Hey everyone!
This post will be both my introduction to the Fastlane community and a kind of current life / business summary so forgive me if it's too long.
I started reading The Millionaire Fastlane in summer 2014 and the book changed my life forever since. I'm now 31, started my first business in 2010 with basically no other background than the skill in the niche I'm focusing on. Easily to predict, first years of my business were complete failure and looking back I think I did literally everything wrong.
With some base capital I rented the office, employed 3 people and worked my a$$ out to get enough money for covering the ongoing costs. The pain lasted for over 2 years when I finally decided to leave the ship and travel abroad as a contracted specialist, having not much challenging but nicely paid 9/5 job.
At the time I was clearly a broke Sidewalker and decided to educate myself on the wealth management, investing etc. Probably as many other people out there, I've thrown my very first savings to the stock and bonds market which fortunately enough, didn't ended as a disaster. I've followed the traditional way of building "wealth" by saving the pennies, "investing" in stocks, hoping that one day I'll be able live a "normal and decent" life as a regular, perfectly scripted citizen.
The one question that was bothering me all that time was - how come the company that hires me can afford paying me (and hundreds of others) pretty decent salary and still make a profit on top of that? I've run my own business in the past and knew how hard it was to generate money for covering the monthly costs, not mentioning having something on top left for myself. These thoughts inspired me not to give up on my entrepreneurial spirit, but I knew there was something terribly wrong with my previous approach to business.
Shortly after I came across The Millionaire Fastlane and the book revolutionised everything. Thoughts that changed my life completely were actually very simple ones, at least I view them like that from today's perspective.
First and still the most important one was - what is the actual value I generate and why in the world should anyone give me his hard worked money? That fundamental question changed my life forever and sparkled a completely new chapter in everything I do. Making long story short, I've changed my mindset from "why don't they pay me?" to "how I can make smile on my customers face even bigger?"
Second - I've realised my ultimate goal shouldn't be working "in" but "for" my business. That one is a bit tougher and I still struggle with it today, mostly because I have the privilege of doing both what I love and loving what I do. This actually lead me to the Fastlane community as after 3 years of following The Path, I feel that I'm on the crossroads again.
I left the contracted 5/9 job in the beginning of 2015 - I literally couldn't do it anymore after reading The Fastlane, despite the money and stability it provided. The first year was very rough in terms of cash but I somehow made it. 2016 was way better as I've refocused on what's important to the business I want to build and 2017 is already way ahead of the last year. I'm still far from the "magical" 10k / month (I'm talking about "real" 10k generated on monthly basis, without working my a$$ 12/6, excluding tax and all basic living costs) but that's not my ultimate goal - I know what I'm doing right now has much bigger potential and I want to reach it.
Again, that led me to the community here, as in person I really don't know any entrepreneurs who built a stable, profit generating business in the digital space. I'm purposefully avoiding the "start-up" vocabulary as it's more about a lifestyle nowadays (eye candying the ventures just to get some cash on another online "platform") and not about building the value.
A few words about my current business: it's an online store / service in a particular, professional niche where I sell both self made products (licenses) and bespoke services. Low social media presence due to the niche's specificity, but I've managed to build over 15k mailing list in about 2 years (approx 50 new "users" enrolling daily atm). This year's turnover will reach approx 80k usd, which is not much, but it's achieved with basically zero advertising and client outreach. Approx 20% of the turnover is generated passively, the rest still comes from the services. In 2016 I was handling 80% of the services myself, this year I've managed to outsource and manage 80% of the services, saving much more time I can put into the product development. The business is fully remote, the people I work with (currently 4-7 depending on the workload) are managed online and my margin on their work is 40 to 70 percent. The average "product" purchase value is 30 usd, the average "service" bill is around 700 usd.
I know the numbers aren't striking as for 2 years of constant development, but I've managed to build a brand that's now fully recognisable in the niche and the profits can be easily scaled up (as customers purchasing the products are also interested in bespoke services). That's actually the point where I think I'm hitting the wall - starting with basically nowhere to go in 2014, after 3 years I have many different paths to choose from and not sure which one to follow next. As in 2014, I knew I was missing something and The Millionaire Fastlane book came to me as a huge help, now in 2017 I really feel that discussing business and exchanging the experiences with other Fastlaners is the only way to go.
With all the above being said, I really appreciate everyone that made it to the end
I also apologise for any language errors - English is not my mother tongue. If you guys are interested in my current business struggles / questions and experiences, I'll be more than happy to share them in later posts!
Cheers and thanks!
This post will be both my introduction to the Fastlane community and a kind of current life / business summary so forgive me if it's too long.
I started reading The Millionaire Fastlane in summer 2014 and the book changed my life forever since. I'm now 31, started my first business in 2010 with basically no other background than the skill in the niche I'm focusing on. Easily to predict, first years of my business were complete failure and looking back I think I did literally everything wrong.
With some base capital I rented the office, employed 3 people and worked my a$$ out to get enough money for covering the ongoing costs. The pain lasted for over 2 years when I finally decided to leave the ship and travel abroad as a contracted specialist, having not much challenging but nicely paid 9/5 job.
At the time I was clearly a broke Sidewalker and decided to educate myself on the wealth management, investing etc. Probably as many other people out there, I've thrown my very first savings to the stock and bonds market which fortunately enough, didn't ended as a disaster. I've followed the traditional way of building "wealth" by saving the pennies, "investing" in stocks, hoping that one day I'll be able live a "normal and decent" life as a regular, perfectly scripted citizen.
The one question that was bothering me all that time was - how come the company that hires me can afford paying me (and hundreds of others) pretty decent salary and still make a profit on top of that? I've run my own business in the past and knew how hard it was to generate money for covering the monthly costs, not mentioning having something on top left for myself. These thoughts inspired me not to give up on my entrepreneurial spirit, but I knew there was something terribly wrong with my previous approach to business.
Shortly after I came across The Millionaire Fastlane and the book revolutionised everything. Thoughts that changed my life completely were actually very simple ones, at least I view them like that from today's perspective.
First and still the most important one was - what is the actual value I generate and why in the world should anyone give me his hard worked money? That fundamental question changed my life forever and sparkled a completely new chapter in everything I do. Making long story short, I've changed my mindset from "why don't they pay me?" to "how I can make smile on my customers face even bigger?"
Second - I've realised my ultimate goal shouldn't be working "in" but "for" my business. That one is a bit tougher and I still struggle with it today, mostly because I have the privilege of doing both what I love and loving what I do. This actually lead me to the Fastlane community as after 3 years of following The Path, I feel that I'm on the crossroads again.
I left the contracted 5/9 job in the beginning of 2015 - I literally couldn't do it anymore after reading The Fastlane, despite the money and stability it provided. The first year was very rough in terms of cash but I somehow made it. 2016 was way better as I've refocused on what's important to the business I want to build and 2017 is already way ahead of the last year. I'm still far from the "magical" 10k / month (I'm talking about "real" 10k generated on monthly basis, without working my a$$ 12/6, excluding tax and all basic living costs) but that's not my ultimate goal - I know what I'm doing right now has much bigger potential and I want to reach it.
Again, that led me to the community here, as in person I really don't know any entrepreneurs who built a stable, profit generating business in the digital space. I'm purposefully avoiding the "start-up" vocabulary as it's more about a lifestyle nowadays (eye candying the ventures just to get some cash on another online "platform") and not about building the value.
A few words about my current business: it's an online store / service in a particular, professional niche where I sell both self made products (licenses) and bespoke services. Low social media presence due to the niche's specificity, but I've managed to build over 15k mailing list in about 2 years (approx 50 new "users" enrolling daily atm). This year's turnover will reach approx 80k usd, which is not much, but it's achieved with basically zero advertising and client outreach. Approx 20% of the turnover is generated passively, the rest still comes from the services. In 2016 I was handling 80% of the services myself, this year I've managed to outsource and manage 80% of the services, saving much more time I can put into the product development. The business is fully remote, the people I work with (currently 4-7 depending on the workload) are managed online and my margin on their work is 40 to 70 percent. The average "product" purchase value is 30 usd, the average "service" bill is around 700 usd.
I know the numbers aren't striking as for 2 years of constant development, but I've managed to build a brand that's now fully recognisable in the niche and the profits can be easily scaled up (as customers purchasing the products are also interested in bespoke services). That's actually the point where I think I'm hitting the wall - starting with basically nowhere to go in 2014, after 3 years I have many different paths to choose from and not sure which one to follow next. As in 2014, I knew I was missing something and The Millionaire Fastlane book came to me as a huge help, now in 2017 I really feel that discussing business and exchanging the experiences with other Fastlaners is the only way to go.
With all the above being said, I really appreciate everyone that made it to the end
I also apologise for any language errors - English is not my mother tongue. If you guys are interested in my current business struggles / questions and experiences, I'll be more than happy to share them in later posts!Cheers and thanks!
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