Mike Melton spent 37 years in tires and wheels, starting at age eight. He warns that owning a business doesn't mean freedom, and that 90% of small businesses fail within ten years because owners buy equipment without building the right people or processes to actually make money.
I started changing tires when I was 8 years old. So I would get out of school around 2:30, 3 o'clock, and as soon as I got out, I didn't do no homework or anything like that. What I did, I went, got ready, went right to work. We only lived like 5 minutes away from the shop, right? So I would work from 3 in the afternoon to like, you know, 6:15, 6:30, even 7 o'clock sometimes to, you know, help get everything done. And I did this for 6 days a week and damn near half my life. So I've been in the tire industry me for what, 37, 38 years right now. So when it comes to tires and wheels, I know a lot of information about tires and wheels, how they're manufactured, different compounds, how long your stuff usually lasts, how good the actual tire manufacturing process is. This is what a lot of companies don't understand.
Yeah, but like, what made you want to be a business owner? Like, what made you want to just, instead of working, just own a business?
So at a young age, I saw people that had like suits and ties on, they nice cars, I'm like, I want to be that guy one day. Yeah. But the thing is, as I grew as an entrepreneur and opened several companies, I really don't want to be the suit and tie guy because I really don't like that. Give me a t-shirt, give me some slides to put on, and I'm good. And a lot of times when you go in there and you dress like this in certain places, people look at you different. But the thing is, never judge a book by its cover because you never know what that person's capable of doing. Yeah. Never ever look down with people.
Yeah. So, so then you became a business owner for the freedom of just being yourself then?
For the freedom?
Yeah.
Yeah. I mean, so don't get it twisted, right? Just because you open your own company doesn't mean you— doesn't mean you have more freedom.
Yeah.
So when it comes to being a business owner, a lot of times a lot of people say, all right, cool, I've been doing the work for so many years, right? I should be able to open my own company. Yeah, cool. That's your dream, go for it. Yeah. But the thing is, before you go for it, you have to understand how to run the business. Yeah. You know how to do the work, you know how to change the tires, you know how to do mechanic work, but you don't know how to read P&L statements. Yeah, you don't understand numbers. Yeah, you don't understand leadership. There's a lot to learn on the back end. Yeah, that's where a lot of companies, they, they fail within the first 3 years, 5 years, and 10 years. They're gone. 90% of small businesses are gone within the first 10 years because they got the car but not the gas. Well, the thing is, yeah, the car, they got the gas, but, but then they'll go out and spend more money on equipment. And the thing is is the equipment is not going to make me, you know, more money. Yeah, if you don't have the right people using that equipment to make sure you're not going to have wheel issues, scratches, um, anything bent. Like, at the end of
