Justin Mitchel: My Family and I Moved to Texas to Experience a New Type of Culture. The Business Had No Choice but To Move With

Justin Mitchel of Coding for Entrepreneurs.

Tell us about yourself?

I am a father of 3 and a husband. I deconstruct world-class technology so students and developers around the world can use it practically.

What lessons has being an entrepreneur taught you? 

This thing called life was made up by people no smarter than you and you can change it, you can influence it, and you can make a difference.

Entrepreneurship confirmed this lesson from Steve Jobs for me. A few counter-intuitive lessons that have proven true as well:

– Scheduling your time is how you free up time

– The 80/20 rule dominates everything, the challenge is to figure out what 20% to work on

– If you don’t have your health, you don’t have anything. Your health should be your top priority.

– Questions lead to answers. Questions lead to better questions.

– If you just want the result, it’s probably the wrong journey. The summit is best when the hike to it is long and with family friends, colleagues you like, or all of them.

– There is no try, do or do not.

If you could go back in time to when you first started your business, what piece of advice would you give yourself?

Think bigger and act as if the bigger will work. I have nothing else to add to this other than the above statement. (100 word minimum is odd)

A lot of entrepreneurs find it difficult to balance their work and personal lives. How have you found that?

Not at all. If you do not have balance between activities, you do not have your values mapped to your priorities and the actions you take.

Give us a bit of an insight into the influences behind the company?

If you’re starting a software-based business or projects, you need to understand how the software works in order to build it.

Imagine trying to open a new restaurant without ever stepping inside one? How could you possible know where to put the cash register let alone design the kitchen or hire cooks/chefs?

What do you think is your magic sauce? What sets you apart from the competitors?

I build for my customers. I don’t think about my competitors. (Nothing more to add seriously my business is about my customers).

How have you found sales so far? Do you have any lessons you could pass on to other founders in the same market as you just starting out?

Create more content and give it away for free.

The content should be narrow and provide value. Creating content allows you to engage with your audience if you create the right kind of content and place it in the right places.

Content is changing all the time so adjust accordingly. “Evergreen” content is a fallacy if you want to make the most impact. Social media proves this time and time again.

What is the biggest challenge you have faced so far in your business, and how did you overcome it?

Too many too count but I would say the biggest challenge is how to make better content today than we did yesterday. This challenge will probably _never_ be overcome.

What do you consider are the main strengths of operating your business in Texas over other states in the US?

My family and I moved to Texas to experience a new type of culture.

The business had no choice but to move with. Austin, Texas is very entrepreneurial which is something I absolutely love.

My favorite tacos ever come from a small business that runs food trucks.

That’s hard to find elsewhere. The other part that’s great is how diverse the opportunities are here.

You can open a farm or a taco truck and they can be within a 20 minute drive of each other. Fantastic. The tech community is strong and seems to be growing daily.

Are there any disadvantages of operating our business in Texas?

The summer isn’t for the faint of heart. Fiber internet isn’t everywhere is my biggest challenge. 5G is spotty in many areas.

If you don’t live in downtown, you have to drive everywhere and it’s going to take at least 15 minutes to get there. There are a lot of delivery services but those take time of course.

Texas has a pretty diverse population. How have you found the quickly changing demographics have impacted your business? Have you got new opportunities? Managed to expand your business into new areas?

This does not apply to my business.

It is often reported that, in Texas, politics and business are intertwined. Have you noticed this? Has it impacted your business?

No (there’s nothing more to say).

With rising prices across Texas (and the US as a whole) have you been impacted? Do you have a plan for dealing with inflation going forward?

Yes and no. Education is always needed; how we price our services and what value we bring is inline with what our customers want, need, and expect.

What do you want to accomplish in the next 5 years with your business?

Help 10,000,000 students around the world learn to code and launch their business.

And finally, if people want to get involved and learn more about your business, how should they do that?

Go to https://www.codingforentrepreneurs.com to learn on our website or https://cfe.sh/youtube to learn on youtube! Thanks for reading.

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