Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Elan Pasmanick . We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Elan , looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. What was the most important lesson/experience you had in a job that has helped you as a business owner?

I owned two businesses before the one I operate currently. The first one was a retail business me and my wife owned and operated. More specifically, kiosks in shopping malls. Over the 14 years we had countless kiosks with many different products. It was a simple business to run. Basically you just buy stuff for cheap and then sell with a profit. But to be good at what we did we had to learn some lessons along the way.
Renting a kiosk from the mall can become very frustrating, but with time we learned the politics of the mall. In short, they always lie about everything and we were supposed to pretend that we are ok with it, because the agreement between us had only obligations for us to follow and non for the mall. For example, if you rent a kiosk for a new product and they promise that you will be the only one selling that product, don’t be surprised if the next day after you open you find another kiosk on the other side of the mall that is selling the same product. Or they can tell you that you are getting a certain location that you wanted for a long time, just to move you to a different one, a few days after opening.
This was the best lesson for us in setting expectations low when it comes to other people, and also in humility. Thanks to them I always honor my word and am always transparent about my plans because I never want people to feel with me like I did with them.
Learning how to find good suppliers was crucial too, but the most valuable skill I learned was sales. Nobody can successfully run any business without knowing how to sell the product or service they are providing. Fourteen years of practice were very helpful.

After closing the retail business, I was old enough for my midlife crises. I decided to do what I loved, even though it was much less profitable: appliance repairs. I interned with an appliance technician and then I joined up with a partner to start our new business. We divided some duties between us to do for the business before it opened and I finished mine before he was able to finish his. My wife got annoyed with me for being too much at home so I applied to work for a restoration company for a short time. Meanwhile my partner has decided to stop working on our project, but luckily the restoration company had a lot of equipment that needed repairs. Usually they would send it out to a repair shop and that is very expensive. I taught myself how to repair that equipment and left them to pursue restoration equipment repairs.
That’s what I’m doing for about four years now. I didn’t open a repair shop. Instead I decided to be a mobile technician, just like appliance technicians are. This business model was a game changer in the industry. Repairing in different companies’ warehouses made my services the quickest and cheapest out there. With no rent to pay I save a lot of the profits for myself and for my clients. Repairing on location lets my clients have equipment that is ready to go to a job site on the same day.

Elan , before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

I work under the business name Born To Repair LLC, and I mostly repair restoration equipment for over 50 companies in the San Diego area. In addition I teach companies how to repair their own equipment. I started the first, and so far only, Facebook group for people who repair their own equipment called In House Restoration Equipment Repairs. I’m always happy to help anyone in the industry even if they are not in my area. I do many video calls. You’ll be surprised how much you can learn this way.

Any insights you can share with us about how you built up your social media presence?

For my business, the potential clients are relatively low in numbers. That’s why it was easy for me to find them on social media, follow them and like every post they make. That easily got their attention. I started myself posting strange stuff like poems about equipment and other things that I find funny. I find that being unique and funny is very helpful to get attention

What do you think helped you build your reputation within your market?

I try to follow the following values: Honor your word
Be punctual
Be the fastest
Be the cheapest
Do a better job than your competitors

Contact Info:

• Instagram: @borntorepair
• Facebook: Born To Repair LLC