Robert Herjavec by no means needed to start out a enterprise, he revealed to his 2 million LinkedIn followers—he simply didn’t need to be poor.
At eight years outdated, Herjavec left Communist Yugoslavia. His father had been jailed quite a few instances for talking out in opposition to the federal government, and so in 1970, his household fled the nation, arriving in Canada with solely $20 and a single suitcase to their identify.
Via sheer willpower, they created a brand new life.
As Herjavec grew up, he knew he wanted to work laborious, so he took on a collection of minimum-wage jobs, together with ready tables and delivering newspapers, that might form the mindset that fueled not one however a number of profitable expertise ventures, in addition to amass a whole lot of tens of millions in web wealth.
Herjavec based his first web safety agency, BRAK Techniques, from his basement in 1990. He offered it to AT&T Canada for $30 million in 2000. He then went on to construct his second agency, The Herjavec Group, right into a cybersecurity powerhouse that generates greater than $200 million in annual revenues. At this time, he’s broadly recognized for his longstanding function on ABC’s Shark Tank, the place he mentors and invests in quite a lot of startups.
@realrobertherjavec
Management of oneself is the first constructing block for any nice endeavor. You’re the basis, if you happen to crumble, so will all the pieces you construct.
♬ authentic sound – Robert Herjavec – Robert Herjavec
Why is Robert Herjavec influential?
Herjavec reaches tens of millions of individuals throughout TV and social media platforms, in addition to motivational talking engagements worldwide, demystifying what it takes to be an entrepreneur and galvanizing new generations of founders alongside the best way.
Associated: Robert Herjavec’s web price & greatest ‘Shark Tank’ offers
His journey from immigrant with little greater than hope to his identify to fashionable entrepreneur and cybersecurity knowledgeable isn’t solely inspiring—he additionally makes some extent to share what he’s discovered in order that he might help others succeed, too.
Robert Herjavec’s high 5 business-building ideas
Listed here are 5 of Herjavec’s handiest ideas for these looking for to construct a profitable enterprise:
1. Consider in your self above all
Each profitable enterprise, Herjavec says, is rooted in self-worth (and conversely, he believes any issues you might be having with your online business often should do with issues in your private life).
Lengthy earlier than your new thought features traction or attracts traders, founders should carry the burden of their very own convictions. As Herjavec shared on Instagram, “Being the smartest guy in the room without believing in yourself is worthless.”
Associated: Mark Cuban’s 5 finest monetary insights each investor ought to know
And he’s confirmed it. After he graduated from the College of Toronto, Herjavec utilized for a gross sales place at Logiquest. Whereas he wasn’t really certified to promote IBM mainframes, he satisfied the founder to carry him on for six months with out pay to show his price. His guess paid off, and Herjavec shortly moved up the corporate’s ranks, finally changing into Logiquest’s normal supervisor.
In enterprise, self-confidence shapes how entrepreneurs current themselves to clients, negotiate with others, and even deal with the inevitable setbacks that include constructing an organization. It may additionally spell the distinction between having the ability to get better from a setback—or not.
2. Create saleable concepts
Ardour alone doesn’t result in success, which is why Herjavec reiterates the significance of traction, or testing your thought with the general public to see if it would resonate earlier than rolling it out to the plenty. He warns entrepreneurs in opposition to believing too absolutely within the encouragement from their associates, noting that simply because they like an thought doesn’t essentially imply they’ll purchase it.
On Shark Tank, Herjavec makes certain that founders construct real connections with their clients in addition to get pleasure from sustained demand. One instance of that is with Tipsy Elves, the holiday-themed attire firm. The founders proved to Herjavec, via income, margin, and money stream metrics, that their enterprise thought was greater than only a good idea, and so Herjavec invested $100,000 within the firm.
As for Tipsy Elves? It went on to generate greater than $100 million in gross sales.
3. Learn to promote
Few issues are extra necessary to Herjavec than gross sales. No matter business, he believes income is the final word validator of success. As he informed Fox Enterprise, “Sales cures all.”
From his earliest days ready tables, Herjavec discovered useful classes about buyer administration when he needed to deal with tough folks with grace.
Associated: Robert Herjavec’s monetary knowledge: The ‘Shark Tank’ star’s 4 takeaways for traders
He additionally shared one thing unforgettable he discovered from Warren Avis, the founding father of Avis Hire-a-Automobile, who as soon as pointed down from his workplace window to a person promoting sizzling canine on the road: He informed Herjavec to cease pushing merchandise like a sizzling canine vendor and as an alternative to contemplate issues from the shopper’s perspective. From then on, Herjavec began to view gross sales as a type of connection as an alternative of merely a transaction.
4. Study to let go
One of many hardest classes for a founder to be taught is when to step again. Within the early days of your online business, you usually deal with all the pieces your self. However you turn out to be a bottleneck if your online business grows and also you’re nonetheless making an attempt to juggle all the pieces solo. Herjavec captures this sentiment completely when he says, “The tighter your grip, the slower you grow.”
Scaling a enterprise requires a very completely different strategy—and infrequently hiring new folks to deal with duties that founders beforehand did. Herjavec advocates hiring people who find themselves smarter than you so you may shift your focus from day by day operations to extra long-term technique and imaginative and prescient. Herjavec’s personal firms scaled efficiently as a result of he discovered when to step again and lead via others.
5. Deal with failure like ‘data’
Let’s face it, not each thought an entrepreneur has might be a house run. Failure is an unavoidable a part of any occupation, and Herjavec has spoken overtly about his setbacks, together with initially dropping out of school.
Extra on private finance:
- 3 issues Mark Cuban & Dave Ramsey agree on about private finance
- Dave Ramsey’s actual property recommendation: 5 ideas each first-time homebuyer ought to comply with
- Warren Buffett’s most insightful investing quotes as he celebrates retirement
Somewhat than viewing failure as one thing to concern, nonetheless, Herjavec sees it as a vital studying instrument, summed by his assertion: “Failure is just a lesson, not a life sentence.”
This angle encourages entrepreneurs to not beat themselves up over their errors, glean classes the place they will, and to all the time transfer ahead. That means, your setbacks can result in resilience, and even progress as, so usually, setbacks precede breakthroughs.
What’s Robert Herjavec’s web price?
Robert Herjavec has an estimated web price of between $300 and $600 million in 2025.
His wealth stems from the cybersecurity corporations he’s based (and offered), his investments made on Shark Tank, and his talking engagements. As well as, he has written three bestselling books: Pushed (2010), The Will to Win: Main, Competing, Succeeding (2013), and You Don’t Should Be a Shark: Creating Your Personal Success (2016).
An entrepreneur’s tackle Robert Herjavec’s recommendation
As a enterprise proprietor of 15 years, a lot of Herjavec’s recommendation resonates. After experiencing wage inequity, I left my company job as a advertising govt to start out my very own enterprise, Paisley Inexperienced, LLC. I needed the liberty to tackle attention-grabbing writing assignments in addition to to make use of my advertising expertise in a extra significant means: serving to nonprofits develop new audiences in order that they might do “more good.”
Like Herjavec mentioned, believing in myself was important these first few months. Not having the security web of a gentle paycheck was equal components terrifying and exhilarating—till I reframed issues mentally to really feel extra like a problem. I’m a reasonably aggressive particular person, and so yearly, I competed with myself and the numbers from my earlier 12 months to see if I may generate extra income than the final (it labored).
However typically, you go up to now out on a limb that you simply don’t even notice that you simply’re flying. My earliest shoppers—who I labored so laborious to safe—quickly grew to become my longest-term relationships; they led to referrals and much more enterprise than I may deal with. Then new pathways in different industries, like greater training, opened up—I couldn’t consider it after I was invited to show my first course sharing my experiences.
And so, I agree with Herjavec on each one in every of his rules—besides the one about letting go and scaling up. As a micro-business proprietor, I benefit from the flexibility to tackle initiatives I need and solely work for shoppers I respect—and who respect me in flip.
Success doesn’t all the time equal a ballooning backside line; it will possibly usually be proven via extra qualitative metrics, like happiness. I’m grateful that I took the unconventional path even when others informed me I used to be loopy, and to anybody else on the market who has a dream, I wholeheartedly encourage you to comply with it.
