Interested in starting your own entrepreneurial journey in food and beverage but unsure what to expect? Then read up on our interview with Vincent Bradley, co-founder, and CEO of Proper Wild, located in New York, NY, USA.

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

Proper Wild makes powerful, plant-based energy shots that care about your health! Our customers are anyone that wants to maximize their day and be productive while also caring about what they put into their bodies! Our customer base skews 54% female and is pretty evenly distributed between 18-55 years old.

Tell us about yourself

I'm a serial entrepreneur who has built four companies (sold 1). I love the grind of problem-solving and improving each day. One of my favorite philosophies is that improvement will lead to success. As an entrepreneur, you have a million things you need to be working on, and it can sometimes become overwhelming. The key is to prioritize the most important tasks and then focus on daily improvement. If you keep improving and refuse to quit (persevere), you'll eventually achieve your goals and taste success! That's what motivates me and gets me excited each morning -- the opportunity to improve and problem solve!

What's your biggest accomplishment as a business owner?

Selling a company is a great feeling, but I think my greatest accomplishment in business and life is getting others to follow me. Starting a company is really hard; getting other people to believe in you, follow you, and trust you is even harder. Maintaining their trust through the startup roller coaster is probably even more difficult, and that's what I'm most proud of.

I mentioned earlier that the key to success is a daily improvement. A big piece of that is surrounding yourself with smart, motivated people. Great teams, not individuals, build great products!

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

I think this is different for everyone, but for me, I focus on not micro-managing. Hire smart, motivated people and let them solve problems their way. It's also really important to stay even. Sometimes you're going to be up, and sometimes you're going to be down in business -- and you have just to remember to stay level.

The last thing I think is really important and sometimes hard as an entrepreneur is to prioritize the most important thing to be working on. When you're deep in the weeds of daily operations, you can sometimes lose focus on the big picture. This is really hard in startup mode when you're doing everything yourself, but it's important that you take time, maybe go for a walk and think about the big picture.

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

  1. Validate that your product or services are really needed. Too often, businesses are started because the entrepreneur wants to start them, not because they need to be started. This is a big difference and one of the most important concepts to understand. Go talk to your potential customers and make sure there's demand and you understand what product-market fit looks like. A lot of companies fail because they never should have been started in the first place -- avoid this mistake by talking with your customers in advance!
  2. Prioritize, prioritize, prioritize. When you start a company, you're going to have a million things to work on. It's really important you focus on quality over quantity, which means some things are going to need to be put into the backlog. Focus on prioritizing the most important tasks and put your full energy into them. In the early days finding product-market fit and constantly engaging with your customers is critical. You don't need ten sales or marketing channels to get early traction. Often, one really quality channel will get you going!
  3. Daily improvement will lead to success. You don't have to conquer the world overnight. Focus on conquering a few islands first and then maybe take a small continent. You'll eventually conquer the world but break it up into small achievable tasks along the way. If you focus on daily improvement, you will eventually achieve your goals and taste success!

Is there anything else you'd like to share?

Entrepreneurship is not for everyone, but if you love the grind of problem-solving, you'll learn to love being an entrepreneur, and it will become fun. Just be ready to go through hell and back because if you're not willing to persevere through a ton of adversity, you shouldn't waste your time!

Where can people find you and your business?

Website: https://properwild.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/VincentMBradley
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/vincentmbradley/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/vincentmbradley
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/vincentmbradley/

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.

Feel inspired to start, run or grow your own subscription business? Check out subkit.com and learn how you can turn "one day" into day one.