Diary of Opening A New Business

[Bigguns50]

just because someone drives a Ferarri or a Bentley or anything doesn't make them credible.

I worked for a smuck that drove a Bentley (leased I found out). He was a thief. Now...divorced, lost his business, and is selling office furniture out of his garage.

In my experience....most people I've encountered that waved money around, bragged, told stories...had zero credibility. Most I've met who are credible and wealthy like to stay under the radar and are humble.

I just don't want this to turn into a witch-hunt.

This forum is better than this and I think most of the conversation here has proved that.

Soooo...wadaya wanna talk about now ?

 

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[Greyson F]

When you finally find that niche to pursue, where do you focus your money to ensure that your business is marketed effectively? Especially in industries with a high bar to entry, you're invisible until you manage to attract attention. What different steps do you take to make sure your business launches. I feel that me. I have found marketing to be a challenge.

 

[Kyler White]

how much did you sell the business for and I don't remember if you mentioned if all the companies paying you are paying you the same amount

 

[Threenuc]

I don't know how the wholesale business works exactly, but Jack spent ~$10k on setup. That leaves him with $5k of money to work with - as in buying products, yet he never mentioned buying anything. How could that part of the business work?

 

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[andviv]

@Threenuc that is a great question...

In many cases the reseller does not purchase and holds the merchandise, it only sells them, pays the provider, and they send the product to the buyer.

Makes sense?

 

[DeletedUser394]

This thread sure took a turn

p.s. the cards still suck. playoff implosion coming soon.

carry on.

This was the most infuriating line in this thread

..But you are right

 

[Deleted28123]

good luck

 

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[randomnumber314]

I don't know how the wholesale business works exactly, but Jack spent ~$10k on setup. That leaves him with $5k of money to work with - as in buying products, yet he never mentioned buying anything. How could that part of the business work?

I'm not commenting on Jack's business, but if you close the sale and charge up front, the customer technically pre-purchased the stuff for you. It's a pretty common tactic, and a good way to reduce exposure to losses.

 

[Threenuc]

And how do you beat the competition in such a scenario? Jack had 5k (while the big companies had much more) and in the end he came out on top. I understand a good USP plays a role, but what USP can you have in auto part wholesale apart from price? Undercutting people rarely ends well anyways.

He had the telemarketers, but you can't just call any company and say "buy from us" and they'll switch from the wholesaler they might've used for years.

 

[J. van Driessen]

It took me a while but I managed to read through the whole thread. If people stumble upon this thread now: yes, even years after the start of it, it offers loads of value and inspiration!

 

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[Lagron]

And how do you beat the competition in such a scenario? Jack had 5k (while the big companies had much more) and in the end he came out on top. I understand a good USP plays a role, but what USP can you have in auto part wholesale apart from price? Undercutting people rarely ends well anyways.

He had the telemarketers, but you can't just call any company and say "buy from us" and they'll switch from the wholesaler they might've used for years.

Who said you "can't just call any company and say- buy from us, and they'll switch from their wholesaler they might've used for years?"

Stop setting up limiting beliefs, they don't do a single person justice. I call companies and have them switch all the time. In fact, I see companies who use the same supplier for ages as a "target"...because I know they have gotten comfortable with eachother's processes and how they do business...Its perfect for me to offer something better slightly, and just something is often times a deal maker.

You don't trust me? Try our service for free! Have our product for free and you tell us what we offer and the way we do business isn't better for the both of us. Who in the world is going to say your service or product sucks? Think about that for a moment, play on the psychology of it, and notice how there are always ways and REASON as to why you CAN just call any company etc....

 

[mnov5534]

I stumbled on the Fastlane Forum before Christmas last year when I was reading some business articles and blog posts. Can't even remember how I got here, and then I found this thread!

I've never read a 30 Page thread on any forum before, but this one has been real gold!! I guess I'm lucky to have found the thread when the journey was over, or the wait would have driven me crazy wanting to know what happened next.


@JackEdwards thank you for sharing your journey with us, and it's amazing that you kept the updates coming for years! This is definitely a thread I've bookmarked and will keep coming back to for inspiration and motivation.

I can see you had plenty of experience starting and running businesses, but one thing I do wonder is how you were able to break into a tightly controlled industry, with established supplies?

Cold calling, or you had some partners or relationships within the industry to get a foot in the door?

Also at what point did you start to feel you're onto a winner and were able to validate the business idea as being worth pursuing, rather than being a fun project that may or may not go places? Was it after reaching a certain amount of turnover, growth rate or something else?

 

[CrocodileX]

What am I missing here? What am I supposed to learn from this thread?

I spent a week reading an entrepreneur workshop transcription from Stanford that had the Justin TV guy, AirBnB, etc and they shared all kinds of detailed insight.

Here I read 15 pages of vagueness from a guy who gauged his business in terms of office size, employee size, and outlandish future valuations. Absolutely nothing of value whatsoever.

Why does Jack sound like a fake? What am I missing here? Why is everyone so inspired by a guy who gives nothing substantial in the form of insight?

Im not being a jerk. I like this forum but this thread compared to the Y Combinator classes I read elsewhere seem like the fakest, void of value field of red flags in this entire forum.

What lessons am I supposed to be learning from this thread? It just seems like an episode of American Greed without the sexyness.

 

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[Lagron]

I will neither solidify nor demolish your point.

There are a few things that you'll have to think about, you can't just read, for reading's sake.
No one will spoon feed a man unless that man is their father, and even then- instead, we prefer to pay to have them spoon-fed by another.

 

[thidr0]

What am I missing here? What am I supposed to learn from this thread?

I spent a week reading an entrepreneur workshop transcription from Stanford that had the Justin TV guy, AirBnB, etc and they shared all kinds of detailed insight.

Here I read 15 pages of vagueness from a guy who gauged his business in terms of office size, employee size, and outlandish future valuations. Absolutely nothing of value whatsoever.

Why does Jack sound like a fake? What am I missing here? Why is everyone so inspired by a guy who gives nothing substantial in the form of insight?

Im not being a jerk. I like this forum but this thread compared to the Y Combinator classes I read elsewhere seem like the fakest, void of value field of red flags in this entire forum.

What lessons am I supposed to be learning from this thread? It just seems like an episode of American Greed without the sexyness.

I agree with a lot of what you said. How to Start a Startup was very valuable and detailed and more in the muck.

But this to me is a bit of a different view from somebody who pulled it together on a shoe string, stayed lean, found a boring business, didn't need VC money or to build a fancy software. It's a different way of looking at entrepreneurship and here the biggest skills are taking action and selling -- think used car lot and not Tesla. So here it's not about the typical YC skills like product development, innovation, being on the edge of a surging market, etc. This thread is an inspiration of what fearless action could reasonably accomplish. That's all.

 

[Jack Turner]

Holy crap its nearly 2am, too long has passed since I started reading, Thankyou, sincerely, its one of those times when I really feel as if I have actually learned something.

To the various people who believe none of this is true, fair enough. My gut says otherwise and I have to trust it.

Great thread, makes me think. I need to process all of this, if in around a year you see a 20 year old englishman running round texas with your profile picture on a4 paper trying to find you to talk to you. Yeah that will be me.

Again, Thanks Jack

-Jack

 

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[lrryjrry]

Thanks @JackEdwards & @jon.a . I hope you don't mind my skeptical eye - I find not questioning things gets me in trouble.

I totally agree.. If anyone lying in this forum it will defeat the purpose on this forum and a waste of time spent hours and days of reading it! Can he at least provide the link to his company to MJ?

 

[csalvato]

I totally agree.. If anyone lying in this forum it will defeat the purpose on this forum and a waste of time spent hours and days of reading it! Can he at least provide the link to his company to MJ?

MJ can't force him to put a link to his company. But since then, MJ has marked this thread as "Noteable!" rather than "GOLD".

Just to put this into perspective for those of you following at home...

I called @JackEdwards out on this in November 2014. That was about 8 month ago.

He replied with this:

Here is an update to this thread. Over the last 120 days I have been in the process of selling this business as another business I have opened has peaked my interest. In a totally unrelated industry.

A bunch of my competitors came together as a group, and offered me a bit of change to sell the business so they can get their customers back. (which I have slowly been taking away) As we have inventory, loans, accounts receivables etc it took a bit of time, but we are right there on the numbers and have agreed to and in the process of making the deal work and splitting up the customer base among the group. It is a great deal for all involved. This is the 2nd time I have sold a company where the main reason is for me to go away.

The 100 million when I started is not going to happen, I thought I could will my way up to that point, but nope. Can't seem to get their without putting in huge amounts of cash.

And I do not know what the other people told you csvalvato, but jon.a was correct and the business is in the wholesale auto parts industry. Good Luck to you.

Since then:

• Still no pictures of dying kid with a check
• Still no explanation or defense from @JackEdwards
• Still no update on what the business is, even though he was in the process of selling it 12+ months ago.
• Still no update on his new business venture

He completely disappeared off of the entire forum just a day or two after I called him out.

If he wasn't a fraud, I apologize if my posts drove him away.

 

[lrryjrry]

MJ can't force him to put a link to his company. But since then, MJ has marked this thread as "Noteable!" rather than "GOLD".

Just to put this into perspective for those of you following at home...

I called @JackEdwards out on this in November 2014. That was about 8 month ago.

He replied with this:



Since then:

• Still no pictures of dying kid with a check
• Still no explanation or defense from @JackEdwards
• Still no update on what the business is, even though he was in the process of selling it 12+ months ago.
• Still no update on his new business venture

He completely disappeared off of the entire forum just a day or two after I called him out.

If he wasn't a fraud, I apologize if my posts drove him away.

Spent a few days reading this thread, thinking to learn something. What the disappoiment! It's just hard or probably impossible to be in auto industry to grow as fast. The strange thing is he charge $75 for donation which exposed him.

 

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[lrryjrry]

By the way, do you know the links to some good threads in this forum you recommended to read? of course, real success stories threads.

 

[csalvato]

Some great threads you should check out (some require INSIDERS subscription):

@csalvato's Thread - My thread, explaining how I started a website consultancy in March, and just had my first 5-figure month

@G_Alexander's Thread - Launching businesses and buying rental properties

@Likwid24's Thread - Going from idea to imported product to Shark Tank investment while funding his venture through a painting business and firefighter job.

@AllenCrawley's Thread - Building a product brand from scratch.

@JAJT's thread - Building an importing business

@biophase's thread - Creating an Amazon eCommerce business from scratch, selling it to another forum member, and watching that forum member run with it

@Eskil's first thread - Starting a supplement business from scratch.

@Eskil's second thread - Creating a physical product business from scratch.

There are many other good ones. Can't take the time to list them all. Once you are around a bit you will get an idea of where the winners are.

 

[lrryjrry]

Looks like all good ones, I am hoping to see some whole sale start ups as I work for whole sale industrial involving getting products from China. I am not being cheap, but I am not sure if there's a need to be an INSIDERS. the membership fee is a little high and I have just been to this forum for 3 days. However most of the links you provided are for INSIDERS only.

 

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[csalvato]

Looks like all good ones, I am hoping to see some whole sale start ups as I work for whole sale industrial involving getting products from China. I am not being cheap, but I am not sure if there's a need to be an INSIDERS. the membership fee is a little high and I have just been to this forum for 3 days.

Check out @Walter Hay's AMA about importing from various countries, including China.

https://www.thefastlaneforum.com/co...sourcing-specialist.55062/page-21#post-466986

Re: INSIDERS
Not all of them require an INSIDERS subscription. You can always buy one month of the subscription, read those posts, then never pay again.

I have been an INSIDERS for over a year and went to the forum's meetup this year. It's been worth it for me.

 

[Trevor Chaumont]

Some great threads you should check out (some require INSIDERS subscription):

@csalvato's Thread - My thread, explaining how I started a website consultancy in March, and just had my first 5-figure month

@G_Alexander's Thread - Launching businesses and buying rental properties

@Likwid24's Thread - Going from idea to imported product to Shark Tank investment while funding his venture through a painting business and firefighter job.

@AllenCrawley's Thread - Building a product brand from scratch.

@JAJT's thread - Building an importing business

@biophase's thread - Creating an Amazon eCommerce business from scratch, selling it to another forum member, and watching that forum member run with it

@Eskil's first thread - Starting a supplement business from scratch.

@Eskil's second thread - Creating a physical product business from scratch.

There are many other good ones. Can't take the time to list them all. Once you are around a bit you will get an idea of where the winners are.

Thank you very much for these

 

[Jenk Armada]

Great information in this thread. Is it true? who knows, but does it really matter? Valuable information regardless.

Did enjoy the read and progress. Something in this thread has changed the way i see certain things, that little push i needed to solve a minor problem i had with running my business. All good though!

I would just like to add, the information i was referring to wasn't just because of Jack, but the other FL members, great info! Thank You.

Peace.

 

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[Mosfet]

Finished skim reading this thread yesterday and I think he was selling tires. I guess he meant it literally when he said he is putting a 'spin' on it.

I imagine rubber is not that expensive and there are businesses that are doing deliveries all day every day so they constantly need new ones. More particularly it could be long distance heavy trucks - they have 18 on them plus a couple of spares.

The companies that are servicing these trucks might be limited by their storage space, so somebody who did the sales for them and delivered the tires right on time as they are needed could take his cut and still make them richer. Would that be too complicated to work?

 

[Simon Ashari]

Finished skim reading this thread yesterday and I think he was selling tires. I guess he meant it literally when he said he is putting a 'spin' on it.

I imagine rubber is not that expensive and there are businesses that are doing deliveries all day every day so they constantly need new ones. More particularly it could be long distance heavy trucks - they have 18 on them plus a couple of spares.

The companies that are servicing these trucks might be limited by their storage space, so somebody who did the sales for them and delivered the tires right on time as they are needed could take his cut and still make them richer. Would that be too complicated to work?

I'm curious to know what it is too.

Interesting theory though.

 

[Don Purdum]

I find it fascinating to see what people are doing in their startups, what's important to them and how they are going about it.

This statement in the beginning had me on the floor rolling: ""Funny story, I actually had a girl tell me "I can close" when I worked at Mcdonalds, I closed every night... Love that one.""

I look forward to following the post occasionally to see where you go with the business.

 

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[458]

IDGAF if he was a fraud or not, the donation I made and the conversation I had with him has returned me thousands of percentage points in real dollar gains. He got me to jump into the pool with no plan B and nothing can replace that.

 

[eTox]

Just finished reading this... and I have to say thank you for sharing this inspiring, motivating, and breathtaking progress. It has taught me and made me realize lots of things. I would love to conclude by saying, humble shall we be.