Don’t underestimate #4. It’s not easy to get people to sign up to a whole new system/site. OF is a known entity. Plus, running an entirely new business (software business) is not easy. Several of the celebrities that have done this are B-listers at best, not always the most informed/managed and good with money. Real A-listers steer clear and don’t want to be associated with that brand.
I use GHL and lots of my clients do as well. Not a scam, although the affiliate program an attract lots of gurus. The system is pretty solid And can definitely scale and add value, at the end of the day it’s all about how you fullfil as an agency, not just the bells and whistles.
I’ve been there. Was making over six figures in revenue but barely scraping by each month, sometimes not able to draw a paycheck. It’s obvious you’re doing something wrong. Could be a lot of things. Main culprits that hit me:
I wasn’t charging enough. I had clients that wanted the cheapest possible service. Those tend to be very bad clients. You don’t make much money upfront and if they complain/want rework, you’re actually losing money. Find these bad clients and fire them as soon as possible.
Bad sales. You need to be out there selling and looking for better/more profitable accounts. Figure out your most profitable type of client and find MORE like that. When money is tight you feel like you need to work with anyone for any amount and that just makes matters worse. The only way to fire bad clients is having better clients ready to go and for that you need sales.
Bad advice. You need to find other business owners to network with. Just like this sub, but in person. Join that chamber of commerce, cleaning business association, go to events etc. I even found this podcast about cleaning businesses https://youtu.be/oiatXFvh3g4?si=7nRs_UAsMNyGcE2K Find a way to talk to more experienced and successful business owners and ask them for help.
My dad (77): nursing home and medical care for my mom, iPads, gadgets and anything that can be sold vi WhatsApp.
Do you live with them? Do they pay you bills? If not, spend less time with them if they’re not supportive. Tye negativity weighs on you.
$300K is the initial estimate assuming things go reasonably well. Can easily be more than that, specially if this is your first build out. I had a cousin start a franchise business, he’s an accountant by trade, knows numbers inside and out. Took him 1yr+ of analysis to pick a franchise and take on about $250K in debt from an SBA loan using his house as collateral. Everything is more expensive than initially estimated, it happens. You gotta have an idea of what your gross margins will be and how much you need to sell on a daily basis to break even. Does the foot/car traffic support that? There are benchmarks out there. Find them. Nothing is ever guaranteed but I was shocked how little due diligence folks do when first starting out with a brick & mortar location. Even my cousin. He did great the first year, then COVID hit and at first he successfully transitioned to online (it’s a learning/tutoring based biz) but post COVID demand dried up. He was able to negotiate a settlement with SBA where he saved his house. Most other franchise owners went under and now have a lien on their home or are facing foreclosure. Careful with huge debt + a novice business owner.
Let’s say you Don’t have $300K. How can you start a coffee biz anyway?
It is.
Calm. Kindness, kinship. Love. I’ve given up all chance at inner peace, I’ve made my mind a sunless space. I share my dreams with ghosts. I wake up every day to an equation I wrote 15 years ago from which there’s only one conclusion: I’m damned for what I do. My anger, my ego, my unwillingness to yield, my eagerness to fight, they’ve set me on a path from which there is no escape. I yearned to be a savior against injustice without contemplating the cost, and by the time I looked down, there was no longer any ground beneath my feet. What is… what is my sacrifice? I’m condemned to use the tools of my enemy to defeat them. I burn my decency for someone else’s future. I burn my life, to make a sunrise that I know I’ll never see. No, the ego that started this fight will never have a mirror, or an audience, or the light of gratitude. So what do I sacrifice? Everything.
That cost is probably for a super custom app buil from scratch. Not every app works that way. You can build “white label” apps with very simple functionality for a fraction of that cost. Or even make a mobile wrapper from s website that behaves like an app. Check out Go High Levels marketing platform, they include a white label app.
Business model is everything. A bad operator can have success with a great model/offer. A great operator will still struggle/fail with a bad model/offer.