After seven years, nothing I do in business is profitable and I'm broke

[capybro]

It has been seven years in my entrepreneurial journey and nothing I do makes money.

All I do is just keep on losing my own money and other peoples money.

It doesn't matter how much I test or how long I work on a business, everything I touch loses money.

A friend partnered with me to run Tiktok ads where he funds it and I run the ads and I lost all his money.

Another friend is doing the same but with Facebook and I'm currently in the process of losing his money too - every single campaign I launch fails.

An app I just launched on Kickstarter completely failed and got nowhere near its goal.

Every ecommerce store I try, every affiliate marketing campaign, every Facebook ad or Google ad, every freelance gig or cold outreach attempt, every app, literally everything I touch is unprofitable.

It's been seven years and I'm no closer to my "early retirement" as I was when I started.

The only successes I've had was early on when friends let me copy their winning campaigns. When I tried running other campaigns on my own I just burned money. Now I only make a living from one copywriting client and haven't increased my income for a very long time.

A business friend of mine recently told me that I should just start looking at careers that pay six figures.

I don't understand why I suck so bad at business, I don't understand why nothing I do works.

Are some people just not meant for entrepreneurship?

 

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[MJ DeMarco]

No mention of value...
No mention of distinct skew...
No mention of a unique brand or marketing position...
No mention of problems solved, conveniences fixed...

I smell a lot of money chasing and little value creation.

You likely forgot to mention dropshipping too.

It doesn't matter how much I test or how long I work on a business, everything I touch loses money.

Why don't you mention a few so we can actually make a judgment, and perhaps, help?

You mentioned affiliate marketing already which to me, is already a huge red flag for money-chasing.

 

[Saad Khan]

It has been seven years in my entrepreneurial journey and nothing I do makes money.

All I do is just keep on losing my own money and other peoples money.

It doesn't matter how much I test or how long I work on a business, everything I touch loses money.

A friend partnered with me to run Tiktok ads where he funds it and I run the ads and I lost all his money.

Another friend is doing the same but with Facebook and I'm currently in the process of losing his money too - every single campaign I launch fails.

An app I just launched on Kickstarter completely failed and got nowhere near its goal.

Every ecommerce store I try, every affiliate marketing campaign, every Facebook ad or Google ad, every freelance gig or cold outreach attempt, every app, literally everything I touch is unprofitable.

It's been seven years and I'm no closer to my "early retirement" as I was when I started.

The only successes I've had was early on when friends let me copy their winning campaigns. When I tried running other campaigns on my own I just burned money. Now I only make a living from one copywriting client and haven't increased my income for a very long time.

A business friend of mine recently told me that I should just start looking at careers that pay six figures.

I don't understand why I suck so bad at business, I don't understand why nothing I do works.

Are some people just not meant for entrepreneurship?

Wait a minute. Who copies ad campaign structures? Do you know why winners win? Seems like you're just trying a gimmick after gimmick after gimmick.

The new facebook audience type, the new placement, the new sourcing agent, the new hot trending product.

Focus on helping people where they need help.

As MJ said above, you have to start chasing providing value instead of gimmicks

 

[capybro]

No mention of value...
No mention of distinct skew...
No mention of a unique brand or marketing position...
No mention of problems solved, conveniences fixed...

I smell a lot of money chasing and little value creation.

You likely forgot to mention dropshipping too.



Why don't you mention a few so we can actually make a judgment, and perhaps, help?

You mentioned affiliate marketing already which to me, is already a huge red flag for money-chasing.

I feel like I provide a lot of value to my copywriting and email marketing clients when can I get them. But now I only have one client on retainer for 100% of my income, and I have never been able to secure a client from a cold email or paid ad, only referrals in the past.

My new app idea that I built a working prototype of provides a lot of value. Its probably the closest business I've started that follows Fastlane values. It saves people time. My friends say they like it and some even donated to my Kickstarter. But when I applied to multiple incubators and launched on Kickstarter, the market seems to think otherwise.

Ecommerce is the only thing I made some "real" money off of but that was many years ago. Many I believe did provide value and had higher barriers to entry. I did wholesaling, ebay, amazon, dropshipping, etc. across many different industries and niches. But only had two successful campaigns in the end. My friends went on to make millions of dollars doing ecommerce/dropshipping while I somehow couldn't figure it out, despite running the exact same ads and products as them as well as many others I found on spy tools, 99% of the products I tested failed miserably.

 

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[Subsonic]

It has been seven years in my entrepreneurial journey and nothing I do makes money.

All I do is just keep on losing my own money and other peoples money.

It doesn't matter how much I test or how long I work on a business, everything I touch loses money.

A friend partnered with me to run Tiktok ads where he funds it and I run the ads and I lost all his money.

Another friend is doing the same but with Facebook and I'm currently in the process of losing his money too - every single campaign I launch fails.

An app I just launched on Kickstarter completely failed and got nowhere near its goal.

Every ecommerce store I try, every affiliate marketing campaign, every Facebook ad or Google ad, every freelance gig or cold outreach attempt, every app, literally everything I touch is unprofitable.

It's been seven years and I'm no closer to my "early retirement" as I was when I started.

The only successes I've had was early on when friends let me copy their winning campaigns. When I tried running other campaigns on my own I just burned money. Now I only make a living from one copywriting client and haven't increased my income for a very long time.

A business friend of mine recently told me that I should just start looking at careers that pay six figures.

I don't understand why I suck so bad at business, I don't understand why nothing I do works.

Are some people just not meant for entrepreneurship?

This is sad to hear but also good to hear.

If you do something for seven years and make no progress you can know with certainty that its a you problem. If you dont know why your campaigns dont make money that means you dont know how to run ads properly. Why is that a good thing? Because now you can go and learn this skill.

Its probably some basic mindset thing you got wrong. I managed to run profitable ads my third try for my cleaning company as a total beginner.
If you can stick to something for seven years and not quit, while not archiving anything, then you are made for entrepreneurship imo.

What you need is to read MJs books, understand the concepts and sell good products. Provide value.

 

[Lorenzoo]

I feel like I provide a lot of value to my copywriting and email marketing clients when can I get them. But now I only have one client on retainer for 100% of my income, and I have never been able to secure a client from a cold email or paid ad, only referrals in the past.

My new app idea that I built a working prototype of provides a lot of value. Its probably the closest business I've started that follows Fastlane values. It saves people time. My friends say they like it and some even donated to my Kickstarter. But when I applied to multiple incubators and launched on Kickstarter, the market seems to think otherwise.

Ecommerce is the only thing I made some "real" money off of but that was many years ago. Many I believe did provide value and had higher barriers to entry. I did wholesaling, ebay, amazon, dropshipping, etc. across many different industries and niches. But only had two successful campaigns in the end. My friends went on to make millions of dollars doing ecommerce/dropshipping while I somehow couldn't figure it out, despite running the exact same ads and products as them as well as many others I found on spy tools, 99% of the products I tested failed miserably.

how can it be that when you run the exact same products with the same ads from your millionaire friends that you fail? is it your website, email, copy that you didn't copy from them, does your checkout even work, did you actually do the same ads with the same parameters, i don't understand the problem

or is something intrinsic of you

 

[heavy_industry]

nothing I do makes money.

just keep on losing my own money and other peoples money.

everything I touch loses money.

I'm currently in the process of losing his money too

on my own I just burned money

You've used the word "money" 6 times in one post, and every single sentence contains either this word or a synonym referring to currency or some type of financial gain.

Entrepreneurs are producers. We manufacture. We build. We create value. We help people.

We turn our imagination into reality.

Money is just a fortunate side-effect of our activity. We use it as a proxy for measuring our current level of success and impact on the world.


Stop chasing money.
Pursue excellence. Pursue value creation. Pursue mass production.

Then money will start chasing you.

 

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[Black_Dragon43]

Your problem dude is that you don’t have a process for identifying your assumptions, testing them and generating learning from the market.

And that’s basically because your vision starts and ends with money.

Wanting to make money is great, there’s no one who wants more money than I do.

The trouble is that you’re completely blinded by money, to such an extent that you don’t understand the PROCESS of generating it.

It’s like playing tennis and being 100% focused on winning, and 0% focused on how you play and improving.

So you need a big vision — what needed change do you want to bring to the marketplace. From that big vision, a strategy will emerge. That strategy will be supported by a series of assumptions about the market. You need to build a product/marketing that will TEST those assumptions as fast as possible.

Because guess what, if your assumptions are wrong, your strategy won’t get you to the promise land even with perfect execution! So you need to test them first and adjust.

Failure is actually a great thing, it’s how you learn and adjust. But what happens is that you have no vision, and therefore when your strategy fails, as it will inevitably, you give up, and onto the next idea.

Entrepreneurship doesn’t work like that. Only in the lottery do you buy another ticket if your previous one didn’t work. In entrepreneurship you iterate on what you did before.

 

[Lorenzoo]

You've used the word "money" 6 times in one post, and every single sentence contains either this word or a synonym referring to currency or some type of financial gain.

Entrepreneurs are producers. We manufacture. We build. We create value. We help people.

We turn our imagination into reality.

Money is just a fortunate side-effect of our activity. We use it as a proxy for measuring our current level of success and impact on the world.


Stop chasing money.
Pursue excellence. Pursue value creation. Pursue mass production.

Then money will start chasing you.

btw i am doing music for you when you ask (everyone here not just HeavyIndustry). i'm not even charging stuff i'm doing that for free because i just love making music. environmental backgrounds, FX and mixing of stems etc also, but mainly beats/songs. did actually so some for known german rappers
write me dm but don't expect me to magically make your music project happen i'm doing that in my free time and will decide if i can make it happen for you depending on how much time i have and if i'm feeling myself capable to produce your music

 

[Lorenzoo]

Your problem dude is that you don’t have a process for identifying your assumptions, testing them and generating learning from the market.

And that’s basically because your vision starts and ends with money.

Wanting to make money is great, there’s no one who wants more money than I do.

The trouble is that you’re completely blinded by money, to such an extent that you don’t understand the PROCESS of generating it.

It’s like playing tennis and being 100% focused on winning, and 0% focused on how you play and improving.

So you need a big vision — what needed change do you want to bring to the marketplace. From that big vision, a strategy will emerge. That strategy will be supported by a series of assumptions about the market. You need to build a product/marketing that will TEST those assumptions as fast as possible.

Because guess what, if your assumptions are wrong, your strategy won’t get you to the promise land even with perfect execution! So you need to test them first and adjust.

Failure is actually a great thing, it’s how you learn and adjust. But what happens is that you have no vision, and therefore when your strategy fails, as it will inevitably, you give up, and onto the next idea.

Entrepreneurship doesn’t work like that. Only in the lottery do you buy another ticket if your previous one didn’t work. In entrepreneurship you iterate on what you did before.

that's exactly what i did lol. before i've had my first success i've failed about idk 7 times with different approaches (mostly i just didn't know what the F*ck i have even been doing and had no clue how online marketing works so i did SEO for 6 months one month before wondering why no one buys anything and guess what - didn't have a checkout system installed xD) and then i've finally landed a hit with a pretty bad executed oneclick Facebook Ads to badly written Landing Page on my website thing, but it worked great and the product sold like crazy
Probably because it was and still is something that hasn't been done before and i've done it pretty goddamn good so people bought
But yea
Many fails and readjustments and along the road to success

 

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[BizyDad]

I feel like

There's your problem right there. You are basing this on feelings.

I know I provide value to my clients when their phones ring more and they close more sales. I have data to show it, so I don't have to guess or "feel like" anything.

I'm not saying that you have to do what I do. I am saying find a way to track results of your efforts better.

For example, if you really were doing a great job, you would have clients referring you more clients. I typically get three referrals a month. Sometimes it's as low as zero, sometimes it's as high as seven. Three is a normal month.

Do you track that?

I have never been able to secure a client from a cold email or paid ad

Yikes. A copywriter who's copy doesn't sell... Hmmm...

Either the copy sucks or your targeting the wrong audience.

Which is probably the crux of your problem with everything else that you talk about failing with...

 

[BizyDad]

that's exactly what i did lol. before i've had my first success i've failed about idk 7 times with different approaches (mostly i just didn't know what the F*ck i have even been doing and had no clue how online marketing works so i did SEO for 6 months one month before wondering why no one buys anything and guess what - didn't have a checkout system installed xD) and then i've finally landed a hit with a pretty bad executed oneclick Facebook Ads to badly written Landing Page on my website thing, but it worked great and the product sold like crazy
Probably because it was and still is something that hasn't been done before and i've done it pretty goddamn good so people bought
But yea
Many fails and readjustments and along the road to success

btw i am doing music for you when you ask (everyone here not just HeavyIndustry). i'm not even charging stuff i'm doing that for free because i just love making music. environmental backgrounds, FX and mixing of stems etc also, but mainly beats/songs. did actually so some for known german rappers
write me dm but don't expect me to magically make your music project happen i'm doing that in my free time and will decide if i can make it happen for you depending on how much time i have and if i'm feeling myself capable to produce your music

Why are you trying to make this thread all about you?

 

[Black_Dragon43]

I typically get three referrals a month. Sometimes it's as low as zero, sometimes it's as high as seven. Three is a normal month.

Do you track that?

Funnily enough, based on 100+ agencies I’ve surveyed (using my influencer powers), most agencies get the majority of their clients from referrals.

I get less than 5% from referrals (although, tbh I never ask for referrals), but I get as many clients per month as most agencies get in 6 months!

You need to teach me your referral tricks dawg. Do you ask for them? Does this only work if your clients are local and you waltz into their office? Teach a poor dragon how to be a politician (yes, that’s how I call people who grow their business via the least free market method — their connections! But hey, at least I want to always learn)

 

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[MJ DeMarco]

You likely forgot to mention dropshipping too.

dropshipping

Ask yourself, how did I know this without any shadow of a doubt?

That said, I have some ideas why you haven't made any money, money, money, money....

 

[heavy_industry]

That said, I have some ideas why you haven't made any money, money, money, money....

View: https://youtu.be/ETxmCCsMoD0?t=47

 

[BizyDad]

Funnily enough, based on 100+ agencies I’ve surveyed (using my influencer powers), most agencies get the majority of their clients from referrals.

I get less than 5% from referrals (although, tbh I never ask for referrals), but I get as many clients per month as most agencies get in 6 months!

You need to teach me your referral tricks dawg. Do you ask for them? Does this only work if your clients are local and you waltz into their office? Teach a poor dragon how to be a politician (yes, that’s how I call people who grow their business via the least free market method — their connections! But hey, at least I want to always learn)

Hey, today's your lucky day...

GOLD! - MARKETING - 21 Ways To Get More Referrals ~ For Free

A quick search of the forum and I found little advice about how to get more referrals. The closest is some excellent advice from Andy Black in a couple of threads. When I find them again, I'll post them below. Sure, maybe asking for referrals isn’t as awesome as having a killer affiliate...

www.thefastlaneforum.com

Read that thread and we'll have people calling you the mayor in no time.

Does this only work if your clients are local and you waltz into their office?

No, but that definitely makes it much easier, imo. Getting referrals is about the ability to get results and having a strong enough relationship.

Funnily enough, based on 100+ agencies I’ve surveyed (using my influencer powers), most agencies get the majority of their clients from referrals.

Just curious, how do I stack up against the rest?

I'm guessing probably pretty low. I actually don't ask for referrals either... Lolol.

I'm not sure how long it's been, but it was definitely before covid the last time I asked somebody if they knew anybody that needed my help.

But the thing is, I naturally do some of the stuff that I mentioned in that thread. For example, I give a fair number of referrals. So people naturally give them back.

 

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[Andy Black]

@capybro

Pick something that adds value and stick with it till you get good.

This week I paid one guy to power wash our drive and another guy to repair our roof. Both are coming back next week to chat about getting Google Ads running for them.

All I did was chat with them. No fancy sales speak.

Sell something people want and it can be easy as falling off a log.

Oh, and please don't create that app. Start simpler and get some easy wins under your belt. Start helping people. Help them get their first X. Then their first Y. Take it one step at a time.

 

[Matt Lee]

I don't understand why I suck so bad at business, I don't understand why nothing I do works.

Below might sound harsh but if you can take my hit, you will realize how flawed and dangerous that statement is. I hope this helps you.

If you don't know why you are sucking for the past 7 years, you might not be learning the lessons you should've from your first few businesses.

Failures are there for you to learn from them so you can increase your odds.

To be in the same circumstances means you're putting the same internal and external inputs into your life. The same action patterns and the same mental patterns.(that maybe are flawed)

It was another Fastlaner that said we are a prisoner of our minds.

Have you been thinking carefully about what led you up to where you are now?

The problem:

Pretend you're a sailor for a moment. You're trying to make a trip across the sea, to some promised land. DeMarcoland. Where the Fastlaners live.

Some weeks pass and you make progress. But then you realize the lower deck is filling up with water slowly... so there must be a small hole somewhere. Somewhere...

You know there's a leak but you don't mind it. It's not big enough to enter your worry zone.

A few days passed. Water fills up the lower decks. Instead of looking for the hole and plugging it up yourself... you decide to spend your time asking "Why is my ship sinking? Wasn't the hole super small? I just don't know what I should do". The other option is to get some wood, and nails, then walk around the lower deck and find the leak, plug it up, and scoop the excess water out. It hurts to admit you have made mistakes and learn from them.

So you just sit asking yourself "Why is the ship sinking".

Then after 7 days, realizing you might drown soon if nothing changes, fate has it that you run into another ship filled with sailors. You ask them: "Hey guys, my ship is sinking and I'm not sure what to do".

They tell you: Dude there's a hole in the lower deck of your ship, go plug it up!

But then you realize, this answer is not something you want to hear because ... if it was that simple then why did you spend 7 days doing the same thing expecting different results?

Now you're 7 days behind from reaching DeMarcoland.

Self-awareness and reflection are your next steps, then you go plug the hole and clean up the mess. Then brush off the lost time and keep sailing.

---

The solution:

Why do you suck so bad? Articulate the things you've been doing. List how every business idea starts out and then flops. Is there a problem with the idea itself? Or is the problem your mindset and your execution? What are the things you're doing that's not working?

Are you repeating the same patterns of actions/mental processes without changing?

What is the metaphorical hole that you have been neglecting? Go dig the ship of your past experience and find the hole.

Maybe the hole is a mental belief that you are currently holding on to.

That said, I have some ideas why you haven't made any money, money, money, money....

Where can you give value and have another man hand you money?

 

[Parks]

The good news is after seven years you had the good idea to make a post here and learn from your mistakes. That's a sign of improvement, keep it up.

 

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[maesterov]

Money is just a fortunate side-effect of our activity. We use it as a proxy for measuring our current level of success and impact on the world.

I’ve noticed you lay golden eggs quite often, but sometimes, like this time, you just smash those hard eggs right into the face. Very accurate and straight to the point. Absolutely love it.

I want to also add these questions people can ask themselves which delivers the same point.

How do you measure the amount of value or help you’ve been providing to people?

People come to you or they don’t. They either ask for more help or they don’t. They tell about you to their friends or they don’t. They see you as an authority, a reliable person or they don’t.

Either they do or they don’t. It’s simple, but it’s hard to keep track.

So how do you measure that?

How do you know for sure that what you do is adding value to society?

Money - just a ruler to measure your value.

 

[MitchC]

There’s a few posts I’ve made in my progress thread about why your ads didn’t work even though you copied everyone else’s winners.

But what it stems down to is exactly what everyone else is saying.

You aren’t providing any value.

Copying winning ads is money chasing.

The way to find a winning product is exactly what mj says in his book - provide value.

Pick a market that spends money. Now provide value or solve a problem for them.

The people making all the money are the people doing this, finding markets, finding winning products for them.

By the time a product makes it to a spy tool every other money chaser like you is copying it and the market is done. By that time the real entrepreneur has already moved onto the next one.

The only person getting rich is the person selling the spy tool and the gurus telling people like you they can get rich stealing other peoples ideas without doing any work.

I actually hate people like you who copy winning products and other peoples ideas and work trying to get rich without doing any work and I’m glad you haven’t had any success doing it.

Imagine if instead of doing what you’ve been doing, you spent the last 7 years working on solving a problem and creating an amazing product for a market that spends money, imagine where you would be now.

Now imagine some bozo like you sees that working on a spy tool and copy’s it.

When you see it all written down and worded like this it’s actually laughable to think anyone would believe that the secret to getting rich is using the same spy tools as everyone else trying to get rich.

Also why are you trying to sell an app on Kickstarter? Who the F*ck buys an app on Kickstarter? Seems like once again you want to be paid before actually providing any value, doing any work, or investing any money.

 

[Antifragile]

I don’t understand why I suck so bad as a musician.

Over the last 7 years I’ve tried everything and it all sucked. One time I tried slamming on piano, it didn’t work. I copied my friend’s music sheet and tried it but it sounded different and no one liked it.

List of Musical Instruments I tried to become a musician and it didn’t work:​

• Accordion
• Bagpipe
• Banjo
• Bass drum
• Bass guitar
• Bell
• Bongo drum
• Bugle
• Castanets
• Cello
• Clarinet
• Concertina
• Conga
• Cornet
• Cymbal
• Double bass
• Drums
• Electric guitar
• Flute
• French horn
• Glockenspiel
• Gong
• Grand piano
• Guitar
• Harmonica
• Harp
• Keyboard
• Mandolin
• Maracas
• Marimba
• Microphone
• Oboe
• Organ
• Pan flute
• Piano
• Recorder
• Saxophone
• Sitar
• Snare drum
• Tambourine
• Timpani
• Triangle
• Trombone
• Trumpet
• Tuba
• Ukulele
• Vibraphone
• Violin
• Xylophone
• Zither

/ end

It’s not a fair comparison, but this thread already addressed the most obvious problem. Lack of value. Next, lack of process. So I’m left with the last, being faithful to The One Thing. Getting to be great at something means not doing other things that aren’t helping.


I wish you better outcome in the next 7 years. You are off to a great start, you’ve accepted that your past methods don’t work.

PS. Thanks for making this thread. I think it’s very helpful to many readers who lack courage to speak up. But I’m sure there are many who are in the same situation as you and are reading.

 

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[MitchC]

I don’t understand why I suck so bad as a musician.

Over the last 7 years I’ve tried everything and it all sucked. One time I tried slamming on piano, it didn’t work. I copied my friend’s music sheet and tried it but it sounded different and no one liked it.

List of Musical Instruments I tried to become a musician and it didn’t work:​

• Accordion
• Bagpipe
• Banjo
• Bass drum
• Bass guitar
• Bell
• Bongo drum
• Bugle
• Castanets
• Cello
• Clarinet
• Concertina
• Conga
• Cornet
• Cymbal
• Double bass
• Drums
• Electric guitar
• Flute
• French horn
• Glockenspiel
• Gong
• Grand piano
• Guitar
• Harmonica
• Harp
• Keyboard
• Mandolin
• Maracas
• Marimba
• Microphone
• Oboe
• Organ
• Pan flute
• Piano
• Recorder
• Saxophone
• Sitar
• Snare drum
• Tambourine
• Timpani
• Triangle
• Trombone
• Trumpet
• Tuba
• Ukulele
• Vibraphone
• Violin
• Xylophone
• Zither

/ end

It’s not a fair comparison, but this thread already addressed the most obvious problem. Lack of value. Next, lack of process. So I’m left with the last, being faithful to The One Thing. Getting to be great at something means not doing other things that aren’t helping.


I wish you better outcome in the next 7 years. You are off to a great start, you’ve accepted that your past methods don’t work.

Sounds more to me like he tried to become a famous musician by plagiarising popular songs after everyone was already sick of listening to them.

 

[Kevin88660]

It has been seven years in my entrepreneurial journey and nothing I do makes money.

All I do is just keep on losing my own money and other peoples money.

It doesn't matter how much I test or how long I work on a business, everything I touch loses money.

A friend partnered with me to run Tiktok ads where he funds it and I run the ads and I lost all his money.

Another friend is doing the same but with Facebook and I'm currently in the process of losing his money too - every single campaign I launch fails.

An app I just launched on Kickstarter completely failed and got nowhere near its goal.

Every ecommerce store I try, every affiliate marketing campaign, every Facebook ad or Google ad, every freelance gig or cold outreach attempt, every app, literally everything I touch is unprofitable.

It's been seven years and I'm no closer to my "early retirement" as I was when I started.

The only successes I've had was early on when friends let me copy their winning campaigns. When I tried running other campaigns on my own I just burned money. Now I only make a living from one copywriting client and haven't increased my income for a very long time.

A business friend of mine recently told me that I should just start looking at careers that pay six figures.

I don't understand why I suck so bad at business, I don't understand why nothing I do works.

Are some people just not meant for entrepreneurship?

You are underestimating a lot of things.

Business is hard. Your experience is not unique.

You have learnt a lot of things throughout the seven years. You are no longer the former self 7 years ago.

You can read about Dyson founder who did thousands of prototype. The founder of the largest food delivery app in China failed 50-60 projects/business in ten years.

 

[capybro]

Ask yourself, how did I know this without any shadow of a doubt?

That said, I have some ideas why you haven't made any money, money, money, money....

I get that my situation could be funny, but saying "I have some ideas why you haven't made any money money money" doesn't give me any better direction to go in than before I started this thread.

Why are the businesses where I do go out of my way to provide value (copywriting, email marketing, apps) not growing even though providing value should make them work?

Why are so many people, even those I know personally, or certain users on this forum, able to make millions and retire with ecommerce, dropshipping and affiliate marketing but not others?

Why was I able to have a handful of successes in those same industries but then never again?

I'm willing to accept any type of criticism, pivot and do whatever it takes, but at this point I would benefit most from actionable advice specific to my situation

 

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[Kevin88660]

Why are the businesses where I do go out of my way to provide value (copywriting, email marketing, apps) not growing even though providing value should make them work?

For a business to be profitable you need to be exceptional. Failing is the norm. Solve a pain point, reasonable priced, able to reach out to customer cost effectively and others couldn’t copy you easily.

Most people start a b2b “selling shovels”. But at a deep fundamental levels most shovels aren’t yielding a positive roi for the business owners (clients). It could be due to the fact there they have no proprietary method to obtain leads cheaply. It could be due to the facts that their clients are in a non-profitable industries or their clients can’t deliver the values in their business. Everyone agrees that they suck and most are horrible.

All our linkedin pages get flooded with lead gen pitches. At the core they are all the same. “Pay the led generators the money and we pass the risk to you”.

If you can deliver positive roi business owners will line up and say “take my cash”.

Most shovel sellers are avoiding to solves the biggest pain points because these are hard issues. If you avoid hard issues then forget about making money. We don’t need another shovel seller. We need cutting edge high tech gold ore detectors. Are you going to burn your money in lab for three years to make one?

If you are in business/or simply being an experienced consumer for long you actually know what a “shut up and take my money” product/service looks like. But most business owners didn’t plan and work towards building a product/service that is in the category where customers say “shut up and take my money”. The reason is because it is hard. But avoiding the hard path, they choose a harder path of copycat with buzzwords hustling to nowhere.

 

[BizyDad]

Triangle

Bruh, you failed at the triangle?!?! Lolol.

I get that my situation could be funny, but saying "I have some ideas why you haven't made any money money money" doesn't give me any better direction to go in than before I started this thread.

Why are the businesses where I do go out of my way to provide value (copywriting, email marketing, apps) not growing even though providing value should make them work?

Why are so many people, even those I know personally, or certain users on this forum, able to make millions and retire with ecommerce, dropshipping and affiliate marketing but not others?

Why was I able to have a handful of successes in those same industries but then never again?

I'm willing to accept any type of criticism, pivot and do whatever it takes, but at this point I would benefit most from actionable advice specific to my situation

1. It's not anybody else's job to give you direction or even actionable advice. But complaining to the guy that wrote entire books about the subject is probably the wrong move. You don't seem to have absorbed what he has spent over a decade teaching. And now you're walking into his house and complaining you haven't gotten anywhere. And then you're complaining at how he reacts. Definitely not the right move.

2. As to the businesses where you're going out of your way to provide value, I think you need to accept the truth...

You aren't providing the value you think you are.

3. I've already tried to point out what I think your issue is...

Let's assume you've got something of value.

You either need to find the right people who value it.

Or you need to do a better job of communicating with those people.

Affiliate offers or dropshipping might not be a fast lane business, but they are ways to make some money. Assuming you know who wants the offer and you know how to communicate to their needs.

But affiliate offers or drop shipping will always get a bad rap on this forum because you lack control. Either one can be taken away from you pretty easily.

This thread is full of actionable advice.

If you're going to come on here and complain that you're not getting actionable advice when it's staring you in the face, how in the world is anyone supposed to help you?

 

[Antifragile]

I get that my situation could be funny, but saying "I have some ideas why you haven't made any money money money" doesn't give me any better direction to go in than before I started this thread.

MJ gave you a hint, you are asking for a more direct “give me the steps to follow” advice. Entrepreneur is an inventor. If you invented nothing, you get paid nothing. Worse yet, if you invented something that solves a problem no one has… you get the point, I hope.

Money is your reward for giving the world something valuable in exchange. If you don’t make any, it’s the world telling you something …

Why are the businesses where I do go out of my way to provide value (copywriting, email marketing, apps) not growing even though providing value should make them work?

What makes your copywriting different from a million others who are calling, emailing, harassing me on LinkedIn and stick sucking at copy?

What is unique that you do in email marketing that crushes the competition?

You going out of your way to provide value has nothing to do with it. It is not about trying, it’s about succeeding. The way you think is backwards and you are failing. To change your results, you must change your mind.
What do I mean by “backwards thinking”? I mean thinking in reverse. Thinking the way you read text, left to right. Entrepreneur thinks right to left! Right is the end, the outcome. Left is the beginning. Middle is the method of getting from begging to the end.

End: my client generated a ratio of 50% conversion from click to buy on my email campaign.
Beginning: industry standard is 1/100, my unique method that I invented gets 50/100.

Why are so many people, even those I know personally, or certain users on this forum, able to make millions and retire with ecommerce, dropshipping and affiliate marketing but not others?

That’s easy to explain. Tinkering.

In every market there is a way to outmanoeuvre your competition. Tinker here, change there, watch for results, get better and better. Marginal improvements, consistently applied… like the 1% gains.

That does not mean that the list you mentioned is the one to chase. Odds of success still matter. Put it another way: some people win the lotto, should I base my business on buying lotto tickets?

Why was I able to have a handful of successes in those same industries but then never again?

That’s a good question for YOU to ask YOURSELF. Analyze, examine, tinker, experiment, invent … tinker again… and again. Once you succeed, improve even more. That’s what business is all about.

But if I am being blunt, you’ve listed the armpit of the business world above instead of looking for a garden of roses.

What are you great at? Start there. And if the sad reality answer is “nothing” then tell me what you could be great at if you put in the effort?

Next, what can you do that does make money? Can you wash cars? Can you get a job? Can you … plan for your next business success?

Thread '8 Steps To Help You Plan for Business Success, a How-To Guide'
GOLD! - EXECUTION - 8 Steps To Help You Plan for Business Success, a How-To Guide

I'm willing to accept any type of criticism, pivot and do whatever it takes, but at this point I would benefit most from actionable advice specific to my situation

No.

Your decisions landed you here. Don’t ask for “actionable advice specific to my situation”. That’s the whole problem: you must own the fact that you are where you are because of decisions you made. Make better decisions. Do not outsource it to internet strangers.

Let me put it another way.

The quality of questions you ask of yourself will determine the quality of of your life. Instead of asking others “what should I do?” Ask yourself “what should I do?”. Decide. Live with the outcome.

 

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[JNagtegaal]

 

[Andy Black]

I actually hate people like you who copy winning products and other peoples ideas and work

A small change in wording might help you @MitchC:

"I hate it when people copy..."

instead of:

"I hate people who copy..."

Hate the sin not the sinner.