Bring the hustle or stay home
by Fred Wellman

Being an entrepreneur is not easy. Period. There are just days where you look at the numbers and you wonder what are you doing wrong? Why are there not more customers? When will I ever be able to afford that first yacht at this rate?

In those tough days I always ask myself a simple question: What am I doing today to put money in the bank?

I can honestly say that one of the secret ingredients to the success I have seen is simple. Hustle. I never, ever, not for a minute, stop hustling. Wasting even a single minute feeling sorry for yourself or bemoaning your lot in life is wasted time. There is nothing I love seeing more than someone who never stops hustling.

You know this businessperson when you see them. That's the guy on the street outside his shop giving out samples and chatting up people on the street. Posting a blog post about their conversation with a prominent member of the community. Filling their social media up with great photos of their products and the occasional flash sale.

I saw hustle turn to success before my very eyes a couple of weeks ago. My wife and I had visited our Airborne trooper son in North Carolina. We were driving through Wake Forest on our way back to Virginia and got the urge for a gourmet hot dog after seeing several shops in Raleigh. So, we brought out our iPhones and looked on the map. There were two listed. We made our way to the one downtown only to find it closed on Sunday. A restaurant closed on a Sunday. Okay.

So, I said, “no worries we can head to the other one.” I clicked on the directions and we made our way to the ‘shop'. Oddly, the directions led me into the parking lot of the local big box hardware store. As we pulled up I realized that we were being led to a hot dog stand just outside the exit of the store.

Sure enough, I clicked on his link on Apple maps and found his many positive Yelp ratings, company Facebook page, and a website for their stands all around the Raleigh area. There was a line of at least six people the entire time we were there, all waiting for a wide variety of hot dogs, sausages and toppings.

That's called hustle. They had taken the time to get on the Apple map, get Yelp reviews, set up an active Facebook page and a website with all of their locations along with pictures of the great food. It's really that easy.

We recently tried to partner with some fellow local businesses in our town and discovered a high-end chocolate shop in business for over a year that hadn't completed their website, had no active social media channels, and was bemoaning their difficult year. If you've got time to fret over your numbers then you've got time to Instagram quality photos of your products, write blog posts, create an email newsletter, or just stand on the street and give out samples. Don't go out of business for lack of hustle.

Fred Wellman is a retired Army officer turned serial and social entrepreneur. He is a graduate of West Point and the Harvard Kennedy School serving 22 years in the Army as an aviator and public affairs officer and four combat tours. He is the Founder and CEO of ScoutComms, a B Corp communications and advocacy firm focused on veterans and military families.

In addition to serving as the Entrepreneur in Residence for NMSN, he also serves on: the Board of Directors for the Fredericksburg VA Main Street, the Board of Advisors for the Global War on Terror Memorial Foundation, Veterans in Global Leadership, and No One Left Behind.

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