Starting off strong and feeding the ego is key to an eventual exit. If you are stellar for the first 6 months, they will peg you as an excellent employee and great at your job. As long as you do the bare minimum from there on out, you will always be viewed this way. Why? Because if they stop viewing you this way it means that they were wrong in their original assessment of you and they will never want to admit this.
I suspect for some a lot of initial hesitation about starting a full-on formal business is fear of the unknown. There not only is a huge gap between idea and execution, but there are additional 'unknown' variables of just getting your first business started without forgetting to do something important that will get you in trouble.
One way to reframe it is seeing it as a class with fairly low tuition. Years ago, when I started my first online business, I did so with intentionally limited scope just to learn the basics without stressing out with a huge commitment. This may be helpful for those "on the spectrum" who need to see concrete examples.
Issue: Lab Block for hamsters, the ones used for scientific studies (i.e. the 'good stuff'), is a lot better and consistent than the garbage found in pet stores put together by the low bidder on whatever was cheapest that day. You think eating bugs is bad? Try eating something so hard to digest it has to pass through your digestive system twice.
Problem: Lab Block only comes in 50 pound bags. Even for a hamster, that is excessive.
Solution: Purchase the Lab Block, divide it into one pound bags, and resell it on eBay.
Now that the business model is done, how to go about actually making it a legit business?
1. Look into the requirements for a business license in your jurisdiction. I needed a Federal and State tax ID number, a Sellers Permit, a business fictitious name (DBA), plus there were some restrictions on what a home business could do. I also found that after June 30, the annual business permit was 50% off.
2. In order to get a Sellers Permit, I needed to publish a "Does Business As" (DBA) for several weeks. My local paper wanted over $100. A freebie paper only wanted $30. As an added bonus, I could add a second business name for an extra $4, so why not?
2a. This would be the time to buy your web domain, even if you aren't planning on operating a website, as it can also be used for emails which make you look legit (sales@mybusiness.com vs. totallynotascam32465@gmail.com).
3. The other requirement for the Sellers Permit was I needed to be interviewed by a state official in person, who asked about my business plan and the DBA before issuing it. That was awkward, but I guess these people have seen everything and don't care as long as you pay your taxes.
4. I had everything I needed so I got my local business license.
5. With the permit and tax IDs, I went to a bank and opened my business accounts. They had a promo so they ended up contributing $200 which offset some of the above.
6. With those and my email accounts, I opened my PayPal account and then linked it to my Ebay account.
Now all the legalities are taken care of, just remember to pay your taxes and renew your licence. The rest is the business part.
When I was in striving mode, "trying to make a difference", etc., I found the inefficiency, bureaucracy, indifference, and general stupidity of management and coworkers infuriating. Thought about quitting many times.
In bleed out mode (10-20h/week), all that stuff now works in my favor. It's absolutely fantastic.
Try to find a middle manager that doesn't really care (easy because this is most of them), show him some loyalty, and you can get away with anything. Just give him enough that he can show his boss that "work" is being done. The indifference goes really high up in most places. Definitely a better ROI than quitting.
Appreciate the great content as always. this post should be required reading for all college students.
Would you be open to doing a breakdown of the first business that you built while still working full time? I think details around things like first steps, timeline of cash flow, and biggest challenges would be really helpful for people in the same spot now. I'm sure youre not interested in giving out too many specifics, but would definitely still make for an interesting post.
this line got me scratching my head when I re-read this post today:
"6) if you do make it to a revenue generating role where you’re heavily incentivized the game gets trickier… Ideally that doesn’t happen to you."
wait...*revenue generating* is not good enough, what? any body care to enlighten me a bit here. I think I got confused when I focused on the *revenue generating role*. So BTB means that if a sales career is *heavily incentivized* it can get tougher to decide whether to pull 100% or pull 80% for the firm. So can any one give me an example of that to help me understand better? Much thanks.
33 years old many mistakes made, but always looking to improve. Recently had a kid which makes "making it" 10X harder, yet determined more than ever. I am in a support role at a tech firm and recently got promoted to global head of xxxx and improved my political standing. I'll max out soon around $200K, I have a side hustle that brings in $10-$15K post tax a year, but it is not scalable (time for money exchange, but I absolutely love doing it). My wife makes $200K as well as a software engineer, but we are in a HCOL area so I still feel very poor.
Is it even worth trying to pivot to revenue producing career or sales or should I milk my current job for all it's worth and go all in on a scalable biz? Trying to make sure my daughter never eats grasshoppers.
Currently working an in-office sales job, my salary tends to tap out around ~$110k, top performer in less than a year. Obviously looking to get a remote sales job, especially after this post. My current job doesn't have the option. I have no questions, everything's pretty clear at this stage.
Just became a verified seller on Amazon so i can start flipping items via their FBA program in my free time. Looking forward to the archives whenever you guys decide to post them!
"Putting some numbers around it if you have to choose between a $60K a year job/career or $100K a year job/career… We’d honestly take the first one."
Is there a typo here? as in, did you mean $60k/y **remote** preferred over $100k/y **office based**?
Related Q - happy to hear thoughts of readers as well
- Late 20s, working at a zero (BB front office) an avg of 12h/day
- About to be asked to go back to the office with minimal chance to do biz while there (can't VPN, can't take my own laptop, can only read PDFs)
- Couple of promising projects for side income progressing very slow because of reduced time (last few months have been +80h weeks)
- Have been interviewing for remote roles in crypto/tech sales but they all offer salaries resulting in a net cash flow haircut of ~35-40% (so, monthly available income after tax, living costs and "going to the office" costs)
Hit eject and go remote? or grind out a few more years and keep on market buying coins?
Just started a new remote sales gig for an info product company and crypto hedge fund. Used to sling Saas last year. Wrapping up undergrad rn and just trying to maximize my income in my current role while educating myself through this substack
This question is related to my personal Career situation:
Age: 26. Currently have 4.5 years of back-office IB experience (involved in pitchbook, valuation, and other IB workstreams), involved in everything except for direct client pitching experience. Possibility of an internal transfer to a front-end role within the same BB bank in the next 12 months but will start as an Analyst. Other options:
1. Stick to current plan of moving to a front-end role within Banking
2. Currently interviewing for Customer Success Manager Role (potential exit to Enterprise Sales?)
3. Pursue MBA/MiF to transition to front-end IB (this will involve taking on debt)
- Currently learning digital marketing and copywriting (just started and have a picked a niche to start off with, no income generated yet).
Currently working in a process improvement (robotics process automation) role for State Government (full time). Got laid off from a major international bank for the same role, and landed this government role in 2020, 3 days before COVID lockdown was legit. (So no complaining, but have realised if all you have is a government job, you will decay real quick).
Pros:
- Crazy Flexibility
- Can get away with working 3-4 hrs a day (40 Hrs a week is expected). Most of my day is actually spent in the gym, eating and researching.
- Complete WFH (expected to be in office at most once a week to be with the "team", and even this is not mandatory or monitored). Location (office) is also a 25 min bus, nothing.
- Job security (hard to get fired even if they dont like you, good for side biz and Crypto DCA)
Cons:
- Not performance based (obviously)
- Manager is typical nut job. Will increase head-count so he can get promoted (in 2021), its nauseating.
- Colleagues are nice people but basic drones, no skills can be leveraged with or from them. Total waste of company.
- Standard employees are getting up-skilled and can easily do the same work as me (my skillset is easy to learn, I do not have any specific in depth knowledge about a skill).
All my jobs have been on cost-side (IT Ops, Process Improvement) so I have had barely any sales exposure or experience in performance based role. If i do move into a tech sales role, i will be low on confidence and may crash if I am chasing too many things at once (copywriting/digital marketing + getting good at new role).
With the pros being very friendly for a side biz and milking it, is there any point looking for a performance based sales/tech role, as it might lead to working more hours, Will take time for me to learn and I will lose the down time for other skillsets that are scalable and can be leveraged with current *job*.
Currently in another first world country so the volumes for sales just is not there like US due to low population and preference for status quo, since it is a services based economy. (Banks, Big 4 consulting, Government reign supreme, Tech sales gigs have low base salaries and sales can be highly competitive).
Been in tech sales for 5 years, should bring down 270k this year. Have offices in Seattle and SF but want to work remotely and can get approved to do so. Is moving to NYC a bad idea? I save 50% of my income and want to live somewhere that has a great social scene.
Starting off strong and feeding the ego is key to an eventual exit. If you are stellar for the first 6 months, they will peg you as an excellent employee and great at your job. As long as you do the bare minimum from there on out, you will always be viewed this way. Why? Because if they stop viewing you this way it means that they were wrong in their original assessment of you and they will never want to admit this.
I suspect for some a lot of initial hesitation about starting a full-on formal business is fear of the unknown. There not only is a huge gap between idea and execution, but there are additional 'unknown' variables of just getting your first business started without forgetting to do something important that will get you in trouble.
One way to reframe it is seeing it as a class with fairly low tuition. Years ago, when I started my first online business, I did so with intentionally limited scope just to learn the basics without stressing out with a huge commitment. This may be helpful for those "on the spectrum" who need to see concrete examples.
Issue: Lab Block for hamsters, the ones used for scientific studies (i.e. the 'good stuff'), is a lot better and consistent than the garbage found in pet stores put together by the low bidder on whatever was cheapest that day. You think eating bugs is bad? Try eating something so hard to digest it has to pass through your digestive system twice.
Problem: Lab Block only comes in 50 pound bags. Even for a hamster, that is excessive.
Solution: Purchase the Lab Block, divide it into one pound bags, and resell it on eBay.
Now that the business model is done, how to go about actually making it a legit business?
1. Look into the requirements for a business license in your jurisdiction. I needed a Federal and State tax ID number, a Sellers Permit, a business fictitious name (DBA), plus there were some restrictions on what a home business could do. I also found that after June 30, the annual business permit was 50% off.
2. In order to get a Sellers Permit, I needed to publish a "Does Business As" (DBA) for several weeks. My local paper wanted over $100. A freebie paper only wanted $30. As an added bonus, I could add a second business name for an extra $4, so why not?
2a. This would be the time to buy your web domain, even if you aren't planning on operating a website, as it can also be used for emails which make you look legit (sales@mybusiness.com vs. totallynotascam32465@gmail.com).
3. The other requirement for the Sellers Permit was I needed to be interviewed by a state official in person, who asked about my business plan and the DBA before issuing it. That was awkward, but I guess these people have seen everything and don't care as long as you pay your taxes.
4. I had everything I needed so I got my local business license.
5. With the permit and tax IDs, I went to a bank and opened my business accounts. They had a promo so they ended up contributing $200 which offset some of the above.
6. With those and my email accounts, I opened my PayPal account and then linked it to my Ebay account.
Now all the legalities are taken care of, just remember to pay your taxes and renew your licence. The rest is the business part.
When I was in striving mode, "trying to make a difference", etc., I found the inefficiency, bureaucracy, indifference, and general stupidity of management and coworkers infuriating. Thought about quitting many times.
In bleed out mode (10-20h/week), all that stuff now works in my favor. It's absolutely fantastic.
Try to find a middle manager that doesn't really care (easy because this is most of them), show him some loyalty, and you can get away with anything. Just give him enough that he can show his boss that "work" is being done. The indifference goes really high up in most places. Definitely a better ROI than quitting.
Appreciate the great content as always. this post should be required reading for all college students.
Would you be open to doing a breakdown of the first business that you built while still working full time? I think details around things like first steps, timeline of cash flow, and biggest challenges would be really helpful for people in the same spot now. I'm sure youre not interested in giving out too many specifics, but would definitely still make for an interesting post.
this line got me scratching my head when I re-read this post today:
"6) if you do make it to a revenue generating role where you’re heavily incentivized the game gets trickier… Ideally that doesn’t happen to you."
wait...*revenue generating* is not good enough, what? any body care to enlighten me a bit here. I think I got confused when I focused on the *revenue generating role*. So BTB means that if a sales career is *heavily incentivized* it can get tougher to decide whether to pull 100% or pull 80% for the firm. So can any one give me an example of that to help me understand better? Much thanks.
Any tips for someone currently in medical school?
33 years old many mistakes made, but always looking to improve. Recently had a kid which makes "making it" 10X harder, yet determined more than ever. I am in a support role at a tech firm and recently got promoted to global head of xxxx and improved my political standing. I'll max out soon around $200K, I have a side hustle that brings in $10-$15K post tax a year, but it is not scalable (time for money exchange, but I absolutely love doing it). My wife makes $200K as well as a software engineer, but we are in a HCOL area so I still feel very poor.
Is it even worth trying to pivot to revenue producing career or sales or should I milk my current job for all it's worth and go all in on a scalable biz? Trying to make sure my daughter never eats grasshoppers.
Currently working an in-office sales job, my salary tends to tap out around ~$110k, top performer in less than a year. Obviously looking to get a remote sales job, especially after this post. My current job doesn't have the option. I have no questions, everything's pretty clear at this stage.
Just became a verified seller on Amazon so i can start flipping items via their FBA program in my free time. Looking forward to the archives whenever you guys decide to post them!
"Putting some numbers around it if you have to choose between a $60K a year job/career or $100K a year job/career… We’d honestly take the first one."
Is there a typo here? as in, did you mean $60k/y **remote** preferred over $100k/y **office based**?
Related Q - happy to hear thoughts of readers as well
- Late 20s, working at a zero (BB front office) an avg of 12h/day
- About to be asked to go back to the office with minimal chance to do biz while there (can't VPN, can't take my own laptop, can only read PDFs)
- Couple of promising projects for side income progressing very slow because of reduced time (last few months have been +80h weeks)
- Have been interviewing for remote roles in crypto/tech sales but they all offer salaries resulting in a net cash flow haircut of ~35-40% (so, monthly available income after tax, living costs and "going to the office" costs)
Hit eject and go remote? or grind out a few more years and keep on market buying coins?
What kind of career or what should I do to get one if I don’t have a degree? Is learning coding online and applying with a portfolio a good option?
Just started a new remote sales gig for an info product company and crypto hedge fund. Used to sling Saas last year. Wrapping up undergrad rn and just trying to maximize my income in my current role while educating myself through this substack
This question is related to my personal Career situation:
Age: 26. Currently have 4.5 years of back-office IB experience (involved in pitchbook, valuation, and other IB workstreams), involved in everything except for direct client pitching experience. Possibility of an internal transfer to a front-end role within the same BB bank in the next 12 months but will start as an Analyst. Other options:
1. Stick to current plan of moving to a front-end role within Banking
2. Currently interviewing for Customer Success Manager Role (potential exit to Enterprise Sales?)
3. Pursue MBA/MiF to transition to front-end IB (this will involve taking on debt)
Does anyone have any advice on where to get started with e-commerce?
Very similar to other lads in the comments.
- Current Income ~3.8k USD/month
- No extra income stream.
- Currently learning digital marketing and copywriting (just started and have a picked a niche to start off with, no income generated yet).
Currently working in a process improvement (robotics process automation) role for State Government (full time). Got laid off from a major international bank for the same role, and landed this government role in 2020, 3 days before COVID lockdown was legit. (So no complaining, but have realised if all you have is a government job, you will decay real quick).
Pros:
- Crazy Flexibility
- Can get away with working 3-4 hrs a day (40 Hrs a week is expected). Most of my day is actually spent in the gym, eating and researching.
- Complete WFH (expected to be in office at most once a week to be with the "team", and even this is not mandatory or monitored). Location (office) is also a 25 min bus, nothing.
- Job security (hard to get fired even if they dont like you, good for side biz and Crypto DCA)
Cons:
- Not performance based (obviously)
- Manager is typical nut job. Will increase head-count so he can get promoted (in 2021), its nauseating.
- Colleagues are nice people but basic drones, no skills can be leveraged with or from them. Total waste of company.
- Standard employees are getting up-skilled and can easily do the same work as me (my skillset is easy to learn, I do not have any specific in depth knowledge about a skill).
All my jobs have been on cost-side (IT Ops, Process Improvement) so I have had barely any sales exposure or experience in performance based role. If i do move into a tech sales role, i will be low on confidence and may crash if I am chasing too many things at once (copywriting/digital marketing + getting good at new role).
With the pros being very friendly for a side biz and milking it, is there any point looking for a performance based sales/tech role, as it might lead to working more hours, Will take time for me to learn and I will lose the down time for other skillsets that are scalable and can be leveraged with current *job*.
Currently in another first world country so the volumes for sales just is not there like US due to low population and preference for status quo, since it is a services based economy. (Banks, Big 4 consulting, Government reign supreme, Tech sales gigs have low base salaries and sales can be highly competitive).
Any suggestions appreciated.
Been in tech sales for 5 years, should bring down 270k this year. Have offices in Seattle and SF but want to work remotely and can get approved to do so. Is moving to NYC a bad idea? I save 50% of my income and want to live somewhere that has a great social scene.
In 2035 do people still have "careers", or is it common to work together with multiple DAOs?