My failed business.

[LeftBench]

I owned and operated Maximum Self-Defense, LLC from April, 2012 till January 2014. Luckily I only lost about 2000 dollars in total with this business. Basically its a traveling women's self-defense business. I have been interested in combat sports since I was 9 years old. I grew up wrestling and moved on to Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu and MMA. In 2012 I took a "women's self-defense" certification course where I paid a bunch of money to become "certified" to teach women how to defend themselves.

I put on a few women's self-defense seminars with some interest, but the time I put in was not even close to being worth the money I was making. Now that I look back at it, the guy who taught the certification course was the one making all the cash. He's making probably 100k a year traveling around the world teaching these courses. HE also has a few other businesses. Great guy and very legit, but also very smart.

Could I build the business and make more money? Absolutely. But I decided to give up the self defense seminar business as it just wasn't worth the time and money I was putting into it. Even if I built it up, I'd need a TON of clients to show up to make it worth my while. I enjoyed doing the seminars, but not THAT much.

I learned a lot from this business venture and am excited to move on to the next one. Not the best story in here but I figured I'd share my first experience at owning my own company.

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[karmazon]

What do you think were your biggest mistakes and what would you do differently if you had to start over?

 

[LeftBench]

What do you think were your biggest mistakes and what would you do differently if you had to start over?

If I had to start over I would not even have started the business. I would have taken the time and money that I put into it and just concentrated on other things. It would take an incredible amount of time to make any real money in that business. My original mindset was to do it on the side, for a little bit of money. I thought that if I could make $1,000.00 per month with the business, it would be a nice side income. But the amount of time it took to set up these seminars with different groups / gyms was ridiculous. Its the type of business where people are interested until they hear that they have to pay, then they aren't so interested anymore. All in all I consider it a good experience and it taught me a few valuable lessons.

I still would like to one day run my own Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu school. Its not Fastlane, but I think it would be a fun thing for me to do after I retire from my Slow Lane job. Hopefully by that time I will be living a Fastlane lifestyle.

 

[LeftBench]

Let me also clarify that when I started this business I had not yet read The Millionaire Fastlane . I had no idea about the Fast Lane mindset. My LLC went against almost all of the principles in the book.

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[Bigguns50]

@LeftBench ... good story. Thanks for sharing.

I've been in the arts, weapon disarms, hand to hand, etc. for many years. I've always tried making a little extra $ at it but like you said, it's not worth the time. Soooo...here we are. Now the goal is to drive the fastlane so if we feel like opening a school, writing a book, doing videos, we can...and it won't matter if we make money at it.

Freedom.

 

[chipmx]

man I think your main error was

1) not read TMF its very usefulll before you start a business to have some kind of metrics to follow
2) you start a bussiness in doing what you love (sports, fighting and similar) when in fact the market tolds you if that product/service worth it

 

[Vigilante]

I owned and operated Maximum Self-Defense, LLC from April, 2012 till January 2014. Luckily I only lost about 2000 dollars in total with this business. Basically its a traveling women's self-defense business. I have been interested in combat sports since I was 9 years old. I grew up wrestling and moved on to Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu and MMA. In 2012 I took a "women's self-defense" certification course where I paid a bunch of money to become "certified" to teach women how to defend themselves.

I put on a few women's self-defense seminars with some interest, but the time I put in was not even close to being worth the money I was making. Now that I look back at it, the guy who taught the certification course was the one making all the cash. He's making probably 100k a year traveling around the world teaching these courses. HE also has a few other businesses. Great guy and very legit, but also very smart.

Could I build the business and make more money? Absolutely. But I decided to give up the self defense seminar business as it just wasn't worth the time and money I was putting into it. Even if I built it up, I'd need a TON of clients to show up to make it worth my while. I enjoyed doing the seminars, but not THAT much.

I learned a lot from this business venture and am excited to move on to the next one. Not the best story in here but I figured I'd share my first experience at owning my own company.

Thanks for sharing this story. What happens to a brick layer when he stops laying bricks? He stops getting paid. On your next business venture, one thing to focus on is separating your TIME from your INCOME. You need a business capable of making you money 24-7 that doesn't require you to be present 24-7 in order to make it run.

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[Vigilante]

@LeftBench ... good story. Thanks for sharing.

I've been in the arts, weapon disarms, hand to hand, etc. for many years. I've always tried making a little extra $ at it but like you said, it's not worth the time. Soooo...here we are. Now the goal is to drive the fastlane so if we feel like opening a school, writing a book, doing videos, we can...and it won't matter if we make money at it.

Freedom.

This.

 

[samuraijack]

This is just my opinion but I think businesses in this arena, having to do with fitness or teaching anything related, it requires you to be 1) exceptional at what you do and 2) becoming well known either through winning championships, social media, tv, youtube, etc...