Those who bring in $1Mil+ a year from their business, what kind of business do you run or what sector are you in? How many attempts of starting businesses did it take to get to where you are? And if you had any advice or tips to those wanting to get started, what are they?
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Energy. It took a single try, but we were extremely ‘fortunate’ to start just prior to Europe’s energy crisis last year. Crazy opportunities in the market. My main reflections are that it is hard starting up, but if you’re passionate about building the business, it won’t feel as heavy as doing similar hours as an employee at someone else’s firm. Surrounding yourself with the right people is definitely the key to ensuring success over the longer run
I pmed you if that’s okay.
Digital agency: web design, app development, marketing.
Sector: 80% manufacturing/industrial clients.
Tip: What works for someone may not work for you. What worked in the past for someone may not work today.
I lead my team by knowing a ton about everything we do… I can design, I can program, i can come up with marketing strategy and run them. I’d say my company is successful because I’m able to train team members and pick up slack if something needs to get done or identify what needs to happen and make sure it gets done. For me, that works. I could tell you that’s a key to success, learn a skill, get great at it, start a business around it.
However, I know a guy who has a firm similar in size who is a good salesman but knows little about how the services of his company are delivered. He doesn’t know anything about the details of the work yet he’s also able to run a reasonably successful shop because he’s been able to at least know enough to hire the right people around him.
Another tip, it never hurts to know people. Get good at networking, attend local events, go to chamber of commerce mixers, join toastmasters, get involved with volunteer work, get on a board of an organization. Having a big network helps you connect others and can help others connect with you.
Read. Go to your local library, get a free library card and go to the business, money or other non-fiction sections. If you’ve never been you’ll likely shit yourself on the amount of knowledge you can pick up and walk out with. Build a habit of learning. You’ll learn way more from experts spending months writing a book than I have from someone’s information regurgitation on TikTok
Yay! Learn to learn!
Information regurgitation 😄💀
I think the business that i would pursue is the food industry because i know a lot about customer services，source management，leadership and organisations.More importantly，i know more about innovations，improving and expanding my business.
Ok, I’ll play. I started my cyber firm in 2015. We do mostly services (vs product sales). This is my first business. I’m a technical founder, no business degree (no Bachelor’s at all actually). Took me 8 years to break the million/year mark.
My advice:
- Know your market and know what it needs. Then design your product or service to fit that.
- Know your business. Know what your team does. Know what it needs.
- Be ready to fight for what you believe in. It’s going to be TOUGH at times. Entrepreneurship and leading a business aren’t for the weak.
As in you provide consultation on cyber risk? Like penetration testing?
Yes, that is one of many similar services we offer.
I’m curious, what’s a “cyber firm”? And what lead you into that field?
You’re asking the wrong question.
For your success to be probable you need an “unfair” advantage.
What is unique about your abilities, your resources, your network, your specialized knowledge that would give you an unfair advantage in ___?
Don’t copy someone else. Know yourself, and start from there.
Competitive advantage not unfair. There’s no such thing as fair in competition, as long as you’re ethical.
I believe there’s a stat that 80% of businesses are started by people leaving their job and doing the same thing themselves. Construction, auto sales type businesses come to mind. They learn how the industry works then just build it themselves.
I always look for businesses that give me a competitive advantage. Usually something that I have another business in a similar industry and the businesses can use eachother and both save money.
Competitive advantage not unfair.
That’s why it was in quotes mate…
you need an “unfair” advantage.
Great idea, terrible wording :P
That’s why it was in " " mate.
But it seem that didn’t translate to others.
Competitive advantage doesn’t capture the idea… its an advantage nobody else can match, cause its based on unique ability and resources unique to that person. Its something that can be copied, but can’t be replicated in total.
I disagree. You don’t need uniqueness to succeed. There are plenty of shops all in the exact same niche with the same services at the same quality for the same prices, and they’re all generally successful. Sure, there will always be nuances, but not enough to deserve recognition. We market ourselves as the best in our spaces, but few of us actually believe that.
I’m in commercial construction.
I’ll say something I don’t expect others to say. I didn’t have anything going for me in the beginning. I was competing against established companies who had unlimited $ backing them. I was a kid with no experience, 2k, and a so-so 22 year old truck. I think the biggest advantage I had was my disadvantages. I learned to be lean, I learned to go without, I learned the importance of cash flow, and most important of all, I learned to pay attention to what my competitors are doing and ask why. Sometimes there’s a good reason, other times they’re stuck in old ways because “it’s always been that way”. Fresh eyes on old problems can be a major advantage.
You’ll find a lot of people who faced the biggest hardships have some of the best success stories. Others gave up or failed to adapt. But that’s the difference between learning from those experiences or using them as an excuse. You have to leverage everything you have all the time. Success today isn’t guaranteed tomorrow. Adapting and evolving is crucial to all businesses. Look at Blockbuster. Even in our small service area, we must be aware that if we aren’t actively on the offensive and growing, one of our competitors is.
Maybe my best advice is if you start a business, just take action. Everyone has ideas, but very few execute. Sometimes even the wrong decision is better than not making one at all. Be relentless in your efforts to make things happen. Have a long term plan and actively make decisions to set you on that path. The only way to eat an elephant is one bite at a time.
Love this, but have a question:
You’re saying you had a single truck–What in the world do you do with it? Do you go around asking people on sites if they need debris hauled away and just start expanding into small jobs once you get money for actual construction equipment?
I started out repairing residential windows. Usually 1-2 hour long repairs. I would do free quotes so I always knew what I was getting into before I agreed to do any work. I loaded the truck with the tools (mostly hand tools) I needed for that specific job and I only bought more tools as there was a need for them. I literally would buy tools the night before a job so I was only out the $ until I was paid the next day when the job was completed.
I did Facebook and Google ads and made a website pretty much from day 1. The calls came in very slow. I would get one call per week and it was a coin toss if that customer would hire me.
I’m not proud of it, but there was even a time I was so slow that I would walk into a business and ask for the maintenance guy and told them I was called out to look at some broken windows. Sometimes they’d say we don’t have any, you must have the wrong place and I’d laugh it off, leave a card and just say “If it ever does come up, we’d (me) be glad to help”. Sometimes they’d say “huh, not sure who called but we do have a few windows with issues.” And I’d send them a quote for the repairs. It actually did occasionally work to get business. I was desperate and willing to go door to door if that’s what it took.
Once the jobs slowly started coming in, I would go above and beyond and do everything I could to get referrals. It took close to 2 years before there were so many people calling that I had to hire a second person. As the volume grew, we just naturally had the random calls for larger projects here or there. Sometimes they were too large and we passed, and sometimes we stretched ourselves and took the leap. Little by little the big jobs seemed smaller and smaller. We have shifted away from residential and now do about 80% commercial and 20% residential. Despite less money to be made in residential, I still have a soft spot for the residential jobs that really shot us into the big leagues.
Also. Take action instead of reading and watching videos. Your own experience is what you need because your journey is not supposed to look like anyone else’s.
If youre starting somethingwith expectations of millions youre too in your head. Got a good idea? Start and adjust along the way. It should be fun and about the experiences youll have that lead to new skills and people youll meet in your journey. If you start.
I looked at purchasing a furniture e-commerce business recently. It caught my attention with 1.5M in sales and 50% gross margins.
When I dug into the figures, revenue had declined from a peak of around 3M and was currently losing 250k per year.
The lesson: Find a profitable business model you can scale. Scaling without profitability is a waste of time and money.
I own a spa in a tourist town. The worst part was finding a suitable location, but after that was done everything else just fell into place.
You can have an amazing product or service but if you don’t know how to sell, you’ll never accomplish your financial goals.
Example, $85k a month can be made by selling one luxury home a month and or finding 8,500 people paying $10 a month on your services.
Both examples, you must know how to sell.
1.) B2B SaaS, it’s a Jira add on. 2.) 5 attempts with varying degrees of success, nothing like this. The worst are the ones that nearly work for years. This is my first software business. 3.) Get a job you enjoy and are passionate to learn more about. The quicker way to get money is to rob a bank, but it’s not sustainable and you’re not learning the skills for long term success. I was a scuba diving instructor and learning to present in front of a group in a service industry with life or death stakes taught me so much. I did high street sales and that’s given me so much confidence for events and webinars. Keep learning, stay humble, keep it fun.