10 RULES to Start Anew! | Business Tips

Hi, I'm Evan Carmichael. Welcome to another edition of Ask Evan. Today I'm going to answer a question from one of my newsletter readers, George. He wrote in saying he's 47 years old, he's got his MBA, he started a company when he was 30, and for 17 years he's, you know, had the best time with his age. He's in his best— he's in his peak, and because of the crisis, he's approaching bankruptcy. He's disappointed, he's about to be ruined, and wanted some suggestions on what to do next. So thank you for the question, George. That's a really tough situation to be in, something a lot of entrepreneurs are facing. I think for you, the biggest thing now is figuring out how can you get back to making money. You know, any entrepreneur can spend money, and it can be hard when times get tough and you're used to a certain way of doing things to keep up the expenses. You got to figure out a way to start making money and not just spend money, right? Anybody can spend money. It's the challenge of making money. I mean, you may have you have to pare down, maybe even all the way back to the beginning. You know, identify what it is that you're really excited about, passionate about. Try to identify customers who have a pain point that you can go help them solve and build around that. I try to do it around the service if you can, especially at the beginning. Biggest couple reasons, one, it doesn't cost anything besides your time. So at the beginning, you know, again, we don't want to be spending money here if we're talking about bankruptcy. You don't want to be spending more money, you want to be making money. So you're investing your time, you know, you're trading your time for money, but you're making money coming in. And I want to see you get to the survival point where you're making enough money from your service business that if you want to expand and offer products, then you can later on. But first step is we got to get you, you know, out of bankruptcy and, you know, making money enough so you can survive on a day-to-day basis. Next thing I would try to do is just Just keep in mind that, you know, you're 47 years old, it's still young. You know, it's not something that you're too old to get started again, even if it's a completely different business. It can be really hard, but you could chalk it up to lessons learned and some experience that you didn't have before. But there's a lot of entrepreneurs who've had a lot of success, you know, still at a much greater age. There's Harland Sanders from KFC, was in his mid-60s before he started KFC. Ray Kroc from McDonald's was again in his 60s, or I think he was in his 50s. I have a quote here that I saved here for you that might be inspiring. So he said, "I was 52 years old." So Ray Kroc. "I had diabetes, arthritis, I lost my gallbladder, most of my thyroid gland in earlier campaigns, but I was convinced the best was ahead of me." So here's a guy who had a whole bunch of bad stuff happen to him, was 52 years old, a time where people are starting to think, you know, getting close to retirement and planning the rest of their life. And he's just starting up a new company and built McDonald's into the success that it was. So there can be a lot of, you know, still lessons to be learned and a lot of excitement that could be ahead for you. I would start again around that service, identify a passion that you have, how you can help people, provide a lot of value. The, you know, the amount of money you're gonna make is gonna be dependent on how much value you provide somebody and how much you help them, right? So start a service around that, slowly build it up, invest the profits back into the business. And then continue to expand. And hopefully you can get yourself out of that situation, maybe with this business or maybe doing something else. A lot of times people decide just to, you know, shut the doors on that business and start something new. If you feel like there's time to move on, it's time to move on to a new project that may be a little bit more exciting and invigorating for you. So hopefully that helps. I'm still, you know, positive for you and optimistic for you. I think with dedication, hard work, and maybe pouring your heart into it, something you really enjoy, I think you can definitely turn it around and be a successful entrepreneur. And I'd love to hear your progress and your plans for what you're doing going forward. So thank you for the question. If you guys like the video, for those of you watching, please give it a thumbs up. It makes me want to do more of them for you. And if you have a question about finding your passion or about, you know, being too old to start a business or whatever it is about your own company, feel free to leave it in the comments below. I always read those and I always respond to people as soon as I can. So thank you, and we'll see you on the next episode.