Ether I'll be a multi-millionaire in next 3-5 years or totally broke. I'd like to think I'm on an epic journey and through sharing it (not taking in account what the business outcome is), I hope at least one person in the future can learn something from my successes and failures.
MY BACKGROUND and WHAT DRIVES ME: INTRO - Obsessed from Finland
ABOUT THIS PROGRESS THREAD:
1) Progress update 1x/month and when something big happens
2) Brutally honest, I'm not afraid of embarrassment, so I'll write the stupid sht I've done and will do as well (people learn from stupidity much more)
3) I will continue, as long as I feel "I've made it" or I don't think I have anything more to give
4) I seek feedback (specially constructive and negative, not so much patting on the back) - so if you read this, please share your opinions with me, I'm here to learn.
BUSINESS HISTORY:
2012-2016 Moved from Estonia to Finland, became a medical doctor, worked a GP, spent money like an total idiot, invested some in index funds
2016 started a mini investment company, bought 4 apartments for renting
2016 thought, "Sht, this takes too long" and started to produce ideas for businesses. The first one that came to mind because rental property + healthcare was a nursing home. The idea came from the thought process - "How to raise rental property income and specialize".
#1 business - Nursing home village
Need - really really bad in Finland and getting worse every year. Because of the huge demand, private companies have lowered their quality to almost zero - a big chance to do better
Entry - hard, most of Finnish nursing home market is owned by 4-5 giants. Also, starting an healthcare company is quite a process, that few aren't afraid to take on.
Time - 95% passive income from my part when I get the systems right.
Scale - scale is limited mostly to Finland (5mil population), which is small, but because one client is forth tens-hundreds of thousands, it doesn't need to scale globally.
USP - many advantages compared to stagnant market a) integrated healthcare and nursing services b) a village with owned houses instead of apartment buildings c) high quality services - yeah.. I know that's what they all say, but really - 99% are full of sht - I am religious about epic customer service quality and since I've seen so much bad service, I have a clear vision how to offer MUCH better.
2016-2017 kept learning obsessively and came up with hundreds of ideas. Continuously widened my network on same minded people and stumbled upon a person, who will be called Tommy. Our thought processes synced epicly and during the 9 month period we came up with an idea:
#2 business - Online life-style healthcare
Need - epic need - 50% of grownups suffer from lifestyle diseases in modern countries (diabetes, atherosclerotic diseases, metabolic syndrome ect).
Entry - hard. First of all - creating healthcare company is a paperwork mess in Finland. It takes tens of documents and months of work to get the permissions. Secondly - "fitness-lifestyle" market is oversaturated and controlled by big monopolist, but stagnant corporations
TIme - 99% passive, when I get the systems right if I choose to.
Scale - basically 50% of the worlds grownup population. One limiting factor are the different healthcare laws and permissions in different countries.
USP - a) first service to integrate healthcare + lifestyle coaching in Finland b) first service to have healthcare services and coaching 100% online in Finland c) years ahead in methods and results compared to marketplace d) epic content (marketing) based value attribution - educational, not cold selling system
2017-now
#1 business - Nursing home village It took over half a year to negotiate and get the land from the city to have a nursing home built. Right now we are in the stage to get the best offers for construction works and starting the pre-selling/marketing campaign. The beauty is that preordering converts into down payments that we can use to secure construction contracts and continue marketing heavier.
#2 business - Online life-style healthcare went through the stage were we had lots and lots and lots of ideas and narrowed them down to ONE. From the september 2017 we have been a full-hardcore-takenoprisoners mission to get this one off the ground. I've worked from 8-16 monday-sunday as a doctor to earn money for the startup and doing everything else in the evenings. It took a lot of money to get systems into place and technology ready, permissions, people, bookkeeping ect ect. I'm proud that we only have 70k in loans - Virta Health creator said that it takes 10mil min to create a full-stack healthcare company - what a load of crap. In december 2017 we launced a pilot study with 30+ participants receiving our digital healthcare product - the results have been very promising thus far. We have created a large content based marketing system (online and off), selling system B2C and B2B and also insurance companies and public healthcare system. I've been constantly learning about business, selling, marketing, but also medical knowledge about everything related to life-style diseases (Mark Cuban said something like - If you're not the smartest man in the room about the subject, you are a sucker - or something like that). I've created tons of content online, webinars, e-book, manuals ect.
FUTURE
#1 business - in a 2-5 month period following, we will see, if people are interested in the idea. If we get a critical number of pre-orders, we start the process of building the village. I have a great partner, who is in property business and I'm the medical officer - so we have our obligations very clearly covered. I'll keep you posted, how we will succeed or fail in the pre-marketing campaign.
#2 business -
a) doing profitable deals with insurance companies, there a some meetings coming up in next weeks
b) starting the b2b and b2c sales in next 1-2 months with a target to get to 10k+ in 3-5 months
c) keep publishing epic content and building lead- and customer base
d) start work on a healthcare app to use in our services and take a lot of "human time" out of the equation
e) constantly improve improve improve improve ect
MY LESSONS THUS FAR:
1. Blindly trusting people will leave you into trouble. I spent first 9 months on a business relationship I later found out was a fraud. Luckily my new partner pointed out some stuff to me, that I recognized the threat early, so no long term harm was done.
2. From "failures" can come great things - from above shtty first business venture I got to know so many wonderful people 2 of which became my new business partners in 2 different businesses. We match amazingly - almost perfect combination of the same vision, complementing skills, but also enough critical thinking about other one's ideas.
3. Overestimate start-up costs and then add 30%. Classic mistake - we were so enthusiastic that we wanted to do everything in 6 months (what usually takes others 12-18 months). So that lead to very rough economy. We've been almost broke for the time of the #2 business. Me and my girlfriend have lived very poorly and I've taken thousands and thousands in credit card debt to stay afloat and pay employees. I've worked with no free days or holidays almost a year now. And we have done in 6 months everything and more, but with the cost of being in the verge of bankruptcy personally and with the company. The good thing is that our debt burden is quite low and we still own 100% of our company. The other good thing is that investors have themselves come to us, wanting to invest.
MY CHALLENGES
1. I'm super-efficient and motivated, working from morning till night every single day. So everybody else seem very lazy and slow compared. I feel constantly that I need to "whip them" to get things done. It is excruciating to know that people that work for you "take it casually" when you are in full attack mode and doing everything in your power to keep things running and not to die as a company.
2. I have a chronic disease CFS, so I'm constantly battling with doing more and keeping the pace and worsening symptoms. Sometimes it is very hard to get things done and stay motivated, when you feel your body is dying.
3. To keep earning money for the company to stay afloat selling my services as a doctor, instead of growing my own companies. But it can't change before sales start coming in.
4. My girlfriend is a supportive, loving person, but as side-walker as can be. Family life isn't always easy because of it.
5.not to become addicted to hanging around in this forum that would take time off from important tasks. If that happens, I cut myself out.
SHORT-TERM GOALS:
1. #2 business needs to get sales to 10-20k/month ASAP, so I could shift from rental worker to CEO/doctor into my own company
2. Keep growing my network of people and get to know more and more of influential people.
3. Improve as a business owner and a doctor in my field, to get to the top 0,1% - constant daily learning and actions. Still managing 1-1,5 books/week.
4. To build my own and business brand in Finland to a small status.
5. Keep enjoying the hell out of the process through the tough times as well.
LONG-TERM GOALS:
1. #2 business gets to 1 mil/year revenue in 3-5 years
2. To create systems that work flawlessly 99% of a time without my input. That frees me to do stuff that matters to me.
3. #2 business to be amazingly effective, expand globally, change the healthcare system dogmas, have an impact on people's lives in scale and magnitude.
4. Being free moneywise and in the time and space.
5. To give back to my mentors (MJ and couple of others) as well to aspiring entrepreneurs who then will be where I am today.
MY WHY's
1. PURPOSE - now that I finally supposedly found my purpose, I feel that I have to make up for all the time lost when I was still searching. I constantly feel I have this obsession in the back of my mind pushing me, "because life is so short" - you can thank @MJ DeMarco , Grant Cardone and Elon Musk (who I think is the most important person to have and will have ever lived).
2. FREEDOM - I'm way past wanting new toys for myself thankfully. I haven't bought almost ANYTHING new in couple of years, yet I feel best I've ever felt. But I want the freedom that the money brings. The freedom to do with my little time whatever I feel is important.
3. REGRET - one of the most painful of emotions and can never be cured, only prevented. I'd rather fail 100x times and die a failure than regret not trying. I used to be idealistic and brainwashed from Hollywood movies that everything has to be done for the perfect reason. Now I say, fck that, it's the outcome that is the most important thing. Do whatever it takes to get you motivated to succeed.
Ok I guess that's enough for now. If there is something specific you think I should get into, let me know!
MY BACKGROUND and WHAT DRIVES ME: INTRO - Obsessed from Finland
ABOUT THIS PROGRESS THREAD:
1) Progress update 1x/month and when something big happens
2) Brutally honest, I'm not afraid of embarrassment, so I'll write the stupid sht I've done and will do as well (people learn from stupidity much more)
3) I will continue, as long as I feel "I've made it" or I don't think I have anything more to give
4) I seek feedback (specially constructive and negative, not so much patting on the back) - so if you read this, please share your opinions with me, I'm here to learn.
BUSINESS HISTORY:
2012-2016 Moved from Estonia to Finland, became a medical doctor, worked a GP, spent money like an total idiot, invested some in index funds
2016 started a mini investment company, bought 4 apartments for renting
2016 thought, "Sht, this takes too long" and started to produce ideas for businesses. The first one that came to mind because rental property + healthcare was a nursing home. The idea came from the thought process - "How to raise rental property income and specialize".
#1 business - Nursing home village
Need - really really bad in Finland and getting worse every year. Because of the huge demand, private companies have lowered their quality to almost zero - a big chance to do better
Entry - hard, most of Finnish nursing home market is owned by 4-5 giants. Also, starting an healthcare company is quite a process, that few aren't afraid to take on.
Time - 95% passive income from my part when I get the systems right.
Scale - scale is limited mostly to Finland (5mil population), which is small, but because one client is forth tens-hundreds of thousands, it doesn't need to scale globally.
USP - many advantages compared to stagnant market a) integrated healthcare and nursing services b) a village with owned houses instead of apartment buildings c) high quality services - yeah.. I know that's what they all say, but really - 99% are full of sht - I am religious about epic customer service quality and since I've seen so much bad service, I have a clear vision how to offer MUCH better.
2016-2017 kept learning obsessively and came up with hundreds of ideas. Continuously widened my network on same minded people and stumbled upon a person, who will be called Tommy. Our thought processes synced epicly and during the 9 month period we came up with an idea:
#2 business - Online life-style healthcare
Need - epic need - 50% of grownups suffer from lifestyle diseases in modern countries (diabetes, atherosclerotic diseases, metabolic syndrome ect).
Entry - hard. First of all - creating healthcare company is a paperwork mess in Finland. It takes tens of documents and months of work to get the permissions. Secondly - "fitness-lifestyle" market is oversaturated and controlled by big monopolist, but stagnant corporations
TIme - 99% passive, when I get the systems right if I choose to.
Scale - basically 50% of the worlds grownup population. One limiting factor are the different healthcare laws and permissions in different countries.
USP - a) first service to integrate healthcare + lifestyle coaching in Finland b) first service to have healthcare services and coaching 100% online in Finland c) years ahead in methods and results compared to marketplace d) epic content (marketing) based value attribution - educational, not cold selling system
2017-now
#1 business - Nursing home village It took over half a year to negotiate and get the land from the city to have a nursing home built. Right now we are in the stage to get the best offers for construction works and starting the pre-selling/marketing campaign. The beauty is that preordering converts into down payments that we can use to secure construction contracts and continue marketing heavier.
#2 business - Online life-style healthcare went through the stage were we had lots and lots and lots of ideas and narrowed them down to ONE. From the september 2017 we have been a full-hardcore-takenoprisoners mission to get this one off the ground. I've worked from 8-16 monday-sunday as a doctor to earn money for the startup and doing everything else in the evenings. It took a lot of money to get systems into place and technology ready, permissions, people, bookkeeping ect ect. I'm proud that we only have 70k in loans - Virta Health creator said that it takes 10mil min to create a full-stack healthcare company - what a load of crap. In december 2017 we launced a pilot study with 30+ participants receiving our digital healthcare product - the results have been very promising thus far. We have created a large content based marketing system (online and off), selling system B2C and B2B and also insurance companies and public healthcare system. I've been constantly learning about business, selling, marketing, but also medical knowledge about everything related to life-style diseases (Mark Cuban said something like - If you're not the smartest man in the room about the subject, you are a sucker - or something like that). I've created tons of content online, webinars, e-book, manuals ect.
FUTURE
#1 business - in a 2-5 month period following, we will see, if people are interested in the idea. If we get a critical number of pre-orders, we start the process of building the village. I have a great partner, who is in property business and I'm the medical officer - so we have our obligations very clearly covered. I'll keep you posted, how we will succeed or fail in the pre-marketing campaign.
#2 business -
a) doing profitable deals with insurance companies, there a some meetings coming up in next weeks
b) starting the b2b and b2c sales in next 1-2 months with a target to get to 10k+ in 3-5 months
c) keep publishing epic content and building lead- and customer base
d) start work on a healthcare app to use in our services and take a lot of "human time" out of the equation
e) constantly improve improve improve improve ect
MY LESSONS THUS FAR:
1. Blindly trusting people will leave you into trouble. I spent first 9 months on a business relationship I later found out was a fraud. Luckily my new partner pointed out some stuff to me, that I recognized the threat early, so no long term harm was done.
2. From "failures" can come great things - from above shtty first business venture I got to know so many wonderful people 2 of which became my new business partners in 2 different businesses. We match amazingly - almost perfect combination of the same vision, complementing skills, but also enough critical thinking about other one's ideas.
3. Overestimate start-up costs and then add 30%. Classic mistake - we were so enthusiastic that we wanted to do everything in 6 months (what usually takes others 12-18 months). So that lead to very rough economy. We've been almost broke for the time of the #2 business. Me and my girlfriend have lived very poorly and I've taken thousands and thousands in credit card debt to stay afloat and pay employees. I've worked with no free days or holidays almost a year now. And we have done in 6 months everything and more, but with the cost of being in the verge of bankruptcy personally and with the company. The good thing is that our debt burden is quite low and we still own 100% of our company. The other good thing is that investors have themselves come to us, wanting to invest.
MY CHALLENGES
1. I'm super-efficient and motivated, working from morning till night every single day. So everybody else seem very lazy and slow compared. I feel constantly that I need to "whip them" to get things done. It is excruciating to know that people that work for you "take it casually" when you are in full attack mode and doing everything in your power to keep things running and not to die as a company.
2. I have a chronic disease CFS, so I'm constantly battling with doing more and keeping the pace and worsening symptoms. Sometimes it is very hard to get things done and stay motivated, when you feel your body is dying.
3. To keep earning money for the company to stay afloat selling my services as a doctor, instead of growing my own companies. But it can't change before sales start coming in.
4. My girlfriend is a supportive, loving person, but as side-walker as can be. Family life isn't always easy because of it.
5.not to become addicted to hanging around in this forum that would take time off from important tasks. If that happens, I cut myself out.
SHORT-TERM GOALS:
1. #2 business needs to get sales to 10-20k/month ASAP, so I could shift from rental worker to CEO/doctor into my own company
2. Keep growing my network of people and get to know more and more of influential people.
3. Improve as a business owner and a doctor in my field, to get to the top 0,1% - constant daily learning and actions. Still managing 1-1,5 books/week.
4. To build my own and business brand in Finland to a small status.
5. Keep enjoying the hell out of the process through the tough times as well.
LONG-TERM GOALS:
1. #2 business gets to 1 mil/year revenue in 3-5 years
2. To create systems that work flawlessly 99% of a time without my input. That frees me to do stuff that matters to me.
3. #2 business to be amazingly effective, expand globally, change the healthcare system dogmas, have an impact on people's lives in scale and magnitude.
4. Being free moneywise and in the time and space.
5. To give back to my mentors (MJ and couple of others) as well to aspiring entrepreneurs who then will be where I am today.
MY WHY's
1. PURPOSE - now that I finally supposedly found my purpose, I feel that I have to make up for all the time lost when I was still searching. I constantly feel I have this obsession in the back of my mind pushing me, "because life is so short" - you can thank @MJ DeMarco , Grant Cardone and Elon Musk (who I think is the most important person to have and will have ever lived).
2. FREEDOM - I'm way past wanting new toys for myself thankfully. I haven't bought almost ANYTHING new in couple of years, yet I feel best I've ever felt. But I want the freedom that the money brings. The freedom to do with my little time whatever I feel is important.
3. REGRET - one of the most painful of emotions and can never be cured, only prevented. I'd rather fail 100x times and die a failure than regret not trying. I used to be idealistic and brainwashed from Hollywood movies that everything has to be done for the perfect reason. Now I say, fck that, it's the outcome that is the most important thing. Do whatever it takes to get you motivated to succeed.
Ok I guess that's enough for now. If there is something specific you think I should get into, let me know!
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Fuitp'v tuapf moli nadj, cav ov't 900 ias/datvunis, tu ov't e tvesv. c2c: tuni vsedvoup, cav pu siem qsuhsitt ziv. 
