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| Joe Nashif and Cash Butler |
Being a successful entrepreneur takes a lot of drive, determination, passion and know how, all of which Cash Butler, founder of Clarilegal, and Joe Nashif, CEO of US-Mattress.com, have.
Cash Butler
Cash started out in the banking industry during college where he managed data centers and ATMs. It was an enjoyable job for Cash because he was allowed to do things within his job to maximize the shareholder equity and it felt entrepreneurial. Cash was then recruited by Steel Point Technology, a document review for large scale legal software as a service startup. Following his time at the startup, Cash was brought in by investors to save their company’s operations. Within six months he had successfully done his job and within a year the company was sold for 2 million dollars. Cash then went to work for a large corporation but missed the freedom to be successful at his new job, leading him to create his own business.
“I love to build and grow things that people want and need.” said Cash, “I’m much happier being an entrepreneur. It’s a different world. It’s not easy, but it can be very, very rewarding to build something that is profitable and successful.”
Cash loves the entrepreneurial drive but knows there are bound to be failures.
“You’ve got to figure things out as you go and keep punching until you get there. You learn a lot when you fail. It’s a hard and expensive lesson but it’s good learning experience.” Explained Cash, “Everyone has a different tolerance for the entrepreneurial drive.”
Joe Nashif
Joe Nashif started his entrepreneurial career like many other entrepreneurs, tired of their day job. After graduating from college, Joe worked for GM for more than 15 years doing customer service, product planning and representing dealerships. Joe says he was never really great at his job like some of his coworkers and that he was always looking for something else to do. When online selling first started, Joe was interested. He had no experience in it and it was still a relatively new field so the competition was equal. Joe started his business as a hobbyist, but made a commitment and told people he was online selling. He said if he could have quit, he would have, but he had people believing in him and wanting to see him succeed. Telling people made him more accountable for his online selling business. After hard work and dedication, he was able to quit his job at GM and pursue his business full time.
Joe shared how he decides which products and efforts stay in his business model and which ones he gets rid of.
“It’s a balance of sticking with something, but at the same time, not being married to something that doesn’t have any hope. You have to be open minded and remember that most things you try, won’t work.” Said Joe. “You’ve got to look at the day to day problems and frustrations, then take a step back and see if the trend line grows to see if your efforts are worth it.”