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So what do I do now? Where do I go after 4 years?

A detailed account of a Fastlane process...

What would you do if you were me?

  • 1. Open another brick &mortar shop

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • 2. Wait on shares/stocks and when retail starts bouncing back, open next one

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • 3. Go back to this magento website, staying in the same industry but online is a good idea

    Votes: 2 100.0%
  • 4. Just keep side hustling

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • 5. Do all 4, do 2 out of 3, or something else (comment pls)

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • Total voters
    2

lejus

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I've reached a bit of paralysis recently.

I am brick&mortar one shop retail operation guy (my 3rd, business attempt, 4th if you count less serious, 5th if you count failed side hustle). I have my shop I like to work here, but scaling it will require opening next one. As you all know in UK retail is dead. I am doing fine and I got decent at what I'm doing but it is definitely not enough after 4 years to remove myself from business and with one shop probably never will. Therefore I started side-hustling. Any free time I have I started coding and building websites. I am torn between:
1. Double down on what you're doing, open next shop. My problem with this is : Brexit, the retail state in UK, high cost and risk and low profit if I get someone to work there full time and I am not there.
2. Point 1 but wait, I sit on stock/shares and bonds (gilts) so I can cash on it fairly quickly while it is not just cash being lost to inflation there is some growth there.
3. Build online operation for my brick&mortar operation - this is what I've done initially I paid for building me Magento website and I failed miserably, it kept failing miserably, I didn't knew how to fix it myself and it kept draining money causing losses, what I thought will be the easiest transition lead me to my point 4
4. Side-hustle - keep side hustling, I taught myself wordpress, html and css in free time being frustrated with problems with 3 now I'm on javascript. I am building dropshipping website since it is always something I wanted to try if I build big enough portfolio I can start selling websites too. My problem is that I had 0 success with it so far, yes I builded blog for myself, one portfolio website and one website for a friend and I'm on 4th now but I enjoy it so why not keep going? It will take a while I know but with limited time after my brick &mortar it seems like it is already taking forever.

So what do you guys think? Maybe something entirely else? I am in the fitness industry maybe I should move to something less sexy like float tanks or carpet cleaning? Something less crowded where ppl still don't know what facebook and instagram is ? Any suggestions welcome.
 
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amp0193

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You're either going to keep the shop or you won't.

Put 110% effort into the shop and see if you can get it to where you want.

If not, then sell it and move on.


But if you're dabbling in other things, then you're only putting half-effort into the shop, and you won't really know if it has potential or not, and you'll always wonder "what if?"
 

lejus

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You're either going to keep the shop or you won't.

Put 110% effort into the shop and see if you can get it to where you want.

If not, then sell it and move on.


But if you're dabbling in other things, then you're only putting half-effort into the shop, and you won't really know if it has potential or not, and you'll always wonder "what if?"

Thanks for the answer man! Some good points there.

To be fair I was thinking that but also I was only dabbling 5-10 h/week in other things so I keep justifying that most of my time is still in shop and I'm not removing much. Problem with shop is that I can only have certain margin with amazon and other online sellers and I can only reach X number of ppl with being brick&mortar. With trend going into more online sales (Countries Who Spend The Most Money Shopping Online) and UK being second biggest online market after US my thinking was that I am preparing slowly to move away from pond to ocean with more customers available and lower cost of operation (best server I had cost me 10x less than shop, cheaper one I use currently costs me 20x less).

But shop is growing and it is doing very good, so good that I can remove myself and have some passive income from it within next year or 2 if it keeps going as it is. But than opening next one, maybe it will take me shorter but it will be again 2-3 years before I can remove myself from next one, assuming things keep getting better and online shopping data does not support that idea. So either way it will be very slow process.

I think what I'm trying to say my friend is that, sound like you are right, but I am afraid with current trend to do that. Any advice on how to overcome that fear? And do you reckon I should open next one now or wait till Brexit is in full swing, which is not that long it's just in March?
 

amp0193

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I think what I'm trying to say my friend is that, sound like you are right, but I am afraid with current trend to do that. Any advice on how to overcome that fear? And do you reckon I should open next one now or wait till Brexit is in full swing, which is not that long it's just in March?

It might not be a fear to overcome. It might be your gut telling you what you need to do.

I sold my company a couple years ago. I waffles back and forth a long time. In the end my gut told me it was the right move. Time is proving me right.

I don’t know anything about brexit and what it will or won’t do.
 
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million$$$smile

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First of all congratulations on a somewhat successful B&M.

Anytime you can step back and remove yourself from the day to day operation of running a storefront is time to consider what has made it successful.

Is it the products, the personal service, the location, the convenience or what? Figure this one out.

Is there any way to replicate it without the personal involvement running it?

Identify the processes and procedures that would allow you to delegate the day to day management of the biz and you might possibly have an opportunity to multiply the income stream quicker than you might think by the rule of scale.

Or,

Recognize that your 'heart' really isn't in running and developing a multi store business and consider other opportunities and put your focus there.

Above all. Don't waste you time. It sounds like you understand the 'how' to make the first one work, now you've just got to figure out your personal 'why'.

Good luck!
 

lejus

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It might not be a fear to overcome. It might be your gut telling you what you need to do.

I sold my company a couple years ago. I waffles back and forth a long time. In the end my gut told me it was the right move. Time is proving me right.

I don’t know anything about brexit and what it will or won’t do.

I think you are right. My gut might be telling me it's time to move on but the other thing is not setup, maybe I should remove myself from business, take very small income and work full time on new stuff. I need to meditate on this :)

No one knows anything about Brexit and I don't think anyone is ready. 95% of products I sell are imported. Brexit without deal might affect import badly, but it is hard will it happen without deal and how will it affect it. Not a politically stable situation here in UK at the moment :(
 

lejus

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First of all congratulations on a somewhat successful B&M.

Anytime you can step back and remove yourself from the day to day operation of running a storefront is time to consider what has made it successful.

Is it the products, the personal service, the location, the convenience or what? Figure this one out.

Is there any way to replicate it without the personal involvement running it?

Identify the processes and procedures that would allow you to delegate the day to day management of the biz and you might possibly have an opportunity to multiply the income stream quicker than you might think by the rule of scale.

Or,

Recognize that your 'heart' really isn't in running and developing a multi store business and consider other opportunities and put your focus there.

Above all. Don't waste you time. It sounds like you understand the 'how' to make the first one work, now you've just got to figure out your personal 'why'.

Good luck!

Thanks for the answer and thanks for the congratulations, I am unsure is it successful if I can't remove myself.

I think it is a combination of products and personal service, location is definitely not good. Also we have a strong facebook and instagram presence. I think that helps a lot.

Personal service is hard to teach and that part will be difficult, I learned customer service from books and videos, it is very hard to get employees to read these days. Maybe I could find some kind of training. This is part I will have to figure out.

Yeah man I will look for why, thanks again
 
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ExaltedLife

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You have a successful B&M so something about your model works. How about you develop a proprietary product of your own and leverage your store to sell it while selling it online? You have the advantage of being able to put your personality into the brand for the people who know you and like you.

Then you can have a story behind your product (pm me if you want help w/ that) which is great branding and you can also ask your friends/customers to review on amazon.

That way you can simultaneously build a fastlane "side hustle" and improve the profitability of your store
 

lejus

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You have a successful B&M so something about your model works. How about you develop a proprietary product of your own and leverage your store to sell it while selling it online? You have the advantage of being able to put your personality into the brand for the people who know you and like you.

Then you can have a story behind your product (pm me if you want help w/ that) which is great branding and you can also ask your friends/customers to review on amazon.

That way you can simultaneously build a fastlane "side hustle" and improve the profitability of your store

Man thanks for the answer this sounds great. I kind of partially did that, I have my line of weightlifting accessories kind of by accident. We try to add gym clothes to the mixture now and hopefully supplements in future. We added belts to amazon recently but something went wrong with delivery we need to check it. We have it on our website but website is bad. But yeah we are definitely working in that direction but slowly.
 

ExaltedLife

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Man thanks for the answer this sounds great. I kind of partially did that, I have my line of weightlifting accessories kind of by accident. We try to add gym clothes to the mixture now and hopefully supplements in future. We added belts to amazon recently but something went wrong with delivery we need to check it. We have it on our website but website is bad. But yeah we are definitely working in that direction but slowly.

Dude that's great, you know you need to fix the website. Do that!

If you have customers in your store you can ask them to pose in pictures with you, it's good for the story. Especially if your products have helped them. It's a lot easier to sell them on the prospect of posing with you in a picture than it would be to some stranger on Amazon, I think you should leverage that
 
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Fassina

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I bet there are some copywriters swimming in cash by selling you a solution to your problem. i.e Brick and Mortar stores declining.. You could do that on the side too, you already have a story, evidence and experience, it's practically half done..

Just a thought.
 

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