This month Startup Grind Lansing celebrated our half birthday and chatted with Tom Salisbury of Reliable Aftermarket Parts.
Tom has taken Reliable Aftermarket parts from a home based business to a quickly growing company with over 40 employees and listing over 150,000 parts in less than six years. And this is not his first business venture. In 1996 Tom started Junior's Auto Parts with a partner, but they eventually had to split ways because of different business visions. Leaving Tom to start selling tractor parts on ebay as Reliable Aftermarket parts.
Tom's advice to entrepreneurs: Don't get a partner — you both need to have the same vision. And if you do end up with a partner, your partnership should have an expiration date. He also says that if you love it, it's not a job anymore.
The hardest thing for Tom to do was letting go and handing the reigns over to someone else. For any business owners that have found they are struggling with this as well he says to, find a person you trust, bring them into your office and train them how you would do it. Help them get that gut feeling when it comes to, in his case, pricing.
The biggest advice that Tom has is the people that got you to this level are not always the people to get you to the next, so don't be afraid to let someone go.
Want details? You can watch the full interview here.
Want to know what a grind is like? We've got photos here.
Want to see next month's speaker. venture capitalist Matthew Roszak from Chicago? RSVP to the event here and learn more about Matthew here.