I never got a normal summer job.

When I was 13, my uncle gave me an Xbox 360 with the red ring of death. I mailed it to Microsoft and waited two months for a new one. When you're 13, two months feels like two years. I'm curious about how things work, so I figured there had to be a way to fix it myself.

A year and a half later, I had 23 Xboxes in my parents' basement and an ad up on Craigslist. At first I flipped them. Then I worked out that I didn't want to hold inventory, so I just fixed them. People dropped off their consoles during the week, and on Friday after school I'd fix three of them at $65 each. That was what my friends made working a whole weekend, in one evening.

I learned something early that still runs my businesses today: people don't want to do things themselves. They want to pay someone to do it properly.

The one regular job I had

I took a job at the local ski hill with my friends. Six weeks in, I realized I was giving up a whole Saturday of skiing to earn what two hours of Xbox repairs paid me. I never did that again.

What I do now

I own and run home service businesses with crews I pay well. They've got lives to live, and I want them to have a good life outside of work so that when they show up, they represent the company well.

I've knocked maybe a dozen doors in my life, mostly to show new hires how to talk to neighbours. I hate it. I've always been an inbound guy: I'd rather customers find me and ask for the work. That's what Superman Services, my local SEO company, helps other businesses do.

A few years ago my wife did her master's in London, and I went with her for a year. The businesses kept running without me. That's the whole point of setting them up properly.

Why Business Bullshit

On Business Bullshit, I talk with owners about the real stuff: splitting money with friends, the first hire, the payroll, the taxes and the days you wish you just had a steady paycheque.