"An entrepreneur is someone who looks for opportunities, and finds them everywhere."
Meet Sam Browne, a New Zealand-based digital entrepreneur with a portfolio of online businesses.
One of which is Findaband – a live music booking agency with offices in Auckland, Nashville, Melbourne, and London. We book live entertainment for corporate events, weddings, and private functions. The Findaband team also creates all video and photographic content on the website. – www.findaband.co.nz
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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.
Sam Browne: I started Findaband back in 2008. I was a musician looking to make enough money to pay the rent and to have enough time to work on writing songs. I never anticipated building a 7 figure business – that was well beyond my wildest dreams for Findaband. But that’s what happened, and so over those years, I learned what worked and what didn’t when building an online business.
You are a successful entrepreneur, so we’d like your viewpoint, do you believe entrepreneurs are born or made? Explain.
Sam Browne: I do think entrepreneurs are born. I see it with my daughter, who is now 11. That was the age when I began selling sweets at school – something that a surprising number of successful entrepreneurs did when they were kids.
If you were asked to describe yourself as an entrepreneur in a few words, what would you say?
Sam Browne: An entrepreneur is someone who looks for opportunities, and finds them everywhere. I can see broadly how the parts fit together, and what’s important to focus on or ignore. I also make finding talented people to work in my business my top priority – being an entrepreneur means leading first and foremost.
Tell us about what your company does and how did it change over the years?
Sam Browne: Findaband is a live band booking agency. Two major decisions shifted things for the business. The first was shooting videos of our artists performing. The second was disabling all the artists I didn’t believe in, which was 80% of all of the artists I offered at that time. Doing these two things made the business much, much more successful.
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?
Sam Browne: Assume it’s going to take time. Most of the time, success comes after years of work, so don’t be discouraged if your business doesn’t take off in year one.
Did you make any wrong assumptions before starting a business that you ended up paying dearly for?
Sam Browne: I had to learn to delegate. Just because I was good at something did not mean I should be the person within my organization to do that job. I read that if you can find someone who can do something 80% as well as you can, you should hire them (or delegate to them). That’s been very important advice for me.
If you could go back in time to when you first started your business, what advice would you give yourself and why? Explain.
Sam Browne: I would tell myself to find a mentor. I learned a lot of things the hard, slow way, and my progress was a lot slower than it could have been with that in mind. I would also tell myself to learn what something should cost, and get help using the right supplier. I used the wrong web designer early on and ended up having to spend a lot more to fix it later. I paid amateur money and got an amateur product.
What is the worst advice you received regarding running a business and what lesson would you like others to learn from your experience?
Sam Browne: Some bad advice I got was to create multiple streams of income. The excellent book The One Thing talks about doubling down on one great business with every fiber of your being. That’s when the magic happens. If you have a handful of different businesses, you will only be able to give a little of yourself to each one.
In your opinion, how has COVID-19 changed what entrepreneurs should assume before starting a business? What hasn’t changed?
Sam Browne: I would recommend entrepreneurs build businesses that don’t rely on the economy being open i.e. I would not consider opening a restaurant or cafe, or a business involving tourism or events. Instead, build a business that exists and is required whether covid is a factor or not, such as a marketing agency.
What is a common myth about entrepreneurship that aspiring entrepreneurs and would-be business owners believe in? What advice would you give them?
Sam Browne: If you build it, they will come. If you build the wrong thing, they won’t come, and you’ll get nowhere. So do your best to build the right thing by talking to 100 customers and learning everything you can about their problems, so you can create the right solution.
What traits, qualities, and assumptions do you believe are most important to have before starting a business?
Sam Browne: Resilience. Self-belief. Interpersonal skills. Seeing yourself as being capable of success, but not guaranteed success.
How can aspiring leaders prepare themselves for the future challenges of entrepreneurship? Are there any books, websites, or even movies to learn from?
Sam Browne: Indie Hackers, Starter Stories, and How I Built This are great places to get inspired and educated.
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?
Sam Browne: There’s nothing else I’d rather be doing. I love the challenges, the endless creativity, and building things from conception to fruition.
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?
Sam Browne: James Hetfield of Metallica. Why not?
Mike Weiss, VIP Contributor to ValiantCEO and the host of this interview would like to thank Sam Browne 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 Sam Browne or his company, you can do it through his – Linkedin Page
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