ENTR 20000 Guest Speaker Offers Words of Wisdom
Bob Baird, founder and president of Inverse-Square, shared his series of successes and failures with students in ENTR 20000, a Certificate in Entrepreneurship and Innovation course. He described his journey of finding how entrepreneurship was the right career path for him.
A Purdue Computer Science graduate (B.S. ’04), Bair worked in industry for seven years before starting his own business. After learning what he did and didn’t like to do, what type of environments he thrived in and what he could bring back to the community, Baird decided to start Inverse-Square.
“I worked for a large fortune 500 company, a small consulting firm and a company that was right in between – not too big or too small,” Baird said. “The last job I had before I became a business owner, closed without warning. This was the right time for me to start a business.”
Baird started Inverse-Square five years ago which has grown exponentially each year, now having 15 employees and 60 regular customers. The company specializes in operational automation, helping businesses create solutions that allow them to be more productive and efficient.
After sharing his professional story, he stressed five key topics to students:
Revenue Isn’t Cash Flow
“Cash flow is a very real thing. You have to manage your funds because money goes out faster than it comes in.”
Every Day You Own Your Business You’re In Vegas
“You gamble every day, you can only plan for so much.”
Have An End Game And Work Towards It
“The why will change, daily sometimes. Know why you are putting your time, energy and money into the business. Don’t do it out of selfishness or ignorance.”
Write It Down Or It’s Not Real
“Log your time, measure what you are investing your time in. Use this as a comparison to move your company forward, or just to hold yourself accountable.”
Whatever You Do, Do It Intentionally
“At a year and a half into my business I was running on four hours of sleep. This wasn’t good for my home life. No one is going to keep you focused, you have to do that yourself.”
Baird ended his presentation with a piece of advice that he lives by. “Make your business fit inside your life, don’t expect your life to fit inside your business.”