FirstMile CEO Featured in SmartHustle

Why I Use Two Different Names When I Started my business

By: Devin Johnson

Article originally published on SmartHustle.com

I was both Clyde and Devin in the early days—Clyde by day, and Devin by night—to keep my day and night worlds separate.

As most entrepreneurs chasing their dreams experience, sometimes the “dream” doesn’t pay the bills right out of the gate. The small parcel shipping industry has very small margins, so when I was starting from zero, it took a substantial amount of business before I could even take my kids to a McDonalds. For that reason, I had to do something else to feed my family, which is why I started a second side business selling telecommunication products door-to-door to put the food on the table and a roof over our heads.

Pretty soon—because both businesses were full-time jobs—my worlds started to overlap. Since I knew my shipping business was my long-term priority and selling TV and internet services was only short-term survival, I needed a way to prioritize it above the other.

During the day, the world knew me by my middle name, Clyde. I was Clyde when I knocked on doors at office buildings and warehouse complexes to sell my shipping logistics services. Then around 5 p.m. I would go to a gas station, change my shirt, grab an energy drink, and become Devin to my telecommunications clients. This way, when I was with a shipping client and someone called and asked for Devin, I knew it was likely about internet speeds or channel lineups and I could ask to return the call later. However, if it was in the evening and I was in someone’s living room setting up a wireless router and someone called and asked for Clyde, I knew it pertained to a high priority and I could excuse myself to step outside and take the call.

Read the full article here.