$10M Tax Free, Holiday Profiting, Instructional Design

Welcome to Biz Brainstorms –

This is Connor, the author of this newsletter. Every week I'll send you an email covering ideas, lessons & tools to help you start or grow your business.

Let me know which is your favorite at the bottom!

Today's Outline:

• $10M Tax-Free 💰

• Profiting From Santa Clause 🎅

• Instructional Designs 🧩

📚 1 Business Lesson:

In 2020 I sold my first company, Cardly.

It was an Amazon-based cell phone accessory brand doing 7-figures annually. I was 22 at the time and honestly, it was life-changing money.

I don't regret it for a second. But, I wish I was more aware of what followed:

1. I'd lose 50% of the sale to the government (ouuuchhhhhh)

2. My bank balance goes up but my cashflow goes to zero

So now my business mindset is different. Everything I build is to hold forever.

But, if another life-changing offer comes around, I want to be ready. That's why I plan to structure my companies differently to save that 50% I lost last time.

Introducing QSBS:

What is QSBS? It stands for Qualified Small Business Stock.

It's part of a program to incentivize certain types of businesses in the US.

The main qualifications:

• Must be a C Corp

• Must be under a certain size (under $50M in assets)

• Be a certain type of business (ie. no investment companies are allowed)

Here's why QSBS is amazing: If you hold this company for 5 years, you are eligible for the first $10,000,000 of your sale to be TAX-FREE.

I'm going to say it again to emphasize this. $10,000,000. ZERO CAPITAL GAINS TAX.

If you are looking at holding a business for a few years and eventually exiting, I'd forward this to your lawyer/accountant this week and ask them about it.

💰 2 Business Ideas

1. Holidays are around the corner.

If you're looking for a quick side hustle, I've got you covered.

Introducing: Santa Letters.

Each December "Letter From Santa" is searched ~ 150,000 times.

Offering a highly stylized version of these letters that don't look like they were pulled from the back of a notepad at midnight is a great way to stand out.

Custom letter printing companies like HandWrytten or Handwrite.io charge $2-3 to send each letter.

I think there's a world where you can charge $19.99 for these with the right packaging and customization.

Bundle offers for parents with 2-4 kids.

And the best part is that if you can figure out the fulfillment for this you can build an easy Lifetime Value with this customer base by having letters written from:

• Tooth Fairy

• Easter Bunny

• Leprachauns

You get the picture.

People make a lot of money during the holidays, this could be a fun opportunity to be a part of that.

2. Instructional Design for SMBs –

Most small businesses get to the point where they realize:

"I can't do all of this myself"

So they start hiring.

And during that process, they go through a long journey or writing how-to guides and recording videos of processes and procedures.

And most people... suck at it. And hate it.

Well turns out there are trained professionals who do this full-time.

IKEA hires them for all of their manuals. They're called Instructional Designers.

I think there's a world where you can launch an agency to approach SMBs and systemize + document their processes to help them scale from solo founder → team.

😎 3 Cool Internet Things:

1. I made a Black Friday / Cyber Monday Checklist that my team is using to operate. I deleted ~ 30 personal items on here but there are still about 50 things you can use to organize your campaigns and check off some boxes if you're starting late this year.

2. I recently moved to NYC and learned about this company, Nudge Text. They text you cool events, new restaurants, date ideas, and more. I love the business model and I'm a fan as a consumer.

3. Reading everything The Cultural Tutor shared on Twitter is great. 2-minute threads diving into the history of interesting & random subjects.

✌️

-Connor

PS – Want to chat 1:1?

I'm opening one consulting call for readers of this newsletter each week.

2 Areas I know about: E-commerce (Amazon & DTC), Buying & Managing Commercial Real Estate

The goal is simple. You show up with specific questions and leave with actionable steps.

For Biz Brainstorms readers, I'm only charging 50% of what I normally charge. So if you're interested, you can book here → (scheduling link gets sent after payment)

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