Hello all, Grant here! What can I say about MJs books that haven't already been said? Undoubtedly the best literature out there on entrepreneurship - thanks, MJ.
My story - I began my career in management consultancy, but after 10 years I became disillusioned with the corporate ladder and decided to jack it in. I learnt a lot, but it wasn't for me long term - as a kid I was always setting up businesses, and so I decided to re-focus on entrepreneurship. A good friend and I from the same company requested a 6 month (unpaid) sabbatical back in 2016, and gave ourself no choice but to start a business before the sabbatical ended - by then we would run out of runway. We thrashed around loads of ideas at the time; different apps/ physical products/service businesses. In hindsight, we had no idea what we were doing, how I wish I had MJs books available to me back then!
We ended up starting a (bricks and mortar) business in the leisure sector which now pulls in circa £2mill turnover on 20-30% margin. Might seem like a strange choice - but I had high confidence it would work back then, and so I took the 'high confidence, lower reward' option versus the more scalable/but risky options to ensure I'd never have to be an employee again. I've learnt a lot from running my business - digital marketing, finance, legal, strategy etc - but, I am totally fed up of running a business that is very difficult to scale past the (four) locations we now have in London. I want something that can scale, with better unit economics.
The good news is I'm partly designed out of my existing business as things stand - I'd say it takes 1-2 days a week of my time max, and I'm now spending 3-4 days working on new business ideas. So, I have time to launch something else. I'm focusing on CENTS aligned business ideas and drilling down into the niches that interest me and that I have unique insight into. For example - at the moment I'm vibe coding an MVP for a SAAS product in the food allergy niche (I have a lifelong nut allergy); a boring/irrelevant niche for most - but something I understand well.
Here are some of the ideas I've worked on over the years - a 'pay advance' fintech app (the idea was to allow employees to choose when in the monthly pay cycle they get paid, for a fee), floating padel courts (you read that right!), alcohol free drinks subscription service and storage airbnb. I'm now focused on only digital ideas, and trying to get all over Ai as much as possible - no surprises there really.
I'm glad to be part of the forum! My goal for being here is to connect with like-minded people, to learn from others and offer advice where I can. Cheers - Grant
My story - I began my career in management consultancy, but after 10 years I became disillusioned with the corporate ladder and decided to jack it in. I learnt a lot, but it wasn't for me long term - as a kid I was always setting up businesses, and so I decided to re-focus on entrepreneurship. A good friend and I from the same company requested a 6 month (unpaid) sabbatical back in 2016, and gave ourself no choice but to start a business before the sabbatical ended - by then we would run out of runway. We thrashed around loads of ideas at the time; different apps/ physical products/service businesses. In hindsight, we had no idea what we were doing, how I wish I had MJs books available to me back then!
We ended up starting a (bricks and mortar) business in the leisure sector which now pulls in circa £2mill turnover on 20-30% margin. Might seem like a strange choice - but I had high confidence it would work back then, and so I took the 'high confidence, lower reward' option versus the more scalable/but risky options to ensure I'd never have to be an employee again. I've learnt a lot from running my business - digital marketing, finance, legal, strategy etc - but, I am totally fed up of running a business that is very difficult to scale past the (four) locations we now have in London. I want something that can scale, with better unit economics.
The good news is I'm partly designed out of my existing business as things stand - I'd say it takes 1-2 days a week of my time max, and I'm now spending 3-4 days working on new business ideas. So, I have time to launch something else. I'm focusing on CENTS aligned business ideas and drilling down into the niches that interest me and that I have unique insight into. For example - at the moment I'm vibe coding an MVP for a SAAS product in the food allergy niche (I have a lifelong nut allergy); a boring/irrelevant niche for most - but something I understand well.
Here are some of the ideas I've worked on over the years - a 'pay advance' fintech app (the idea was to allow employees to choose when in the monthly pay cycle they get paid, for a fee), floating padel courts (you read that right!), alcohol free drinks subscription service and storage airbnb. I'm now focused on only digital ideas, and trying to get all over Ai as much as possible - no surprises there really.
I'm glad to be part of the forum! My goal for being here is to connect with like-minded people, to learn from others and offer advice where I can. Cheers - Grant
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