"People who never fail also never succeed."
Charles Leduc Tweet
With nearly a decade of experience heading the Mold Busters team, Charles Leduc is a certified professional inspector, a certified mold inspector, and remediator as well as author, speaker, and Chief Operations Officer at the company. As part of his commitment to educating the public about the very real indoor environmental threats like mold and asbestos, Charles organizes seminars, Lunch & Learns, and other events for realtors, mortgage brokers, homeowners, and other industry experts.
Charles also contributes his unbiased expertise in court cases involving tenant-landlord issues, interviews for online publications, and so on
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Table of Contents
Thank you for joining us today. Please introduce yourself to our readers. They want to know you, some of the background story to bring some context to your interview.
Charles Leduc: I have 10 years of experience leading Mold Busters, I am a certified mold inspector and remediator as well as an author and speaker. I host indoor air quality seminars and wrote The Residential Mold Removal Guidelines to simplify and redefine today’s standards for homeowners to prevent and abate mold.
You are a successful entrepreneur, so we’d like your viewpoint, do you believe entrepreneurs are born or made? Explain.
Charles Leduc: In short, it’s both. Some people are born with a knack for entrepreneurship. It is in their nature to be successful in the business world because they have something to prove to themselves and the outside world.
However, some become entrepreneurs through will and/or circumstance. I have known successful business owners who were the sons and daughters of laborers. This sparked a desire in them to lead a better life. I have also known people who just happened to have an entrepreneur take them under their wing because they got a job working for them, and their boss saw something that they didn’t see in themselves. Then they gave them the knowledge and skills necessary for entrepreneurial success
If you were asked to describe yourself as an entrepreneur in a few words, what would you say?
Charles Leduc: I am an entrepreneur that puts people first. I put a lot of time into educating people about mold prevention because I genuinely care about the public’s health. It may be counterintuitive in a mold remediation business, but we prefer to put people over profits.
Tell us about what your company does and how did it change over the years?
Charles Leduc: We remediate mold problems in homes, and we have always offered this service. However, due to our educational efforts in mold prevention, we have become the authority in these issues. I have even had local news stations call me for quotes as a result.
Thank you for all that. Now for the main focus of this interview. With close to 11.000 new businesses registered daily in the US, what must an entrepreneur assume when starting a business?
Charles Leduc: An entrepreneur has to assume that they have the skill and wherewithal to make it in their industry of choice. The business world is all about confidence. However, false confidence will not get you there. Imposters are never successful entrepreneurs.
Did you make any wrong assumptions before starting a business that you ended up paying dearly for?
Charles Leduc: In a former venture, I made a cliche assumption that continually plagues businesses, especially sales staff. When we hit a slow period everyone believed that “No one is buying.” I quickly learned that this is never true. If people were still purchasing houses during the recession, people would still purchase our services. This was just a symptom of a larger illness within the business, and after that, I always found the root of the problem and fixed it rather than making assumptions.
If you could go back in time to when you first started your business, what advice would you give yourself and why? Explain
Charles Leduc: I would advise myself to question myself. I think that this is true for most people: When we are young, we are a bit too confident. It can be a fault at times. Especially when you always believe that your reasoning is sound. I made some bad business decisions because I did not listen to the questions raised by the people around me.
What is the worst advice you received regarding running a business and what lesson would you like others to learn from your experience?
Charles Leduc: The worst advice that I received was when I took over a failing business and someone told me to never give up. You have to know when to fold. When the hole is half the size of the sinking ship, it’s time to take the loss and start again. People who never fail also never succeed.
In your opinion, how has COVID-19 changed what entrepreneurs should assume before starting a business? What hasn’t changed?
Charles Leduc: Covid has changed assumptions for every brick and mortar business in that we all thought that we would always be able to be open and do business unencumbered. That was not the case for many businesses during the pandemic. I hope that everyone has learned the lesson that businesses have to be prepared for tough times and that we all have to remain adaptable.
Something that hasn’t changed is the need for digital marketing. Many businesses leaned hard into selling their wares digitally during Covid, and it has paid off for many.
What is a common myth about entrepreneurship that aspiring entrepreneurs and would-be business owners believe in? What advice would you give them?
Charles Leduc: A myth that many new entrepreneurs believe is that it is cost-effective to take care of everything themselves. Most business owners do this in the beginning, but as soon as the business has grown enough be sure to outsource and hire as quickly as possible. The goal should be to have growth as your sole focus. I was taking care of every aspect of one of my first businesses for far too long. It took me burning completely out before I started outsourcing.
What traits, qualities, and assumptions do you believe are most important to have before starting a business?
Charles Leduc: Someone starting a business should be highly adaptable. Rigid things break. Flexible things roll with the punches. Adaptability is the greatest quality that any human being can have, and is the reason we have come this far. I have always assumed that I can adapt to any situation, but I know that it is important to be able to see when I should adapt the situation to me.
How can aspiring leaders prepare themselves for the future challenges of entrepreneurship? Are there any books, websites, or even movies to learn from?
Charles Leduc: There is no specific book, website, or film to learn from. Aspiring leaders just have to keep their eyes and ears open. The right books will find them if they are paying attention and looking to learn.
You have shared quite a bit of your wisdom and our readers thank you for your generosity but would also love to know: If you could choose any job other than being an entrepreneur, what would it be?
Charles Leduc: If I had to choose another job, I would focus on benefitting public health full time. Hosting seminars and helping people as a part of this job has been incredibly fulfilling, and I would love to do it full-time.
Thank you so much for your time, I believe I speak for all of our readers when I say that this has been incredibly insightful. We do have one more question: If you could add anyone to Mount Rushmore, but not a politician, who would it be; why?
Charles Leduc: I would choose Nikola Tesla. Without Tesla, we would not have electricity widely available, and Edison would have had no competition. Alternating Current is just the biggest of many discoveries and inventions that he made. Perhaps we will all be able to harness free energy someday as he predicted?
Jed Morley, VIP Contributor to ValiantCEO and the host of this interview would like to thank Charles Leduc for taking the time to do this interview and share his knowledge and experience with our readers.
If you would like to get in touch with Charles Leduc or his company, you can do it through his – Linkedin Page
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