Interested in starting your own entrepreneurial journey in food and beverage but unsure what to expect? Then read up on our interview with Derek Derbigny, owner of Dallas Meat Delivery, located in Dallas, TX, USA.

What's your business, and who are your customers?

I own a venture company that owns multiple other LLCs. I own numerous properties I use for short-term rentals via Airbnb, Simple Real Estate Management, which has its hands in everything from short-term rental management to home buying, and the wonderful meal prep company Map Meals, which provides Dallas and Fort-Worth with free access to same-day delivery on personalized meal prep. Of course, the very exciting Dallas Meat Delivery which provides same-day delivery of all of your favorite meats and seafoods at wholesale prices., and I am currently in the process of building a few other companies that will help to bridge the gaps between the existing entities to make them all run even more efficiently. I also am blessed to be able to consult with other companies. While I work far more than most people, I can honestly say I don't work at all. I love everything that I do, and I love what it does for those around me.

Tell us about yourself

Growing up, I wanted nothing more than to make my parents proud. They did everything they could to ensure I had all the things required for a child to be successful. So I did everything they told me I should do in order to be successful in life. My entire life, everything about me, about what I was doing, about what I thought I wanted from life, was fueled by the desire to make someone other than myself happy. Outside of this construct, I was also a very creative kid, much of which I would channel into finding as many ways to make money as I possibly could. From mowing lawns to re-selling candy that I bought in bulk to manufacturing and selling fake Pokemon cards, I was keenly aware at a young age that life was all about transactions - and I was damn good at facilitating them.

I decided I wanted to buy a car on my 16th birthday. That Pokemon cards weren't lucrative enough, so I went for two job interviews on my 14th birthday. I was hired on the spot for both. I worked my way through high school while maintaining all A's in my studies, then bought my car and customized it to my liking. I fell in love with working and earning my own things, but more intimately, I fell in love with one-upping myself. While my parents didn't completely disregard my young business mind, they didn't exactly foster it either. It was all about my grades and being the first person in the family to complete college. That was a success in their eyes. I don't fault my parents in any way, they simply were doing what was best for me in the best way they knew how, but once I was in college, I quickly began to realize that their definition of success did not align with my own - and was not at all what made me happy.

Years later, I found myself in a position where I was in a doctorate program at a school that I hated, studying something I couldn't care less about, surrounded by people who had successfully tricked themselves into believing they themselves were happy and free - while I was enviously unable to do the same. So, while everyone around me was proud and triumphant in my course in life, because I had not only gone to college but gone to the doctorate level, I was in the darkest place imaginable. The worst part about it was that no one seemed to understand how I could possibly be anything less than happy. I was living the dream after all - their dream. I would like to stress that school was not the reason I was in this dark place. I have always been blessed with the gift of understanding things on the first explanation, so school, even at the doctorate level, never required much of my energy. It was the idea of living the rest of my life in a manner that did not suit me in pursuit of someone else's idea of happiness that drove me into a state of mental rebellion.

Subconsciously rebelling from the happiness that everyone else thought I should be experiencing, I began cannibalizing my own life. I even stopped believing in God for a time because I just couldn't understand how a loving God would just abandon me. It was at my darkest moment, after a scare with death at my own hand, that I promised myself I would live life my way and carve out my own lane to happiness. This was the first time in my life that I would be the person driving the vehicle. I then committed myself to relearning and fostering the creativity I had suppressed for so long.

That commitment that I made to myself keeps me motivated to keep going, keep growing, and continue to build new opportunities for other like-minded individuals.

What's your biggest accomplishment as a business owner?

While I have hit many of the most celebrated financial milestones at a very young age, I think my biggest accomplishment is the number of people I have employed and paid great wages. There isn't a single person who works with me that makes less than $20 an hour, which I am truly proud of. I'm a firm believer in taking care of those that take care of you.

What's one of the hardest things that come with being a business owner?

The first one is overcoming what I call the entrepreneur's fallacy - thinking that when you are a business owner, you have more freedom when in reality, you have simply created a job for yourself. Unless you have some serious funding from the very beginning, you will likely be doing more work than you've ever done until you can afford to hire people to begin to take tasks off of your plate. One of the most difficult parts of entrepreneurship is freeing yourself from the time constraints that the 'business' demands. Don't be surprised to work 100 a week for the first few years. Understanding, creating a job, and creating a business are two very different things.

Another huge psychological blow is coming to grips with the fact that no level of success will garner you the love and admonishment you think it does. The more you achieve, the less you will be congratulated. You have to be in this for you; as an entrepreneur, you have to learn to mentally be selfish and be able to be the only cheerleader you need.

Another challenge is cash-flow and revenue cycle management. Generating a million dollars is great, but it means nothing if you have nothing to show for it at the end of the year. This is honestly the second most difficult part of running a business, next to managing people.

What are the top tips you'd give to anyone looking to start, run and grow a business today?

  1. Accountability is the single trait that differentiates wildly successful and happy people from those that settle for a life of mediocrity. It is so much easier to simply follow the path that was set out for you and trick yourself into being content than it is to own your life and be accountable for your decisions because the moment you assume accountability, you can no longer pass blame or make excuses for why you feel lesser than you believe you should. In order to be successful, as both an entrepreneur and a leader, you have to be willing to accept accountability.
  2. The key to all of this is having the right people. As cliche as it may sound, it is true that your network is your net worth. You will NEVER hear me refer to myself as self-made - that would negate everything that anyone has ever done for me. I make it a point to consistently acknowledge every helping hand, every word of mentorship, and most importantly, every person that works as a part of this team. It is IMPOSSIBLE to run and sustain a business, no matter how good of a product or service it provides, if you do not have the right people. Right now, I am beyond blessed to say that my team is composed of all of the right people. I'm more honored to get to work with them than they will ever know. It is because of them, that work doesn't feel like work, and we get to continue to expand and improve lives.
  3. Foster an environment of value. Encourage team feedback and ideas, celebrate outstanding work, and provide a sense of ownership in each position of your organization. People want to do work they feel contributes to something larger than themselves - this, in turn, results in happier employees, decreased turnover, and better business outcomes.

Is there anything else you'd like to share?

You can do this. But you have to DO IT. You will never know enough; you will never have enough funding; you will never run out of excuses. Just jump and learn to fly as you fall. You'll be surprised how quickly you grow wings.

Where can people find you and your business?

Website: https://www.dallasmeatdelivery.com/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/derekderbigny/

If you like what you've read here and have your own story as a solopreneur that you'd like to share, then email community@subkit.com; we'd love to feature your journey on these pages.

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