Roc Pilon

How to build an online business of any size: 100k- anyone can do this. any product can do this. I've met a kid doing $100,000 a year selling tiny toy violins. The internet is infinite. whatever you are doing, 100k is a drop in the ocean 1m- this is where you can start making a real living. Ive also seen basically any idea get to a million a year. There was a guy whose whole business was mailing people joke potatoes, and he was doing several million a year. This is where you just need a little bit of infrastructure. A Shopify store, an Instagram account, maybe a marketplace. And this is where those beginner style courses help. learn how to build an email in mailchimp. learn how to use capcut to make a tik tok. learn how to log into business manager learn how amazon wants you to die but once again, anything can do 1m a year. but it will require a LITTLE bit of skill. 5m- now this is where you have to know what you are doing. you need: one sales channel where you are top 10% one marketing channel where you are top 10% silver tier infrastructure (prob not ready for gold tier) a big enough product category here is what I mean- say you sell t shirts. there are easily 1,000 brands doing 5m a year selling t shirts. It can be done; you can do it. But you need some more advanced understanding of e-commerce basics. you can focus on amazon and amazon ads. or you can do it all via organic viral short form videos or you can do it all via paid ads to do it ALL on organic, you need to be a top 1% poster to do it all on amazon, you need to be a top 10% amazon account and if you do it all on meta, you need to be a top 20% ad buyer / creative strategist the path to win on paid ads (like meta) is the most well-trodden, and requires the least amount of luck its just good ads, a clean offer, a big enough tam, and unit economics that work 10m- this is where you need to start being multi talented. good at meta AND something else. good at amazon AND tik tok. this is also where you can start to afford actually good agencies. if you are a 5m a year brand, good talent and good agencies arent giving you their best. everything has to be homegrown or YOU have to do it. But at 10m, that changes, and it's way easier to recruit people who are better at specific tasks. also at 10m, product realities really start to matter TAM, repeat, etc if potatos can do 1m, t shirts can do 5m, 10m is when you need something unique or different in the market the same product BUT CHEAPER the same product BUT BETTER a new thing that solves an old problem 30m- the only difference between 10m and 30m is you NEED other people to get here. I have seen a strong CEO try and hold a business together by themselves to 30m... and fail you end up being burnt out, you end up being the bottleneck, not learning or growing faster than the buisness if you got to 10m, you can get to 30m, with the right team/mentors 50m- this is where you need to actually upgrade stuff. no more mailchimp. No more local accounting firm. you have a real business, with real cash flow. You need a real bank, a real line of credit, no more cash advances. try to get a board together. Because a 50m business has to have at least 3 things going for it: - new products for tam expansion - new ad channels for new eyeballs - new sales channels (wholesale or amazon) - international - celeb/influencer backed - venture backed (to waste money) can be any of those. but one single product on meta cant really sustain a 50m brand anymore. even if you are a gruns, aggressive sub on one sku, you see the writing on the wall and start to look at colors, flavors, new sales channels. And at 50m, the right key piece of information can double the business. what to focus on, who to hire, what to avoid. this is why you need real systems. they will slow you down, but help you land on the right path faster 100m- At 100m, you need each and every one of the list above to be working in your biz. When Ridge crossed 100m, we had an 8-figure Amazon business and an 8-figure international business. we were in wholesale, we were working with influencers daily. at 100m you can in fact afford the best help and talent. You now need to have the correct strategy to point them at. 100m brands die on bad advice and being slow. You can afford the McKinsey analysis... but dont listen to it the fact is the path at 100m changes every 2 years. Unless someone has JUST done it, they will have last years playbook and fuck you Also at 100m- you get to the law of large numbers. your growth will slow. you must understand your true tam and where this business naturally wants to be. if you arent failing at half the things you try, you are playing too conservatively and will start to shrink everyone wants to kill you. your team will start to have big company problems. you are going to be sued. but a good 100m ceo looks more like a 10m ceo. just with more support, more resources, and experts actually doing the work 1b- idk, not here yet. check back in 2 years though ;)

I have a friend. Young, 30, 9 figure exit recently. I’ve known him for years. Before he made it, before he knew what he was going to start The one thing he always had- An unwavering belief that it was going to work out. He was willing to burn the boats, over and over. Always doubling down, always moving bigger and bigger It’s changed the way I want to operate. If you want to change your life, do it. If you want to win, then win. Don’t let anything stop you The only thing you have control over is your attitude and effort.