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43: Re-Inventing Yourself Through Entrepreneurship // The Story of Bryan Clayton

Background:

Bryan Clayton is the Co-Founder and CEO of GreenPal, an online marketplace that connects homeowners with local lawn care professionals. GreenPal has been called the “Uber for lawn care” by Entrepreneur magazine and has over 100,000 active users completing thousands of transactions per day.

Before starting GreenPal, Bryan Clayton founded Peachtree Inc., one of the largest landscaping companies in the state of Tennessee, growing it to over $10 million a year in annual revenue before it was acquired by Lusa holdings in 2013. Bryan‘s interests and expertise are related to entrepreneurism, small business growth, marketing, and bootstrapping businesses from zero revenue to profitability and exit.

 

Time-Stamped Show Notes:

  • 3:29 Bryan shares how he started his service-based business.
  • 7:06 In the early days of his business, Bryan made a crucial mistake.
  • 8:56 E-Myth by Michael Gerber was a book that Bryan picked up five years ago, which reminded him of how everyone should work on the business and not in the business.
  • 9:43 The very first employee of Bryan just decided to quit in the middle of the day.
  • 11:10 In the first two years, Bryan never thought of quitting and giving up his business.
  • 14:58 According to Bryan, chaos and crisis in business is normal and it’s okay to go through those experiences once in a while but you have to figure out a solution for these problems.
  • 18:30 Bryan talks about the big and small rockin it moments in his 20 plus years of being an entrepreneur.
  • 20:42 GreenPal is called the uber for landscaping and Bryan explains what it means and how it works.
  • 22:27 When they started GreenPal, Bryan decided that they would become more of a marketplace but with Sass tools.
  • 26:31 Making that jump from the traditional landscaping business to a tech company is extremely challenging but very rewarding for Bryan.
  • 30:08 GreenPal started in Nashville, Tennessee but today they are nationwide.
  • 32:02 According to Bryan, no business is easy and they have their own unique set of problems. Even a small hotdog stand will experience major difficulties and issues.
  • 35:04 There were several reasons why Bryan chose not to look for investors when he started his company.
  • 39:37 Bryan says that when you’re starting a company, no one would really care about your business, its problems, and its challenges.
  • 40:42 During the early days of GreenPal, Bryan was having difficulties in convincing people to use their app. Even his friend didn’t care and never tested the app.
  • 43:04 If he can go back in time to his rock bottom moment and talk to himself, Bryan would dish out some practical advice.
  • 44:25 The first two people who send an email to Eric about this episode with Bryan of GreenPal will receive a copy of E-Myth by Michael Gerber.

This Episode Brought to You By:

  • 23:59 The Man, the Myth, the Canadian Legend: Eric Gilbert-Williams. Eric put together this very podcast as a passion project to help you & others. If you’d be so kind to Subscribe & Leave a Written Review of the show, it’d really make our day! You can Subscribe & Rate our Podcast right here: From Rock Bottom to Rockin’ It..

 

Key Points from the Interview:

  • “You can either get bitter or you can get better. And I see a lot of business owners, they get bitter.”
  • “When you’re first getting started, start small, have a big vision, but start and act very small and celebrate the little small wins because those are important. It’s gonna help you get through those first years, which are some of the most challenging.”

 

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