SAWUSA Celebrates 15 Year Anniversary

(This part was originally written in 2019, for our 10th Anniversary)

I’d love to share with you a few stories about the early years of the business and how we got to where we are today….

• • I started this business with no money. None at all. I remember ordering $50 worth of business cards and then having to change my phone number to go to a cheaper phone plan. I actually went through 500 business cards and crossed out the old phone and wrote the new one because I couldn’t afford to waste the $50. I believe that mindset helped make me successful.

• • When I started the business I was renting a room of a friend and living alone. I’d spend countless hours hitting Control+C and Control+V in copying e-mail address off the internet. Some nights I’d do that for hours on end until the wee hours of the morning. I built my e-mail database from 0 to 30,000 pretty quickly and mostly manually one by one. In time, I’ve learned a few tricks and was able to implement actual lasting business strategies. However, what I learned hitting Control+V for countless hours can’t be taught in business school. I learned by trial and error and plain old hard work.

My friends apartment where I rented a room when I started my business and my new civic to drive all those miles!

• • I put 35,000 miles on my car each year the first 3 years. That’s about 3,000 miles a month. I’d travel up to 8 hour round trip if someone invited me to come talk to their family or group. Often the trips resulted in nothing. But I kept driving and driving and driving. I had to buy a new civic after crunching numbers and learning I was losing hundreds of dollars a month just in miles per gallon.

• • A cool part of the early years was teaching myself to build websites and do lots of nerdy tech stuff. I learned to make videos, countless software programs, marketing, etc. I always figured even if I could afford to pay for it, it was better for me to learn the skill. Then even if I end up paying for it in the future, at least I know what I’m paying for and what’s it’s worth. I can’t tell you how many 10 hour days I spent just digging into some tutorial for a new program to learn how to some nerdy aspect of the business I had no experience in. This is something I still practice to this day.

Here’s an early office. A crappy rental house filled with free furniture.

• • One of my first ‘ah-ha’ moments came on a long trip to meet a couple families at once. I remember thinking on the way home that I made in one night what I used to make in two months as a full-time college coach. Of course I didn’t always make that much each night, I struck out a lot. However, it was eye-opening to know what was possible in one night. It’s possible that night turned me into an entrepreneur for life.

• • My next big ‘ah-ha’ moment came on a lake over memorial day about a year into my business. With the confidence of a day’s worth of drinks on the lake, I made the decision to go 100% solo on my business (I was operating as an independent contractor the first year). I had to ‘fake it to make it’ a little bit that summer. But it was the best business decision I have ever made.

Here’s the day on Lake Hickory when I decided to take the ‘leap’.

• • Another big step was the decision to pivot to International travel. I remember where I was when I decided. One of my clients went on a trip to Europe with another company. I looked into it and it happened to be the same event that I had been on years earlier as a contracted coach. I did meticulous industry research and knew I could provide a less expensive and better experience. So I did.

Here’s a pic from 2016 laying out some goals for the future with top staff at our leadership retreat. It was difficult to transition from a one person business to a medium sized business. Getting people to see and share your vision is very difficult. Most people like comfort. Entrepreneurs hate comfort!

• • Our 2015 United World Games trip with 70 people will always be a pivotal moment. The trip was filled with amazing people that I’ll never forget.

What an amazing first trip to Europe!

• • Another cool step was December 2018 when we hosted a high school from Australia in the USA. This was another thing I jumped into with no prior experience or knowledge. Over the course of a year in planning the trip I learned the ropes. The trip was a success that I hope continues to be a part of our business in the future.

• • People. I’ve worked with some great people along the way. Early on, Louis Birch and Tom Davis worked with me for many years. In 2017, Jody Burrows became our first full-time salaried employee. Also, In this business my vendors are super important. This includes my ground partners, travel agent, web guys, etc.

Jody, far right, leading a trip in Barbados.

• • Offices. Wow, we’ve had a lot. I’ve rented office space at like 5 different places. None really stuck as working out. I mainly always wanted a brick and mortar space to legitimize what we do. But I always ended up splitting time between the office and my home office carrying stuff back and forth. Finally, after we were successful enough to not need an office, I built a 900 square foot addition to my house to permanently have an official home office. That was so nice we turned it into the master bedroom a year later :). It doesn’t matter where I’m woking. It’s what I’m doing and who I’m working with!

As a small business owner, ‘house’ and ‘office’ are often interchangeable.

But soon the house was running out of space!

The last of my 5 rented office spaces. I moved a lot of stuff in and out of these spaces over the years!

• • Last but not least, my wife Erika has been a big part of the business. I met her when the business was just 2 months old. She’s supported me every step of the way. Honestly the biggest thing is owning a business is stressful. ‘The buck stops here’ and that means I get a lot of crap thrown at me. Also, I’ve learned the nature of being a business owner is people are going to take advantage of you. Listening to my venting should probably be a paid position at SAWUSA. She’s done the boring stuff like stuff envelopes with me and fun stuff like traveling to Spain, Austria, Hawaii, Barbados, Argentina, and Portugal to plan trips with me.

My wife Erika helping stuff envelopes and one of my kids and one of my dogs napping on the job.

My wife and then one year old daughter helping me plan a new trip in Spain.