How are you making over 10k a month? - Basically title, could be your buisness or side hustle.

Starting to understand the high failure rates... - I'm currently sourcing all the required elements for my own start-up and was really surprised by how poorly a lot of businesses are run.

1. Company One had a salesperson who said they weren't sure how much their client services cost because ... See More they were new and asked me to email my enquiry instead...which they promptly ignored.

2. I agreed to purchase some marketing services from Company Two who were actively advertising for new customers. After I said I would like to go ahead with the sale, they stopped responding.

3. Online quote requests for Company Three went unanswered and when someone finally answered the phone, they told me the provided email address is actually an unmonitored inbox.

4. I requested pricing from Company Four, but the owner told me they were just on their way out grocery shopping, so I'd have to call back later. I did and they still forgot to send the quote.

5. I ordered paid custom packaging samples, selected colours, provided my logo, etc. Only to receive a random assortment of other people's paid custom packaging samples. The owner actually tried to blame me for this one, claiming I hadn't sent the required information. I pointed out they were responding to the original email chain with all the required information clearly visible two emails further up.

Surely this can't be normal for the average B2B interaction?

I make too much money & have no life - I have a dilemma :(

I got lucky with a business opportunity but now I work all the time and I'm constantly stressed.

I want to chill out but how do you justify it when there's so much money on the ... See More table?

do you work harder to earn as much as money as possible whilst the opportunity lasts, or do you try to have a life but make less money?

the amount of money I'm making, is like 10x what I was making in my job, that's why I'm conflicted

So burned out - I am so burned out right now that I want to close the whole thing down. Frustrated with my staff, customers and I have lost my passion for the market.

But I can’t. I owe the bank and government to much money. It would cost me ... See More everything.

How do you make yourself keep going when all you want to do is walk away? Literally all the stops me is the thought of losing my house.

**Update**

Amazed by all the replies and advice. Thank you !

As a start I am taking a 3 day weekend off, spending time with my family and enjoying some summer weather. Going to just try and relax and get a fresh perspective on things.

After the weekend will put a plan together, step by step, on moving forward and getting a handle on the stress points.

In 2017 I started a consulting company and made $0. - Actually, I spent about $3000 and did not get any revenue. But in 2018 I made $1000, and things began growing. By 2022 I brought in over $200k in annual revenue. Since inception, I just crossed $500k in revenue ... See More (🎉 - I didn't really have anyone to share this with, so I'm celebrating here) and about $400k in profit. Here are a few things I learned:

**1. Just do it.** Get to your MVP as fast and as cheap as you can. You can always make adjustments along the way. I launched and reached profitability before I even had a website. Stop waiting for all the pieces to fall into place and get out there.

**2. Customer acquisition is *everything.*** If you can get customers and make them happy, you will almost always succeed and keep growing. I hit some lightning in a bottle with my content marketing and it really changed my trajectory. You MUST determine how people will find you and make that easy for them.

**3. You don't have to go all in.** I started while working a full time job and that's the only reason I could afford such a slow growth ramp. Those first 2 years would have bankrupted me at the time if I had quit my job to go all in. Manage your risk. I wouldn't have had enough clients at the beginning anyway, and starting out part time took a lot of the pressure off. I could experiment more with product/service offerings, pricing, marketing, etc.

**4. There's a TON of luck in this.** I did a lot of things right, but in hindsight I definitely got lucky with some things. This was my 4th attempt at starting a company and the first one to really succeed (2 died on the runway and 1 was just a self-made job that wasn't likely to scale at all). And four years in, I still wasn't out-earning my prior 9-5 job. So if your first tries aren't immediate homeruns, don't panic or abandon ship. Just keep doing what's working and trying things.

How did you make your first MILLION? - I’ve been dabbling in making online money for the last couple of years. Even made $50k+ from ghostwriting.

Now I’ve set a goal of making $1M by Dec 2026. That means I’ve almost 3.4 years.

How did you make your first million? ... See More Would love to hear & learn about the journey from the people who have done it.

Update: Whoa! I’m really overwhelmed by the responses down here. The number 1 way seems to be is real estate.

I’m from India, so that’s not possible for me. Was thinking of online businesses. Two ideas I have in mind are:

• An entrepreneurship based blog + newsletter combo (something like starter story)
• An offshore recruiting company

Whats a boring business that makes money? - 14 year business owner here. I sold my personal training studio and it was a great chapter of life. Ive been able to take home 200k+ most years and never under 100k after the first 3. So it was decent.

However, I fell ... See More more in love with business than I did fitness. Also I'm burned out on selling something that most human are so fickle and resistant to (eating healthy and working out). I'm burned out on being in an industry that relies on so much on paid advertising and gimmicky marketing.

Business in general is exciting to me. The business of things is more exciting to me than the actual product or service. I looking to hear from those of experience on some straight forwards business's that can succeed on hard work and elbow grease.

Anyone quit their day job to pursue their dream, did it work or not ?! And was it worth it ?! - I’m 24m been working as a bank teller for little over 3 year now, i hated every second of it as i felt like i didn’t belong there ... See More and i was wasting my life…. at the side I was taking digital marketing gigs as I’m really passionate about it & I also have a side hustle… i still live with my parents and i managed to save 1 year worth of my current salary…. Last week i put my 2 weeks notice, all i can tell is that i felt happy, excited and a little bit terrified abt what the future holds for me, i have a plan in mind that includes taking more gigs and growing/scaling my side hustles…. I’d like to hear your stories if anyone went through a similar path..

EDIT: Thanks for all of the responses, everyone. I find it to be really encouraging in many ways--much more than I thought it would be. Thank you.

Story of a failure - While it's inspiring to hear success stories, it's important to acknowledge the realities as well.

Personally, I've been involved in over 20 different projects over a period of roughly 5 years. Unfortunately, out of those projects, only one was truly successful. In that instance, I ... See More invested $2,000 and dedicated 5 months of my time, which resulted in earning over a quarter of a million dollars within two months of launch. However, rather than being cautious with the funds, I reinvested all the earnings back into the business, which ultimately failed about a year later.

Now, at 33 years old, I find myself questioning my sanity. I’m broke, unemployable, and emotionally defeated. The possibility of adapting to a traditional workplace after years of hustling is basically impossible for me at this point..

I recently spent another 3 months and my last thousand bucks developing a product that unfortunately didn't gain any traction. And this is my breaking point…my rock bottom (hopefully).

While I appreciate the success stories of a fortunate few, it's important for people to understand that this reality may not be the norm for the majority of us. The lesson here is that hard work doesn’t always pay off.

EDIT: I am grateful for the support, kind wishes, and words of encouragement from each and every one of you. Thank you all.

Entrepreneurship is a superpower. - I hired my wife half a year ago, and today, I hired my sibling. They both used to work at a mediocre yet demanding job.

The fact that I can "rescue" them by offering a very flexible and sustainable job definitely feels like a superpower.

I'm not ... See More sure how long this will last because no one knows what tomorrow will bring. But I'm proud that I'm improving the lives of those around me.

P.S: I work in e-commerce. Please refrain from spamming my inbox.

Edit: Perhaps I'm not the best with words. I certainly don't believe I'm superior to anyone. It's just that I've somehow managed to carve out a little space that allows me to share my freedom with those close to me.

Here's another analogy: It's as if I happen to be able to afford a car, so I decided to drive my friends around. This way, they don't have to use the less than ideal public transportation. Am I their savior? No. Have I improved a small aspect of their lives? Yes.

I've been upfront with them about this not being about making a ton of money, but about gaining sustainable freedom to do whatever they love in their spare time. I'm also not sure how long this will last, so if they're willing to take the risk, they're welcome to join me.

None of us on the team are money-oriented people. My sibling didn't even negotiate the wage I'm paying him, and it is about half of his original pay from the ex-job. I've combined the finance part with the wife way before the company is established. So there might be thousands of causes to make this collab a failure, money is not one of them.

What would you do with $125,000 cash if that’s all you have? - I went through a divorce and I’m left with a pretty empty house, no toys, $125,000 cash.
I have bad credit but zero debt.

I’m about to get laid off from my job.

I’m 50 years old ... See More without a college degree.

What should I do?

So everyone on this sub makes minimum 100k, has their house paid off and multiple rentals, 300k in stocks and 900k in savings. Oh and 23 ? - I’m out

😂😂 here come the billionaires saying this is JV numbers and giving advice… I hope everyone’s joking, I know I was

I've challenged myself to make $100K in 100 days (DAY 30) - It’s day 30 of my journey.



**Who am I?**



I’m a Software Engineer living in Serbia, with no prior experience in sales or entrepreneurship.



**What I’ve already done in these 30 days?**



I’ve ... See More started working on a mobile app. I’ve created a couple of screens so far.



I’ve created a few digital products and selling them on Etsy.



I’ve started offering mentoring services for beginner level programmers.



I’ve uploaded a “Day in life” video on YouTube.



**What am I currently doing?**



I’m learning how to sell because it’s essential.



I’m filming new videos for my YouTube channel.



I’m trying to find a project on Upwork but it’s difficult since I don’t have any testimonials.



My blog (which I have since February) has started getting some organic clicks. I’m trying to dive deeper in SEO to get more impressions and views.



**What are the next steps?**



I want to grow my blog and YT channel.



I continue to do mentoring because it’s the only thing that makes me money so far.



I’m gonna try Fiverr.



I see a huge long-term potential in DeFi, so I’m going to start investing in it.



**How much I’ve made?**



I’ve made $1100 in the first month. Yes, it’s not a very impressive number. On the other hand, it was just an idea in my head which turned into the money in my bank account. Moreover, I wouldn’t make any money if I didn’t start the challenge.



**Summary**



Honestly, I planned to do more in 30 days. I thought I could create an MVP of my app, create more digital products, etc. But since I have a full-time job and there are only 24 hours in each day, I guess I did everything I could. Anyway I’m happy that I’ve started the challenge, it helps me be more proactive.

The OceanGate tragedy is a great example of why ideas are worth nothing and engineering and commercialization are far bigger than anyone thinks. - This is a great r/entrepreneur lesson.

Stockton Rush has clearly demonstrated how important the final details of taking a design from MVP to commercialization is. OceanGate had ... See More a great prototype, but clearly it was not proven technology. Controversy around the design limits and post dive inspection ultrasonic testing versus destructive testing occurred during the development. The design should be been rated to 50% below the working limits and then verified using destructive testing after 50 or 60 pressure cycles. The problem is creating a 400+ bar test facility at scale is incredibly cost prohibitive. Using carbon fiber in a compressive stress environment seems a bit "out of the box" thinking.

I worked for a company that manufactured subsea tools, and the number of companies that would come along with a great "idea", but without any rigorous engineering to back it up was amazing. You have to prove that a tool will run 100's of times without failure and then figure out how to manufacture and test it. The prototype is probably 10% of the total cost of commercialization. This is why your idea is not worth much. It is even more important when human lives are on the line.

I believe this also applies to software as well. Building a prototype is pretty trivial these days, but making it robust from a usability and security perspective is the large, underwater end of the iceberg.

RIP the crew of the Titan who had to illustrate this concept so well for us.

Outsourced sales people - Hello, small business owner here.
I've been thinking of hiring outsourced sales people for outbound calls.
We think of investing completely in a cold-call agency (such as Wing-Assistant) leaving them in complete charge of the sales funnel, from prospecting to pitching to closing.
The prospect we ... See More initially called (Wing assistant) quoted a price of close to 7,000 US dollars for a minimum three-month term
In your professional estimations -
1. how is this an option?
2. what other alternatives exist?
3. Is this price standard across the industry?
Additionally, if anyone is aware of an agency that charges on a per-sale basis, that would interest us.