Interested in starting your own entrepreneurial journey in business development but unsure what to expect? Then read up on our interview with Mikkel Pitzner, Founder and Owner of The Automated Millionaire, located in West Palm Beach, FL, USA.

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

I help business owners of small and medium sized businesses make their business better, which basically means helping them make much more money. I uplevel the business owners' understanding of business or what I term business acumen, and I help them get their teams and employees aligned with the desired results (profits, performance, and efficiencies).

Tell us about yourself

I have been in business all my adult life. My father was a highly successful entrepreneur with many businesses spanning various industries. I guess you might say that some of that rubbed off on me.

I commenced in car rentals, starting at the very lowest position of the company, worked myself up through the ranks, and ended with the CEO position at the ripe age of 25. At that time, I was managing 200 plus employees, several locations, and assets in excess of $60 million. Since then, I have ventured into several other businesses, mostly my own or where in some fashion I was a partner. These businesses have spanned many European Countries (Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Poland, and Germany) and the US.

For the past several years, I have focused on helping other businesses, small and medium sized. Their yearly revenues are anywhere from $400,000 all the way to $40 million, and the industries encompass all kinds. The business owners are already experts in their trade, so I do not necessarily need to be an expert in that; instead, I bring expertise in the business of business, which the business often lacks (often without really knowing it).

I get excited to see improvements that happen in a business. Yes, partly because of the additional money you create, but mostly because this truly changes people's lives. When I help people, I help change the owners' lives. That ripples into changing their families' lives, but also the employee's and their families, and often even spills over into the vendor's lives as they now can get paid what may have been owed them for a while. That, to me, is very exciting.

What's your biggest accomplishment as a business owner?

I am not sure I have one specific that stands out, as I probably have several that I cherish a lot. My first own business saw huge success after I took it over. I purchased it with 100% borrowed money and even borrowed about twice the amount, so I could purchase additional assets to bring into the business.

The business was a Corporate Limousines Service business, and the special results that I achieved there was an almost quadrupling of the revenues in the very first year of my ownership along with a 32-fold increase in the EBITDA (Earnings Before Interest, Taxes, Depreciation, and Amortization), and I did all of this with a brand new team to the business and also completely remote controlled, meaning I was not even in the business.

Other ventures include a business that ended up spanning locations all over Denmark, then all over Sweden and all over Norway, and now with a foothold in Germany. We took this business public some years back with an IPO (I believe in 2018 or so).

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

There are several things that are tough for business owners. Sometimes the stress can become very large indeed, especially if things are not going that well. Your significant other and any obligations you may have in addition to the money and business but on the personal side can add extremely to this end.

Believing in yourself is critical, especially when many of those around you do not believe in your ideas or ventures. Drowning out their negativities is essential and a challenge.

Whether things are going right or you are in a tight spot, a constant challenge is to balance out what you need to do or wish to do in your business with your personal life obligations and the needs and demands of those you cherish on your home front.

Tending to your business requires a lot at times, and you may find yourself working A LOT, and others oftentimes do not really comprehend that this is necessary or that you actually may want to do so in order to get to the next step up.

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

  1. I definitely think it is wise to get a mentor. Someone who has gone the way before you. Someone who has been through the wringer of running a business. Mentors can help you overcome many challenges along the way or help you steer through the twists and turns and help you avoid pitfalls. They have already been there.
  2. Have a good, sound, and proven system to actually fix your business issues, performance, efficiencies, manage people, etc. I offer my clients a simple 6-step process that has proven to be fantastically efficient across all industries and business sizes.
  3. Understand business better. All my clients are smart and intelligent people, yet all of them improved their businesses so much and their lives after learning better insights into business and how to run it. You don't know what you don't know, which is why you should constantly strive to learn more, seek mentors, expand and grow.

Where can people find you and your business?

Website: https://theautomatedmillionaire.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/theautomatedmillionaire
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/the_automated_millionaire/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/automatedmill
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/pitzner/

If you like what you've read here and have your own story as a solo or small business entrepreneur that you'd like to share, then please answer these interview questions. We'd love to feature your journey on these pages.

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