Ask 8-figure business owners for personalized advice!

[Jannina Emila]

Jannina,

I will try to restate your question and let me know if I am misinterpreting something.

You have 2 businesses. Your first business is your online & social media presence. It in itself is is not very lucrative yet but it is growing rapidly. Your second business is a physical health product that people really value and you have received a strong response to, but you just haven't dedicated enough time to it to be able to scale it appropriately. Your question is which you should focus on. Is that right?

It's not possible to know for sure without knowing your values/goals and seeing the businesses first hand However, if you enjoy it and you believe you can grow your online presence to a respectable size, I would say keeping both on the table but focusing on on the online presence unlock more opportunity. Most content creators are making money by sponsoring or advertising some kind of product. The fantastic part for you is that you can sponsor your own product! Then when you want to make more money, you make a new product and add it to your lineup that you advertise for free. A strong online presence is like a money printer to someone that also has an entrepreneurial mindset.

As I mentioned, this answer makes alot of assumptions about your product and presence though.

Thank you NeoDialectic! You got it fully right, I honestly have so much potential to grow on social media (trendy products, plenty of skills like editing, talking, visual eye etc) but I guess I got a bit side tracked and overwhelmed from all the options available. I appreciate your help so so much. Thank you again!

 

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[woken]

The whole purpose of using social media is that you don’t need money to do that.

You just have to make an account and just get views on your account.

Tiktok.. yes, maybe.

The rest are pay to play mostly. Especially since not even your followers see your posts.

 

[NeoDialectic]

Testing the product is a great idea, but I'm curious how you do that with a physical product. The only real way to know whether buyers will pay for it is actually selling it to them. Adding prospects to a waitlist is low quality validation. No money, no commitment.

I would think about how many sales are needed to breakeven on the initial minimum order and see how it plays out with different prices points. It's great to make one-time profitable sales, but it's pretty common to upsell other products to generate a profitable order. If you can sell it and lose money, that's often a fixable problem. Larger orders will probably cost less per item, upselling adds to the order total and raising the price is always worth testing.

4HWW uses a defective shopping cart (PRODUCT ON BACKLOG!!!) which is scammy, but doable.

There are definitely non-scammy ways of doing it. It obviously also depends greatly on the product. I am currently working on that step by step like we discussed earlier in this thread and that will show an example of this.

I always ask people who want to sell on Amazon this one question. Imagine you have your product already made and sitting in boxes at your house. You ship the first case to FBA. Now what? What is your next step?

I saw that you had also asked about advertising and Facebook ads in a previous post. To me that says that you haven’t researched how you plan on marketing your product yet. Do you know how much a click is for your product on Amazon PPC? Or on Facebook ads? I have a feeling both avenues will not be profitable for your product.

+1

I don't think people realize that in 2022 both Amazon and Facebook PPC are very expensive. They can obviously be important staples in picking products off the ground, but it's not cheap & easy.

Thank you for your kind offer!

Topic: Growth
Question: How do you reinvest profits in your company during the growth stage? Or more specifically, how do you reinvest as much as possible while still being prepared for predictable shifts in customer demand and unpredictable shifts (e.g., from recessions, new competitors, etc...)?

Part B: How do you know when the growth stage is over and you should pull back investment?

Unfortunately I won't be the best person to answer this. We choose to never get into cut throat businesses where you have slim margins. We try to spare no costs in ensuring a quality product and then we make sure we have healthy margins (~10x or more of product manufacturing cost). The healthy margin means inventory costs and reinvestment are never even considered an issue in the business.

Thank you NeoDialectic! You got it fully right, I honestly have so much potential to grow on social media (trendy products, plenty of skills like editing, talking, visual eye etc) but I guess I got a bit side tracked and overwhelmed from all the options available. I appreciate your help so so much. Thank you again!

Best of luck to you!

I'm saying that you need to figure out how you are going to market before you even make the product. It feels like all you plan on doing after getting your product is launching PPC campaigns. I am recommending that you think about marketing more.

From what I'm reading, all you have is a different scratch off travel map. And your only plan is to use PPC, whether it be on Etsy, Google or Amazon. You have one means of getting sales and if it doesn't work, you are screwed. What other methods will you try to get sales? Tik Tok, IG, FB, Youtube?

What happens if your PPC cost is too high to be profitable and you have spend $3000 on product? What would you do next?

Also, regarding the fake testing method. If you list it, I'm assuming you are going to do a small quantity since you don't have any. What happens if you list 1 and then sell 1 in the first day? What do you conclude from this data? Did you happen to just sell 1 because of the new store? Would you have sold 10 if you had listed a quantity of 10? Or would you have only sold 1 out of 10? What if you sell 1 in the first 10 days?

Great advice. The only thing I would differ with is that I don't personally think your last paragraph is as big of a deal. I think the person funding availability should dictate their actions in this regard. Obviously going all in is the most effective way of doing things. But if you don't have alot of funds but you do have time, doing a low quantity is still effective. Selling just one while breaking even in PPC is already a huge positive signal versus not even being able to sell one.

 

[biophase]

Great advice. The only thing I would differ with is that I don't personally think your last paragraph is as big of a deal. I think the person funding availability should dictate their actions in this regard. Obviously going all in is the most effective way of doing things. But if you don't have alot of funds but you do have time, doing a low quantity is still effective. Selling just one while breaking even in PPC is already a huge positive signal versus not even being able to sell one.

I was under the impression that he was going to list his product without actually even having one and then cancelling it.

The problem is you have a test with a data set of 1. Personally, that would not make me feel any more comfortable in placing a $3000 order. I think I'd have to set the quantity at 10 at least.

 

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[watchopt]

Hello and thank you for this.
I am wondering about your experiences with the: the rub and iteration.

I spend to much time in the 'forward looking' realm. "Just doing it" or getting to work is so covered up by my forward looking habit. What a market opportunity? lol

Considering the world has gone flat, meaning the whole world has the tools and skills (gaining) to do what you are sharing about here, my question is: How close do you think we are to automating (with some man power) the idea generation/rub/interation components of product development?

If you can answer that, also what do you think is holding the world back? I mean look at Tesla's attempt to make a mold for the vehicles.

 

[mikecarlooch]

Tiktok.. yes, maybe.

The rest are pay to play mostly. Especially since not even your followers see your posts.

Organic Traffic on YouTube and Instagram are still here, don't neglect them. Instagram reels is here and it's booming if you can make the correct content for it.

For YouTube, download VIDIQ. This allows you to find keywords that are being searched a lot but not much competition. If you can find these keywords in your niche, YouTube will award you with organic traffic assuming you have a good video.

 

[watchopt]

I've just been reading about AI content generation that's deemed pretty darn acceptable by the researchers.

I gave it a go. Quite impressive. If you didn't know much about COPY (which I didn't), you will after you spend a few hours with this tool - hands-on-learning. This is definitely a good start with the building blocks, for more automation. Okay, back to this advice thread.

 

[arivera]

Una inquietud, tienen documentado (proceso) cómo hacer una investigación de mercado (para encontrar ideas de posibles problemas, necesidades u oportunidades), donde nos dicen cómo hacerlo y qué herramientas usar para ello.
Si es así, ¿podrías compartirlo?

PS /
Como bien has indicado tú y otros expertos, es fundamental partir de la mayor claridad tanto del mercado objetivo como de la necesidad/problema a resolver.
Sin una comprensión adecuada, las demás fases estarán viciadas, por lo que los resultados no serán los mejores.

Como indican, su mayor deseo es aportar, creo que profundizar en esta fase con herramientas y procesos sería un GRAN APORTE, ya que muchos expertos dicen que esto se debe hacer pero no enseñan CÓMO hacerlo.

 

[NeoDialectic]

Any advice on how to find more niche suppliers? Looking to source sustainable products (upcycled plastic, biodegradable etc) in the pet industry. Having difficulties with Alibaba suppliers at the moment as they dont use the specific materials i want.

You may find more willing suppliers in the USA. Obviously that will raise costs, but if you are doing sustainable type advertising you are targeting people that will not necessarily be frightened by higher prices. So you can pass those costs on.

 

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[Djioul]

For example, let's say you are looking for t-shirts with dinosaurs on them and can't find any anywhere. I doubt that you would find places that people complain about a lack of dinosaur t-shirts. It may just be difficult to find a place that would facilitate people peoples complaints about this (dinosaur enthusiast forums?). However I am also sure other people do want t-shirts with dinosaurs on them!

I see what you mean. I've made 3-4 hours of research and only found a few people complaining about the same issue that I have. It was on specialized forums and around the 2010's...
But I am pretty sure that I am not the only one who faces this kind of troubles and so far, I did not find any product solving the problem (which is very surprising to me). This makes me ask myself if there is a real need on the market for the improvement I would propose.

One other thing I would try is try to find a forums/reddits/facebook groups/etc where you imagine a person with this issue would hang out. Then YOU instigate a thread on it. So based on my last example, go to an archeological forum and just make a thread asking where you can get dinosaur t-shirts or why no one makes them. You will either get crickets, or you will hear from your future customers haha.

I was thinking to use this kind of trick. Thanks.
I now have to find the good places to put my question.

One thing I have very limited experience in is international markets. I have sold thousands of products worldwide, but it was as a happy byproduct of USA based research. So for example, I don't know how powerful or useful French google is or how prolific forums are in French.

French Google is probably as powerful as in the US. But it is also true that the content is probably different than in the US.
For example, forums are not a thing anymore in France, except for very specific niches. That's why, all the answers I found on forums were from the 2010's. At that time, people still used to go on forums. It's not the case anymore.
FB Groups are more prolific now, si I'll keep investigating there.

But I also did my researches in English and German. Also there, I found some stuff but not so many. Maybe it is also the market which I'm targeting which is old-fashioned...

 

[door123]

Sounds like you have a good base to build a brand. The easiest way to add revenue to an existing product line for us was to add new products. The same customers that want your shampoo, also may want a conditioner to make their cat soft afterwards. But they may be concerned that they can't use anything after the shampoo without messing with the medicated shampoo. That's where you come in. Your Condition is advertised as SAFE to use without messing with the medication that is in your shampoo.... Maybe only 10% of customers will buy both, but thats another sale every 2 days just from existing buyers! That's not nothing and the best part hopefully you try to keep scaling the original product and as that one scales, so will your second item as a byproduct. It's not a guarantee, of course. But it's a good bet.

On the other hand, it does sound like most your effort should be focused on increasing sales. You have an already selling product, which is GREAT! Try to improve your listing. Add a video. Add a+ content. You already know this is a seller, so try other marketplaces. Shopify with PPC on google/yahoo, eBay, walmart.com, FB advertising, etc...

Don't be afraid to experiment with the price either. Change it to 24.95 for a few days. What did that do with sales? If it barely effected them, you just nearly doubled your profit. Maybe it will work, maybe it won't.

Personally, I wouldn't mess with trying to get it cheaper in China. The added profit on this level of sales isn't worth it and comes with it's own issues.

Thank you, you'r very helpful! I was ready to close this SKU down this year.

Do you have any tips for getting your A+ Content approved?

- Increased the price and reapplied coupon that expired
- will add video
- will add a+ content (my content has been rejected 3x times)

 

[Danny_Cox]

It's a difficult question to give an exact answer to. Partially because it probably has more to do with my mindset at each "era" and the surrounding environment.

The most rich I have ever felt was probably when I started making 100k-200k a year during my first venture as an 18yr old. Before that I was hustling in restaurants working 20-40hr weeks during school, to make comparatively spare change. Being young and coming from a middle class immigrant family, it felt like I was printing money. This was in a midwest town where I only saw one lamborghini in my entire life up to then. It was also before the age of instagram where everyone logs on and is spam blasted with insanely wealthy people. I'm not sure if I felt like I totally escaped the rat race there as I knew it could all come crashing down and I would be back to making 0. But with the amount I saved up, I was confident that I could live on it for years to come and that I could find something new during those years. I felt like I should blow through stop signs to save time because any tickets I got would be worth the cost just so I could get back to working. "Opportunity cost" and all. I didn't actually do that. But taking my thinking brain out of it, it felt like the financially right thing to do. If that's not feeling like you have "f you money", I don't know what is. Boy do I enjoy looking back and chuckling at myself from those times.

Form there on in, there were alot of "ups" and "downs". Which culminated in this last major "up" that puts to shame anything I did at 18. But even then, I'm not sure if I ever captured the same feeling again. It's the feeling that I believe most aspiring entrepreneurs are chasing. It's like the cocaine side of success. But then what happened is I grew up. Planning for "myself living well the next few years", turned into "planning for my wife and I to live well for years", to "planning for my wife, I and kids to live well for years", to the final "planning for my family living a good lifestyle without the requirement of work for the rest of my years (barring the edge scenarios like the collapse of the USA)". My business sale successfully achieved that last goal. So while I think most are talking about the hit of cocaine, I would currently define escaping the rat race to be this last mile marker I hit.

But even then.... I'm not sure. I am only able to confidently live a reasonably well off lifestyle without working. I still find myself at work to this day. Is it much more "labor of love" focused now? The answer would be a resounding yes. But sure still feels familiar to the rat race.

Very interesting. Thanks for responding so thoroughly. It really is all in the mind—cool to have that confirmed from someone who won the money game.

 

[woken]

Still very much in the idea/design stage, but I'm thinking of a design of mens underwear - specifically seamless ones (I find them irritating), since most are not, and even ones which say they are, are not...
The main doubt I am having is about how much it would really be wanted, since I'm more fussy about the comfort than most. However, I think that if people were to try it, they would feel how much more comfortable it would feel, and perhaps a productocracy could be generated from them telling others about it. I think this could have a lot of potential considering how important the comfort is for most, but it's whether most would currently really care about it enough to switch to a different product - it is a very crowded market in mens underwear.
So the main issue I think is about the total addressable market - which I am currently investigating.
Do you have any other points of view on this?
Thanks!

Check uniqlo’s airism underwear.



When it comes to this we’re biased. We tend to overlook that other brands are already doing this.


( You can’t find seamless underwear on Google, right? )

 

[K1 Lambo]

My business partner and I recently sold our successful online business for 8 figures. You can see @fastlane_dad intro page here, and mine here. We have had businesses in alot of categories, but have limited experience in old fashion "shaking hands" type businesses. Our primary expertise is online sales, marketing, marketplaces like Amazon (and others), bootstrapping, and mindset. One way we want to give back to the community is by guiding people that are still on their entrepreneurship path.

We figured one of the more impactful ways we can do it is by answering peoples questions publically versus in DM's or personal consultations. So if you want our opinion/advice about your personal situation, we will be happy to read through your questions and give you a personalized answer. But it has to be public. That way everyone can read and discuss our answers. If we don't have experience in a topic, we will let you know.

Is it true that making your first $1m is harder than making $10m?

 

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[NeoDialectic]

Is it true that making your first $1m is harder than making $10m?

I agree with the sentiment but I'm not sure I would go that far. The next $1m is easier than the first $1m, but not the next $9m combined.

Maybe what your quote is getting at is that it may just be that difficult to even get into the producer mindset instead of the indoctrinated consumer mindset. So much of business is having the right mentality, experience and disposition. That first million you have so much working against you. You're business dumb, you have been a consumer your whole life, you don't have any experience, you don't have the right mindset, and whatever business you are just starting doesn't have a life and momentum of it's own. By the time you have made $1m , you have likely became alot smarter, honed your instinct, got your mindset in the right direction, and your business has some momentum to it. But not 9:1 easier in my opinion!

 

[K1 Lambo]

I agree with the sentiment but I'm not sure I would go that far. The next $1m is easier than the first $1m, but not the next $9m combined.

Maybe what your quote is getting at is that it may just be that difficult to even get into the producer mindset instead of the indoctrinated consumer mindset. So much of business is having the right mentality, experience and disposition. That first million you have so much working against you. You're business dumb, you have been a consumer your whole life, you don't have any experience, you don't have the right mindset, and whatever business you are just starting doesn't have a life and momentum of it's own. By the time you have made $1m , you have likely became alot smarter, honed your instinct, got your mindset in the right direction, and your business has some momentum to it. But not 9:1 easier in my opinion!

Yes, I was thinking of the mindset thing. Like you said, in the beginning there is so much to learn like sales, marketing, hiring the right people, learning about people's psychology, providing your customers with the right service/product and realizing how far they can go and screw you, failure, small wins etc. I haven't made my big mark yet but that's just a matter of time really. It's like a dichotomy shift for you from being a person that only consumes to a person who produces 90% of the time(everybody consumes), the goal is to get to a point where you're making so much and consuming something like a $400,000 car becomes a tiny percentage of your revenue and so on. I see that you own a Lamborghini Gallardo LP560-4, man that car sounds awesome.

 

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[NeoDialectic]

Yes, I was thinking of the mindset thing. Like you said, in the beginning there is so much to learn like sales, marketing, hiring the right people, learning about people's psychology, providing your customers with the right service/product and realizing how far they can go and screw you, failure, small wins etc. I haven't made my big mark yet but that's just a matter of time really. It's like a dichotomy shift for you from being a person only consumes to a person who produces 90% of the time(everybody consumes), the goal is to get to a point where you're making so much and consuming something like a $400,000 car becomes a tiny percentage of your revenue and so on. I see that you own a Lamborghini Gallardo LP560-4, man that car sounds awesome.

Yep, that all sounds right!

(Gallardo LP560-2 though)

 

[K1 Lambo]

I ended up selling it a year or so ago!

It was a GREAT car....but after a few years of owning it, I found myself driving it less and less. There was months at a time where it just sat on top of my 4 post lift. It became a running joke that I basically just owned it to improve the Feng Shui of the garage like a Van Gogh. At one point the hassles of yearly maintenance and guilt from not utilizing the car started being more than the benefit of having it. So I sold it.

But really...it was a FANTASTIC car and I would highly recommend it! My model specifically was RWD and one of 50 manual G's ever made. So driving it was a blast.

It's just not that useful for a busy dad with 2 kids in diapers. (That is actually trying to participate in their lives and not just shove it on his wife)

Awesome stuff man.

That's a very common thing I've noticed with successful people like you and others on this forum. You'll never hear them say stuff like "Oh, you shouldn't want that". Every guy who I know of who has had that kind of life will always tell you to go and get it. Even Andy Frisella said something similar on one podcast episode: "Absolutely, you should own ten of them. There ain't nothing better than pulling up to a bar full of 30k millionaires, flipping the doors up and giving the fu to everybody there".

It's always the people who don't have it who tell you that it's bad to own one or aspire to an affluent lifestyle. My mom's family tree always used to shit on people who have money like "Oh, they're evil" or "Money won't make you happy". And yet, these people are very broke and pretend like having more money won't help them. You know, it's kind of hard to disconnect that paradigm when you've been told that stuff ever since you were 5 years old.

 

[James Mayhew]

Unfortunately sometimes you won't know till you try. You can try testing the market by adapting the TESTING methods I post there.

With the power of Amazon and Google, you don't have to wait for months/years to know if the product will be good enough based on word of mouth. You should be able to invest a little into advertisement to see if an audience is interested.

Thanks for the reply - as my first 'proper' idea I've been thinking about, it's likely to be a bit iffy, so I'll take the time to test the market and if it doesn't work out I'll move to thinking of a different idea.

 

[Nikolaos]

My business partner and I recently sold our successful online business for 8 figures. You can see @fastlane_dad intro page here, and mine here. We have had businesses in alot of categories, but have limited experience in old fashion "shaking hands" type businesses. Our primary expertise is online sales, marketing, marketplaces like Amazon (and others), bootstrapping, and mindset. One way we want to give back to the community is by guiding people that are still on their entrepreneurship path.

We figured one of the more impactful ways we can do it is by answering peoples questions publically versus in DM's or personal consultations. So if you want our opinion/advice about your personal situation, we will be happy to read through your questions and give you a personalized answer. But it has to be public. That way everyone can read and discuss our answers. If we don't have experience in a topic, we will let you know.

It should be a great feeling, that i haven't experienced of... Also your will to give back to others shows how very deeply you understand and don't forget the difficulties that others face that are still within the "maze"...

Question: Would you believe that acquiring existing online businesses, could be equally successful as what you have already done?

 

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[opticalillusion]

Hi there, I wanna start off by thanking you for giving us such an opportunity.

I have several questions in mind being;

1. What do you think of being a web developer as a way to go fastlane?
2. How did you find your specific niche and why did you decide to go for it? I'm struggling more than ever to find a specific niche I could go into whose market is also vast.
3. Do you think there is anything I could use my age (14) as an advantage for starting out? I'm not yet sure how I could use my age as an advantage and the only skillset I partially have is programming (javascript, html & css but a long way to go for me to be proficient at it)

Thank you very much!

 

[Goodfella999]

@NeoDialectic Knowing what you know now, in 2022, if you had 100k cash to start, would you go into ecommerce? What avenue would you take?

 

[NeoDialectic]

@NeoDialectic Knowing what you know now, in 2022, if you had 100k cash to start, would you go into ecommerce? What avenue would you take?

100%

Its lucrative, endless opportunities and it matches up with many of my natural likes/dislikes.

 

[MJ DeMarco]

Upgraded to GOLD, thanks @NeoDialectic and @fastlane_dad for the wisdom sharing!!

 

[NeoDialectic]

@NeoDialectic & @fastlane_dad thanks for the great thread!

I'm getting closer to solidifying my path to an exit (Saas company) and it would be extremely helpful if you could speak more on your exit, specifically things like...

- Did you start with the exit in mind?
- How did you determine when you wanted to exit/why did you exit instead of staying with the business?
- How did you determine your company's evaluation? (What was the metric used)
- Exit structure, as in was it a lump sum or payout over time? (If you can disclose)
- Were you required to stay on with the business for a period of time?

And anything else you could shed light on would be very much appreciated.

Looks like @fastlane_dad answered most of your questions. If you have any specific questions about selling your business that would help your business sale, let us know and we can try to answer it.

The more general exit questions, things to look out for, lessons learned, ways to negotiate and more is something that we have on our to-do list to write about. It's a lot more than just a reply post could fit. Sounds like you are exactly the person that the piece would be aimed at helping, so if you have any good topics/questions that you think we should explore in it, we would love to hear it as well

 

[Guest-5ty5s4]

Hey @NeoDialectic ! Would love your feedback and advice. I have a patented product I’ve been selling for a couple years. Veryyyy slow growth. I’ve had a couple huge customers approach me but no deal inked - yet. Potentially closing something really soon with one. I took my product off of Amazon completely due to shipping costs though.

There is a thread I have on the inside with more details. Do you have any advice for me? I know that’s kind of vague, sorry. My main problem is the costs I’ve been facing - it seems like the product is pretty hot and there’s a great market for it, but getting the costs down and price up has been very difficult!

I can show you the product, website, all of it privately!

 

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[NeoDialectic]

Hey @NeoDialectic ! Would love your feedback and advice. I have a patented product I’ve been selling for a couple years. Veryyyy slow growth. I’ve had a couple huge customers approach me but no deal inked - yet. Potentially closing something really soon with one. I took my product off of Amazon completely due to shipping costs though.

There is a thread I have on the inside with more details. Do you have any advice for me? I know that’s kind of vague, sorry. My main problem is the costs I’ve been facing - it seems like the product is pretty hot and there’s a great market for it, but getting the costs down and price up has been very difficult!

I can show you the product, website, all of it privately!

Send me a DM with some more info. If it's something I think @fastlane_dad and I could provide any advice on, we would be happy to jump on a quick call to help a fellow dedicated forumer out!

 

[Chosenone]

@fastlane_dad and @NeoDialectic, thank you for the provided value! Your willingness for positive impact is truly admirable!

I'm about to launch a product on Amazon in the next two months, it's in the beauty niche.

Do you recommend having my trademark registered immediately or I should first have a decent number of sales, confirming that this mark has a future?

 

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[SPM_ENT]

Thanks for the questions. We will be sure to expand on these topics in our write up. Here is some rapid fire answers though.

Google to find firms that sell businesses (e.x:"m&a firms to sell your online business"), or even more specifically businesses of your type. Most have a selection of publicly available businesses that they are currently selling or have sold in the past along with brief descriptions, prices, revenues, profits, etc.. You can expect that the final sale price was between 80%-95% of the advertised price. Also keep in mind that only 30%-80% of that price is guarantied up front (highly deal dependent).

What do you mean by taking the sale as yearly profit? I'm not sure what you are referring to. However, it is common for bigger businesses to have a % of the sale price paid through a note (loan) over X years. This is taxed the same way it would have been taxed if you received the money right away. In many businesses, a big part of the sale should be directed towards capital gains (as them paying for Goodwill). But this really is business specific.

No good advice here from us!

Anything business related can mostly be written off. Including hot sauce challenges to build comradery at the office!


The guiding principle was "make it as profitable as possible" as you suggest. If I was to add anything to that it would be that we never considered this to mean cost cutting. We spent more time focused on increasing sales. Generally that is finding new marketing opportunities. Not of the "can we optimize ads to increase sales by 1%" variety but of the "can we advertise somewhere new which can have the possibility of introducing our product to millions of people in a completely new market" type.

I think this will be heavily dependent on business type. Personally we took out almost all of the profits as salaries/distributions. It was done every 3 to 6 months. Our business was very cash flow rich and we kept big balances in the business itself. So we always had enough to cover any new ventures. By the time credit cards are due, the coffers would be full all over again.

Obviously this would not apply to business types that are inherently low on cash flow.

Competition was always the cause of parasitic losses. It's nothing you would see overnight. It would just be slow and gradual loss of sales. The way we overcame it is expanding into markets where our competition weren't.

We are always 50/50 on anything we do together

As far as work split.....sometimes I contribute more, sometimes he contributes more. You need to be OK with that and if you aren't naturally OK with it you need to fight your own demons to be OK with that. Right now, I'm currently out of town AGAIN as part of my plan to travel for a very large part of 2022/2023. Invariably that means he may be at the helm more often in some regards right now. When he had his child a few years ago and went completely MIA for months, I was there to take the reigns. You need to have enough trust in the other partner that they want what's best for the business as well. If you have that, you will naturally give alot of grace when hearing the response to the question "what did you do for the business today?". It may be nothing. But then one day it is the difference between 0 sales and 10.

I have another post on partnership HERE

We received alot of interest and pitched to multiple investors. Our price, field, and other factors did narrow down the list a bit though. We did end up closing with the company that were first to give their LOI (letter of intent), but not because they were first. They were just obviously the most eager...and all the benefits that go into that.....

Negotiations were a very stressful time. In our experience, while the people running daily operations of brands in the private equity companies aren't exactly the most experienced.... The same can't be said about the acquisition and negotiations team. They are very sharp, so you better bring your A game.

My wife and I went Salt River tubing YEARS ago when we were much younger! haha. It was a bit of a drive to get there, but a very fun time! Definitely something I would recommend for others to try if they like water, the great out doors, and....drinking....

While I have considered vacation homes, at the end of the day it just makes so much more sense to rent when I go somewhere than to buy. At the current time we are staying in AZ and I don't see us moving out. But it is definitely always possible!

Thank you for taking the time to answer them. Great partnership advice, I'll check out your other thread as well. I look forward to reading your write-up!

 

[Nyavix]

My business partner and I recently sold our successful online business for 8 figures. You can see @fastlane_dad intro page here, and mine here. We have had businesses in alot of categories, but have limited experience in old fashion "shaking hands" type businesses. Our primary expertise is online sales, marketing, marketplaces like Amazon (and others), bootstrapping, and mindset. One way we want to give back to the community is by guiding people that are still on their entrepreneurship path.

We figured one of the more impactful ways we can do it is by answering peoples questions publically versus in DM's or personal consultations. So if you want our opinion/advice about your personal situation, we will be happy to read through your questions and give you a personalized answer. But it has to be public. That way everyone can read and discuss our answers. If we don't have experience in a topic, we will let you know.

Ayo,

The skills that I currently have are in the arts and I've been thinking through business ideas that I'm not sure fully fit Cents. The first is the music business as an Artist. Generally, artists don't like to handle the business aspect but I do. I've built up skills in music creation, a bit in music marketing, and artist breaking. This normally would break the law of entry but I found something that not many new artists can do. I've been learning game development since I was 13 so I have 3d modeling and animation skills. I put together a formula for trying to generate a lot of attention. Creating a promotional piece showing off my skills in music production and 3D animation. I was hoping to hear your opinion on something like this!

I attached a product of my formula below!

Thank you for this opportunity!

View attachment Nle Choppa - In The Uk Open Verse-C.mp4

 

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