entrepreneur: six figure solopreneurs: the common link

What do 6-figure solopreneurs have in common? Is there a formula, a secret code for success? Probably not, but I’ll bet that they do have a number of things in common. To discover some of their common qualities, processes, and skill sets, I set out to interview a few solopreneurs whose businesses are bringing in $100,000 or more in annual PROFITS. This series entitled, Six-Figure Solopreneurs: The Common Link, will feature amazing men and women who single-handedly grew their businesses to profitable, meaningful ventures and are willing to share the how and why of it all!

This week’s guest is Sue Berk of Sue Berk Designs, which was founded in 2002 and is based in Dallas, TX. After hand-painting ceramic crosses for several years, the popularity of her products grew quickly, and Sue was overwhelmed with orders. After searching tirelessly for a factory offshore that could duplicate her delicate style, Sue was finally able to mass-produce, and soon was selling her products in over 1000 retail stores and on 20+ websites. New items were added to the collection, such as wood frames, and baby blankets. The collection features 57 ceramic crosses, 6 wooden frames, and 12 baby blankets. Sue Berk Designs products are sold in over 1000 retail stores across the United States, and on 20+ websites.

Q. Do you have a “top strategy” for success that you’d like to share?
A. Don’t ever expect anything to happen without a lot of hard work.

"they always tell me nobody’s workin’ as hard as you
and even though I laugh it off, man, it’s probably true
‘cause while my closest friends out there partying
i’m just here making all of the music that they party to." --drake 'light up.'

how to motivate people

the matter of the fact is that we would all love to be purpose-driven. as the video shows, the only way to get there is to no longer be concerned with the money. so like scarface said, first you get the money, then you get the power and freedom to change the world.. my early/mid-twenties age-mates have got to switch up their thinking. we are known as being overly hopeful and optimistic, which i think is great. but first we must get out from under our university debt burdens and become captains of industry to actually start affecting the change we want to see in the world.

"money is the motivation.." --lil wayne 'hustler muzik.'

the happy loser's first sale [the secrets of sales success]

at a party this past weekend i was afforded the opportunity to converse with some friends from high school. of course, inevitably, the subject of selling out came about. this makes perfect sense because most of us are two years removed from undergrad and out in the world or contemplating/finishing graduate school programs. debt and school loans hang leery. my younger brother talked about the choices he had for picking the right law school. another friend explained the $80k per annum pricetag for georgetown law. "suckers.." i thought to myself. im gonna hustle this insurance thing into this empire ive been bullshitting about.. first i've got to close my first deal. "lol."

ever wonder about the psychology of salespersons?? i definitely have. ive found some literature that gives pretty good insight as to the why sales is for me:

Explain the term happy loser.

Salespeople sometimes say to me, "I don't like that you call me a loser." But that's not what I mean. Happy losers are people who see rejection as a challenge. If 95 percent of the time you are rejected, you have to ask yourself, "Why did I choose this kind of life?" The happy loser likes it because 5 percent of the time, he wins. And all those times he loses, he sees as getting to the win.

How did you arrive at the happy-loser archetype?

We always go back to the first imprint: to the first experience in a person's life when he or she creates a mental reference. So we asked salesmen about their first experiences selling -- as children with a lemonade stand or trying to persuade their parents that they don't want to go to school. With the first experience, they feel strong emotion, and emotion is absolutely key to producing the neurotransmitters in the brain that create mental connections. The first time they are rejected is very powerful. What we find with good salespeople is that that first no stimulated them. It didn't make them want to give up. It made them want to find another way.

i knew that i had a bit of masochistic tendencies in my body. im a bit of a glutton for pain/rejection. ask the girl im courting who lives 5000 miles away. anyhow, ive got a few meetings this week. i should open some accounts and close some deals. i am excited.

Beatnik: “You’re in advertising… How do you sleep at night?”
Don Draper: “On a bed made of money.”

"if ur the sh**, then im trynna get sewer rich."

According to the Small Business Administration, only 44% of new businesses last more than 4 years. In addition to that 60% of businesses are either losing money or are breaking even.

So even if you aren’t going to create the next multi-million dollar company, it doesn’t mean you can’t learn from the mistakes successful entrepreneurs have made.

hit the pic to jump to the article at quicksprout.com chronicling ten successful entrepreneurs currently running companies worth $50+ million. they talk about some of their struggles on the way to building overwhelmingly successful businesses and companies.

i thnk capital allocation is the biggest mistake most entrepreneurs/start-ups make. spending too much or spending too little. spending all the money in all the wrong places. throwing away money and not putting some away under the mattress for a rainy day or a hurricane.

"the united states economy is like the titanic, and i am here with the lifeboat trying to get people to leave the ship... i see a real financial crisis coming for the united states," said international fund manager and us senate candidate peter schiff.

"big house. long hallways. got ten bathrooms. i could sh** all day." --lil wayne 'we be steady mobbin.'

the real-est biz advice.

i am constantly staying up-to-date on business news and philosophies via inc magazine and fastcompany magazine print issues and websites + weblogs. the latest gem comes from a post two weeks ago on inc's business owners council blog:

I'm looking forward to reading a new book, "Profits Aren't Everything, They're the Only Thing" by George Cloutier.

According to the blurb, "this blunt work will not be for the timid business owner afraid to re-evaluate...". He offers some harsh lessons for those in business, such as "love your business more than your family" and "teamwork is vastly overrated."

Indeed, business success tends to flow towards those who are willing to do the most to get it: the hardest working, the most focused, the most cut-throat, even.

To get wealthy, you need one or more of the following things to happen:

• Be born wealthy or marry into wealth


• Get very lucky--this is the strategy for those savvy lottery players out there


• Be extremely talented at something valuable--the route for most who aspire to Hollywood or sports fame (best when combined with "luck" above)


• Work very hard and put wealth creation first ahead of almost everything else.

Which of these approaches are you counting on?

ive been trying to extol these values throughout my journey as a young entrepreneur and on this weblog. i dont not generally subscribe to modern american politics. i would classify myself as an anarchist-libertarian, if i had to classify myself. i have emotions. i feel for the poor and downtrodden, but i am also a realist. i do not expect anyone to help me out. the rich do not care for the poor, and why should they? one of my goals of amassing great wealth is to be able to make the world a better place. the accumulation of wealth is not inherently bad. the reason why things are in the state of affairs that they are, is because not enough people who care about the poor, the sick, the environment, etc. have put themselves in positions of money+power enabling positive change to occur.

no offense to ghandi, mother teresa or mlk jr, [i hold their methods and ideals in high regard] but id rather look to be a bit like a rockefeller, carnegie, vanderbilt or rothschild.. no?

"voted obama but mccain was my tax bracket tho.. i sarah palin h**s." --the clipse: 's.l.u.' from the free 2008 mixtape play cloths presents: road to til the casket drops.

inside the...

i keep it all to myself. my vision is retarded. i keep myself doped on my own dopeness. plan for it now for when i have it later. im sure that im certifiably delusional. but at least i know the future is sick. 24 hours from greatness, im that close. or at least, thats how i feel.

my city love me but i got atlanta haters too that just sit around and talk about what they'd done if they was you.. yeah.

"i'ma make alotta money, then im, then im gonna quit this, quit this cr-crazy scene.." --b.o.b.

the kids call it crack, i call it...

i think it is quite amusing that some people are still mystified that some businesses thrive while others get the pink slip/chapter 11.. the businesses that thrive consistently are those that sell goods with inelastic demand. what that means is that the product will be consumed on a regular basis, whether the price is up or down. i thought i would do a redux of recession-proof businesses for the uncouth:

1. energy [natural gas, oil, electricity]: buildings need to be lit/heated/cooled, vehicles need to be gassed.
   
2. food: people eat it almost every day of the year.
3. alcohol: consumed during the best/worst of times/prohibition/morning/noon/evening by the rich/middleclass/homeless on a daily basis.
   
4. cigarettes: see number 3.
5. shelter: except for the homeless and people living in govt housing [ie: the president], people pay monthly rent or a mortgage.
6. healthcare/insurance: business model = customers pay monthly fee for coverage + insurance company deny claim x insurance company use funds to buy large houses and personal aircraft.
   
7. governement: pay your taxes, every year, or WE WILL FIND YOU wesley snipes.
8. illegal activity [racketeering, drug traffick, etc.]: these activities provide the best profit margins, by far, by keeping uncle sam out of the money laundry.

i did not list anything concerning the arts [music, print, motion picture] because it is simply not a good look trying to make it big with a career in the arts. ask tom ford. sure, he only destroyed the fashion game while at gucci and ysl and also on with his own line; but fashion is the day job that helps support his pursuit of his art, cinema. get oprah money, then one can do oprah things. wealth buys time. the learning channel has a show called 'the lottery changed my life' and u may be able to guess what it's about. there was a family who understands the reasoning behind this list; they bought new cars and remodeled their house but also purchased a parking lot on peachtree street. the money comes in each and every month.. allowing plenty of time to knit + sculpt +paint. holler at etsy.

"money is everything. and its every other thing." --drake.

the year ponzi turned high class.

tens of thousands of investors, some losing entire life savings, saw more than $16.5 billion vanish into thin air during 2009. this number trembles in comparison to madoff's $65 billion scheme in 2008; but in all there were more than 150 ponzis this year, compared to 40 last year.

by comparison, the american taxpayer by way of the federal government estimates the deficit for the current budget year will exceed $1.2 trillion, encompassing all the economic stimulus measures passed through by our overseers. as for me, what do i have? three stacks of high society in red, courtesy of the oligarchs. question: who is the real criminal amongst these scenarios?

meanwhile, the second year of the great recession looms. the worst recession since the great depression, that is. unemployment hovers at 10% [officially; closer to 20% unofficially, including underemployed and discouraged workers]. consumer debt is out of control. the american people are un-insured and under-educated, but over-charged. small businesses are finding it hard to obtain liquidity in the form of revolving lines of credit, previously used to sustain operating activities. banks have done one thing almost right--they've stopped lending to borrowers already pushed to the limit. energy futures and stocks maintain their rollercoaster motion, anticipating or wishing against a W-shaped recovery. business analysts from cnn to fbn to msnbc seem to think that somehow the american consumer/taxpayer/slave will somehow spend our way to prosperity.. what to do?

another good thing to emerge from this heaping pile of rubble we call the american economy, is the banishing of the crutch formerly known as easy credit. the era of fast money is essentially over. the millenials will be the poorest generation since 1947. we will have to revert to a time when one actually had to work to make a dollar. after unsuccessfully being able to draw equity out of real estate to begin my investing ascent to mogulhood, i've been a very angry young man. i've licked my wounds and regrouped. i'm re-upped and starting small. again. out [well, in] looking for another job. but i've got a strategy, and if you cant beat em, join em:

"money is my morals; other than that i'm soul-less." --the clipse(!)

BLK|MRKT|CAPITAL is borne.

2009. it was supposed to be the best of times..

i have got to admit. the last six months have been not nearly what i had planned. i think it is fair to say that 2009 is the worst year of my life thus far. no one likes you when you're twenty-three. but on the up side, the only way to go is up. i had hoped that the last six months i would be using this blog to chronicle my successes. instead, ive been rather quiet. meetings with business lawyers and accountants, bankers, clients, etc. it would have been far too depressing to have written about the many false starts. the summer was spent focusing on positive thought and reading a few 'self-help' motivational business books [success through a positive mental attitude, the success principles, think and grow rich, etc]. the only problem is the things that i have been doing have bore no fruit. so i am regrouping, saving and waiting until the credit markets loosen. they are no where near funny at the moment. ill become a mogul, yet. i will.