After a decade of trying different ideas with success rates varying between minimal to none, I finally found success (in my opinion) being a solopreneur and doing something I truly enjoy doing
I'll keep this as short as possible, maybe it will inspire some, or persuade others.
- Moved to NYC in 2013
- Started my first company in 2014 -Beyond Neutral, an alkaline forming juice company. (Extremely difficult category with a cold pressed, non stable, short shelf life product that costs a lot of $$ to ship)
- Started a juice shot company in 2015 – We learned some lessons from Beyond Neutral and pivoted to ShotCo. A line of gut, pre workout, probiotic, etc… type of healthy shots, we were one of three companies at the time that were doing this. We did pretty well but after 3 years shut down.
- 2018 – 2020 – Worked a shitty job I hated while trying to figure out what I'm going to do next
- 2020-2023 – Tried 5 different ideas but flopped early with all 5 for varying reasons (mismatch with co-founder, flat out bad idea, Covid, not enough capital, etc…)
- 2023 – 2024 – Started The Woof a 2x weekly B2B focused newsletter that covers all the latest in the pet space, or as one reader called us – "Morning Brew for the pet industry". I originally started it for fun, had no long term monetization strategy but more so just wanted to see if I could grow it organically. After 10 months of publishing regularly this month we've done more than the entire 9 months combined.
Entrepreneurship is hard, trying a new business is hard, self motivation is hard, marketing is hard, self promotion is hard, grinding is hard, building relationships is hard, making money is hard, scaling a business is hard. When reading all the success stories online, it makes it seem like being a millionaire is super easy, many of us get sucked into the promise of "if you just grind, you'll make it" and grinding it out definitely improves your odds, but like anything in life, nothing is guaranteed.
With that said, when you find that thing you enjoy doing, that gives you the flexibility you want and the income you desire and you start seeing how you can scale it and build it, that's super rewarding.
So is it worth 10 years of failing? That's for each of you to figure out for themselves. I look at it as tuition, I learned my lessons, took my knocks, "paid my dues" and now I can take those lessons and build upon them.
Posted by Blanco_ice
12 Comments
This is very relatable.
Have you developed any mechanisms to stay motivated throughout this?
Even though you worked a shitty job, did you find any value by just being able to switch your brain off.
I recently moved on from a business and I the thought of doing something again make me feel queezy. I’ve been thinking about just trying either a completely different kind of business just to change things up or freelancing
That 2018-2023 phase is very relatable for me.
Have been toying with the idea of starting a newsletter, but am still haunted by previous failures in marketing the products i built.
Any advice on the marketing front?
God, consistency, passion , smart work
I’m next,
Where do you get the content to write the news ?
Thank you for sharing. Your writing voice is very trustworthy- I can tell it’s a real story with real details, and you have good intentions to inspire and educate people. I am at a job I hate and is breaking my back. I am a writer at heart, just starting a book. But i’m also an avid baker/cook.. so.. trying to blend the two maybe into a newsletter format like you 🙂 thanks again and happy you are doing something that brings purpose
Entrepreneurship is one ultimate form of hardcore personal development. Congrats, now that you’re making profit from revenue generated.
Would love to hear more about how you built the audience, how you’re making money and any general tips and tricks you’ve come up with along the way.
I can relate. I took me years of failing before finally finding my groove.
I hit the $10K per month mark after about 4 years into the project that I actually stuck with!
How did you monetize the newsletter to get 10k a month?
Some key takeaways from solo success stories:
* B2C has less success.
* B2C physical products are hard with low margins.
* B2C grocery products with a short shelf life are misery.
* Business models that have multi-tier decision makers (drinks = producer -> distributor -> consumer; two-way market place = buyer and seller) are an uphill battle.
* B2B if more profitable.
* info products (newsletter, courses, etc.) have higher margins and are easier to scale.
* copying a B2B idea for a new market is a good move (“morning brew for X”).
* if you can get 10K people for your newsletter, you can make a living.
* Use the momentum of growing existing trends (ex. the pet industry grows year after year).
Respect the hustle, you never gave up 💪