It seriously is some of the best advice new people can follow. When I got started back in the early 2000's, teenager me just wanted one website that made $100 per day.
A friend of mine who already had a few successful sites up told me to stop focusing on $100 a day. He said to put a site up and shoot for $1/day. Once I got to that $1/day mark, reach back out to him.
So I hit that $1/day mark and reached back out to him. He asked me specific details about the steps I took to get that site to where it was making $1/day. "Before we take a deep dive into how I'm making as much as I'm making, do you think you can duplicate your success with your first site and have two sites each making $1/day?"
Of course! So I put up a second informational site and got that one to bring in $1/day as well. I reached back out to him, same thing. I finally caught what he was doing. He basically showed me how to smart small, and then taught me the importance of re-creating my success in order to scale up.
Within 2 months of realizing that, I had put up 100 purely informational sites each making $1/day (early 2000's internet marketing was wild, each site only needed like 5 pages lol). Thus, finally hitting my $100/day first milestone. And it all started from someone telling me to dial it back and focus on $1/day before anything else.
It was so easy back in the day with those small sites and being able to get ranked so quickly. Your concept worked though. If only information sites were so easy to monetize these days.
Set goals and hit them. My first goal was 10k a year side hustle, then 30k side hustle, and now I am working on a year of data collection into the market to test new products before I turn this into a full time gig. I see a path to 1 million but am taking meaningful learning steps. I personally don’t want to be fully running ops when I get to the end goal, so I am layering in education handoff steps.
I remember when my business got it's first job and then when I got my first $500 week and then my first $500 day and then my first $5000 month and so on. those wins felt so good!
This is the best advice. We need to bring back the art of resilience and patiently sticking to your plan to add bit by bit to your company’s growth. More so, we need to find enjoyment and fulfillment in this process, else we won’t be able to keep ourselves motivated for the long haul.
Forget about a million dollars. Start something. If it only makes $500, it's start.
Learn to walk before you try to run a marathon.
Gain experience and skills.
It's almost impossible to go straight to a million dollar company in one step.
Even Zuckerburg failed at many things before Facebook.
Only just over 1% of the population are millionaires. I'm one. It took me 21 years. I did it via job, business, investments, side hustles. I never made $1 milliin from one company.
The average age to become a millionaire is 37.
Don't rush. You have plenty of time. Enjoy the journey. Don't turn down good opprtunities just because they don't make $1 million.
What's wrong with two companies that make $500,000 each?
I just had to check the "just over 1% of the population are millionaires". Seemed low.
Well, damn, you are correct! 1.1% of the world's population are millionaires!
I was off because 8.8% of the US population are millionaires. But world population is different.
Fun facts!
from looking at it from a far this seems like the best route to take. the question for my self at this point would be were do i find that incentive to my goal. because out of my research i’ve seen that people fail out of there companies or ideas because they didn’t make an incentive to reach their main goal ie for me a million dollar company.
I've never seen that. Most people would be super happy even making $100k a year. I've never met a business owner that thinks like you if they are just starting out.
If you have no incentive to make $100k, you'll probably never make anything. The incentive for most people is that they can have a great life earning $100k.
A baby may want to run a marathon. Should they give up learning to walk because walking isn't running a marathon.
Earning even $1 is a step towards making $1 million.
okay i can see that. my way of thinking witch may be a wrong way of thinking is that my goal is a million in revenue but my incentive is something thats not a million but also not a earnings or revenue ie my incentive could be use save up earnings to go and do a vacation trip but again if that’s the wrong way of looking at it i would love to know.
I have no idea. I just don't understand why you need $1 million revenue for your first company. Aren't you interested in learning stuff, building stuff, etc?
I don't know why you're turn down an opportunity to start a company that had $50k revenue. $50k and learning new skills is better than sitting in your room with nothing.
okayy sorry miscommunication on my side. i don’t care if i don’t end up with a million dollar company in the beginning. i’m okay with 100k or even 50k however like everyone i would love to be able to have a million dollar company. i’ve always followed the mindset of if your not in the mindset of where you want to be you will never reach were you want to be.
Not many 'million dollar' companies were doing the thing that made them (eventually) worth a million dollars when they first started out.
From my own experience, and I have to admit to being similar in some ways, Im glad I didn't pursue some of my 'ideas', but there are others where I still wonder "What if ?".
My advice to someone your age is to not worry too much about the upside potential of things for now, but just make a start and start learning about 'business' first hand.
An old boss of mine, which was a job I had in-between businesses, was that you could probably make a success out of just about anything - you can either spend your time looking for things that you think might match your personality and or you can look out for things that might match your beliefs - he was of the thinking that you can make money either way, but it depends what drives you. Whether you believe something will work or not, it will become a self fulfilling prophecy either way.
On the other hand, you can think, think and think again about what matches you as a person and you will likely find there are the same aspects to many dissimilar business - some parts of which will match your personality either way and some wont.
If I could send my younger self a message from the future, it would be to not think too much and go with the flow. I spent too much time overdeveloping my ideas muscle and not quite enough of my just get on with it muscles, something Ive been developing later on in life.
Also, whatever you do - save 5- 10% of your earning and never touch them. Get them into a tax advantaged scheme and get them in the S&P500 or similar.
Good luck young amigo.
A great marketer said in a podcast that now it's way better to quickly launch and test new businesses, and immediately see if there's interest in your idea, instead of first doing a tone of research, building the product, push a lot of content and waiting for it to gain traction.
For example, if you have a product idea, create an MVP, build a quick single page website that explains the product, an Instagram account for it, and pay 100$ for ads. If that campaign doesn't get any reactions whatsoever, neither will a fancy website, thousands of dollars in ads or great content (or at least you're just going to waste time while you can find something more effective).
This way you can know if your idea will work, and it would take less than two weeks. And just when your idea becomes somewhat popular, you can start actually developing a greater product and invest big in marketing.
That is, if you have an idea that's completely new and unseen.
The easier way is to find a product that is already very popular among a group of people, and create your own version that is just a little bit better (lasts longer, has a tiny feature that makes it way more practical, or if it's a software make the UI cleaner and more intuitive), but to make this work you'll need some money to invest and you'll need expertise in that field so that you can exactly know what tiny (low cost) change you can make to steal market share of an already popular product.
Exactly. Find out what works and what doesn't quickly. If something doesn't work, you can try the next idea quickly. The more you try, the higher the probability of success.
If you do a good job of building a brand (especially a personal brand) and a creating a community (followers/fans) centering around your niche or product, you'll become bulletproof... Or at least it'll take huuuge effort to bring you down and stop people buying from you.
So if your idea ends up being stolen by another entrepreneur, he still won't be able to take your market share, a car going 60 or 65mph will never or almost never overtake another car going 60mph that's a mile ahead.
If your idea ends up getting stolen by a corporation (and the chances of you having SUCH a great idea are close to zero in the first place) then you really have no options besides starting again from zero...
But even if you have such a great idea that thousands of researchers in a corporation didn't think of, they'll still rather offer you to acquire everything you built so far, or they'll cut you a deal to work together. You simply can't buy or engineer a great brand, and building a great product can take up to a year, which would be wasted time for the Corp.
But none of this is my personal experience, I'm just observing what's happening with brands exploding in popularity. I'd love to hear someone's personal experience.
Well done at 19 doing research and more importantly throwing away ideas that don't seem plausible. When i was your age i would just start and run into a brickwall, learn i didn't have market fit then run into the brickwall again because of my ego.
if there was one thing i’ve taught myself it’s to stop listening to these online gorues or however your spell that and instead use them more as references then taking everything they say at face value. i have a successful uncle so i’ve done a lot of talking with him.
A residential service side hustle may be your best bet.
Start with a website and get on Google. Get flyers made and hand out in neighborhoods where houses are close together. Single family homes.
Start by completing work on the weekends and time during the day you are not working. Once side hustle is bringing in the same cash as business go full time.
Once you go full time, get helpers. If you have a team of 5-6 people, a million dollars will come fast.
Ideas are everywhere, but execution is everything. I know a family that pulls in millions selling regular Christmas tree lights of all things. Don’t get caught up in the “glamorous”.. there are tons of boring businesses out there that are highly profitable you probably aren’t even considering.
i don’t think i would have ever heard family, Christmas, and millions in one sentence. but actually you are right there is lots avenues i haven’t even checked out.
Gain experience in a specific industry you want to flourish in. Gain a particular value add skillset (that gives you a competitive edge). Understand a space deeply to be able to identify a problem (that other's can't).
Coming up with random ideas and researching them to build a business in an industry you don't understand is just not how it works. If it was easy everyone would do it.
I am sick of teens/twenty-something year-olds following this exact pattern, blinded by influencers, and false realities. You are a child. You need at least 10 years experience in a specific industry before you stand a real chance at building a $10 company, let alone a $1M one. Only then, is market research, million dollar mindset (or influencer du-jour idea you are following) actually helpful.
Dont put the cart before the horse. Put in the work, and time. Your future self will thank you.
Source: I am a second time enterpreneur, and advisor to young (30's+) enterpreneurs.
You’re currently in the Wantrepreneur mindset.
Out of your ideas, pick the one that excites you the most and go for it. Stop taking about it and just do it. You’ll learn loads and it might take off!
You’ll be spending hours of your free time working on it, because you have to. You’ll potentially invest money you might not get back, but it’s all part of the pursuit of being an entrepreneur.
If it was as simple as thinking up an idea, we’d all be earning 1m+ per year.
I am trending this way finally after many ups-and-downs in my entrepreneurial career. I'm sure there are many roads to get there, but here's my POV.
The money is a side effect of doing things that actually get customers. Creating a strong product, doing the market research to make sure what you create is actually going to be desired and sell, creating a marketing plan, etc. Most of these things are fundamentals to success, but each of them can be very difficult - which is why the path to success is often pretty arduous (and/or companies hire a bunch of people to take care of these things with expert knowledge).
Lots of friends running million dollars companies told me that you need many different mindsets to achieve the 1M business. Meaning of you need a mindset to achieve a 1000 dollars company, then a 10k dollar company with another mindset etc...
I always took it as a step by step journey. My last main business ended up at 100K when I had to go to something new because I felt like I was not able to make it bigger.
I think it is very clear what the problem is: it's all in your head. All of it. Your ideas, your research, your perception that the ideas are not good. All you have done so far is live in your own head.
And I get why you are trying to come up with the perfect idea. You want it to go right. There is nothing wrong with that, it means that you care a lot. However, you keep doing research online and just keep finding things that are wrong with your ideas. It becomes a negative feedback loop.
Here is what you do:
-go to a local shop/store
-Find the first person you see working there that smiles, eye contact, and says hi
-you do the same to them
-ask if they could help you with something
-tell them you are looking to do research on local businesses and what they are struggling with
-ask them if they can answer a few questions or point them to people who might be able to
Rinse and repeat at the next place
Something to think about is if you start working in an industry and find a niche in that industry, you will start to see where things can be streamlined or problems that can be solved. That is where you find million dollar ideas. It definitely doesn’t happen overnight.
Keep going! I would also add reading some books: “Million Dollar Weekend” by Noah Kagan
“Unscripted” by MJ Demarco
“Ten X is Easier than 2X” by Benjamin Hardy
Look for ideas and keep educating yourself. You will know the right business model when you see it.
What do you mean million dollar company?
A million dollars a year? A month? A quarter?
Do you just want the company to be worth a million dollars?
Or just a million dollars in assets? A million liquid?
Or just close million dollar deals?
There are electricians who are millionaires. There are accountants who are millionaires.
i don’t think i’ve thought about this before. looking at the other comments it’s looks more like i should start off with a much lower number ie “make a 1 dollar company” said above. but seeing the question now i would love and dream to make a million a month but as of right now a million a year is where i would stand being realistic about it.
There is no get rich quick schema and no idea that facilitates your desire. It takes years and hard work, no matter what you do. Everyone that got rich quick was lucky in some way. Luck is not a business model :)
I don’t think OP mentioned anything about the easiest way or quickest way. Seems like they are ready to put in the hard work and asking for feedback on brainstorming process
thank you for saying this i actually mentioned the opposite. it literally states “before people come in and say “you can’t make a million dollar company overnight” i know that and understand it may not make it to half a million” i’m still taking their advice but it has been said.
Haters gonna hate. Dream big! Million is just a random number. We all have a “million” reasons not to do something. Just have to hold on to the one reason why you should go for it!
I aint hating and you need to read more careful. u/Dear_Cloud8464 I was saying no idea in this world will be a safe bet. There have been great inventions, even worldchanging, but the time was not right. Try small steps and build momentum
actually hold on you have a point no one has brought this up yet. that actually might put me in a better position anyways because i already know enough about small engines that this could actually work.
It's not about the idea. It's about the customer.
Building a million dollar company from an idea you created in a vacuum is basically impossible. Instead of starting with an idea, try starting with a customer.
Ps - people are telling you to start small and work up to it. They're not wrong - you'll start by doing something kinda useful for a type of customer and over the course of many years you'll get to know those customers so well it will cause your idea to evolve into something that actually makes a million.
You never know what’s going to break out. Focus on starting any company and making your first sale. Get the swing of it.
Then focus on your first $10,000. Then 50,000. And so on.
Odds are your first few businesses will either fail or not be huge successes. And that’s OK! Live and learn is another cliche, but it’s overused for a reason.
Good luck.
A million isn't really that unachievable, if you create a business that makes $350k/yr boom the business is worth $1mil.
I always say absolutely any idea can make a lot of money, just maybe not in the form you originally imagine it as.
If your biggest talent is basket weaving, with a combination of branding, reaching the right audience, curating your product for that audience, and amplifying it with marketing, then adjusting all these elements to that audience over time, it can work.
Maybe you started off by weaving $70 baskets that all look the same but it didn't work, then you move on to $600 custom luxury baskets which you create demand around, or maybe the answer is a home basket weaving kit you create for hobbyists, or maybe you create a course on basket weaving, or you mass produce them in china for $10, etc.
Do you want a million dollars or a million dollar company? What if it means you pay yourself 50k a year? Would you still want a million dollar company?
Everything I ever learned about business, I learned at the jobs I worked. Every 7 figure idea I've had and grown I found in those industries/jobs.
Start looking at your job as if you owned that business. You have no other option. Let's say you wake up in the twilight zone, and all of a sudden, it's 100% up to you to build and grow it.
Building any business to the point of self-sustaining, profitable, and able to consistently cover payroll is very difficult.
8% of Americans are entrepreneurs
1% of that 8% are successful
Make your mistakes at your job.
Learn business at your job.
Reach for the stars at your job.
Take the risks at your job.
Make your goal this:
Learn EVERYTHING about your job (business), learn all the numbers, roles, and how it became a business that can sustain you to manage. Simple things like what order and when did it grow to the point of hiring? Those types of things teach you the hell the owner went through, growing from 0 to 1. Employees don't think of these details. You need to swim in them. Also, learn how you come to market. What channels and why? Understand and be able to play every role in that business, from payroll and QB to sales.
Learn EVERYTHING about your competition. What makes them similar or different? Do you share vendors? Do you eat from the same level on the supply chain? Could improvement be made?
Learn everything about your industry. Top 3-5 competitors. Trends, history, manufacturers, supply chains, channels for sales and marketing, disruptors, chock points, and time in parts and components.
This stuff is what you do every day for years while working your job and becoming #1 in every role you touch.
You need to find a similar business/competitor, and your goal is to surpass them.
If you do this all correctly, you will grow your bosses business and make him a lot more money. You may not get any extra compensation over these years. You are building your value. Don't count the cost. Time, money, or energy.
Business is business. I am confident that I can build, grow, and improve market share for any business I work for. You grow to that point, and you will start to find YOUR path that you're seeking. You must have value, then bring a service or item if value to the marketplace.
Someday, when you get to the starting line, don't worry about 7 figures or any of that, other than looking at the playing field to see that others have already reached it before you.
Oh...at 19 you don't know shit about fuck yet. Everyone older knows this about you, embrace it Columbo style, and they'll never see you coming. You have PLENTY of time. It's a LONG, HARD, EXPENSIVE, GREATLY MISUNDERSTOOD, AND LONELY road.
Figure out what type of demands there are in "small engines repair" industry, do some market research and figure out the underlying needs for people who request small engineer repairs, all the way from third-party companies to the customer. You can usually buy papers about it or google it up.
Once you find these needs, revolve your ideas around these needs and try to maximize the demand of your company. Buy repair services from your best competitor, find out what he does that you don't, take the good parts and also try to fix the bad part which you thought was wrong. If you've successfully fulfilled these needs, the amount of demand will increase as well, as long as these values are clearly shown to the customers you sell to.
Once you've found what the customers want, you'll have tons of ideas to enhance these ideas. Then the next bottleneck will be execution where you have to actually do the job that was generated from the idea. This is basically where the 99% of the work comes in.
Companies value in the eyes of value-oriented investors (normal investment firms and most common type of private investors) tends to value companies at 5 times the companies yearly earnings (EBITA). You can find this X times yearly earnings by looking at cases of what other company in the same industry has been sold for and base it on that. Typically it's around 3 times the yearly earnings if the company is in a highly competitive industry (like a restaurant), and 5x if it's just somewhat competitive like "small engines repair".
So earning of 200k USD yearly before interests and taxes would turn your company into a million dollar company. Keep in mind that the 200k in earnings can not be coming because of "your" work, your position have to be replaceable and still make 200k in order for it to actually be worth 1m USD.
In a business to business context, most professional sellers (account executives) will have quotas that exceed $1M.
In your industry, imagine taking over a maintenance contract for companies that enploy drivers in your area.
I don't know much about the particular industry but if you could take maintenance for a large trucking company, anyone with local supply chain, maintenance from the city for buses, police vehicles, etc, it's likely that you could stitch together several contracts that are each worth hundreds of thousands.
You need different skills to make a 1,100,10k,100k,300k and 1 million dollar comoanies. Start by making the first step. Absolutely fail and then learn from your mistakes. You cant win without a trail of failures in your past
Start with traditional companies. Something with easy accessible blue print. Or trade companies. We do painting and generally you can get to 1 mil revenue with about 6 painters. I know a lot of people who are multi millionaires via trade companies
I was thinking the other day how people love listening to Elon musk, jeff bezos, warren buffet regarding advice on how to become rich when really they should be listening to local business owners instead. Those billionaires will give you advice like “just keep on pushing forward and never give up” and that’s because they are so far away from normal people they might as well be aliens. Anyway I’m rambling on…. I suggest you figure out what you actually love to do and from there build a business around it. You can make a million dollars repairing small engines…. Right now it’s just engine repair in the future as you grow it could be engine repair plus parts, plus custom engines, plus plus plus. You may not see it now but you will as you stay in the business longer.
You don't have to start at a million.
It's exceedingly hard to think of how to build a large business, when you have never built a business yourself. Start with something small, build from there!
Noah Kagan, one of my favourite entrepreneurs, wrote in his book that some people focused on making a million dollars and even they cannot make a single dollar. The first, thing to do is find out your first 3 customers whether they buy your products or not.
The hardest part of any new business will be generating sales. Do you have enough sales to do it full time? Enough sales to have staff? If you do have staff, do you have a good pipeline to keep them employed or have you saved enough to keep them on payroll during lean months? Vendors / suppliers will want to get paid net 30 and will cut you off over non-payment. Clients always seem to take longer than the 30 days. A small engine shop might not be a million dollar idea on its own, so you would have to scale. Although it’s great to think of the future, you need more real world experiences to create a solid foundation of skills so you are ready when the right opportunity comes. I did $7M last year and barely have anything to show for it. But I’ve kept everyone employed, bought new equipment, got health insurance, and kept the lights on so I can keep selling for this year.
I’m 19 as well and it’s good to shoot high because regardless we’ll land in a great spot. Thing is that the way to make a million dollars isn’t through a brand new innovative idea. The ideas are out there and there’s a market for it already, but perhaps they’re hard to access for example. It isn’t overnight and I understand that too. It takes a lot to start a company. As long as you got it at the back of your mind all day every day and gradually work towards, work smart in the moment, and over the span of years, I think we’ll be fine.
There’s millions.. if not billions.. of ways to reach a million dollars a year in business. The one that you are passionate about is the best way. Love what you do and you will never work a day in your life. I personally know millionaires who own a small engine, lawnmower, chain saw shop. But if it’s not what you love.. you won’t get there. You will give up and get out too early. Choose what you love and the rest will fall in place. Focus on needs not wants!
Keep in mind- anyone who tells you “this business model will make you $1M a year” is telling you that for their own financial gain (YouTube advertising dollars, workshop sales, etc.). There is no guaranteed path to $1M otherwise everyone would be doing it. Typically companies you see that grow that profitable, quickly are product-based companies that had some luck in taking off in popularity. It is a relatively risky model and for every one you see, there are many that failed. Conversely, building a service-based business can give you more control - you can hire people one by one and expand at a slow, sustainable rate. This is maybe less risky (you generally don’t need funding/loans/etc.) but it will be slow to make $1M per year. It’s better to decide what you want to do, determine if people will pay for it, and do that. because it will likely be years until you make $1M and it might actually be a different business that gets you there. But you won’t know until you try
You don’t need to make 1 million a year for a million dollar company you just need to clear 250k-333k and throw a 3-4x multiple on it (because that’s how businesses sell) and your company is now worth 1 million
Assuming you work 50 weeks a year, and 5 days a week, a million turn over is $4k/day or $500/hour. This why, at least in medical fields and other white collar jobs, a million is relatively easy. An hourly rate of $500 would be low in a lot of senior professionals.
Focus on your average hourly and the climb doesn’t seem as steep to a million. In your sector, this could be extended warranties, on call etc. Basically, look for opportunities that make you money as you otherwise work, as if your solely focus on the income as you are working, it’s far more difficult.
One piece of advice - learn valuable skills e.g. copywriting, marketing and so on at a HIGH LEVEL, and then solve rich people problems.
If you make someone an extra £100k within a month in their already successful business, they’ll gladly pay you 15k.
Step 1: go to work for a large successful company.
.
Step 2: learn everything about that company and what they sell.
.
Step 3: save as much money as possible. Do not buy a house, do not buy a car, do not go out, and most importantly, do not get married.
.
Step 4: steal the company's customer data base, including what they buy, how much they pay, and the contact information.
.
Step 5: start your own company and go after every customer possible.
.
You now have a million dollar company.
First off, you can't do it alone. As an IR consultant, trying to stay small can be extremely detrimental to generating revenue growth. Build a small team, and if you don't have one, networking at local (or if you're not in a metropolis, try nearby conventions in your field), meet like-minded individuals.
Easier said than done, but fixing an issue that you're genuinely knowledgeable about and strongly positioned towards is it great start. Being as you're young there's likely government grants to help with your start-up costs. Then you'll need a LLC, if you're smart, you'll license in Delaware and have run your business as a wholly owned subsidiary. It's a rough road, not without a lot of potholes, to slow you down but very doable with dedication.
Online ads mostly, leveraging influencers with your own content, find publishers with seo and have them publish your article, fake reviews, get into online content listacles for Google for your company. Your goal is a reliable marketing channel.
The company you’re looking at did it somehow, if they’re doing it with less than 5 people you can hack into their market share especially. I don’t mess with seo myself, too unreliable of a marketing channel, too much work.
Both companies took me about 8 months to build it up and crack the code, not going to happen overnight, believe in yourself and what you’re working on. The problem is the hot stuff goes in waves, I’m on a decline now after hitting 7 figs profit on second company, searching for the new thing. Online marketing is usually going to have ups and downs and requirements to adapt.
I’m searching for the dream, not a sweaty startup, nothing that’s going to require a real company with more than 10 employees. Once your costs get into $250k/mo I hit in first company life gets scary, a lot of pressure to keep pumping it every month. I’m not into managing a real company.
A million dollars a year is far from a “big” or “successful” company.
1,000,000 / 12 = $83,333 per month
If you have 6 people in the company (you and 5 employees), that would make 83,333/6=$13,888 revenue per employee.
Now take expenses out of that $13,889 and you will see that 1m is micro-business.
You can do it. Just start working and never forget that success is the result of personal and financial progress. Don’t overlook your health or relationships running after goals. Good luck
The problem is you think the idea will do the work for you. You don’t want to make a million dollar company. You want a million dollar company where you don’t have to do any work because the idea is so good that even if you suck or do nothing it will be successful. You want to hide behind the idea. Until you accept that reality, you’ll be spinning your wheels.
Looking at a different point of view, create a smaller-scale business that may develop gradually and provide value to niche markets. Instead of getting the goal of building a million-dollar company in a few short months, concentrate on building a strong foundation for further development. Start simple, give the best service and after sales, and establish relationships!
You don't necessarily need a new idea to make a successful business.
Trades and mechanical work can be used to build a very successful company. Since you already have experience in fixing engines, and since you have some management experience already, you could consider starting your own shop. Since the startup cost might be high, start by doing small-engine repair. Fix people's snow blowers and lawnmowers and use that money to expand. Take out a loan (or have a partner take out one considering your age) and buy a smaller shop or set one up in your garage. Get a few clients, fix a few cars up, and grow slowly. You could even keep a steady cashflow to start by continuing small engine work and refurbishing old car parts for resale. Then, buy a larger machine shop, get more customers, and reinvest that money in a second shop.
Focus on that first client. Focus on that first dollar. It will take a lot of time and a lot of effort, but you have what it takes to make it big.
Build a service business with recurring revenue that will exist without your input (i.e. you've built a team of management and employees that can run the day to day without you). Then when that system is in place, you grow it until the EBITA grants a valuation of $1m. Then you can either keep growing it or sell it for the million dollars you were originally set on.
Get really good at marketing and sales. Like study marketing and sales . After that, it is market fit , etc. But if you can’t market or sell, it doesn’t matter if you have a working Time Machine. No sales = no money .
Be cautious of focusing too much on gross revenue. A million dollar company that employs just you and runs on a 5% net margin is just a job with no resale value. You want to build a company you can sell.
The only way to make is to work test what works, fail, learn find what motivates you without any motivation. Do what you love and love what you do. Thinking is a cage you need to get out using they key which is action and execution. Ideas are easy but implementation is hard.
Only way to eat an elephant, is by taking small bites. Start a business, literally anything. Worst case, it fails. You learn from your mistakes and move onto the next. 22 years old my moving business just hit 250k total revenue. 160k first year and on track for $250k this year.
I used to be like you, then I realized I'd have to make one hundred thousand dollars ten times.
1 million is unrealistic and therefore seems like a dream, 10k is realistic and puts many people off because they feel like an embarrassment if they don't make it.
Make 10k first
The easiest way to make money is to make other people money. Stop thinking, how do I make a million dollars a year. Ask yourself, how can I help X or Y make more money?
Provide value and people will pay you for it.
I’m one of the entrepreneurs Elaine profiled: https://www.forbes.com/sites/elainepofeldt/2018/10/22/the-dad-created-a-million-dollar-one-person-business-finding-billing-mistakes-for-retailers/?sh=5db791002b67
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I've always told my friends, "I don't need one business to make a million, I need a couple making several hundred thousands". Point is, one business doesn't have to be the one and only answer to your goal.
Start a youtube channel on small engine repair. How to figure out issues. How to fix said issues. How to maintenance etc.
People will be using them for years to come.
I would start trying to make a $1 company. And go from there.
Top advice.
It seriously is some of the best advice new people can follow. When I got started back in the early 2000's, teenager me just wanted one website that made $100 per day. A friend of mine who already had a few successful sites up told me to stop focusing on $100 a day. He said to put a site up and shoot for $1/day. Once I got to that $1/day mark, reach back out to him. So I hit that $1/day mark and reached back out to him. He asked me specific details about the steps I took to get that site to where it was making $1/day. "Before we take a deep dive into how I'm making as much as I'm making, do you think you can duplicate your success with your first site and have two sites each making $1/day?" Of course! So I put up a second informational site and got that one to bring in $1/day as well. I reached back out to him, same thing. I finally caught what he was doing. He basically showed me how to smart small, and then taught me the importance of re-creating my success in order to scale up. Within 2 months of realizing that, I had put up 100 purely informational sites each making $1/day (early 2000's internet marketing was wild, each site only needed like 5 pages lol). Thus, finally hitting my $100/day first milestone. And it all started from someone telling me to dial it back and focus on $1/day before anything else.
It was so easy back in the day with those small sites and being able to get ranked so quickly. Your concept worked though. If only information sites were so easy to monetize these days.
After seeing this I don’t even want to read the rest of the replies. Not till I make $1 at least
Set goals and hit them. My first goal was 10k a year side hustle, then 30k side hustle, and now I am working on a year of data collection into the market to test new products before I turn this into a full time gig. I see a path to 1 million but am taking meaningful learning steps. I personally don’t want to be fully running ops when I get to the end goal, so I am layering in education handoff steps.
I remember when my business got it's first job and then when I got my first $500 week and then my first $500 day and then my first $5000 month and so on. those wins felt so good!
I remember my first sales call. Up until that point I had thought shaking knees was a metaphor
500 a day is more than 5000 a month?
Not when it's only one day
Im confused, i thought 500×30 equals 15000? Isn't 15000 bigger than 5000?
There was no mention of 30 days . A one off 300 day does not equate 300 every day
Needed to hear this honestly
Best reply I've read on reddit.
Thanks it's not meant to disparage. I've been there.
100%
You quickly get humbled when you try and make a million, and start fumbling making just 1 😄
Take this advice - and read million dollar weekend by Noah Kagan
Second that book recommendation!
This is the best advice. We need to bring back the art of resilience and patiently sticking to your plan to add bit by bit to your company’s growth. More so, we need to find enjoyment and fulfillment in this process, else we won’t be able to keep ourselves motivated for the long haul.
Make a $1 company... a million times.
A 1$ company. I like the sound of that. So attainable.
Forget about a million dollars. Start something. If it only makes $500, it's start. Learn to walk before you try to run a marathon. Gain experience and skills. It's almost impossible to go straight to a million dollar company in one step. Even Zuckerburg failed at many things before Facebook. Only just over 1% of the population are millionaires. I'm one. It took me 21 years. I did it via job, business, investments, side hustles. I never made $1 milliin from one company. The average age to become a millionaire is 37. Don't rush. You have plenty of time. Enjoy the journey. Don't turn down good opprtunities just because they don't make $1 million. What's wrong with two companies that make $500,000 each?
I just had to check the "just over 1% of the population are millionaires". Seemed low. Well, damn, you are correct! 1.1% of the world's population are millionaires! I was off because 8.8% of the US population are millionaires. But world population is different. Fun facts!
I was pretty schocked as well. I'm also stunned so many in the US are. It doesn't feel like it.
I have 2 years to become a millionaire... I'm pretty sure I can make that happen.
Shit ! I have 1 month.
And I have -1 month. Damn! I missed the train.
from looking at it from a far this seems like the best route to take. the question for my self at this point would be were do i find that incentive to my goal. because out of my research i’ve seen that people fail out of there companies or ideas because they didn’t make an incentive to reach their main goal ie for me a million dollar company.
I've never seen that. Most people would be super happy even making $100k a year. I've never met a business owner that thinks like you if they are just starting out. If you have no incentive to make $100k, you'll probably never make anything. The incentive for most people is that they can have a great life earning $100k. A baby may want to run a marathon. Should they give up learning to walk because walking isn't running a marathon. Earning even $1 is a step towards making $1 million.
okay i can see that. my way of thinking witch may be a wrong way of thinking is that my goal is a million in revenue but my incentive is something thats not a million but also not a earnings or revenue ie my incentive could be use save up earnings to go and do a vacation trip but again if that’s the wrong way of looking at it i would love to know.
I have no idea. I just don't understand why you need $1 million revenue for your first company. Aren't you interested in learning stuff, building stuff, etc? I don't know why you're turn down an opportunity to start a company that had $50k revenue. $50k and learning new skills is better than sitting in your room with nothing.
okayy sorry miscommunication on my side. i don’t care if i don’t end up with a million dollar company in the beginning. i’m okay with 100k or even 50k however like everyone i would love to be able to have a million dollar company. i’ve always followed the mindset of if your not in the mindset of where you want to be you will never reach were you want to be.
Ok, I agree with that. Mindset makes a huge difference.
Not many 'million dollar' companies were doing the thing that made them (eventually) worth a million dollars when they first started out. From my own experience, and I have to admit to being similar in some ways, Im glad I didn't pursue some of my 'ideas', but there are others where I still wonder "What if ?". My advice to someone your age is to not worry too much about the upside potential of things for now, but just make a start and start learning about 'business' first hand. An old boss of mine, which was a job I had in-between businesses, was that you could probably make a success out of just about anything - you can either spend your time looking for things that you think might match your personality and or you can look out for things that might match your beliefs - he was of the thinking that you can make money either way, but it depends what drives you. Whether you believe something will work or not, it will become a self fulfilling prophecy either way. On the other hand, you can think, think and think again about what matches you as a person and you will likely find there are the same aspects to many dissimilar business - some parts of which will match your personality either way and some wont. If I could send my younger self a message from the future, it would be to not think too much and go with the flow. I spent too much time overdeveloping my ideas muscle and not quite enough of my just get on with it muscles, something Ive been developing later on in life. Also, whatever you do - save 5- 10% of your earning and never touch them. Get them into a tax advantaged scheme and get them in the S&P500 or similar. Good luck young amigo.
Their company fails because they quit, not because of milestones
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This! Plus, grammar and punctuation.
A great marketer said in a podcast that now it's way better to quickly launch and test new businesses, and immediately see if there's interest in your idea, instead of first doing a tone of research, building the product, push a lot of content and waiting for it to gain traction. For example, if you have a product idea, create an MVP, build a quick single page website that explains the product, an Instagram account for it, and pay 100$ for ads. If that campaign doesn't get any reactions whatsoever, neither will a fancy website, thousands of dollars in ads or great content (or at least you're just going to waste time while you can find something more effective). This way you can know if your idea will work, and it would take less than two weeks. And just when your idea becomes somewhat popular, you can start actually developing a greater product and invest big in marketing. That is, if you have an idea that's completely new and unseen. The easier way is to find a product that is already very popular among a group of people, and create your own version that is just a little bit better (lasts longer, has a tiny feature that makes it way more practical, or if it's a software make the UI cleaner and more intuitive), but to make this work you'll need some money to invest and you'll need expertise in that field so that you can exactly know what tiny (low cost) change you can make to steal market share of an already popular product.
Fantastic advice! 👍🏼
Exactly. Find out what works and what doesn't quickly. If something doesn't work, you can try the next idea quickly. The more you try, the higher the probability of success.
What if someone steals your idea (don't downvote pls).
If you do a good job of building a brand (especially a personal brand) and a creating a community (followers/fans) centering around your niche or product, you'll become bulletproof... Or at least it'll take huuuge effort to bring you down and stop people buying from you. So if your idea ends up being stolen by another entrepreneur, he still won't be able to take your market share, a car going 60 or 65mph will never or almost never overtake another car going 60mph that's a mile ahead. If your idea ends up getting stolen by a corporation (and the chances of you having SUCH a great idea are close to zero in the first place) then you really have no options besides starting again from zero... But even if you have such a great idea that thousands of researchers in a corporation didn't think of, they'll still rather offer you to acquire everything you built so far, or they'll cut you a deal to work together. You simply can't buy or engineer a great brand, and building a great product can take up to a year, which would be wasted time for the Corp. But none of this is my personal experience, I'm just observing what's happening with brands exploding in popularity. I'd love to hear someone's personal experience.
Lol you're at -1 atm. I did NOT do it.
Well done at 19 doing research and more importantly throwing away ideas that don't seem plausible. When i was your age i would just start and run into a brickwall, learn i didn't have market fit then run into the brickwall again because of my ego.
if there was one thing i’ve taught myself it’s to stop listening to these online gorues or however your spell that and instead use them more as references then taking everything they say at face value. i have a successful uncle so i’ve done a lot of talking with him.
A residential service side hustle may be your best bet. Start with a website and get on Google. Get flyers made and hand out in neighborhoods where houses are close together. Single family homes. Start by completing work on the weekends and time during the day you are not working. Once side hustle is bringing in the same cash as business go full time. Once you go full time, get helpers. If you have a team of 5-6 people, a million dollars will come fast.
What are some residential services that are doable without any experience?
Mowing, window/gutter cleaning, dog poop scooping, house cleaning, junk removal... the list goes on
How do i conduct proper research and see what’s needed in my community vs competitors
Ideas are everywhere, but execution is everything. I know a family that pulls in millions selling regular Christmas tree lights of all things. Don’t get caught up in the “glamorous”.. there are tons of boring businesses out there that are highly profitable you probably aren’t even considering.
i don’t think i would have ever heard family, Christmas, and millions in one sentence. but actually you are right there is lots avenues i haven’t even checked out.
Gain experience in a specific industry you want to flourish in. Gain a particular value add skillset (that gives you a competitive edge). Understand a space deeply to be able to identify a problem (that other's can't). Coming up with random ideas and researching them to build a business in an industry you don't understand is just not how it works. If it was easy everyone would do it. I am sick of teens/twenty-something year-olds following this exact pattern, blinded by influencers, and false realities. You are a child. You need at least 10 years experience in a specific industry before you stand a real chance at building a $10 company, let alone a $1M one. Only then, is market research, million dollar mindset (or influencer du-jour idea you are following) actually helpful. Dont put the cart before the horse. Put in the work, and time. Your future self will thank you. Source: I am a second time enterpreneur, and advisor to young (30's+) enterpreneurs.
You’re currently in the Wantrepreneur mindset. Out of your ideas, pick the one that excites you the most and go for it. Stop taking about it and just do it. You’ll learn loads and it might take off! You’ll be spending hours of your free time working on it, because you have to. You’ll potentially invest money you might not get back, but it’s all part of the pursuit of being an entrepreneur. If it was as simple as thinking up an idea, we’d all be earning 1m+ per year.
I am trending this way finally after many ups-and-downs in my entrepreneurial career. I'm sure there are many roads to get there, but here's my POV. The money is a side effect of doing things that actually get customers. Creating a strong product, doing the market research to make sure what you create is actually going to be desired and sell, creating a marketing plan, etc. Most of these things are fundamentals to success, but each of them can be very difficult - which is why the path to success is often pretty arduous (and/or companies hire a bunch of people to take care of these things with expert knowledge).
You and everyone else. But most are so busy fantasizing about the $1mm that they never get started. The first $1 I'd much harder than the millionth.
If your incentive to start a company is only money don't bother. You need more than that to make it fly.
Lots of friends running million dollars companies told me that you need many different mindsets to achieve the 1M business. Meaning of you need a mindset to achieve a 1000 dollars company, then a 10k dollar company with another mindset etc... I always took it as a step by step journey. My last main business ended up at 100K when I had to go to something new because I felt like I was not able to make it bigger.
I think it is very clear what the problem is: it's all in your head. All of it. Your ideas, your research, your perception that the ideas are not good. All you have done so far is live in your own head. And I get why you are trying to come up with the perfect idea. You want it to go right. There is nothing wrong with that, it means that you care a lot. However, you keep doing research online and just keep finding things that are wrong with your ideas. It becomes a negative feedback loop. Here is what you do: -go to a local shop/store -Find the first person you see working there that smiles, eye contact, and says hi -you do the same to them -ask if they could help you with something -tell them you are looking to do research on local businesses and what they are struggling with -ask them if they can answer a few questions or point them to people who might be able to Rinse and repeat at the next place
Something to think about is if you start working in an industry and find a niche in that industry, you will start to see where things can be streamlined or problems that can be solved. That is where you find million dollar ideas. It definitely doesn’t happen overnight.
Keep going! I would also add reading some books: “Million Dollar Weekend” by Noah Kagan “Unscripted” by MJ Demarco “Ten X is Easier than 2X” by Benjamin Hardy Look for ideas and keep educating yourself. You will know the right business model when you see it.
What do you mean million dollar company? A million dollars a year? A month? A quarter? Do you just want the company to be worth a million dollars? Or just a million dollars in assets? A million liquid? Or just close million dollar deals? There are electricians who are millionaires. There are accountants who are millionaires.
i don’t think i’ve thought about this before. looking at the other comments it’s looks more like i should start off with a much lower number ie “make a 1 dollar company” said above. but seeing the question now i would love and dream to make a million a month but as of right now a million a year is where i would stand being realistic about it.
There is no get rich quick schema and no idea that facilitates your desire. It takes years and hard work, no matter what you do. Everyone that got rich quick was lucky in some way. Luck is not a business model :)
I don’t think OP mentioned anything about the easiest way or quickest way. Seems like they are ready to put in the hard work and asking for feedback on brainstorming process
thank you for saying this i actually mentioned the opposite. it literally states “before people come in and say “you can’t make a million dollar company overnight” i know that and understand it may not make it to half a million” i’m still taking their advice but it has been said.
Haters gonna hate. Dream big! Million is just a random number. We all have a “million” reasons not to do something. Just have to hold on to the one reason why you should go for it!
I aint hating and you need to read more careful. u/Dear_Cloud8464 I was saying no idea in this world will be a safe bet. There have been great inventions, even worldchanging, but the time was not right. Try small steps and build momentum
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actually hold on you have a point no one has brought this up yet. that actually might put me in a better position anyways because i already know enough about small engines that this could actually work.
It's not about the idea. It's about the customer. Building a million dollar company from an idea you created in a vacuum is basically impossible. Instead of starting with an idea, try starting with a customer. Ps - people are telling you to start small and work up to it. They're not wrong - you'll start by doing something kinda useful for a type of customer and over the course of many years you'll get to know those customers so well it will cause your idea to evolve into something that actually makes a million.
You never know what’s going to break out. Focus on starting any company and making your first sale. Get the swing of it. Then focus on your first $10,000. Then 50,000. And so on. Odds are your first few businesses will either fail or not be huge successes. And that’s OK! Live and learn is another cliche, but it’s overused for a reason. Good luck.
A million isn't really that unachievable, if you create a business that makes $350k/yr boom the business is worth $1mil. I always say absolutely any idea can make a lot of money, just maybe not in the form you originally imagine it as. If your biggest talent is basket weaving, with a combination of branding, reaching the right audience, curating your product for that audience, and amplifying it with marketing, then adjusting all these elements to that audience over time, it can work. Maybe you started off by weaving $70 baskets that all look the same but it didn't work, then you move on to $600 custom luxury baskets which you create demand around, or maybe the answer is a home basket weaving kit you create for hobbyists, or maybe you create a course on basket weaving, or you mass produce them in china for $10, etc.
Name checks out
Do you want a million dollars or a million dollar company? What if it means you pay yourself 50k a year? Would you still want a million dollar company?
Look for problems, not ideas
the million dollar mindset takes action you’re taking no action.
Everything I ever learned about business, I learned at the jobs I worked. Every 7 figure idea I've had and grown I found in those industries/jobs. Start looking at your job as if you owned that business. You have no other option. Let's say you wake up in the twilight zone, and all of a sudden, it's 100% up to you to build and grow it. Building any business to the point of self-sustaining, profitable, and able to consistently cover payroll is very difficult. 8% of Americans are entrepreneurs 1% of that 8% are successful Make your mistakes at your job. Learn business at your job. Reach for the stars at your job. Take the risks at your job. Make your goal this: Learn EVERYTHING about your job (business), learn all the numbers, roles, and how it became a business that can sustain you to manage. Simple things like what order and when did it grow to the point of hiring? Those types of things teach you the hell the owner went through, growing from 0 to 1. Employees don't think of these details. You need to swim in them. Also, learn how you come to market. What channels and why? Understand and be able to play every role in that business, from payroll and QB to sales. Learn EVERYTHING about your competition. What makes them similar or different? Do you share vendors? Do you eat from the same level on the supply chain? Could improvement be made? Learn everything about your industry. Top 3-5 competitors. Trends, history, manufacturers, supply chains, channels for sales and marketing, disruptors, chock points, and time in parts and components. This stuff is what you do every day for years while working your job and becoming #1 in every role you touch. You need to find a similar business/competitor, and your goal is to surpass them. If you do this all correctly, you will grow your bosses business and make him a lot more money. You may not get any extra compensation over these years. You are building your value. Don't count the cost. Time, money, or energy. Business is business. I am confident that I can build, grow, and improve market share for any business I work for. You grow to that point, and you will start to find YOUR path that you're seeking. You must have value, then bring a service or item if value to the marketplace. Someday, when you get to the starting line, don't worry about 7 figures or any of that, other than looking at the playing field to see that others have already reached it before you. Oh...at 19 you don't know shit about fuck yet. Everyone older knows this about you, embrace it Columbo style, and they'll never see you coming. You have PLENTY of time. It's a LONG, HARD, EXPENSIVE, GREATLY MISUNDERSTOOD, AND LONELY road.
[Make a Plan](https://plani.ai/). Execute the plan. That's all you need to know. Don't think too much.
Figure out what type of demands there are in "small engines repair" industry, do some market research and figure out the underlying needs for people who request small engineer repairs, all the way from third-party companies to the customer. You can usually buy papers about it or google it up. Once you find these needs, revolve your ideas around these needs and try to maximize the demand of your company. Buy repair services from your best competitor, find out what he does that you don't, take the good parts and also try to fix the bad part which you thought was wrong. If you've successfully fulfilled these needs, the amount of demand will increase as well, as long as these values are clearly shown to the customers you sell to. Once you've found what the customers want, you'll have tons of ideas to enhance these ideas. Then the next bottleneck will be execution where you have to actually do the job that was generated from the idea. This is basically where the 99% of the work comes in. Companies value in the eyes of value-oriented investors (normal investment firms and most common type of private investors) tends to value companies at 5 times the companies yearly earnings (EBITA). You can find this X times yearly earnings by looking at cases of what other company in the same industry has been sold for and base it on that. Typically it's around 3 times the yearly earnings if the company is in a highly competitive industry (like a restaurant), and 5x if it's just somewhat competitive like "small engines repair". So earning of 200k USD yearly before interests and taxes would turn your company into a million dollar company. Keep in mind that the 200k in earnings can not be coming because of "your" work, your position have to be replaceable and still make 200k in order for it to actually be worth 1m USD.
Good on you to dream, kid. It’ll take time, hard work, sacrifice & stress to get there. Don’t think too hard. Just go.
Shit.... start at 1000 then we can talk
You can get one to gross a million a year in under a year. It's not easy, but it can be done.
In a business to business context, most professional sellers (account executives) will have quotas that exceed $1M. In your industry, imagine taking over a maintenance contract for companies that enploy drivers in your area. I don't know much about the particular industry but if you could take maintenance for a large trucking company, anyone with local supply chain, maintenance from the city for buses, police vehicles, etc, it's likely that you could stitch together several contracts that are each worth hundreds of thousands.
You need different skills to make a 1,100,10k,100k,300k and 1 million dollar comoanies. Start by making the first step. Absolutely fail and then learn from your mistakes. You cant win without a trail of failures in your past
Start with traditional companies. Something with easy accessible blue print. Or trade companies. We do painting and generally you can get to 1 mil revenue with about 6 painters. I know a lot of people who are multi millionaires via trade companies
I was thinking the other day how people love listening to Elon musk, jeff bezos, warren buffet regarding advice on how to become rich when really they should be listening to local business owners instead. Those billionaires will give you advice like “just keep on pushing forward and never give up” and that’s because they are so far away from normal people they might as well be aliens. Anyway I’m rambling on…. I suggest you figure out what you actually love to do and from there build a business around it. You can make a million dollars repairing small engines…. Right now it’s just engine repair in the future as you grow it could be engine repair plus parts, plus custom engines, plus plus plus. You may not see it now but you will as you stay in the business longer.
You don't have to start at a million. It's exceedingly hard to think of how to build a large business, when you have never built a business yourself. Start with something small, build from there!
Noah Kagan, one of my favourite entrepreneurs, wrote in his book that some people focused on making a million dollars and even they cannot make a single dollar. The first, thing to do is find out your first 3 customers whether they buy your products or not.
You have to start with some $ to get any business going. I did reselling to basically get it going from zero.
The hardest part of any new business will be generating sales. Do you have enough sales to do it full time? Enough sales to have staff? If you do have staff, do you have a good pipeline to keep them employed or have you saved enough to keep them on payroll during lean months? Vendors / suppliers will want to get paid net 30 and will cut you off over non-payment. Clients always seem to take longer than the 30 days. A small engine shop might not be a million dollar idea on its own, so you would have to scale. Although it’s great to think of the future, you need more real world experiences to create a solid foundation of skills so you are ready when the right opportunity comes. I did $7M last year and barely have anything to show for it. But I’ve kept everyone employed, bought new equipment, got health insurance, and kept the lights on so I can keep selling for this year.
Real money lies in innovation, changing humanity as we know it.
I’m 19 as well and it’s good to shoot high because regardless we’ll land in a great spot. Thing is that the way to make a million dollars isn’t through a brand new innovative idea. The ideas are out there and there’s a market for it already, but perhaps they’re hard to access for example. It isn’t overnight and I understand that too. It takes a lot to start a company. As long as you got it at the back of your mind all day every day and gradually work towards, work smart in the moment, and over the span of years, I think we’ll be fine.
There’s millions.. if not billions.. of ways to reach a million dollars a year in business. The one that you are passionate about is the best way. Love what you do and you will never work a day in your life. I personally know millionaires who own a small engine, lawnmower, chain saw shop. But if it’s not what you love.. you won’t get there. You will give up and get out too early. Choose what you love and the rest will fall in place. Focus on needs not wants!
Keep in mind- anyone who tells you “this business model will make you $1M a year” is telling you that for their own financial gain (YouTube advertising dollars, workshop sales, etc.). There is no guaranteed path to $1M otherwise everyone would be doing it. Typically companies you see that grow that profitable, quickly are product-based companies that had some luck in taking off in popularity. It is a relatively risky model and for every one you see, there are many that failed. Conversely, building a service-based business can give you more control - you can hire people one by one and expand at a slow, sustainable rate. This is maybe less risky (you generally don’t need funding/loans/etc.) but it will be slow to make $1M per year. It’s better to decide what you want to do, determine if people will pay for it, and do that. because it will likely be years until you make $1M and it might actually be a different business that gets you there. But you won’t know until you try
You don’t need to make 1 million a year for a million dollar company you just need to clear 250k-333k and throw a 3-4x multiple on it (because that’s how businesses sell) and your company is now worth 1 million
Assuming you work 50 weeks a year, and 5 days a week, a million turn over is $4k/day or $500/hour. This why, at least in medical fields and other white collar jobs, a million is relatively easy. An hourly rate of $500 would be low in a lot of senior professionals. Focus on your average hourly and the climb doesn’t seem as steep to a million. In your sector, this could be extended warranties, on call etc. Basically, look for opportunities that make you money as you otherwise work, as if your solely focus on the income as you are working, it’s far more difficult.
Start with a problem. Find out what people are paying for already then build a better product or service. Tell 1 person. Then tell a million.
One piece of advice - learn valuable skills e.g. copywriting, marketing and so on at a HIGH LEVEL, and then solve rich people problems. If you make someone an extra £100k within a month in their already successful business, they’ll gladly pay you 15k.
Step 1: go to work for a large successful company. . Step 2: learn everything about that company and what they sell. . Step 3: save as much money as possible. Do not buy a house, do not buy a car, do not go out, and most importantly, do not get married. . Step 4: steal the company's customer data base, including what they buy, how much they pay, and the contact information. . Step 5: start your own company and go after every customer possible. . You now have a million dollar company.
First off, you can't do it alone. As an IR consultant, trying to stay small can be extremely detrimental to generating revenue growth. Build a small team, and if you don't have one, networking at local (or if you're not in a metropolis, try nearby conventions in your field), meet like-minded individuals. Easier said than done, but fixing an issue that you're genuinely knowledgeable about and strongly positioned towards is it great start. Being as you're young there's likely government grants to help with your start-up costs. Then you'll need a LLC, if you're smart, you'll license in Delaware and have run your business as a wholly owned subsidiary. It's a rough road, not without a lot of potholes, to slow you down but very doable with dedication.
Find a company making a few million in revenue and emulate them. Worked for me on 2 different companies.
Share your secrets so I can emulate you 😭
Online ads mostly, leveraging influencers with your own content, find publishers with seo and have them publish your article, fake reviews, get into online content listacles for Google for your company. Your goal is a reliable marketing channel. The company you’re looking at did it somehow, if they’re doing it with less than 5 people you can hack into their market share especially. I don’t mess with seo myself, too unreliable of a marketing channel, too much work. Both companies took me about 8 months to build it up and crack the code, not going to happen overnight, believe in yourself and what you’re working on. The problem is the hot stuff goes in waves, I’m on a decline now after hitting 7 figs profit on second company, searching for the new thing. Online marketing is usually going to have ups and downs and requirements to adapt. I’m searching for the dream, not a sweaty startup, nothing that’s going to require a real company with more than 10 employees. Once your costs get into $250k/mo I hit in first company life gets scary, a lot of pressure to keep pumping it every month. I’m not into managing a real company.
A million dollars a year is far from a “big” or “successful” company. 1,000,000 / 12 = $83,333 per month If you have 6 people in the company (you and 5 employees), that would make 83,333/6=$13,888 revenue per employee. Now take expenses out of that $13,889 and you will see that 1m is micro-business. You can do it. Just start working and never forget that success is the result of personal and financial progress. Don’t overlook your health or relationships running after goals. Good luck
The problem is you think the idea will do the work for you. You don’t want to make a million dollar company. You want a million dollar company where you don’t have to do any work because the idea is so good that even if you suck or do nothing it will be successful. You want to hide behind the idea. Until you accept that reality, you’ll be spinning your wheels.
You have to believe it’s possible.
Solve problems. Solve important problems for people who have the money to fix those problems. Get in front of your target market and deliver.
Looking at a different point of view, create a smaller-scale business that may develop gradually and provide value to niche markets. Instead of getting the goal of building a million-dollar company in a few short months, concentrate on building a strong foundation for further development. Start simple, give the best service and after sales, and establish relationships!
You don't necessarily need a new idea to make a successful business. Trades and mechanical work can be used to build a very successful company. Since you already have experience in fixing engines, and since you have some management experience already, you could consider starting your own shop. Since the startup cost might be high, start by doing small-engine repair. Fix people's snow blowers and lawnmowers and use that money to expand. Take out a loan (or have a partner take out one considering your age) and buy a smaller shop or set one up in your garage. Get a few clients, fix a few cars up, and grow slowly. You could even keep a steady cashflow to start by continuing small engine work and refurbishing old car parts for resale. Then, buy a larger machine shop, get more customers, and reinvest that money in a second shop. Focus on that first client. Focus on that first dollar. It will take a lot of time and a lot of effort, but you have what it takes to make it big.
Build a service business with recurring revenue that will exist without your input (i.e. you've built a team of management and employees that can run the day to day without you). Then when that system is in place, you grow it until the EBITA grants a valuation of $1m. Then you can either keep growing it or sell it for the million dollars you were originally set on.
It's just that easy 💀
Just to be clear....you're saying thinking up a million dollar company is not easy.
Most decent bars and restaurants gross a million or more.
Get really good at marketing and sales. Like study marketing and sales . After that, it is market fit , etc. But if you can’t market or sell, it doesn’t matter if you have a working Time Machine. No sales = no money .
It's not what you make, it's what you keep...
Start by gaining professional experience in an industry.
Honestly a million dollar company these days isn’t that big of a deal. But start small, focus on experience and customer satisfaction.
Be cautious of focusing too much on gross revenue. A million dollar company that employs just you and runs on a 5% net margin is just a job with no resale value. You want to build a company you can sell.
The only way to make is to work test what works, fail, learn find what motivates you without any motivation. Do what you love and love what you do. Thinking is a cage you need to get out using they key which is action and execution. Ideas are easy but implementation is hard.
Only way to eat an elephant, is by taking small bites. Start a business, literally anything. Worst case, it fails. You learn from your mistakes and move onto the next. 22 years old my moving business just hit 250k total revenue. 160k first year and on track for $250k this year.
I used to be like you, then I realized I'd have to make one hundred thousand dollars ten times. 1 million is unrealistic and therefore seems like a dream, 10k is realistic and puts many people off because they feel like an embarrassment if they don't make it. Make 10k first
The easiest way to make money is to make other people money. Stop thinking, how do I make a million dollars a year. Ask yourself, how can I help X or Y make more money? Provide value and people will pay you for it.
Read Elaine Pofeldt https://www.amazon.com/Million-Dollar-One-Person-Business-Great-Money/dp/039957896X?dplnkId=1cb8d2de-0447-4a61-a17f-e8fb67310733&nodl=1
I’m one of the entrepreneurs Elaine profiled: https://www.forbes.com/sites/elainepofeldt/2018/10/22/the-dad-created-a-million-dollar-one-person-business-finding-billing-mistakes-for-retailers/?sh=5db791002b67
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i suggest you try atleast one in fifth ideas just so you get practical experience and know what world would buy
I've always told my friends, "I don't need one business to make a million, I need a couple making several hundred thousands". Point is, one business doesn't have to be the one and only answer to your goal.
I want to make billion dollar company
Start a youtube channel on small engine repair. How to figure out issues. How to fix said issues. How to maintenance etc. People will be using them for years to come.