274: The Cable Cowboy Who Went from Broke to Broadband | Terry Koosed of Bel Air Internet

274: The Cable Cowboy Who Went from Broke to Broadband 🤠 | Terry Koosed of Bel Air Internet

Background on Terry Koosed of Bel Air Internet:

Terry Koosed is the Founder of Bel Air Internet, a Los Angeles based Internet Service Provider, and a leading authority on successful entrepreneurship. He has founded and successfully run seven companies in the high-tech industry during the past 40 years, sometimes concurrently, and is what some would call, a serial entrepreneur.

He cites his recipe for success is a combination of savvy business strategies, professional leadership and gutsy choices. Whether he builds a company from scratch or comes in to reinvigorate a troubled enterprise, what he enjoys most are the unique challenges that each new opportunity brings.

Founding Bel Air Internet in 2002, Terry has taken it to over $10 million in revenue, serving over 40,000 users throughout Southern California and Las Vegas. In addition, he is a highly sought-after business speaker and is in the process of penning his first book on his experiences in the entrepreneurial world.

Time-Stamped Show Notes:

[2:18] Terry Koosed, 68 years old, describes himself as a serial entrepreneur. After 18 years of growing and running Bel Air Internet, he recently sold the company.
[5:47] Everyone in Terry’s family has been involved in the Bel Air Internet.
[8:50] In 2000 to 2002, Terry could not get any internet service to his house. This was the start of his Bel Air Internet.
[14:58] Even though he has already built six tech companies, Terry is not an engineer but a political science degree holder and he has no technical training whatsoever. He admits that he struggles when it comes to the technical side of things.
[17:31] Before starting Bel Air Internet, Terry could have already retired. However, he had the entrepreneurial blood to create and build something and he didn’t want to have an early retirement.
[19:10] Getting to know the competitors and seeing the inevitable future of the internet industry, Terry had to make a transition.
[27:38] Graduating from college in 1974, during the height of a recession, he took a job as a salesperson for semiconductors even though doesn’t know anything about tech and electronics.
[31:56] Being a salesperson of semiconductors, he couldn’t make a sale after several days. However, he made some changes to his selling and had a major breakthrough success.
[39:49] Even though he had success in selling semiconductors and generating profit for the company, they wouldn’t give Terry a raise. He decided to join another company.
[42:40] Terry emphasizes the importance of having a differentiator in business.
[47:02] Starting his first business, no one believed in him, not even his own family.
[51:31] Another lesson he learned is to do the hard tasks first before doing the easy ones.
[53:20] In the first year of his first company, he got ripped off and lost $30,000.
[57:42] In 1979, Terry expanded his company, which proved to be a great decision. They closed the year with $10 million in net profit.
[1:01:14] With the success of the company, Terry and his partners decided to start different business divisions and leverage up. However, the 80s came and there was a looming recession.
[1:03:51] He learned something from his father about making your first loss your worst and get out, don’t chase it.
[1:11:52] When the gaming industry took off in the 80s, Terry focused his business on the development of gaming software.
[1:17:44] Terry shared an interesting story about how he turned his business from bankruptcy to millions in revenue.
[1:28:55] What he learned from his experience with bankruptcy is to never freeze up and get things done. Have success at something each day until it builds up.
[1:36:21] Passion is not enough when you want to become an entrepreneur, according to Terry. He has some wise words for the new entrepreneurs.
[1:40:24] The computer store, which became HW Electronics, initiated a differentiator that sped up their assembly line and increased sales.
[1:46:02] The biggest problem that Terry had during his stint with HW Electronics is that the manufacturers like Apple, Hewlett-Packard, Compaq, and IBM were arrogant and difficult to work with.
[1:48:06] According to Terry, when you run a low margin business, any mistakes can be devastating for the company.
[1:49:47] Here are several exceptional pieces of advice from Terry that everyone could use in running their business.
[1:56:37] Terry gives his own thoughts about leadership and leading by example.
[1:58:47] An incident involving Disney showed how Terry stood up for his people and did the right thing even though the risks are too high.
[2:01:27] When in business, don’t be the beggar, be the chooser – is another lesson that Terry has incorporated many times in different situations.
[2:06:17] The interview ends with another interesting story from Terry involving his clash with AT&T.

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Fabulous 4 Questions:

📖📚 Favorite Books? David & Goliath by Malcolm Gladwell
🙌😎 Favorite Amazon.com purchase? Running & Training Shoes
🌱💸 Favorite Tool that’s GROWN your Business? In House Workflow and Operations Platform Software developed in house. Without it, could not scale nor keep everyone up to date on what is happening daily throughout the company.
💭💡 BIGGEST Challenge keeping your Business from GROWING? Capital structure requires a conservative financial model. This is one of the reasons we sold the company.

Key Point from the Interview:

“How much of a beating can you take? What are your worst experiences and how long did they go on? And what do you do when you get a beating? Do you lean in? Do you run? Can you handle it? Can you compartmentalize it? Can you stand up to it? Can you refuse to lose? And if you don’t have those traits, don’t become an entrepreneur because no matter what you do, no matter how successful you are, no matter how great your idea is, you will come to that day were your gonna take a beating like you’ve never seen.”