How to start a 7-figure business in 18 months -EF

Thanks so much for all of the awesome applications for the Incubator. I’ll be personally reviewing each one.

In case you missed the last email, I’m going to take on some students for personal mentoring. You’ll have the opportunity to talk to me on a call every week and I’ll do everything in my power to help you get your business off the ground. I had not intended to do this again, so this may be the last opportunity for me to personally help you get up and running with your business before I get busy with my own projects.

I’m not looking to just give you ideas how to start a business, if you’re selected and are a participant in the group, I want you to LEAVE WITH YOUR BUSINESS UP AND RUNNING.

I’ve started 6 and 7 figure companies, and am grossed out by the suboptimal information in the ‘make money’ space online. Everyone telling you to become a freelancer, start blogs, podcasts and pitch junk on webinars.

ForeverJobless was started to give real information in a space full of nonsense from info marketers pitching ‘start a business’ advice, when they’ve never started a business before.

If you’ve read or listened to my content for a while, you know the difference, but in such a noisy world people are constantly getting sucked into starting crappy businesses and wonder why they’re failing.

I’m going to make sure you get into a business that can succeed, instead of a route that will keep you wasting your time and money. If you’ve got a specific goal for yourself, and you’re on the wrong path to get there, you’re going to keep spinning your wheels and you won’t hit your goal no matter how hard you work.

My friend Corey is a great example of someone who had some goals for himself and his family, works hard in his job, wanted to make some extra money but was on the wrong road to hit those goals. You may have heard his story on the ForeverJobless podcast.

I’ve known Corey since junior high when we met at summer basketball camp. We’re both from upstate NY, and try to get together when we’re back in town for the holidays each year.

Two winters ago we were both in town for the holidays as usual, and we met in Syracuse, NY for some dinner. After the first hour or so of catching up, he mentioned he was interested in making more money. He mentioned his current side hustle of Advocare(an MLM), and that he was making a few hundred bucks/month on top of his job income. He asked for my advice.

I asked him about his goals. He wanted to pay off his mortgage, make enough so he and his wife could stop working, and start putting away money into a college fund for their children. After he shared what he wanted, and we broke down a rough idea of what it might cost, I let him know that the route he was on wouldn’t get him there. He could keep working harder and harder but doing an MLM would not only cap his profits, but the rules could change at any time making his income go to zero. The owner of the MLM makes lots of money, the distributors who work for them, especially the ones who get in late in the game… not so much.

You want opportunities for low risk, high reward. Things like MLM, blogs, podcasts, etc… offer low risk… but also low returns. There are a few exceptions, and people falsely look at those examples as to why they should continue to play a game that’s stacked against them.

So I started giving Corey examples of different directions he could go that would have low risk, high reward. We talked over a couple ideas he had an interest in, we went through how to use the 4 step process and he went home to make some moves on a few action items I gave him.

The Incubator was starting shortly after we met up, and he joined the Incubator and shared his goals with the other members.

His first tier goal was to make $4,600/month.

3 months after launching he had already hit his goal. Why? Because he took the time up front to make sure his business idea passed the 4 steps.

He then listed his next goals in the Incubator, which equated to $21,000 in monthly income that he wanted to earn.

He’s since surpassed that income goal, has a growing 7 figure business and continues to keep raising the bar higher and higher.

What was the 4-step process in the Incubator that Corey took his idea through?

The 4-step process we go through in the Incubator is as follows:

Step 1: Value- is the product or service you’re thinking of launching better than what currently exists in the market? If not, do not proceed to step 2. This step must be solved first.

Step 2: Marketing- Can you get your product or service in front of your audience? You must solve steps 1 and 2 if you want to make sure your business will be a success.

Step 3: Due Diligence- this is the main due diligence phase where you’re double checking your assumptions from steps 1 and 2, to insure you have a product or service that is better than what already exists in the market, and that you know how to reach buyers. You also want to see what type of results competitors in the market are getting, and how they’re getting them.

Step 4: Expected Profits- this is where you calculate the expected value to figure out what income you expect the business to make. If the income you’ll make matches or exceeds your goal, you launch. If not, you wouldn’t launch, you would move to an idea that would help you hit your goals.

Why do you need to get an estimate of a business’ profits before you launch it?

Because if a business will not achieve the goals you have, you shouldn’t launch it. The reason Corey’s first tier goal was to make $4,600/month was because that was his wife’s income and he wanted to earn enough so that she wouldn’t have to work anymore. If he started a business that was only expected to make $1,000/month, he’d work hard to launch a business that even if successful wouldn’t accomplish his goal. This is a problem that is common with aspiring entrepreneurs. They spend all their time working on the wrong ideas that don’t align with the goals they have for their life.

If you know your goal, taking a business idea successfully through the 4 step process that matches up with your goal, means you get a green light for launching your business. Then it’s just a matter of taking the action to follow through.

I think I have a great business idea do I need the Incubator?

96% of businesses fail.

The ‘business idea’ only helps you in step 1. So even if you’re phenomenal at properly differentiating a great idea from one that won’t work(most people aren’t), you’ve still got 3 steps to go.

Think about it- if you have a great idea and you’re still sitting on the sideline with it, why is that? Maybe you do have a great idea, but it’s likely you don’t have all the ingredients for a successful business yet.

If you try to make a cake and forget just 1 ingredient it might taste like crap, or not look like a cake at all… business is the same. You can’t forget a key ingredient. On the surface things seem like they’ll turn out amazing, but if something is off and you don’t catch it, you’re not going to have the end result you envision.

With the Incubator, I basically had to develop something that would create the highest chance of success for an entrepreneur. I broke down the variables that mattered, and put myself through my own tests. I came up with all sorts of ideas through the idea phase… then I realized… anytime I had failed with a business, I had not solved one of these 4 steps before launching. Every time I had succeeded, I had successfully completed these 4 steps. The students in the Incubator who got the green light through the 4-step process, and then launched are absolutely crushing it right now.

How do I know if I’ve got a good idea or not?

In the Incubator if you’re working through the 4 steps and are unsure if the idea passes the 4 steps, I’ll tell you if you’ve got a green, yellow, or red light, and if it’s yellow or red I’ll advise you on what to do about it.

If you’ve got the motivation and the drive to take action, I’ll make sure you’ve got the knowledge and process to turn it into a business that makes money.

I’ll also make sure you’re in the right vehicle to reach your destination. If you’re in a beat up old car and you’re trying to drive across country, good luck. It may break down before you reach your destination.

I don’t want that to happen to you, so we’ll go over your goals and make sure you’re in the right car(business) to reach them, then we’ll do everything we can to make sure you get that business off the ground successfully.

What if I have no ideas at all?

It’s fine, use one of mine. I have a big evernote folder full of business ideas I could launch, and will obviously never have time to do 99% of them. It’s a folder full of ideas that are likely to get green lighted if taken through the 4-step process, so just steal one of mine(seriously, I want you to). You may not even need them after the idea generation section of the program. Most Incubator members generate an incredible amount of ideas during that phase, where I walk you through how to come up with unlimited business ideas. Many Incubator students generated over 100 ideas just during this section. Then you’ll have an option to use one of yours, or mine.

I’m not opening this mentorship up to the public to keep the quality of the group high, and so that I’ll be able to give personal attention to each person in the group, so if you’re interested make sure to fill out this application:

You’ll only be notified when the group launches if you’ve completed an application and been accepted. I’ll be selecting the group from the applications and sending out invites shortly.

Fill out the application if you haven’t already, and keep an eye out on an email from me in a few days.