Well, we did it! We finally bit the bullet & took Utah Biodiesel Supply full time.
It actually happened a while ago, but I've just been so darn busy I haven't had a chance to blog about it.
For those who are new to us, lemme give you a bit of history....
Around 2003 a nutty guy named Graydon Blair (that'd be me) started researching Biodiesel. (You can read more about that here)
Well, around 2005 I got so excited about it that I decided to start up a business called Utah Biodiesel Supply and the rest is, as you say, history.....well, ok, history is still being written so sit back & I'll share a bit about it.
Around April 2005 I took a trip out to California for summer vacation with the wife & daughter. While on the trip (in a cramped Honda Accord with a TV sitting in the back seat to keep our daughter happy) my wife & I listened to a CD about millionaires.
There's a book called "The Millionaire Next Door". I'd read it but wanted to learn more and since we were going to be hauling across the barren desert in a Honda, my wife picked up some "books on CD". One called The Millionaire Mind. It's basically a continuation of that book where the author delves deeper into the subject.
...ok, now a big more history....
To give you some background, I hail from Utah (yes, I'm mormon too! Go figure!) and have quite the entrepreneur spirit in me. At a very young age I became an "independent contractor" ...well, ok, so I was a paper boy, but they still sold me a product & I had to turn around & sell it...albeit they were newspapers....I still had to collect the money from folks, had to perfect some marketing (to get more people to sign up), and had to deliver the product in a timely manner (folks don't like it when their newspapers don't get delivered...especially if they get soggy wet in the rain sitting out in the driveway...I can still throw a rolled up newspaper from across the street & hit the porch perfectly...it's an "aquired artform" from my youth).
anyway, so I did a paper route when I was a kid, also had sold a bunch of newspaper subscriptions & earned my way to Disney land with said paper, and then when I was about 14 my dad decided he was going to teach his sons a little bit about business & bought us an Aerator.
If you don't know what those are, it's basically this big machine that is powered by an engine that punches holes in your lawn that look like a dog pooped all over your lawn. It basically pulls up little "soil cores" from your lawn & allows your lawn to "breathe" better. It really works, trust me.
Anyway, so once we got said aerator, it was our job to find people that wanted their lawn aerated & do it. He left all of that up to us. He had just bought the machine.
Well, I gotta tell ya, that crazy machine lit a fire in me that's never really gone out. I enjoyed providing a service to someone and I enjoyed seeing the green stuff land in my hand even more...especially when it was something I did myself.
So, after that I then got "a real job" at a restaurant and eventually became a waiter. If you think about it, waiter's also are "independent contractors". Follow me on this one....
They're basically paid really lousy by restaurants to deliver your food to your table, keep you happy, and make sure you have a pleasant experience while "dining out". If they do a good job, you leave them a tip.
Well, let's just say I became a REALLY good waiter! I LOVED IT!! I'm kind of a ham as it is (kinda comes naturally to me) so being a waiter was a shoe in. I enjoy delivering a product (good service) and perfecting the way I do it and in return I was paid well for my services.
So, then I left for a full time mission for my church (remember, I'm MORMON....and no, I don't have 5 wives...one's enough to keep any man busy). Off to Oregon I went to knock on doors & share the message of my faith with complete strangers.
Lemme tell ya, if you think door to door sales is hard, try knocking on complete strangers doors in a place you've never been to before and telling them about your beliefs in God. It is, shall we say, an "experience"....one that I utterly loved, but one that also honed my "marketing skills" a bit more as well.
So, now we have a paper route, an aerating business, being a waiter, and now a mission for my church under my belt.
Then I came home & started college.
I started out wanting to be an Engineer...well, let's just say I suck at math. Calculus & me didn't get along so well....so, I decided to change my major.
Lucky for me, I picked a really good one for my skill set.
I entered the John B. Goddard School of Business at Weber State University in little old Ogden, Utah. Yep. A business major was now in my future!
And, since I kind of liked computers, my major was actually in...get this....Information Systems & Technology (I know, kind of corny to have in a business school, but it works...well, ok, it works REALLY well!).
So, here's a kid already accustomed to "marketing" "product placement" "accounting"(remember, I had to COLLECT the money from my clients) and basically a bunch of other things that you learn about in Business & now I was getting a real degree in the stuff.
I absolutely LOVED college! Not because of the social life, but because of what I was learning. I know, call me weird, but I loved economics, marketing, and all those business related classes.
Wow...ok, we've really gone off the beaten path here...let's see if we can bring this puppy back....
So, I got a degree in Business w/ an emphasis on computers. Kind of timely too as the internet was all the rage around that time (I even had stock in Cisco & AOL at one time...but that's another story).
So I finished college & got a "real job" at the place I did an internship at....a place called Iomega (yep, those guy's that made Zip drives).
Did that for about 5 years & then took a job at a place called Intermountain Healthcare.
About 2 years into it I learned about Biodiesel & took that trip across the desert.
OK, bringing us back to our story....
So this kid that's done a lot of small business background, has a business degree, and is listening to a tape about Millionaires is traveling across the desert.
Having a strong desire to own my own business & wondering what it should be, I kept hearing over & over from that crazy CD about Millionaires that if you want to be successful in life, you need to find something you really enjoy & then exercise some business smarts with it.
Well....let's see....what do I like? Hmmm....there's this thing called Biodiesel!
And, after that trip, a little ole place called Utah Biodiesel Supply popped up on the internet.
April of 2005 was when we officially got the business license & went for it.
From the basement in my house I started this crazy thing and, well, almost 3 years later, we're one of the largest online stores for Biodiesel Homebrewing supplies around.
We have a huge selection of Biodiesel goodies and are pretty well known around the globe as one of the places to go if you want to learn about Biodiesel or buy biodiesel supplies.
And....because I'm absolutely passionate about it and have the business background, it's been a really good fit.
I'm having the time of my life! It ain't all easy and I'm definitely not "stinkin' rich", but I'm enjoying every day & loving it.
Like they say, find something you enjoy doing, create a business out of it, and you'll never "work" a day in your life because it'll all be "fun".
Yep. That's pretty much it.
So, now REALLY swinging it back around to where we started from. Right around June of this year I took the big plunge & left the day job & am now doing this gig full time...and absolutely loving it!
So, if you ever want to get ahold of us, just pick up the ole phone & give us a call.
Instead of having to answer phone calls between breaks at "Work", we can now do it all the time.
I actually even set it up like a "real" job too....
We run the business Monday through Friday from 9am to 5pm.
We close it on the weekends (well, ok, I TRY not to do any business on the weekends I should say....ok, the real answer is...I don't pick up the phone on the weekends) and I now have a bit of a "real life" in the evenings with my family again.
Tuesday & Friday nights we pack up all the orders that come in and they ship out the day after they're packed.
It's a heck of a lot of fun!
And....I still get to meet a ton of cool people. I still participate on the Biodiesel forums. I still make Biodiesel. And I'm still enjoying it.
So, if you're absolutely sick & tired of your "day job" (I really wasn't though...I really did enjoy my job, I just liked Biodiesel more), find something you enjoy & try to make a business out of it...you may just find yourself doing something you enjoy the rest of your life!
Well, ok, that was probably way more information than you probably wanted to ever know about us....but, hope you enjoyed the read.
And....if you're ever after some really cool Biodiesel supplies, there's this place called Utah Biodiesel Supply that sells some kick-butt supplies at their online store
http://www.utahbio.com (Yep. I'm still the consummate saleman...it's in the blood).
Because I was doing the books the other day I had to count all the individual products I carried. We now sell over 250 unique items on our site. Man, that's a lot of stuff to keep track of! But, we're doing it & loving it!
So, stop on by, you're guaranteed to always find some cool or nifty gizmo that can hopefully help you out with all of your Biodiesel adventures.....
Have a great one!
Graydon
The Biodiesel Nut With The Business Degree...
