The # 1 lesson I learned during my first year as an entrepreneur.

Exactly one year ago today, I decided to make the biggest decision of my 20-year career in logistics. I willingly walked away from a great job with a reputable company and a six figure salary to be an entrepreneur. In many ways, I’m like most men my age: I am a husband and a father of 2. I have a mortgage, a car payment, and bills to pay. However, I fell outside the bell curve in one particular way: I’d had an itch to venture out on my own for as long as I can remember, outside the protection and predictability of the corporate world. So, with the support of my wife and a business plan under my arm I joined my business partner on a journey to develop Logitalent, Inc. into a nationally recognized player capable of reshaping the talent profile of the freight forwarding industry. As you can imagine we’re not quite there yet, but it has been an emotional and exciting year: from the feeling on day one when I turned on my brand new non-corporate-issued laptop and realized my income was neither promised or reliable to the satisfaction I feel when I do right my by clients or help a candidate make the next step in their career.

As any entrepreneur will tell you, building your own company takes hard work, long hours, budgetary discipline and support from family and friends (to name a few). I acknowledge all this as being true, but there is another aspect of “what it takes” that I didn’t expect.

So, the #1 lesson I’ve learned in my first year as an entrepreneur is the importance of focus. When you are taking the leap into entrepreneurship you have a business plan for a reason. Your friends, family and network will, with the best intentions, try to support you in this new venture by sending referrals or leads. New “opportunities” will undoubtedly pop up and be tempting. However, many times these are distractions rather than opportunities. The mission of Logitalent was and is to build the most quality-obsessed talent acquisition company within freight forwarding in North America. This is our jam. We can not do talent acquisition in Brazil, we do not do driver recruiting for trucking companies and we are not a temp agency. While there is great demand for those services, it’s not who we are and it’s not what we do. I’d be lying if I said we didn’t get sidetracked once or twice during the past year. I’m no stranger to having to “reel it in” now and then. And at first you feel like you are turning down an opportunity - who in their right mind would do that?!? But sometimes (and more times than you think) you have to say “no.” You cannot build an identity by being everything to everyone. Therefore, the most important lesson I have learned in the past 12 months, and what I’ve found crucial to minting a successful business, is to stay FOCUSED on your business plan.

By staying focused on our mission, Logitalent has far exceeded our goals: developing a presence in Chicago, Atlanta and Los Angeles with 5 team members in only 12 months. Today is our Happy New Year! Our plan is set, goals are locked in, and we are going full (focused) speed ahead!