Hello World! and Inc. 500

Welcome to the BizQuest Blog! This is the first ever posting in what I hope will eventually prove to be one of the key features of BizQuest.com. Richard and I have a lot of ideas we've been itching to start blogging about - so we are excited to finally begin! Also, I am going to be inviting some other guest bloggers to join in the near future so stay tuned for that...

Inc. 500 list. I found the story of the man behind the #1 company on the list to be very compelling - but then again, I'll listen to anyone who has grown their business 5,629% over the last 3 years! Tim Litle is a classic serial entrepreneur, who has already sold several businesses. He sold his last business in 1995 for $80 million. He took a few years off to enjoy himself (and, more importantly, to wait for his non-compete to expire) then started another business in 2001 doing the exact same thing as the previous one. And now it is doing $35 million in revenue, and is #1 on the Inc. 500. Wow.

He is clearly a man who enjoys the process of building a business. I think this is a huge key to success for any aspiring entrepreneur. You will be much more successful if you enjoy what you are doing on a daily basis, and I don't just mean the "personal satisfaction" kind of success - I mean your business is much more likely to be financially successful if you truly enjoy doing it. This doesn’t mean you have to build a business around one of your hobbies (does the world need another microbrewery?) but if you don’t enjoy the process of building a company you might be better off working for someone who already has.

The other big key to success I took away from Tim Litle is that the most successful entrepreneur will be both an idea-person/visionary and an operations guru. He clearly was the former, having introduced both Visa/MasterCard and the USPS to some of their biggest innovations of the last few decades. But he also stressed the operations side of his business, and indeed many of his innovations had to do with operational improvements. Truly successful businesses combine big ideas with rock solid operations, and the entrepreneur who is capable of excelling in both areas will meet with much success (think Bill Gates, Jeff Bezos, Steve Jobs, etc.).

To make the Inc. 500 is an amazing accomplishment, and to be #1 on the list is something to truly be admired. The good news is they publish a new list every year. Which one of you is going to make the list 5 years from now? Or maybe it will be BizQuest.com – now that would be very cool indeed…