An Interview with Barry Kornfeld

Question: What’s the most important thing we should know about you?

Barry Kornfeld: That I am a client-oriented Business Debt Consultant committed to helping business owners secure affordable financing, and/or help them restructure their unsupportable, existing business debt. I am very client-oriented: very client-centric.

Question: Name the most impactful lesson you learned from failure.

Barry Kornfeld: That no matter how many times we fall down in life, the most important thing is that we keep getting back up each and every time, and try, try again.

Question: What accomplishment are you most proud of?

Barry Kornfeld: That we’ve been able to start 3 successful financial services firms from scratch, and grew each to be a force within their respective niche’s.

Question: What did you waste the most time on when you were first starting your career?

Barry Kornfeld: Simple — trying to please everyone (customers) vs. specializing in a particular niche’. Like in the medical profession, generalists do OK from a career metric perspective, but specialists? That’s where the public gets the most satisfaction and value, and they typically do the best, again when looking at financial metrics.

Question: Name a tool you use for work that you can’t live without.

Barry Kornfeld: My laptop. It is my gateway into my business and the business world. Without it, I’d be in dark ages.

Question: What is your favorite hobby and why?

Barry Kornfeld: I like listening to music because it relaxes me, and I enjoy it.

Question: What excited you the most about your industry right now?

Barry Kornfeld: That due to the COVID pandemic, so many small-mid sized businesses are hurting that a much wider swath of that population needs our Debt Restructuring Services. In other words, we’re not looking to profit on anyone’s woes during CV-19, however it has certainly put the wind at our back even more so with regards to new business opportunities.

Question: What concerns you most about your industry right now?

Barry Kornfeld: The lack of quality consulting going on in the debt consultation niche’ is a big concern of ours. There are so many who offer business loan products, however so many have low regard for the clientele, and much more regard for their own sales volumes & tallies. From our experience, there are very few who are as client-centric as they should be, or frankly, that we are. That lack of integrity in so many providers in our industry is not good for anyone, but especially the public.

Question: What’s the greatest risk you’ve ever taken?

Barry Kornfeld: Starting a business from scratch is a very big risk that I’ve taken. I’ve done this on 3 separate instances.

Question: Name one small habit that positively impacts your productivity.

Barry Kornfeld: One small habit, with BIG ramifications: Don’t major in minor things. When you own your own business, it is hard to delegate, and challenging to decide what is delegate-able, versus what is super important and needs to be by me. I’ve learned over time that many things that I thought were so important, turned out to be minor issues, given the benefit of hindsight. I wish I knew this fact earlier on in my life/career. However, this is also why they say: we get wisdom as we age and get experience.

Question: What tips do you have for getting a seat at the table?

Barry Kornfeld: Have a super clear vision of where you are today, where you want to go in the future, and what path is the best to travel for you to accomplish your goals. Then, after all that is done, you likely find that you are already sitting at THE TABLE, that you already set!

Question: What book has made the biggest impact on your life?

Barry Kornfeld: The Book of Excellence, by Byrd Baggett. Like the Nike saying goes, “Just Do It”.

This interview was originally published on https://SurprisinglySree.com/Barry-Kornfeld/