The entrepreneur I interviewed was Collin Austin, the founder and owner of New Scooters 4 Less in Gainesville. He is perhaps one of the most famous entrepreneurs in Gainesville because he saw a problem as a student at UF and figured out a way to fix it. He saw that students would often have a hard time getting to class because buses would fill up very easily. In addition, there was hardly any scooter parking on campus. Collin saw this issue and figured out a way to fix it. He built a business from the ground up to sell affordable scooters to students. Because of the rapid increase of students owning scooters in Gainesville, UF built more scooter parking to accommodate them. Gainesville is now on the road to becoming one of the largest scooter communities out there. Here are his answers to my questions:
Me: What does being an entrepreneur mean to you?
Collin: "Being an entrepreneur is about taking a risk and stepping into the unknown. You need to be able to make adjustments and be able to grow and improve along the way. You need a clear mission and be willing to take risks to work towards that mission. You can't be afraid of making mistakes. That fear of rejection won't get you anywhere."
Me: What would be your advice for someone who has an innovative idea, but doesn't know how to get started on the path to implementing it?
Collin: "Find a mentor. Learning from someone that has been through the process is the best way to learn. Ask other entrepreneurs, other leaders, etc. For example, if I wanted advice on how to create an amazing kickstart campaign for my innovative idea, I would seek out someone that has had a successful campaign on Kickstarter and ask them for help and guidance."
Me: What are some of the greatest hurdles you faced when building New Scooters 4 Less?
Collin: "The biggest hurdle has been my business partnership split 10 years ago. Two years into the business, my business partner presented a proposal to split the company. I am still not 100% sure why, but I will attribute it to the fact that our visions for the company were just different and it never would have worked out anyway. Once the split happened, we let our team members decide where they wanted to go. Every single one of them went with my parter. I felt like this was a failure in my leadership, but I kept going by myself and kept trying to remember it was most likely for financial reasons. It was by far one of the most trying times in my entrepreneurial career and even in my life. In entrepreneurship you learn that your failures make you stronger. My ability to pick myself up from that business split, go from business partner to competitor, persevere through all that craziness, and ultimately establish the greatest retail scooter dealership in Gainesville and one of the top in the entire nation has defined my character and leadership ability."
This interview was very interesting to me because I received advice from someone who actually went through the whole entrepreneurship prices. I thought about turning my group's project for IA's Catalyst event into an actual start-up for a while, but as a Public Relations/Journalism student, I have no idea how to start a business. It was interesting to hear from Collin that finding a mentor is a good way to get started. They can help you along the way, especially if you don't have a background in business. Something else I found interesting was that Collin's business split 10 years ago. That is a huge setback. However, his perseverance throughout the whole process is very inspiring. Collin was a great source of information on how to turn a small idea into a major service that benefits the entire community.
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