Black Entrepreneur Blueprint 522 - Jay Jones - You Can Kill Your Unprofitable Business Or Die With It

[00:00:12] Welcome to Black Entrepreneur Blueprint, the number one podcast and resource for black entrepreneurs. I'm your host Jay Jones and Black Entrepreneur Blueprint was created specifically to educate and inspire black entrepreneurs to launch, build and grow successful, sustainable businesses.

[00:00:32] Join us as we help build an economic power base in the worldwide black community by building and supporting black owned businesses. If you're currently an entrepreneur or want to be an entrepreneur, you're invited to join us each and every week here at Black Entrepreneur Blueprint.

[00:00:50] Welcome to the B.E.B. family and get ready to elevate your entrepreneur IQ. Well, go to the Black Entrepreneur Blueprint episode number five hundred and twenty two. I'm your host, Jay Jones. And today we have another outstanding and informative show in store for you.

[00:01:13] Today's show topic is you can kill your unprofitable business or die with it. You can kill your unprofitable business or die with it. Now, many entrepreneurs liken their business to babies. They're born from a mere idea and they're turned into something tangible.

[00:01:32] Now, just like babies, we nurture and protect that business with an unwavering dedication, often to the point of never giving up, even when success seems unattainable. But what happens when you have to make that tough decision to either kill the business or die with it?

[00:01:50] And I'm not talking about physically dying, but I'm talking about financially dying, losing almost everything. And unfortunately, that's happened to me twice. But I was blessed to be able to come back both times and start successful businesses.

[00:02:05] Now on the podcast today, I'm going to show you or give you several signs that indicate it's time for you to end your business. And I'm also going to offer you some guidance on how to regroup and discover your next successful business idea.

[00:02:19] Now, before we get to today's show content, let me just share a few things with the Black Entrepreneur Blueprint family. First and foremost, I want to welcome all first time listeners to Black Entrepreneur Blueprint. Welcome to the B.E.B. family.

[00:02:33] Please stick around until the end of today's broadcast.

[00:02:36] And I'm going to share all my social media contact information and resource links, such as the link to the new revamped revised B.E.B. Academy, which is our online learning portal with all types of resources, masterclasses and downloads to help you elevate your entrepreneur IQ.

[00:02:55] We also have live group coaching once a month, along with all types of other instruments. Once again, to help you improve your business and build a successful, sustainable business. Go to new B.E.B. Academy dot com for more information.

[00:03:11] New B.E.B. Academy dot com for more information. Now let's get ready for today's show content. You can kill your unprofitable business or die with it. That's today's show title.

[00:03:24] Now, today I'm going to give you guys several signs that it may be time to kill your current business and to reimagine a new business. And I know this may sound like you don't even want to think about it, but sometimes, guys, you have to think about it.

[00:03:39] I'm also going to give you some ideas to come up with a new, successful, sustainable business idea. So let me just start from my own personal history. And I've had to do this on several occasions and we do look at our businesses as babies.

[00:03:55] So it's something that starts as a concept and then it builds into a full blown business. And when you've taken that much time and put that many resources into it, a lot of times you don't want to let it go.

[00:04:08] But sometimes it comes to a point where either you're going to kill that unprofitable business or you're literally going to die with it. And that happened to me on several occasions. And now and I'm actually doing this with one of my business ideas right now.

[00:04:24] I'm actually killing it. Put a lot of thought, time and resources into it. But you know what? I'm focusing on other things and it's not producing the way that I need it to produce.

[00:04:34] So, yes, guys, there is a point in time where you may have to step away from that business idea, rethink everything and come back out with a new plan.

[00:04:43] Now, what I don't want you to do is quit too early and you're going to have to have that discernment to know when it's time to move on.

[00:04:52] And I'm going to give you a couple of signs that can help you determine if, hey, I need to keep pushing forward.

[00:04:58] I haven't broken through yet, but I'm there. Or if you're going to have to wrap it up, close up shop, move out of your office or whatever it is.

[00:05:07] So I want to give you a real life example. The first business that I had to wrap up shop was my condom business.

[00:05:14] Right now. Yes. C.O.N.D.O.M. Condom business. So back in the mid early to mid 90s, my business partner and one of my best friends, we had a condom business. Jones Brothers Incorporated Zulu Condoms, the condom design with the black man in mind.

[00:05:31] We had statistical data on the back of each package showing the repercussions of unsafe sex in the black community.

[00:05:37] And at that time, AIDS was out. And for any of you youngsters that don't know what happened when AIDS came out, I'm telling you, it was mass hysteria because this was a death sentence.

[00:05:50] And so we were in that space at the time and we were doing some great business. Now, because we just left corporate America at Merrill Lynch, we really didn't know how to run a business.

[00:06:01] And this is why I'm going to tell you guys that you don't want to pull the plug on your business too soon. But you have to come to the realization that if after several years and you're losing money, you're not making any headway.

[00:06:14] It's time to pull the plug. So at that time, we had a lot of marketing and promotion going on. We bootstrapped it because we didn't have a whole lot of money to invest. So we had a manufacturer private label, our brand of condoms, Zulu condoms.

[00:06:30] We started marketing through radio stations. We were going to clubs doing giveaways. We were in all types of magazines, the source magazine Essence. I can't even count the number of newspaper articles that were written about us.

[00:06:44] This is all before the Internet now, youngsters. So understand that. And so we were getting a lot of earned media, media that we didn't pay for. And so what we didn't quite understand about the condom business was the margins because condoms weren't that expensive.

[00:07:00] You know, you had to sell a ton of them to make a decent amount of money. So we had some traction. TLC used to throw our condoms out at shows. Luke and the two live crew.

[00:07:11] We done a couple of promotions with them and we were getting people, a lot of comedians from Def Comedy Jam were real cool with us. Tony Woods, my man Tony Woods from the D.C. area. And yet we were doing a lot of business.

[00:07:26] But when you looked at the bottom line, it wasn't a lot of revenue or not revenue, but profits coming in because of the cost to do business. And after several years, it just got to the point where we couldn't keep doing it anymore.

[00:07:41] And what you had to understand was when we saw got our graphic packaging, when it was finally done and we were holding that packaging and that product in our hand, something that we created from a concept and brought it to fruition. Man, we we were so hyped.

[00:07:58] We were so excited that we thought we were going to take over the prophylactic world. Right. And the ignorance that we had that we thought we were going to grab a five percent market share from the major condom manufacturers was insane,

[00:08:13] especially without a push in, without a lot of money was all grassroots. But when you see that product that you've created from your mind and now it's physical, it's physical, it's tangible. You see it in the stores, man, that's something that you don't want to stop on.

[00:08:29] You figure that, hey, if you keep pushing, it's going to make it to the point where, hey, we're going to break through and all is going to be well in the Jones household. Now, what happened, though, was something that was completely different.

[00:08:43] We did make some headway. We did make a little bit of money. But after about three and a half years, my wife and I were having our first child and my business partner, his wife were getting ready to have their first child.

[00:08:56] And it just wasn't enough money to be able to keep pushing and going forward. Now, if we were in today's time with the Internet where we could connect with direct to consumer, man, it would be totally different.

[00:09:09] That's why I don't want to digress, but that's why I say to you, entrepreneurs today, man, you guys have such an advantage in a leg up where you literally can be a worldwide brand sitting in your basement in your underwear and slippers because of the Internet.

[00:09:24] So don't sleep on that and recognize what opportunity that you do have. But anyway, after pouring tens of thousands of dollars into this business to trademark the marketing going to the black expos, you know, the Javits Center all over the country traveling to Atlanta.

[00:09:41] Man, we were putting in that work, but the profitability was not enough to sustain us. So we literally had to stop the business. I understand you can kill your unprofitable business or you can die with it. And my partner and I were in the process of dying.

[00:09:59] OK, it looked good. Everything was great. People loved it. We couldn't get the investors that we needed to at the time because of the numbers, the logistics we'd have to sell to. I mean, in bulk to major corporations. Now we did break into a path Mark Supermarkets.

[00:10:17] Acme, we're in 7-Eleven nationwide in black neighborhoods. But the problem was the product was behind the counter. It wasn't up up front where people could see it. And without the marketing push and the ad dollars to support it, the sales weren't that great.

[00:10:34] And let me tell you something about getting into big box retail stores. If your product isn't selling, guess what? They're not going to reorder. And sometimes based on your contract or agreement, they're going to make you buy the product back from them.

[00:10:48] So long story short, it was time for us to kill that unprofitable business. Did it hurt? Hell yeah, it hurt. I still have condoms. We had nice T-shirts. We had the hats with the zipper in the side with the condom in it. People were rocking that.

[00:11:05] We were selling a ton of merchandise, sweatshirts, hoodies. Man, we had it all. If you go in my closet right now, I still got a couple of hoodies in there that look nice. I don't know if I can fit them from 1992 to 96 per se.

[00:11:20] But we loved the concept. We loved the idea. It just wasn't working. And we had to come to that realization that, yo, it's time to move on. Now, what we didn't do was quit as entrepreneurs overall.

[00:11:37] We decided to go separate ways, and I went on to have some decent or major successes. My partner had some successes. And if you've listened to the show for any period of time, you've known I've also had some major setbacks and failures.

[00:11:52] I've almost lost it all twice, but I was blessed to be able to come back and build successful, multi-million dollar businesses after that. So that's part of the process. So what we're talking about today, guys, is you can kill your unprofitable business or die with it.

[00:12:09] And the reason that we pulled the plug was from the pressure from our wives because we knew that we could actually eat peanut butter and jelly for a couple years to build a business.

[00:12:21] But you have to take into account the people that you're affecting, your partners, be it your spouse, wife, husband, partner, whatever it is. And so it just wasn't working at that time for us. So that's why we had to eventually pull the plug. Was it hard? Hell yeah.

[00:12:38] We held on as long as we possibly could, and then it just got to be too much. You know, with kids coming, you have more responsibilities. We had both just bought our first homes. And so everything was coming at us like quick, fast and in a hurry.

[00:12:54] And we had to be able to adjust to what was going on in our life. So first, let's talk about some of the signs that you need to look for that may indicate that you need to kill your business.

[00:13:05] And then we're going to talk about how to find another business idea. So the first sign is you're not making enough money and you're getting deeper in the hole. So most people, when they start businesses, have a cash stashed away.

[00:13:20] If you're smart or if you're able to do it, you'll have a little bit of cash stashed away. And then when you start running through that, that's when the blood pressure starts going up. You're like, oh, I'm not making money. I blew through my cash reserves.

[00:13:35] What's going on now? So the sign number one, you're not making enough money and you're getting deeper in the hole. Now, that is to be expected for most businesses.

[00:13:45] You're not going to start out profitable, but you just have to understand what your level of tolerance is in terms of that. OK, so if you've been in a business for two, three, four years and you literally are not making any money,

[00:13:59] that's probably a sign that you need to pivot or kill that business and start something else. Another sign is number two, no fulfillment or not happy with what you're doing. And sometimes as entrepreneurs, we actually create that. So I created a business that I couldn't stand going to.

[00:14:20] So I had an ADT alarm dealership years ago. I had two offices, one in West Philly and one in South Jersey over in Camden. And because I didn't quite understand building culture, I was hiring the wrong people.

[00:14:36] And the business got kind of out of hand in terms of what I wanted it to look like and what it was. And I didn't have the skill set at that time to bring everything back where I want it.

[00:14:48] So I would go into the office and I couldn't stand being there because I didn't like the culture that I created. So there was no fulfillment. The money was OK. I wasn't making a massive amount of money, but I was making pretty good money for back then.

[00:15:04] But I didn't have that fulfillment. I wasn't happy with what I was doing. Luckily, I was able to sell the business. I sold off my alarm contracts and also my equipment, and I was able to make some money and get out of there.

[00:15:18] But if you're if you started a business and you're not being fulfilled by that business, then you may need to look at changing your business or start focusing on parts of the business that you actually enjoy.

[00:15:31] So you don't like sales, but you're more of an operations type of person. Maybe you bring in somebody that can be the sales manager or lead your sales team, and then you focus on the things that you're good at or bring you fulfillment.

[00:15:46] OK, so that's number two. And we're talking about some of the signs that you need to look for that may indicate you need to kill your business. Sign number three, selling the wrong product or service.

[00:15:57] Now, when I say this, everybody who starts a business thinks they have the best or the greatest product or service out there. But what you have to understand is just because you like something or want something doesn't mean that everybody else does.

[00:16:13] Point in fact, in another example, my partner with the the condom business, he actually wanted to get into home automation. And the time that he started to get into home automation with his new business was a time where the economy was going down.

[00:16:30] So people didn't really care about if you come home, you want to push a button in your car and all your lights go to a certain level. The music comes on or whatever. So he was into gadgetry and things of that nature.

[00:16:44] But just because you are doesn't mean everybody else is. And what he soon found out was the competitors that he had had support. They had marketing and they had a deeper reach than he did.

[00:16:57] So one of the concerns a lot of people had were, OK, I like what you're talking about. But how do I get service? Your one man operation versus me going to 80 T or some of these other home automation companies that integrate security systems.

[00:17:15] So selling the wrong product or service. If you're not equipped to sell service and fulfill a product or service, guess what? You're going to be in. You're going to have problems. OK, so what you always want to do, guys, is test before you go out there.

[00:17:32] You want to test to see if you have a minimum viable product. And how do you test? The greatest test you can have is when people go into Hippocket National.

[00:17:43] That's their wallet. And then they buy your product or service. So you can test like that and you can test with, you know, pre-sales. You can test, say, if you're writing a book or you're selling some type of services.

[00:17:56] You can do a pre-sale where people pre-order your product or service. If enough people order that product or service and pre-order that product or service, excuse me, then you go ahead and fulfill it.

[00:18:08] If not enough people pre-order, then you give them a refund. Guess what? This probably isn't going to work. So that's number three. And the topic today, guys, is you can kill your unprofitable business or die with it.

[00:18:21] Right now, I'm giving you some signs that it may indicate you need to kill your business. Number one was not making enough money, getting deeper in the hole. Number two, no fulfillment, not happy with what you're doing.

[00:18:33] Number three, we just talked about selling the wrong product or service. Number four, the industry has changed. So a lot of times your business may fail because the industry is changing. So everybody heard about or used to know about Blockbuster Video, right?

[00:18:49] So if you wanted to start a video store today or DVD store, guess what? You wouldn't make any money because everything is streaming. So you have to understand the be ahead of the curve when it comes to your industry.

[00:19:03] The industry has changed. I remember years ago I used to have pay phones. I had three pay phones. I was in the pay phone business. A lot of you younger cats don't even know who to pay phone is.

[00:19:15] They would be on all the corners and you'd have to go and put quarters in. And those quarters would give you a certain amount of time to talk on the phone before disconnected.

[00:19:24] It was like a vending machine. Guess what happened to the pay phone business when cell phones came out? Yeah, they die. You can't even find a pay phone on any corner right now.

[00:19:36] So sometimes the industry is going to change on you and that's going to mess your business up. So make sure you stay abreast of your industry and you read the trade publications and things of that nature.

[00:19:49] So, you know where the industry is going. One of the opportunities I always talked about was with electronic vehicles, the EV charges. Right. So as we get more into electronic vehicles, people are going to need charges in their home.

[00:20:03] So that is a business of the future. So if you're selling an eight changer card CD player, you're out of business. Right. Because the industry has moved on. It's changed. You got satellite radio, you got Apple CarPlay and all of that type of stuff.

[00:20:18] So number four, the industry is changed. OK. And you haven't been able to keep up. Sign number five that you may need to kill your business is your business is not giving you what you wanted out of it.

[00:20:31] You start a business to give you certain things. So you may start a business because you want to make the most money you can make. If your business isn't making the money you need, guess what? You may need to kill it.

[00:20:43] Or in my case, I created a business that didn't give me the lifestyle that I wanted. So when I had my first mortgage business, I had 50 employees. I was working crazy hours. I was making a ton of money, but it didn't give me the lifestyle that I wanted.

[00:21:02] And the advice that I give all of my coaching students is you want to build your business around your lifestyle, not your lifestyle around your business.

[00:21:12] My business in the law, I mean, excuse me, in the mortgage company, my first one was to a point where it consumed me. I was on vacation. I'm on the phone constantly. My wife and kids are like, yo, can you get off the phone?

[00:21:26] But when you're running an operation of that magnitude, not that it was super huge, but I have 50 employees, millions of dollars in revenues. It was important that I had to stay in touch and make sure that the business was running correctly.

[00:21:40] Now, once again, I wasn't getting everything that I wanted out of the business. Now fast forward to my new mortgage company. My new mortgage company is a streamlined mortgage company. The only employee, guess what, is me and I have some virtual assistants.

[00:21:59] So now I'm more focused on marketing and generating great qualified leads and closing loans. And I have a processor and I have a virtual assistant.

[00:22:09] And now I'm able to do what I want when I want still make great money in the mortgage business and still have that freedom and flexibility. So if your business isn't giving you what you want out of it, you may need to make some tweaks or adjustments.

[00:22:25] Well, guess what? You may be in an industry that's not conducive for giving you what you want out of it. For example, if you are a coach that does one on one coaching and basically the only time you make money is by doing your coaching sessions.

[00:22:41] If one of your goals is to be or have freedom. Guess what? You're not going to have that type of freedom and flexibility because of the function of your business. You're getting paid for your hours. So once again, if the business isn't giving you what you want,

[00:22:58] then you may need to look at closing that business and starting something else. Now, number six, and there are more than this, but these are my top six. Your business is not aligned with your lifestyle.

[00:23:11] And that's what I mentioned a little bit earlier. Your business is not aligned with your lifestyle design. You want to build your business around your lifestyle, not your lifestyle around your business.

[00:23:22] And what happens is many times as new entrepreneurs, we're so happy that we're making a dollar that we don't even think about what's going to happen in the long run. Where's this business going? What is the trajectory? How much time do I have to spend?

[00:23:37] How much how many resources do I have to put in to keep this thing going? So this is something that I've done within the last couple of years. I've changed my whole philosophy. I just mentioned it about my mortgage business, my old my first mortgage business.

[00:23:53] I was in the office 12 hours a day working five days a week, sometimes on Saturday. I come home, I get calls while I'm home from employees, from from customers, you know, from any whole bunch of people. I'm on vacation trying to go to Turks and Caicos.

[00:24:10] I remember this one because my wife was was super pissed off because I told her, hey, you know, my partner's got everything covered. I'm going to be pretty much free. And I swear, as soon as I touched down, it was an emergency.

[00:24:23] And it was like, damn, bro, you said that, you know, blah, blah, blah. And I'm like, yeah, I know. So once again, your business or my business at that time wasn't aligned with my lifestyle.

[00:24:35] Now, if you listen to an episode I did about three or four weeks ago, I'm only working four days a week in the summertime, Monday through Thursday, Friday. I'm chilling. I don't care if I don't have any plans. Guess what? I'm going to either go to the park.

[00:24:50] I may go take a long vacation or a long weekend or whatever. It's more for me, a lifestyle type of thing right now. I'm at the point in my career and my business where I'm trying to work smarter, not harder.

[00:25:03] And I'm trying to have more time to spend with my family and do the things and work on the things that are fulfilling to me. And that's what I talk about when I talk about the freedom equation. Cash flow plus passive income equals freedom.

[00:25:17] And that's what most people want. They want the income and they also want the freedom to be able to do what they want, when they want, with who they want, without having to answer to anybody. So that's number six. Your business is not aligned with your lifestyle design.

[00:25:33] So whatever you want your lifestyle to be, you need to design your business around that. If you want freedom and flexibility, then you're not going to be able to trade hours for dollars. You're going to have to set up some type of passive or semi passive income.

[00:25:48] OK, real estate, online courses, things of that nature that generate revenue for you without you having to be there. And today, guys, we're talking about you can kill your unprofitable business or die with it.

[00:26:03] We just talked about some of the signs that you look for that may indicate you need to kill your business. Now, let's talk about how to find another business idea or successful, sustainable business idea. And remember, guys, I've said this on many podcasts.

[00:26:20] You have to think of yourself as a mad scientist with a white lab coat on. All right. As entrepreneurs, we have to figure out the puzzle. Sometime we don't even know the pieces until we get in there and start fiddling around with it. OK, so here's another way.

[00:26:36] Well, here's a couple of things that you can do, a couple of questions you can ask yourself about how to find another business idea. The number one most tried and true way, guys, is solving a problem. What problem can you solve?

[00:26:51] So even if you had a business that failed or businesses that failed, what did you become good at and what problem or problems can you solve? If you work in corporate America, what problems do you solve in corporate America that can transition over into your own business?

[00:27:09] Solving a problem is the number one way to start a business. You already know there's people that have that problem. Your product or service is that solution and you get paid for it. That's number one solving a problem.

[00:27:24] Now, some people are going to say another how to create another business idea is follow your passion. And I'm all for that, too. The best way, though, guys, is really to meld the two together, solve a problem that's somewhere in your passion.

[00:27:40] So an example for me would be I'm an entrepreneur by heart. I love teaching entrepreneurship. And so my online courses for black entrepreneur blueprint help solve a problem. I'm taking people from point A to point B, pinpoint monetize your genius. That's a perfect example.

[00:28:00] People don't know how to find a business to start. They don't know where to start. The best place is your genius, which is the intersection of your passion and your talent. And I'm going to break it down super simple.

[00:28:13] So way number one to find another business idea is to solve a problem. The second way to me is is probably more natural for people because it's follow your passion. Let's break that down a little bit so it makes more sense.

[00:28:30] It comes down to the intersection of three things. Do what you love, do what you're good at and do something that people will pay you for. Do what you love, do what you're good at and do something people will pay you for.

[00:28:44] Now, you may love something, but you're not good at it. Right. I love to sing. I think I'm all right, but I'm not good at it. I'm OK in the shower. So people aren't going to pay me to sing, even though I do love it.

[00:28:59] I'm not good at it. So here's a real life example. My my brother in law, my wife's brother. He does a ton of business on Amazon. He likes to resell stuff. So the beauty about what he likes to do is do what he loves.

[00:29:14] He loves to go to flea markets. He loves to go to Salvation Army and looking for all types of stuff. Do what he's good at. He's good at reselling them.

[00:29:25] He has a great Amazon store and he does a whole bunch of research, research to find the products that are going to resell and do something people pay you for. You find the right products. Guess what? People pay you for it.

[00:29:40] And so to him, going to flea markets on Saturdays isn't work to me. That's something that it could be profitable, but I don't have any enjoyment of that. OK, so follow your passion.

[00:29:52] Do what you love, do what you're good at and do something people will pay you for. You can melt those three things together together, guys. Then that's a way to formulate the next business idea.

[00:30:05] The next thing you have to do is ask yourself, is your product or service in demand? So when you're looking to find another business idea, do you have a product or service that's in demand? Can you find places where people are looking for this product or service?

[00:30:22] As I mentioned to you earlier, my business partner, one of my best friends at the time he started his home automation system. That wasn't a great demand because of the economy. OK, so ask yourself, is your product or service in demand?

[00:30:37] Another question you need to ask yourself is your new business idea profitable? And of course, you won't know that till you get in there and start mixing around a little bit. But you can do some projections.

[00:30:49] And once again, you can do some testing to find out if you have a minimum viable product or service. You can create dummy sales or pre launches or pre sales, things that will make people go into their pocket and give you money.

[00:31:07] The best focus group, guys, is not your family and friends because you ask them, hey, do you think this idea will work? Oh, yeah, it's going to work. Bye bye bye. Are they going to buy it?

[00:31:17] No. The true the true test is when somebody goes into their pocket for their hard earned money and actually buys your product or service. OK, so is your new business idea profitable?

[00:31:31] And what you have to understand when it comes to profitability is what is the cost to sell your product or service to get in front of the people that you need to get in front of? And what is the net profit?

[00:31:42] So you may sell a physical product for fifty dollars, but if it costs you forty nine dollars to get a sale, to convert a sale, that means you're only making a dollar. So you have to understand your numbers.

[00:31:55] OK, the next question you have to ask yourself, how can you build a database and an audience? Is there an easy way to get in front of the people you want to talk to? How do you build a database and an audience?

[00:32:09] Is there an easy way to get in front of the people you want to talk to?

[00:32:12] So, for example, if you are a fitness trainer and you happen to join a Facebook group of people that want to lose weight, that's a very simple and easy way to get in front of the audience that you need to talk to.

[00:32:26] Right. So think about are there ways that are already built in or avenues that are already built in that you can plug yourself into to get in front of that audience? OK, so my audience is entrepreneurs, specifically black entrepreneurs.

[00:32:44] So there's a whole bunch of black chamber of commerce groups out there. There's a whole bunch of black entrepreneur groups in Facebook and they're all over the place.

[00:32:54] So I have an audience that I know I can tap into if I want to pay for advertising or if I need to go to a platform and start marketing my products or services or just giving some input, some tips and giving people advice.

[00:33:09] That's a way that you can tap into that audience. Sometimes our audience is so minuscule that it may not even be worthwhile to try to start a business. So if you're selling cleats to professional horse jockeys right now, there probably is a decent amount out there.

[00:33:28] But that doesn't give you a whole lot of people to sell to. So you have to understand who you're selling to and it doesn't have to be millions upon millions of people, but it has to be a large enough audience for you to make money and be profitable.

[00:33:44] So these are some of the ways how you find other business ideas. And a lot of times you don't necessarily have to go too far from where you currently are. You may have to change your thinking a little bit and look at things a little differently.

[00:33:59] But if you've got a skill at work and you're looking to go out on your own or if you had a skill you did at work, maybe you can use that skill for your own business.

[00:34:09] So if you were a social media manager for a big company and you're out on your own, you know there's a need for that.

[00:34:16] You know where you can get in front of the people and you know that it's a profitable business based on the way you set it up. So don't you don't have to reinvent the wheel, guys. There's enough business out here for all of us.

[00:34:31] So we just have to understand where we fit into the scenario. What part of the puzzle are we when it comes to helping our customers or prospective customers? And we're not going to talk about the marketing aspect of it.

[00:34:44] But what we really want to focus on today, guys, was you can kill your unprofitable business or you can die with it. You have to know when to discern. Hey, it's a wrap. I put everything I had into it. It's not working. I'm losing money.

[00:35:01] I'm jacking myself up. And I'm not telling you guys to quit when the time when the times get tough because it's going to get tough as an entrepreneur. But you have to be realistic and you're the only person that can answer that question.

[00:35:14] We don't know your specific circumstances, you know, with your your money, with your living situation, with your partner or spouse or whatever. So you have to make that tough decision. But sometimes, as I tell people, you have to learn the hard way.

[00:35:31] You know, I always tell my wife, I said, I didn't get to be successful from winning all the time. I learned more from losing and getting knocked in the head in order to help understand what works and what doesn't work.

[00:35:46] Now you take that experience and you don't make the same mistake twice. That's how you continue to grow. So failing or having setbacks is a part of the success process as an entrepreneur. But you got to know when enough is enough.

[00:36:02] Now, before I get to the last segment of the show, guys, let me just real quick share my social media contact information and resource links. Everything I'm about to tell you is on the website. Make sure you use the website in the free resources.

[00:36:17] Go to Black Entrepreneur Blueprint dot com. If you're lazy, type in B.E.B. Connect dot com and it'll take you to the same place. Now I mentioned at the top of the show, the new revised revamped B.E.B. Academy.

[00:36:31] If you're looking to elevate your entrepreneur IQ, this is our online learning portal with online courses, masterclasses, downloads and resources. So go to new B.E.B. Academy dot com. Now, if you want to connect with me, guys, anything long hit me on my email.

[00:36:48] Jay Jones at Black Entrepreneur Blueprint dot com. J.A.Y. J.O.N.E.S. at Black Entrepreneur Blueprint dot com. Facebook Black Entrepreneur Blueprint. Instagram I have two IG accounts. The first one is Jay Jones for real.

[00:37:02] J.A.Y. J.O.N.E.S. the number four R.E.A.L. Second one is Black Entrepreneur Blueprint. Twitter. You can hit me there. Jay Jones zero zero one J.A.Y. J.O.N.E.S. zero zero one YouTube.

[00:37:18] Please do not forget to subscribe to the YouTube channel. The show comes out on YouTube every Monday morning, just like it comes out on all your other major podcast platforms. But we have additional content on YouTube that is not on the show.

[00:37:32] So go to YouTube type in Black Entrepreneur Blueprint. Hit that subscribe button. Also connect with me on LinkedIn. Go to look for Jay Jones Black Entrepreneur Blueprint and connect with me there. Also, don't forget to utilize the website Black Entrepreneur Blueprint dot com.

[00:37:49] Go to the learn tab when you hit that learn tab is a drop down menu and we have all types of resources for e-commerce scaling and growing your business mindset side hustles. All of the resources that you need to elevate your entrepreneur IQ.

[00:38:06] So everything I just said is on the website. So check it out there. Now, let's get back to the last segment of the show.

[00:38:14] Now, I know if you shut down your business, that's a sad place or that's a sad time in your life because you probably put all you had into it. Everything, your time, your resources and everything. And it didn't work out. I get it.

[00:38:27] Been there, done that on multiple occasions. But what I want you to remember is that's not the end. You've learned a lesson. You closed the chapter in that book. Now you're going to take what you learn and you're going to start building your new business.

[00:38:41] All the mistakes that you made before, if you're smart, you're not going to make them again. And that's what's called entrepreneurial growth. Now, civilians and civilians are people I classified that are not entrepreneurs and have no idea or don't even care about being one.

[00:38:57] When you deal with civilians, obviously you have to understand the mindset is totally different.

[00:39:02] So you can't necessarily listen to civilians all the time because even they could be your wife, your spouse, your partner, whatever, because if they don't have that mindset, they're not going to understand what you're going through as an entrepreneur.

[00:39:16] They have they don't understand that this is a process. Nobody or very few people start their first business or second business or whatever and go to zero to 100, 100 million dollars or whatever it is. Right. It's a process.

[00:39:31] So you want to surround yourself with other like minded people that are in that process also. So if you have a group of friends that are entrepreneurs, you guys can talk about things that civilians may not understand. If you don't have a group of friends, find a group.

[00:39:48] You know, they got meetups all over the place. You can go online, join a mastermind coaching program, whatever it may be. But you need to align yourself with like minded people. And that's going to also help you know when it's time to kill that business and then restart.

[00:40:05] Here's what I will tell you, guys. When I had my mortgage business, my first mortgage business, and in 2007, 2008, we had that financial crash. My company went from making millions of dollars to within two to three months not being able to close a loan.

[00:40:22] And the only way we made revenue was closing loans. And so we had to basically we went through all our cash reserves, paying 50 employees and all that stuff. Then we went into our own personal pockets and dealt out.

[00:40:36] I probably dealt out over $100,000 personally, each of myself and my two partners to keep the business afloat, thinking that this was going to be a bump in the road. Then finally one day I come home and I'm talking to my wife. I'm frustrated.

[00:40:52] You know, it's a it's an unprecedented time. And it was like, damn, the economy is going to hell. And I was like, man, I got to I got to make sure my employees are good. She looked at me and said, yo, what about us?

[00:41:06] We're over here dying. And I knew it. But she never communicated that to me before. You know, the accounts are getting dried up. You know, we're taking money out of my personal account to try to keep the business afloat.

[00:41:20] And finally, I had to come to the realization and me and my two partners, we sat down and we were all at the same point. We don't know what to do. But guess what? This ain't it. OK, keep going deeper and deeper in the hole.

[00:41:34] And so we ended up getting out of the business and we got into, you know, different things. Each of us went our own separate ways. But fast forward, you know, 12, 14 years later, whatever, I'm back in the business.

[00:41:48] You know, I have a different perspective. I'm not trying to build a crazy large company. I want to keep it lean and mean and be super profitable. So that's why you have to understand sometimes you're going to have to kill that thing that you built.

[00:42:04] It's not worthwhile anymore. You run its course or guess what? It never even got started on its course. So I know you have a concept of building a business. But trust me, it's part of the process. Their most successful entrepreneurs have closed down more than one business.

[00:42:22] My hand is raised right now. You can see me. I've closed down multiple businesses. The beautiful thing is about entrepreneurs is we understand that it's a process. We also understand that you can set up or create business ideas.

[00:42:38] And I call them collapsible businesses, businesses that you can start and try. And guess what? If it doesn't work, you shut it down instantaneously. I started a business years ago. It was like a call center business.

[00:42:52] So all I did was I had V.O.I.P. phones. You know, people had laptops. I was selling a product. I said, I'm going to try this for a couple of months.

[00:43:01] I had the outside sales reps. I could track all the calls and I'm sorry, not outside, inside sales reps. It was a phone basically was a virtual phone room. And I was selling a product and it started out OK.

[00:43:17] Then it started to die down. And I said, you know what? It's a wrap. I don't have any physical office. I need to shut down. All I have to do is tell my my sales people, hey, it's not going to work.

[00:43:28] But Bob, Bob, Bob, you know what? You can keep the phones, whatever. And that was it. A collapsible business. So a lot of times when I talk about testing, you don't want to go all in to test your new business concept or product or service.

[00:43:43] You want to get a minimum viable product or service and test that way. If you get positive results, then you start to move forward, you know, with caution. Don't go excuse the French balls to the wall. You got to move forward with caution and be sensible about it.

[00:44:00] But recognize and understand this, guys. Most successful entrepreneurs have failed in at least one or more businesses. Yours truly right here failed out of my 17 or 18 businesses. I started guys, probably five of them were abject failures. Five out of 17, 18, whatever. That's that's over what?

[00:44:22] Eighteen percent or whatever. Something like that. But I kept going and I kept learning. And that is the key. All right. You have to continue to move forward. Learn what you do from your past mistakes, failures, setbacks.

[00:44:36] And you take that information in that know how not the knowledge, but know how know how is knowing how to do something. Knowledge, you have a concept to something. So taking that know how and then applying that to build a successful business.

[00:44:52] Today, we talked about you can kill your unprofitable business or die with it. And if you have to kill it, kill it. But come back even stronger. Now, before I close out, I say this each and every week because it's true.

[00:45:06] We get more and more downloads because of you, the B.E.B. family. I appreciate you guys so much. Please continue to spread the word about the podcast, the Web site. We spent a lot of money on the new Web site, Black Entrepreneur Blueprint dot com,

[00:45:20] and all the resources and ecosystems that were designed to help you elevate your entrepreneur IQ. Remember, it's not about me. It's not about you. It's about us. It's about building an economic power base in the worldwide black community by building and supporting black owned businesses.

[00:45:37] Love you guys. See you same time next week. Peace.