Hi all -
I call myself an "Ex" entrepreneur - we all know that once an entrepreneur, always an entrepreneur! - but I took a hiatus for a while being saddled in a corporate job and now it's time to revamp my efforts.
A few years ago I started a computer consulting company. I was very fortunate: I built it up from myself and no capital to a 28 person employee, $3 million revenue per year business. I then made some rookie mistakes, mostly related to hiring a salesperson who royally screwed me over. After a protracted legal battle which I "won", I was burnt. After spending 5 years doing 120 hour weeks, everything from being billable, to doing admin, HR, payroll etc, I had had enough. I joined the corporate world. In retrospect, a lot of mistakes. I'm sure I walked away from a potentially good exit valuation but being a services company, the multiplier is not huge.
While on my corporate job I continued to dabble in a number of other ventures, none of them succeeded but none of them failed...it was only a time commitment and all were a learning experience. My last venture is a forum that in 6 months has grown phenomenally....I'm at 13k visitors per day, 3.3 million page views per month and over 25k registered members. Unfortunately, the content is such that Google will not allow advertising on it...no, it's not adult content or anything like that, but Google is quite specific on their terms and the nature of the site is such that it may be frowned upon. However, my demographic is 16-28 year old females, mostly from the US so a potentially lucrative market (they live on my site, including chatting, blogging etc). Amazingly, I just haven't been able to monetize it. I'm already at the point that I needed to move to a dedicated server to support the traffic so hopefully I'll crack this nut at somepoint. The affiliate offers do not seem to convert well and with little options for advertising, I'm somewhat stuck on this one at the moment
Finally, here I am now having just finished the Millionaire Fastlane ...great book. It has reenergized my efforts. I *think* my focus will be towards App development but I'm still exploring options. I hope to learn a lot here from many others and may we all achieve our Fastlane.
Chris
I call myself an "Ex" entrepreneur - we all know that once an entrepreneur, always an entrepreneur! - but I took a hiatus for a while being saddled in a corporate job and now it's time to revamp my efforts.
A few years ago I started a computer consulting company. I was very fortunate: I built it up from myself and no capital to a 28 person employee, $3 million revenue per year business. I then made some rookie mistakes, mostly related to hiring a salesperson who royally screwed me over. After a protracted legal battle which I "won", I was burnt. After spending 5 years doing 120 hour weeks, everything from being billable, to doing admin, HR, payroll etc, I had had enough. I joined the corporate world. In retrospect, a lot of mistakes. I'm sure I walked away from a potentially good exit valuation but being a services company, the multiplier is not huge.
While on my corporate job I continued to dabble in a number of other ventures, none of them succeeded but none of them failed...it was only a time commitment and all were a learning experience. My last venture is a forum that in 6 months has grown phenomenally....I'm at 13k visitors per day, 3.3 million page views per month and over 25k registered members. Unfortunately, the content is such that Google will not allow advertising on it...no, it's not adult content or anything like that, but Google is quite specific on their terms and the nature of the site is such that it may be frowned upon. However, my demographic is 16-28 year old females, mostly from the US so a potentially lucrative market (they live on my site, including chatting, blogging etc). Amazingly, I just haven't been able to monetize it. I'm already at the point that I needed to move to a dedicated server to support the traffic so hopefully I'll crack this nut at somepoint. The affiliate offers do not seem to convert well and with little options for advertising, I'm somewhat stuck on this one at the moment
Finally, here I am now having just finished the Millionaire Fastlane ...great book. It has reenergized my efforts. I *think* my focus will be towards App development but I'm still exploring options. I hope to learn a lot here from many others and may we all achieve our Fastlane.
Chris
Dislike ads? Become a Fastlane member:
Subscribe today and surround yourself with winners and millionaire mentors, not those broke friends who only want to drink beer and play video games. :-)
Access Restricted: Unlock 1,000,000+ Posts
Stop Peeking Through the Keyhole.
Open the Door.
You hit a wall because the best advice isn't free—it's earned. Since 2007, MJ DeMarco has been active here daily (99.9% active rate), building a war room for entrepreneurs who refuse to settle for mediocrity.
- Active Daily: Life-changing content posted dozens of times every day. No dead threads.
- MJ's Inner Circle: Direct access to the author of The Millionaire Fastlane.
- Vetted Network: Connect with founders scaling to 7 and 8 figures.
- Proven Roadmaps: Strategy over motivation. Execution over "hustle porn."
"SCALED TO 6-FIGURE MONTHS"
"Tips and advice here saved me from huge mistakes, others allowed me to scale my business to 6-figure months."— User MitchC
"INSANE QUALITY OF PEOPLE"
"The number of high quality people I've met from this forum has been insane. All of it predicated on building real value."— User Richard Peck
"You are the average of the five people you surround yourself with."
Are you surrounding yourself with success?
Duphsevt up emsiefz tvesvoph e catopitt zuastimg.
