It sounds cliche, The Good, The Bad and The Ugly. The reality is that this Classroom, among most others teaching about small business will have a heavy focus on “The Bad” and “The Ugly” because without it there is no “GOOD” I have had an entrepreneurial mind since a very young age. Being young and full of energy with my younger brother by my side we decided to take advantage of a harsh Maryland winter. We started knocking doors to sell our services, shoveling snow off of peoples sidewalks and driveways. We lived in a large middle class neighborhood giving us optimum conditions with houses close together and working class people wanting to enjoy their snow day warm in their homes. The neighborhood radiated opportunity, however it also created stiff competition from other young ambitious entrepreneurs. We were most often outsized and out numbered but that never stopped us. We started in our neighborhood, a familiar area where we had personal connections and relationships. We landed nearly every door we knocked which built our confidence to expand outside of our immediate development. After a long and very profitable day of shoveling we returned home for dinner where my father offered us his snow blower and that was a game changer. I was hooked, I quickly realized the power of money and the advantages you can have in life with these fancy, expensive but functional toys. With our new asset the competition didn’t stand a chance and some of those boys would even join in as I would subcontract them out as shovelers. We were able to go faster and deliver a higher quality product and we were even charging a premium price or $20 per house, big money for some little kids on a snow day! The business developed into a full blown landscaping company that I would continue to run into early adulthood. This was only the beginning. Life had changed quickly and I always stayed busy. Lawn care, Roofing, sports, school, career, marriage, oh an kids, kids, kids, kids, kids, kids…..Yes, now at 29years old I am blessed with 6 beautiful children where I have multiple businesses, alongside an amazing homestead to raise our growing family with all types of livestock that have began to lead my children down the same entrepreneurial road I found at their age. I get so much joy teaching them the things I have learned I wanted to challenge myself with teaching others.