How Building a Business Taught MeAbout Chaos & Calm
My journey from restaurant trenches to Amazon chaos to building calm for others.
The Restaurant Trenches
I didn't start out as a 'web guy' or a systems expert. My journey began in the trenches – first, spending a decade as a GM for a restaurant group, getting hands-on programming POS systems to stop things from falling through the cracks.
Key Lesson: Systems either work or they don't. There's no middle ground when customers are waiting.
The Wild Ride Begins
Then, along with my two best friends, I dove headfirst into founding an Amazon FBA business. It was a true team effort – while I handled all the technical systems and operations, we built something incredible together. For 10 years, I lived the wild ride – the exhilarating growth, the sleepless nights, and the constant battle to keep things running.
Growth Phase: We bootstrapped from zero to $100M+ total sales
Success Created Its Own Problems
We bootstrapped that FBA company from zero, and as we scaled to multi-million dollar sales, I hit a wall. My biggest 'success' was creating my biggest nightmare: inventory chaos. I was drowning in stock I couldn't track.
Reality Check: Off-the-shelf software was too expensive, too complex, or just plain wrong.
So I Did What Small Business Owners Do: I Figured It Out
Fueled by about 3,000 YouTube videos and sheer determination, I built a custom inventory tracking system from scratch using Google Sheets and AppSheet. Think of it like a super-powered spreadsheet that tracked every single item, order, and expiration date automatically. It wasn't fancy, but it worked.
The Breakthrough: It was the 'calm' I desperately needed in that specific storm.
The Soul-Crushing Truth
And that was just one hat. Like you, I was also doing the hiring, the firing, the banking, the vendor battles... all of it. That's where I learned, firsthand, how much broken tech and clunky systems can drain not just your bottom line, but your soul.