Hi all,
I set up a sports nutrition company in 2015. I had never run, set up or even managed a company before doing this, and took the plunge after my F U Moment when on a '2 weak' (notice I didn't say week) family vacation in Portugal from my corporate Microsoft recruitment job.
I was doing great in my job, over 250k billings and managing a team of 4 to build and develop a new marketplace (at the time, it was MS Azure and cloud based technologies). I was working 7.45am - 7.30/8.30pm Mon-Fri with a 45 min lunch and did this for 2 years to work my way up to team leader. By all outward measures I was doing great, however I HATED every second of it. It wasn't my passion, each hour dragged and I loathed monday morning. Weekends were naturally spent partying and 'playing hard' as the company culture molded employees to do in order to keep them dumb enough to not notice the trap we were in.
Prior to this job, I was a strength & conditioning coach at a Premier League Football club. I'm a Sports science graduate, and initially hustled my way into that position by harassing a guest speaker from the club who was head of first team S&C at the time. I trained in the gym religiously and sports nutrition / sports science was my passion - however it didn't pay enough to cover the bills. All through University I worked at the club through the day, and at a Bank in the evening. I didn't have a day off the whole time.
I ended up falling into the Microsoft role because of my banking expertise, and the lure of a fat paycheck (which never really materialised, despite committing the mid part of my 20's into the role). Back to my FU moment, I had had enough. I was gifted the 4 hour work week, by Tim Ferriss from an old boss, who had since quit his job and set up his own firm. I thought little of this until I devoured the book during my trip. This opened my eyes to the path that lay ahead of me - 40 more years in a time, energy sucking role that I HATED. I was converted.
As soon as I returned, I set to work thinking up ways to set up my ecommerce empire. I recalled seeing a large gap in the market from my time at the football club, where the youth academy players were shuttled to and from training 3-6 times per week, sometimes twice a day. For ease of use, and added convenience, parents would give them vending machine foods, or a drive-by McDonalds on the way home in order to appease their young athletes. Now this was a dualfold problem. 1) Young athletes require the same, if not more (and better quality) nutrition than their adult counterparts, and 2) Due to selective or fussy eating, kids are naturally more prone to nutritional deficiencies than adults, especially when you factor elite level sport training into their busy routines.
That was it! I had it. I wanted to create a range, suitable and tailor made for young athletes to support them and their parents pre and post training in the from of a nutritional drink that would help ensure they get all of the right nutrients in at the right time. I was flat broke however and could barely afford to pay the bills at the time, never mind invest into a new business. So, what did I do? I quit my job.... Then and there.
Oh. Shit. Now what?
This was one of the most difficult periods of my life, as I had a flat on the riverside to pay for, a flashy car (financed ofc) and an expensive girlfriend to match. She ended up being my saviour, supporting me in rent and car payments until I managed to find a similarly poor job in energy sales. Of which I lasted 4 weeks before being fired. LOL. However, that period of time was not wasted.
I managed to download a template and product a business plan for my new range. All I had to do now is find an investor, and an investor I did find. In a miraculous turn of events, I had been speaking to a close friend about the new venture, trying to get him to play devil's advocate on the concept. As he was unable to win the game (I had answers for almost everything) he then went on to tell his colleague, who happens to have a wealthy father. This friend of a friend, then made contact with me, stating that he wanted to set a meeting up with his dad with the potential to invest, as they were looking for good cash flow businesses to put their hard earned money into.
It's funny how the universe works. If you take daily steps towards your goal, the law of ACTION (not attraction) definitely works. After a (very poor) presentation (i've revisited it a week or so ago, and it's terrible compared to my current standards, barely worth being called a draft) they we're happy to invest 10k to get the business started. WOW.
Enter the desert of desertion.
It took me a little over 18 months to get this concept of a nutrition drink (that has never been done anywhere before on the planet) for young athletes to market. The problem was that I needed to cover my overheads throughout this period, or at least until the business had launched, meaning that (theoretically) I'd be able to draw a wage from day one (oh, how naive I was). To solve this, I returned to our investor and asked that he invest more money into the company in return for more equity, that I could take a small living wage from. To enable this, I had to pretty much reduce my overheads from 10-1. Bye bye nice car, holidays, nights out, buying dinner, christmas presents and hello hermit crab.
For reference, I didn't actually start taking a wage until October 2019, 4 years after incorporating, but even then, its around £1k per month (12,500 p/a). Who'd want to live of that for the second part of their 20's.... not me! But I did it. I couldn't wait to launch, and on 1st March 2017 after 2 years of hard graft, I set the website to live and............ crickets. I think we managed 1 sale, and that was from a old friend of mine in corporate. The next day we got another, and for the next 4-6 months it probably averaged £700 per month.
At least I could take a wag..... oh. I could barely afford to cover the COGS, never mind market the product. Nevermind take a wage! Nightmare! I had never run an ecommerce business before, never mind conducted ANY online marketing, I didn't have a clue. So what did I do? I immersed myself in it and learned, the hard way. I would travel 4-9 hours in order to attend sports meets where I could sell to parents. One day, I even drove from the North East of England, to Bath in the south east of england and back to the North East again in a day, 23.5 hours to be accurate (I couldn't afford a hotel stay on top of the fuel).
Once I had gained enough traction from in-person sales, I managed to get the business ticking over online as a digital business. The hardships along the way we're many, and too many to cover in this post. Y1 revenue was 25k, Y2 was 70k, Y3 was 103k and this year it's on for 150k (it should have been 250k, but COVID has trashed any hope of this due to closing schools, gyms and cancelling sports events).
At the moment, its averaging 16-18k per month, however overheads are very high. I've even tried outsourcing our Facebook ads to a specialist agency, to try get our acquisition costs down (unsuccessfully so far). Stock is expensive, storage and distribution costs are high, marketing costs is high and its reliant on monthly recurring revenue to make profit. ROI is low (say it costs £20 to acquire a customer for a £40 product, but the £20 profit is then taken up by the COGS, marketing and overheads). On a plus point, it's just launched in the USA via Amazon FBA, so maybe this will contribute towards a higher revenue yield.
Anyway, back to the whole point of this post - (sorry, I got carried away with the story, but I think it's indicative of MJ's entrepreneurial narrative). This business is obviously growing, but it has never been profitable. Margins are tight, acquisition cost is relatively high (more so now due to COVID), but since converting it into a subscription business, with monthly recurring revenue, this has started to change.
I have since partnered with a family member late 2019 to set up and run a Golf Wedge Business. Since launching that in 2018, it was barely ticking over at 1-3k per month. When I joined, because of the depth and breadth of my experience in digital marketing, I've converted that business into £600k this year and counting. Profit margins are high, overheads are minimal, and it's a joy to run.
My sports nutrition business on the other hand, takes up 80% of my time and the other 20% is of my stress running it. I dont know weather its worth sticking with it, selling up or quitting. It has attracted two new investors in the time its been up and running, which means I have obligations to them to make good of their money. It's done well, but it's killing me.
The other option is to scale everything back (most overheads, marketing expenses) and run it as a lifestyle business for monthly cash flow, and not worry so much about growth, centering my attention on the Golf business and pay my investors back from that... The other problem with that, is the element of control - I don't have it with the golf business, it's not mine (equity wise, at least for the moment).
It probably looks like I'm quitting, but I've put 5 of the hardest years of my life into developing this sports nutrition businesses, and don't want to let it fizzle away. I just don't see light at the end of the tunnel right now with how it's going to fare long term if I continue having to dedicate all of the time, resource, money (it's a money eating monster alright) and energy into growing it.
I liken it to Phil Knights experience an Nike, where 99% of his book/story is pain, difficulty and problems, followed the 1% amazing outcome when it went public. This company, however, isn't going to go public anytime soon, and isn't mass-market by any means. So is it worth continuing? Even if I wanted to sell it, I don't really think its sellable in its current form. Or, am I being impatient, and expecting results to come too quickly? Do I stick in and continue putting in the work, for little results (I don't have anything tangible to show for my work yet, or a even draw a decent salary). Do I just or take the hint and quit whilst I'm ahead, and regress it into a lifestyle business and centre energies on the golf company, or even take the skills and start a new businesses in a new sector.
Help please! <3
I set up a sports nutrition company in 2015. I had never run, set up or even managed a company before doing this, and took the plunge after my F U Moment when on a '2 weak' (notice I didn't say week) family vacation in Portugal from my corporate Microsoft recruitment job.
I was doing great in my job, over 250k billings and managing a team of 4 to build and develop a new marketplace (at the time, it was MS Azure and cloud based technologies). I was working 7.45am - 7.30/8.30pm Mon-Fri with a 45 min lunch and did this for 2 years to work my way up to team leader. By all outward measures I was doing great, however I HATED every second of it. It wasn't my passion, each hour dragged and I loathed monday morning. Weekends were naturally spent partying and 'playing hard' as the company culture molded employees to do in order to keep them dumb enough to not notice the trap we were in.
Prior to this job, I was a strength & conditioning coach at a Premier League Football club. I'm a Sports science graduate, and initially hustled my way into that position by harassing a guest speaker from the club who was head of first team S&C at the time. I trained in the gym religiously and sports nutrition / sports science was my passion - however it didn't pay enough to cover the bills. All through University I worked at the club through the day, and at a Bank in the evening. I didn't have a day off the whole time.
I ended up falling into the Microsoft role because of my banking expertise, and the lure of a fat paycheck (which never really materialised, despite committing the mid part of my 20's into the role). Back to my FU moment, I had had enough. I was gifted the 4 hour work week, by Tim Ferriss from an old boss, who had since quit his job and set up his own firm. I thought little of this until I devoured the book during my trip. This opened my eyes to the path that lay ahead of me - 40 more years in a time, energy sucking role that I HATED. I was converted.
As soon as I returned, I set to work thinking up ways to set up my ecommerce empire. I recalled seeing a large gap in the market from my time at the football club, where the youth academy players were shuttled to and from training 3-6 times per week, sometimes twice a day. For ease of use, and added convenience, parents would give them vending machine foods, or a drive-by McDonalds on the way home in order to appease their young athletes. Now this was a dualfold problem. 1) Young athletes require the same, if not more (and better quality) nutrition than their adult counterparts, and 2) Due to selective or fussy eating, kids are naturally more prone to nutritional deficiencies than adults, especially when you factor elite level sport training into their busy routines.
That was it! I had it. I wanted to create a range, suitable and tailor made for young athletes to support them and their parents pre and post training in the from of a nutritional drink that would help ensure they get all of the right nutrients in at the right time. I was flat broke however and could barely afford to pay the bills at the time, never mind invest into a new business. So, what did I do? I quit my job.... Then and there.
Oh. Shit. Now what?
This was one of the most difficult periods of my life, as I had a flat on the riverside to pay for, a flashy car (financed ofc) and an expensive girlfriend to match. She ended up being my saviour, supporting me in rent and car payments until I managed to find a similarly poor job in energy sales. Of which I lasted 4 weeks before being fired. LOL. However, that period of time was not wasted.
I managed to download a template and product a business plan for my new range. All I had to do now is find an investor, and an investor I did find. In a miraculous turn of events, I had been speaking to a close friend about the new venture, trying to get him to play devil's advocate on the concept. As he was unable to win the game (I had answers for almost everything) he then went on to tell his colleague, who happens to have a wealthy father. This friend of a friend, then made contact with me, stating that he wanted to set a meeting up with his dad with the potential to invest, as they were looking for good cash flow businesses to put their hard earned money into.
It's funny how the universe works. If you take daily steps towards your goal, the law of ACTION (not attraction) definitely works. After a (very poor) presentation (i've revisited it a week or so ago, and it's terrible compared to my current standards, barely worth being called a draft) they we're happy to invest 10k to get the business started. WOW.
Enter the desert of desertion.
It took me a little over 18 months to get this concept of a nutrition drink (that has never been done anywhere before on the planet) for young athletes to market. The problem was that I needed to cover my overheads throughout this period, or at least until the business had launched, meaning that (theoretically) I'd be able to draw a wage from day one (oh, how naive I was). To solve this, I returned to our investor and asked that he invest more money into the company in return for more equity, that I could take a small living wage from. To enable this, I had to pretty much reduce my overheads from 10-1. Bye bye nice car, holidays, nights out, buying dinner, christmas presents and hello hermit crab.
For reference, I didn't actually start taking a wage until October 2019, 4 years after incorporating, but even then, its around £1k per month (12,500 p/a). Who'd want to live of that for the second part of their 20's.... not me! But I did it. I couldn't wait to launch, and on 1st March 2017 after 2 years of hard graft, I set the website to live and............ crickets. I think we managed 1 sale, and that was from a old friend of mine in corporate. The next day we got another, and for the next 4-6 months it probably averaged £700 per month.
At least I could take a wag..... oh. I could barely afford to cover the COGS, never mind market the product. Nevermind take a wage! Nightmare! I had never run an ecommerce business before, never mind conducted ANY online marketing, I didn't have a clue. So what did I do? I immersed myself in it and learned, the hard way. I would travel 4-9 hours in order to attend sports meets where I could sell to parents. One day, I even drove from the North East of England, to Bath in the south east of england and back to the North East again in a day, 23.5 hours to be accurate (I couldn't afford a hotel stay on top of the fuel).
Once I had gained enough traction from in-person sales, I managed to get the business ticking over online as a digital business. The hardships along the way we're many, and too many to cover in this post. Y1 revenue was 25k, Y2 was 70k, Y3 was 103k and this year it's on for 150k (it should have been 250k, but COVID has trashed any hope of this due to closing schools, gyms and cancelling sports events).
At the moment, its averaging 16-18k per month, however overheads are very high. I've even tried outsourcing our Facebook ads to a specialist agency, to try get our acquisition costs down (unsuccessfully so far). Stock is expensive, storage and distribution costs are high, marketing costs is high and its reliant on monthly recurring revenue to make profit. ROI is low (say it costs £20 to acquire a customer for a £40 product, but the £20 profit is then taken up by the COGS, marketing and overheads). On a plus point, it's just launched in the USA via Amazon FBA, so maybe this will contribute towards a higher revenue yield.
Anyway, back to the whole point of this post - (sorry, I got carried away with the story, but I think it's indicative of MJ's entrepreneurial narrative). This business is obviously growing, but it has never been profitable. Margins are tight, acquisition cost is relatively high (more so now due to COVID), but since converting it into a subscription business, with monthly recurring revenue, this has started to change.
I have since partnered with a family member late 2019 to set up and run a Golf Wedge Business. Since launching that in 2018, it was barely ticking over at 1-3k per month. When I joined, because of the depth and breadth of my experience in digital marketing, I've converted that business into £600k this year and counting. Profit margins are high, overheads are minimal, and it's a joy to run.
My sports nutrition business on the other hand, takes up 80% of my time and the other 20% is of my stress running it. I dont know weather its worth sticking with it, selling up or quitting. It has attracted two new investors in the time its been up and running, which means I have obligations to them to make good of their money. It's done well, but it's killing me.
The other option is to scale everything back (most overheads, marketing expenses) and run it as a lifestyle business for monthly cash flow, and not worry so much about growth, centering my attention on the Golf business and pay my investors back from that... The other problem with that, is the element of control - I don't have it with the golf business, it's not mine (equity wise, at least for the moment).
It probably looks like I'm quitting, but I've put 5 of the hardest years of my life into developing this sports nutrition businesses, and don't want to let it fizzle away. I just don't see light at the end of the tunnel right now with how it's going to fare long term if I continue having to dedicate all of the time, resource, money (it's a money eating monster alright) and energy into growing it.
I liken it to Phil Knights experience an Nike, where 99% of his book/story is pain, difficulty and problems, followed the 1% amazing outcome when it went public. This company, however, isn't going to go public anytime soon, and isn't mass-market by any means. So is it worth continuing? Even if I wanted to sell it, I don't really think its sellable in its current form. Or, am I being impatient, and expecting results to come too quickly? Do I stick in and continue putting in the work, for little results (I don't have anything tangible to show for my work yet, or a even draw a decent salary). Do I just or take the hint and quit whilst I'm ahead, and regress it into a lifestyle business and centre energies on the golf company, or even take the skills and start a new businesses in a new sector.
Help please! <3
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