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How many attempts (businesses) did you make until you reach $5000/month profit?
17 points by baotrungtn 61 days ago | hide | past | favorite | 15 comments
Hi folks,

I am reading the book The Great Rat Race Escape by MJ DEMARCO and there is a thing called The Baseball Principle (One Swing Doesn't Make A Season). It is basically about you have to try many times before you find the success. There is a survey that said the average number of business failures before profit is around X (hided to prevent bias). So I would like to ask you how many business failures before you have a profit of let's say 5000$/month (enough to escape ramen). I will read your replies and make an excel sheet with formula to calculate average attempts before we see success, I think this data will greatly benefit all of us entrepreneurs here. You can do your freestyle but if possible you can do it by following the format (profit is per month):

06/2022:

* business 1, profit = 0

=> total profit = 0

09/2023:

* business 1: 0$ * business 2: 0$

=> total profit = 0

12/2023:

* business 1: 0$ * business 2: 0$ * business 3: 100$

=> total profit = 100$

03/2024:

* business 1: 0$ * business 2: 0$ * business 3: 100$ * business 4: 300$

=> total profit = 400$

09/2024:

* business 1: 0$ * business 2: 0$ * business 3: 500$ * business 4: 3000$

=> total profit = 3500$




How many tries it will take depends on a lot of factors, mostly luck. Pay attention to what works and what doesn't, and keep improving.

Somebody else saying "it took me N tries before making $5000/month" won't mean much for you, because their circumstances are different from yours.

and for the record, I'm on attempt 3 and overall something like $10k in the red. (in terms of money invested, I'm not in any debt personally)


I am not sure how others here will feel about this, but if you cannot take a business to $5000 per month in almost any market, then it might be more of a "you" problem (I don't have the right skills, I don't know how to sell, etc) than a "I chose the wrong business" problem...

Maybe the reason why business #5 or #6 is more successful is not that they changed businesses, but that they finally developed the skills necessary to make it work through their failures. If they went back to business #1, they could probably make it work this time.

Takeaway? Chose one thing and develop the skills (sales, etc) instead of jumping to the next thing.

If we are talking about $500K per month, then that is a different story...

I can handle the downvotes...


But that's the story of every entrepreneur. Whether you're the smartest builder or sales person, nobody goes big in a single attempt, you keep improving. An attempt doesn't necessarily mean changing businesses, but improvising until you find what works. What seemed implicit to me is that the OP is looking for responses from early career entrepreneurs.


I’m inclined to agree with you.

Having a great product is meaningless if you can’t get people to buy it.

If you’re a one person shop, you need to learn the skills needed.


You made great point! I agree.


Why are you building an unscientific average from a tiny baised sample, when you already found a survey result?


The info from a book is not as interested to me as real people’s experiences.


I'm glad I'm not an entrepreneur when I read stuff like this. I have no interest in a rat race. I'm not very ambitious or competitive. I just want a normal wage and financial stability, not the sky :)


I am quite surprised when you said you were not an entrepreneur and want a normal wage, financial stability, but at the same time have no interest in a rat race. Maybe our definitions of rat race are different:)


Oh no I don't consider my job a rat race at all. I live in Europe so we have a lot of safeguards against getting fired.

My job is kinda boring and it's not too challenging. I probably can do my weekly work in one day a week so I'm far from stressed. I also don't have any ambition for a higher-level job because this one pays enough to get by. I work in IT (in house) as architect. My yearly reviews are still above average. So I'm pretty good :)


Are you sure you're not competitive or ambitious, even though you are above average?


You can still take pride in the quality of work without being competitive or ambitious

Where I live, the culture has lost that sense of pride and it’s awful. Things are expensive and the quality of service/product I get in return is awful.

My point being, competition and ambition aren’t correlated to the quality of work delivered.


Personally, I feel more like I'm a monkey in a circus than in a rat race. I'll dance for the music when we're in the big tent, but the show stops for me when the tent is pulled down for the day.


And this is perfectly fine. The thinking that we all need to be CEOs makes no sense. Firstly the grass is always greener - in reality dealing with clients and ensuring your staff get paid is a huge obligation. Secondly, being an employee negates a lot of risk and stress.


i haven't made much yet but ig, just don't give up and keep trying and on the side keep an eye to see what works etc. why complicate things, i don't think there's a formula. it's only fair for you to understand the rules of the game after you played it enough times etc.




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