Ok. Last time I wrote in this little blog was quite a while ago. It took the state of Utah almost 3 weeks to finally approve my business filing. So, yay government for being super efficient. Ironically, they took my money the first day…so, you know they would struggle in the business.
Anyways, I wanted to write today to talk about how Western Outpost is going to generate revenue to get started.
I love podcasts. I think the podcast is essentially the millennials’ form of talk radio. My boomer parents listened to talk radio all the time and as a kid I never understood it. Why would anyone want to sit around and listen to people talk about random stuff all day long. Well time passed me by and one day I found myself listening to a podcast and I realized I was listening to my generations talk radio.
This particular podcast was called the Koerner Office. If you haven’t listened to it you definitely should, or at least hop on his newsletter. He’s a serial entrepreneur with some serious ADHD. He’s started more businesses than I have fingers and toes. Some were successful, some are still growing, and others flopped. He’s real, he’s insightful, and he hands out ideas for free. The trick is in the execution.
One day he was talking with a guy about a storage rack business that he had started. He started it as a side hustle and quickly found that he could make it his full time job. So he did.
I thought, if that guy can do it, surely I can too. So, I looked up some free plans online on how to build a Costco 2x4 storage rack for black totes. I built one and sold it to my business partner. My first sale.
I then posted a short add on facebook and from that I have built and sold 3 more. I haven’t even changed the add yet and since I’ve been out of town I have orders for at least half a dozen more. Needless to say, my blogging has been on the back burner as I plan for and attempt to build enough tote storage racks to fill all the orders. It’s kind of crazy…but fun too!
I’ve never really done my own thing before and made any money so it’s pretty neat to be able to see some money coming in. I’ve even bought some new tools so I can be even more efficient, but that’s a story for another day.
I want to try and keep these blogs fairly simple and short so for today that is all I’m going to talk about. In subsequent blogs I’ll go over such things as how I recorded everything in Stride and the manufacturing flows I created. But, I’ll also talk about what it’s like to form your own LLC. as well as some tips and tricks on opening bank accounts and business credit cards. (Here’s my disclaimer, I am not an attorney and you should not rely on my to give you sound and accurate advice on your area. These are all just my experiences.)
So, all this leads me reflect on my one piece of advice that has scared my for a long time. It is all about action. You can think and ponder and pontificate about an idea all you want, but really, until you take a step into the unknown, until you take action, it’s all theory. It’s all in your head and you’ll never know until you try.
“The key to success is starting before you’re ready.” Marie Foerlo. That’s it. If you get nothing else from this post I hope that you can see how you have to take action. I tried, it seems that it’s working. I can tell you right now I don’t make the best tote storage rack. Others could do it way better. But they don’t because of a million different reasons. There will always be reasons not to take action, but I promise you, you will learn more from doing than thinking about doing. You must do, in order to learn.
Until next time.