"A large part of being an entrepreneur is having the self-discipline to hold yourself accountable and to a higher standard."
Ryan Whitcher Tweet
Meet Ryan Whitcher – the owner of Harmony Home Buyers, a real estate company that buys and sells real estate for profit. They’ve been in business for 3 years now and had 2 years over six figures in revenue each and looking to expand much further in the upcoming years.
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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.
Ryan Whitcher: I am the owner of Harmony Home Buyers, a real estate company that buys and sells real estate for profit. I started learning about real estate in my college days, listening to podcasts, reading every real estate book I could get my hands on. After quitting my job at Amazon, we’ve now been in business for 3 years now and have been quite successful in the past 2 years and growing more everyday.
You are a successful entrepreneur, so we’d like your view point, do you believe entrepreneurs are born or made? Explain.
Ryan Whitcher: I believe it’s a little of both. Being an entrepreneur requires a certain type of personality, which you can argue has a little to do with genetics. However, a large part of being an entrepreneur is having the self-discipline to hold yourself accountable and to a higher standard – this is something that curates throughout someone’s life and it learned, not decided at birth.
If you were asked to describe yourself as an entrepreneur in a few words, what would you say?
Ryan Whitcher: I would consider myself highly self-motivated with a strong desire to succeed and be the best version of myself that I can be. It may sound cliché, but these are traits that seem to get sharpened more and more every day throughout my life of being an entrepreneur. This also bleeds into my personal life in a positive way, making myself become just a better-rounded person.
Tell us about what your company does and how did it change over the years?
Ryan Whitcher: My company buys and sells real estate; sometimes we buy and sell for a profit, other times we buy and keep for long-term rentals. It started as mainly buying and selling for a profit but as our experience and capital has increased, we’ve moved more towards a mix of buying for the short and long term. If I had to predict the future, I’d say we’re trending more towards the long-term rentals taking the larger portion of our business.
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?
Ryan Whitcher: Failure. You will fail, and you will fail frequently. It’s up to you to learn from those failures and “fail fast,” as we’ve all heard many times before. Oh, how accurate that is…
It is also inevitable that you will have to give up some luxuries while starting your business; whether that be quality time with loved ones, or simply material objects. You will to have to sacrifice some luxuries while building your business, you just have to view the long-term and know that it’ll all be more than worth it.
Did you make any wrong assumptions before starting a business that you ended up paying dearly for?
Ryan Whitcher: I think starting out, even though I didn’t know it at the time, I selfishly had the viewpoint of “If they can do it…I can do it better.” I was absolutely naive in thinking that it was going to be easier than it actually was. I think you can probably guess that I turned out I wasn’t smarter than everybody else and I did run in to setback after setback, just like an entrepreneur will :).
If you could go back in time to when you first started your business, what advice would you give yourself and why? Explain
Ryan Whitcher: I would’ve told myself to sacrifice just a little more. Sacrifice a little time with family and friends here and give up a few luxuries there. While I will never regret spending time with family or friends, I think I could’ve said “No” just a little bit more in the beginning and that would’ve, in turn, enabled me to say “Yes” just a little more today.
What is the worst advice you received regarding running a business and what lesson would you like others to learn from your experience?
Ryan Whitcher: The worst advice I’ve received regarding running your own business was something along the lines of “Oh, don’t do that, it’s risky to start you’re own business! You’ll have constant issues with employees, headaches, paperwork, etc…and never be able to let it go!”
While some of that may be true, I would say the bigger risk for me would’ve been staying comfortable in a corporate job that I truly did not like – that’s a massive risk in my opinion.
In your opinion, how has COVID-19 changed what entrepreneurs should assume before starting a business? What hasn’t changed?
Ryan Whitcher: I think COVID-19 has presented entrepreneurs with first-hand experience in what an economic disaster feels like and how it can completely destroy the most secure business. I think it has given us a wake-up call and taught us that we need to hedge our bets just a little more, because the unthinkable – AKA COVID-19 – can, and will happen. As far as what hasn’t changed…I really think it has changed everything, in one regard or another, and I don’t think it’ll truly ever be the same.
What is a common myth about entrepreneurship that aspiring entrepreneurs and would-be business owners believe in? What advice would you give them?
Ryan Whitcher: A common myth is that it’s this big, scary world and “how will I even know what to do?” The list of these types of questions goes on forever, but the reality is…you will stumble, but you will figure it out. I had hundreds of “what-ifs” running through my head when I jumped into the world of entrepreneurship and have learned that you will face problems, hundreds of them. However, you’ll also come back with even more answers, making your business stronger than ever.
What traits, qualities, and assumptions do you believe are most important to have before starting a business?
Ryan Whitcher: The most important traits and qualities you need to have when starting a business are self-discipline and self-motivation. Notice both of those traits have “self” in them – you truly do need to always be working on your personal development every day when you’re starting your own business. You need to learn how to be resilient, because hurdles are inevitable.
How can aspiring leaders prepare themselves for the future challenges of entrepreneurship? Are there any books, websites, or even movies to learn from?
Ryan Whitcher: In my opinion, there a several authors that have timeless advice, no matter what the situation or time period. Two of my favorite authors have been Dale Carnegie and Jim Rohn. Both of these authors’ advice will work for years to come, regardless of the world’s current state, just like they did many, many years ago.
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?
Ryan Whitcher: I would try and chose a job that truly would benefit the greater good of humanity, healthcare for example, while also having a commission-based pay structure. After being in charge of my own income, I don’t think I could ever go back to a base-pay role ever again, regardless of the position.
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?
Ryan Whitcher: Alexander Graham Bell. I know that may sound like a strange answer, but I believe he truly paved the way for communication to get where it is today which, to me, is one of the greatest strengths we have in the human race. I believe one of the main reasons we’re so technologically advanced today is mainly due to the ease of communication we have and Alexander Graham Bell was pioneered that movement.
Larry Yatch, VIP Contributor to ValiantCEO and the host of this interview would like to thank Ryan Whitcher 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 Ryan Whitcher or his company, you can do it through his – Instagram
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