Meet Eric Goeres | Small Business Coach, Serial Entrepreneur, Founder, Owner/Operator

We had the good fortune of connecting with Eric Goeres and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Eric, we’d love to hear more about how you thought about starting your own business?
I’ve never started a business just for the money. It’s always been for the fun of it. To quote David Byrne, “always for love, never for money.” And that’s worked well for me, because if I am having fun doing something, I’m usually pretty successful at it, and then the money follows. Now I am doing business coaching, and I don’t worry about the money, I just focus on eliminating pain in the client’s businesses — and the money follows. And you wouldn’t believe how many clients I have that are also not worried about the money. A guy who has a couple of wine shops, and he’s perfectly content to have them break even for the rest of his life as long as he can keep running the shops — that’s love, and nothing wrong with that. To be fair, however, I also have clients who are solely profit focused and they’re no more or less happier than the people doing it for love. The moral is: open the business that is consistent with your vales and motives. It comes from within.

What should our readers know about your business?
We live in a time and place where we’re all going to have the opportunity to enjoy like nine different careers. Imagine! My father was a college professor for 40 years — at the same university. Us, we get to enjoy this wide range of different careers over the span of our professional life, it’s very exciting. But, the success attributes stay the same, I think. For example, creativity. Creativity has been a key to success in every career I’ve stepped into — publishing, waiting tables, producing theater, being president of a media network. As you go from job to job, career to career, the personal attributes that make you successful are mostly consistent. For some people, it’s dedication. Some, financial acumen. Some, perseverance. Whatever your special attribute is, recognize it, develop it and lead with it. Be true to it!

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
The Walls of Wynwood is a great starting point — I’d go hit that up on a Tuesday morning, no crowds. The Rubell Museum would be next, and the Perez. And then the Frost Museum of Science — which is an aquarium AND a planetarium. Mid-day, lunch in the Design District. Gotta go do the beach walk in South Beach from, say, Lincoln Road up to 40th Street or so — best to start at sunset. Maybe drop in at Sweet Liberty for happy hour oysters. Day two, maybe we go to the mostly-adult waterpark at Turnberry Isle, where we discuss taking the seaplane over to Bimini (but don’t). Weekday happy hour at the Standard Hotel on Belle Isle. Or jazz in the speakeasy at the Betsy on Ocean Drive. Dinner from the secret menu at the Bay Club in Sunset Harbor. Day three, we’re complete & headed down to Key West.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
I saw this morning that I have 1,700 connections on LinkedIn. To me, that’s a lot. And I can pick any one of these people and tell you a story about how they’ve contributed to my success. That’s because I intently look to everyone around me for examples of how to be better, how to grow, how to improve. It’s everybody who gets to share in the thanks. Like, when you win an Oscar and you thank 12 people and your husband and your dog, but there’s like 400 people who worked on the film without thanks. With that in mind, I say, thank you to all. I can only hope that I have provided as much value to the people who know me.

Website: www.ericgoeres.com

Linkedin: www.linkedin.com/in/ericgoeres

Twitter: @ericgoeres