We had another wonderful event this past Thursday!
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Networking in action[/caption]
We hosted Mary Ellen Sheets and plenty of entrepreneurs in the Technology and Innovation Center here in East Lansing! She is the founder of Two Men and a Truck, a moving company started with two high schoolers, a truck, and an advertising fund stored in a ceramic dish. And they now have over 320 locations worldwide, an annual revenue of over $300 million, and $2.5 million donated in moving services. This is a company that has never lost sight of their community.
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Mary Ellen Sheets imparting her wisdom on eager entrepreneurs![/caption]
She said she'd always been very entrepreneurial, selling golf balls back to golfers as a child, sold vegetables from her parents garden, but her favorite job so far is being retired. She spent twenty years working for the State of Michigan and experienced the Glass Ceiling first hand, often being turned down for the promotions that she deserved because she would never quit. Finally with five moving trucks in her mom's backyard she did, and in growing her business she's never looked back.
Her first day without a definite job, was wonderful, and everyday brought a new challenge, but she made it through, and her biggest advice for this was to take everything one day at a time, and to just keep going, when faced with issues that might get her in trouble her mantra was always "I'm gonna do this until someone stops me... and then find an attorney."
Her ten most important things, and the ten big takeaways from the talk:
1. You can speak in public.
2. Always give back to your community.
3. The customer always comes first — get the job done.
4. Love what you do.
5. Don't listen to negative comments.
6. Even if you're broke, pay people.
7. Always say yes to any opportunity.
8. Don't lose your focus.
9. Take a lot of pictures.
10. Just start doing it, one thing every day for your business.
Want details? Watch the full interview here.
Want to know what a Grind is like? You can look at images here.
Want to learn how to take an at home business, to a business employing over 40 people and selling over 150,000 parts? June 18th Tom Salisbury from Reliable Aftermarket Parts will talk to us about doing just that. RSVP to the event here.
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Tom Salisbury of Reliable Aftermarket Parts[/caption]
Written by Cailin Ashbaugh
Cailin is a student at Michigan State University, an intern with Startup Grind Lansing, and a future book seller.