$299 from Signatures, Why Networking is BS, Power of Equity

Welcome to Biz Brainstorms –

My name's Connor. You'll get a weekly email with ideas to start or grow your business.

You get a lot of emails already. So… just find 1 cool thing and enjoy.

Today's Outline:

• Signatures as a Service

• Sound Dampening

• Networking

• Power of Equity

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✍️ Signature as a Service

E-commerce is difficult.

It comes down to the 4 main reasons:

1. Competition – You compete against some of the smartest marketers in the world (zero location constraint) and some of whom live in their parents basement and are OK with 2% net margins.

2. Channels – You’re usually reliant on one main acquisition channel (Facebook)

3. Cashflow – If you grow, you never have money (you buy more inventory)

4. Blue Collar Dynamics – Despite all of the pastel-branded DTC products, the best e-commerce companies are obsessed with operations, product development, supply chain management, customer service… etc.

So, despite Youtube Gurus preaching about how easy it is, it’s not.

That said, if you can find unfair advantages in 1 of the 4, you’ll can go really far.

I found one business model I really liked this past weekend.

Digital Signatures as a service.

The pitch is simple:

Your signature sucks. They design you an elegant signature & provide digital training sets for you to practice. See below:

The model is that of “drop servicing”.

Despite the marketing on their site claiming that they have “World Class Calligraphers”, you’re likely still working with overseas artists.

The same service costs $20 on Fiverr.

And when you have companies like Art Logo charging $149:

Or SignaturePro charging upwards of $299:

The margin is high and cost of fulfillment is low.

Solely based on traffic, I’d think that ArtLogo brings in high 7-figures annually.

What digital product have you seen that is similar? I’ll feature a roundup in the next send.

🔈 Sound Dampening

No, not podcast studios.

Have you been to a restaurant where you can’t hear your table over the background noise?

That’s where sound dampening comes in.

Unlike insulation that gets installed inside of the walls, you can actually place tiles directly on the exterior to absorb the noise.

Companies like Sound Proof Cow have a killer product – Sound Dampening Artwork pieces.

There are service companies out there doing millions in this business.

I think there will be a growing opportunity to either build a brand around aesthetic sound dampening devices (B2B or B2C) or even a service business installing into local shop & restaurants.

👨‍💻 Networking

Here’s probably the biggest change for me in the last 2-3 years.

Stop “Networking”

I know it has been drilled into our brains from Linkedin, College Seminars & First Job Orientation Days.

But seriously, stop.

Now, hold on for a second…

I’m not suggesting to stop meeting cool & interesting people.

In fact, I actually think surrounding yourself with those people is the ultimate move in business & life to progress quickly. I ran a podcast for 2 years doing exactly that and it has single handedly 10x’d my earnings.

Don’t stop meeting cool people.

What I’m suggesting instead, is to spend the time you’d otherwise spend picking peoples brains on LinkedIn, and invest that into becoming someone people want to meet.

My thoughts on the “right way” to approach the subject is to simply, be more interesting.

It’s explained well by Jon Clemons Tweet Here:

One of the easiest ways to do this today is simply to share what you’re working on online.

You have access to millions of the brightest people in the world. You might be one tweet, LinkedIn post of IG store away from getting their attention.

Lastly on the note of networking –

One prompt that reinforced the impact of having a powerful network for me was a journal prompt I gave myself around 18 months ago that was simply:

“How would my life & business change if I was in a group chat with ten 8-figure founders?”

The answer is simply: It would be a lot better.

I’d have access to better talent, partners, resources, ideas.

Your network is a huge form of leverage. So invest in yourself to grow it.

📈 The Power Of Equity

Just a reminder to anyone reading this – if your goal is to be rich, you should aggressively pursue equity positions in companies & assets whenever possible.

Cash flow is great.

But take this example:

You make $500,000/year

$250,000 after taxes.

$150,000 after expenses.

And you save that $150,000... every single year.

It would take you 67 years to retire with $10M.

In that same exact earning power example, with the same exact income & expenses, it would take you under 20 years to reach $10M if you could compound that capital at 12% annually (historically the S&P alone compounds at 8%).

Realize that owning equity in good assets will work harder for you than you can ever work for yourself.

✌️ See you next week

-Connor

PS – I’m working on a digital product that I think you'll love. Going to try to release it in the next few weeks. Keep an eye out 👀 

PPS – I’ll be in Barcelona all of June. Hmu if you’re here.