Episode #83: Chris Harvan | Effective Ways to Starting A Business With a Brand New Concept

Episode #83 Chris Harvan Reveals Effective Ways to Starting A Business With a Brand New Concept

On this episode of Enlightened Entrepreneur, Yeukai interviews Chris Harvan of Mememto Memorials who is an artist that paved the way for handmade memorial crafts industry. Mementos provides beautiful handcrafted urns, keepsakes and memorial items, and in this interview Yeukai and Chris discuss about Memento COO’s drive and passion, how to start a business with new concept, and the different elements that brought Chris’ company a longstanding success in the business. 

Key Questions Asked:

• How did Chris get started in business and what you were doing prior to this business which you are now doing full-time?
• How did Chris transition from being an employee to becoming an employee or business owner and how did he get his first client?
• What transformation in your mind did Chris need to go through during that time?
• Given the background that Chris have, which of the transferable skills he has, does he use the most?
• What are the top three things that have kept Chris going up to this point and having this success that he’s having?
• What would Chris say to somebody who’s getting started in terms of being prepared for the journey ahead?
• How does Chris market your memorial business right now?
• What are the most common problems that people experience when starting up a business?
• What do people have to look out for if they are looking for a funeral service?

Highlights of Lessons Learned:

Drive and Passion

• Question everything and not be afraid to even question yourself.
• Chris’ dad having trouble with labor unions and being unemployed pushed him to do something more with his life.
• Chris’ focus on his passion, going to art school to learn woodwork and other broad-based skills helped him build the foundations for his business.

Starting the Business

• How Chris saw the need for urns and recognizing that as a great opportunity to venture into.
• Employers always want to reduce their cost and their contractors generally cost less than employees.
• A lot of businesses are started by people who don’t quite completely understand what it takes to run a business and so there are going be things that they have to learn along the way.

Elements of Success

• You have to be passionate and driven enough and you also have to know when to zone out and get your brain out of it for at least a little while.
• Persistence is number one key to success, the second is adaptability.
• If you don’t have any business background, there are materials and resources available that you can learn from.
• You need to use different tools such as accounting software to help you in your business.