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"Which Path Do You Choose?"

Name: "Which Path Do You Choose?"
Uploaded: 2026-02-27T19:55:00+00:00
Duration: 53 s
Channel: Shanli Liu, CPA, CTP
Description: In this brief business‑coaching conversation, a tattoo‑studio owner (Speaker B) reports $4 M in annual revenue and a goal of reaching $35 M before…

27 Feb 2026 · 1 min

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In this brief business‑coaching conversation, a tattoo‑studio owner (Speaker B) reports $4 M in annual revenue and a goal of reaching $35 M before exiting the business. He is considering two strategic paths: (1) building an education/coaching product for other tattoo‑studio owners, modeled after the Gym Launch approach, or (2) continuing to scale the corporate brand to create a larger, more sellable company. Speaker A outlines the trade‑offs— the education route can generate short‑term cash but is harder to sell unless highly mechanized, while scaling the brand may take longer but yields a cleaner exit. The dialogue explores personal income preferences over time and asks the owner to choose which path feels more appealing, ultimately leaning toward the educational/coaching model.

We sell tattoos to tattoo clients doing about $4 million in revenue. I'd love to be at $35 million in revenue. What's the goal? The goal is to have a company that I can exit. I've started to get into coaching studio owners and things like that. And so maybe doing something like Gym Launch for the tattoo industry.
Okay, so you want to exit. So this— these are conflicting. Let's outline the decision paths. So you have number one, go into the kind of information, etc. space. Very difficult to sell unless you are absolutely like mechanized it. So it doesn't matter if anyone's good, like there's 100 tattoos that everyone gets. I don't know. Is that true?
No, not okay.
Yeah, it's like, but you will make more money in the short term. The second option is that you just continue to grow corporate and build a large brand, and then that will for sure be easier to sell when you come to sell, but it will take longer to get there. I don't really think there's an option 3. So which of these sounds more tasty to you?
So should I not do gym launch for tattoos?
No, I'm saying you can. I don't see one way is right or wrong. When you're 85 years old and you look back, would you be happier that you made— I'm just making up numbers— $3 million a year in personal income for 10 years? Or basically made $100,000 a year for 10 years and then made $50,000 on the last year in your 30s or 40s, whatever. Pick your, pick your number. I mean, I'd really be happy with any of them, I think. Well, well then, which one are you going to do?
I think, I think the educational or the, the tattoo studio owner facing thing.