Q 1. Kindly give our readers an introduction to your business. Please include what your business is all about, in which city you are located and if you have offices in multiple locations/ cities.
Ans:- We are an online business promoting adventure, healthy active lifestyle, hiking, camping, fitness/gym; sharing our love for adventure. Our family loves being active, eating healthy, and sharing our passion with others. We want to support an active lifestyle while sharing the importance of recovery, reset and rest with our bodies for recovery; we know that it is important to share that our bodies need recovery after adventures. We want anyone and everyone to join us in this mission.
Q 2. Kindly give us a brief description about yourself (it should include your brief educational or entrepreneurial background and list some of your major achievements).
Ans:- We are a family run business that both owners have received their masters degree. I started my college degree with getting my bachelors degree in health and human physiology and then later pursued a master’s degree in data analytics. My wife, Jen, has a Master of Science specifically studied Speech Language Pathology. We have entrepreneurial spirits; we decided to utilize our farm land to grow a plant that provides a need in our community and country. IN conclusion, we farmed hemp in Moor head, MN, where we started our adventure with our company.
Q 3. What inspired you to (start a new business venture) or (to make significant changes in an existing business)? How did the idea for your business come about?
Ans:- The idea of the business started with a seed and an opportunity. An opportunity to produce quality products for adventure seekers. It is not only our passion, but our goal to help people to hike with their family, to workout so they can stay healthy, to hike and climb a mountain they have dreamed of accomplishing, etc. It is a goal to strive to be the best version of themselves.
Q 4. What three pieces of advice would you give to budding entrepreneurs?
Ans:-
1 The first advice I would give is: “To dream big, but don’t think that you need to take the whole pie. Even just a piece of the pie is a great start”.
2 “If your first idea doesn’t work, that doesn’t mean it’s a bad idea. Sometimes you just need to pivot and find the opportunities that are available”.
3 “Goals, goals, goals; you may have all the ideas in the world, but it is more important to set specific goals, write specific goals and act on specific goals”.
Q 5. What would you say are the top three skills needed to be a successful entrepreneur?
Ans:-
1. Discipline and self motivation
2. Research
3. Dreamer
Q 6. How many hours do you work a day on average?
Ans:- It’s hard to say. We don’t clock in or out of our business. Somedays the hours are demanding and it can last up to 16 hours in a day. But then there are times we get to take off and step back from the business and spend quality time with our family. We try to create a balance. Also, some of our work is choosing to do what we love, like hiking and camping with our family.
Q 7. To what do you most attribute your success?
Ans:- We would most attribute our success to TEAMWORK. We get to bounce ideas off of each other while creating a positive, healthy, fun, creative, balanced work environment. We both have different strengths and weaknesses, so working as a TEAM makes us a stronger and successful company. We both equally share a passion in this company, so we not only do this for ourselves and family, but our customers.
Q 8. How do you go about marketing your business? What has been your most successful form of marketing?
Ans:- Since we are an online company, our main sources of marketing have been Instagram and Facebook focused; however, there are still many other social media outlets being considered. Our company is starting an adventure blog to promote tips and tricks, so we can continue to share our experiences with our family; we want people to enjoy everything we do!
Q 9. Where did your organization’s funding/capital come from and how did you go about getting it? How did you obtain investors for your venture?
Ans:- All of our capital is self funded. We have not accepted any money from any other people or organizations. We have used our hard earned money to fund our company so that we keep the decision power to us. We do not want to be a slave to any lender or investor.
Q 10. What is the best way to achieve long-term success?
Ans:- The best way to keep long-term success is to keep evolving with the times and keep an entrepreneur spirit. Sometimes ideas won’t work out or different products won’t hit the customers how we had hoped so we adapt and pivot our ideas when we need to without compromising our mission and goal. We always want to think of our customers first and create the best product for them in mind.
Q 11. Where you see yourself and your business in 5 – 10 years?
Ans:- We want to continue to grow and provide more products. We will still be selling online and selling great products that will help the adventurous reach their goals and continue to seek new highs and lows.
Q 12. Excluding yours, what company or business do you admire the most?
Ans:- That is a tricky question – we admire companies and businesses that have similar values as us: hard working, seeking lifestyle change, putting health a priority.
Q 13. How important have good employees been to your success?
Ans:- Having good and reliable employees has been very important. Be High On Life wouldn’t be the same without them. It all started with the help that we had while growing the hemp. It is a lot of work starting hemp from a seed, transplanting it to the field, keeping it watered and weeded, then making sure there are no male hemp plants and then harvest was a whole other ball game that was crazy and lots of work.
Q 14. What motivates you?
Ans:- Our motivation is our kids. We want to provide for them and also be the best role models and parents for them. After our kids, it is our customers: friends, family, people we have never met! We want our customers to be part of our mission; the hemp plant has a variety to offer and it is our goal for others to believe in it, see it and experience the benefits.
Q 15. How do you generate new ideas?
Ans:- I spend a fair amount of time researching and listening to mentors of mine.
Q 16. How do you define success?
Ans:- Success is being able to do what I love while sharing it with others.
Q 17. What is your favorite aspect of being an entrepreneur?
Ans:- My favorite aspect is potential. I am not locked into a salary or an hourly pay rate. The sky’s the limit for opportunities. When I work for myself I am not directly exchanging my time for money. I am also creating a business that can either be sold or passed down to our kids.
Q 18. What has been your most satisfying moment in business?
Ans:- The moment when we first held our product in our hand. It took a lot of preparation and planning in order to make the quality product that we desired.
Q 19. What do you feel is the major difference between entrepreneurs and those who work for someone else?
Ans:- Entrepreneurs have a sense of ownership. They have to be self driven and willing to work. There are a lot of people that I know that work for someone else that also have these characteristics but when being an entrepreneur you are required or forced to have those characteristics.
Q 20. In one word, characterize your life as an entrepreneur.
Ans:- Adventurous
Q 21. How has being an entrepreneur affected your family life?
Ans:- It has been a great experience but it also has had its downsides some days. It requires me to stay up late or wake up early in order to get work done when the kids are still sleeping. But it has also created a lot more flexibility during the day for me to go to my kids’ events, pick them up and drop them off at school, sporting events and also be able to create more freedom.
Q 22. How did you decide on the location for your business?
Ans:- We have chosen to be location independent. We want to create adventures and travel and this business allows us to be an example to our customers and really live what our brand is.
Q 23. What are your hobbies? What do you do in your non-work time?
Ans:- Hiking, camping, snowboarding, working out, mountain biking, running, spending quality time being active with our kids.