How a Backyard Deck and a Skip Bin Problem Became My First Business

It all started before I even had a business plan.

My girlfriend's parents at the time, incredible people, asked me how much I thought it would cost to build a deck in their backyard.

I was a boilermaker by trade. Welding and fabrication. No timber work. No decking experience whatsoever.

I said "I can give it a shot if you want to save some coin. I'm pretty sure I could build one."

Incredibly, they agreed.

Cue the Rocky montage music.

I became completely obsessed.

I designed and built a deck that transformed their entire outdoor space. Poured every bit of myself into it. No shortcuts, no half measures. Just a young bloke who said he could do something and was determined to prove it.

I still had absolutely no idea what business I wanted to start for myself.

But it was while building that deck that everything changed.

The problem I could not stop thinking about.

They lived on the water. Across the street was a nature reserve. No room for a skip bin on the driveway. No way to put one on the grass without ruining it.

And while I was working, waste was piling up around me. Offcuts, packaging, old materials. The kind of stuff that slows a job down and clutters a worksite but nobody really has a clean solution for.

That is when it hit me.

What if someone could just come and take it all in one go? Better yet, what if I did not even have to stop working? What if they just loaded it up while I kept building?

That idea. That simple observation about a problem right in front of me. Became my first business.

Waste removal.

Not born in a boardroom. Not born from a business course or a mentor session or a late night brainstorm. Born from a backyard deck, a waterfront property and a skip bin that would not fit on the driveway.

This is how most real businesses actually start.

Not from a brilliant idea that arrives fully formed. From paying attention to a problem that exists right in front of you and being curious enough to ask whether you could solve it.

Inspiration does not announce itself. It does not wait until you are ready or sitting at a desk with a notebook open. It shows up in the middle of a Tuesday while you are carrying timber in someone's backyard.

Your only job is to listen when it does.

Lesson 11: It is not your job to choose when inspiration strikes. It is your job to listen when it does.

We talk about how real businesses actually start every week on the TSP Podcast with Dale Meyer. Listen on Spotify and Apple Podcasts and join The Sequoia Project community on Facebook.