Entrepreneurship isn’t just about big wins—it’s about the daily grind, the tough calls, and the moments of doubt that no one talks about. In this episode, Chris Seveney takes you inside a day in the life of a business owner. From early-morning strategy sessions and endless decision-making to managing setbacks and celebrating small victories, he breaks down what it really takes to run a business. You’ll learn about the unexpected challenges, the importance of adaptability, and why resilience, networking, and time management are every entrepreneur’s greatest tools. If you’ve ever wondered what being a founder is really like, this episode gives you an inside look—no filters, no fluff, just the raw reality of building something from the ground up.
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A Day In The Life Of An Entrepreneur: The Highs, Lows, And Realities
The Reality Of Entrepreneurship
Welcome back to another episode. I want to talk about a day in the life of an entrepreneur. This show, Creating Wealth Simplified, talks about passive investing, but many of us don’t like to be passive. They want to be active. As I mentioned in some episodes, we will start rebranding the show and talk a little bit more about the paper space and what it is like to manage and run a note fund.
I want to talk about a day in the life of an entrepreneur. I also aged myself. I hit a big milestone coming up this 2025 from an aged standpoint. We’ll talk about that, and what everyone expects it to be or what is it. I have a very close friend who I went to high school with. We live in other parts of the country and haven’t stayed to connect with them. Not close, but still connecting. This other individual is also launching a new business after selling other businesses. We share the war stories of what it’s like to be a business owner.
First and foremost, it’s hard. Some people will tell you it’s easy, but it’s not. You’ll typically see those types of people online, driving fancy cars, and wearing fancy clothes. As you can see, I’m dressed comfortably as I am and sitting here, recording podcasts, getting this done, cleaning up, and getting ready for the week ahead.
Being a business owner is hard. Share on XWhat am I expecting to conquer as an entrepreneur this week? I chuckle a little bit. Again, I don’t get into politics. One rumblings came out about people in the government who had the answers to five things they did last week or whatever. Most businesses are always asking people not exactly in that same tone, like what you get done this week. It’s “What are you working on? What are your challenges? Where do you need help with?” That’s part of being a good leader in any type of business. What does that look like?
Balancing Business Operations, Growth, And Leadership
I look at this last week and everything that I have accomplished in this past week. What does that mean? As I mentioned, we’ve been able to close on a large portfolio of loans over the past week. As an entrepreneur, I had to provide a lot of support to the asset management team, making sure they were on top of things and we were answering questions. What does that look like? Over the last week, we probably spent close to four hours or half a day meetings with our asset management team for that specific purpose, as an example.
Lauren on the investor relations side had set up some good meetings with some potential new clients who have some significant funds behind them. We had two meetings this past week in regard to presenting to potential clients. As an entrepreneur, you’ll constantly see a back-and-forth between business development and operations.
When we started the company and Lauren came on board, we both joked that it was the proverbial match made in heaven because she comes from that sales background. I came from an engineering analytics background. I let myself run the business, and let her be out there shaking hands and kissing babies. That’s how we’ve segregated a lot of things. She helps a little bit with ours. As the owner of the company, I have to be present because people want to know who you are.
That is so important as an entrepreneur or any business owner when you’re seeking to sell any type of product. You need to be in front of it. People want to know who you are, what you do, and how you do it. Not just the generic stuff, but they want to know the type of person you are. What’s the energy and what’s the plan of the business? When people ask me, “Where do you see yourself in five years?” My answer is, “Sitting in the same chair, running the company.”
Entrepreneur: Something that is really important as an entrepreneur and business owner is that when you’re seeking to sell any type of product, you need to be in front of it.
I’m not building a company to turn around and sell it. I’m building a company for long-term growth. I’m building a company that doesn’t only have me as a leader. I learned this from the EOS. I learned it when I worked at a large commercial contractor. I learned it when I was looking for a real estate developer. It needs to be where it’s not run by a dictator. There has to be a long-term plan where it’s not run by just one person because if something happens to that person, everything falls apart. It needs to be run by people and you need to let your people grow and flourish.
Managing A Team & Building A Business For The Long Term
That’s one opportunity with my team that we do very well. We bring in the right people and give them the opportunity. We don’t just push them down the slide, but we do give them a little bit of push. That’s something to consider. When a lot of people think of an entrepreneur, they’re like, “I’m going to tell people what to do. I go out and golf and so forth.” Typically, what ends up happening is you start out working 100 hours a week because you try and do it all versus bringing in people or trying to figure out a way.
If you bring in the experts, it’s going to cost you money, but it gives you time to realize that on day one, you are probably not going to be profitable. What is your plan to get the profitability? It’s something important to understand and consider. My week consists of starting early because, two days a week, I get my kids to sports. That is the benefit of being an entrepreneur and a business owner. Previously, in the W2 world, that was very challenging to do. Now I can do that.
We are in the process of some slight adjustments within our company. A person is coming on board to assist in one aspect of our company. We spent a good amount of time this week and in prior weeks with my operations directors, “Are we set up? Are we ready? This person is starting on Monday. We get to go and let’s make sure they get out on the right foot.”
I remember when I was working at a company. On my first day there, the person who was supposed to meet me said, “What time do you get in?” I’m like, “I’m getting around 8:00 to 8:30.” I got there early and I was the first person there. I couldn’t even get into the building because nobody showed up till 9:00. I sat in the lobby for about half an hour. I was then brought upstairs and like, “Here’s your new office.” I was just sitting there waiting. I called the person and I’m like, “Where are you?” He was like, “I’m not going to be there till about 1:00.”
People came in. I got to meet people. I was managing some people and stuff, but it was awkward. I knew what I was doing, but I needed to be downloaded. I knew what my role was, but there was a specific construction project that I’d be working on and I had some information but it’s like, “Where do I find stuff? How do I log into the computer? Where are all the files so I can dig through stuff?” I was completely unprepared. As a business owner or anybody in management, you need to be prepared. The most important thing is if you have a team, you need to make sure your team has the necessary tools and everything they need to continue to move forward. That’s something to consider.
Another interesting component of the business is understanding capabilities. We have what we’ll call high-priority loans. Within any portfolio, you have a roadmap of how loans will go and certain ones you put on a watch list. We have a watch list/high-priority loans. Our asset manager still manages those. There come times when we get an attorney on a call or we’re in a mediation session. It’s one of those things where I run the company, so I need to be there as the final decision-maker, “Let’s get on that call.”
We had mediation with a borrower. It went very well. Looking back, I didn’t need to be on the call. The person who runs our asset management side could have handled it, which she did. It’s something that we were not sure which path it was going to go. For me, that was an easy one. I had another one with a borrower where there were three different options and involved some business decisions in regard to how we want to handle this.
It wasn’t specific like this asset type of thing. It has bigger implications on which path we want to go down. Neither path is bad. We win in every single one, but which one do we win where it’s the lowest risk but also the most beneficial to the company? That’s information that this person wouldn’t have because one of them is like, “The payoff versus this.” They’re not privy to every little insider information within the company. Another aspect of things to understand is those limitations.
This is one of the things also that I appreciate on this part of being an entrepreneur. Everything I say, you would think it’s hard, but then it all sounds pretty easy. You are always focused on growing your business, how you grow that business, and how you maximize your time. As I’ve grown as a business owner, I used to allow myself to be used freely. I got people who will set up a call and I’m like, “Call me. No problem. I love the chat and talk.” I used to spend time doing that.
The Challenges Of Prioritizing Growth And Networking
Now, I don’t have the time to do that. If somebody wants to get in touch with me, it’s probably a week and a half to two weeks to even get on my calendar because I’m so slammed. My main focus is on my people, my company, and growing the company. It’s not that I don’t want to help you, but realize I can’t drop everything I’m doing. I set a certain time per week for stuff I enjoy doing, whether I’m posting online in a forum. I’m part of a group that has a monthly mastermind and we meet for an hour. I enjoy that. That’s fun, but that doesn’t grow my business.
It’s one of those things where, as you grow, it gets up to a point where you have to be upfront with people, but make sure you’re also not being a dick about it. Also, this is going to be important. This is where I see a lot of entrepreneurs make this mistake. They spend a lot of time networking, but it’s the same people they’re always talking to. Is that person bringing you business? Are they moving the needle? It’s good to hear ideas from people, but you need to hear ideas from a lot of people.
For example, I got connected with an individual a couple of months ago who built a relationship with another company that might buy loans from us. It was a huge opportunity for us. On LinkedIn, somebody was connected to that person connected with me. This individual has a program that has an affiliation with several other larger firms that could even take what that first person did and supersize it. I probably spent two hours on phone calls with them and their partners, building new relationships with them.
This is one of the things that I love about what I do. I would always go to work the next day, not knowing what I’d be doing. Construction is like that. If something happens on the job site, it completely blows up in your day. What you thought was going to happen isn’t going to happen. That’s what I love. I still love that.
I was talking with several of these people and they were like, “You’re going to be in Miami in two weeks.” I’m like, “No.” All of a sudden, I’m like, “You know what? I need to be in Miami.” I let my wife know that I’m going to be gone for two days to Miami. We’re going to spend a week. Four different people are all interested. These people that I’m going to be there, have dinner, lunch, and coffee with them, are going to expand my network. These are people I have never met that hopefully, will grow the company.
You also have to be honest with yourself in the sense that it’s your first time meeting these people. It’s not like it’s immediate business. It’s not like you’re going to blow up or expand, but it’s about building long-term growth and relationships. It goes back to that question of, “Where do you see yourself sitting in five years?” In the same seat. I’m looking to build long-term relationships with these people. These are more things to understand and consider as part of that.
I talked about some of the things that occurred last week. This week, I had to set some certain time away because we have one specific asset that is extremely challenging that I’m taking the lead on. I still love managing assets but I can’t do that in my day-to-day. I want to focus on growing the business. As an entrepreneur, what people don’t realize is you can’t always get caught in the weeds.
You have to focus on what’s going to grow the business, which this specific asset is going to not grow the business. It will be very positive for the business, but it’s something that is not going to knock against my people. It’s a little outside of their box because it involves more than just note investing to manage. It’s also something I love to do, but I’m going to manage and do it in my free time. It’s part of that.
Giving up the work and making sure you rely on your people is the hardest thing for an entrepreneur. Share on XI wanted to focus on the day in life of where you spend time, and where you shouldn’t spend time because it’s a hard balance. I make it sound like it’s easy but if you grow a business, you have employees. Managing people is hard. Not everyone is like you. You want everyone to be like you, but people have different skill sets and different personalities. Fitting the right people on the right seat in the right bus, adding people, and sometimes getting rid of people are hard parts of the business. At the end of the day, it’s not personal. It’s going to be what’s best for the business and what you think can make it grow.
The hardest thing that I struggle with is balancing the networking side of things. Typically, once a month, I am part of one mastermind. There’s another one I disjoined. They’re meeting once a month as well. First, they are two very different groups that I’m part of. They’re small. Each one is 5 to 10 people. That’s important to understand and grow. I used to be a member of Gobundance, which was a great group to be a part of. I recently did not renew because it was too much of a time commitment. I needed to focus on that business.
Lessons From Failures & Why Entrepreneurship Isn’t Easy
Balancing networking versus sales versus managing is hard. The other hard thing is giving up the work and making sure you rely on your people. It’s always hard to be an early entrepreneur. The hardest thing that I see people do and the biggest mistakes people make is focus. People know I have a lot of crazy ideas and I throw a lot of things out there. I have a team that tells me “No,” which is awesome. I’m not a dictator. You need to have people who can tell you to focus on where you are headed. As EOS, I’m the visionary. I have an implementer who was awesome at managing me. That’s probably the best way to put it.
No matter what ideas I come up with, they still are based on our core mission. Real estate, being a lending fund, and debt are pretty much our primary focus. We are not out there growing a crypto fund. We’re not out there investing in credit card debt. We’re focused on real estate. That’s our main focus. Where we’re looking to grow our business is doing what we do. I’d rather be an expert at one thing than be average in multiple things.
I hope you enjoyed this. I want to share life as an entrepreneur and everything you have coming and going on. As I like to say, it’s awesome, but don’t go into it thinking it’s easy and that you’re going to run into instant success. Most of the biggest growth you typically have comes after your biggest failures. Thanks everyone for tuning in. Take care. We’ll catch you on the next one.
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