Growing up on his parents farm in Canada, Bobby Genovese spent much of his time as a teenager mucking stables, feeding the horses and doing other odd jobs. An entrepreneur at heart even at a tender age, he always knew he wanted to own his own business. Starting with his first venture in his hometown of Ontario and acquiring business leadership experience for the past twenty plus years, Bobby Genovese comes to the table with a deep understanding of how to lead start-ups. On top of his leadership experience, he’s also extremely active as a philanthropist, supporting numerous charities including Toronto’s Hospital for Sick Children.
Hundreds of thousands of companies start each year. At the same time, many close. From your experience, how should aspiring entrepreneurs begin their journeys?
Bobby Genovese: Before jumping into anything, do a thorough personal and professional self-assessment. Think about your knowledge, where your experience is and what skills you have that will give you a good chance to succeed at what you want to do. Have you been successful in some way before?
You also have to ask yourself what would make you most happy in your career? Once you’ve answered these questions, ask your former colleagues, especially those who are familiar with your skills and talents. In my case, I knew I wanted to lead my own company. I realized that I was a good people person and I was very driven toward success. Two things I often share with new entrepreneurs: be passionate about what you’re doing and never take no for an answer.
Where do good business ideas come from?
Bobby Genovese: It’s always smart to be aware of things that are happening in the marketplace and figure out where your idea might fit in. If you look at some of the great business leaders over time, they often either created a product or service to address a pain point or something to help make someone’s life better, and it turns out to be profitable. Maybe they created a new convenience or something that saves time or money. Often, successful businesses provide the answer to a problem that hasn’t been solved, winning customers and help you sell products.
Does hard work play a part?
Bobby Genovese: Absolutely. Even the biggest ideas aren’t worth much without rolling up your sleeves up and doing the work. Especially in the beginning there’s lots of hard work and it can often feel like you live at the company. That’s part of building a successful business. If you’re smart, tenacious and put in the time and energy, you’ll place yourself in the strongest position possible to succeed.
How important is financing for entrepreneurs?
Bobby Genovese: Extremely important. When you launch a company you want to be able to sustain it over the long term. As we all know, the economy rises and ebbs on an ongoing basis, so you’ll have good weeks or months possibly followed by those that aren’t so good. Solid financing is very important.
You’re very active as a philanthropist. What would you advise other business leaders to get involved as well?
Bobby Genovese: There’s a term that’s crept into the business lexicon in the past several years: social entrepreneurship. That means doing good by giving back. For any business leader, especially those like me who have been very fortunate and successful, it’s our duty to use our resources to help others. For me, it’s something I feel strongly about and I love to be in a position to support many organizations, especially those that help children and preserve our natural resources.
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