Interested in starting your own entrepreneurial journey but unsure what to expect? Then read up on our interview with Tom Lutz, Ph.D., founder, and creator of Repour, located in Hiawatha, IA, USA.

What's your business, and who are your customers?

Tired of pouring leftover wine down the drain? We were, too! Repour, is an innovative wine preserver that is effective and easy to use. We like to say, with Repour, keeping your wine fresh is as easy as putting a stopper in a bottle. From Vegas Casinos to Michelin star restaurants to home kitchen counters, Repour is being used to keep the wine fresh around the world. We're still a small family-owned business and make, manufacture, and distribute Repour from Cedar Rapids, Iowa. We believe authentic endorsements from our customers are the best way to build our business, so you won't see much advertisement from us, but ask a friend who likes wine. They might just have heard of Repour or are using Repour to keep their wine fresh.

Tell us about yourself

I'm a chemist by training (I have a Ph.D. in chemistry from the University of Wisconsin-Madison). I've found my professional career at the junction of science and real-world problems. I've had the opportunity to work on a wide variety of problems ranging from Laundry Detergents to biodiesel to aquarium products, and now wine preservation.

One night, with a two-week-old son, I was up at 2 a.m. keeping an eye on him when I started thinking about a 1/2 bottle of wine we just poured down the drain. The scientist in me got to thinking about wine and why wine goes bad (it has to do with the oxygen in the air interacting with the wine in the opened bottle). I knew that if we could find an effective way of removing all of the oxygen from the bottle, we could keep the wine fresh.

After lots of trial and error, the end product, Repour, was the result. I'm motivated every day by the trials of business, the challenges of being an entrepreneur, my family, and being personally challenged.

What's your biggest accomplishment as a business owner?

I'm so proud to have built a business out of nothing. To start with a new technology and build a business around it has additional challenges on top of those already present in starting a new business. We are a small team, and to me, the biggest accomplishment is what we've been able to do together as a team, especially with the layered challenges of the last couple of years with the pandemic.

What's one of the hardest things that come with being a business owner?

Time management is probably the biggest challenge. For me, I'm a scientist/problem solver first. I enjoy that element of my business, but it's not where my time needs to be spent today. There's always more to do for the business than time in the day, and spending that time on "the right" things is essential but also the hardest thing to do.

What are the top tips you'd give to anyone looking to start, run and grow a business today?

  1. When you plan your business model, do your very best forecast in terms of both growth and costs...then double both. I've found that everything takes at least twice as long and twice as much money as your most honest forecasts would predict.
  2. Ask for and accept help. We all have areas of strength and weakness in the business, and supplementing your weaknesses will only accelerate success and help avoid costly (in both time and money) mistakes.
  3. Fail fast if you try something new with your business (a new product, a new marketing strategy, etc.). Keep a close eye on it and accept if it doesn't work. Accepting a failure early will pay off in the long term as opposed to pouring more into it.

Where can people find you and your business?

Website: https://www.repour.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/repourwinesaver
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/repourwinesaver/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/repourwinesaver
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tom-lutz-ph-d-12484910/

If you like what you've read here and have your own story as a solopreneur that you'd like to share, then email community@subkit.com; we'd love to feature your journey on these pages.

Feel inspired to start, run or grow your own subscription business? Check out subkit.com and learn how you can turn "one day" into day one.