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23 Year Old w/19 Employees: Just Did $5m in 2021, *OFFICIALLY A MILLIONAIRE* - AMA

Vadim26

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You mentioned that you have 19 staff, 4 VA's, 1 office and 2 warehouse locations.

How many different roles are there in your business?

Do you have your own warehouse set up or just renting out space from a 3rd party fulfillment centre?

I guess you store just enough stock at Amazon warehouses to keep storage fees low and a high sell-through rate. Has it became much more profitable not keeping all stock at Amazon, but else where?

I’ve just started scaling my fitness brand through Amazon and cannot imagine having more than 2-3 employees (PPC manager, customer support) and maybe a product research guy. Also looking at warehouse options, hence these questions.
 
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Silk Cuba

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You mentioned that you have 19 staff, 4 VA's, 1 office and 2 warehouse locations.

How many different roles are there in your business?

Do you have your own warehouse set up or just renting out space from a 3rd party fulfillment centre?

I guess you store just enough stock at Amazon warehouses to keep storage fees low and a high sell-through rate. Has it became much more profitable not keeping all stock at Amazon, but else where?

I’ve just started scaling my fitness brand through Amazon and cannot imagine having more than 2-3 employees (PPC manager, customer support) and maybe a product research guy. Also looking at warehouse options, hence these questions.

We have our own two warehouse locations, 12 of the 19 staff are warehouse pick and packers. Everyone automatically just assumes we use FBA, we don't. Most of our orders are MFN.
 

zhangmin_007

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View attachment 41061
£3m (online) + £1m (offline) ~ approx $5.3m so far in 2021. Profit $1.5m+

First of all, THIS FORUM IS AMAZING. I only wish I had come across it sooner! Hoping to become an active participant adding value to this forum.

Yesterday evening a random thought popped into my ahead, how amazing it would be to find an online community full of people, like I. So I simply google searched 'millionaire entrepreneurial forum' and I found this beauty. I spent the whole night reading success stories and here I am now....introducing myself to the forum.

CAREER BEGINNINGS
At the early age of 13, there was only one thought in my mind - being a successful entrepreneur. From the ages of 13-15, I sold anything I could get my hands on through classified ads. Stuff like old electronics from second hand shops, junk from my mum's garage, old clothing etc. Having a few hundred in pocket money at all times at such a young age was amazing.

At the age of 15, I discovered cryptocurrencies after reading an article on the famous once known market called Silk Road. In the early days, BTC was super difficult to purchase since exchanges were not as easily accessible as they are today. 9/10 people in 2013 that were aware of Bitcoin, wouldn't have a clue on how to actually purchase it. Exchanges were limited, fees were super high and banks were stringent. Through a lot of research, making private banking connections (yes I was contacting higher-ups at financial institutions, acting way older/bigger than I was at the time), using foreign currencies / exchanges, I was able to buy Bitcoin at market rate + 0.1%. I would re-sell or broker the coins at the time with a mark-up of 7% which was relatively low compared to others at the time, this put me in the game. Buying coins for $70 and re-selling them for $75 was a great for me at the time. I would usually sell between 70 - 150 BTC per day including weekends, averaging around $15k per month in profits. Costs were really low, I didn't need staff and my biggest cost really was an office at $1400 per month. At my peak, I probably made around $70k net in a single month - this was largely due to a big sale I had brokered between Coinbase and an investment fund. The Coinbase guys had even visited my office just to discuss this opportunity when they heard about it, shows how small they were at the time:happy: Over the next few years, as banks started accepting cryptocurrency exchange payments, countries legalising it and tax laws being put in place, the margins became thinner and thinner. Anyways, I never really considered this much of a success story, or an actual business. I didn't spend much time on it (apart from 30 mins or so per day executing trades), I had no company set up, I wasn't building on anything and I knew the future wasn't bright as bitcoin broker.

FAILURES
FAILURES HAPPEN. Most of capital I had accumulated from my various crypto dealings were simply lost on various startups between 2015-2019. I mean...these ideas were like SURE THINGS in my mind that never really amounted to anything. Years of work, capital and a lot more wasted on failed business ventures. I knew the odds were against me, so I never gave up. I knew it was never going to be easy, its evident because only 1% of the worlds population is a millionaire. You probably hear this a lot...but, it's just that simple. If you keep at something, you'll eventually make it work. I legit probably had like 7-10 startups fail on me. I guess one of the reasons was that I was trying to do multiple things at once, following the famous saying "the average millionaire has 7 streams of income". In my opinion, they should replace the the word millionaire with billionaire. A million dollars is not much at all in the grand scheme of things, you don't need 7 streams of income to make a million. Maybe for a billion you do. As @G_Alexander said, I'd rather focus on one venture that brings in $20,000,00 :clench: STAY MOTIVATED AND KEEP KEEP TRYING!

MY FIRST SUCCESS STORY
Mid-2017, I opened a e-commerce site after a solid 6 months of research. All on my own, no partners or mentors to help. The niche I had chosen was Home & Garden products. It was towards the end of April when the site launched and in our first full month, we did $35k in revenue. Yes I said that right, in May 2017, my first month trading, my store did $35k in revenue. I was shocked. Trying to stay in stock was so stressful since my capital was limited at the time, but...my hard-work had finally paid off. I did have my fair share of problems with product re-calls, electric hazards and things of that nature - standard stuff for someone as inexperienced as me, I learned from the mistakes I made though. That being said, things were looking up for me finally! This was nothing for what is to come though. The store was doing well, although my net profits were pretty low, I had 2 full-time staff members and life became enjoyable. In 2018, I ended up selling the store on EmpireFlippers. The offer was just so good that I could not refuse, the buyer had much more capital and experience to be able to increase its margins. It would have taken me years that make that sort of money in net profits. I knew that with the money from the sale and the experience I had gained, I could make an even better store, like much better. This time, I would make a proper brand from scratch, as oppose to just finding the products on Alibaba which was what I had done before.

With a low 6-figure investment from myself, I started the main venture in the summer of 2018. Aside from the website sale funds, I only had a small savings pot of around $70k, which would last me around 9 months (yes I do spend quite a bit... spending money on memories so no regrets here). When I started this venture, it wasn't like any of the other ventures I had started. Things got serious pretty quickly. I knew that if I really wanted to make it in this world, I would have to change my lifestyle, I needed to stop going out 4/5 times per week just because I could afford it. Becoming more productive was amazing, it had a massive impact on my performance and focus. I also started eating less junk food, working out and generally leading a healthier lifestyle. Fast forward to today, I am a millionaire (not to blow my own horn) and I HARDLY go out nowadays, I prefer doing this on a Tuesday night...working on my business and reading up on fellow entrepreneurs stories:)

Things were going as planned, I grew the brand slowly to ensure that things were being done correctly and to the highest quality. I won't specify the niche of my business, for now anyways. We did around $1.4m in revenue during 2018 and 2019, MAKING NO PROFIT IN THE FIRST 2 YEARS OF BUSINESS. This was all part of the plan but people thought I was crazy, even my own staff, PURPOSE BEYOND PROFIT! Don't be afraid of losing time/money.

When the pandemic came around, our business sky-rocketed in every sense. I had to hire more people, get a bigger office and upgrade all of our systems to be able to handle the increase in business. My 3PL couldn't handle the influx of orders so I decided to stop outsourcing logistics and resultantly, we got our first warehouse location in 2020. This increased our net margins to around 30%. 2020 ended strong with net profits being close to $1m. Yes, a whole million:wideyed: This would have blown my mind a few years back.

Fast forward to 2021, growth has been consistent in every department and we are on track to do around 2x our numbers in 2020. We have started trading B2B and supplying goods in bulk, this has amounted to 25% of our income. Furthermore, we've just secured the lease on a new and MUCH LARGER warehouse location, which has capacity 30-50 staff can work with state-of-the-art-tech. This allows us to move everything under one roof and the size should suffice for at least the next 2-3 years. We will move in on the 1st of January 2022! Please note, I still own 100% of the company, selling equity in anything I own isn't my cup of tea. I'd rather grow slower and keep all control. Maybe I'll change my mind in the future...I've just been given a nice 7-figure credit line facility, which will enable aggressive growth over the next 12-18 months.

BREAKDOWN OF GROWTH AND FIGURES
2018:
$400k in revenue, hired 2 staff members and worked from a small 3 person office
2019: $1,000,000 in revenue, 5 staff members and worked from a medium sized 6 person office
2020: $2,900,000 in revenue, 10 staff members and worked from 2 locations (office and warehouse)
2021: $5,800,000 - $6,000,000 in revenue depending on how the rest of December turns out (fingers crossed), 19 staff, 4 VA's, 1 office and 2 warehouse locations

I have set myself a goal of $15m in revenue in 2022 and $50m by 2025.

Very excited to see what the future holds! If you have any questions or need assistance in any sort of way, I am here for all of you JUST ASK AWAY. Let's keep chasing our dreams!
congratulations!great job!
 

Vas87

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Congratulations! You mentioned you opened an e-commerce site after a solid 6 months of research, anything in particular that you were looking for? Was it market demand?
 

Nick Catricala

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View attachment 41061
£3m (online) + £1m (offline) ~ approx $5.3m so far in 2021. Profit $1.5m+

First of all, THIS FORUM IS AMAZING. I only wish I had come across it sooner! Hoping to become an active participant adding value to this forum.

Yesterday evening a random thought popped into my ahead, how amazing it would be to find an online community full of people, like I. So I simply google searched 'millionaire entrepreneurial forum' and I found this beauty. I spent the whole night reading success stories and here I am now....introducing myself to the forum.

CAREER BEGINNINGS
At the early age of 13, there was only one thought in my mind - being a successful entrepreneur. From the ages of 13-15, I sold anything I could get my hands on through classified ads. Stuff like old electronics from second hand shops, junk from my mum's garage, old clothing etc. Having a few hundred in pocket money at all times at such a young age was amazing.

At the age of 15, I discovered cryptocurrencies after reading an article on the famous once known market called Silk Road. In the early days, BTC was super difficult to purchase since exchanges were not as easily accessible as they are today. 9/10 people in 2013 that were aware of Bitcoin, wouldn't have a clue on how to actually purchase it. Exchanges were limited, fees were super high and banks were stringent. Through a lot of research, making private banking connections (yes I was contacting higher-ups at financial institutions, acting way older/bigger than I was at the time), using foreign currencies / exchanges, I was able to buy Bitcoin at market rate + 0.1%. I would re-sell or broker the coins at the time with a mark-up of 7% which was relatively low compared to others at the time, this put me in the game. Buying coins for $70 and re-selling them for $75 was a great for me at the time. I would usually sell between 70 - 150 BTC per day including weekends, averaging around $15k per month in profits. Costs were really low, I didn't need staff and my biggest cost really was an office at $1400 per month. At my peak, I probably made around $70k net in a single month - this was largely due to a big sale I had brokered between Coinbase and an investment fund. The Coinbase guys had even visited my office just to discuss this opportunity when they heard about it, shows how small they were at the time:happy: Over the next few years, as banks started accepting cryptocurrency exchange payments, countries legalising it and tax laws being put in place, the margins became thinner and thinner. Anyways, I never really considered this much of a success story, or an actual business. I didn't spend much time on it (apart from 30 mins or so per day executing trades), I had no company set up, I wasn't building on anything and I knew the future wasn't bright as bitcoin broker.

FAILURES
FAILURES HAPPEN. Most of capital I had accumulated from my various crypto dealings were simply lost on various startups between 2015-2019. I mean...these ideas were like SURE THINGS in my mind that never really amounted to anything. Years of work, capital and a lot more wasted on failed business ventures. I knew the odds were against me, so I never gave up. I knew it was never going to be easy, its evident because only 1% of the worlds population is a millionaire. You probably hear this a lot...but, it's just that simple. If you keep at something, you'll eventually make it work. I legit probably had like 7-10 startups fail on me. I guess one of the reasons was that I was trying to do multiple things at once, following the famous saying "the average millionaire has 7 streams of income". In my opinion, they should replace the the word millionaire with billionaire. A million dollars is not much at all in the grand scheme of things, you don't need 7 streams of income to make a million. Maybe for a billion you do. As @G_Alexander said, I'd rather focus on one venture that brings in $20,000,00 :clench: STAY MOTIVATED AND KEEP KEEP TRYING!

MY FIRST SUCCESS STORY
Mid-2017, I opened a e-commerce site after a solid 6 months of research. All on my own, no partners or mentors to help. The niche I had chosen was Home & Garden products. It was towards the end of April when the site launched and in our first full month, we did $35k in revenue. Yes I said that right, in May 2017, my first month trading, my store did $35k in revenue. I was shocked. Trying to stay in stock was so stressful since my capital was limited at the time, but...my hard-work had finally paid off. I did have my fair share of problems with product re-calls, electric hazards and things of that nature - standard stuff for someone as inexperienced as me, I learned from the mistakes I made though. That being said, things were looking up for me finally! This was nothing for what is to come though. The store was doing well, although my net profits were pretty low, I had 2 full-time staff members and life became enjoyable. In 2018, I ended up selling the store on EmpireFlippers. The offer was just so good that I could not refuse, the buyer had much more capital and experience to be able to increase its margins. It would have taken me years that make that sort of money in net profits. I knew that with the money from the sale and the experience I had gained, I could make an even better store, like much better. This time, I would make a proper brand from scratch, as oppose to just finding the products on Alibaba which was what I had done before.

With a low 6-figure investment from myself, I started the main venture in the summer of 2018. Aside from the website sale funds, I only had a small savings pot of around $70k, which would last me around 9 months (yes I do spend quite a bit... spending money on memories so no regrets here). When I started this venture, it wasn't like any of the other ventures I had started. Things got serious pretty quickly. I knew that if I really wanted to make it in this world, I would have to change my lifestyle, I needed to stop going out 4/5 times per week just because I could afford it. Becoming more productive was amazing, it had a massive impact on my performance and focus. I also started eating less junk food, working out and generally leading a healthier lifestyle. Fast forward to today, I am a millionaire (not to blow my own horn) and I HARDLY go out nowadays, I prefer doing this on a Tuesday night...working on my business and reading up on fellow entrepreneurs stories:)

Things were going as planned, I grew the brand slowly to ensure that things were being done correctly and to the highest quality. I won't specify the niche of my business, for now anyways. We did around $1.4m in revenue during 2018 and 2019, MAKING NO PROFIT IN THE FIRST 2 YEARS OF BUSINESS. This was all part of the plan but people thought I was crazy, even my own staff, PURPOSE BEYOND PROFIT! Don't be afraid of losing time/money.

When the pandemic came around, our business sky-rocketed in every sense. I had to hire more people, get a bigger office and upgrade all of our systems to be able to handle the increase in business. My 3PL couldn't handle the influx of orders so I decided to stop outsourcing logistics and resultantly, we got our first warehouse location in 2020. This increased our net margins to around 30%. 2020 ended strong with net profits being close to $1m. Yes, a whole million:wideyed: This would have blown my mind a few years back.

Fast forward to 2021, growth has been consistent in every department and we are on track to do around 2x our numbers in 2020. We have started trading B2B and supplying goods in bulk, this has amounted to 25% of our income. Furthermore, we've just secured the lease on a new and MUCH LARGER warehouse location, which has capacity 30-50 staff can work with state-of-the-art-tech. This allows us to move everything under one roof and the size should suffice for at least the next 2-3 years. We will move in on the 1st of January 2022! Please note, I still own 100% of the company, selling equity in anything I own isn't my cup of tea. I'd rather grow slower and keep all control. Maybe I'll change my mind in the future...I've just been given a nice 7-figure credit line facility, which will enable aggressive growth over the next 12-18 months.

BREAKDOWN OF GROWTH AND FIGURES
2018:
$400k in revenue, hired 2 staff members and worked from a small 3 person office
2019: $1,000,000 in revenue, 5 staff members and worked from a medium sized 6 person office
2020: $2,900,000 in revenue, 10 staff members and worked from 2 locations (office and warehouse)
2021: $5,800,000 - $6,000,000 in revenue depending on how the rest of December turns out (fingers crossed), 19 staff, 4 VA's, 1 office and 2 warehouse locations

I have set myself a goal of $15m in revenue in 2022 and $50m by 2025.

Very excited to see what the future holds! If you have any questions or need assistance in any sort of way, I am here for all of you JUST ASK AWAY. Let's keep chasing our dreams!
Hey great guy, you rock.. congratulation, you deserve your success and much more.. at your age, I was making $40,000 a year driving buses and subways in Toronto, and I thought It was great... that is why no in my 70s, I am not as financially wealthy... few startups failures placed me in a level that for some reasons could not raise up and so no ith much less energy, I am living with old-age pension income and earning some extra income with few thousand of savings at the rate of 8% through some mortgage investment.. I am glad I do have it, but boy oh boy, I would love to have an ongoing successful and profitable business like yours that would bring in more income, and assure a great and successful lifestyle for my two kids and their families. THANKS for sharing your wonderful story. it opens my heart and sends you the best wishes for you to reach your goals and more. If you are in and or around Toronto and you are ok to meet and chat, it would be nice to make it happen in person but if not, a chat over zoom or phone would be wonderful, I never had a chance to chat with someone like you, and who knows, you inspired me and by meeting and or chatting, may open up my mind to some idea that could start the spark to start a successful business soon. Thanks a lot for being you.
 

RoadTrip

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Thank you for sharing your story!

Can you tell us on what basis you made your decisions for hiring your first (non-warehousing) employees?

I have a similar business + another B2B business and I'm contemplating on hiring an employee to relieve me from the recurring daily tasks which I haven't been able to automate.

What made you decide that you needed employees? And what were the first tasks you assigned to them? And how did it change your day afterwards?
 
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Silk Cuba

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Congratulations! You mentioned you opened an e-commerce site after a solid 6 months of research, anything in particular that you were looking for? Was it market demand?

Nothing in specific that I can remember. I do have a notebook full of super useful notes somewhere in my house and that probably has a lot more info, which I've forgotten mostly by now.

Hey great guy, you rock.. congratulation, you deserve your success and much more.. at your age, I was making $40,000 a year driving buses and subways in Toronto, and I thought It was great... that is why no in my 70s, I am not as financially wealthy... few startups failures placed me in a level that for some reasons could not raise up and so no ith much less energy, I am living with old-age pension income and earning some extra income with few thousand of savings at the rate of 8% through some mortgage investment.. I am glad I do have it, but boy oh boy, I would love to have an ongoing successful and profitable business like yours that would bring in more income, and assure a great and successful lifestyle for my two kids and their families. THANKS for sharing your wonderful story. it opens my heart and sends you the best wishes for you to reach your goals and more. If you are in and or around Toronto and you are ok to meet and chat, it would be nice to make it happen in person but if not, a chat over zoom or phone would be wonderful, I never had a chance to chat with someone like you, and who knows, you inspired me and by meeting and or chatting, may open up my mind to some idea that could start the spark to start a successful business soon. Thanks a lot for being you.

Thanks for your kind words, I appreciate it. I'm sure you have a bunch more experience than I do but sure, just drop me a message and I'm sure we can arrange a time to talk. Its never too late!

Thank you for sharing your story!

Can you tell us on what basis you made your decisions for hiring your first (non-warehousing) employees?

I have a similar business + another B2B business and I'm contemplating on hiring an employee to relieve me from the recurring daily tasks which I haven't been able to automate.

What made you decide that you needed employees? And what were the first tasks you assigned to them? And how did it change your day afterwards?

Handling day-to-day operations stops me from actually growing the company so when I realised that, I hired my first employee. The first task I assigned to her was invoicing, responding to calls, emails and handling our logistics/import documents.. This would then give me more time to implement new strategies, find new products and so on. As my company grew, I kept hiring and hiring. Now, my two managers are the staff's point of contact which makes running a business enjoyable.
 

rsrs

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Thank you for sharing your story!

Can you tell us on what basis you made your decisions for hiring your first (non-warehousing) employees?

I have a similar business + another B2B business and I'm contemplating on hiring an employee to relieve me from the recurring daily tasks which I haven't been able to automate.

What made you decide that you needed employees? And what were the first tasks you assigned to them? And how did it change your day afterwards?
I can recommend the book Traction, by Gino Wickman. I still struggle on delegating things but I am in a MUCH better position after reading this book some time ago.
 

RoadTrip

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Handling day-to-day operations stops me from actually growing the company so when I realised that, I hired my first employee. The first task I assigned to her was invoicing, responding to calls, emails and handling our logistics/import documents.. This would then give me more time to implement new strategies, find new products and so on. As my company grew, I kept hiring and hiring. Now, my two managers are the staff's point of contact which makes running a business enjoyable.

Thank you! These are the exact same tasks that are a burden on my time as well. It's really valuable that you are sharing your experiences.

If you don't mind I have a few more questions:

What was the tipping point in terms of profit before you hired your first employee? How did you find your first employee? And what was the skill set you looked for?
 
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RoadTrip

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I can recommend the book Traction, by Gino Wickman. I still struggle on delegating things but I am in a MUCH better position after reading this book some time ago.
Thanks for the suggestion. It looks like it's what I need at this moment so I ordered it already. Looking forward to reading it.
 

Achilleaus

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Thank you sir for sharing your story. Your story gives me hope whenever I feel I am not seeing results. I sometimes forget that it's a process. Thank you for reminding me that it takes patience and consistent efforts to see the results that you have.
 

Blackman

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Hey mate, well done and props to you for sticking with it over the years.

I'm in e-commerce myself, but just barely getting started and I'm interested in your sales/marketing channels.

Since I've got a completely brand-new store, I'm utilising Google Shopping Ads to get relevant traffic to my store and make sales. It's sort of working, but it's a really difficult balance of making sure you're in profit, after deducting all the ad spend, while in the meantime trying to stay competitive on price as well. Are you using GSA yourself?

If I've read it right, you used Amazon PPC initially to generate sales, so would you say this is your primary source of sales? If not, what is your marketing currently like and where do your sales come from, i.e. direct, GSA, Amazon, etc?

Also interested in what is your e-commerce platform and payment processor?

Thanks for answering all the questions.
 
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MitchM

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View attachment 41061
£3m (online) + £1m (offline) ~ approx $5.3m so far in 2021. Profit $1.5m+

First of all, THIS FORUM IS AMAZING. I only wish I had come across it sooner! Hoping to become an active participant adding value to this forum.

Yesterday evening a random thought popped into my ahead, how amazing it would be to find an online community full of people, like I. So I simply google searched 'millionaire entrepreneurial forum' and I found this beauty. I spent the whole night reading success stories and here I am now....introducing myself to the forum.

CAREER BEGINNINGS
At the early age of 13, there was only one thought in my mind - being a successful entrepreneur. From the ages of 13-15, I sold anything I could get my hands on through classified ads. Stuff like old electronics from second hand shops, junk from my mum's garage, old clothing etc. Having a few hundred in pocket money at all times at such a young age was amazing.

At the age of 15, I discovered cryptocurrencies after reading an article on the famous once known market called Silk Road. In the early days, BTC was super difficult to purchase since exchanges were not as easily accessible as they are today. 9/10 people in 2013 that were aware of Bitcoin, wouldn't have a clue on how to actually purchase it. Exchanges were limited, fees were super high and banks were stringent. Through a lot of research, making private banking connections (yes I was contacting higher-ups at financial institutions, acting way older/bigger than I was at the time), using foreign currencies / exchanges, I was able to buy Bitcoin at market rate + 0.1%. I would re-sell or broker the coins at the time with a mark-up of 7% which was relatively low compared to others at the time, this put me in the game. Buying coins for $70 and re-selling them for $75 was a great for me at the time. I would usually sell between 70 - 150 BTC per day including weekends, averaging around $15k per month in profits. Costs were really low, I didn't need staff and my biggest cost really was an office at $1400 per month. At my peak, I probably made around $70k net in a single month - this was largely due to a big sale I had brokered between Coinbase and an investment fund. The Coinbase guys had even visited my office just to discuss this opportunity when they heard about it, shows how small they were at the time:happy: Over the next few years, as banks started accepting cryptocurrency exchange payments, countries legalising it and tax laws being put in place, the margins became thinner and thinner. Anyways, I never really considered this much of a success story, or an actual business. I didn't spend much time on it (apart from 30 mins or so per day executing trades), I had no company set up, I wasn't building on anything and I knew the future wasn't bright as bitcoin broker.

FAILURES
FAILURES HAPPEN. Most of capital I had accumulated from my various crypto dealings were simply lost on various startups between 2015-2019. I mean...these ideas were like SURE THINGS in my mind that never really amounted to anything. Years of work, capital and a lot more wasted on failed business ventures. I knew the odds were against me, so I never gave up. I knew it was never going to be easy, its evident because only 1% of the worlds population is a millionaire. You probably hear this a lot...but, it's just that simple. If you keep at something, you'll eventually make it work. I legit probably had like 7-10 startups fail on me. I guess one of the reasons was that I was trying to do multiple things at once, following the famous saying "the average millionaire has 7 streams of income". In my opinion, they should replace the the word millionaire with billionaire. A million dollars is not much at all in the grand scheme of things, you don't need 7 streams of income to make a million. Maybe for a billion you do. As @G_Alexander said, I'd rather focus on one venture that brings in $20,000,00 :clench: STAY MOTIVATED AND KEEP KEEP TRYING!

MY FIRST SUCCESS STORY
Mid-2017, I opened a e-commerce site after a solid 6 months of research. All on my own, no partners or mentors to help. The niche I had chosen was Home & Garden products. It was towards the end of April when the site launched and in our first full month, we did $35k in revenue. Yes I said that right, in May 2017, my first month trading, my store did $35k in revenue. I was shocked. Trying to stay in stock was so stressful since my capital was limited at the time, but...my hard-work had finally paid off. I did have my fair share of problems with product re-calls, electric hazards and things of that nature - standard stuff for someone as inexperienced as me, I learned from the mistakes I made though. That being said, things were looking up for me finally! This was nothing for what is to come though. The store was doing well, although my net profits were pretty low, I had 2 full-time staff members and life became enjoyable. In 2018, I ended up selling the store on EmpireFlippers. The offer was just so good that I could not refuse, the buyer had much more capital and experience to be able to increase its margins. It would have taken me years that make that sort of money in net profits. I knew that with the money from the sale and the experience I had gained, I could make an even better store, like much better. This time, I would make a proper brand from scratch, as oppose to just finding the products on Alibaba which was what I had done before.

With a low 6-figure investment from myself, I started the main venture in the summer of 2018. Aside from the website sale funds, I only had a small savings pot of around $70k, which would last me around 9 months (yes I do spend quite a bit... spending money on memories so no regrets here). When I started this venture, it wasn't like any of the other ventures I had started. Things got serious pretty quickly. I knew that if I really wanted to make it in this world, I would have to change my lifestyle, I needed to stop going out 4/5 times per week just because I could afford it. Becoming more productive was amazing, it had a massive impact on my performance and focus. I also started eating less junk food, working out and generally leading a healthier lifestyle. Fast forward to today, I am a millionaire (not to blow my own horn) and I HARDLY go out nowadays, I prefer doing this on a Tuesday night...working on my business and reading up on fellow entrepreneurs stories:)

Things were going as planned, I grew the brand slowly to ensure that things were being done correctly and to the highest quality. I won't specify the niche of my business, for now anyways. We did around $1.4m in revenue during 2018 and 2019, MAKING NO PROFIT IN THE FIRST 2 YEARS OF BUSINESS. This was all part of the plan but people thought I was crazy, even my own staff, PURPOSE BEYOND PROFIT! Don't be afraid of losing time/money.

When the pandemic came around, our business sky-rocketed in every sense. I had to hire more people, get a bigger office and upgrade all of our systems to be able to handle the increase in business. My 3PL couldn't handle the influx of orders so I decided to stop outsourcing logistics and resultantly, we got our first warehouse location in 2020. This increased our net margins to around 30%. 2020 ended strong with net profits being close to $1m. Yes, a whole million:wideyed: This would have blown my mind a few years back.

Fast forward to 2021, growth has been consistent in every department and we are on track to do around 2x our numbers in 2020. We have started trading B2B and supplying goods in bulk, this has amounted to 25% of our income. Furthermore, we've just secured the lease on a new and MUCH LARGER warehouse location, which has capacity 30-50 staff can work with state-of-the-art-tech. This allows us to move everything under one roof and the size should suffice for at least the next 2-3 years. We will move in on the 1st of January 2022! Please note, I still own 100% of the company, selling equity in anything I own isn't my cup of tea. I'd rather grow slower and keep all control. Maybe I'll change my mind in the future...I've just been given a nice 7-figure credit line facility, which will enable aggressive growth over the next 12-18 months.

BREAKDOWN OF GROWTH AND FIGURES
2018:
$400k in revenue, hired 2 staff members and worked from a small 3 person office
2019: $1,000,000 in revenue, 5 staff members and worked from a medium sized 6 person office
2020: $2,900,000 in revenue, 10 staff members and worked from 2 locations (office and warehouse)
2021: $5,800,000 - $6,000,000 in revenue depending on how the rest of December turns out (fingers crossed), 19 staff, 4 VA's, 1 office and 2 warehouse locations

I have set myself a goal of $15m in revenue in 2022 and $50m by 2025.

Very excited to see what the future holds! If you have any questions or need assistance in any sort of way, I am here for all of you JUST ASK AWAY. Let's keep chasing our dreams!
First, big props on your success. It's inspiring.

Right now I am on track for your 2019 numbers in terms of revenue, but I still run everything solo with independent contractors.

When I read your post - what surprised me was your focus on the warehouse locations.

Do you care to elaborate on the benefits?

I have been having trouble with 3PLs and your insight here would be really appreciated.

The plan right now is to eat shit for the next year (just meaning not save a single dime) and hire and get every system in place that I can.
 

Silk Cuba

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Hey mate, well done and props to you for sticking with it over the years.

I'm in e-commerce myself, but just barely getting started and I'm interested in your sales/marketing channels.

Since I've got a completely brand-new store, I'm utilising Google Shopping Ads to get relevant traffic to my store and make sales. It's sort of working, but it's a really difficult balance of making sure you're in profit, after deducting all the ad spend, while in the meantime trying to stay competitive on price as well. Are you using GSA yourself?

If I've read it right, you used Amazon PPC initially to generate sales, so would you say this is your primary source of sales? If not, what is your marketing currently like and where do your sales come from, i.e. direct, GSA, Amazon, etc?

Also interested in what is your e-commerce platform and payment processor?

Thanks for answering all the questions.

Good luck. I've used GSA in the past, not so much though. Amazon PPC used to be my primary source of income, not anymore though. Nearly all of our sales are organic now. Only new SKU's we would advertise.

First, big props on your success. It's inspiring.

Right now I am on track for your 2019 numbers in terms of revenue, but I still run everything solo with independent contractors.

When I read your post - what surprised me was your focus on the warehouse locations.

Do you care to elaborate on the benefits?

I have been having trouble with 3PLs and your insight here would be really appreciated.

The plan right now is to eat shit for the next year (just meaning not save a single dime) and hire and get every system in place that I can.

Thanks. Thats great, keep it up!

The biggest benefit would be less costs. It's much cheaper to run your own warehouse, rather than pay a certain fee per unit with 3 PLs. The more you grow, the more you save really.

Glad to hear you are taking growth seriously. What sort of systems are you thinking of implementing?
 

MitchM

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Good luck. I've used GSA in the past, not so much though. Amazon PPC used to be my primary source of income, not anymore though. Nearly all of our sales are organic now. Only new SKU's we would advertise.



Thanks. Thats great, keep it up!

The biggest benefit would be less costs. It's much cheaper to run your own warehouse, rather than pay a certain fee per unit with 3 PLs. The more you grow, the more you save really.

Glad to hear you are taking growth seriously. What sort of systems are you thinking of implementing?
Thanks! I'm going to look into it tomorrow. Would you recommend a warehouse near Las Vegas? I can't help but think East Coast (where I am) might not be the best idea with transit times.

In terms of systems, I need to tighten up my spending decisions in terms of turnover/cashflow and new products with an employee that can do better reporting and projections for me than I can myself.

I need to take on someone full time for customer support.

I also need to improve everything along the supply chain side. I am looking for a forwarding company now that I can work with more consistently. Warehousing. My inventory management needs to be better as well.

Last, my social media presence is non-existent, and I want to bring on one or two people that can get the ball rolling there.
 
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Romsweb

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Thanks for your kind words, I appreciate it. I'm sure you have a bunch more experience than I do but sure, just drop me a message and I'm sure we can arrange a time to talk. Its never too late!
This message only show what kind of person you are! And deserves everything you get and will get in the future... Love this! Thank you
 

conti

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View attachment 41061
£3m (online) + £1m (offline) ~ approx $5.3m so far in 2021. Profit $1.5m+

First of all, THIS FORUM IS AMAZING. I only wish I had come across it sooner! Hoping to become an active participant adding value to this forum.

Yesterday evening a random thought popped into my ahead, how amazing it would be to find an online community full of people, like I. So I simply google searched 'millionaire entrepreneurial forum' and I found this beauty. I spent the whole night reading success stories and here I am now....introducing myself to the forum.

CAREER BEGINNINGS
At the early age of 13, there was only one thought in my mind - being a successful entrepreneur. From the ages of 13-15, I sold anything I could get my hands on through classified ads. Stuff like old electronics from second hand shops, junk from my mum's garage, old clothing etc. Having a few hundred in pocket money at all times at such a young age was amazing.

At the age of 15, I discovered cryptocurrencies after reading an article on the famous once known market called Silk Road. In the early days, BTC was super difficult to purchase since exchanges were not as easily accessible as they are today. 9/10 people in 2013 that were aware of Bitcoin, wouldn't have a clue on how to actually purchase it. Exchanges were limited, fees were super high and banks were stringent. Through a lot of research, making private banking connections (yes I was contacting higher-ups at financial institutions, acting way older/bigger than I was at the time), using foreign currencies / exchanges, I was able to buy Bitcoin at market rate + 0.1%. I would re-sell or broker the coins at the time with a mark-up of 7% which was relatively low compared to others at the time, this put me in the game. Buying coins for $70 and re-selling them for $75 was a great for me at the time. I would usually sell between 70 - 150 BTC per day including weekends, averaging around $15k per month in profits. Costs were really low, I didn't need staff and my biggest cost really was an office at $1400 per month. At my peak, I probably made around $70k net in a single month - this was largely due to a big sale I had brokered between Coinbase and an investment fund. The Coinbase guys had even visited my office just to discuss this opportunity when they heard about it, shows how small they were at the time:happy: Over the next few years, as banks started accepting cryptocurrency exchange payments, countries legalising it and tax laws being put in place, the margins became thinner and thinner. Anyways, I never really considered this much of a success story, or an actual business. I didn't spend much time on it (apart from 30 mins or so per day executing trades), I had no company set up, I wasn't building on anything and I knew the future wasn't bright as bitcoin broker.

FAILURES
FAILURES HAPPEN. Most of capital I had accumulated from my various crypto dealings were simply lost on various startups between 2015-2019. I mean...these ideas were like SURE THINGS in my mind that never really amounted to anything. Years of work, capital and a lot more wasted on failed business ventures. I knew the odds were against me, so I never gave up. I knew it was never going to be easy, its evident because only 1% of the worlds population is a millionaire. You probably hear this a lot...but, it's just that simple. If you keep at something, you'll eventually make it work. I legit probably had like 7-10 startups fail on me. I guess one of the reasons was that I was trying to do multiple things at once, following the famous saying "the average millionaire has 7 streams of income". In my opinion, they should replace the the word millionaire with billionaire. A million dollars is not much at all in the grand scheme of things, you don't need 7 streams of income to make a million. Maybe for a billion you do. As @G_Alexander said, I'd rather focus on one venture that brings in $20,000,00 :clench: STAY MOTIVATED AND KEEP KEEP TRYING!

MY FIRST SUCCESS STORY
Mid-2017, I opened a e-commerce site after a solid 6 months of research. All on my own, no partners or mentors to help. The niche I had chosen was Home & Garden products. It was towards the end of April when the site launched and in our first full month, we did $35k in revenue. Yes I said that right, in May 2017, my first month trading, my store did $35k in revenue. I was shocked. Trying to stay in stock was so stressful since my capital was limited at the time, but...my hard-work had finally paid off. I did have my fair share of problems with product re-calls, electric hazards and things of that nature - standard stuff for someone as inexperienced as me, I learned from the mistakes I made though. That being said, things were looking up for me finally! This was nothing for what is to come though. The store was doing well, although my net profits were pretty low, I had 2 full-time staff members and life became enjoyable. In 2018, I ended up selling the store on EmpireFlippers. The offer was just so good that I could not refuse, the buyer had much more capital and experience to be able to increase its margins. It would have taken me years that make that sort of money in net profits. I knew that with the money from the sale and the experience I had gained, I could make an even better store, like much better. This time, I would make a proper brand from scratch, as oppose to just finding the products on Alibaba which was what I had done before.

With a low 6-figure investment from myself, I started the main venture in the summer of 2018. Aside from the website sale funds, I only had a small savings pot of around $70k, which would last me around 9 months (yes I do spend quite a bit... spending money on memories so no regrets here). When I started this venture, it wasn't like any of the other ventures I had started. Things got serious pretty quickly. I knew that if I really wanted to make it in this world, I would have to change my lifestyle, I needed to stop going out 4/5 times per week just because I could afford it. Becoming more productive was amazing, it had a massive impact on my performance and focus. I also started eating less junk food, working out and generally leading a healthier lifestyle. Fast forward to today, I am a millionaire (not to blow my own horn) and I HARDLY go out nowadays, I prefer doing this on a Tuesday night...working on my business and reading up on fellow entrepreneurs stories:)

Things were going as planned, I grew the brand slowly to ensure that things were being done correctly and to the highest quality. I won't specify the niche of my business, for now anyways. We did around $1.4m in revenue during 2018 and 2019, MAKING NO PROFIT IN THE FIRST 2 YEARS OF BUSINESS. This was all part of the plan but people thought I was crazy, even my own staff, PURPOSE BEYOND PROFIT! Don't be afraid of losing time/money.

When the pandemic came around, our business sky-rocketed in every sense. I had to hire more people, get a bigger office and upgrade all of our systems to be able to handle the increase in business. My 3PL couldn't handle the influx of orders so I decided to stop outsourcing logistics and resultantly, we got our first warehouse location in 2020. This increased our net margins to around 30%. 2020 ended strong with net profits being close to $1m. Yes, a whole million:wideyed: This would have blown my mind a few years back.

Fast forward to 2021, growth has been consistent in every department and we are on track to do around 2x our numbers in 2020. We have started trading B2B and supplying goods in bulk, this has amounted to 25% of our income. Furthermore, we've just secured the lease on a new and MUCH LARGER warehouse location, which has capacity 30-50 staff can work with state-of-the-art-tech. This allows us to move everything under one roof and the size should suffice for at least the next 2-3 years. We will move in on the 1st of January 2022! Please note, I still own 100% of the company, selling equity in anything I own isn't my cup of tea. I'd rather grow slower and keep all control. Maybe I'll change my mind in the future...I've just been given a nice 7-figure credit line facility, which will enable aggressive growth over the next 12-18 months.

BREAKDOWN OF GROWTH AND FIGURES
2018:
$400k in revenue, hired 2 staff members and worked from a small 3 person office
2019: $1,000,000 in revenue, 5 staff members and worked from a medium sized 6 person office
2020: $2,900,000 in revenue, 10 staff members and worked from 2 locations (office and warehouse)
2021: $5,800,000 - $6,000,000 in revenue depending on how the rest of December turns out (fingers crossed), 19 staff, 4 VA's, 1 office and 2 warehouse locations

I have set myself a goal of $15m in revenue in 2022 and $50m by 2025.

Very excited to see what the future holds! If you have any questions or need assistance in any sort of way, I am here for all of you JUST ASK AWAY. Let's keep chasing our dreams!


That story is simply amazing!! Well done, really inspiring.

Thanks for sharing and taking your time to explain your experience.

I have an idea of a niche e-commerce but I don’t know where to start and I am procrastinating a bit.
How do I know my idea and niche will succeed?
Where do I source the products from?
Shall I create a website, or use Shopify?
Marketing?

Do you have any help to find some of that info. Any books or courses?

Many thanks in andvaced!
You sent so much positive energy with your post : )
 
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Silk Cuba

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That story is simply amazing!! Well done, really inspiring.

Thanks for sharing and taking your time to explain your experience.

I have an idea of a niche e-commerce but I don’t know where to start and I am procrastinating a bit.
How do I know my idea and niche will succeed?
Where do I source the products from?
Shall I create a website, or use Shopify?
Marketing?

Do you have any help to find some of that info. Any books or courses?

Many thanks in andvaced!
You sent so much positive energy with your post : )


How do I know my idea and niche will succeed? - You don't
Where do I source the products from? - Wherever best for your products, China, Taiwan, the US or anywhere
Shall I create a website, or use Shopify? - Yes Shopify is great
Marketing? - Very important
 

Djioul

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Hey @Silk Cuba,

Congratulations !!
Very inspiring story, thanks for sharing !

I'm also setting up an e-commerce website to sell our own hand-made jewels.
You said that you invested a lot in marketing. Which marketing levers did you use ?
 
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MattDMND

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Currently as a UK LTD. We've also just registered ourselves in the US and formed an LLC in the state of Wyoming at the cost of less than $1,000. This I believe is the best route to take for non-resident, mainly online businesses that plan to expand to the US. We plan to launch in the US during Q1 next year.
Awesome stuff man.
Have you talked to an international tax advisor for the UK parent-US LLC child though? I'm also looking at structures like these, but from which I know, you risk a 30% withholding on dividends from US LLCs to Uk and EU corps. Probably better to have the WY as an INC or find an EU state that got a special treaty with the US on dividends (Luxembourg being one of those, I'm about to open in Switzerland but got the same problem). Check incorporations.io for the treaties overview

Just a heads up, congratulations on your success!
 

sonny_1080

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I started off with just the one SKU. With the first store which I sold, I didn't actually invent any new products or get patents. I was pretty inexperienced and capital was limited. I just found factories in China already creating the products and I added my designs to it i.e. a different colour or brand name. Now, we do it all.



Yes we are inventing new products now. Quality is of the most importance to me, even if that means we have to charge a few extra $. Marketing is key, we spend a lot on marketing. Hence why we made no profit in Y1 and Y2.



As a kid, I never looked at it like that TBH. You are right though, some people have it and some people just don't. I feel like everyone on this forum is on the right track, just even being on here sets you aside from others. Your numbers are still pretty impressive! My first 2 years were somewhat similar. Just the fact that you've been able to create something yourself that's actually selling is a major achievement that many will only dream of.

I mean yes a million is a considerable amount of money but once you have it, it doesn't feel like much. Maybe things will change at 8 or 9 figures.

Haha, yep. Sure we can!



In most business, utilising credit for growth is really important. Debt isn't a bad thing. If you can take a $100k loan and make a ROI of 5% monthly and your APR is 8%, then why wouldn't you? During Y1 and Y2, I didn't really take on any borrowings since I felt like the business wasn't ready yet. When 2020 came around, the business was pretty established so I started getting financing and I am still doing so till this day. A large % of my assets on my balance sheet is actually borrowings (<50%). If I didn't use credit, my revenue would probably be 40/50% less.
Are you borrowing from banks?
 
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pumpkinman

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Another UK guy here. Thanks for sharing everything so far. You say you initially spent a lot on advertising but found it tricky to transition to organic sales. Would you say it just comes with time/repeat customers/word of mouth mainly?

You also mention giveaways. Are there any other free strategies (as opposed to paying for ads) that you found really worthwhile in growing your e-commerce store?

I am starting up right now and have a very limited ad budget.
 

Silk Cuba

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Awesome stuff man.
Have you talked to an international tax advisor for the UK parent-US LLC child though? I'm also looking at structures like these, but from which I know, you risk a 30% withholding on dividends from US LLCs to Uk and EU corps. Probably better to have the WY as an INC or find an EU state that got a special treaty with the US on dividends (Luxembourg being one of those, I'm about to open in Switzerland but got the same problem). Check incorporations.io for the treaties overview

Just a heads up, congratulations on your success!

I have a tax advisor but he's U.K. based so his knowledge may be limited. Now since you've mentioned this, I will definitely do my research and find a qualified international tax advisor to help me. Thanks!

Are you borrowing from banks?

Yes but not only limited to banks, I've got a large credit line facility in place too. I think leveraging credit is crucial in this line of work.

Another UK guy here. Thanks for sharing everything so far. You say you initially spent a lot on advertising but found it tricky to transition to organic sales. Would you say it just comes with time/repeat customers/word of mouth mainly?

You also mention giveaways. Are there any other free strategies (as opposed to paying for ads) that you found really worthwhile in growing your e-commerce store?

I am starting up right now and have a very limited ad budget.

My pleasure. Yes you got it right, time and repeat customers gradually help with organic sales. It took me nearly two years for this to happen though.
 

Silk Cuba

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I've received a few PM's which I have not yet responded too. I will try to respond to everyone ASAP - as you can imagine December is like the busiest time of the year x5.
 
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stavedeve

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View attachment 41061
£3m (online) + £1m (offline) ~ approx $5.3m so far in 2021. Profit $1.5m+

First of all, THIS FORUM IS AMAZING. I only wish I had come across it sooner! Hoping to become an active participant adding value to this forum.

Yesterday evening a random thought popped into my ahead, how amazing it would be to find an online community full of people, like I. So I simply google searched 'millionaire entrepreneurial forum' and I found this beauty. I spent the whole night reading success stories and here I am now....introducing myself to the forum.

CAREER BEGINNINGS
At the early age of 13, there was only one thought in my mind - being a successful entrepreneur. From the ages of 13-15, I sold anything I could get my hands on through classified ads. Stuff like old electronics from second hand shops, junk from my mum's garage, old clothing etc. Having a few hundred in pocket money at all times at such a young age was amazing.

At the age of 15, I discovered cryptocurrencies after reading an article on the famous once known market called Silk Road. In the early days, BTC was super difficult to purchase since exchanges were not as easily accessible as they are today. 9/10 people in 2013 that were aware of Bitcoin, wouldn't have a clue on how to actually purchase it. Exchanges were limited, fees were super high and banks were stringent. Through a lot of research, making private banking connections (yes I was contacting higher-ups at financial institutions, acting way older/bigger than I was at the time), using foreign currencies / exchanges, I was able to buy Bitcoin at market rate + 0.1%. I would re-sell or broker the coins at the time with a mark-up of 7% which was relatively low compared to others at the time, this put me in the game. Buying coins for $70 and re-selling them for $75 was a great for me at the time. I would usually sell between 70 - 150 BTC per day including weekends, averaging around $15k per month in profits. Costs were really low, I didn't need staff and my biggest cost really was an office at $1400 per month. At my peak, I probably made around $70k net in a single month - this was largely due to a big sale I had brokered between Coinbase and an investment fund. The Coinbase guys had even visited my office just to discuss this opportunity when they heard about it, shows how small they were at the time:happy: Over the next few years, as banks started accepting cryptocurrency exchange payments, countries legalising it and tax laws being put in place, the margins became thinner and thinner. Anyways, I never really considered this much of a success story, or an actual business. I didn't spend much time on it (apart from 30 mins or so per day executing trades), I had no company set up, I wasn't building on anything and I knew the future wasn't bright as bitcoin broker.

FAILURES
FAILURES HAPPEN. Most of capital I had accumulated from my various crypto dealings were simply lost on various startups between 2015-2019. I mean...these ideas were like SURE THINGS in my mind that never really amounted to anything. Years of work, capital and a lot more wasted on failed business ventures. I knew the odds were against me, so I never gave up. I knew it was never going to be easy, its evident because only 1% of the worlds population is a millionaire. You probably hear this a lot...but, it's just that simple. If you keep at something, you'll eventually make it work. I legit probably had like 7-10 startups fail on me. I guess one of the reasons was that I was trying to do multiple things at once, following the famous saying "the average millionaire has 7 streams of income". In my opinion, they should replace the the word millionaire with billionaire. A million dollars is not much at all in the grand scheme of things, you don't need 7 streams of income to make a million. Maybe for a billion you do. As @G_Alexander said, I'd rather focus on one venture that brings in $20,000,00 :clench: STAY MOTIVATED AND KEEP KEEP TRYING!

MY FIRST SUCCESS STORY
Mid-2017, I opened a e-commerce site after a solid 6 months of research. All on my own, no partners or mentors to help. The niche I had chosen was Home & Garden products. It was towards the end of April when the site launched and in our first full month, we did $35k in revenue. Yes I said that right, in May 2017, my first month trading, my store did $35k in revenue. I was shocked. Trying to stay in stock was so stressful since my capital was limited at the time, but...my hard-work had finally paid off. I did have my fair share of problems with product re-calls, electric hazards and things of that nature - standard stuff for someone as inexperienced as me, I learned from the mistakes I made though. That being said, things were looking up for me finally! This was nothing for what is to come though. The store was doing well, although my net profits were pretty low, I had 2 full-time staff members and life became enjoyable. In 2018, I ended up selling the store on EmpireFlippers. The offer was just so good that I could not refuse, the buyer had much more capital and experience to be able to increase its margins. It would have taken me years that make that sort of money in net profits. I knew that with the money from the sale and the experience I had gained, I could make an even better store, like much better. This time, I would make a proper brand from scratch, as oppose to just finding the products on Alibaba which was what I had done before.

With a low 6-figure investment from myself, I started the main venture in the summer of 2018. Aside from the website sale funds, I only had a small savings pot of around $70k, which would last me around 9 months (yes I do spend quite a bit... spending money on memories so no regrets here). When I started this venture, it wasn't like any of the other ventures I had started. Things got serious pretty quickly. I knew that if I really wanted to make it in this world, I would have to change my lifestyle, I needed to stop going out 4/5 times per week just because I could afford it. Becoming more productive was amazing, it had a massive impact on my performance and focus. I also started eating less junk food, working out and generally leading a healthier lifestyle. Fast forward to today, I am a millionaire (not to blow my own horn) and I HARDLY go out nowadays, I prefer doing this on a Tuesday night...working on my business and reading up on fellow entrepreneurs stories:)

Things were going as planned, I grew the brand slowly to ensure that things were being done correctly and to the highest quality. I won't specify the niche of my business, for now anyways. We did around $1.4m in revenue during 2018 and 2019, MAKING NO PROFIT IN THE FIRST 2 YEARS OF BUSINESS. This was all part of the plan but people thought I was crazy, even my own staff, PURPOSE BEYOND PROFIT! Don't be afraid of losing time/money.

When the pandemic came around, our business sky-rocketed in every sense. I had to hire more people, get a bigger office and upgrade all of our systems to be able to handle the increase in business. My 3PL couldn't handle the influx of orders so I decided to stop outsourcing logistics and resultantly, we got our first warehouse location in 2020. This increased our net margins to around 30%. 2020 ended strong with net profits being close to $1m. Yes, a whole million:wideyed: This would have blown my mind a few years back.

Fast forward to 2021, growth has been consistent in every department and we are on track to do around 2x our numbers in 2020. We have started trading B2B and supplying goods in bulk, this has amounted to 25% of our income. Furthermore, we've just secured the lease on a new and MUCH LARGER warehouse location, which has capacity 30-50 staff can work with state-of-the-art-tech. This allows us to move everything under one roof and the size should suffice for at least the next 2-3 years. We will move in on the 1st of January 2022! Please note, I still own 100% of the company, selling equity in anything I own isn't my cup of tea. I'd rather grow slower and keep all control. Maybe I'll change my mind in the future...I've just been given a nice 7-figure credit line facility, which will enable aggressive growth over the next 12-18 months.

BREAKDOWN OF GROWTH AND FIGURES
2018:
$400k in revenue, hired 2 staff members and worked from a small 3 person office
2019: $1,000,000 in revenue, 5 staff members and worked from a medium sized 6 person office
2020: $2,900,000 in revenue, 10 staff members and worked from 2 locations (office and warehouse)
2021: $5,800,000 - $6,000,000 in revenue depending on how the rest of December turns out (fingers crossed), 19 staff, 4 VA's, 1 office and 2 warehouse locations

I have set myself a goal of $15m in revenue in 2022 and $50m by 2025.

Very excited to see what the future holds! If you have any questions or need assistance in any sort of way, I am here for all of you JUST ASK AWAY. Let's keep chasing our dreams!
man, this is really super. Thanks for sharing. I loved how you did give up an equity.
 

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