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💰 From Corporate Job to 9-Figure Boot Brand
School of Hard Knocks
July 18, 2024
What's up, Hard Knocks community? 💰
We're back with another exciting episode of the School of Hard Knocks Newsletter! This week, we're highlighting Paul Hedrick, founder of the mega boot brand Tecovas. He takes us all the way back to the company's early stages, explaining how the business got started, why he decided to become an entrepreneur, how he scaled the business, and the various obstacles he had to overcome along the way.
Today’s Schedule
The Story of Tecovas: How Paul Hedrick Went From Management Consultant to a 9-Figure Boot Mogul
From the Hard Knocks Library:Meditations by Marcus Aurelius
In Case You Missed It: We went to Wall Street and interviewed a billionaire as well as other successful entrepreneurs
Let's go!🔥
From Corporate Job to 9-Figure Boot Brand
Paul Hedrick was born in Houston, Texas and raised in Dallas. He looked up to his father who was a management consultant. Even though Paul didn't really understand what his father did, he knew he wanted to get into business.
Grades were really important to Paul and he worked hard in middle school and high school to create opportunities for himself down the road. His hard work eventually paid off and he wound up attending Harvard for college.
After he graduated, he applied that same mindset and set goals to get what he thought was his dream job. Paul took a management consultant job at an investment firm focused on consumer retail businesses.
It was in his second job out of college that he realized he was pretty lucky. He was making more money at the age of 25 than he ever thought possible. However, something was missing. He was living in New York at the time and he looked around and realized he wasn't personally fulfilled.
Paul then applied to graduate school at both Harvard and Stanford, but didn't even get an interview at either institution. However, it was this rejection that ultimately led him to the path he's on today.
Paul began to think about what differentiates himself from his peers and was on a mission to prove himself. He remembers sitting at a bar with one of his co-workers and they talked about what it would take to build a brand of their own.
Their firm invested in plenty of brands and Paul decided to take a chance and start one himself. He left his career as a management consultant in 2014, moved back to Austin to start Tecovas, and the rest is history.
Tecovas is the very first direct-to-consumer brand in the Western category. They were the first to sell high-end cowboy boots directly to customers online. Tecovas also has brick and mortar locations. They opened their first store in 2019 and today, they have 30.
Paul says he's glad his journey pushed him down the rabbit hole because it led to something amazing. So many people are afraid of failure, but the reality is you'll never be successful 100% of the time. Facing failure and taking risks are necessary to become a successful entrepreneur.
Paul Hedrick Founder of Tecovas
When Paul sat down with us, he shared several lessons learned from his personal journey. Here are four key takeaways:
Stayin' Alive
When COVID hit, about 25% of Paul's business was offline, and it went to zero overnight. Online sales also took a huge hit and he realized he needed to make things work there to stay alive. Tecovas couldn't afford to lose a single dollar, so it was time to get super efficient about marketing.
Instead of pummeling people with advertising when they're not in the mood to buy, Paul and his team got laser-focused on exactly where the demand was coming from. They cut their advertising down by 60% and focused on introducing new products to existing customers instead of trying to acquire new ones.
Their efforts paid off and their loyal customer base came through big-time. 2020 wound up being a huge year for Paul and Tecovas made $10 million more in profit than they did in 2019. You really can make good out of bad when you have the right plan.
From Banking to Branding
Funding a business today is much tougher than it was a few years ago when interest rates were low. Paul says that although the markets have changed, the fundamentals of business haven't.
Anyone who knows their market well and follows demand will be able to survive a down cycle. Access to funding changes all the time, but what never changes is a fundamentally healthy business.
Tecovas is a massive name down in Texas and Paul's an expert in brand creation. If you're starting from scratch, Paul advises to begin with an amazing product that you yourself would use. From there, understand exactly who you're selling to, why they want it, and why they love it, which may differ from your own reasons.
Over time, Paul and his team were able to narrow their view on who's in their brand's bullseye. Most brands grow and scale by tightening up their bullseye, not widening the net. If you don't have a core group that you know really well, you're never going to get anywhere.
Lead the Way
When Paul first started Tecovas, he took on the role of CEO and remained there for seven years. While he loved it, he eventually hired someone else to take on those responsibilities so he could focus on his role as founder and creative visionary.
Paul says the perfect CEO has to be aligned with your company's mission and vision. They have to recognize a company's unique playbook, know it cold, and deliver on it. A good CEO also has to be a fundraiser, a culture creator, and a cheerleader.
When you're an entrepreneur, you wear many hats. At some point, you realize you can't be in every meeting or make every decision. You'll never scale if you can't get other people to work for you and add leverage, whether you're a five person company or a team of 500.
Expanding Horizons
If you're looking to add additional products, Paul says it all depends on your particular business. One thing that's true regardless of what you're offering is this: if no one's asking for it, you might want to reconsider it.
Paul also advises to get really good at selling a couple of things and going deep as opposed to selling a wide variety. If you play the long game, you'll know exactly what your customer wants to launch successful products.
That being said, there's always risk involved when launching something new. Every product you put out will have that first day. The earlier you can make it without fumbling, the more you'll learn over a longer period of time.
Watch our podcast with Paul here:
Connect with Paul here:
Shop Tecovas:http://www.tecovas.com
Words of Wisdom
“You don’t learn to walk by following rules. You learn by doing and falling over.”
In Case You Missed It
We visited New York City and interviewed different people all over Wall Street and the streets of New York City. We asked them what the most of money they have made in a year as well as asking for their career and life advice. We interviewed people in a variety of industries such as Construction, Stocks, and Finance. One of the people we interviewed was worth over $1 billion. If you enjoyed todays newsletter then you will definitely enjoy this video🔥
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