11 Lessons I Learned from Building My Dream Business

5d3270b232a8011375f54eb1 jason

5d3270b232a8011375f54eb1 jason

Lessons I personally learned from building my first million dollar business

Success in life and business relies on following your truest inspirations and deepest passions. Developing your ideas means knowing yourself. For me, my love of all things automotive and my eternal pursuit to customize and fulfill my need for speed, made developing an Automotive Parts Business a logical fit. Harnessing my passion was a key first step, without that knowledge and acceptance about how I wanted to live my life and conduct business, everything else would have been so much more challenging. Finding your true and knowing your passion will bring you far.

I was extremely fortunate to have been able to connect with thought leaders across diverse industries once I knew what I truly wanted and sought ways to pursue my dreams. Learning from the successes and struggles of others in the business community really helped me to refine my product and value proposition on the market. For entrepreneurs new to pursuing their dreams, learning from an expert like Anna Macko might be just what you need to jumpstart success. This bold entrepreneur is actually offering instruction around the kinds of ideas which helped me to truly master my business model. Treadstone Performance is an industry leader and I really believe that if you work with Anna, you can build your dream into a success just like I did.

True advantages come from pursuing the opportunities that can propel your dreams forward. Working with mentors will provide the foundational knowledge and support you need to develop a sustainable and profitable brand, based on the internet, centered around your truest passions. The internet has truly changed the world and now you can capitalize and learn what it take to fulfill your truest dreams.

The following article contains 11 Lessons I learned from building my dream. I hope that these insights propel your ideas forward. 

1.) Set Your Vision and Define Your Brand from Day One. What is your core product, who is your audience, what are your unique advantages? What will your messaging look and sound like, how will you use media to tell your story? Wrapping your mind around these questions are the first steps towards actualizing success with your online business. 

2.) Value Quality and Know your Strengths At times, in life and business, we all pursue shortcuts which seem like they might save time at first but ultimately result in wasted or lost moments. For me, knowing I needed to invest in a professional coder or other expertise to ensure the quality of my brand and support its growth on the world stage made all the difference.

3.)Secure your Supply Line, Protect your Investment Being able to master the logistic demands of your new endeavor require tough choices to be made about how your will source your products or other essential aspects of your ecommerce business. Finding the right manufacturer with a unique value proposition and the willingness to support your dreams as their own can be challenging. It is essential that you proceed with pragmatism when securing suppliers. Protect your investment, seek the best match of value, security, legality, sustainability ect.

4.) Secure Advantage by Responding to the Environment Utilizing advanced market research an analysis is a fundamental aspect of securing the position and influence of your brand. Growth comes from responding the environment in front of you, knowing the past and seeing the future of where your brand is going. To engage your audience, create influence and accountability, it is essential to respond dynamically. Challenges are merely opportunities to find solutions, to innovate. This action focused mindstate will take you far.

5.)Sustainable Margins, Responsive Pricing In my business, I needed to be able to know how to competitively meet the demands of the market. That meant establishing a balanced approach to managing cost and profit. In the Automotive industry, on some parts we make for $1, we sell for $20, that’s a 2000% mark up! Some parts have 5x markup, and some parts have 1x mark up. Mark up is your cost times a number. So if its 1x mark up, its 100% mark up. 2x is 200% 10x is 1000% mark up. So $1 cost selling for $10 is 1000% mark up. It all depends on your market analysis. For me, being able to sell wholesale parts at 30%-40% mark up allowed me to secure advantage.

6.) Control Growth, Know Your Model When you are reseller of goods, you’re lucky if you get 30% margins. Most companies will sell to you at 30% off or even less, this is NOT the type of e-commerce store you want to be. You can do both, but the money is in building a brand that allows  resellers to champion and  sell your products. 80% of my business is in manufacturing, while the other 20% is in reselling. Knowing my model was tremendously valuable. 

7.) Be Open to New Ideas In my business with Treadstone Performance, I knew what I wanted to be and what I wanted my brand to do. When the opportunity arose to develop into a wholesale supplier, I grasped it and capitalized on new international revenue streams and access to even greater levels of influence.

8.) Image is Opportunity Every time you design sales copy, draft emails, or construct a website, you are building the image of your brand. Take the time to secure high quality professional images of your products, connect them to your consumers with moving language and engaging content. Controlling your image protects your investment and defines your legacy. 

9.) Capitalize on the Opportunities of the Moment In my business, being able to realize when it was a smart move to buy product in bulk represented a huge opportunity. Sitting on product can be challenging but when you invest in something at a great price that you know will sell, can have huge and lasting rewards.

10.) Build and Rely On your Team Sure having a fulfillment center handle things for you might seem like a shortcut but I absolutely believe in leveraging the resources you already have before handing over such a crucial element of customer service and loyalty. You may need to hire friends and family to help you package and ship your goods, but this is all part of the hustle. I remember having my friends come over and taking trips to the post office and FedEx from my parent’s basement 10 years ago. My team was crucial to helping me build my brand. If you are just starting out, consulting with professionals and their tools may assist you to join a community of support and more clearly define your needs. 

11.) Control Overhead Expansion following success may seem logical but there was a time, when my entire 6 bedroom house was filled with inventory, before I expanded to my first warehouse. I truly feel that I scaled up at the correct moments and that these choices allowed me to control overhead costs and maximize profit.  When that warehouse was filled to the brim, fitting 5 employees in a 200 sq ft office, it was time to expand again. Expand only when needed, and you will have less risk of wasted resources.

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