Posted Under: Entrepreneur, Entrepreneurship, Our Heroes

Today we are talking to Rob Basso, our next guest under the “Our Heroes” series. While in college, Rob started his career by making sandwiches at a local deli. He eventually took a job at a regional payroll and HR company in the sales department. Although he was the top sales representative, Rob felt he had not reached and grown up to his full potential and that’s when he broke the 9 to 5 jail. Let’s talk to Rob…

DD: Who are you and what kind of corporate job were you at?

RB: I am a 37 year old Entrepreneur that began his career wrapping his resume in sandwiches at a local deli hoping to get a professional position after college graduation.  I was offered multiple opportunities, and took a job at a regional payroll and human resources company in the sales department.

DD: What made you leave the job? When did you realize that you wanted to be an entrepreneur & why?

RB: Underpaid, underappreciated and feeling dissatisfied with my prospects to have my career blossom at the regional company I quit without a job even though I was the top selling representative at the firm.  I was keenly aware that the people with the best lifestyles and overall best prospects to “live the American dream” were the owners, not the rank and file.  The defining moment came when I was up for my review and was denied any significant increase because of my short tenure with the company.  I flatly do not believe in that sort of thinking and still do today.  Producers and valuable people should get paid on value and ability, not tenure.

DD: What did you do to break the corporate jail? How did you prepare for the employee to entrepreneur transition?

RB: Unemployed with not too much cash on hand made it very difficult to start my own business.  I had built a solid reputation as a great sales person and it was only a month or so after I left the first payroll company when I received a call from a national organization.  They wanted me to open a local branch of their firm.  I was intrigued, but not satisfied with just managing the branch…I wanted to own it.  Of course the company president chuckled at the concept and it took me several months to negotiate a situation that appealed to both sides.  In the end I was given sales goals to reach and if I reached them, I could buy that branch from my corporate office.  I not only met but exceeded the goals and found a willing business partner to invest; we now operate the largest privately held payroll and HR company in the tri-state (NY, NJ, CT) area.

I had been preparing all my life for that day.  I have worked since I was 11 at my own paper route, worked through high school in restaurants, founded a fraternity at Hofstra University, and even peddled ice cream from trucks I rented one summer.  A product of a divorced family and a having a single mother with three boys to raise made me very self sufficient.  If I wanted something and we could not afford it, I had to work for it.  The lessons I learned as a kid about life, work and play are still with me today.

DD: What are your suggestions for aspiring entrepreneurs?

RB: Follow your passion and inspire the entrepreneurial spirit in others.  When I started my payroll business I can’t say I was passionate about payroll, but I was passionate about business.  That passion needs to be the focal point of all your energy.  Many Americans focus their attention on trying to achieve extreme success and aspire to be another Bill Gates.  I would suggest focusing on having attainable goals and realistic expectations.  Above all…have a plan and rework that plan as necessary to follow change in the marketplace.

DD: How are you doing and how do you feel now?

RB: I am as full of excitement and energy as I had when I started.  My core business is doing very well, in fact we are on pace for nearly 15% growth this year, and it has afforded me the time to invest in other ventures.  I am a founding investor in a bank, a horror movie and created a destination and web show called BassoOnBusiness that helps entrepreneurs create stronger businesses.  Friends tell me that I am lucky; I simply tell them that I have made my own luck and surround myself with people smarter than I am.

DD: I second Rob’s advice ‘Follow your passion and inspire the entrepreneurial spirit in others’ and would only add a quick note that being passionate is one thing and being blinded by your passion which is when it has become either an obsession or ego issue is another… So, be passionate but do NOT fall in love with your business idea. Do thorough research about the feasibility and sustainability of your business idea, be flexible and be ready to change directions or completely drop the idea and work on another, if needed…

Success to all!