8 Eyewear: From Idea, to Launch, to Growth (And Quitting the Job)

[Vick]

is that 800-1500 revenue for the glasses or new venture?

For EIGHT.

 

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[AgainstAllOdds]

For EIGHT.

If you declare bankruptcy, won't EIGHT be sold off to repay the debt?

If so, how is bankruptcy an option? It seems like you'd be better off building the cash flow and selling the business for as much as you can to pay off the debt, then have something left over. Declaring bankruptcy seems like you'd lose the main asset that you have.

 

[Vick]

If you declare bankruptcy, won't EIGHT be sold off to repay the debt?

If so, how is bankruptcy an option? It seems like you'd be better off building the cash flow and selling the business for as much as you can to pay off the debt, then have something left over. Declaring bankruptcy seems like you'd lose the main asset that you have.

Yup.
tbh. I don't know what to do.
I'll have to talk with some professionals about my situation. My tax guys know there stuff, and they also happen to be good friends. Gonna talk with them first. See if they know anything I can do. What my options are.
If I could sell the company and pay off the debts with the sale, and start over without bankruptcy. I would.
But I don't know what I would get for the company.... If it's even sell-able.

 

[AgainstAllOdds]

Yup.
tbh. I don't know what to do.
I'll have to talk with some professionals about my situation. My tax guys know there stuff, and they also happen to be good friends. Gonna talk with them first. See if they know anything I can do. What my options are.
If I could sell the company and pay off the debts with the sale, and start over without bankruptcy. I would.
But I don't know what I would get for the company.... If it's even sell-able.

You're doing "$800 - $1500 a day in Revenue, with an ad spend limit of $250."

My guess is that your margins are close to 90% since it's sunglasses - maybe I'm way off...

$800 *.9 - $250 = $470 gross per day. $171,550
$1,500 * .9 - $250 = $1100 gross per day. $401,500

At a 2.5x multiple, your business is worth under $428k to $1MM (under because there's obviously other expenses).

If I was in your shoes, I'd:

1. Try to raise more bank debt if you qualify (you say your credit is good, but have a lot of debt out...). If you're going to go bankrupt, might as well take on more debt and give yourself a longer runway.

... if you can't do that, then...

2. Take on an investor - sell off a chunk, even half.

... if you can't do that, then...

3. Sell off everything you own to give yourself a longer runway and try to push the business towards covering the debt.

... if you can't do that, then...

4. Speak to a lawyer and see if you could sell the business to a family member before declaring bankruptcy (I don't know the law on this one). After that, ask for a salary to operate it.


If the numbers you presented are real, then you have something that 99%+ of the world wants. Seriously. At this point it's a moral obligation for you to do everything you can to toss the bottle and save this business.

 

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[biophase]

$1500-$3000 a day to pay the debt? For how long? I don't think you've mentioned the type of debt it is.

But it's sounding like a big chunk. Is it secured? Credit cards? Mortgage?

I think you need to figure this all out before you do anything else. Else the money you make today is basically for nothing.

What good is paying down any debt if you are going to declare bankruptcy anyway? You need to be spending it on things that aren't taken away in a bankruptcy.

 

[Sander]

Hey Vick.

Just a reminder to pat yourself on the shoulder, if you didn't have a drink today.

And if you did, we're here for you anyway, and we'll go for a day without alcohol tomorrow.

 

[BlindSide]

Vick I hope things are going well!

 

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[Surf16]

I'll be doing stuff for games and movies until I get myself back on track.
Start over.
Also, I have another project under way with a friend from the entertainment industry. Another 3d artist like myself.

Glad you are doing well Vick.

I always refer to your progress thread when thinking of new endeavors for inspiration.

Good luck on the new ventures.

 

[JinderS]

Update.

Surprise surprise. Issues with China again. Lol I just laugh it off now and move on.

CAMO V.1 designs won't make an appearance. At least not for a bit. Quality issues with the water transfer. Gotta keep pressing China to deliver.

Anyway, they already injected the frames for those camo units. So I just made some cooler colors to replace the Camo units. Matte Gun Metal. Matte Bronze. Full matte Red. Full matte blue. And some others. New inventory expected in a month or so.

Our new VX molds are ready. Waiting on samples. Can't wait too see them. Hopefully we have better luck with our CAMO prints on that model. Fingers crossed.

Sales are still strong thanks to Facebook and Instagram. Which is pretty much all I use. Actually it's all I use. Lol

Took our products off Amazon.com. Too many issues with being up here in Canada. And sales were very small. The sales were from my FB and IG advertising anyway, so if they didn't buy them on Amazon they would've went to our site. It was becoming a hastle and not worth the time invested. I do better focusing on my site.

Wayfarer model will be going into production within the coming months. It's prototype name so far is VR. Might change. Who knows, I always end up changing shit last minute.

On another note. I have to admit. Life is good. We barely work now. Income keeps pouring in. I'm free to do whatever I want. Hit the gym everyday. Go running. Play games. Spend time with the wife and kid. Drive the R8. Etc.

We pretty much live a 7hr work week. Everything runs automatically. Except order fulfilling which barely takes time anyway now that I've optimized it. Ads take no time. And they run for weeks at a time. Then they are replaced with fresh ads. I know I promised a video, but m6 ad plans are always changing so I don't wanna give anyone bad advice. Waiting till I find a good flow that works grea . So please be patient. I will make one.

This summer I will be looking at fulfilment houses. Not Amazon. It will be another company closer to home in the Toronto area. We would like to be able to visit the wife's folks when they are in Florida for weeks maybe months at a time, only way to do that is fulfilment houses. So ya, gonna look into that. It's a must.

Our sales are expected to be over 1 million this year. so hopefully we can hit that number. Now that our new model VX will be out soon we should hit that number easily.

Guess that's it.

Cheers. Keep pushing!

Mark

This is a huge inspiration, I going to finish this thread in the next few days. Thanks dude. I'm still at the starting stage with a 9 - 5 & I feel inspired, motivated and F*ckin' hungry.

 

[Ing]

I just read the entire thread.
Sorry to read the end. No. Not the end.
As you know, how to do it, you will do it a second time!

Just du, what you can!
Luck!

 

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[G2TS-Man]

Sales are decent. Even amist the nightmare were going through.
But I'm going "back to work" soon. From home.
I'll be doing stuff for games and movies until I get myself back on track.
Start over.
Also, I have another project under way with a friend from the entertainment industry. Another 3d artist like myself. Except he's way better then me. Lol
Anyway, hopefully we get that up soon.
Cheers my friends.
Be safe ✌
And stay the F*ck home.

Dear Vick, I became an INSIDERS last Saturday with the priority of reading your story first. I spent hours reading your whole process and the success story of 8.

I did not expect these last 3 pages. I will be brief and direct: I have known this. From my 21 to 25 years old, I drank every day, in my car, at work, in my office and I certainly forget about it, and in the evening I came home with my tie suit and I tried to pretend that I was fine with my fiancée. Of course, she noticed. I pass all the details because it is not the object, just know that it is possible to do without it, again + with the motivation and the determination that you are able to put in it (you have it shown for 7 years on this thread!

Like the other fastlaners, you are a great inspiration to me and I myself launched my thread last Monday. I believe that beautiful things can always happen.

I'm going to finish with a piece of poem that I tattooed on my body and that pushes me every day.

"It matters not how strait the gate,
How charged with punishments the scroll,
I am the master of my fate:
I am the captain of my soul. "

Please, keep going.

Julien.

 

[Young Money]

Hey Vick, I hope you're doing alright man.

I've been reading your thread in chunks over the last week and its been very inspiring. In fact, its given me the courage to move forward with my next business idea, after failing badly with my first (and accumulating a large amount of debt I'm still paying off).

Was sad and shocked to read these last few pages. With that said, you need to trust that things will get better!!!

Just don't ever give up.

You've tasted success that most people dream about and you will have it again. Take care of yourself first, and when you are ready to move forward - apply yourself with the same level of determination you had when you first set out and I'm certain you'll have another thriving business in the future!

Best of luck, and thank you for the GOLD in this thread and the inspiration.

Austin

 

[AdamB]

What an absolute rollercoaster or a read. I was glued to this thread and I couldn't start my work this morning until I had finished it.

I was not expecting what happened in the last 3 pages.

I cannot thank you enough for documenting all of this. The value in here is simply incredible.

It's been a few months since we last heard from you, so I hope you're doing okay. I signed up for INSIDERS last week for the first time and I feel I've got my money's worth just from this thread.

Thanks again for this.

 

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[JasonR]

Hello my friends.
Been awhile since I've posted.
Last couple years of my life have been a shit show.
So much has happened.
Pretty much lost everything.

Hey dude. Thanks for being honest and transparent. Sometimes that's a rarity these days and many only post the good things that happen.

If you need someone to listen to you, or just chat. I'm here.

Soldier on dude. If you did it once, you can do it again...

 

[Fantasy]

Just finished reading the whole thread. I'm greatly inspired by this thread. You've been honest and transparent about every part of your journey. Would love to see you in another Gold progress thread.

Wish you luck. Hope you're doing well.

 

[Jake]

Hope you're still around, Vick. I didn't like your first website change and it seems to have gotten progressively worse since then. Clothing seems a big distraction for the site as well.

The first parallax theme you used was super sweet and clean. Any chance to revert or start using single product V1 based landing pages to promote? Seems to have been more effective back then when you were focused on the V1. Other shades in retargeting?

Have you attempted to target Chinese speakers by any chance?

 

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[Vick]

Update.
Sales are better again.
Not much to say other then that.

However. I have been working on another project. A mobile game.

The new thread is here...

https://www.thefastlaneforum.com/community/threads/geometrons-mobile-game-development.96087/

Cheers

 

[Archer_Zero]

I guess I'll start from the beginning. Try and do this quickly.

I was spending a lot. Way more then I should've been.
But I still had quite a bit at that point, so I didn't notice I was. Slowly over the years it grew worse and worse, my spending habits. I didn't even really notice, irresponsible on my part. But I was going through a separation, there was a lot going on, my head was a mess.
This is turn resulted in divorce eventually. And obviously affected the business.
For years we tried to make it work. But we just grew apart.
Were still best friends and have a great relationship, which is great for our son. So that's a plus out of this nightmare.

Anyway.
I started drinking heavily.
I was already drinking some what above normal, during all those years. But it got worse after I was on my own.
I was spending all my time working on "fun" things. When I should've been focused on EIGHT.
I guess I was comfortable with the cash flow. I didn't care to make more.
I was also gambling online a lot. That one was f*cken brutal. I put end to that one. But I lost a lot.
My debts were piling up.
Still drinking a lot.
Stress and Depression got worse.
Etc. Etc.

This is lowest I've ever been in life.

It really is horrible.

So I don't know, I think it's just a combination of everything. Slowly piling up.
Divorce. Spending Habits.
Stress. Depression.
Then Drinking to relieve that. Even if it's for a few hours.
Which then makes me not wanna work on my business.
Loss of ambition and drive.
Failure now hits you hard and fast.
Confidence now low again.
Then Drinking to relieve that. Even if it's for a few hours.
Which then makes me not wanna work on my business.
Etc.

Alcohol is a big factor here. At least the ability to moderate it.
And depression/stress.

It's just a cyclonic nightmare.
It's hard to get out of.

I don't even know if that answers your questions.
It's hard to type out.

Thanks for sharing & helping others learn, Stay strong my friend & never give up

 

[mikecarlooch]

Wow. not a single complex sales funnel in sight. Just a golden process of manufacturing and distribution..

 

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[Isaac Odongo]

Dreams do come true with hard work and persistence.

True! Thanks for living out these words.

We live in the best times ever. Becoming wealthy has never been easier, if you're only willing to leave the herd behind and forge your own path.

Yes! Join the minority of the insane.

i think the best thing is being able to see your family whenever you want. I get to watch my son grow up from infancy everyday all day.

True as well. People are most important

I fear not the man who has practiced 10,000 kicks once, but I fear the man who has practiced one kick 10,000 times."
- Bruce Lee

That one kick will be cosmic.

Then things changed. The whole 2019 @Vick didn't post. But that's life. Dark sides are there too.

It matters not how strait the gate,
How charged with punishments the scroll,
I am the master of my fate:
I am the captain of my soul.

I believe he has moved on strongly or more strongly.

We all have to move on strongly, or more strongly.