how rare is it for entreprenuers to earn over 60k profit per month?

[Kak]

I'm trying to set up my goal of monthly profit of my future business to around 60k USD and I wonder if it's realistic or not. is it something like extremely rare even to be on tv? like top 0.001%? or is it only like around top 1~3% which I feel quite realistically ahievable?

Not rare at all. Totally doable. You just need to think scale from the very beginning and not build a job.

Every chain company you see driving around does more than that. They were all started by an entrepreneur. You don't have to start a small business. You are limited only by your willingness to press forward and build.

You need to think like a CEO though and not the jack of all trades that runs a business singlehandedly. Onepreneur businesses that make 60k per month are MUCH more rare.

99% of people don't even try to push their lives beyond the status quo. That is why 1% of people are different.

EDIT: I was actually inspired to discuss this on the show:

$60k Per Month? OF COURSE! Think Scale! - Ep 80 by Kill Bigger Radio with Kyle Keegan

In this episode of KBRS I address the question from the Fastlane Forum about how likely it is to start a $60k per month business. This VERY possible, this is also far more likely when the business is bigger than you. Onepreneurship does make this tremendously harder, but not even close to...

anchor.fm

 

[QDF]

$60k per month = $720k per year

Assuming a 10-20% margin --> That is $3.6M to $7.2M yearly revenue.

How many businesses exist that do at least $3.6M to $7.2M in revenue and are owned by a single entrepreneur? A lot.

Percentages don't matter. In a world where GDP's are measured in the trillions and business knowledge is so widely and freely available, it is more realistic and achievable to hit your goal now than it ever has been before.

1. Enter a market that's large enough to support this size of business
2. Create a product, service, or system that's among the best in the industry
3. Always be learning, implementing, and optimizing from a business/marketing standpoint
4. Don't Quit

Do the above and your odds of hitting your goal are pretty good.

 

[Johnny boy]

I'm trying to set up my goal of monthly profit of my future business to around 60k USD and I wonder if it's realistic or not. is it something like extremely rare even to be on tv? like top 0.001%? or is it only like around top 1~3% which I feel quite realistically ahievable?

If you suck its very unrealistic. If you are smart it is not unrealistic at all.

It has nothing to do with percentages. You are not a population. You are 1 person. You could be homeless or a billionaire or a middle class worker and it has nothing to do with what other people are doing and what the stats are. It is determined by what you do.

 

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[Fox]

Not rare at all. Totally doable. You just need to think scale from the very beginning and not build a job.

This is so key and I overlooked it for a long time.

It is tempting when starting to jump ahead and want to come back to the "boring systems" later.
Who needs systems anyway when it's just me trying to make money this month?

Big mistake.

You will still succeed at first either way but without systems every month of growth comes with equal amounts of extra stress and work. Eventually your success starts to become the very thing that is crushing you.

Start with systems and scaling in mind.

 

[JAJT]

It has nothing to do with percentages. You are not a population. You are 1 person.

This, 100%.

If you look at so many entrepreneur forums, online discussions, etc... you see so many people talk about "the odds" of getting rich or hitting some figure or whatever. That's not how life works.

You don't hear people talking about what the odds are of a home cook becoming a professional chef, or a regular exerciser becoming a body builder, or whether or not those are realistic goals - if you want those things, you set that as your ultimate goal, and then figure out what steps you need to do to get there.

Better questions are individual specific - "If I work out twice a week for 30 minutes, but don't regulate my diet, is it realistic to expect I'll become a competitive body builder?" - hell no. The activity doesn't match the goal.

You can turn this into an entrepreneurial question too - "If I sell home made sweaters that takes me 3 weeks to make each and I sell them for $100, can I make $60k per month?" - hell no. The activity doesn't match the goal.

Now, you can look at what you're doing now and figure out the ceiling, or you can set a future goal and figure out how to get there, but none of this has anything to do with "the odds" of it happening or what's "realistic" as a goal.

To determine what's realistic, you have to define parameters.

 

[MJ DeMarco]

Here ya go, written just for you!

 

[The-J]

I don't think the people who make $60k/mo+ ask these kinds of questions.

If you must know though, there were over 40,000 single person businesses in the US making $1m/yr profit in 2018. Source: IRS.

That's more than the student population (undergraduate and graduate) at Harvard. Source: Harvard.

Most people don't get into Harvard. But, ask anyone and they'll say that it's easier to get into Harvard than to make $1m/yr.

 

[MJ DeMarco]

was looking for a "one stop" place to get detailed know-how that could be put into immediate action with positive results. A recipe, if you will, that can be followed with more or less the same results.

LOL, and you know what I want? A night with Eva Mendez in a hot-tub on a cool moonlight night.

Doesn't anyone at this damn forum have a coveted step-by-step list on how to get that done? Oh and by the way, I'm not interested in reading any books, even if they can give me the dots to connect. I want the dots, and I want you to connect them as well. Help me!

 

[Envision]

This is roughly where I am at but you need to realize that pocketing 60k/mo and netting 60k/mo are two completely different things. Your business can net 60k and you can put 0 into your personal bank account.

To net 60k/mo your business is probably scaling so you need to implement systems and structure which is very expensive.

If you're selling more product you most likely need to double or triple your order volume which eats your net very quickly and you will need to take our debt to maintain your growth trajectory.

To pocket 60k/mo you're business realistically needs to net 150-250k/mo and you're already attributing a significant portion of that back into your business. On a 10% net margin that means your company is doing somewhere around 15-40M depending on the model SaaS is way more profitable than manufacturing or CPG based companies.

 

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[Einfamilienhaus]

This is a great question because I was confronting myself with the same thought.

When you just focus on the money, you will maybe find out that many "entrepreneurs" have struggles to earn above the average income like in Germany. Especially small business owners who have opened on the same street the twentieth fashion shop or restaurant or like many freelance "entrepreneurs" who are doing 5 bucks contracts on fiverr, Upwork & Co. It would be better for them to work as an employee from the financial aspect. But these people found the reason why they are doing it and only the same people who are going the same way will give you the fully understanding and respect for what you are doing. These people found their reason why they are doing it and they keep going on the daily basis even if they earn much less money then they could earn.

From my experience the range between an "entrepreneur" and an entrepreneur is huge. Either you earn less than the average income (like most people do I know) or you are definitely above the average income.

The reason for this is that no one with only one year of experience as a self-employed person can be compared to someone who has been in the business for more than 10 years. Likewise, no one can compare who does what everyone does with someone who at least asks the question does the local market need a twentieth restaurant or does Upwork needs the hundreds of thousands of social media managers.

If you want to start your business and you have at the same time the possibility to earn 60k+/year I would recommend you to stay at the job. Save as much money as possible and start from your financial security you have right now your side business, take risks and see what could work for you and what not.

I think the biggest reason why people want to start their own busines is because they are fed up with the working conditions, treatments and the environment they have to be 5 days in a week. They feel that they live have been sucked by this environment and they feel the constantly emptiness in their life. To be an entrepreneur means also to take your life back and gain control for you want to do and not what you should do or what others tell you have to do.

Asking the question of how much an average self-employed person earns is the right way to make a decision for yourself personally. but you could overlook something important that can bring you independence that is out of proportion to the financial aspect. To lead a free and self-determined life.

 

[Envision]

Sorry but what ? I owned an Ecommerce store that sold one product and my profit margins were about 900$ per day, straight to the pocket. 40%. That means almost 30K pure profit a month. Didn't last more than a few months but that's a different story and the fault is 100% mine, not the business model or product.

You proved my point in your post. You also didnt hit 60k. If you implement systems, people, and infrastructure your business isn't contingent on you which is what anyone serious should be striving to do. I dont own ecommerce stores, I own brands that use e-commerce as a sales channel.

 

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[biophase]

I was looking for a "one stop" place to get detailed know-how that could be put into immediate action with positive results. A recipe, if you will, that can be followed with more or less the same results.

For example, "I enter into an agreement with company X that for every order of product Y I bring to them they pay me $5. I put an ad on this website (name) and my expenses are $1500 per month to do so. I sell about 100 units a day. The company ships direct to the customers and pays me within 30 days by wire transfer. The last year I made about $150,000 net profit."

LOL, you should not be attempting to start a business. You will lose a lot of money.

@AriAzran, you are way more patient than me!

 

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[genesisk5]

Not rare at all. Totally doable. You just need to think scale from the very beginning and not build a job.

Every chain company you see driving around does more than that. They were all started by an entrepreneur. You don't have to start a small business. You are limited only by your willingness to press forward and build.

You need to think like a CEO though and not the jack of all trades that runs a business singlehandedly. Onepreneur businesses that make 60k per month are MUCH more rare.

99% of people don't even try to push their lives beyond the status quo. That is why 1% of people are different.

that makes me feel more confident. thank you very much KaK!

 

[MitchC]

I read this and straight away thought yeah it’s super doable and fairly common, then I thought wow why am I not doing it then.

Awesome thread and replies from everyone, it’s strange what can make you end up thinking bigger or differently.

 

[csalvato]

Im not saying its more or less difficult to build.

Im saying they are more profitable due to their margins and required overhead which is what factors into the ops questions

Oh for sure, I didn't take it that way. I was just highlighting the pros/cons:

CPG/Physical Product
Pro: Fast time to market
Con: Margins in the 10-20% (and margins can be eaten up by tariffs, importing fees, shipping costs, breakage, shrink)

SaaS
Pro: High margins (generally 90%+ margin)
Con: High operating costs (generally 10-20% of revenue spent on engineering salaries alone)
Con: Slow time to market.

That's all I meant

 

[BizyDad]

I don't think the people who make $60k/mo+ ask these kinds of questions.

If you must know though, there were over 40,000 single person businesses in the US making $1m/yr profit in 2018. Source: IRS.

That's more than the student population (undergraduate and graduate) at Harvard. Source: Harvard.

Most people don't get into Harvard. But, ask anyone and they'll say that it's easier to get into Harvard than to make $1m/yr.

How are they generating this kind of revenue in tiny, one-person firms? Among the top industries were professional services (9,745), construction, (4,699), real estate (3,050), retail (2,976), healthcare and social services (2,791) and finance (2,781).

Source: Million-Dollar, One-Person Business Revolution Accelerates

 

[Jon L]

40,000 self employed businesses making $1mil+

How many self employed businesses are there though?

According to google; 16 million.

Yeah, its rare.

I didn't immediately find statistics for the US, but about 5% of self employed people make over 50K pounds in the UK. That means that most self employed people have NO IDEA what they're doing as business owners, or they're doing it as a hobby. I'd bet that the vast majority of small business people build jobs, and they clearly suck at doing that.

I wonder what percent of people attempt to build businesses for scale like @Kak said? I'd bet that a much higher percentage of those people make it to $1m/year

 

[Ronak]

Better questions are individual specific - "If I work out twice a week for 30 minutes, but don't regulate my diet, is it realistic to expect I'll become a competitive body builder?" - hell no. The activity doesn't match the goal.

Good one...similarly, "If I spend hours surfing forums, avoiding work, but call myself an entrepreneur, is it realistic that I will build a Fastlane business?"

Now, back to work!

 

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[Kid]

I'm gonna join and say simply: yes it its possible and realistic.
So

 

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[Envision]

As the founder of a SaaS company, and at risk of hijacking the thread, I'd wager building a profitable SaaS is way more difficult than a CPG or manufacturing company.

I have many friends on this forum who go from product concept to Amazon + seeded reviews within 3-6 months; developing a SaaS has a much longer initial product and customer development cycle, IME.

Im not saying its more or less difficult to build.

Im saying they are more profitable due to their margins and required overhead which is what factors into the ops questions

 

[WestCoast]

If you must know though, there were over 40,000 single person businesses in the US making $1m/yr profit in 2018. Source: IRS.

That's more than the student population (undergraduate and graduate) at Harvard. Source: Harvard.

Most people don't get into Harvard. But, ask anyone and they'll say that it's easier to get into Harvard than to make $1m/yr.

This is a super super interesting perspective, and, I have to admit, I think you're damn right.
I like how you looked at it from a different perspective entirely. Very cool, thanks for sharing that viewpoint. Subtle, but for some reason, really resonated with me.

 

[Guest-5ty5s4]

How are they generating this kind of revenue in tiny, one-person firms? Among the top industries were professional services (9,745), construction, (4,699), real estate (3,050), retail (2,976), healthcare and social services (2,791) and finance (2,781).

Source: Million-Dollar, One-Person Business Revolution Accelerates

my guess would be that they hire contractors, not full time employees, thus the misleading distinction of being a “one person” business.

no FTE -> one man show. Except not really, since you will need freelancers, contractors, handymen, etc.

I could be completely wrong though and I would love to find out more from someone who better understands this, especially someone who has read Elaine Pofeldt’s book.

 

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[458]

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[Envision]

Did you have a successful business first with no branding, then go on to build the brand, or built the brand right from day 1?

Brand from day 1.

The brand is part of my USP, you buy mine over Amazon because of the ethos of my brand.

 

[csalvato]

SaaS is way more profitable than manufacturing or CPG based companies.

As the founder of a SaaS company, and at risk of hijacking the thread, I'd wager building a profitable SaaS is way more difficult than a CPG or manufacturing company.

I have many friends on this forum who go from product concept to Amazon + seeded reviews within 3-6 months; developing a SaaS has a much longer initial product and customer development cycle, IME.

 

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[abcdefgh]

I'm trying to set up my goal of monthly profit of my future business to around 60k USD and I wonder if it's realistic or not. is it something like extremely rare even to be on tv? like top 0.001%? or is it only like around top 1~3% which I feel quite realistically ahievable?

Honestly, $60k/month sounds like a pretty normal number for a fastlane business. I would consider as realistic as the fastlane in general (which I would consider pretty realistic.

If you had, for example, a subscription based service, that was $10/month, you'd need 6,000 subscribers. That's not very many people. I mean, America has 350 million people.

 

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[Deleted85763]

I'm trying to set up my goal of monthly profit of my future business to around 60k USD and I wonder if it's realistic or not. is it something like extremely rare even to be on tv? like top 0.001%? or is it only like around top 1~3% which I feel quite realistically ahievable?

Extremely difficult but definitely possible. Getting sales is very easy. Making a profit is very hard!

 

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[Deleted85763]

This is a super super interesting perspective, and, I have to admit, I think you're damn right.
I like how you looked at it from a different perspective entirely. Very cool, thanks for sharing that viewpoint. Subtle, but for some reason, really resonated with me.

That's not a good analogy. Getting into an Ivy League school is dependent on being accurate within a definite structure (i.e. grades and standardized tests scores set up by "authorities"). There's a ceiling. In the entrepreneurial world there is no ceiling at all - it is dependent on selling and making a profit. There is no structure except law and regulations.

Making a million per year can be done by anyone (even without a college degree). I know people who went to Ivy League schools and while they are "smarter" (and more pleasant to be with) then the average person they have limitations in all kinds of ways, not just economic. In fact high economic and scholastic achievement do not have a correlation. So I believe it is far easier to make a million a year than to get into the Ivy League.

 

[Deleted85763]

How are they generating this kind of revenue in tiny, one-person firms? Among the top industries were professional services (9,745), construction, (4,699), real estate (3,050), retail (2,976), healthcare and social services (2,791) and finance (2,781).

Source: Million-Dollar, One-Person Business Revolution Accelerates

How they do they do it is the right question! I don't know any one person person business that earns a $1 million profit a year but I do know very small companies with an owner(or two family members) and maybe a warehouse person and receptionist to answer the phone and type invoices. They are distributors of various products. They don't produce anything. They just buy products and resell them. Most seem to live very well. Like multi houses private schools, small plane, etc..

Know how is the key. If you knew that you could buy say shoes from a manufacturer and then sell them to distributors and retail stores and earn $1 million a year a lot of people would gladly get in the business.

 

[AriAzran]

$60k per month = $720k per year

Assuming a 10-20% margin --> That is $3.6M to $7.2M yearly revenue.

How many businesses exist that do at least $3.6M to $7.2M in revenue and are owned by a single entrepreneur? A lot.

Percentages don't matter. In a world where GDP's are measured in the trillions and business knowledge is so widely and freely available, it is more realistic and achievable to hit your goal now than it ever has been before.

1. Enter a market that's large enough to support this size of business
2. Create a product, service, or system that's among the best in the industry
3. Always be learning, implementing, and optimizing from a business/marketing standpoint
4. Don't Quit

Do the above and your odds of hitting your goal are pretty good.

I really, really like the way your brain works. I need to be more like you. Thanks!

 

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