practice, you become very close with your clients, many of these clients you were friends with prior to engaging, and it can change the personal relationship you have with them forever. While it hurts, it does give you a very accurate indicator of where you stand in a relationship if someone is willing to trust an outside influence, versus trusting you, whom they have had a 5+ year relationship.”
“Professionally speaking, it changed 3 main parts of our practice.”
1. Every year, we reach out to a wide range of clients to ask for direct feedback on the practice. I find asking clients for direct, genuine feedback on their experience helps solve issues you may not have even known existed prior, and deepens relationships, showing you truly care about what is best for them.
2. We have a significantly slower onboarding process. We test clients and their ability to be a good fit for the practice before they even become clients. That way, when you bring people in, they are very invested not just in the financial planning but also in you as an advising team.
3. Excess disclosure of fees and conflicts of interest. The more upfront you are about how you are compensated/paid, the more clients trust you.
While Sytsma’s journey was riddled with difficulties and bumps in the road, the entrepreneur reminds us not to lose hope.
“Entrepreneurship is the safer type of employment. How backwards does that sound?” Sytsma says.”
“There are only two types of jobs. You can have a guaranteed paycheck but non-guaranteed employment, or you have a non-guaranteed paycheck but guaranteed employment (entrepreneurship). We often don’t pursue entrepreneurship because of the internal fear of ‘what if this doesn’t work’. What’s interesting though is that we can all name countless people we know working W2 jobs that have gotten laid off, gotten fired, gotten furloughed, hate that they make the same amount of money no matter how hard they work, etc., yet we attach the feeling that a W2 career is ‘safe’.”
“Buy into your entrepreneurship with 100% conviction. When you internally feel like there is no backup plan and you ‘have to make this work,’ you will challenge yourself to grow faster, smarter and to be more creative as you work towards solutions in your journey. Every successful business is successful because they are ‘different’ and ‘unique.’ Use the advice you get to differentiate yourself in the marketplace. Straying from the norm isn’t a bad thing. Many of the most successful entrepreneurs in the world were labeled ‘crazy’ before they launched into significant success.”
While running a business is not always glamorous, Sytsma makes a point of telling early entrepreneurs to put in the effort to establish a brand they love.
“A couple items come to mind. First, entrepreneurship has no work life balance early on, and that’s okay! Entrepreneurship is a part of your life and running away from it being part of your identity leaves lots of potential on the table. Especially early in starting a business, it’s very likely you’ll be working a ton of hours, learn a ton of new concepts, be constantly told by people outside of entrepreneurship to pursue something ‘safer’ like a W2 job, etc. Buy into creating a business you are proud of, and once you’ve owned a business for 3-5 years, you can truly start to sit down and redesign your life and schedule to fit your desired outcome.”
“Second, never ask your team to do something you are unwilling to do yourself. As an entrepreneur, you wear a version of every hat… sales, marketing, client experience, finance, accounting, data management, IT and the list goes on. Showing your team you are willing to invest in learning and get down in the trenches with them encourages true buy in. If the owner of the company is willing to sit for an hour to answer emails that are not relevant to their day-to-day when absolutely needed, everyone else will fall in line in watching the example the owner is showing.”
“Lastly, the client experience is more important than the product you administer. No matter the version of entrepreneurship you pursue, people buy from who they ‘like’ and who they can ‘relate to’. It’s why so many of these content creators online have gotten so much traction. People will rarely remember all that you say, but they will remember how you made them feel. Focus your entrepreneurial efforts on creating unbelievable, memorable experiences for your clients and you can’t go wrong.”
