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{Success Story} Feeling stuck? A six month case study of when I dropped everything to buy a business

A detailed account of a Fastlane process...

Greg R

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Pretty soon I'm going to have to name this thread to "How I dropped everything to buy a business and grow it to the point of quitting my job."

I wanted to talk a little bit about help and why it is essential to your operation.

Without the help of other people, my progress would probably be 25% of what it currently is.

I'm going to try and lay out what "help" made the most impact. This goes beyond the obvious ones like the books, the Forum, etc..
  1. Mentor- Helped pushed me to make that life changing decision and helped me work through the business deal.
  2. E'Commerce Mastermind- Especially in the beginning stages when I had no clue (I still might not have a clue), the mastermind help me push through some of the easier challenges.
  3. Family/ Friends- Yes, I hired family to help me get everything moving in the beginning. They helped with financing, B&M selling, creative work, to packing and shipping. And even flying out to trade shows with me. You would be surprised to see how many people want to contribute in helping your dreams come true.
  4. Paid Coach- Right now I'm at the point where it was time for a paid business coach. The point of this is to help take your operation to the next level. From lifestyle business to big investors. Just like anything else, if you want to get better at something, you need to train with people who are better than you. You don't take karate lessons from a red belt if your plan is to be a black belt.
2asDHfR
 
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andviv

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Without the help of other people, my progress would probably be 25% of what it currently is.
Awesome.
I want to be like you when I grow up, my friend!!!

Thanks for sharing this thread, I love it. Rep++
 

FinnVenture

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Now if I were to count how many Trello cards I have in my "finished" list from this past year, it would make most people on this forum blush. Doing things for the sake of doing them is not effective. But when you combine effectiveness with lots of doing, you get diamonds. The definition of EXECUTION.

Thanks for the powerful message! I've been afraid to start cold calling and selling. I need to be uncomfortable NOW! Thanks for sharing your story. :)
 

Greg R

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Let's get back to talking about Buying a Business.

The beauty of buying a business is that you now know how to buy more businesses.

Right now, I'm looking at buying more businesses.

Buying more businesses can immensely add value to your existing business in a variety of ways.

  1. Valuation
  2. Distribution
  3. Product Offerings
  4. Connections
  5. Customers
This time around, I have to be more diligent and careful though. My reasons to buy more businesses are very different and my criteria is super strict. We may have to look at 100's of listings and piss of a few brokers to find exactly what we are looking for. We may even have to tap into non-traditional business buying channels.

So that is lesson #1. Come up with criteria. You need to know what you are looking for. It is better to not waste people's (and your own) time and energy.

Some examples of criteria are;
How much can you afford?
What industry do you want to be in?
What sales channels are desired?
Does location matter?
...etc
 
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Striver

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Awesome, man! Love reading stories like this. :)
 

Greg R

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A Few Tips When Looking To Buy (or start) a Business

There are tons of things that you don't necessarily think about when you are first looking at buying or starting a business. I didn't realize these things until very recently after I ran my business for a few months.

Some things to look out for when starting or buying a business.

Cash Turn- How quickly does the inventory sell? Does it take one year to sell out of a full production run, or one month? The longer it takes to sell out, the longer it takes for you to get the cash back. It also increases you expenses for storage and financing charges if you took a loan out to buy the inventory.

Lead Times- This also can be included in the "cash turn" category. Does it take 4-5 months months to receive product? or 45 days? Lower lead times= less cash tide up in inventory you don't yet have.

Moral of the story, the less cash you have tied up and the quicker you can turn the cash makes you a more attractive business. Freeing cash up to pursue new products or higher ROI projects is the name of the game.

When buying or starting a product business, make sure you have enough available cash to handle the prospective cash turn in the opportunity that you are looking at.

Maybe you can also find ways to turn the cash quicker that the current business owner was not thinking of like sourcing from Mexico instead of China to save ocean freight times.
 

johk

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Hi mate,

Great read.

Did the business you purchased complement your previous bra company?
Or is this in a completely new field?
ie did you have ‘read’ up/study the niche before purchase.

J
 
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MJ DeMarco

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Updated to NOTABLE.
 

sleepy99

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do yo have any site or market where bissness can be sold ?

example : exchangemarketplace com for shopify
 

DCDeuce

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Hi @Greg R ,
I recently had a serious talk with myself and realized that I'm in the same boat as you, starting a business for me is difficult but value-adding and expanding a business is more my strong suit. I wanted to see if you had any updates on your business or if you have bought any other businesses.
 
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