Hi everyone,
First of all let me thank you all again for bringing so much value on this forum and also to thank M J for creating it. It is a real gold mine in the world of entrepreneurship.
I promised in my introductory post I will write more on my business ventures, especially because at this time the sales went down massively.
• 1st business venture:
As a kid in Romania I was very passionate about magic. A natural extrovert I participated at a few magic gatherings in the country and made lots of friends in the industry.
Small business owners from my city started hiring me to perform children shows. The biggest local summer school hired me to entertain their kids (a few hundreds). After appearing on the national television (in our version of America's Got Talent) got a lot of shows touring around the surrounding cities within a show company.
Things were good and couldn't believe the money I was making as a teenager. From 14 to 19 (when I finished high school) I was making plenty of cash, especially for my age.
Went to study at a university in the UK, only did a few shows for fun and to pick up girls over there, had two part time jobs to cover my living expenses (food, parties and clothes) and also my parents were sending me money. But the accommodation for all three years was paid in the summer time!
As soon as I got back home in Romania over the summer I would fire up my phone contacts letting them know I'm back in business. I was offering shows like a freelancer, the contracts being for a very set time (one to two hours in total) and a set amount of money (depending on the gig). Altogether in the 3 months of summer in Romania I would make enough cash to cover my accommodation for the following 9 months in the UK. It felt insane, because the prices were massively different, the countries were at extremely opposite financial spectrums and the UK currency at the time was 6 times stronger than the Romanian one.
As soon as I graduated I wanted to create a theater/entertainment company in my hometown city. It's a beautiful city on the coast of the Black Sea.
First, I tried working for this guy, a professional clown (no pun intended) with a party-service business, but his leadership skills were awful, he did not pay any tax to the government (which was completely unethical for me, especially because the employees were left without healthcare and were paid very poor cuts for the events) and honestly believed I can do way better than him. He had no professional website, his Photoshop skills were lacking, was a bit dodgy as a person altogether. Tried at first to be great and help him with everything, created a magic school for children by myself, within his business, but gave him half the credit for it, but instead of appreciating my effort he seemed somehow scared.
Followed my very first FTE! Went to the registry of commerce, opened my first business. Made loads of phone calls, told everyone I'm in business for myself. Hired on a show-basis stage assistant on the recommendation of a friend. Trained her (and paid her a very good cut every time). Created a professional website, a very well done Facebook page, done a couple photo shoots with my photographer friend, done a few more TV appearances. Promoted everything heavily. And things started going up from there.
Did that for one year, it was pretty much an adrenaline rush everyday, not knowing how to operate a business, learning everything on the fly. But people were hiring me and they were very satisfied with my services. After a few months did a 80/20 analysis of the business and here were my results:
80% of all my business was coming from 20% of all the clients. And those 20% clients were the children playground business owners.
I was offering great value, with just a higher price than a regular animator (clown / fairy / any character). I created a productocracy, everyone in the city wanted me at their event. The price was right for the service. I was competing directly with my ex 'employer', taking all his business away, in just a few short months.
But soon realized something. I hit my first ceiling. The business didn't respect the CENTS commandments, especially the Time one.
Most shows were on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays (when events were taking place). I could do maximum 3 in a day if I had a full day. Had to drive to a location, set-up, perform, strike etc. All being all sweaty and completely tired after just one, but three?
The business was dependent on the owner, me. It was rewarding, but very tiring. And if I would stop working, the money would also stop. And if I would refuse a few events, my branding would have gotten lower, because the network of people choosing me over someone else was talking very fast.
Also, the money ceiling was hit. There were just that many shows I could do in a single month, hence never hit more than 1500 dollars of income a month. It was still pretty good for Romania, the minimum salary being around 300 at that time. Overall I was between 800 to 1300 I would say. But it was extremely tiring.
Tried to recruit more people, to transform the business into a party-service business. But for normal animators the price per event was lower, and my cut would be extremely small, compared to the full price I was getting paid per events.
Tried to train someone else to do magic instead of me so we could max up the margin. But the people still wanted me to come to their events. The children playground business owners would say "Yeah, whoever you sent is good, but they are not like you. They were good, but you really know how to entertain the kids, they don't."
After one year of my first business venture I couldn't take it anymore, I was extremely tired and still living with my parents and I had my second FTE and accepted a job on a cruise ship that was paying a fixed 1750 dollars a month. I was working pretty much as half stage hand / half automation technician in the ship's theater.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Now, really thank you very much for reading all of this. I tried to compress it as much as possible and make it pleasant to read.
Those events happened three years ago and in the meantime I started a second business, which I will write more about probably in a second post, but more time needs to pass to have some actual results.
I would really appreciate if you would tell me what you would have done differently, what you believe I did right, what wrong and if you would have done the same in my circumstances or chose a different path. Looking forward hearing improvement advice, not wanting to be right.
First of all let me thank you all again for bringing so much value on this forum and also to thank M J for creating it. It is a real gold mine in the world of entrepreneurship.
I promised in my introductory post I will write more on my business ventures, especially because at this time the sales went down massively.
• 1st business venture:
As a kid in Romania I was very passionate about magic. A natural extrovert I participated at a few magic gatherings in the country and made lots of friends in the industry.
Small business owners from my city started hiring me to perform children shows. The biggest local summer school hired me to entertain their kids (a few hundreds). After appearing on the national television (in our version of America's Got Talent) got a lot of shows touring around the surrounding cities within a show company.
Things were good and couldn't believe the money I was making as a teenager. From 14 to 19 (when I finished high school) I was making plenty of cash, especially for my age.
Went to study at a university in the UK, only did a few shows for fun and to pick up girls over there, had two part time jobs to cover my living expenses (food, parties and clothes) and also my parents were sending me money. But the accommodation for all three years was paid in the summer time!
As soon as I got back home in Romania over the summer I would fire up my phone contacts letting them know I'm back in business. I was offering shows like a freelancer, the contracts being for a very set time (one to two hours in total) and a set amount of money (depending on the gig). Altogether in the 3 months of summer in Romania I would make enough cash to cover my accommodation for the following 9 months in the UK. It felt insane, because the prices were massively different, the countries were at extremely opposite financial spectrums and the UK currency at the time was 6 times stronger than the Romanian one.
As soon as I graduated I wanted to create a theater/entertainment company in my hometown city. It's a beautiful city on the coast of the Black Sea.
First, I tried working for this guy, a professional clown (no pun intended) with a party-service business, but his leadership skills were awful, he did not pay any tax to the government (which was completely unethical for me, especially because the employees were left without healthcare and were paid very poor cuts for the events) and honestly believed I can do way better than him. He had no professional website, his Photoshop skills were lacking, was a bit dodgy as a person altogether. Tried at first to be great and help him with everything, created a magic school for children by myself, within his business, but gave him half the credit for it, but instead of appreciating my effort he seemed somehow scared.
Followed my very first FTE! Went to the registry of commerce, opened my first business. Made loads of phone calls, told everyone I'm in business for myself. Hired on a show-basis stage assistant on the recommendation of a friend. Trained her (and paid her a very good cut every time). Created a professional website, a very well done Facebook page, done a couple photo shoots with my photographer friend, done a few more TV appearances. Promoted everything heavily. And things started going up from there.
Did that for one year, it was pretty much an adrenaline rush everyday, not knowing how to operate a business, learning everything on the fly. But people were hiring me and they were very satisfied with my services. After a few months did a 80/20 analysis of the business and here were my results:
80% of all my business was coming from 20% of all the clients. And those 20% clients were the children playground business owners.
I was offering great value, with just a higher price than a regular animator (clown / fairy / any character). I created a productocracy, everyone in the city wanted me at their event. The price was right for the service. I was competing directly with my ex 'employer', taking all his business away, in just a few short months.
But soon realized something. I hit my first ceiling. The business didn't respect the CENTS commandments, especially the Time one.
Most shows were on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays (when events were taking place). I could do maximum 3 in a day if I had a full day. Had to drive to a location, set-up, perform, strike etc. All being all sweaty and completely tired after just one, but three?
The business was dependent on the owner, me. It was rewarding, but very tiring. And if I would stop working, the money would also stop. And if I would refuse a few events, my branding would have gotten lower, because the network of people choosing me over someone else was talking very fast.
Also, the money ceiling was hit. There were just that many shows I could do in a single month, hence never hit more than 1500 dollars of income a month. It was still pretty good for Romania, the minimum salary being around 300 at that time. Overall I was between 800 to 1300 I would say. But it was extremely tiring.
Tried to recruit more people, to transform the business into a party-service business. But for normal animators the price per event was lower, and my cut would be extremely small, compared to the full price I was getting paid per events.
Tried to train someone else to do magic instead of me so we could max up the margin. But the people still wanted me to come to their events. The children playground business owners would say "Yeah, whoever you sent is good, but they are not like you. They were good, but you really know how to entertain the kids, they don't."
After one year of my first business venture I couldn't take it anymore, I was extremely tired and still living with my parents and I had my second FTE and accepted a job on a cruise ship that was paying a fixed 1750 dollars a month. I was working pretty much as half stage hand / half automation technician in the ship's theater.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Now, really thank you very much for reading all of this. I tried to compress it as much as possible and make it pleasant to read.
Those events happened three years ago and in the meantime I started a second business, which I will write more about probably in a second post, but more time needs to pass to have some actual results.
I would really appreciate if you would tell me what you would have done differently, what you believe I did right, what wrong and if you would have done the same in my circumstances or chose a different path. Looking forward hearing improvement advice, not wanting to be right.
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