This week’s Misfit Entrepreneur is Jess Stewart. Jess was raised by a marine corps pilot on a cattle ranch where she learned the keys to running an entrepreneurial company; grit, hard work, and no complaining. Using her experience, years later, she grew up to create a massive medical billing company from her kitchen table that grew internationally. She sold the company for a 20x multiple allowing her to secure her financial freedom.
She now devotes her time to sharing what she’s learned with other entrepreneur and coaching companies to success. She was recently highlighted in Kevin Harrington’s book, Cracking the Rich Code.
I’ve asked her on to share how with no experience she built her company and to share how others can follow her footsteps as well her biggest lessons learned during her journey.
www.Jess-Stewart.com
Jess was raised on a cattle ranch and left when she was 18 to play Volleyball in college. She graduated and became a schoolteacher. But when she moved to a new town with her husband, she found there were no open teaching positions. So, she decided to start a business – a medical billing company out of her house. She didn’t know anything about medical billing, but she was good at solving problems, so she went to work learning. She grew for the first few years in her house, then opened her first office and things took off over the next 10 years growing nationally, then internationally until she sold the business.
At the 5 min minute mark, Jess explains why she chose to go into the medical billing space.
- Jess wanted to find a way to work from home and be with her family.
- She started the company with a few friends that were already going down the path. Ironically, 6 months in her partners could no longer continue and she was left to build it by herself.
What are some of the best lessons you learned growing up on a cattle ranch that helped you succeed as an entrepreneur?
- She had great parents and a great childhood.
- From the time she could walk, she worked on the ranch and was expected to pull her weight.
- The first lesson was grit. It’s not about how many times you fall, it’s about how you get back up and keep going.
- If were going to do the job it had to be done right. If it was not done right, it had to be redone until it was right.
- “Don’t just get it done, get it done right.”
Take us through the journey of how you took your business from your kitchen table to international and ultimately a 20x exit.
- It came down to differentiation. Medical billing is a red ocean. Fierce competition.
- She realized early on that there was more to offer the client because of the industry being antiquated. There was a lot of opportunity for technology.
- She decided that her company would offer a total solution instead of parts of the solution.
- The niche was to offer and host the full practice management solution. (Cloud didn’t exist at the time).
- She pioneered getting medical offices off of doing things on paper to using practice management software and doing things electronically.
- She borrowed $75k from her parents to buy servers and build the network to work point to point with medical offices.
- In doing this, she was able to offer a solution that no one else was doing and be a first to market.
At the 16 min mark, Jess talks about how she got to a point where she was tapped out and how to build a team and what she went through to do so.
- She learned a great lesson in that even though great talent may be making more elsewhere, they may not have what they want. This is how she got her first and most important employee. He left a job pay 3x more than she could offer because he was looking to build something and find true meaning in his work.
- As an entrepreneur, learn to ask for what you want and who you want on your team, then find/figure out a way to make it happen – because it can!
- Jess also shares how she created an advisory and got the help she needed to develop as a leader.
At the 28 min mark, Jess talks about how being ahead of the times put them in perfect position to be the solution when government mandates to go electronic came along.
- Jess shares how the growth was a blessing and a challenge, because things broke down and they had to figure out how to keep up and build their processes and systems to accommodate client needs and growth.
- She shares how she saw a new niche to help in and flew to Nashville to knock on hospital doors. She thought they would be excited about it, but was told no by every company, but one and they were skeptical.
- She left Nashville with no takers and later she got a call from the “one” who gave them a shot in a rural hospital. Jess did it basically for free and proved to be such a success, that she overwhelmed them.
- That company was the one that eventually came knocking on the door to buy her business at 22x!
At the 40 min mark, Jess and I discuss what it takes for entrepreneurs to endure and make things happen and how Jess how to deal with burnout and find an operating system for the business.
Best Quote: Don’t just get it done, get it done right.
Jess's Misfit 3:
Walk your own path and enjoy the journey.
Don’t hesitate. Follow your gut.
Never stop seeking mastery in education. Stay humble.
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