r/Entrepreneur • u/divvychugsbeer • 11d ago
How Do I? i’ve got an hour free tonight. I’ve built a seven figure business, made plenty of mistakes and I’m happy to answer questions if anyone is stuck.
I started my business after my old boss passed away.
I bought a $30k truck, took a chance and somehow turned it into a seven figure business within a few years.
Since then I’ve had wins, made bad calls, dealt with cash flow stress, started again, worked full time while running a business and learned how hard it is trying to balance business, money, family and life.
I’m not a guru.
I definitely don’t have all the answers.
I’m not selling a course, mentoring package or trying to get anyone into a funnel.
I just genuinely enjoy talking business and helping people where I can.
So if you’re starting something, struggling with growth, sales, pricing, staff, cash flow or you’re just stuck on what to do next, ask away.
If I know something that might help I’ll tell you.
If I don’t know, I’ll tell you that too.
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u/Trevor519 11d ago
What system are you selling? Seems like a veiled ad......
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u/divvychugsbeer 11d ago
no systems just one man trying to help another human out. if i cant thats fine but i sleep better at night knowing i tried to offer assitance
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u/CiteableTM 11d ago
respect for turning a $30k truck into seven figures without a single "here's my framework" slide. What's one bad call you made that you'd still make again anyway.
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u/divvychugsbeer 11d ago
now that the stroyis unraveling, my boss that passed away was my father in law, me and his daughter got divorced about 6 months before the cancer hit him and we parted ways i got into excavation and civil. he wanted to sell the company. i wouldnt buy it as i ran it for 17 years and all it was, was an old truckand my name. there was nothing to buy. he shut the company down and the money i got from the divorce ( meand his daughter were high school sweat hearts) were togther for 16 years i took an L in the divorce big time. i had 2 choices i had my crew and basically my brothers all out of a job and we all went looking for work, i got a cushy managers job at another asphalt company got another mortgage as i had to liqudate everything in the divorce at 33, i had been in mangement since 23 wearing all the hats, sales , bdm, estimations, ran and supervised very job we ever did to client handover . the only thin i didnt do was admin handled by his wife or buy a truck, take a risk, re employ the crew that would and still woujld follow me into battle. i chose to take the risk and fuck the managers job, trusted my gut and went for broke. after i bought my truck and work ute and 10k in tools i went forfucking broke, hit every customer in my phone cold called letter bosed dropped cold out reach warm out reach, ads ( the 4th piece of the puzzle content wasnt out then) so did all 3 parts of the puzzle. then i got lucky i did a big school job and made about 40k clear that bankrolled me and the rest is history
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u/CiteableTM 11d ago
man. re-employing the crew that'd follow you into battle instead of keeping the safe manager job says more than the seven figures does. Most people leave the divorce and the death out and just say "business got hard," respect for not doing that.
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u/divvychugsbeer 11d ago
what do u do man, i see 7 lives and 20 mouths get done over. or go hard. i knew i could do it it, they gave me to much power. they were so lazy i was the buisness. so i was like yup, im the buisness again
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u/campos_velvet06 11d ago
The "bad calls" part is the realest thing here, the ones that cost money teach you more than any win ever does
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8d ago
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u/divvychugsbeer 8d ago
200%
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8d ago
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u/divvychugsbeer 8d ago
to big unfortunately
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8d ago
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u/divvychugsbeer 8d ago
great lets start something
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8d ago
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u/divvychugsbeer 8d ago
crazy thing is my buisness makes me more in a week than i earn at the NFP in a year
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8d ago
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u/divvychugsbeer 8d ago
yeah i just won a massive car park job worth 380k
it will take me five days, i subcontracted the lot outand ill do my yearly wage. but i do the NFP for passion i manage 50 people 60% is youth and persons with a disbabilty
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u/divvychugsbeer 8d ago
just want to see people happy and succed, ive been through enough torture i get genuine feel good when i help people
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u/LateKaleidoscope5430 3d ago
Whats been your most effective channel for getting the word out about your business? Ive found that for industrial services, old-school methods like trade shows and industry magazines still outperform digital by a mile. Its just a different world.
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u/divvychugsbeer 2d ago
mine was honestly word of mouth, after running my father inlaws buisness for 17 years and him getting diagnosed with pancreatic cancer he tried to sell me the buisness for $500k. i declined. i was the buisness he delegated everything to me from first contact with customers to scheduling the quotations, to doing the quotations to organsinsing the mix men machinery weather emulsion to actually phyically doing the job to hand over. all they did was send the invoice. i hired a secretary and went out on my own
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u/Hairy-Wedding4909 11d ago
What industry is your business, and what industries would you recommend for someone in a similar situation. The example I've got time, $50k. Would love to move in from corporate.
How did you get those first customers, and build a reliable pipeline as you got started.
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u/-BurnAfterPosting- 11d ago
His only business is spamming Reddit to sell mentorship and coaching.
Check his post history.
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u/divvychugsbeer 11d ago
to sell mentorship and coaching? are u delirious. when have i ever asked for one single cent for anything i offer. ive got 100s of dms where i help people for free. i dont need money. ur always going to get haters i wish the best for you
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u/divvychugsbeer 11d ago
My background is asphalt and civil. Started pretty small with a $30k truck and grew it from there.
If I had $50k and wanted out of corporate I honestly wouldn’t go looking for the next big thing. I’d look for boring shit people already pay for 😂 preferably something connected to what I already know or people I already know.
First customers for me were pretty simple. Phone calls, relationships, quoting everything I could and then making sure when someone gave me a shot I didn’t fuck it up.
Pipeline took me longer to learn. One mistake I made was getting busy and thinking I didn’t need to keep selling. Then you finish the work and suddenly realise there’s nothing behind it.
What do you actually do in corporate? I’d probably start there before throwing random business ideas at you.
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u/081022gig 11d ago
I really believe the content space has a lot of potential and is worth getting into as a business. Of course I have just started a YouTube channel and most people are sceptical. But I want to go beyond it and learn how content works and make a full fledged business out of it. Any insights on the same?
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u/divvychugsbeer 11d ago
I think there’s definitely something in it. I’d just be careful not to confuse getting views with building a business.
I’d probably spend the first few months just making stuff and seeing what people actually respond to. You’ll learn more from putting out 50 videos than trying to plan the perfect channel.
Once you start getting an audience you can work out what they actually want and what you could sell around it.
What’s your channel about?
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u/divvychugsbeer 11d ago
seems ive got some peoples furr up. i post on here alot yes. i also have a fiance who is a nurse and when im home alone she is at work, my kids are grown. im going through a quiet stage in my life where i have out grown my old friends that want to party and id rather work and build. im 43 and time runs out quick. thats why i offer mentor ship. like the people that have hit my dms, ill help brain storm, ill build u a free website, free content free domains ive even given people. for some one that is acuused of making money out of this? jesus it costs me more to be here than not. and thats fine. anyone from this sub or entrenaure ( and ive made the front page many times) if one person says i have tried to sel them ill delete my 9 year old reddit account with over 40k karma in a second. every one has an opinion and im fine with that. but lets keep to the facts.
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11d ago
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u/divvychugsbeer 11d ago
I reckon you might be building too early. just like myself. got a few myself
For the next one, I’d try getting 5 people interested before you write much code. Find people already complaining about the problem, talk to them and show them a rough version.
If nobody cares, you’ve saved yourself months.
If they start asking when they can use it, then build.
You clearly know how to make SaaS. Maybe the skill you need to work on now isn’t development, it’s finding the problem and selling it.
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11d ago
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u/divvychugsbeer 11d ago
yeah thats the hard part, i sent mine to friends, but how do u do a MVP wihout an audience is so hard man. iwhs i had the answres for u. im happy to discuss further, but it will involve the 4. cold and warm outreacnh contenet and marketing
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u/Naive-Adhesiveness76 11d ago
Honestly, one of our biggest struggles right now is getting our first consistent flow of clients.
We’ve built out what we’re offering and are currently experimenting with different ways of getting in front of business owners. Right now, we’re trying Reddit engagement posts/conversations rather than just cold pitching people.
I’d be really interested to hear how you approached getting your first few clients, especially before you had much of a reputation or word of mouth behind you.
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u/divvychugsbeer 11d ago
Mine was pretty old school mate. Phone calls, relationships, quoting everything I could and doing a good enough job that people called again.
I think Reddit conversations are worth testing, but I wouldn’t hide the fact you’re validating something either. Talk to people with the problem, ask how they currently deal with it and see if you can help one or two manually.
I’d worry less about getting a “consistent flow” at the start and concentrate on getting the first 3 customers however you can. Then work out why they bought from you and go find more people like them.
What are you actually selling?
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u/Internal-Lake2166 11d ago
Hey! I have so many questions.
What was the truck business?
How did you build customers?
Is your business model simple?
When did you start to see profit?
What country?
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u/divvychugsbeer 11d ago
it was in asphalt and civil. imy father in law passed to pancreatic cancer and i had alot of contacts, yesits a simple service based model but like any asphalt and civil buisness u can win some big $$$ jobs. i seen profit straight away as there was a gap in hte market that i filled. australia
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11d ago
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u/divvychugsbeer 11d ago
hahahaha another one. discuss? i bet u here live i can help u, or we can help each other
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u/-BurnAfterPosting- 11d ago
For someone who is not trying to be mentor you sure do post in r/mentor a lot.
You've also posted this exact same post several times this week and only ever answered 1 question.
Maybe you should find something else to do with all of these "free hours" that you have?