Tell me, are you smart enough not to buy a bankrupt business?
In 2002, I bought my first bankrupt business and I turned that around within 12 months, adding $100,000 to the bottom line. Four years later, I bought a second bankrupt business and turn that around within 12 months, adding more than $100,000 to the bottom line.
So my point is when you see an opportunity out there, do you say that’s not for me, or do you say, how can I make that work for me? We also have that same philosophy when it came to running our business, when people came into the business, I trained my staff to say yes, every time. The only way they could say no is if I said, no, we could do it.
Now, that doesn’t mean that we said yes to everything and we did it at a loss. No, we charged accordingly. So if somebody came in and they needed something special, I always said yes, if they needed a special mold, we created it. If they needed a special timeframe, we created it. But we charged accordingly because you have to understand what your margins are and your profits are on orders.
So can you run a business by saying yes? Absolutely, you should never say no, unless it’s absolutely impossible, and then you should figure it out.