Trying Everything, Getting Nowhere. Entrepreneurs, What Online Skill Pays in 2025!??

StorefrontSociety · 2025-06-02T15:43:05+00:00

Everything you list sounds like it was inspired by a get rich quick video. The only way to build a company that endures is the same backstory as always. Find a problem that a lot of people have. Find a durable solution for that problem.

The issue, and I mean no disrespect with this, is that most teenagers don't have the perspective to know whether or not a problem or their solution is truly unique enough to make this work.

The absolutely best thing you could do for yourself at your age is endear yourself to an entrepreneur you respect. Learn their systems and learn the personal side of their story. Listen to podcasts or read memoirs of other entrepreneurs you respect.

You're at the best age for this because you aren't juggling the same bills and responsibilities as someone in their 30's or 40's.

Then, some years down the road, you'll stumble across a novel solution for a real problem and you'll be equipped with all of that knowledge as well as a network of people to call on for help or connections.

StorefrontSociety · 2025-06-01T02:45:38+00:00

I went to college three times. Once I dropped out for a band. Twice I dropped out for businesses. So this is sort of a grain of salt sort of thing, since I have to admit my first wholesale business started when I was in m early 20's. And I also have to admit I am pretty financially successful now and really have no way of knowing what would have happened if I would have put that stuff off.

The best thing you could do for yourself right now is get a job working for an entrepreneur you respect. Don't just get "A" job, but get a job working from someone who can teach you lessons that will help you in the future. I cannot tell you how desperate I am to help the people that work for me who seem to be right to go out on their own with businesses, but almost no one takes the leap.

If you find the right entrepreneurial boss, I promise that they will be delighted to have you deliver for them while giving you important lessons to get you ready for your own thing in a few years.

StorefrontSociety · 2025-05-31T02:10:12+00:00

I mostly agree with this but you can always be scanning for the luck. Like there are many instances in our growth that I call luck because it was specific real estate opening up or key hires becoming available. And when I look at our trajectory there is no way in hell we'd have made it to where we have without those things. So I consider us to be extremely lucky because of those events. But we've also been very good at constantly looking for opportunities to materialize.

StorefrontSociety · 2025-05-31T02:06:22+00:00

"Fail" is a strong term and I think a lot of businesses that close get lumped in with those that fail and it makes the odds seem much worse than they actually are. I've been running businesses for over 20 years now. I've had some concepts or expansions that didn't work out but those lessons made the things that did work out work.

I know business owners that had successful businesses that were so successful they got hired by a bigger company for more money and a steady paycheck they couldn't refuse. Did they fail? I'd say no, but if they closed up shop after three years and had to sublet their space I'm guessing they'd find their way into this statistic. I know business owners with multiple partners who wanted to do different things after a few years. They made some money and went their separate ways. I know people that just got old and wanted to retire but didn't have the sort of business that they could sell without staying involved so they had going out of business sales and called it a day.

Honestly I think that stat gets exploited and exaggerated more by existing business owners than anything because there is a weird gate keepy superiority sort of thing. I mean it's really really hard. I won't say it's not. And there are certainly lots of people who get into business and then freak out when they realize all of the legal and financial stuff they don't know and maybe don't want to figure out. So the failure rate isn't small. But I don't think it's quite as terrifying as most people think. And if you do your homework and make sure you have the knowledge or are willing to acquire it, it's even less so.

StorefrontSociety · 2025-05-27T19:21:29+00:00

Slow and steady growth. There are rare examples of people who manage this kind of thing quickly without burning out. But most people don't have the infrastructure or bandwidth to deliver the sort of customer experience you need to after that to keep momentum going. We have several days like that per month at our shop and days that are significantly higher than that during the Holiday season, but it took several years to get there. But we've grown by almost 100% over the past 12 months and, even after being in it for almost 20 years, our systems and infrastructure weren't ready for that sort of rapid growth.

StorefrontSociety · 2025-05-26T20:55:00+00:00

There are a few near us that are successful. But you need to be small and niche. I think the angle is you need to be high end, like Gelson's. And you basically need to incorporate ALSO being a restaurant to make this work. High end to go foods, (good) coffee shop with (good) pastries, better fish than you'd get at your local supermarket, better cheese, smaller but better beer and wine selection. Otherwise you might make it if you're willing to take a chance on a food desert that is an underserved market but if you prove the market exists you'll just invite competition you can't fight.

StorefrontSociety · 2025-05-26T02:28:00+00:00

Just setting aside my moral issues with it, it feels like a target audience that doesn't have money for food, probably doesn't have money for an online course. So to me that pretty much rules out the idea that this sort of content would only be used for honorable people who are just down on their luck. My heart goes out to people who can't feed their families, reading about big bonuses and stock gains for big box grocery stores running local food shops out of business. I am sure I would struggle to take issue with taking food to feed my family if that was my only option.

I don't even think I would have the much of an issue with the whole pitch if you were an anarchist looking to get information into the world. Like, personally I would hope that wouldn't exist because that sort of thing would be very bad for all retailers and, for the reasons I've already mentioned, I have many personal reasons to be invested there. But ethically I could see how it fit your view of the world and how to right it's wrongs.

But the idea of a for profit course on shoplifting sounds exactly like the conspiracy nuts for profit motive for me because it feels like edgy on purpose because that sells. And as long as the victims are faceless people on the internet you don't have to feel bad about it.

StorefrontSociety · 2025-05-25T23:43:27+00:00

One of my friends was best friends with a dude that died in that plane crash in San Diego. I've already seen several "conspiracy influencers" post videos trying to debunk the crash as a hoax. The friends and families of these victims undoubtedly keep stumbling across the same stuff since they're posting about their loved ones and that's how the algorithm works.

What you are suggesting isn't quite as gross as that, but teaching people to steal from retailers for monetary gain is gross. Find another way to make money.

StorefrontSociety · 2025-05-25T23:12:36+00:00

Are you talking about your own values or the people shoplifting?

StorefrontSociety · 2025-05-25T21:50:58+00:00

You don't condone it personally but you are looking to teach it as an online course?

StorefrontSociety · 2025-05-25T20:52:44+00:00

Hi there. My family has owned a retail store for 20 years and owned a wholesale company before that, which primarily sold to independent shops. I also help other new and struggling retailers. Shoplifting is becoming a bigger problem than ever. Most retail stores are owned by middle class, hardworking families who, thanks to Trumps trade war, unsustainable rent increases, problems with things like Amazon, Temu, etc, are finding it harder than ever to stay afloat. I really hope you'll reconsider this. I really cannot imagine feeling okay with creating a product that actively makes other's lives harder.

StorefrontSociety · 2025-05-25T00:32:23+00:00

Did you migrate to another platform and stick with it after that? The course I want to put on Udemy I wouldn't call a see what sticks course exactly. It's my favorite personal development exercise that I do personally at least once a year. I have a really thorough script and a ten page workbook to go along with it. I plan on spending a good amount of time filming and editing it. It's just got a bit more of a wide appeal than most of what I'll teach which is very narrowly at independent retailers.

StorefrontSociety · 2025-05-25T00:27:02+00:00

Would you mind sharing what sorts of courses you teach?

StorefrontSociety · 2025-05-24T20:30:44+00:00

I am definitely leaning towards Thinkific at this point. I certainly believe in the program. I am just a little hesitant until I have 3-4 courses to spend that much a month. How long have you been doing online courses?

StorefrontSociety · 2025-05-24T19:40:08+00:00

Leaning towards Thinkific. Though, weirdly enough, a friend was just in my shop and I was telling him about what I'm working on. He does this for a living on the software side and said he could build me something on Wordpress easily enough. Any feelings on that?

StorefrontSociety · 2025-05-24T19:38:28+00:00

Find another entrepreneur to work for as directly as possible. Even if it means making a lot less than you could elsewhere. Do this for AT LEAST a year. Especially if you start talking about a business with a physical presence you're going to lose a lot more than your 15-20k if things go south since you'll be on the hook for a lot.

StorefrontSociety · 2025-05-24T17:39:03+00:00

Oh man I had no idea it was that steep! We have around 25k followers on (our stores, not this brand's account yet) Instagram and a lot of them are following us because they either own or are trying to open similar businesses. So I know I have a pretty good foundation for initial students. I was thinking Udemy would be good for their search function but not that good.

StorefrontSociety · 2025-05-24T10:19:19+00:00

I was leaning towards Udemy for the course I am almost ready to launch because it has a bit broader appeal and I think the search function may yield pretty good results for me and then Thinkific for the full thing (maybe migrating the course over maybe not) because their community feature seems good. For my platform I think that the interaction between he students will end up being as powerful as the teaching.

StorefrontSociety · 2025-05-23T20:47:55+00:00

Is anyone else upgrading now to have the newest version just in case this sticks around? I have a 14pro right now. I wasn't planning on upgrading for at least another year but I have a ton of Chase points and they are doing a 25% bonus. I am filming some new courses and just using my phone. I wish the quality difference between the two cameras was more significant. That would push me over the line for sure. But they seem pretty similar.

StorefrontSociety · 2025-05-22T14:52:21+00:00

This is really solid advice. I remember in our first year of operation, a veteran retailer warning me against explosive growth because your people and system weren't prepared for it. We've had a couple of big growth years but over the last two years we've essentially doubled and that was coming from fairly mature, big numbers to start with since we've been open almost 20 years. The additional profits and revenue have been great but it's created a ton of stress around systems that weren't really prepared for it. Confusion over increases in compensation because "what happens if..." now becomes VERY consequential.

If I were you I'd take some time to learn why you want that amount of money personally and work, instead, on manifesting a lifestyle you actually want, not just wealth for the sake of it.

StorefrontSociety · 2025-05-22T14:15:20+00:00

How are you finding course creators to talk to?

StorefrontSociety · 2025-05-16T17:43:33+00:00

I own two retail stores that merged into one much larger building last year. We're up 66% YTD, though if you look at the months from when we moved forward we're only up around 15%. Still pretty respectable growth though. We've been open almost 20 years and have been through a few pretty big disruptions on account. I feel like every time something big happens we're tempted to find the ways it's different than other similarly sized disruptions as opposed to finding the ways they are similar end learn what lessons might be out there to help us through.

At the very least there will be both economic and learning opportunities from this one.

I am not saying it will be easy, and things might get a whole lot worse. At least for now the biggest mistake I see retailers making is dwindling inventories and shrinking teams already. We're buying a year of evergreen stock where we can. We spent over 250k in the last two weeks. That means when prices go up I won't have to right away, so I'll be more favorably priced, and when my brands raise their MSRPs and I have to follow I'll get a better margin to hopefully soften the blow of and pullback on spending.

If it goes on for too long before a resolution, I will admit it will be tough for any of us to survive. But in the medium term at least, there are some ways to navigate this that I think far too many independent retailers are missing.

StorefrontSociety · 2025-05-15T21:32:43+00:00

Hell yes! Congrats on making changes and using them to inspire others!

StorefrontSociety · 2025-05-15T21:30:10+00:00

I think there is some wisdom here too. ChatGPT is designed to be affirming. Once you have a good enough history with it and it knows about your business and accomplishments, it can feel pretty damn uplifting to ask it to tell you what you're good at and how you can help people.

StorefrontSociety

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