We recently connected with Nick Romero and have shared our conversation below.
Nick, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Looking back, what’s an important lesson you learned at a prior job?
Back in 2006, at age 25, a year before I started my business I worked for a direct mail marketing company (we literally sold junk mail), and was hired on as a sales manager for a new division. There were three main lessons I took from this job that not only helped me in my entrepreneurial journey, but also in investing, and life in general.
My responsibilities the first year was to manage relationships with a couple of grandfathered accounts, a couple members of our staff, and bring in 45k in new business the first year. I took the grind very seriously. That year, my sales came in over $750,000 in revenue, and the business, which was a 25 employee operation, really took off. Being that it was a small business I worked directly for the owner who reveled in the success, perhaps a bit too much. I watched him upgrade his living situation to a mansion in the hills, buy a boat, luxury cars, take expensive trips to Vegas constantly, the euphoria seemed never-ending. Personally, was treated fairly and happy with my compensation, we even developed what you could consider to be a friendship. I was traveling all over the Southwest, from LA to the Bay, to Vegas, Texas, Arizona, New Mexico, and cities within, dressed in a suit and tie giving presentations to Title Companies which were recruiting Realtors and Lenders to use our Direct Mail Services to increase their leads and sales. I was designing Direct Mail Programs for these companies by obtaining lists of hundreds of thousands of people who could benefit from these services, designing a mailer or postcard to encourage them to apply, and my campaigns were generating insane, never heard of returns for this type of marketing at the time. Then, a year and a half later, the early signs of the real estate crash started to show. Adjustable rate mortgages were starting to adjust, and slowly – then all of a sudden, there was a full crisis in real estate and mortgage which made up 98% of our clients.
I felt this coming early, not by any statistical measure, the vibes were just off. The attendees at presentations were starting to get smaller, our regular clients started lightly cutting back. Several new types of debt/foreclosure related services were popping up at the time and looking very promising as people were underwater, buried in Credit Card debt, upside down on their homes – it was the perfect mix for an absolute disaster. I even had a client who tried recruiting me, but while I stayed loyal, I worked on a new business plan that would transition us into an up and coming lane rather than a dying one. I presented my plan to the owner and he rejected it. After serious thought, I decided to resign from my position and pursue this enterprise on my own. 26, nervous as hell, I did and it was a success. My former Boss ended up losing his company, his mansion, his yacht, cars, everything. Completely lost it all.
The three valuable lessons I took from this which I still practice today in any Enterprise or Investment I’m involved in.
1. The first lesson is assuming you have been one of the few and fortunate who has already created a successful business. When things are going too good, that’s when you need to be the most scared. And when things are going terrible and insane in the world, that’s when there’s the most opportunity. When I say scared, I don’t mean you shouldn’t enjoy it. But you have to think long term, and understand that crashes are cyclical, and the good times will never last forever. You can have it all if follow this lesson. If my old Boss would have not blown all of his profits when things were good, thinking they’d never end, he’d still have his business, and he would have had the capital to jump on cheap assets or opening a revenue stream in a different lane when everyone else is broke and closing their doors. But looking back, if he never fumbled the bag like that, I would have never have left the company and started my own entrepreneurial journey.
2. This was a bit of a personal lesson, but my true potential was unlocked. I was only asked to sell $45,000 and I sold $750,000. Despite the success in those numbers, I still felt out of place. I hated wearing a suit and talking to business people professionally, typing up professional emails. I even hated the fact that I was designing junk mail, despite it’s success. Being creative is fun, but you have to love what you do. I thought deeper into it, and a feeling of guilt came over me. The fact that I was creating programs soliciting people to apply for loans that were later predatory means that I contributed to the disaster. In my defense, I was too young to really understand that – but the lesson here is that you need to have a love and a passion for what you do in order to reach peak success. Once I started being myself, and loving what I was creating – my true potential was unlocked. And it was the best feeling ever.
3. There was a hidden message that I indirectly realized at the time, but would be put into words by a mentor of mine, an individual from the generation before me who worked on the Star Wars films and owned a portfolio of successful businesses. He lives by the phrase “You do what’s best for the enterprise”, I live by it now, too, and so do my employees. I preach it. You have to be willing to pursue another idea even if its not YOUR idea. You have to “Be Like Water” as Bruce Lee said. My former Boss was so hard headed and stuck on his ideas that when I he had a million dollar idea right in front of his face, something within himself prevented him for pursuing what was clearly a winner. Currently, when I am discussing plans, ideas, and new projects with my Staff, although the final decision is mine that does not mean the idea has to be. You do what’s best for the Enterprise, always, to keep it going strong and moving towards the long term.
These 3 lessons are a big part of why my business has been going strong for 13 years and the future looks brighter than ever.
As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?
My name is Nick Romero and my business, which opened on April 7th, 2010 is called The Ave. We started as a retail store in Venice Beach, CA- in fact, it was the first retail store ever that allowed for customers have digital images- ANY digital images, printed directly on Converse and Vans shoes while they wait and watched in amazement. This was made possible by a patented attachment to a DTG Printer – so by nature we were able to customize anything from head to toe. Our tagline and one of my trademarks is “Custom Everything”, and for 8 years we were a staple in Venice Beach, a few steps away from the world famous Venice Boardwalk.
Our location in Venice attracted all walks of life, which of course included many celebrities, and gave us a strong word of mouth customer base. Then in 2012, I appeared on ABC’s “Shark Tank”, Attack of the Show, KTLA Morning News (4x), The Art of Sneakers, FaceHead Media, MTV’s The Dub Magazine Project, Beats per Mnet, The Wall Street Journal, Entertainment Tonight with Sophia Vergara, The Source, Thrillist, Metal Insider, Showtime Championship Boxing, and more. I also started doing speaking engagements all over the world with many for Microsoft during Ad Week and to their employees (which was crazy since I never went to college), mostly discussing creativity, entrepreneurship, and where to find motivation. Being that kind of a store in Venice was certainly a lifestyle – I had to hire the right staff that could fit in not only with the aesthetic but was also technically sound and somewhat extroverted- we were always having in store events, parties on the rooftop, and invited to events all over Venice and LA. We had many insane, “I can’t believe this is happening”, viral moments, such as when Brian Cranston wore our shoes at the red carpet to an award show and posted it on social media during Breaking Bad’s final season. At the end of the day I believe a lot of this happened not because of luck (you create your own luck), but because I literally lived and breathed this business for the 8 years that I was in the Venice location. I lived right upstairs from the store and for me it was a full lifestyle. I missed graduations, family BBQ’s, Holidays, and in the end that was a small sacrifice to pay for the long run but I also loved and lived up every minute of it. When I wasn’t at the store, I was at events, parties, deep into the community in Venice making deals, building and growing my network.
During that time, we also had a few exciting pop ups, live printing events, and partnerships. We had a pop up store for a few months inside the W Hollywood Hotel where we met a ton of exciting guests and upscale residents that lived on the property. We had a 3 year pop up shop at USC, on campus, in their main retail store printing USC gear for sports fans, students, athletes and alum. Companies would hire us all over the world (Germany, UK, Aruba, DC, NYC, Vegas, etc) to set up live printing experiences. We did crew gifts for TV shows and movies, and collaborations/online fulfillment for artists.
In 2018, we started to really have an issue with space. The store and loft upstairs were no longer sufficient for our needs. At this time, online and wholesale business really started to take off, and the labor/staff at the retail store after that long was a tough grind. Our lease was up, Venice was cool again, Windward Ave was poppin’….. the landlor wanted to more than double the rent. I made the decision to close the store and move into a 5,000 sq ft facility close to Dodger Stadium so we could ramp up production. While this was certainly less sexy, and the fun retail lifestyle would come to and end, it was the best decision for the business and that leads us to where we are today- more of a behind the scenes, full service print and fulfillment shop with partnerships that don’t require a retail or location dependance.
I am most proud of a few things. Those include the lifelong friendships that were made with customers and partners, the opportunities to travel the world doing what I love, the lanes it created for my staff, several of whom have been with the company for almost 1o years and we have become somewhat of a family as a result. I am proud of the television appearances that were made but not for the attention but for the opportunities and exposure that ensued which lead to one after another – meeting and working with heroes like Stan Lee, Major League Sports teams, classic bands, brands, up and coming artists, watching A list celebrities talk about our products on TV and social media, and validating us as a business.
Additionally, I took a massive, “all in” personal financial risk on the entire project – I mean literally I put every dollar I had, even many that I borrowed, into getting this project started. It wasn’t a bet on the shoes, it was a bet on myself. A bet that I’m proud to have made.
Can you talk to us about how your funded your business?
Funding the business was a mixture of a few things. The total investment up front was about 250k. I had 90 of it in cash, borrowed 25k from the Gov, and maxed out a few credit cards – and was still 50k short. This was a point, before the business had even started, where I thought I was going to give up. At that time, I didn’t personally know anyone with 50k except for one person, a friend of mine who was a Music Video Producer. About a year prior, she fell 2 stories while producing a Black Eyed Peas music video and sued their insurance company for 700k, and won. But, her back was broken and she was pretty much in bed on pain killers most days. I wrote a 50 page business plan and loan terms, gave her a call, went to her place, and laid it on her. She read my plane and gave me the money. I paid her back in full in 6 months. Now, every time I hear a Black Eyed Peas song, I kind of laugh. If it wasn’t for them, I wouldn’t have started my business.
Do you have any insights you can share related to maintaining high team morale?
I have learned a lot over the years about managing a team and morale. In that time, of course, I’ve made mistakes. But I think the overall advice would be that you have to understand no one is going to care as much as you about your business, but to get others to even care at all, you have to care about them, and they have to SEE and KNOW that you care about them and the business through ACTIONS. You have to develop one on one relationships with everyone on your team and take a genuine interest in what goes on in their life outside of work. You have to always have a “next” goal. If you don’t, that’s when people get stagnant and start looking to the left and right for another job. You have to reward success, speak directly and not be afraid of the tough, uncomfortable conversations. You have to admit when you’re wrong, treat others with dignity and respect, lead by example, know how to delegate, empower others to do their job, and trust them to do it.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.theavecustoms.com
- Instagram: nickattheave