From Passion to Profit: Chronicles of Building a Successful Business PART i

This series is going to be a bit more personal. A bit more of a window into the choices I make and the struggles I am taking on while trying to create a side income while having a full-time job and going to school. Here’s my journey.

I have always been very interested in business. I love the thought of creating something of value that was not there before to deliver value to others. I have tried repeatedly to break through into having my own business. Trying to turn one dollar into two, most of the time I would turn a few dollars into zero, but I still enjoyed the process. This will be a weekly series of blogs where I go over trying to create a business where I can own more of my time and hopefully get to leave my job. I am currently in school with a full-time job so we shall see how it goes.

Over the years, I would get pulled into different business ventures. Picking vegetables out of my grandfather’s garden to sell at the farmers market and get paid for was probably my start. Also drawing a very crappy version of Santa and I tried leaning into how bad it was and the fact that I had access to the teacher copier thanks to my momma to trade these silly pictures. When I say it was bad, it was AWFUL.

When I got a few more freedoms like a vehicle I was able to do more. The main hustle at that point was searching Goodwill, garage sales, and other thrift shops to flip for cash. Quite literally turning one dollar into two.

I had a stint where I tried to flip shoes, turns out it was hard to source shoes. I tried to learn how to sew my own shoes and make them custom which was probably my most expensive failure of about $2500. The sewing machine is still alive and well in my closet. That failure was in 2020 when I was full of new capital, living with my parents, and bored.  After the Post Office stint I had taken a new job with my grandpa’s “company”. $200 a week and only every other day. We would just eat snacks a majority of the time and talk while occasionally working on a home improvement project. It gave me time to pursue my own projects which I still loved to do.

The next venture was a subscription box model from different countries around the world. I tried to be cheap and ended up charging way too much for just shit I bought wholesale, but it got no traction. Rightfully so, I did however screw over my poor brother.

A little while after that failure I tried drop shipping, which I thought was an easy way to get the most cash in the quickest way possible. Turns out it wasn’t as easy as I thought but I watched probably every video on YouTube about that stupid business. I apologize to the customer who got a Rick & Morty sweater for $85 when I bought it for $25 from China.

Shortly after I became digital. Buying podcast equipment to do three different podcasts about different subjects with my buddies helping on one. Surprisingly 3 different podcasts about no overlapping topics failed. Most of my businesses were just dumb cash grabs, not caring about the customer which of course always failed. I thought I was so much smarter than everybody and they would stupidly give up money for something I wouldn’t even do. Turns out, I am not smart I am actually very dumb in a lot of areas. It really is funny when that switch happens where you think you are smarter than everybody to you possibly being the dumbest in every room you walk in. A confident 18-year-old feels like he is the Albert Einstein version of Superman just to realize rather quickly how dumb he is. After all these failures I am standing on top of them all today. Still a bit dumb but at least I know what I like. I also know that money is just a fraction of the value another person receives. My previous businesses were give the least amount of value for the most money. They failed every time.

This little blog series is continuing the journey of trying to make a business. Just be patient because I am still very new at this, but I am trying to put in as much value as possible. For. Free. This was a lesson I needed to learn the most. I am not trying to get rich, I am trying to help the most amount of people possible with my knowledge in a specific area. This blog is just throwing up my thoughts and my goals in a certain week and hopefully inspire one or two people to start their own business and avoid the issues that caused me trouble.

Stats so far: No YT No FB 0-3 blog reads per post TT with 9 followers and I have posted probably about 30 times with one hitting over 1000 views.

It is the very beginning of this journey. Currently, on top of my day job, I am trying to put in 2 extra hours of work per day for about 10-14 extra hours of work per week on this venture. In the month I have started this venture I have hovered around 30 hours worked total and some days I am exhausted while some days I feel like I am just wasting my time due to all my failures why would this be different?

Maybe the message isn’t needed. I keep reminding myself that the message is good and is needed but I’m just not a very good marketer. My background is in math and money so marketing just doesn’t suit me but I know it’s the best skill to learn while starting this. That skill development is another reason why I find starting a business so alluring. People are saving my tiktoks to favorites so I feel like I’m helping a select few to not go into debt for vacations. Debt exists all over the United States and is a huge problem. I want to help solve that problem for people.

So this week. Week of May 26th-June 1st I am feeling a bit overwhelmed I am doing great with staying in the work usually the venture I would just give up and burn out. I’m trying to limit time to limit possibilities of burnout. A bit tired but I know this is the right way to go. I am also showing myself grace by doing the items that really fire me up like this blog you are reading. I love a book on self-development and it is on my development. I wrote a blog earlier about my money saving journey and I was doing great. So much so I’m thinking about inserting some money into the business. But let’s talk about this week even including all the overwhelm and the trips to family. What can I do this week to get back on top of things? Create Facebook page I want a Facebook group to be a big part of helping people in a community with their vacations so I need to start by making a page. Create tiktoks I have fallen behind. I need to make 3-5 to put into drafts to release slowly so I can get back in front which I have seen gives me the best results. Not making content just because I need one to put out but actually enjoying the content I’m making. I also like moving to a different subsection of the business due to my lovely ADHD at times so I need to get a few in the chamber to release on those days. If I keep banging my head against the wall because I have to it leads to burnout, two months into it and nothing I have created has helped anyone. Create blogs Same thing as tiktoks, I was supposed to have some ready in the bank, but I have fallen behind. I was doing great in my system of writing a rough draft, typing it again, running it through spell check and grammar check, and then posting after getting pictures and thumbnails. I have gotten lazy. Engage I need to open my mouth and provide solutions elsewhere. I can’t just hope they find my content I need to go out and help others. I am currently mostly speaking to a wall. No one cares what I have to say, I can’t help people if no one sees me. So, I need to enter communities and help wherever I can. For free. The big distinction there because I used to not do that.

No one seeing me is a good Segway into a point that I need to continuously do. Learn marketing This will be a weekly task almost every week. Because I am currently having that as my weakest skill. I’m trying to tell people how to save money on vacation, but no one hears it. This is something I am very weak at and if I focus on it those skills can grow. It will be fun to watch those skills grow because marketing skills are very… marketable in job landscape too. A very valuable skill I am going to try to learn. Those are my tasks for this week. I need to push myself and get these done so I can enjoy my vacation without wishing I had my laptop out to finish these tasks up. See you next week.