Haven't been active here for a while. Been reading more than posting. Figured it was time to actually contribute something.
About a year ago I started importing products in the agricultural space. Pretty traditional, nothing exciting. I started it while still working almost full time, sole provider for my family, and dealing with some ongoing health stuff that was slowly getting worse. In December I had to leave my job because of the health situation, so now it really needs to work.
Early on I had a few small orders, $3–5k. Didn't make a lot on them. There were a few months where I was genuinely unsure whether this was going anywhere.
One of the best things I did was hire a telesales guy. Interviewed a lot of people before I found him. He's genuinely been a big part of making it work, I couldn't have done what he's done, especially when I wasn't well. He can hold a real conversation with senior people at large companies, which matters.
This week we got an order of around $160k. If it goes well it becomes ongoing, somewhere around $850k a year. It's actually not from the part of the business I originally thought I'd be focused on, but now I'm pivoting toward it. I wouldn't have found it if I hadn't just started doing something, even imperfectly.
A few things I noticed along the way:
I leaned on AI a lot, especially when I was unwell. There were email negotiations happening while I was really struggling physically, I'd paste the thread in and ask for a read on how to respond. At one point I was ready to drop my margins when the client pushed back on price. The advice was don't, here's why, here's what to say. It worked.
I've spent roughly 8 hours a week on this. I've made no cold calls to clients. Two sales visits total. If I had more energy this would have moved faster, but the message to someone who isn't in an ideal situation / circumstance, you absolutely still can do it - it will just take a bi tlinger.
Now I'm working on finding more customers like this one and looking at a couple of other countries. I think I need about 12 customers of this size to get to a $10M business. Maybe 5 years.
The thing that helped most was just deciding to start. I had plenty of ideas before this that went nowhere. This one moved because I actually did something with it, even when it wasn't ready and neither was I.
I am no guru or expert, but if anyone has any questions, I am happy to answer.
About a year ago I started importing products in the agricultural space. Pretty traditional, nothing exciting. I started it while still working almost full time, sole provider for my family, and dealing with some ongoing health stuff that was slowly getting worse. In December I had to leave my job because of the health situation, so now it really needs to work.
Early on I had a few small orders, $3–5k. Didn't make a lot on them. There were a few months where I was genuinely unsure whether this was going anywhere.
One of the best things I did was hire a telesales guy. Interviewed a lot of people before I found him. He's genuinely been a big part of making it work, I couldn't have done what he's done, especially when I wasn't well. He can hold a real conversation with senior people at large companies, which matters.
This week we got an order of around $160k. If it goes well it becomes ongoing, somewhere around $850k a year. It's actually not from the part of the business I originally thought I'd be focused on, but now I'm pivoting toward it. I wouldn't have found it if I hadn't just started doing something, even imperfectly.
A few things I noticed along the way:
I leaned on AI a lot, especially when I was unwell. There were email negotiations happening while I was really struggling physically, I'd paste the thread in and ask for a read on how to respond. At one point I was ready to drop my margins when the client pushed back on price. The advice was don't, here's why, here's what to say. It worked.
I've spent roughly 8 hours a week on this. I've made no cold calls to clients. Two sales visits total. If I had more energy this would have moved faster, but the message to someone who isn't in an ideal situation / circumstance, you absolutely still can do it - it will just take a bi tlinger.
Now I'm working on finding more customers like this one and looking at a couple of other countries. I think I need about 12 customers of this size to get to a $10M business. Maybe 5 years.
The thing that helped most was just deciding to start. I had plenty of ideas before this that went nowhere. This one moved because I actually did something with it, even when it wasn't ready and neither was I.
I am no guru or expert, but if anyone has any questions, I am happy to answer.
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