Ginny Schuster's Short Bio
Updated: Oct 10, 2022
I’ve been an entrepreneur all my life! I’ve been with money; I’ve been without money! I’ve been successful and I’ve been unsuccessful! Life has been like a roller coaster ride - ups and downs with obstacles put in front of me, as if to test me!! It makes me think that life is a game of chess! I believe at a young age, I knew I would be an entrepreneur.
I wanted to be an entrepreneur because my dad was one! I wanted to be like him! That became a strong goal for me at a young age. I wasn’t sure how it would happen, but I just knew it would happen!! Like many young kids, I started out selling seed packets to all the neighbors and getting rejection. That didn’t stop my desire, it was just a little obstacle.
Whenever I went into a business, I observed as much as I could about it. I worked at temporary agencies which let me see what types of businesses peaked my interest. While living in Miami and working at Ryder Truck Rental, a friend showed me the job he had of printing letterhead, envelopes and forms for the company. That looked like a potential business.
Low and behold, shortly after getting married, instead of taking a luxury honeymoon, my new hubby and I found ourselves in Boulder, Colorado, talking with a gal who owned a print shop. She was so eager to sell she made us a deal to buy her business. She would even teach us everything about it before leaving. This allowed us to make money for buying ski equipment so we could ski in our newly settled into state - Colorado!!
When you’re young you have very little to loose, so this business turned out to be perfect for us. We knew if the business failed, we could always get a J.O.B! Being long-haired hippies living in a converted van, at campgrounds, or free graveyards, we didn’t need too much housing money. For food - we found a restaurant that offered $.99 specials – egg, toast and all the coffee you could drink. Once a week we splurged by adding bacon for a dollar more.
We started out knowing nothing about the business. The gal who sold us the business showed us how to write down appropriate information for customer orders, get artwork ready for the press and taught us how to run the press. We quickly learned the printing industry by just listening to what the customer wanted and figuring out how to get it for them.
There was also a special “lingo” to use when you called in paper orders to the local paper companies. Once you learned it, you officially felt as though you fit into the printing industry. I was thrilled when I was able to say to the customer – oh yes, I’ll just get some paper 23x35 and we can cut that down for you and get you those business cards for you right away!!
Our business sold after twenty-four prosperous years. Not only did I learn the printing lingo, I learned about many different types of small businesses because we printed for them. I watched what businesses succeeded; such as, how often they ordered printing; the mailers they used for marketing, how many people they hired, etc. The United States had almost 80% small businesses during this time, and we did a lot of printing for many small businesses! Today this country has less than 40%!! Why is that? Entrepreneurship is a way to own your life!! Do people understand the benefits of owning a small business?
Let’s look at the four ways to produce income, as Robert Kiyosaki points out in his book, “Rich Dad, Poor Dad”. The four ways, are:
1) Employee
2) Business Owner
3) Self-Employed
4) Investor
1) Employee – you have a J.O.B. – the amount of active work determines income; no leverage; 5% wealth; TIME = $$$
2) Business Owner – you own a system; income does not depend on active work; leverage; 95% wealth; people work with you = $$$$$$$$$
3) Self-Employed – you OWN a J.O.B. – no leverage; 95% population; the amount of active work determines income; TIME = $$$
4) Investor – you OWN investments – leverage; 5% population; income does not depend on active work; your money works for you = $$$$$$$
How does one determine which one of these four quadrants to get into? Most people are brought up to get good grades in school, go to college, earn a degree and then get a job – J.O.B. In a poll taken on LinkedIn, what stood out was that the majority of people would love to have their own business, but just don’t know what steps to take. The web has definitely made life easier for researching business ideas. That’s a start!!
I will share what happened to me during the process I went through for coming up with my next business venture.
Become the entrepreneur living inside you.