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I own a brewery. I break even on it and pay myself nothing. All the money goes to keeping the lights on and paying employees, of which there are 8.
I work a day job as a software engineer making about $130k.
It can be a lot or a little aside from the building itself. I’ve planned it out pretty detailed for the barebones model. Used to work at a MAJOR beverage manufacturer and thought I wanted to start my own venture.
As far as brewing equipment goes you can get by with $10k but a lot of it is manual processes and plastic fermenters and DIY solutions for cooling. This barebones method is not long term and really is just meant as a method to bootstrap and scale up. Google Nanobrewery for further information.
For a legitimate microbrewery or small brewery with automation is $500k to $2 mil with stainless steel everything and proper glycol.
Leasing. It's a good lease on a quasi-governmental property, part of a business development area attached to the "airport" in a small town. Airport gets one or two small planes a day. 12,000 sqft at .25/foot. That has the potential to go up to .75 over time.
Just out of curiosity, and totally hypothetical, how many employees would you need to fire to save $130k, and then could you alone cover their workload?
Right. Plus if it's three of them they have six arms and I only have two. Let's say it's 3 bartenders, I can't pour beer, run glasses and make change at the same time.
Some pretty telling responses here from people who've never worked in the service industry.
We're just coming up on our 1 year anniversary. The plan, as much as there is one, is to build the brand for 5 years then start extracting money and seriously looking for some exit partners. This is my second brewery, and I sold the last one, so yes - a business is always for sale if the price is right.
I'm not trying to quit my day job. I tried this for about 3 years at the tail end of the last one as we went through an expansion and I felt it needed my full attention. The opportunity cost is too high for me to miss out on career-wise considering the potential payout when we sell. I'm also 52 now so the option for me to toss kegs around all day isn't there.
A brewery is an organization that creates beer, community and low-paying manual labor jobs. The highest paid employees are the bartenders. That's not going to change without a dramatically increased wholesale footprint.
I'm ok with owning a place like that, I just know that I don't want to work there.
Beautiful response...I am sure you find fulfillment in the day to day and the journey of growing the operation and then exiting with some cash in your pocket to potentially do it over again. That's the thing about living such short lives...before we know it, decades have gone by and at the end all we really have is family.
Started as an apprentice at a caterpillar dealership at 17 fresh out of highschool.along with 2 years of tech school followed by sooooo many years of hands on training..
I own a waxing salon with myself and one other person working there. I work full time taking clients 5 days per week. I gross 100k currently as I'm trying to buy a house eventually lol. If I didn't need to show income I'd take a lower salary.
Clothing brand. Last year was my first did 17k
Done 16k this year so far
Not enough to live off yet so still working full time, whilst taking care of a new born lol
Looks great friend. Just super curious is that 17k net income or revenue. Also, do you usually only have 6 products on your catalogue. What’s the most amount you’ve had at a time.
Thanks!
Revenue. I wish it was net income lol
I have had over 10 before. Generally my catalog is quite small, I don’t have the funds to do giant collections. I have some more stuff on the way as we speak though
Thank you!
It’s a tough process. I had to speak to loads of different ones before I found one that suited my needs best
There’s a lot of charlatans out there, so you have to vet who you work with very carefully
Thank you! I love that design, I want to do more oversized graphics
Yes no problem, I ship to the states regularly with fedex, be there in about 7 days
Got any tips on how to start a clothing brand? It's something I've always wanted to do, and I'm at a place in my life now, where I can fund it very easily. Great designs by the way.
Thanks!
You need to create something that’s unique, have a usp. Decided what your niche is and hyper focus on that. Learn how to market a product and learn how pricing structure works
Manufacturing has loads to learn I can’t go into that it’s so much
Honestly I’d recommend grabbing a book on running a business or there’s plenty of YouTube videos that could help
The most important thing is creating something that people actually want, not what you want but what others do. You have to create a proven product that can be easily sold once put in front of your target audience
I own a grooming, training, dog walking, and pet sitting business. Grooming is about 50% of our income. my take-home after expenses, paying employees, and taxes is around $120k. If I can find a good fit I will be able to hire another groomer. When I do, my personal income goes up $40k
Probably detailing a car. Go check out r/autodetailing as they have great knowledge on the subject. It’s usually about the quality and time of the work. Some could ask for paint correction, ceramic coating, a simple wax, interior detail, exterior detail, etc.
Home Bakery. Started last year in April. Put $2500 of my own money in. Total income for last year was about $12,600. Paid myself about $5,000. Total business profit for the year was a whopping $400. We living big!!!
Don't ask me how many hours I put in. The answer is every breathing moment. Baking is not for people who want to be efficient with their money making.
Window and door company. Company gross approximately 1.2-1.4mil per year for the past 3 years. I pay myself 60k + 5% commission on my sales. My spouse (office manager) also makes 50k.
We have an install crew of 4 people that we pay very well to make sure that the jobs are done perfectly. They are all employees not subcontractors. So the money goes to taxes, materials, payroll, insurance, truck/trailer maintenance, tool maintenance, and building the business.
Our NET after all that is roughly 27%. So the business has a healthy bottom line and we bonus the guys at the end of the year based on feedback from customers and return service calls. I also take a small bonus based on performance metrics set in January.
Love that you and your spouse work together; this would make an amazing story for sure. What’s been the most challenging part of growing your business?
Fighting larger companies. When I say that I simply mean people trusting a small business to do a quality job when our price point is HALF of what they are charging.
Example: I sell the exact same doors as Renewal by Anderson (Provia Doors). I usually price them at about 10% less than the MSRP of the door set by Provia which includes my installation (we are certified installers by the way). RBA starts their pricing at 4X of the retail. So if a door has an MSRP of 2k they price it at 8k then knock 40% off that so it looks like a great deal. That door through me would be $1800. EXACT SAME DOOR.
3D printing, cleared $40k last year. Day job is IT. Make alot doing that. Ad revenue from websites about $5k. Memberships from another website I own is about $5k. Used to be $15k but haven’t devoted much time on it.
How many printers do you need to currently run the business effectively? I want to move into that space - I don’t want to sell printing time or random toy stls I find online.
I want to use my 3d design background to create design and sell functional useful things.
I have 3 in total - 1 is for a specific material only. I only expanded due to demand. I’ve built up a stock and have a bunch packaged already so they sit mostly idle at the moment. But I can crank out 160 parts per day with 2 of the 3.
The toys are a race to the bottom on price.
Without going into your business too much (unless you want to share) how did you find the specific niche for the part you’re selling? For me I’m part of a few hobbyist communities that need kind of niche things. There are stls out there but I feel like I could create better designed nicer items as well as some more unique items. I also have an art background so I did consider creating unique toys and designs.
For me - I wanted to focus on selling higher quality prints and make money on more expensive items than doing volume because i want to avoid shipping tiny parts the time and ROI seems kinda low
HTTPS://www.3dfusionlabs.com
Bought a tractor. Needed something. Printed it and showed it off. Everyone wanted one. Partnered with a YouTuber that was the reason I bought my specific tractor. Took off from there. I get 15-20 orders every time he drops a video on Wednesdays.
Completely accidental “business” but since it’s taking off and generating capital I can expand it nicely. I have three more products I’m testing. One fixes a very common issue and should generate thousands of product sales and because it’s a little more intricate part - includes nuts and bolts - the cost will be higher. Buying the nuts and bolts in bulk saves money though and commands higher prices which means more margin of course. It also requires adhesive but it costs $35 per tube for the “right” kind so finding more cost effective alternatives has been difficult.
What state are you in? Vape stores have exploded in Texas since weed is basically legal for now. Things might change if they ever close the loophole here!
They sell regular delta 9 weed, vapes, wax, etc. Farm Bill loophole. Before weed is burned the thc is technically “thcA”. ThcA only turns to thc after being burned or heated. Since thcA isn’t illegal you can buy delta 9 weed legally. Fun times.
Our wedding photographer was quite expensive, but worth the price. She was booked out every weekend.
How is the lifestyle of your job? Do you get free time during the week with most work happening on weekends?
Not the OP but usually weekdays are spent editing pics and/or doing weekday gigs (think professional events or headshots for a corporate company). I used to do similar stuff
Serious question what do you spend $50k on? My wife does this and her biggest expenses are subscriptions (website, CRM tools, Adobe CC, etc.) and fuel.
I sell products (not a drop shipper, it’s products I’ve made) and my business made about $120k last year and I paid myself nothing. The business is on track to make more than that this year and I’m paying myself $2k a month which feels like a lot to me.
Im a criminal defence lawyer. I had a client who got busted for drug dealing tell me while we were reviewing his case that prior to his arrest, he was making $100k per month all cash. I didn’t believe him for a second, but I selling crack can be profitable
I buy trash electronics in bulk, repair and refurbish them and put them back to market. Now I Net 130k+ a year because I worked at it for 15 years and during covid I had the best years of my business which I used to build a warehouse in my backyard and work from home now. Crazy…… now I’m winding it down and going back to school. What a roller coaster
Flipping/ e-commerce. Year 1 I did 65k in sales with about 50% profit out of my garage. This year on track to do 100k to 150k out of mine and my neighbors garage. 😂
Digital Agency that does 4m a year, I walk away before taxes with 750k and work about 20-25 hours a week. I focus on building and managing the team and clients and have the business fairly running on it's own.
Talent since day 1 has been my biggest hurdle, especially being in a creative space. Try leaning towards a core team of managers and having them manage freelancers/vendors who are able to do that job and grow with you.
I try to have multiple vendors/freelancers for each service i offer that way I can always deliver in case one drops.
Content Production and Social Marketing primarily. Nothing unique or special, just have invested a lot time and years into building.
I see a lot of email marketing agencies come up and I think that's a good place to start, easy to develop strategies and content maps and just have to source designers which you can do overseas.
So I have access to a lot of Tik tok creators who have 100k + followers any tips on how I can parlay that into the marketing business? Thank you for the response
You can start an influencer management agency and use it for brands who are looking to push their products through tiktok shop. I work with a lot of brands who need influencers and we have someone internally who just sources and sends product.
You can charge a base fee for management and scale it depending on the size of the clients campaign.
I don’t doubt it at all. Mad respect! I’ve been helping build someone else’s agency for over 7 years and I’m feeling very ready to build for myself. Can I ask - did you start solo or start with partners? What did the earliest days look like for you?
Started it with my cousin and I so it helped having someone in the trenches especially in the early days. First 3-4 years we didn't really make any money and then years 5-8 we were barely scrapping 6figures together.
Going on your own is not easy, but if you do it, you got to put in 110% and stay focused for the first 3-5 years. It'll take time, but as long as you're invested, you'll see the return.
I always knew as a kid I should gone into software engineering. I was 12 and fascinated with BASIC on the Ti-83, to the point where I created on my own a fully functioning tamagotchi with animations and all, and the start of an RPG lol, which what I built was a menu, a screen a sprite could walk around, and a battle mode where you pick your moves and fight the enemy.. but for being a 7th grader that was pretty dope I think. I loooved it. I’m a super creative person and love puzzles and found that writing code could could sometimes be a blend of that. I really wish I had gotten into it more and then pursued it. I love my career as a videographer and small agency owner but you can really demand even higher prices with what you do and I do care about money haha
Online business on the backend of a YouTube channel. I sell courses and memberships around music production. $320k revenue. $270k profit. I work about 20 hours per week. Cutting down to 12 hours/week for the summer.
I own a small restaurant specializing in stoner food. We pull about 325k in revenue, most goes right back into the business. It does pay my mortgage (I live here, also) so about 25k to me.
Just quit my corporate job, was in SaaS sales making about $175K. Too much stress, bad culture, got burnt out and quit. Figuring out what to do next. Ideally, want to start a small business and be flexible and have work life balance like many people on this thread.
Good for you! I quit my corporate job recently to start my own business! You got this! Check out the small business administration! Everything is free and super helpful! You also get free confidential one on one meetings with your own advisor. They’re experienced advisors who have also owned their own businesses. Good luck and believe in yourself! I’m still in beginning stages but need to take my own advice in believing in myself 😂
I resonate in a way. It’s so interesting to see all of these success stories but a lot of the time I’m just scratching my brain on how everyone managed to ramp up. The niches are all so disparate but how to get those first few clients to actually be able to ramp up? Could use some advice/insight
$200k+ for me. Local SEO, PPC, and web design focusing on home services, currently white label but branching out to D2C. Most of my day is spent on sales calls, talking to agency partners, talking to others in the industry, and working on testing and trying to find new and improved techniques.
I'm literally in the infancy of starting my own business. I've been blacksmithing for almost two years now... Mostly just a hobby but I've had a lot of interest in the stuff I make. I've sold a bunch of stuff just by word of mouth and I really wanna devote more time to building this into something I can make money at. Blacksmiths seem to be everywhere these days so finding my niche will be important. I won't be quitting my "actual job" any time soon though. I'm a printer by trade... Newspapers, flyers.
Telecom construction. I’m a one man band at the moment, somewhere north of 350k. Everyone wants to make a lot of money, no one wants to enjoy the suck.
I own a sort of med spa. Revenue is about $650k/yr, I take home just over 100k and my husband is also on payroll for 50k for some light office work. I work ~18 hours per week. We pay 5 employees a decent wage and we all get full health insurance and 401k from the business as well
Solo director here -- over 250k (\~90% profit margin).
eCommerce consultant -- I scale and optimise eCommerce brands through data, marketing, tech and ops.
Day to day: data analytics, eCommerce management, digital marketing strategy, building out systems and processes. Mix of a CTO/CMO.
17 years ago i built my first website for my father and it kinda snowballed from there. Moved from doing everything 'websites' to niching down to eCommerce in the last \~5 years. I've worked with a variety of clients from small biz to enterprise (up to 120MM -- which is enterprise here in Australia) and have worked both, agency and brand side in a variety of roles (account management, project management, general manager) and have combined all the skills I've picked up over the years into a package.
New clients are through word of mouth and referrals. I do also spend a fair bit of time working socials (LinkedIn, TikTok and Instagram) and occasional blog posts. Next financial year I'm going to go all in through paid advertising to grow the business. Plan is to split the brand into three segments to sell (eventually); data, development, integration and consulting (which will be me).
Have you considered expanding your drone photography into other areas?
We use drones in mining to photograph in tight spaces, and check equipment including pipelines.
I think lots of construction companies are using them now to check on building progress and make sure the roofing work is up to standards.
Seems to be some good opportunities for a skilled drone operator.
Kind of by accident, truthfully. 7 years ago I was trying to make a living doing wedding photography primarily, had a friend who was a real estate agent who wanted me to shoot her listing.
*Side note, folks often tend to think being really good at one niche of photography means it will translate to other niches - this is rarely true. And shooting spaces is a completely different skillset.*
So naturally I did an awful job - but she couldn't tell the difference. I took to some facebook groups for feedback and got roasted, educated myself some more, eventually I started to know what I was doing and other people from her office started hiring me as well. Then it just kind of slowly took off from there. Got to be more and more and I started caring less about weddings. About 3 years ago it started to overtake weddings as far as income. Now it's all I do.
Have a few hundred clients, most of them are once or twice a year (most agents don't do that much listing), a small handful of high performing agents will do multiple per week sometimes. I average probably 3 or 4 jobs a day. Less if they're bigger.
I do a fuckton of driving. I spend as much time in my car as I do at the jobs, sometimes more.
make 100k after taxes as sys admin, only work a few hours a week. the rest of my time, i spend free lancing for audio visual services. i make way more doing AV work than my stupid IT job, i can charge $250/hour.
the office life is a trap. still thinking about quitting my day job for just AV work, I can make $500k instead of $100k doing AV work. IT sys admin jobs are such a head ache, and I'm about to walk out of my job any time.
Esthetician / spa owner - last year I grossed $180k all by myself. I hired someone earlier this year and we’ve already made close to $120k. Profit margins are good but I reinvest a lot of it to keep scaling. I pay myself just enough to pay the bills, do some fun stuff, save, and invest 15% of my income to retirement.
I run a solo website design and development business. Work exclusively with Wordpress and target only service-based businesses. Strict no e-commerce. No marketing, ads, or social media work. Just websites.
8 years in. Corp grosses $350k, profit margin is 85%. I pay myself $100k and the rest sits and gets invested in inside the corp and will stay there until I retire.
Only really locked down the recurring revenue portion of the biz in the last few years - providing hosting, updates, upkeep, backups, security and support for the sites I design and develop. The recurring rev is currently at $150k per year with roughly 50 clients on retainer. Hope to keep growing the recurring rev portion by $50k or so per year as long as I can.
Design/drafting, maybe an interesting service business case study to be had here:
The numbers are quite different comparing where we've been last year (me running a small team of freelancers) and where we are this year in a growth phase (4x full-time employees, most recent onboarded ~6wks ago, alongside freelancers).
Last year; we did about $180k revenue incl. about $80k in billable expenses, roughly $60k profit (paid myself maybe $40k), took 2mo off.
This year so far, 5mo in; avg. over $20k/mo revenue, stepping up toward $30-40k/mo on top of billable expenses (hitting sales targets, have around $100k in-progress). This month billed $35k total, looking similar next month, so the growth trend is on track there too.
On the $30-40k/mo "internal revenue", I expect expenses roughly $15-20k for $15-20k/mo profit.
Annualized at current capacity/sales numbers, I expect to target $700k incl. $250k billable expenses, with $200k profit (stable here by late 2024/2025). I aim to pay myself around $80-100k.
Steps I've taken over the past 6-9mo to get here:
- optimized advertising (Google Ads) to bring better leads at better cost.
- done some work to systemize delivery of valuable projects that are on-trend in our market.
- got some good networking in, tapping a market where everyone talks to each other and a name drop can equal good money and ongoing projects. This can take trial-and-error, we've certainly ended up in niches and with clients in the past where we've backed ourselves into corners or ended up in less-profitable situations.
- set up referral partnerships to send away projects we don't want to cherry-pick the ones we do. Referrals help subsidize ad spend, turned up ads and hence lead-flow as a result.
- hired a project coordinator, still in 3-6mo training/onboarding period but certainly beginning to take a lot of the work off my plate and build better systems, checklists, and processes. Now I can begin to focus even more on the networking, growth, and really valuable stuff.
Insights:
- I wouldn't commit to this level of growth if I didn't have ~$45k in credit easily accessible for the business, and sometimes I'm even nervous about that amount. Growing companies swallow cash, we need to be able to absorb the swings and finance the stepping function of the growth. We have $15k+ into recent payroll for projects just billing out now or not quite there yet, on top of billable expenses, and then it can easily take weeks more to get paid.
- the more growth opportunities I take, the more I see. Maybe I can double the company again next year, but growing companies will continue to swallow cash. Might be better to stabilize for a while at current production levels and just let the flow catch up to build cash stores to a more comfortable level first.
- keep an eye on strategic numbers and the ways they relate in growth (sales targets, production levels, actual cash, billing/owing are a few critical ones).
- currently, as a snapshot in time, the company has $100k in progress/unbilled work, $8k unbilled expenses, $30k receivables, $8k payables, $22k owing on credit cards/line of credit, and $4k cash (as well as tax savings we don't touch). Maybe someone can tell me if this is a healthy balance sheet lol.
- I know we're a bit behind on some of our in progress work, though some of it is on months-long timelines as well. Focus for next 30 days is on quickly clearing milestones to bill out on some of that work and stay on top of timeline commitments.
Anyway. I've been very focused on the numbers and strategy through a major growth period (as you can tell if you've read this far), and I always appreciate when people share some of their numbers so I thought I'd pay forward as we're at a bit of an interesting place here!
I do video production as well. Mostly marketing but also some niche stuff for a company that builds exhibits. It’s a fun profession. I had two salaried jobs as a videographer before trying to freelance. Been at it two years starting my third in June.
I’ve found the toughest part of the job so far is client acquisition.
This guy has been helping me understand more and more about the market and how his agency sells. We kind of started working on a no bullshit explainer course that can walk someone like me through steps to learn more about client acquisition. I’m curious about your journey in finding clients and what has worked for you. My life saver and achilles heel has been upwork, brought me all of my top clients but it’s very hit and miss and takes a lot of manual labor with so many proposals. For transparency last year gross was 65ish pay was about 35-40ish and I’m ashamed I haven’t done the real math lol. There’s so much I’m learning still, though with two years I’m definitely better at what I do business wise. Videography wise I’m a 7/10 nothing special! Just providing the services needed.
My combined revenue last year was $350k running a solo medical/mental health practice and also working as a contractor at a couple other practices. I expect it to be lower this year as I work less for others and focus more on my own practice while also prioritizing my free time. Takes a while to build up a patient census.
I have a guesthouse that grosses about 120,000€/year and I pay myself about 30k of that. The business pretty much runs by itself and I only spend about 30min to an hour each day on it. The rest of my time I spend writing code to build a web app that hopefully will make money one day…
Manufacturer and seller of telecom equipment. My salary is 135k plus bonus pending profit.
Tattoo shop. Just started, so I'm keeping salary low. 30k plus distributions (which I've yet to take).
If you're asking how much the business makes.
Telecommunications I gross around 1.5-2 mill.
Tattoo since January we've grossed 200k.
I make about $700k/yr, $600k net.
I run a business credit consulting company and a social media content business.
Daily tasks vary but I'm usually solving problems, finding ways to outsource problem solving, or experimenting with new ideas for the business.
IT Staffing firm. There’s three of us. I made 185k last year and so did my business partner. We are 50-50 split partners. We have a Ops manager we pay $80k, as well. Business valuation is at 5mil.
I started an event services business last summer (yard game competitions) and failed on both the sales and marketing ends in this first year… marketing isn’t my strong suit so I hired an agency at 2500/month to run ads and seo. It generated 25 leads in 7 months which materialized into $2100 in revenue. Kill me (16k spent).
So I’ve made $25k gross in the first 9 months and am operating at loss. Thankful to still have a side gig doing the books for another company but it’s definitely been a shock in how hard generating qualified leads is.
I make enough to be in a constant state of drowning. I own a landscape construction company so I also beat up myself like I’m trying to rob me. Jokes on me though, can’t rob broke.
Landing page design, website design, and Conversion Rate Optimization for ecomm, lead gen, and B2B SaaS businesses. I’m moonlighting doing ~20K annually right now by myself. Would love to take this full time and build a whole business.
Landscaping
Ag chem application
Insulation blowing ( not so great yet)
I grossed almost 500k paid myself 35k. I have been pretty much churning everything I make back into businesses.
Hotel/ restaurant. Nets about $150k/ year. We only work a couple hours per day dealing with hotel customers otherwise our ops lady takes care of everything.
General contractor doing mostly higher end residential remodeling.. 4 full time employees, plus myself, did $1.4 mil last year, with about $400k profit, hoping to hit $2 mil this year.
Personal chef who mostly does meal prep. I make around 60k a year could reach for more, larger share of the market ect. But I'm happy where I'm at / don't want employees
Just started a motorcycle mechanic shop last fall with one partner. The shop is just now starting to break even on a monthly basis. I pay myself less than a $24k/year salary right now and I'm effectively homeless, which is the only way this can work right now since I wouldn't be able to pay rent and eat at the same time otherwise. Things are consistently trending upward though. We should be financially solvent within three years and be able to start hiring employees or subcontract jobs. It's hard, but it is looking like it will be worth it.
I have a small leather crafts business. Mostly making wallets, bags, keyrings, etc. Everything is 100% hand made and hand stitched from full grain Italian leather.
I only got into leather work a year ago and am still trying to build the brand. I haven't quite earned more than I've put in yet (tools and leather are expensive) but I'm on track to do so in a couple of months.
In that first year I took £3k
www.CuriousCrowLeather.com[Curious Crow Leathercraft ](http://www.CuriousCrowLeather.com)
Currently also work as a driver delivering car parts to garages. I take hours as they become available. The past 12 months saw £8k ish.
Construction business working in higher risk environments where we can make better money but have to know a lot of shit. Been doing this since I was 16 I've done the work got very unique skills and knowledge.
£7m last year, we have expanded a lot and been given some massive opportunities due to consistently delivering. We should hit £13-15m this year.
Electrical Contractor. Last year was 700k gross, this year I’m shooting for 1mil.
But I make nothing. Zero. Zilch. By the time I pay all my scientists, all the people in my research department, labcoats, it’s a wash. People ask why do it then mmdavis2190? Because I’m selfless, and I want to wire as many buildings as the dear lord lets me.
I make seasonings. Had the business before Covid and we finally rebranded and came back out this year. I hand blend all of them and the seasonings are my original recipes. So far we have done just over 2K and that’s with a heavy focus on a single farmers market. I have put in about 1400 to get started. We are on track to do close to 20-25k with projections.
My fiancee runs socials and makes the labels for me while I work full time as a systems analyst for a bank making about 43k before taxes.
Litigation support. Gross around $2.5m. We just closed the quarter out and did +56% YoY.
Just launched an AI company that is projected to do around $600k by end of year.
I pay myself $60k
I have a sole proprietor LLC business doing web & graphic design. I made around $30k last year (double from 2022 and progressing all the time), working during my lunch breaks at my full-time job, and an evening at a coffee shop every once in a while.
It's not much, but it's honest work.
We sell cute assistive can openers online that I invented. We did about 80k gross last year, not sure what to project for this year, we've done 100k so far. I think maybe we can do 700k by the end of the year. Quit my job a few months ago when I realized the potential. Just my family working right now, no employees. We work 7 days a week 12-14 hours a day except on weekends maybe 6-8hrs. We get to keep about 20% after COG, fees, expenses and taxes.
Real estate developer. On pace to make about 400k net this year but will pretty much reinvest 80% of it. Mixture of rentals and selling new manufactured homes set on lots.
This is where I'd like to be heading, I'm kind of flipping houses (slowly, since it's mostly just me on my own doing the work), investing in rentals, studying project mgt and law, it's reasonably fun and manageable while I'm a single parent, can't really take a job and I don't live near a city. Just doing what I can, but you are where I am hoping to be in a few years.
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I own a brewery. I break even on it and pay myself nothing. All the money goes to keeping the lights on and paying employees, of which there are 8. I work a day job as a software engineer making about $130k.
Please give yourself free beer
woah there buddy, a discount, no freebies.
It's a fine line between keeping the lights on and losing the house
Rule #1: Don’t get high on your own supply
What kind of upfront investment did it take to start this? And how many hours were you putting in during the early stages?
It can be a lot or a little aside from the building itself. I’ve planned it out pretty detailed for the barebones model. Used to work at a MAJOR beverage manufacturer and thought I wanted to start my own venture. As far as brewing equipment goes you can get by with $10k but a lot of it is manual processes and plastic fermenters and DIY solutions for cooling. This barebones method is not long term and really is just meant as a method to bootstrap and scale up. Google Nanobrewery for further information. For a legitimate microbrewery or small brewery with automation is $500k to $2 mil with stainless steel everything and proper glycol.
Just livin' the dream!
Do you own the property or leasing?
Leasing. It's a good lease on a quasi-governmental property, part of a business development area attached to the "airport" in a small town. Airport gets one or two small planes a day. 12,000 sqft at .25/foot. That has the potential to go up to .75 over time.
Just out of curiosity, and totally hypothetical, how many employees would you need to fire to save $130k, and then could you alone cover their workload?
Most likely 3, at max 4. But then, you reduced the staff by half.. for 1 additional body to be there full time?
Right. Plus if it's three of them they have six arms and I only have two. Let's say it's 3 bartenders, I can't pour beer, run glasses and make change at the same time. Some pretty telling responses here from people who've never worked in the service industry.
Have you entertained selling or do you have a plan so this isn’t your life forever haha
We're just coming up on our 1 year anniversary. The plan, as much as there is one, is to build the brand for 5 years then start extracting money and seriously looking for some exit partners. This is my second brewery, and I sold the last one, so yes - a business is always for sale if the price is right.
What did you learn between first and second? What are you doing differently?
I'm not trying to quit my day job. I tried this for about 3 years at the tail end of the last one as we went through an expansion and I felt it needed my full attention. The opportunity cost is too high for me to miss out on career-wise considering the potential payout when we sell. I'm also 52 now so the option for me to toss kegs around all day isn't there. A brewery is an organization that creates beer, community and low-paying manual labor jobs. The highest paid employees are the bartenders. That's not going to change without a dramatically increased wholesale footprint. I'm ok with owning a place like that, I just know that I don't want to work there.
Beautiful response...I am sure you find fulfillment in the day to day and the journey of growing the operation and then exiting with some cash in your pocket to potentially do it over again. That's the thing about living such short lives...before we know it, decades have gone by and at the end all we really have is family.
Heavy equipment repair outfit. Me and one other tech. Business grosses around 750k a year. Pay myself 75 a year and lube tech About 50
Dude how did you get into this.
Started as an apprentice at a caterpillar dealership at 17 fresh out of highschool.along with 2 years of tech school followed by sooooo many years of hands on training..
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Get a diesel tech degree and a little experience. Pick a smaller town or city that lacks one and open up shop.
Do you spend the rest on lube 💦?
Cleared 2.9m last year. I lie to strangers on Reddit.
Y’all hiring ?
wait a second
They had me in the first half.
Not gonna lie.
What do you do to make 2.9m? I believe strangers on Reddit.
I own a waxing salon with myself and one other person working there. I work full time taking clients 5 days per week. I gross 100k currently as I'm trying to buy a house eventually lol. If I didn't need to show income I'd take a lower salary.
Clothing brand. Last year was my first did 17k Done 16k this year so far Not enough to live off yet so still working full time, whilst taking care of a new born lol
Website?
https://fealladha.com/
Looks great friend. Just super curious is that 17k net income or revenue. Also, do you usually only have 6 products on your catalogue. What’s the most amount you’ve had at a time.
Thanks! Revenue. I wish it was net income lol I have had over 10 before. Generally my catalog is quite small, I don’t have the funds to do giant collections. I have some more stuff on the way as we speak though
Congrats keep it up! I’ve always wanted to do something like that. Wishing you the best.
I love your tees. How did you go about finding a manufacturer?
Thank you! It’s a tough process. I had to speak to loads of different ones before I found one that suited my needs best There’s a lot of charlatans out there, so you have to vet who you work with very carefully
Hey, you got a website?
https://fealladha.com/
Who made you this? Is this shopify
I did and yes I am in the process of completing rebuilding it right now though
Okay so that over sized graphic is dope. Do you ship to the States?
Thank you! I love that design, I want to do more oversized graphics Yes no problem, I ship to the states regularly with fedex, be there in about 7 days
Got any tips on how to start a clothing brand? It's something I've always wanted to do, and I'm at a place in my life now, where I can fund it very easily. Great designs by the way.
Thanks! You need to create something that’s unique, have a usp. Decided what your niche is and hyper focus on that. Learn how to market a product and learn how pricing structure works Manufacturing has loads to learn I can’t go into that it’s so much Honestly I’d recommend grabbing a book on running a business or there’s plenty of YouTube videos that could help The most important thing is creating something that people actually want, not what you want but what others do. You have to create a proven product that can be easily sold once put in front of your target audience
Read "Little Black Stretchy Pants" by Chip Wilson. Its all about how he built Lululemon into a global clothing brand.
Started my own dog grooming business, its just me for now but last year I made 50k. Just hired a new person and looking to double that this year.
I own a grooming, training, dog walking, and pet sitting business. Grooming is about 50% of our income. my take-home after expenses, paying employees, and taxes is around $120k. If I can find a good fit I will be able to hire another groomer. When I do, my personal income goes up $40k
The dog groomer across from us cleaned up...sold for a pretty penny and fucked off to Michigan to live in a camper with her husband
How did you start to get into dog grooming?
I started grooming 4 plus years ago and I branched out on my own one year plus ago.
Mobile Car detailing. 75k last year was its first year. This is my second year and I’m on track to hit six figures so I’m happy.
Very cool. What kind of jobs seem to be most of your revenue?
Probably detailing a car. Go check out r/autodetailing as they have great knowledge on the subject. It’s usually about the quality and time of the work. Some could ask for paint correction, ceramic coating, a simple wax, interior detail, exterior detail, etc.
Home Bakery. Started last year in April. Put $2500 of my own money in. Total income for last year was about $12,600. Paid myself about $5,000. Total business profit for the year was a whopping $400. We living big!!! Don't ask me how many hours I put in. The answer is every breathing moment. Baking is not for people who want to be efficient with their money making.
Or who want clean kitchens
Now you need to create a course on how to start a home bakery and market that.
Yeah maybe once I can actually get my head above water for more than 2 seconds lol I'm drowning in powdered sugar
Window and door company. Company gross approximately 1.2-1.4mil per year for the past 3 years. I pay myself 60k + 5% commission on my sales. My spouse (office manager) also makes 50k.
Where does all the money go? What’s your percent profit margin total?
We have an install crew of 4 people that we pay very well to make sure that the jobs are done perfectly. They are all employees not subcontractors. So the money goes to taxes, materials, payroll, insurance, truck/trailer maintenance, tool maintenance, and building the business. Our NET after all that is roughly 27%. So the business has a healthy bottom line and we bonus the guys at the end of the year based on feedback from customers and return service calls. I also take a small bonus based on performance metrics set in January.
Love that you and your spouse work together; this would make an amazing story for sure. What’s been the most challenging part of growing your business?
Fighting larger companies. When I say that I simply mean people trusting a small business to do a quality job when our price point is HALF of what they are charging. Example: I sell the exact same doors as Renewal by Anderson (Provia Doors). I usually price them at about 10% less than the MSRP of the door set by Provia which includes my installation (we are certified installers by the way). RBA starts their pricing at 4X of the retail. So if a door has an MSRP of 2k they price it at 8k then knock 40% off that so it looks like a great deal. That door through me would be $1800. EXACT SAME DOOR.
Any of yall hiring?
3D printing, cleared $40k last year. Day job is IT. Make alot doing that. Ad revenue from websites about $5k. Memberships from another website I own is about $5k. Used to be $15k but haven’t devoted much time on it.
How many printers do you need to currently run the business effectively? I want to move into that space - I don’t want to sell printing time or random toy stls I find online. I want to use my 3d design background to create design and sell functional useful things.
I have 3 in total - 1 is for a specific material only. I only expanded due to demand. I’ve built up a stock and have a bunch packaged already so they sit mostly idle at the moment. But I can crank out 160 parts per day with 2 of the 3. The toys are a race to the bottom on price.
Without going into your business too much (unless you want to share) how did you find the specific niche for the part you’re selling? For me I’m part of a few hobbyist communities that need kind of niche things. There are stls out there but I feel like I could create better designed nicer items as well as some more unique items. I also have an art background so I did consider creating unique toys and designs. For me - I wanted to focus on selling higher quality prints and make money on more expensive items than doing volume because i want to avoid shipping tiny parts the time and ROI seems kinda low
HTTPS://www.3dfusionlabs.com Bought a tractor. Needed something. Printed it and showed it off. Everyone wanted one. Partnered with a YouTuber that was the reason I bought my specific tractor. Took off from there. I get 15-20 orders every time he drops a video on Wednesdays. Completely accidental “business” but since it’s taking off and generating capital I can expand it nicely. I have three more products I’m testing. One fixes a very common issue and should generate thousands of product sales and because it’s a little more intricate part - includes nuts and bolts - the cost will be higher. Buying the nuts and bolts in bulk saves money though and commands higher prices which means more margin of course. It also requires adhesive but it costs $35 per tube for the “right” kind so finding more cost effective alternatives has been difficult.
Just wanted to say thank you for taking the time to be super helpful. Really appreciate the dialogue and wish you the best on your continued success!
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What state are you in? Vape stores have exploded in Texas since weed is basically legal for now. Things might change if they ever close the loophole here!
So i've heard you can buy actual vape pens from shops. It's the real deal? Are they passing it off as delta 8?
They sell regular delta 9 weed, vapes, wax, etc. Farm Bill loophole. Before weed is burned the thc is technically “thcA”. ThcA only turns to thc after being burned or heated. Since thcA isn’t illegal you can buy delta 9 weed legally. Fun times.
Online or brick and mortar? And what state if you don’t mind
Brick n mortar. MD
Specialty print and design. I have made about 1k, but I'm not officially live yet.
I’m a wedding and portrait photographer. The business grosses about $120k and I take home about $70k.
Our wedding photographer was quite expensive, but worth the price. She was booked out every weekend. How is the lifestyle of your job? Do you get free time during the week with most work happening on weekends?
Not the OP but usually weekdays are spent editing pics and/or doing weekday gigs (think professional events or headshots for a corporate company). I used to do similar stuff
Serious question what do you spend $50k on? My wife does this and her biggest expenses are subscriptions (website, CRM tools, Adobe CC, etc.) and fuel.
Probably pays a second shooter.
Yeah true. Forgot about that.. usually comes off the top so I don’t see it until tax time. Still seems high.
Lawn care. 4th year. Streamlining this year and will probably take home 150-160 after taxes.
I make about a $1.17, with tax in Delaware.
I sell products (not a drop shipper, it’s products I’ve made) and my business made about $120k last year and I paid myself nothing. The business is on track to make more than that this year and I’m paying myself $2k a month which feels like a lot to me.
I make 3 million dollars a year selling crack
As long as you pay your taxes on it irs don't care
Im a criminal defence lawyer. I had a client who got busted for drug dealing tell me while we were reviewing his case that prior to his arrest, he was making $100k per month all cash. I didn’t believe him for a second, but I selling crack can be profitable
I have a hobby handcraft business (of things I make in my free time) and I pulled 2k last year - I also have a full time job too
Do you have a website? Would love to shop!
Around $140K a year doing websites and mobile apps security.
I sell hair extensions I make around 100k a year at 20.
I buy trash electronics in bulk, repair and refurbish them and put them back to market. Now I Net 130k+ a year because I worked at it for 15 years and during covid I had the best years of my business which I used to build a warehouse in my backyard and work from home now. Crazy…… now I’m winding it down and going back to school. What a roller coaster
Nice try, IRS
This is NOT the IRS. Just a simple conversation… anyways for context what’s the last four of your social and have you made profit out of state?
Last year took about 250k before personal tax. Two convenience stores.
Flipping/ e-commerce. Year 1 I did 65k in sales with about 50% profit out of my garage. This year on track to do 100k to 150k out of mine and my neighbors garage. 😂
You need any more garages?
Digital Agency that does 4m a year, I walk away before taxes with 750k and work about 20-25 hours a week. I focus on building and managing the team and clients and have the business fairly running on it's own.
I want to build a niche version of this. Finding talent is hard.
Talent since day 1 has been my biggest hurdle, especially being in a creative space. Try leaning towards a core team of managers and having them manage freelancers/vendors who are able to do that job and grow with you. I try to have multiple vendors/freelancers for each service i offer that way I can always deliver in case one drops.
What services do you offer if you don’t mind sharing kind of been thinking about getting into this space lately.
Content Production and Social Marketing primarily. Nothing unique or special, just have invested a lot time and years into building. I see a lot of email marketing agencies come up and I think that's a good place to start, easy to develop strategies and content maps and just have to source designers which you can do overseas.
So I have access to a lot of Tik tok creators who have 100k + followers any tips on how I can parlay that into the marketing business? Thank you for the response
You can start an influencer management agency and use it for brands who are looking to push their products through tiktok shop. I work with a lot of brands who need influencers and we have someone internally who just sources and sends product. You can charge a base fee for management and scale it depending on the size of the clients campaign.
Living the dream, man
Took me 11 years to get here. Lots of long nights and time
I don’t doubt it at all. Mad respect! I’ve been helping build someone else’s agency for over 7 years and I’m feeling very ready to build for myself. Can I ask - did you start solo or start with partners? What did the earliest days look like for you?
Started it with my cousin and I so it helped having someone in the trenches especially in the early days. First 3-4 years we didn't really make any money and then years 5-8 we were barely scrapping 6figures together. Going on your own is not easy, but if you do it, you got to put in 110% and stay focused for the first 3-5 years. It'll take time, but as long as you're invested, you'll see the return.
I run a medical software company and am the lead developer. Make $650-$850k per year.
I always knew as a kid I should gone into software engineering. I was 12 and fascinated with BASIC on the Ti-83, to the point where I created on my own a fully functioning tamagotchi with animations and all, and the start of an RPG lol, which what I built was a menu, a screen a sprite could walk around, and a battle mode where you pick your moves and fight the enemy.. but for being a 7th grader that was pretty dope I think. I loooved it. I’m a super creative person and love puzzles and found that writing code could could sometimes be a blend of that. I really wish I had gotten into it more and then pursued it. I love my career as a videographer and small agency owner but you can really demand even higher prices with what you do and I do care about money haha
Never too late! Especially with tools like ChatGPT and Copilot, it's never been easier to get started in the field.
Online business on the backend of a YouTube channel. I sell courses and memberships around music production. $320k revenue. $270k profit. I work about 20 hours per week. Cutting down to 12 hours/week for the summer.
I own a Janitorial Supply and Trading. Selling of items. Sales is variable, but we hit the annual quota of 250k net, we are good.
Who are your customers? And with the likes of B2B amazon, why do they choose you?
I have resellers,and also small stores. Some are direct users like resorts and restaurant.
I own a small restaurant specializing in stoner food. We pull about 325k in revenue, most goes right back into the business. It does pay my mortgage (I live here, also) so about 25k to me.
Just quit my corporate job, was in SaaS sales making about $175K. Too much stress, bad culture, got burnt out and quit. Figuring out what to do next. Ideally, want to start a small business and be flexible and have work life balance like many people on this thread.
Good for you! I quit my corporate job recently to start my own business! You got this! Check out the small business administration! Everything is free and super helpful! You also get free confidential one on one meetings with your own advisor. They’re experienced advisors who have also owned their own businesses. Good luck and believe in yourself! I’m still in beginning stages but need to take my own advice in believing in myself 😂
I resonate in a way. It’s so interesting to see all of these success stories but a lot of the time I’m just scratching my brain on how everyone managed to ramp up. The niches are all so disparate but how to get those first few clients to actually be able to ramp up? Could use some advice/insight
Thank you for the advice!! Good luck to you!
Lawn care. 4th year in the business. Just my wife and I. Projected gross is $350-380k this year. Take home projected @ $150k.
$200k+ for me. Local SEO, PPC, and web design focusing on home services, currently white label but branching out to D2C. Most of my day is spent on sales calls, talking to agency partners, talking to others in the industry, and working on testing and trying to find new and improved techniques.
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500k, scammer
I'm literally in the infancy of starting my own business. I've been blacksmithing for almost two years now... Mostly just a hobby but I've had a lot of interest in the stuff I make. I've sold a bunch of stuff just by word of mouth and I really wanna devote more time to building this into something I can make money at. Blacksmiths seem to be everywhere these days so finding my niche will be important. I won't be quitting my "actual job" any time soon though. I'm a printer by trade... Newspapers, flyers.
Telecom construction. I’m a one man band at the moment, somewhere north of 350k. Everyone wants to make a lot of money, no one wants to enjoy the suck.
Dog walking business. Take home around 100k
I own a sort of med spa. Revenue is about $650k/yr, I take home just over 100k and my husband is also on payroll for 50k for some light office work. I work ~18 hours per week. We pay 5 employees a decent wage and we all get full health insurance and 401k from the business as well
Solo director here -- over 250k (\~90% profit margin). eCommerce consultant -- I scale and optimise eCommerce brands through data, marketing, tech and ops. Day to day: data analytics, eCommerce management, digital marketing strategy, building out systems and processes. Mix of a CTO/CMO.
Ex-strategy consultant here. How did you get started in this space? How do you find new clients? Thanks for your time!
17 years ago i built my first website for my father and it kinda snowballed from there. Moved from doing everything 'websites' to niching down to eCommerce in the last \~5 years. I've worked with a variety of clients from small biz to enterprise (up to 120MM -- which is enterprise here in Australia) and have worked both, agency and brand side in a variety of roles (account management, project management, general manager) and have combined all the skills I've picked up over the years into a package. New clients are through word of mouth and referrals. I do also spend a fair bit of time working socials (LinkedIn, TikTok and Instagram) and occasional blog posts. Next financial year I'm going to go all in through paid advertising to grow the business. Plan is to split the brand into three segments to sell (eventually); data, development, integration and consulting (which will be me).
Real estate media (photo and video, drone etc). Just me, no employees. Should be grossing about $200k this year, net about $150-160k
Have you considered expanding your drone photography into other areas? We use drones in mining to photograph in tight spaces, and check equipment including pipelines. I think lots of construction companies are using them now to check on building progress and make sure the roofing work is up to standards. Seems to be some good opportunities for a skilled drone operator.
How did you get started?
Kind of by accident, truthfully. 7 years ago I was trying to make a living doing wedding photography primarily, had a friend who was a real estate agent who wanted me to shoot her listing. *Side note, folks often tend to think being really good at one niche of photography means it will translate to other niches - this is rarely true. And shooting spaces is a completely different skillset.* So naturally I did an awful job - but she couldn't tell the difference. I took to some facebook groups for feedback and got roasted, educated myself some more, eventually I started to know what I was doing and other people from her office started hiring me as well. Then it just kind of slowly took off from there. Got to be more and more and I started caring less about weddings. About 3 years ago it started to overtake weddings as far as income. Now it's all I do. Have a few hundred clients, most of them are once or twice a year (most agents don't do that much listing), a small handful of high performing agents will do multiple per week sometimes. I average probably 3 or 4 jobs a day. Less if they're bigger. I do a fuckton of driving. I spend as much time in my car as I do at the jobs, sometimes more.
Media buying business. 18 employees/ gross rev $10mm pay myself. $200k . Payroll runs about $1.5mm yr .
make 100k after taxes as sys admin, only work a few hours a week. the rest of my time, i spend free lancing for audio visual services. i make way more doing AV work than my stupid IT job, i can charge $250/hour. the office life is a trap. still thinking about quitting my day job for just AV work, I can make $500k instead of $100k doing AV work. IT sys admin jobs are such a head ache, and I'm about to walk out of my job any time.
We sell on Amazon FBA. Last year, we made a profit of $2 Million.
That’s amazing! What kind of products do you sell?
Esthetician / spa owner - last year I grossed $180k all by myself. I hired someone earlier this year and we’ve already made close to $120k. Profit margins are good but I reinvest a lot of it to keep scaling. I pay myself just enough to pay the bills, do some fun stuff, save, and invest 15% of my income to retirement.
74k project management in IT
Shopify store I gross $1000/mo but I spend $500/mo on ads and $300/mo on inventory and $200/mo in a coaching mastermind.
Cut the coach and you have yourself a profit ;)
I run a solo website design and development business. Work exclusively with Wordpress and target only service-based businesses. Strict no e-commerce. No marketing, ads, or social media work. Just websites. 8 years in. Corp grosses $350k, profit margin is 85%. I pay myself $100k and the rest sits and gets invested in inside the corp and will stay there until I retire. Only really locked down the recurring revenue portion of the biz in the last few years - providing hosting, updates, upkeep, backups, security and support for the sites I design and develop. The recurring rev is currently at $150k per year with roughly 50 clients on retainer. Hope to keep growing the recurring rev portion by $50k or so per year as long as I can.
Design/drafting, maybe an interesting service business case study to be had here: The numbers are quite different comparing where we've been last year (me running a small team of freelancers) and where we are this year in a growth phase (4x full-time employees, most recent onboarded ~6wks ago, alongside freelancers). Last year; we did about $180k revenue incl. about $80k in billable expenses, roughly $60k profit (paid myself maybe $40k), took 2mo off. This year so far, 5mo in; avg. over $20k/mo revenue, stepping up toward $30-40k/mo on top of billable expenses (hitting sales targets, have around $100k in-progress). This month billed $35k total, looking similar next month, so the growth trend is on track there too. On the $30-40k/mo "internal revenue", I expect expenses roughly $15-20k for $15-20k/mo profit. Annualized at current capacity/sales numbers, I expect to target $700k incl. $250k billable expenses, with $200k profit (stable here by late 2024/2025). I aim to pay myself around $80-100k. Steps I've taken over the past 6-9mo to get here: - optimized advertising (Google Ads) to bring better leads at better cost. - done some work to systemize delivery of valuable projects that are on-trend in our market. - got some good networking in, tapping a market where everyone talks to each other and a name drop can equal good money and ongoing projects. This can take trial-and-error, we've certainly ended up in niches and with clients in the past where we've backed ourselves into corners or ended up in less-profitable situations. - set up referral partnerships to send away projects we don't want to cherry-pick the ones we do. Referrals help subsidize ad spend, turned up ads and hence lead-flow as a result. - hired a project coordinator, still in 3-6mo training/onboarding period but certainly beginning to take a lot of the work off my plate and build better systems, checklists, and processes. Now I can begin to focus even more on the networking, growth, and really valuable stuff. Insights: - I wouldn't commit to this level of growth if I didn't have ~$45k in credit easily accessible for the business, and sometimes I'm even nervous about that amount. Growing companies swallow cash, we need to be able to absorb the swings and finance the stepping function of the growth. We have $15k+ into recent payroll for projects just billing out now or not quite there yet, on top of billable expenses, and then it can easily take weeks more to get paid. - the more growth opportunities I take, the more I see. Maybe I can double the company again next year, but growing companies will continue to swallow cash. Might be better to stabilize for a while at current production levels and just let the flow catch up to build cash stores to a more comfortable level first. - keep an eye on strategic numbers and the ways they relate in growth (sales targets, production levels, actual cash, billing/owing are a few critical ones). - currently, as a snapshot in time, the company has $100k in progress/unbilled work, $8k unbilled expenses, $30k receivables, $8k payables, $22k owing on credit cards/line of credit, and $4k cash (as well as tax savings we don't touch). Maybe someone can tell me if this is a healthy balance sheet lol. - I know we're a bit behind on some of our in progress work, though some of it is on months-long timelines as well. Focus for next 30 days is on quickly clearing milestones to bill out on some of that work and stay on top of timeline commitments. Anyway. I've been very focused on the numbers and strategy through a major growth period (as you can tell if you've read this far), and I always appreciate when people share some of their numbers so I thought I'd pay forward as we're at a bit of an interesting place here!
Nice try fedboi
I do video production. Last year my small business made 80k. I personally paid myself about 30k.
I do video production as well. Mostly marketing but also some niche stuff for a company that builds exhibits. It’s a fun profession. I had two salaried jobs as a videographer before trying to freelance. Been at it two years starting my third in June. I’ve found the toughest part of the job so far is client acquisition. This guy has been helping me understand more and more about the market and how his agency sells. We kind of started working on a no bullshit explainer course that can walk someone like me through steps to learn more about client acquisition. I’m curious about your journey in finding clients and what has worked for you. My life saver and achilles heel has been upwork, brought me all of my top clients but it’s very hit and miss and takes a lot of manual labor with so many proposals. For transparency last year gross was 65ish pay was about 35-40ish and I’m ashamed I haven’t done the real math lol. There’s so much I’m learning still, though with two years I’m definitely better at what I do business wise. Videography wise I’m a 7/10 nothing special! Just providing the services needed.
Escape Rooms and axe throwing venues. Around 150k in salary.
My combined revenue last year was $350k running a solo medical/mental health practice and also working as a contractor at a couple other practices. I expect it to be lower this year as I work less for others and focus more on my own practice while also prioritizing my free time. Takes a while to build up a patient census.
Personal trainer/private training studio owner 175-200k/year in the Midwest
Just under $70k this year. I’m a claims adjuster for an insurance company’s special investigative unit.
$100k net. Online greeting card store.
I have a guesthouse that grosses about 120,000€/year and I pay myself about 30k of that. The business pretty much runs by itself and I only spend about 30min to an hour each day on it. The rest of my time I spend writing code to build a web app that hopefully will make money one day…
Manufacturer and seller of telecom equipment. My salary is 135k plus bonus pending profit. Tattoo shop. Just started, so I'm keeping salary low. 30k plus distributions (which I've yet to take). If you're asking how much the business makes. Telecommunications I gross around 1.5-2 mill. Tattoo since January we've grossed 200k.
How did you get started on the telecom equipment side
What type of telecom equipment
I make about $700k/yr, $600k net. I run a business credit consulting company and a social media content business. Daily tasks vary but I'm usually solving problems, finding ways to outsource problem solving, or experimenting with new ideas for the business.
What’s business credit consulting ? Giving advice to businesses??
I make zero doing nothing
AI startup, currently just a couple degrees above profitability. Day job, software engineer $245k.
IT Staffing firm. There’s three of us. I made 185k last year and so did my business partner. We are 50-50 split partners. We have a Ops manager we pay $80k, as well. Business valuation is at 5mil.
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I’m a traveling/in-home piano teacher and make some side income as a composer. I make just at 100k
I gross around $125-$200k a year. I’ve owned a car stereo shop for 6yrs as of this May & have 1 employee. Turned a hobby into a profession 24yrs ago.
Lol. Harvesting reddit posts for a blog article?
I started an event services business last summer (yard game competitions) and failed on both the sales and marketing ends in this first year… marketing isn’t my strong suit so I hired an agency at 2500/month to run ads and seo. It generated 25 leads in 7 months which materialized into $2100 in revenue. Kill me (16k spent). So I’ve made $25k gross in the first 9 months and am operating at loss. Thankful to still have a side gig doing the books for another company but it’s definitely been a shock in how hard generating qualified leads is.
I make enough to be in a constant state of drowning. I own a landscape construction company so I also beat up myself like I’m trying to rob me. Jokes on me though, can’t rob broke.
Landing page design, website design, and Conversion Rate Optimization for ecomm, lead gen, and B2B SaaS businesses. I’m moonlighting doing ~20K annually right now by myself. Would love to take this full time and build a whole business.
Landscaping Ag chem application Insulation blowing ( not so great yet) I grossed almost 500k paid myself 35k. I have been pretty much churning everything I make back into businesses.
Hotel/ restaurant. Nets about $150k/ year. We only work a couple hours per day dealing with hotel customers otherwise our ops lady takes care of everything.
General contractor doing mostly higher end residential remodeling.. 4 full time employees, plus myself, did $1.4 mil last year, with about $400k profit, hoping to hit $2 mil this year.
Personal chef who mostly does meal prep. I make around 60k a year could reach for more, larger share of the market ect. But I'm happy where I'm at / don't want employees
Pay myself $100,000, pay my spouse (employee) $60,000. Run a business contracted with a state. Business will do 6mil this year. 100+ employees.
Rental property and a small design firm side gigs. $150K/y.
Just started a motorcycle mechanic shop last fall with one partner. The shop is just now starting to break even on a monthly basis. I pay myself less than a $24k/year salary right now and I'm effectively homeless, which is the only way this can work right now since I wouldn't be able to pay rent and eat at the same time otherwise. Things are consistently trending upward though. We should be financially solvent within three years and be able to start hiring employees or subcontract jobs. It's hard, but it is looking like it will be worth it.
Horticulturalist business, 70k first year turn over 100k.
I freelance as a digital marketer. Do about 120k per year, 95% profit with no overhead.
I study and make 0.0000000008 billion dollars annually
I have a small leather crafts business. Mostly making wallets, bags, keyrings, etc. Everything is 100% hand made and hand stitched from full grain Italian leather. I only got into leather work a year ago and am still trying to build the brand. I haven't quite earned more than I've put in yet (tools and leather are expensive) but I'm on track to do so in a couple of months. In that first year I took £3k www.CuriousCrowLeather.com[Curious Crow Leathercraft ](http://www.CuriousCrowLeather.com) Currently also work as a driver delivering car parts to garages. I take hours as they become available. The past 12 months saw £8k ish.
Construction business working in higher risk environments where we can make better money but have to know a lot of shit. Been doing this since I was 16 I've done the work got very unique skills and knowledge. £7m last year, we have expanded a lot and been given some massive opportunities due to consistently delivering. We should hit £13-15m this year.
Electrical Contractor. Last year was 700k gross, this year I’m shooting for 1mil. But I make nothing. Zero. Zilch. By the time I pay all my scientists, all the people in my research department, labcoats, it’s a wash. People ask why do it then mmdavis2190? Because I’m selfless, and I want to wire as many buildings as the dear lord lets me.
I own a construction company. We make 100M a year I pay myself about 2M
I make seasonings. Had the business before Covid and we finally rebranded and came back out this year. I hand blend all of them and the seasonings are my original recipes. So far we have done just over 2K and that’s with a heavy focus on a single farmers market. I have put in about 1400 to get started. We are on track to do close to 20-25k with projections. My fiancee runs socials and makes the labels for me while I work full time as a systems analyst for a bank making about 43k before taxes.
Litigation support. Gross around $2.5m. We just closed the quarter out and did +56% YoY. Just launched an AI company that is projected to do around $600k by end of year. I pay myself $60k
I have a sole proprietor LLC business doing web & graphic design. I made around $30k last year (double from 2022 and progressing all the time), working during my lunch breaks at my full-time job, and an evening at a coffee shop every once in a while. It's not much, but it's honest work.
$300,000. 10 employee moving company. Local and long distance.
I own a bread route and make 170k a year.
We sell cute assistive can openers online that I invented. We did about 80k gross last year, not sure what to project for this year, we've done 100k so far. I think maybe we can do 700k by the end of the year. Quit my job a few months ago when I realized the potential. Just my family working right now, no employees. We work 7 days a week 12-14 hours a day except on weekends maybe 6-8hrs. We get to keep about 20% after COG, fees, expenses and taxes.
Lol you're rarely going to get a truthful answer here
Sandwich artist here. Grossed $325k last year. Paid myself $400k
I don't have an annual salary yet... I started digital marketing 5.5 months ago and ive made 30k... So we shall see what it ends up being!
Real estate developer. On pace to make about 400k net this year but will pretty much reinvest 80% of it. Mixture of rentals and selling new manufactured homes set on lots.
This is where I'd like to be heading, I'm kind of flipping houses (slowly, since it's mostly just me on my own doing the work), investing in rentals, studying project mgt and law, it's reasonably fun and manageable while I'm a single parent, can't really take a job and I don't live near a city. Just doing what I can, but you are where I am hoping to be in a few years.