Doing $75,000 USD Per WEEK (Service Business)

[458]

Do you have any suggestions for what to do if your main competitors are not on the Inc 5000?

I've been trying to figure out the market cap for my niche. There are several competitors online, a few bigger ones, and plenty of small ones. There are also brick and mortar stores in nearly every major city of the USA as well. These things tell me a decent sized market must exist, but I have no idea what the actual market cap is!

Not knowing the market cap makes it difficult to try and figure out what sort of volume is truly reasonable or not and what I can expect from the business.

Go to Google and find the biggest player in the industry(assuming they are all private, if they are public its much easier) and then look for information on there total employee count using Google again. Next take there employee count and assume that each employee adds $100,000 in revenue to the top line. Next assume that they have a 5% penetration on the market. This is an extremely rough estimation but it doesn't have to be exact.

Here is the math:

100 employees x 100,000 revenue per employee = 10,000,000 gross revenue / 0.05 = $200,000,000 market cap.

Note: If the biggest player is a public company then just go to there 10k or 10q on the SEC website and find there total employee count and there total revenue. This will give you the revenue per employee. Then all you need to assume is the market penetration.

 

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[458]

Are you talking about this thread?

EXECUTION - 500 MILLION DOLLAR DEAL

Anyways, $75k per week, is that net profit? Doing what? Selling a service or product?

What's your funnel like? Avg. Customer Life time Value? Avg. Product Cost?

1. Selling a service
2. 75k is gross
3. Cold calling funnel
4. $3500 average product cost

 

[Get Right]

I can PM you or a mod and send them some stuff.

Awesome, hopefully MJ or a mod would be willing to do that (I'm not qualified to validate anything except a parking voucher, ha!)

Afterwards, I'd really like to hear your take on getting away from the "poor" mindset. It is very prevalent as you mentioned and you seam to have made that transition in thinking.

 

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[458]

If you got out once in a while and maybe took in a movie every now and then, you'd know why he has to have a secret identity. He's Batman!

I am just the type that wants fortune and not fame. The limelight is not something i have any desire to obtain here or in the real world. I derive my pleasure and satisfaction from the game and the grind, not the attention or trinkets.

 

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[458]

Since you provide a service not sure you can answer this but here it goes...

My partner and I are in the product development stage of our product.

We have found a need that solves an every day problem. We both believe this product will impact millions.

I know MJ says an idea is just that... an idea, but it is the execution that makes it a product.

I am going on forums in the niche and asking people if they would be interested in the product and/or have a need for it and would buy it in the future.
I haven't 100% stated on these forums what the product is or how it works but basically talk about the problem it solves.

My question is do we need to get a patent before we involve a freelance product designer or start talking to manufacturers?

I would like to describe the exact product and talk about the problems it will solve to a test market. But worried that somebody with more money to invest or a big company will take our idea and run with it.

Thanks.

Patents take forever and cost a lot of money. It is better use of your time and money getting something/anything put together and then test the market to see if there is actual demand there. Filing a lot patents just to protect your interests isn't a skill set to acquire on your first venture, its a waste of time. It doesn't really teach you anything about design, production, testing, selling, etc. You need to make a lot of mistakes to learn what you are doing, filing patents doesn't give you that opportunity.

Again, I am only speaking to your first at bat. Later on when your Ms. QVC you can have your attorney on retainer filing patent ideas that popped into your head during lunch..

 

[458]

Any mindset hacks for when you first got started?

Any good book recommendations?

"No one is going to do the work for you."

 

[458]

I'm curious, are you pocketing any of this money at the moment. Or is all of this being reinvested? You've been at this for a while now, and I know people tend to just reinvest everything they turn back into the business. I've heard of stories where people earned a lot, continuously reinvested in the company, but in the end, the company failed and as a result... didn't have anything because they usually reinvested all of it in their company.

Probably a simple question, but I honestly would like to know.

I will answer your question plus some perspective:

1. Yes, i have started taking money out of the company. This is only because the business is in a small niche and our growth ceiling is rapidly approaching.

2. Even if I wasn't taking money out and the whole thing failed tomorrow I would have learned an insane amount of knowledge that would allow me to quickly start over and get back to where i am and further much much faster. People that reinvest into businesses that are in such things like price arbitrage will definitely not learn much and ultimately fail with high probability over time.

 

[MJ DeMarco]

I see it with this person you just turned into GOLD and with MTF which also is in gold. Not 1 indication of what they do is either online or anywhere else.

Sorry but I'm not a private investigator and I'm certainly not paid to be one. Not sure what you want me to do.

A post is turned GOLD or NOTABLE based on the content provided by said user -- usually based on a combination of likes, comments, and the veracity of the information as given. Sometimes I am able to verify an occupation or a website but that is the extent of it.

Just because a post is turned GOLD does not mean that myself, or the forum endorses any business, any practice, and industry, any person, or any activity, as if I had privileged details to a person's business practices, their bank accounts, or any such information.

It is up to you to determine what is relevant for you, or not relevant.

It is not up me to vet the internet, much less every story posted on this forum.

That said, when you start earning $xxx,xxx in profit per month, I hope you would be so forthcoming about what you're doing, your industry, your products, and your business model. My guess is most people won't, so I'm not sure why anyone expects different here.

More info:

IMPORTANT! - Why All The Secrecy? Here's Why...

So I was reading a great entrepreneur thread over at Reddit that @JasonR provided and the topic got downvoted pretty bad because he wasn't very forthcoming with his website address and his product. Of course, the "Redditors" called it a calamity, and even some started to say he was in some type...

www.thefastlaneforum.com

 

[458]

Hi @458, if you a moment can you elaborate why 4AM over 6AM?

What time do you typically go to sleep to get up at 4AM?

To start waking up at 4AM did you simply turn on an alarm clock? Or did you do more to help with this?

Usually I am asleep by 930-10pm. The reason you want 4am is what i mentioned before. It is a hard singular task that will separate you from everyone else. Here is a numbered list of the benefits:

1. It builds discipline and character
2. You are able to get into an extended flow state without interruptions from other people or events.
3. You can get way more done in a much shorter period of time. If you were to compare your productivity from 4am to 8am against your productivity from 9am to 12pm you would find that you were 2-3x more productive from 4am to 8am.

Anyone can get up at 6am, its easy and doesn't accomplish any of the above. It takes an hour to get into flow state so in this scenario your flow state wouldn't even start until 7am and people would start bothering you by 8am.

Ps. No one believes this because most people are not going to try it and stick with it so they can see the results first hand.. however, anyone that has done it will never go back because of how powerful it is.

Pss. I use two alarms. One regular clock alarm and another on my phone.

 

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[458]

Whats wrong with porn for you?

Every time you eat sugar or watch porn you are literally hitting a crack pipe, the rush and high are the same followed by a hard crash. There is nothing natural or normal about those two pastimes. Best thing I ever did for myself was getting rid of both out of my life completely.

 

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[EvanOkanagan]

Why not update your progress thread?

 

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[csalvato]

Interesting perspectives.

I've worked as a top-performing salesperson at a biotech company. I left because my comp/commission scale didn't reward me as well as I'd liked.

Often, the other "best" sales people in the office were doing the shadiest shit (e.g. selling features that didn't exist), and being praised for their high sales. Some of them were managers, and propagating that culture.

In other cases, someone would come upon a bad or hard time, or need for money, and resort to short-term tactics for short-term gain.

They would have kept me if they followed @458's advice and had a commission structure that had a clear pathway to $250k+/year. (For example, when I left the job, I basically left $20k on the table in unclaimed commission.) Clawbacks would have likely turned me off to the job further, and I probably wouldn't have taken it.

I'm not sure I would use clawbacks just for the psychological/trust impact it would have on A-players.

I think it's idealistic and (dare I say it) naive to think that abusive tactics would never happen in your business if you just have a handsome commission structure and have a good hiring process. Money makes people do weird things, especially when they really need it.

I think you're both spot on in identifying good sales people and put together a good commission structure - but that seems to be something you want to continually inspect over time, too. Even the good apples can go rotten, then go good again.

EDIT: I just remembered that I did have clawbacks. And thinking on it, they definitely served a great purpose. I don't think they would drive good people away...

 

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[Scot]

Again, as was mentioned in my Skype call thread over a year ago, I'm here to give back and I will remain anonymous, I couldn't care less who believes me because I don't want anything from anyone here. Ask the over 50 people I've had calls with if I ever asked them for anything.

This ^

I know several people who have done the Skype call with you. People that I respect greatly, and they definitely vouch for you.

I don't know why everyone's suddenly rallying against 458 here. Dude has been nothing but straight forward about everything since I've been here.

 

[458]

When I was in reefkeeping, none of those Florida aquaculture places were open yet. I had 2 kiddie pools, each lit with a 400w MH light 5500k bulb and I grew live rock in my basement. I've thought about how to use the AZ sun to get this type of business going, but realistically the margins just suck.

What I think would be really cool is to grow things like tridacna clams or goniaporas. Are these still hard to raise in today's world?

Anyway, I know that alot of things can be automated now. But if I'm not there to look at the tank, there's really no point. I'm sure you know that sitting in front of the tank and staring at things is the best part of reefkeeping. BTW, the way my life is heading I will probably have 3 places and live in each place 4 months out of the year. So there's just a slim chance that I'd ever had a fish tank again.

Yeah, I completely understand that is why I keep my tank in the office where my team can enjoy it and where I spend most of my time.

Almost everything is pretty easy to keep these days with the help of technology, here is a picture of my clam:

 

[458]

Wow this is inspiring, congratulations! Would love to hit these numbers one day. Good brain food.

You can and will.

 

[458]

Posting this again here since i think it will go further in this thread..

Here are the room stats for my sales team (100% cold calling) for 2019 so far:

Room Stats	Total Dials	Total Leads	Sales	Total Connects	Prospects	% D/S	% C/S	% P/S	% L/S	% L/P
January	90,479.00	26,167.00	124.00	27,728.00	1,341.00	0.14%	0.45%	9.25%	0.47%	5.12%
February	80,438.00	13,841.00	81.00	23,433.00	963.00	0.10%	0.35%	8.41%	0.59%	6.96%
March	55,832.00	26,619.00	115.00	19,491.00	1,181.00	0.21%	0.59%	9.74%	0.43%	4.44%
April	56,678.00	22,641.00	92.00	20,517.00	988.00	0.16%	0.45%	9.31%	0.41%	4.36%
May	51,745.00	28,841.00	129.00	16,041.00	1,065.00	0.25%	0.80%	12.11%	0.45%	3.69%
June	95,544.00	32,188.00	147.00	24,587.00	1,638.00	0.15%	0.60%	8.97%	0.46%	5.09%
July
August
September
October
November
December
Total	430,716.00	150,297.00	688.00	131,797.00	7,176.00	0.16%	0.52%	9.59%	0.46%	4.77%

 

[458]

@458 awesome thread. Thank you for sharing your insights. Would you mind sharing your experience of concluding that you'd have a high probability of succeeding in your niche?

I know you did massive research - I'm more curious about the knowledge/experience you had in your niche that gave you the confidence to pursue it. Did you work in the field before you started your business? Or did you not have any work experience but knew people in the industry?

I thought about your question for awhile and here is my answer:

1. Initial success is the only success
2. (1) hammer and (1) box of nails

Before my first successful business there were 20-30 "attempts" in various unrelated fields which resulted in $0 revenue earned.

To find your space, focus on swinging your hammer at a box of nails until you hit one nail clean, IE. make a dollar.

Now here is the secret and also the easiest part to mess up, and by mess up I mean in the beginning AND continually over time:

Once you hit any single nail clean IE. any random business you start and try which turns a dollar; throw away the hammer and throw away the box of nails.

I'll give you an example. Let's say you write a program in python and javascript which you sell off to another company for $50k, code is gone and you got $50k.

Naturally your next thought is going to be "I'm a professional developer, just wait Elon, you're going to be working for me soon after i build the next new xyz program to fly to wherever /insert your favorite random planet here". Neither of those statements are true, you are not a professional developer and I can assure you, you are not the next Elon.

Unnaturally but correctly, your next thought should be, "better get to work writing THE EXACT program again I just sold off, this time with added xyz features and functions and connectable via APIs so more people can use it". And even then, xyz features can get you into trouble if they include taking you into unrelated fields like if the original program was for the auto industry and suddenly you decide you're an expert in oil tankers and Nigerian mineral rights..

The point is this, initial success is the only success, find it and then nurture it. Nurture it until... until way past you think you should, its a constant battle, every day your mind wakes up to deceive you and convince you that you're a professional xyz and Elon is going to report to you. Always remember neither of those are true and the second you drink the cool-aid is the second you're going to be searching google for bankruptcy attorneys.

Hope that helps!

 

[csalvato]

How do you find reliable employees that take pride in doing a good job?

Might find this useful: GOLD! - Building a team around you that will follow you to hell and back.

 

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[ZCP]

What do you use for your time management / task tools?
How do you organize your time for each week? Blocks? Tasks? Freeflow?
Do you require the same level or time organization from senior staff? What do you use to track them?
What are the main two metrics for your business? How often do you track them?
Any recent books or seminars that 'changed the way you do things'?
Do you admit to knowing @Scot ?

 

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[Roli]

The reason most of you guys are poor is because deep down you don't believe this sh*t is possible. You don't believe it could happen, not for me and definitely not for yourself. Once you escape this mental prison the sky is the limit.

I fight this mentality everyday, I was brought up poor, all of my friends were poor...

Gotta keep fighting.

I'll be back.

 

[458]

@458 It sounds like your primary responsibility in the company is managing sales and the sale team, right? And other people are managing the product/service development & delivery...? (Please correct me if I'm wrong).

If so, how much impact does their ability to deliver a high quality product/service have on your sales?

That is correct. Over the long term, a lot. The internet keeps us on our toes and constantly improving because reputation is a huge factor with bringing in new business. It requires a ton of trust up front in order to get them in the door. If we didn't deliver on our promises with our old customers, everyone would know and it would be very hard to continue to scale higher because new people would be less willing to come on board.

We run a very six sigma type structure, constant refinement and improvement. Pinpoints come from feedback from everyone inside and outside the organization. This has allowed us to get to the point where we truly are a well oiled machine.

Don't be mistaken, I can retire right now and never come in the office ever again. I work 12-14 hours a day because i love it..

 

[458]

Is your feedback loop formalized and regularly scheduled? What are the main points? What is a typical schedule?
How much lean are you using? 5s's? One piece flow? Visual controls?

It is definitely not a formalized system of refinement, it is more an attitude and culture of striving for excellence in all things. For example, we use all the best hardware, software, training, and hire the best people with the highest pay.

What this does is create an environment where more and more refinement is possible and encouraged because everyone already understands what type of organization we are, one that is constantly looking for ways to improve and ideas on how to carry that out. When there are problems they are brought forward, examined and quickly resolved. The next question from there is, does something need to change and if so what?

 

[458]

You obviously treat your employees well, but I'm sure some still quit for various reasons. Do you give them the hard sell when they hand in their notice? Or do you just let them go?

I've always heard never to hard sell an employee that wants out, but I know finding great salespeople is difficult.

98% of my turnover has been us firing you, only a very very very small amount have quit. Usually they will just milk the money and wait to be fired.

 

[458]

Here's my view... been lurking in this thread and just reading... I haven't replied or asked anything because I run ecommerce businesses and I don't know what I would ask.

The problem is I don't know who the 50 people you've done calls with are. What Chris is saying is that we don't really know what you do. From what I've gathered you are selling something that costs $3500 through direct sales via phone calls and that something has to do with real estate.

Yea, I understand that what you are selling doesn't really matter. But I don't know if I should ask you about employee management, email marketing, sales, etc... It's kind of tough, but @ZCP is doing a good job at it. But also, not many people on here are looking to grow a sales team so they won't have very specific questions.

Selling a service that is not in real estate. I'm really here for the young, new kids, that are interested in getting help from someone live that doesn't want to sell them anything.

 

[eliquid]

ITT - I learned that people can grow rocks.

.

 

[458]

What process for getting upsells and referrals from existing customers do you recommend?

The best way to get an up sale is to do an amazing and outstanding job on the first "get them in the door small sale". This is not to say that you do not want to have an amazing product or service on the second or third sale. It just means that if you promise X on sale number one to get them in the door, you should actually give them 1.5-2X even if it means you breakeven or lose money on the first sale.

However, this will only work if your follow up game is on point for up selling and referral requests. Asking one time per customer is not a strategy, its just being lazy. We follow up until they say stop, its just about finding the right mix of medium and frequency for your specific niche. Obviously asking for an up sale on Christmas lights in July is just going to piss off everyone on your list.

 

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[WillHurtDontCare]

The reason most of you guys are poor is because deep down you don't believe this shit is possible. You don't believe it could happen, not for me and definitely not for yourself. Once you escape this mental prison the sky is the limit.

F*cking exactly.

Stuff like this is why I read this forum.

 

[458]

Who, what, when, where, why, how.

There is a progress thread I started a long time ago, just search for it. I made this thread for questions.

 

[Scot]

Who, what, when, where, why, how.

Why not update your progress thread?

Y'all must not know @458 ...

 

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[100k]

There is a progress thread I started a long time ago, just search for it. I made this thread for questions.

Are you talking about this thread?

EXECUTION - 500 MILLION DOLLAR DEAL

Anyways, $75k per week, is that net profit? Doing what? Selling a service or product?

What's your funnel like? Avg. Customer Life time Value? Avg. Product Cost?