Michael “Mike” Simon says there’s no secret to starting and building a successful business; he’s done it three times. Two of those businesses were partnerships. One was building high-efficiency, high-end homes. The other was a property investment venture. He exited both of those to give full focus to his third enterprise, Simon’s Concrete & Excavating, in 2007. He offers two fundamentals for success: “First, the right work ethic plus motivation equals success. Second, don’t chase the money. Chase your dreams and the money will take care of itself.”
From their location in Derby, Indiana, in the southern part of the state just a few miles from the Ohio River, Simon’s Concrete & Excavating serves a variety of customers with a range of services. In agriculture, it’s mostly water management and much of that is trenching in drainage tiling in farm fields. For residential, its basements, septic systems, and retaining walls, but the bulk of residential work is site prep. They also do lakes and ponds. In their shop, they repair their own equipment and build and maintain specialty tools for specific jobs, and services that they offer to others in the area.
They do almost no commercial work. One of the reasons may seem odd: “It doesn’t present well on social media,” says Simon. “It’s less compelling and doesn’t hold eyes the way our other work does.”
A place for social
Why does that matter? Social media is a big part of branding for Simon’s Concrete & Excavating. It also serves to educate the public about the nature of construction work. Simon started a YouTube channel in November 2017, having been encouraged to do so by his friend, Wade “Logger Wade” Etienne. The brand for his online presence is Dirt Perfect. Simon says YouTube is their biggest online presence; they also have accounts with Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, and Patreon.
He says one key role of the website is as a platform for their merchandise store, which is managed by his wife, and that brings up another of his success strategies. “Self-employment is not a job, it’s a lifestyle, and your family has to be on board with that.” It was consideration for a family that figured heavily into Simon’s decision to get on social media in the first place. He and his father were on a job in 2002 when an accident took his father’s life. “Ever since then, I’d wanted to document me, my family, our work, our lives…all of it so it wouldn’t be lost to future generations.”
It must be noted that social media presence generates little, if any, sales volume. Granted, that was not part of Simon’s goal in getting active on social media, but he does caution others to be reasonable in their expectations. Despite doing no traditional advertising and getting almost zero sales from social media, lead times at Simon’s Concrete & Excavating run 12 to 18 months due to repeat customers, word-of-mouth, and referrals. Also, as social media audiences grow, it becomes more challenging to appease the disparate interests and values of individuals and groups. “Suddenly everyone’s hands are tied and it seems you can’t post anything without offending someone.” Managing the message takes skill; make sure you have the right person or persons available and in place to do this.
Mike Simon’s top 5 tips for starting and building a successful business
1. Don’t jump in with both feet and risk getting in over your head. This applies to debt, jobs, equipment, employees—every aspect of business. This is the one point he says is an absolute requirement.
2. Let go of negativity bias. “I hear people say all the time that they could never get into business, that it’s too hard. In fact, it’s easier and less complex than most people think it is.” He says it’s essential to compartmentalize the challenges and address them one at a time; “don’t try to deal with everything at once.”
3. Have a plan but be flexible. Circumstances change. Your objectives change. Be ready to roll with it.
4. Although social and legacy media have abundant horror stories about bad contractors, “the fact is there are a lot more bad customers than there are bad contractors.” Harsh, but true. Be prepared to deal with unreasonable customers making unreasonable demands, often.
5. Remember that experience and competence come with costs. Those costs may be paid for in education and training, but oftentimes it’s a job where the numbers don’t work out as planned. “Finish that job correctly and move on,” says Simon, “accepting the narrow margin or even a loss as the cost of learning.”
Simon’s final word of encouragement: “YOLO, you only live once. If you want to start a business, do it.” Be prudent. Do your research. But don’t not try. Business success takes work but is rewarding in ways few things are. Yes, owning a business comes with some anxiety and stress, but the choice is yours: live with the stress of building a good business or the regret of not having tried.
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