Charlotte Clary and Beverly Vines-Haines were two grandmas who started close to thirty different businesses which all ended up failing . . until they hit it big with Ice Chips Candy. The world was introduced to Charlotte and Beverly when they were featured as the entrepreneurs who invented Ice Chips Candy on ABC’s hit TV show, Shark Tank.
Beverly Vines-Haines, Charlotte Clary and Ice Chips Candy
If you talk to many business owners, many of them will say, “I am unemployable.” The reason for that is that these people who are entrepreneurial have figured out a way to make a living without becoming an employee. They then use their time to work, and work, and work to create and test new ideas until they find the idea that will lead to their ultimate success. Some people become successful on their first business, but most business owners who have become successful have started numerous ventures until they hit the one that makes them a success.
The Tutoring Solution
My first business is The Tutoring Solution. We are a local tutoring company that serves Chino, Chino Hills, Corona, Eastvale and numerous other cities in Southern California. I learned the skills I needed to create a successful business by building and growing The Tutoring Solution. I still own The Tutoring Solution and hired my then girlfriend and now wife, Cynthia De La Torre to become the director of the business and to manage it. The skills I learned while building the tutoring business directly led me to starting Welborn Media, devoted toward helping passionate business owners use the Internet to become more successful. Welborn Media has even grown to expand to include 19th Hole Media and the Defining Success Podcast. I have been bitten by the entrepreneurial bug and now I’m honing and growing my craft . . . working to make my business more successful every day.
A great example of someone who has an entrepreneurial mindset is my father-in-law who owns his own agricultural business. He grew up in Mexico and as a young boy of probably five years old, he would work to sell gum on street corners . . . his first taste of entrepreneurship. When he came to America, he got a job at a young age in the agricultural business where he learned and cultivated his craft. Others saw him as someone with a strong work ethic and someone who achieved results. As a result, he was given more responsibilities and more pay until he was able to afford to purchase a piece of land where he could grow and sell ground cover at his business, DLT Growers. His entrepreneurial mindset led him down the path towards a career in entrepreneurship and he’s constantly thinking of new ideas and new ways to grow and expand his business and even create new opportunities for others.
DLT Growers
Charlotte Clary and Beverly Vines-Haines are two of my favorite entrepreneurs. For those of you that are unfamiliar with Ice Chips Candy, they are natural mints which are broken up into uneven pieces. The way they explained it on Shark Tank, they painted the picture that they created this product in their garage and were breaking up these pieces by hand with a hammer in their home. It’s a visual which always reminds me that becoming successful takes hard work, discipline and a willingness to get your hands dirty. Charlotte and Beverly are a great example of entrepreneurs who fought and fought and fought until they hit it big.
There is a big difference between entrepreneurs and employees . . . the most important being in their mindset.
An entrepreneurial mindset is being someone who is constantly willing to make mistakes, learn from them and grow as a result. They are continually leaving their comfort zone, and experimenting with trial and error. Most employees, I’ve found, are in the mindset of avoiding mistakes. Employees who make mistakes are typically reprimanded for doing so and thus they lose some of their creativity in the process. An entrepreneur is constantly making mistakes, failing at things and learning from them.
