A founder bought an e-commerce company without expertise in the field, assuming his earlier success would transfer. The business lost money for nearly a year while he learned the basics. He warns against overconfidence and advises assessing whether you're willing to become a student before risking capital in a new industry.
You know, when we have success, it's easy to think that if we were successful in one area, now we're going to be successful in all of the other areas. I bought my e-commerce company. I had a lot of friends in e-commerce. My wife is a digital marketer. I had enough knowledge about e-commerce to be dangerous, but I wasn't an expert in e-commerce. And unless I'm an expert in e-commerce, I really have no business trying to turn around a business that I don't even really truly understand. It took me almost a year. Meanwhile, the company's losing money the whole time. And I'm on this learning curve trying to get things figured out. If you're not willing to put in the time and the dedication that you did in your first business, you have to ask yourself, what is the skill set that I need to be successful here? Am I an expert in the space? And am I willing to become a student of the game and invest in myself and put in that time and put in that dedication to learn those skills? Or is there an opportunity to learn it safely without a tremendous amount of risk?
