How To Build A 9-Figure Brand In 5 Years Or Less ($100M+ Case Study)

Tara Bosch started a company when she was 21 years old and four years later she sold it for $360 million. She was just 25 years old when she got that check. And yes, she did own a majority stake in that company when she sold. So she's worth a boatload of money. She did it by following the playbook that we talk about here on the channel. And in my book, 12 months to 1 million, she built a small audience, she launched some products to them, and in 12 months she had a seven figure business. That is the starting point. That's what I help entrepreneurs do, get to seven figures by building a small audience, launching some products to them and taking that company to $1 million run rate and beyond. But Tara went way beyond. Within a couple of years she was at eight figures and within four years she got a nine figure check. And in this case study, we're going to break apart exactly what steps she took to have that crazy result.

Could you just talk to the logical side of all of our brains and see if you can work any mental jujitsu about what got you to believe before you, before you could see the path?

Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, I think that's where having clarity of vision and then really the, from the reverse executing point, just like sitting there and as an exercise like mapping out yearly what that looks like can serve to be really helpful because then you can sit in that abstract vision and you can sit in, you know, what is the time frame that I want this vision to happen because that informs many things like the intensity that you need to put forward to execute on it. But you can also map out and it kind of can kind of feel like you're throwing shit at the wall. But I can tell you that when I did this, we always landed within 10 to 15 million of the numbers I threw at the wall. You could map out, you know, year five. This is what top line revenue we're doing, year four, year three, year two, year one. And then you can layer under that, okay, these are the products, you know that like, you know the typical spend per customer, if you're on shelves, you know the typical velocity rate, you have the basic math that you can put in to begin informing these assumptions. So from a logical perspective, like you can totally peel back the onion with the numbers there to support it.

Did you ever doubt? And if so, what did you do in order to get yourself out of doubt?

I mean, every day, you know, I think it's like, I think that's, that's like the internal dance you Know of the imposter syndrome and the like, who am I to do this? And they're like, am I capable? And like, all of the things. But I think that's where it's almost just like a mental muscle where I think there's one point in the journey I would, like, flick myself every time I'd have that thought and then replace it with like, no, you are capable. You can do this. But I think much like eating the right foods and fueling our body, and that's why I like to call it mind fuel. Feel like it's something you have to do every single day, otherwise your mind does start to get off track and wander and keep you in that, like, paralysis state. Very early on, I tried to stay rooted in, like, every potential thing that could be perceived as a challenge, being an opportunity hidden in disguise. And everything that didn't go how I wanted to, or it being a failure was actually a redirect to where I was meant to go. That served so many times when it was like, you know, damn, like, this person would be amazing on our team. Like, they'd be so great. But it just didn't work out. And then I got to know them better later and I was like, wow, their ego would have destroyed our culture. But, like, literally every single time, it served to just, like, stay rooted in the like, okay, this like, is not meant for me. But also staying rooted in, like, that kind of like, bull, like, mentality of just being like, if you continue pounding down the door, they're like, if you continue building a ladder, they're like, really remaining steadfast in, like, the belief of there's always a way.

The hardest part of my job is getting people to believe that a seven figure company is possible, that an eight figure company is possible. Having a vision that is big enough to contain a $2 million or a $5 million or a $10 million company, if you can have a vision that's big enough, the playbook works. So I've sort of retired from trying to convince people that it's possible because that's not really my job or my work. But if an entrepreneur believes that it's possible, then the opportunity is there. The first step to getting there is building a small audience. And I mean, it can be really small. You do not need to be an influencer with 100,000 followers. You do not need to have 25,000 people on an email list in order to get the first product up and moving and on its way to seven figures. Tara started SmartSuites with a raving fan base of just 500 people. That's very reasonable. But people often ask, how do you build the core raving fan base that will take you to seven figures? So I asked Tara how she built that small core raving fan base that took her to $2 million.

The core group of raving fans is about 300 when you started.

Correct.

And that was enough to move the needle. Right. They grew up to a thousand over a period of time. But could you just walk through? Because people texted, emailed, and commented on our podcast. Well, how did she build the first 500? I wanted to punch them in the face. Every single person asked that, because every single person can just put. Can just do the grind and the hustle of building up a raving group of fans that you treat well, that becomes the thing that brings you to the marketplace. But on behalf of them, how did you build the first group of ambassadors?

Yeah, I mean, a lot. A lot of the initial awareness to be like, hey, we exist in the world, and I think we can create radical value in your life. When we launched. And so the product was available for people to buy online, and in store was really messaging people. So Tim Ferriss wrote an amazing book about called the Four Hour Work Week. But he wrote a blog about how did he market that book to get it to have the success that it did. And he talked a lot about how he was like, I don't have the dollars to market this to everyone. Who is this creating the most radical value for? And so he started with that small group. And so in the same way it was the Weight Watchers community that I chose, started with that group, messaged them all on Instagram, like, not just the big influencers, but anybody who is on the Weight Watchers actively engaging on social media. And that was how we began to got the first 300, 500, and really kind of build that early emphatic consumer base.

So in a way, you were thinking strategically about the types of people that you wanted to be the ambassadors. It wasn't just the people who were excited about the product. You were actually building up people who had some pull, some passion, some influence. Some say you were. You were being selective about who was on that. Is that what you're saying?

Yeah, I think what it went back to really was finding people because it created so much radical value for them in their lives that they had an emotional connection to the brand. You know, it's like very much from that concept of, like, Simon Sinek. Start with why? Because they had that emotional connection they had like a sense of personal responsibility that they wanted to support this product and this community around Kicking Sugar.

As you can see, Tara was just hustling her way to the first 500 people. She was not following some whiz bang strategy. She didn't go viral on TikTok. She was door knocking. She was in the DMS of her followers. She was connecting with people. She was building real relationships with people that became raving fans of her company. Most of us have 500 friends on Facebook, 500 followers on Instagram. You can reach out to 500 people over the course of a couple of months and turn them into raving fans. You don't need to have a giant audience. You don't need to create a ton of content and build a YouTube channel before you launch a business. You need like a few hundred people. And that's why we have case studies of people in our community who build email lists of 150 people and they get to seven figures over the course of a year. This is why people can spend 45 days doing a little bit of audience building and have $100,000 launch. I'm thinking of case studies from our community of people have done that within the last few months. If you do just a little bit of audience building, building real relationships at the start of a business, that raving fan base will take your first product and your entire product suite to the level where you can have a seven figure business over the course of about 12 months. The next thing that I wanted to ask Tara was how she funded the growth of a business. Because you can get to seven figures on your own, bootstrapping a company, but getting to nine figures, that is a whole different game. Tara was very protective of the equity of her company and she didn't want to take on a bunch of partners that would dilute her ownership in the company. But at some point she needed outside capital to be able to handle the growth of how fast the business was moving. So in this section, Tara talks about how she funded the growth of the business while maintaining control of of the equity of the company.

I wanted to ask you about the funding of the company because you said something really interesting in our podcast about how aggressive is the word that comes to mind. You were with debt capital and you were very protective of equity capital, but you had a big line of credit to be able to finance eventually. This is a big jump that I have had to work really hard at getting some of our investments to think about. But the leverage that it gives you to be able to pull that lever. Would you share a little bit about why you were so protective of the equity and why you were so aggressive on the debt side of things?

Yeah, totally. So when I was launching SmartSuites, it was kind of in that era where startups were like raising huge amounts of money and raising what in itself became something that felt like it was celebrated and not the fact that like the money is really just the vehicle to the the real accomplishment, which is like executing on the growth of the company.

And so for me, I was like, you know, like the real accomplishment will be if we can retain as much equity as possible to give to the team and to keep majority. So I have control and all those things and then go out and get debt financing to fund things like inventory and whatnot. And so I also really quickly learned that there were a lot of avenues through banks and now there are so many more incredible avenues. There's a company I invested in called Ampla which is incredible for inventory financing. Like yes. Yeah. Non shark. Yes. Yeah, yeah, he's great.

He spoke here last year.

No way did he. Oh, small world. Serendipity.

But so even so, more now there's like amazing ways that are non dilutive to fund things like inventory and then to really save that. Those moments where you want to take in outside capital for really strategic initiatives. But yeah, I, I just, I just really saw how it could serve if we could protect that, that cap table.

I'm curious if there was, I mean, all. Most of us, maybe not Tara, but most of us have that nightmare scenario of what if it all goes away? Did you have any of that penny over your head? When you have $10 million in debt on the books, that's tied up in inventory and you're thinking about what could go wrong, did that ever enter your brain or were you so focused on the future that that was just a small part of it?

Yeah, I mean, and that's where it goes to, I think, like really sitting in yourself and, and what, what you're knowing of yourself, of risk as well, because I have some friends and if they took on that level of debt, they'd be so paralyzed in fear, they wouldn't be able to have the mind space to execute. For me, I really had the mindset of like, you know, I don't want to live with any what ifs. So, you know, I don't want to live when I'm 90 years old sitting in my rocking chair with the what if of like, what if I had just like gone, gone all in and brought this to life in the most powerful way that I could. Because that visceral why that I had and debt. So debt financing felt like a very small risk because I was like, sure, I might have debt, but like I can live on a friend's couch, no problem. I will know that, like I carried out and I tried and I figured out the ending of that story. But certainly as the company got larger and larger and larger, there were often moments where I was like, holy motherfuck, I have 13 million of personal debt if this doesn't work out. And so there's that humanness that you have to sit in for sure. But I think you ground yourself in, in what's like congruent with what's most important to you.

I want to break apart this section because especially in the physical product space when you're building a brand, this is something that entrepreneurs miss. Tara did not raise a bunch of capital to grow the company at first, but she did use debt financing to fund the number of units that she was moving. Using debt to finance inventory is a very smart move. In fact, it's kind of dumb to use your profits to fund more inventory. And this is a huge bottleneck that I see brands and entrepreneurs do. They're rolling all their profits into funding inventory orders and they can never really get ahead. If you want to grow and you have predictable growth of a few products, it can be a smart idea to use outside debt to be able to fund the growth of that inventory. I could break down the math of this and why it's a good idea. I'd suggest watching some other videos on on the channel in order to see why that is a good idea. Or this is something that we can help entrepreneurs do inside of our capitalism incubator, which is where we bring our tool set to the table and we help businesses who are about at $1 million grow to mid seven figures and eight figures. And one of the tools that we use is debt financing. There's plenty of ways to crack this nut. Just know that it is a very important and powerful tool. And if you're trying to grow a brand, because tying up all your profits into the stuff that you're going to sell prevents you from being able to make the other investments that you need to make to go to mid seven figures or even eight figures. Now, something I noticed about Tara is that she didn't seem to leave a lot of room for doubt. She was always reminding herself about where she was going. She was thinking about her vision. She was convincing herself why she could do it, not why she was going to fail. And I think this is important because I know enough entrepreneurs and I know enough of my own thoughts to evaluate how many of my thoughts are thinking about why I will win versus the threats that might put me out of business. I think most entrepreneurs who are stuck at seven figures or below are thinking more about why they will fail versus why they will succeed. I've spent enough time with Alex Hormozi, Brooke Castillo, and other entrepreneurs who are really successful to know that they actively practice the thoughts about why they will succeed, rather than the doubts that hold so many of us back. And so in this section, I asked Tara how she maintained a mindset and an optimistic viewpoint about why she would win and how important that was for her, building the vision that was in her head.

Like, you truly have to be able to, like, close your eyes and, like, see it so clearly. I believe in a way that, like, it does feel like it's so real to you and not allowed me in my journey at least to take the steps then to make that real. Because on, like, a visceral level, it already felt so real. I know we talked about in your podcast about, like, it's like, in the same light with, like, why, like, professional athletes, they all have the, like, the coaches on, like, the mindset piece because it's like, unless you can, like, visualize it and see it, it can't happen. So you have to, like, remove that block and really, really set that down deep in your subconscious in order for it to actually ever happen.

What informed or influenced the way that you think and therefore gave you the permission to think that big on your first venture? Like, this, like, what, what earlier in your life influenced your belief that that was possible?

I mean, I, like, I, I joke all the time with, with my friends and, like, trauma, but.

No, I think for me, I grew up in my teen years with a single mom who was in a relationship with a con artist abuser of every kind. And so for me, I. I knew that I wanted to create a different reality for myself and I wanted to create independence for myself. The trauma part of that was so I didn't have to rely on anyone else. I've done that healing work, but. But that's really kind of where it started. So I think I. I really allowed myself to. To be able to listen to things like Oprah, Super Soul Sunday, and all the kind of cheesy motivational things. You know, those motivational tracks with, like, the loud music in the background that are, like, hyping. You up. I got so into that because I needed so desperately to figure out how I could create independence for myself. And then when you immerse yourself in that, I think it just shifts how you think about the world and what you believe is possible. When you see all these people that have done these things that you originally never would have thought in a million years were possible.

So let's break apart what we know so far. First, Tara had a vision for what she wanted to create, and she practiced believing in that vision. She reminded herself that it was possible. Second, she built a raving fan base of people that supported the initial launch of the business. She financed the company strategically so that she had room for growth, but she was protective of the equity so that she maintained control. The next thing that she did was surrounded herself with people who could help her implement the vision that was in her head and and navigate the challenges that will happen when you go beyond about $10 million. Getting mentors who have done this before is a cheat code for you accomplishing what you want to accomplish. But how did she seek out the mentors that could help her? How did she surround herself with people that had done this before and could advise her as she grew to a $360 million exit? Here's what she said about that Sounds.

Like, as you tell your story, it sounds like you had sources of really good advice and mentorship along the way. What mentors and pieces of advice did they give you that were most instrumental to keep you grounded so you can make those strategic decisions?

Yeah, I think mentorship, I feel like, I don't know if you guys feel this way. It felt like such an elusive thing where I was like, everyone's telling me I need mentors and advisors, but where do I find these people and all the things? And so I had the fortune, after I was finished recipe testing in my kitchen, of being accepted into an accelerator program from a fellow. His name's Ryan Holmes. He founded a company called hootsuite. And so I was surrounded by other peers that were working on ideas. But I also began to have access to some amazing humans. And there were often advice that is being given on all logistical, executional things. But no one talked to me about, like, gut and, like, staying true to your why and those more intangible things. Until I met my first official advisor. Her name was Judy Brooks. She was the first person to talk about those things. And it was like a game changer for the path of smartsuites.

Entrepreneurship can be lonely and confusing, especially when you are trying to do this yourself. We have a vision for what we want to create, but then so few of us get into rooms with other people for whom that is normal. If your vision is to create a seven figure company and you don't know anybody who's built a seven figure company, how likely are you to keep believing that it's possible you're going to be the weird one in your peer group that has this crazy idea of having a seven figure company. But for me, seven figure companies are easy. They're commonplace. It's a simple playbook. If you don't have a playbook, go get our free resources@Capitalism.com playbook and you'll see how we launch companies and take them to seven figures. Case studies of people who have done it and the strategies that you will need in order to get there in about 12 months. Easy, not a problem. But if you're not plugged into a community or have mentorship that has done this before, what are the chances that you're going to be the odd person that actually builds a seven figure company? And if you're already at seven figures, if you're not surrounded by people who have built eight figure companies, what's the likelihood that you're going to do that again? You're going to be the weird one that has this crazy vision of having a $10 million company. As entrepreneurs, we go out on this journey alone, but if we stay alone, we die. If we have a vision in our head, but we don't have other people who can advise us and help us open up the path to executing that vision, the chances are that you are going to fail. Tara had really good mentors and support to be able to see that vision come to life. And we all need that in our lives. Whether that is coaches or masterminds or. Or it is just pouring into the free content that exists everywhere so that you know what to do when you believe that it's possible. Remember that the more alone and isolated you are, the higher your chances of failure. But the more plugged in and supported and networked you are with people who have already done it, the higher your chances of success. Now, success is easy to model in the rear view mirror. It's easy to break apart how someone got to seven or eight or nine figures and reverse engineer the process. But what about someone who is just starting or they're starting something new? Tara sold her company and I wanted to know how she would approach a new venture if she was to start it today. I wanted to ask her how she'll know when it's time to start something new. This is something that I asked selfishly, because when I sold my company for $16 million, I felt this urge to just jump into the next thing. And I see entrepreneurs often look at what they think is going to work and pour their energy into that, but they don't have the conviction or the vision to be able to execute it. So I asked Tara how she'll know when it's time to jump into a new thing and how she'll approach it when she feels like she's ready for her next venture.

The idea for Smart Suites came from, you know, you're from your family, from, like, having a real feeling that you wanted to create something different. How will you know when it is time for the next venture?

I mean, I think it's like, it's so easy to get caught up in that wheel, you know, where it's like, I've had friends who, like, exited and then right away gone to, like, I want to, like, start something else. And so, like, find white space, then execute on that space. But I think when you don't pause to, like, really have that authentic why, it just doesn't translate in the same way with consumers or even yourself and having the drive that it takes to execute on that coming to life. So for me, I feel like I like everyone in this room. Like, when you have that brain where, you know, you're ideating and. And really find the joy in the build, I. I would love to do that again, but I really want to be disciplined about, like, waiting for that same visceral pull that felt. Feels like it's serving something so much larger than myself and has the radical value proposition to match it.

Yeah.

Is as ironic as this sounds, is it fair to say that you, when you started SmartSuites, it was not about the money?

Absolutely not.

And as a result of that charge, like, that feeling, you were able to create something that created so much value.

Yeah. And I think, like, I think it doesn't have to be an or. It can be an and. Like, I think I, for a long time felt like it was so taboo, especially as, like, a woman founder, to, like, talk about, you know, what, financially, I wanted from the journey as well and that sort of thing. But I wrote those numbers down, even though I wasn't sharing them with anyone. So I don't think it has to be an or, but it can be an and. And the why has to be, like, what's your pull? The. The freedom of time and energy and the money and that sort of thing. I think that's totally valid and helpful to like write down what that vision is too. But the visceral pull, I've used visceral so many times, I know of that. Why has to be the engine pulling the train.

I love hearing you talk about this because I will out logic myself so many times. And it is nice to be reminded. And it starts with a feeling.

And you know it when you feel it. And it's difficult to manufacture, but once it's there, you can, you can build upon it. And it's a much more powerful force than my logical brain can try to create all on its own. It's like the logical brain is there to support and build the structures to support that whatever that feeling is.

Totally.

But the opposite is not true.

To close this out, I asked Tara for advice for the entrepreneurs who are in the room who are at seven figures. I've helped hundreds of entrepreneurs get to seven figures. The playbook is very predictable. It's four products, 25 sales a day, $30 price point. That's a seven figure business. And it takes about 12 months on average to be able to do that. We have so many entrepreneurs who have gotten to that level, but a lot of them stay stuck at that level. Why do they get stuck at seven figures while people like Tara break out into nine figures? What's the difference? So I asked her to give some advice to the people in the room who were stuck at seven figures and wanted to go beyond.

I'm curious, but what advice do you give to the entrepreneurs who are at seven figures? And the reason I ask is because I didn't know this part of the story. You shared it with me on the podcast that your first year you did 2 million and then I think it was 16. And then four years later you had the big exit. There are a lot of entrepreneurs that get stuck in that seven figure hamster wheel. Some of them are in this room and they've been stuck at that level for two or three years. What advice do you give to those entrepreneurs in order to grow through that plateau?

Yeah, I mean, you know, I think really getting clear, I think first of all, and you know, like again, going back and I know it sounds like I'm like beating it something I brought up so much time so many times. But going back to like, what is your vision? And getting clear on that and then going back to like, okay, why am I at the million dollar mark? And that, not seeing that growth and dissecting that, you know, Your consumer is your North Star. What isn't resonating or clicking in the way that it needs to for you to have that emotional connection and have that community that's going to like push forward that, that hockey stick growth. There's an amazing book called the Tipping Point. It talks about Birkenstocks and how they created a movement out of Birkenstocks with a thousand people after being stuck in like as being a small company for so long and feeling like they couldn't figure it out. But I always like to go back to the consumer as the North Star. And so it's like, okay, clearly if you're stuck at that mark for a couple of years, it's like, I wonder like what isn't resonating about? Is the, is the value that we're creating through the product? How can we evolve that or iterate that, or is it a different form entirely? I had a friend, they were in the beverage space and they were kind of stuck at that 10 million mark and just really couldn't crack it. And then they went back to their consumer, picked up the phone, did the simple things like having the phone calls with their top, I think it was their top 100 e. Com customers. They called and they learned that like it was a form factor thing. So the value prop was there. They just needed to switch to little like square. We use lip small delivery packs and then they were like scaling to 20 and I think they're doing 50 this year. So I think really just rooting back down to like what isn't resonating in your consumer as your North Star.

I try not to pitch in my YouTube videos and my podcast, but I do need to give a plug for how we help entrepreneurs execute the plan that Tara just shared. Because in the capitalism incubator we have a suite of tools and resources that we can deploy into your business that can help you use outside capital, craft a vision and grow on the platforms where you're already taking sales. So if you're already at seven figures but you feel like you've plateaued, we can get you unstuck by using the same strategies that we just broke apart in Terra's case study. You can apply for consideration over at capitalism.com/incubator. And that's where we can help you as an entrepreneur who's at seven figures, break out of that seven figure plateau and have room for growth again. We'll do that by helping you use strategic capital, by crafting a vision, by getting outside help from our shared resources and helping you free up capacity so that you can build the vision that's in your head rather than just maintain the thing that has plateaued. That's what we do inside of the capitalism incubator. One of the things that stood out to me about my time with Tara at the capitalism conference was how relatable her story was. It all of a sudden didn't seem so crazy to have a nine figure exit. Now you might not have a vision for a nine figure exit, but when we break apart what she did to get there, it can be applied to a small business that gets to $5 million or $10 million. It starts with some excitement, something that compels you, a idea or a product that you want to bring to market because you feel like it will make a difference in the world. Not just what will work on paper, but what will make a difference in the lives of the customers. Then there was a vision that was big enough to be able to contain the type of security success that she wanted. Third, she had a raving fan base that she cultivated. It wasn't some whiz bang strategy, it was a lot of hard work. It was building relationships with people that could open doors for the company. Then it was using capital strategically. She was protective of her equity, but she used a lot of outside debt to be able to fund the growth of the inventory. That's a smart way to do things. At some point she did take take on outside investment to be able to de risk the business and also have the capital to hire people that could grow the company. And finally, she surrounded herself with people who could support her. She had mentors and a network from people who had already done it before. And that kept her well supported and thinking about growing her vision rather than responding to the short term emergencies that will inevitably come up in a business. That playbook can be applied if you've got a new company, a seven figure company, or you got an eight figure company that you want to take to nine. It's a fairly predictable playbook and I felt liberated to play bigger as a result of my time with Tara. Regardless of where you are in your journey, those five steps are what will take you to where you want to go. And if you're at the beginning of your journey, a good first step for you is to just download our free resources@capitalism.com playbook. It's got our case studies and examples of people who are doing it and the strategies that will take you to seven figures. Once you're at seven figures, which takes about 12 months, you'll be on pace with the same amount of growth that Tara had at SmartSuites. She had a $2 million business after one year. That's a pretty reasonable result for people who follow that playbook. Then Once you're at $2 million, you can use some advanced strategies and mentorship to grow to wherever you want to take this thing. So that's a good place for you to start@Capitalism.com playbook or if you're beyond that, we have other resources to be able to support you on your journey. My name is Ryan Daniel moran. I run capitalism.com I help entrepreneurs build million dollar businesses and have a multimillion dollar exit. And if that's you and the journey that you're on, I'd love to serve you on your journey. So hit the subscribe button and I would love to pour into you as you're building a company that you can scale and sell. Thanks so much for watching. I'll see you next time. Take care.