Guest Commentator: Nick Bayer, Founder & CEO, Saxbys Coffee
How do you raise your profile in the business community when you’re starting your career as a young entrepreneur?
When I was graduating college, I was infatuated with Stephen Covey’s “The 7 Habits of Highly Successful People” and particularly the encouragement to create a personal mission statement. It forced me to not only think about where I wanted to go in life, but to look backwards at where I came from, who I was and what was most important to me – and utilizing that to determine what I wanted to accomplish in life.
As long as I can remember, I’ve always liked making people happy and doing things both big and small to make a positive impact on people. When I fell in love with the coffee business – specifically the inclusive, welcoming and vibrant nature of neighborhood cafes – I knew I found the right industry for me. And since I rallied around a personal mission statement of “Making Life Better” for as many people as possible, I figured it would make good business sense – and be a lot of fun – if my personal mission could be amplified through my business. So, Saxbys – and specifically our Mission Statement to “Make Life Better” – was born!
So how do you raise your profile in the business community when you’re a young entrepreneur? By keeping things simple and real – be yourself and exemplify your mission statement, always. There are so many challenging and difficult things about being an entrepreneur, but one of the best things is that your personal and professional mission statements can (and arguably, should) be the exact same thing. So you get to be the same person 24/7/365 – you’re sort of always working but actually feel like you’re never working – you’re instead living a fulfilled and inspired life guided by your mission statement.
Every day, I use this focus to influence what I am going to do to pursue my effort to Make Life Better. That has led me to being a proud Big Brother within Big Brothers Big Sisters for 9 years – and a Board Member the past 5 — to partner with Drexel’s incredible President John Fry to launch the first ever Experiential Learning café which is run exclusively by Drexel students for full academic credit. I believe our efforts – such as mentoring young people and giving the next generation of entrepreneurs real-life opportunities to run a business while still in college — are making the world a better place and motivate me every day to do more.
That’s how I’ve been able to pursue my passion and fulfill my personal mission statement. It’s afforded me incredible opportunities to not only work with innovative, like-minded professionals, but also receive recognition from my peers such as the Chamber’s 2017 Young Entrepreneur of the Year award, which was an amazing honor. And I look forward to meeting the next wave of young entrepreneurs as our team and our city continues to grow. We always need new ideas, new outlooks and new personal mission statements to collectively push us forward.
Join the ranks of Nick Bayer along with our region’s most prestigious businesses and business leaders. Nominate a deserving business, including your own, at chamberphl.com/ea/nominate.