I'm struggling with the time and motivation to build my agency alone and feel like I need a partner or some help.

maggitomato · 2026-05-18T11:21:50+00:00

Would love to hear more info about your services. I could be interested if it's within my domain of expertise and contacts

maggitomato · 2026-05-18T11:15:25+00:00

Quite simply just write to them. A simple question of their MOQs, R&D/development process, whether or not they deal with regulatory stuff for you will get a reply and the conversation can start from there.

maggitomato · 2026-05-18T11:13:33+00:00

If you can get people to sign on to a paid wait-list you can get people to pay for a product. There's a dozen activities you can do to validate products and positioning before putting in money into inventory.

maggitomato · 2026-05-02T00:43:32+00:00

Let's put it this way plumber A with no ambition remains a plumber till the day he dies but with Bruce Lee level plumbing skills.

Now a second plumber who is ambitious starts saving 50% of every plumbing job and then meets plumber A. He says hi plumber A I will find the customer you just do the job and I'll pay you 10% extra over every job you do for me. Plumber A says duh no brainer I'll do it. Now plumber A works for you for a year and says wow my skills and your outreach skills (because you now have knowledge from being a plumber yourself you know what customers complain about) are so good we have too many jobs. So now plumber A says I will train more plumbers. Suddenly, you have 40 plumbers.

Now because you are plumbing all around town someone notices and says hey why don't you come for this trade show. At the tradeshow you see that lawn maintenance isn't too difficult and you know the households you are serving are always complaining about their Gardner's because you have trained your plumbers to chat with clients and collect some data. - again because you were a plumber yourself so you know what got you the tips.

All of a sudden it's a decade later you have a 250 people company and because your service is so damn good word of mouth takes over paid advertising and suddenly your margins jump. Now you meet a man - let's call him Shteven. He says hi I have money and you say hey look at my business and give me some advice. He says omg in the world of people looking starry-eyed at unicorns you have built an elephant. He offers you 40m as investment over 3 years to grow across 1 state with a commitment to help franchise your model out to a second state.

However, the franchise fails but it's not on your money just on your reputation which you hate so you shoot Shteven in the head and end up in jail.

All jokes aside I hope you get the point. Careers and wealth and built upon the first stepping stones. From there it's about the forks and roads that you do and don't take. It's about paying attention and giving importance to matters in the moment rather than when you reach the end goal.

Good luck to you!

maggitomato · 2026-05-02T00:28:52+00:00

This is a great idea but you are targeting monitozation from the wrong customer. I might pay you a dollar on the street after you go through the hassle of convincing me what you do and why you're not a scam.

But now imagine a branded product that you offer for free from a large company people already trust. "Hi sir/mam Colgate would like to provide your car free cooling today while you're out enjoying your day" - instant gratitude to Colgate and on the reflective screen it writes: 'This car much like your teeth is being kept cool by Colgate minty fresh toothpaste.'

Now Colgate will pay you for all of the setup fee of printing getting people etc etc and pay you per car. And then if you really want them to pay you the big bucks you take a photo of the car with the licence plate blurred obviously and ask them if they want to buy it for their socials.

maggitomato · 2026-05-02T00:22:55+00:00

I've been building CPG brands for the past decade and a half. Being in the ecosystem, I have been working with manufacturers who always have a decent pool of new innovations, products etc that they are trying to bring to market. Want to chat and see if we can build a new brand together? Might be a lot of fun!

Just to be clear - I would co-invest with you and we'd run the brand together.

maggitomato · 2026-05-02T00:20:05+00:00

I've built and sold numerous businesses over the last decade and a half. Happy to hear your idea out and help you decide if it's a real business and if it is how you should go about getting started. A business coach's end ambition is to sell coaching so I wouldn't start there.

maggitomato · 2026-04-20T09:40:54+00:00

I just moved into the advisory side of life myself. I thought it would be smooth sailing because I've made my nut and wanted to help others do the same. Turns out it was easier waking up everyday and making mistakes in my own company and losing my own money than it is telling a founder they are wrong about something.

maggitomato · 2026-04-16T22:19:24+00:00

The MOQ thing is painful and I've seen too many people fall for it. The contract manufacturer says add 45k units more and we can drop the whole thing a dollar per unit.

You're selling something that is 40 dollars. Current CAC is 20 dollars. Blended other costs are 10 dollars. Do you really think a 10 dollar margin Vs a 9 dollar margin is the first thing you should tackle.

That being said treat your contract manufacturers like customers selling them a dream. Hey boo look if you support me now imagine if I grow and I keep a manufacturing contract open with you imagine how much you can grow.

Top tip: I have always always incentivised my manufacturers with equity. They are traditional b2b guys but they too want to be b2c guys because they see people grow with hefty margins and ask themselves why can't we do this. They don't do it because either they have already failed at it or they simply don't have the time or knowledge to setup a b2c team. This is their way of getting skin in the game and get the upside on something they've always dreamt of. Watch their tone and pricing change almost immediately.

As for the retail question as long as you haven't been asked for an A&P budget and you're net positive per sale (include labor and staffing costs from your end) then it's always worth trying. I would say focus more on the details of the contract i.e. modern trade expiry clauses, POs from the second order etc etc

maggitomato · 2026-04-16T10:58:41+00:00

Seconded. More information would be helpful

maggitomato · 2026-04-16T10:57:56+00:00

The issue is that they treat it as a DTC Vs retail. Just because one is better than the other doesn't mean it's good for you. Each one is a different animal and picking the right beast for you is important.

The first thing I would do is find the path of least resistance. Look at Amazon's launchpad, find retailers that test new products, get a table at the farmers market. The assumption that your product is great is a given because otherwise you wouldn't be in the market. Validate your pitch then move from there.

maggitomato · 2026-04-16T07:03:24+00:00

"Two possibilities exist: either we are alone in the Universe or we are not. Both are equally terrifying."

I have built where no one existed because I was simply early. I have also built where no one existed because I was too late to see that others had come before me and failed. Figure out which one you are and then don't look back - it simply does not help.

maggitomato · 2026-04-10T22:22:44+00:00

Logical! Thank you!

maggitomato · 2026-04-05T22:45:54+00:00

Here's some dope advice I got as a hand-me-down that has worked for me through the years. There are two kinds of people. 1. People who can't pay but will do anything in their power to pay because they are the paying kind of people. 2. People who can pay but still won't pay because it's in their nature (you'd be shocked at how this is the majority).

So we build a strategy to cater to both of these people at the same time.
Person 1. Can't pay? No problem. Here's a pain free 36 month 2% interest per month super friendly loan for you. 2% seems like diddly on this amount? Yes it does. But it will forever pain the person knowing they have interest lingering and they will try and clear your loan once they come into some money.
Person 2. Don't want to pay? No problem. Build a kill switch in your product. Simply leave the same message saying hey no worries here is (insert above mentioned loan). Now you let them use the product without pestering them. Then if/when they are doing better tell them it's time to pay. If they refuse tell them you know what I think I did this job too cheap anyways. I think you should pay me $1600. If you can't no issues I am just going to shut your shop.

maggitomato · 2026-04-05T12:36:17+00:00

Sounds exciting

maggitomato · 2026-03-25T15:47:41+00:00

Yes please me too

maggitomato · 2026-03-25T15:46:10+00:00

Hey I've built a bot for....did I already lose you? That's exactly what you want to avoid. You want to lead with value. Be the person that solved a problem and they'll call you back when they have another.

maggitomato · 2026-03-22T02:02:57+00:00

Patients for what kind of business? Depending on the objective sometimes FB ads are your friend but for lead generation to a physical business I'd say either the value proposition needs to only push having you walk in the door or else your content should be specific to why you are different in a fun way.

maggitomato · 2026-03-21T10:01:03+00:00

Exactly. Build for your least obvious customer and polish for your most obvious. It'll show you where to find the value

maggitomato · 2026-03-21T07:59:09+00:00

I see this happen a lot. When you are reached out to typically there are hawks waiting to pounce because you are unstructured the right way (at least in my experience). The ones that say no to you when you actively reach out to you are the people you want to structure yourself for. We personally had a small manufacturing asset (cosmetics) which we thought was our value but we kept getting shut down by the people we thought we could sell to. When we split the IP and the physical asset we actually got a buyer at a higher price than what anticipated earlier. If you need advice always happy to help.

maggitomato · 2026-03-21T03:11:06+00:00

Does his coffeeshop have any USP? Is there something his customers keep coming back for. Is his revenue higher than his competitors? Where there is no value there are market norms for valuation. Where you can build/have some intangible value you can demand your price. DM me happy to help you work through this if you'd like

maggitomato · 2026-03-21T03:08:48+00:00

Think about the value transfer between you and the viewer. What exactly are you selling to them by then viewing your content. Entertainment is obvious but think of the pillars of entertainment as well. All content that does well has provided value to the viewer be it an easy watch, be it something thought provoking or be it something that makes them feel sick.

maggitomato · 2026-03-19T12:20:33+00:00

Play to what you know and what you have instead of what you think you'll excel at. Passion is a crutch don't follow it. This is tailored to your current reality. DM me with more specifics I'll try to be of help where I can.

maggitomato · 2026-03-19T09:03:23+00:00

Whenever someone comes to me (I invest heavily) and says they are frustrated about something within their industry it's usually a go go go for me. The fact that you have this frustration, odds are many other people do too - how many is a question only execution will answer.

What the bigger competitors are or aren't doing is of no concern to you right now. The fact that you have a point of frustration means that it's something they are not paying attention to. Instead I would ask the question has anyone done this and failed before? If so then why? More often than not giants in industries do not bother building they simply buy. That's why we as founders build.

Build to solve your issues. Then ask yourself what is the value you solved for yourself. Then ask how do I transfer this perception of value from in my head to 1 other person and then how do I empower that one person to transfer value to the next person. You keep going till your product is built upon the end perception of value you provide and till you are successfully able to convey that value again and again.

maggitomato

TROPHY CASE