[Progress Thread] Million+ Revenue by 25

[458]

Hello everyone. I don't contribute much but I figure I would post this just as a way to keep track of my own progress and help anyone I can along the way.

Some background information:

Age: 24
Male
College graduate
Active entrepreneur since age 18

Intro

This first thing I will say is that I am in no way any type of expert in any particular field and regard myself as pretty average but with a strong work ethic. I do not believe I am better than anyone else or that what I have accomplished makes me special. If you want to do this, its pretty easy... All you have to do is actually apply yourself and not listen to people that want you to fail.

Before I get to the details of the partnership I am forming, it is best if you understand how I got here. I basically started a business about 3 years ago in an industry related to my college degree(I can hear the yelling and screaming already). I rented an office, started making money, and basically learned the business while going to school. Fast forward to now and what has happened is what you can never expect but will inevitable occur if you stick it out and work your a$$ off. Keep in mind that I am only a 24 year old kid.

So what exactly has happened? Well.. i have been approached through networking in my industry by experts that are much more experienced and have the capital to push me where I want to go. We are actively forming a venture which I will talk about in a second. Here is a bit of information about their backgrounds:

Partner #1
30+ years of experience in the industry

Partner #2
5 years of experience in the industry
Current business doing 5 million in revenue(Same industry as our venture)
Current business grew 1000% this year alone, growth begins to slow around 15 million assuming no new services are added

The Venture

Basically partner #2 sees Partner #1 and I as competition and we have all agreed to partner up on a venture that will benefit us all in the same industry. Here are the terms(not in writing as of yet):

- I will take majority of the shares since I will be doing the majority of the work.
- Partner #2 business will loan our new venture 25-50K to begin operations.
- Partner #2 will be active for first year and then scale back after everything is established.

These terms are not in stone but they have been informally agreed upon. I cannot tell you anything more than this. I also cannot tell you the industry I am in, sorry. We expect to generate 1-2 million in revenue the first year assuming we are able to find and hire talented individuals in a timely fashion.

Thoughts

Do not think for one single second that this was an accident, I actively sought out this industry for over a year. This niche was only visible as a gold mine until I was so well researched that I could see what everyone else was missing. At this point in time, most of that larger firms have existed(due to reasons other than not being able to generate a profit) while demand has continued to rise. An opportunity like this is only capitalized on if you are able to pick your industry and niche wisely.

Sure, you can make money selling fruit on the side of the road but so can any idiot.. If you want to make your life easier, spend the majority of your time researching your niche upfront and the rest will be much easier.

Most people want to just jump in because they have no patience, this is a huge mistake. You want to be both aggressive and passive, you must be still and once you have found what you are looking for, be prepared to pull the trigger.

I could write 200x more; but I will stop here and let you ask questions.

Thanks

Edit: Would also like to thank JackEdwards & zen******* for always helping when I had a question or two.

 

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[vinylawesome]

I imagined Jordan Belfort's info course would be shitty to be honest - considering his unethical nature. But I found a torrent so I'll give it a go.

Oh... the irony......

 

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[458]

If you don't mind me asking about this, what did you major in while you were in college? I'm 20 y/o and have a good discount on tuition so I have decided I am going to finish school alongside learning on my own/starting a business.

Plus can you give me some tips that you use(d) for finding a profitable niche? I am on 'the search' right now. Thank you!

I majored in accounting; but you don't have to honestly.. Anything in STEM will be worth your time. The world is much more interconnected than you think and nothing learned is ever wasted. As Charlie Munger would say, once you have learned a lot about a lot you have the ability to turn chaos into simplified formulas for success. The ability to quickly distill vasts amounts of information into concrete action is one of the highest powers you can achieve. There's a difference between schooling and learning, don't worry about the major, just worry about learning as much as you can and then applying what you have learned in other abstract and unconventional ways. Go to school; but go and read books about everything and anything. Never stop learning.

In terms of the search, I would say that the starting point is to narrow yourself down to scalable business models and then spend time researching them for months concurrently. My personal method was to concentrate on industries where I could sell something over the phone, have everyone under one roof, and be able to charge a premium for the product/service I was providing. You may find an industry where you have #1 and #2 but if you can't charge a premium then your profit margin is not going to make it worth the effort. You also have to be prepared to do things that other are just not willing to do.. If the start-up is easy, there is probably little to no margin left.

Hope this helps, if you have more questions, just let me know.

 

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[458]

If you had no prior experience and wanted to get a job doing cold calling what you do, what would be a good starting point?

I wanted to edit my post. To ask an actual decent question. You talked before about overcoming the fear of rejection after 200 or so calls. My problem is i can't even start. All I want to do is get a job cold calling but the resistance is strong. I know it'll go away eventually but it is strong.

What's the progression from say someone who just starts in sales and how does it usually work?
I mean, I read ubersmench posts about closing 6 figure deals but that seems so far off. I notice you, yourself seem to manage a group of young cold callers. How would you say the progression should go to opening your own business in sales like you have?

Would you say, get experience for 6 months in a base level sales job, then try mid level walking into businesses sorta thing? go up and up? when it is appropriate to cut corners.

If you want to start right now, here is a quick game plan that MIGHT work for you:

1. Choose an industry you are interested in and has lots of small to medium sized players
2. Use google to build a list of 100-500 phone numbers of these businesses
3. Cold call them and ASK THEM what the most pressing problem there trying to solve right now in there business
4. After making 500 of these calls you should see some type of pattern that there all trying to solve and you will have gotten a lot of practice cold calling
5. Call them all back and pitch them your solution for there problem, once you have your first sale, you now have a business

Goodluck

 

[458]

Can you elaborate on how you did your market research to find this niche / know that it would be profitable for you?

Sure, basically i was looking for the following when i was doing my market research:

1. I can have everyone under one roof.
2. Something being bought on a national scale.
3. Something that people will pay a premium for because they HAVE to buy it, it is basically not a choice.
4. Something that would not be effected by technology because human touch/thought is responsible throughout the entire process.
5. Something boring or very boring, most exciting business have little margin and if they do, they are soon overrun by people cost cutting.

This is just the list that i used and some people on this forum may disagree with every point, but it has worked well for me so far.

 

[458]

Hola,

Been awhile since I updated this or came around so I figured I would drop in. Here are my stats as of today:

100k USD cash in the bank
Doing about 15k in revenue a week (cash, not receivables)

Been very focused on creating a tight scalable core which is basically complete. Next stop, the moon.

One thing I've learned that I could share with everyone here is consistency is key. If your not consistent day in and day out even when your clocking $200 a week, your project will never get traction.

Even though I fell short of my goal of 1m revenue by 25, I should be very close this year at 27 and definitely in the 2m range next year.

Ill take questions from everyone for a day or two until my ADD kicks in and I disappear again.

 

[458]

Hey man, I remember you! Props to you with what you've done.

What would you say are your essential habits or activities that you do daily?

Did you ever have difficulty with focus? If so, how did you consciously attempt to improve your focus? What has helped you with focus?

I would say the most important habits are working hard, working smart, consistency and a natural disposition for change.

The first three you can work on but I'm not so sure about the fourth. You can consistently work hard and smart but if your not evolving everything single day you will never reach the major leagues.

Right now I'm up at 445am and don't get home until 8am. Sat an sun I usuy work 5-6 hours from home. But all of that time would be a waste if I was still doing today what I was doing a year ago, I would still be making peanuts.

Other more advanced topics that are important are only hire winners, pay them very well, and delegate everything. However, this is only possible if you build a proper system which is both challenging and rewarding at the same time.

I could write for days but with that let me know what you want to learn about and I will reply on a specific question you have.

 

[458]

Thank you, I'm now in the process of outsourcing on freelancer the 500 businesses to call.

How's this for a script?

Hey, Could I please speak to your director? I'm an entrepreneur in your industry trying to find out how I can help businesses like yours? (get past gate keeper hopefully)

Me: Hi My name's Luke, I'm an entrepreneur trying to find problems to fix in your Industry, I wanted to ask what is your businesses most pressing problem your trying to solve at the moment?

They talk: -

Me: Okay thank you, If I am able to come up with a solution for your problem would you be open to hearing more about it down the line?

They talk-

Ok thank you I'll be in touch.
*hang up*

The businesses your calling for the most part wont have directors. Here is the script:


Him/her - "This is Jessica with XYZ company, how can I help you?"

You - "Yes Jessica, can i speak to one of your managers please." - Not a question, its a statement.

Him/her - "Sure, what is this in regard to?"

You - "It's actually a personal matter"

Him/her - "Ok, can I have your name please?"

You - "Sure, my name is John"

Him/her - "Ok, one second"

Manager - "Hello? This is Tim, who am i speaking with?"

You - "Yes Tim, this is John, the reason for the call today, I work with several consultants and I was reaching out to you to see if we might be able to solve some of your most pressing day to day problems in your business. Do you have a second to speak?"

From there just go into having a conversation about specifics of his issues on a day to day basis.

With the gatekeeper, you don't want to identify yourself too much and you especially don't want to sound like some college drop out entrepreneur.

 

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[458]

As promised, here is a short clip of one of our new offices in our suite. There is another 2,000 sq feet beyond this and the build out should be done in 3-4 weeks. Will keep you guys posted.

 

[458]

As promised, a few pics. There's a lot more space/offices but i didn't have time to take more pics.

 

[458]

Hey 458,

Just read through this whole thread, very inspiring stuff. It's interesting to start picking up patterns of the successful individuals on here.

Seems like a lot of people are successful on here that take advantage of profitable niche industries that others would never guess were so profitable. While everyone else is chasing after the oversaturated more attractive/cool industries, people are flying under the radar and building up fastlane ventures, well done!

What's the biggest takeaway you've had so far from starting up this business and seeing it grow?

Thanks

There are a lot of takeaways, it's a combination of things that will realign your perception along the way. I will say that once you are operating on a higher level than average you begin to notice that you are no longer competing with everyone else, your simply competing against yourself.

 

[458]

It has been awhile since I have written here, mainly because I have been very focused on this project since about December of 2014. I thought it would be good to return and give an update and field any questions for a day or so.

Since December I have hired and fired probably 15 people and learned more than any forum or book could possibly teach me (Not to say that this forum or any books is a waste of time). My cash flow is very strong and we are expecting to close out the year with a gross of between $350-$500k depending on the remaining months as we exit summer. Through 2016, I estimate I can triple my revenue through adding 2-3 more closers and 2-3 additional openers on the phones. Conservatively I will double the revenue with ease.

Tomorrow I will take a picture of my client dry erase board and give a bit of proof of the clients I have added since starting, it stands around 100 or so. Our average revenue per client is about $4,500.

I'd like to thank everyone on the forum, especially Jack, who gave me some good ideas when I got started. All questions are welcome, I will make sure to answer everyone.

 

[458]

Quick update, will do $110-120k revenue this month, I guess I finally hit my goal. Feels good. Next on the scorecard, 5m a year.

 

[458]

Growing faster than expected, did 55k last week, biggest week ever. Cheers

 

[458]

Sounds like the calling business is going pretty well. How's the REIT thing going?



I doubt he'll say anything.

IMPORTANT! - Why All The Secrecy? Here's Why...

Because I don't have to tell any of you anything. That's what happens when you break free from the system, you get to do whatever the F*ck you want.

 

[458]

Floors are done!

 

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[458]

Many would describe where you are now as being "Financially Free" (depending on how much financial stress you're carrying) and if the goal of wanting to become a millionaire was to become "financially free" then it could be argued that you achieved your goal regardless of "mis-naming" it originally. Also, if this was a plan to raise $100k and build a $15k a week business you wouldn't have got this far - probably only 10% of the way.

So by reaching for the stars you landed on the moon.

I call that success. Woot!

And some on this forum would probably be very surprised that I don't consider it a success, only because at this point it is still extremely fragile with failure possible at any time.

My end goal is to live off of municipal bonds and semi retire. If you want to have $1 million tax free cash flow per year, you need a lot of cash in municipal bonds...

 

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[458]

What dialer do you use, and do I need one of i'm just planning on cold calling myself?

Do you buy business phone lists off reputable sites or do you scrape them from the internet using software?

Is it normal to feel scared before starting? I feel as though i'll get abused over the phone ringing businesses, I know that's reality but for some reason the idea of it scares me.

What are your usual calling hours?

Whats a good way to get around the gatekeeper? I noticed when I worked an office job the salespeople would always say "It's a personal call". I didn't like that tactic.

What would you say is the minimum amount of money to set up a little cold calling business?

Do you know beforehand who you are trying to get a hold of or just asking for the boss?


I have to say I've read some of your posts and you do inspire me. You will be a multi-millionare ten folds over i'm sure.

1. We use five9 with local presence which means it displays a local number wherever im calling nationwide. Very expensive though, i pay around $2,500 a month for 5 seats. A cost effective dialer would be Mojo with Line2 as your desk line. Around $160 per month.

2. Yes, but after you do a few hundred calls, that goes away.

3. We call from 9am EST to 530pm EST.

4. Ask for the person by first name and sound like you know them. "Yes, can i speak to John please" "Yes, its in regard to a personal matter".

5. $10 per month if you want to hand dial, just get a line2.com phone, unlimited call and text nationwide can pick any area code

6. We don't call businesses, we call consumers directly. If i was calling businesses, i would definitely know who im calling beforehand.

Let me know if you have anymore questions!

 

[458]

new office update

 

[458]

Which partner dropped out of your business and what route did you take to hire sales people?

Partner #1 has dropped out. He had the most experience but the deal was just not suited to him. He was an older gentlemen and it was not the best fit for him at this point in his life. You can take any route you want to hire salespeople, it is usually luck finding good ones. We usually use craigslist to find them but it takes time and you have to know how to spot the bad from the good which is a learned skill. Generally you should be more concerned with managing them than finding them. Managing sales people can be difficult to say the least, they are usually not the smartest bunch and come with large egos.

Two concrete tips I will give you though, the first is you can never lower a sales persons salary/commission so be careful when you first hire them. The only option to lower their salary/commission is to fire them. The second is assuming your selling services, never have your workers and sales people in the same office space. Either have them in different suites or on different floors. It is just a bad idea to have them mingle with each other. If its not one thing, it will be another in terms of social interactions with each other. The less each group knows about the other, the better.

Let me know if you have any other questions.

 

[458]

For all you stat junkies and cold calling enthusiasts.

I'm in a giving mood tonight, attached are my OUTBOUND COLD CALLING sales stats per each of my individual sales persons and per the room as a whole. Abbreviation definitions are at the bottom of the sheet. Doubled my sales in 2 months, not bad. I expect to double them again over the next two month.

 

[458]

Expansion is always exciting. Rolled my lease into a bigger space this week, about four times the size I have now with that skyline view everyone dreams of. Laundry list of tasks, new computers, TVs, furniture, build out, yada yada.

Maybe I'll post pics when it's done..

 

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[458]

Working on 300k in May, man time flies..

Been working to add in additional services, one of which should triple revenue before end of the year.

Let's get it

 

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[458]

Had a good week, brought in 17k in cash, closed another 50k in contracts and hired 2 new sales guys, cheers to that

 

[458]

Quick update, will do 100k in March, busy busy busy. Perfecting our system daily, eliminating my own repetitive work.

 

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[Kingsta]

Have you ever thought of out-sourcing lead generation to a lead gen provider? Essentially what they do for us, they cold call clients that match our requirements (which are pretty specific in finance) and then pass them on for roughly £240. They hit our sales people and then they close the deal.

Now of course it depends on what you make from each client, if this method is worth it for you, since our average client is worth close to £24,000 you can see that £240 is 0.01% of the value so its worth it in our case.

We scaled the business from £1M to £7M just from outsourcing cold calling.

Just something to consider, keep up the good work.

 

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[458]

Update

June was rough on new customer acquisition but we had our best revenue month yet. July seems to be picking up since people are coming back from vacation.

Hire two new sales guys, rookies but workable.

More soon

 

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[458]

Quick update, direct mailers have been starting to work after months of adjustments. Dropped $25k for 100,000 which will be spread over 50 weeks starting in Jan. Conversions are at about 0.00454 which equates to about $60 cost per acquisition.

 

[458]

Thought I would update this, its been awhile. Finishing up my books for 2016 and fell a little short of what I wanted but it wasn't too bad. Gross is around 650k for the year with 38K bottom line and grew revenue at 500% from a gross of $130k in 2015. I expect this growth to continue in 2017 which puts my gross at year end around 3.25m. Once we start to reach growth ceiling in a few years, net margins increase to around 15-20% versus the 5% I'm getting while we grow. Cash flow management is extremely important right now. Cheers to 2017!

 

[458]

I know there are multiple different ways to make a great living in sales, as an Independant rep or someone like you running a team.

What are the advantages of building a team like yours, hitting lots of consumers versus say being a sales rep for Oracle and selling to businesses.

Also thank you for the advice you gave me that landed me a great B2B salesjob, It didn't work out but it was a great experience. i'm using the same advice to try land myself another. I just feel as though car sales isn't a scalable industry to jump into.

The advantage to running a team is scale, plan and simple. Once you have a system in place, scaling is the next phase, that is where your team comes in. As a single person sales man your going to be tired and probably still broke at the end of the year, plus you can't sell equity in yourself.