90% of businesses fail…

That’s an ugly stat, but it’s the harsh reality.

I’ve been at my business (greekify.com), for over 7 years now.

I’ve been reflecting on that number a lot lately.

So, I wanted to break down the business year-by-year, to hopefully demonstrate how business is a marathon, not a sprint.

• Year 1: 

  • I founded Greekify out of my UCLA dorm room.

• Year 2: 

  • Scaled Greekify through word of mouth around UCLA. I tried everything. I handed out business cards at club fairs, pasted posters up around campus, and manually emailed/texted everyone I knew to see if they needed custom shirts. Most importantly, I hustled… HARD.

  • Most things didn’t lead to any business at all, but between all my efforts, the business did about $50k in revenue that year between close to a dozen or so clients.

• Years 3-4:

  • COVID-19 hit. Colleges shut down and went online. No one needed custom shirts because there were no events. The business basically flat-lined, so I picked up freelance design.

• Year 5:

  • I graduated UCLA and was living in Santa Monica. At this point, the business was pretty much dead. For most this year, I was still freelancing lots of creative jobs- from design, to animation, to filming/editing content for brands like JuneShine around LA. But one day, I decided to give the business one more “go,” determined to bring it back to life.

  • I pivoted our model to e-commerce, and spent an ungodly amount of time designing products trying to reverse-engineer a model that I think had legs. While my roommates partied and went out on Fridays and the weekends, I stayed in to build the business.

  • I was the “boring,” roommate… who was basically always hunkered down in my room, grinding away on my business. It took about 6 or so months of heads-down focus (not knowing if the model would even work), when one night, I heard that glorious “cha-ching” noise come from my phone. Finally, a first sale!

  • The weeks following that sale, I distinctly remember being out at a bar with my roommates, my phone BLOWING up with sales. I knew I was onto something…

• Year 6: 

  • I moved back to the Bay Area from LA to solely focus on continuing to grow greekify. I needed to change my environment toward one that had very little distractions.

  • The business really took off, particularly on Etsy. From e-commerce alone, we generated about $700k in revenue. Things were going great! I really reflected hard about how just 1 year prior, the business was pretty much dead on the vine, generating zero income.

• Year 7 (present): 

  • When I initially started on Etsy, it felt like an overnight success. But like lots of things in business, it’s great, until it isn’t. Oftentimes, business can feel like a constant uphill battle. You might experience some wins along the way, but as soon as you let your foot off the gas, shit always happens.

  • This year, our sales were more or less cut in half, as competitors entered the market on Etsy. I was yet again reminded about the harsh reality of business. To combat this, my energy has been shifted towards growing our own channel (Shopify), as well as unlocking additional channels like Amazon. If you’re curious, so far Amazon has generated about $7k in sales, which I’m super excited about…

  • I suspect this channel to take at least another 6 months or 1 year to fully “unlock.” And what you don’t see, is the small amount of daily (boring) effort put into that, day-in, and day-out. The term “entrepreneurship” has become sexy, but the reality is, in practice it can actually be quite repetitive and boring.

• In a way, it feels like I’m back at ground zero in my tiny overpriced Santa Monica apartment, unsure if things are going to work or not. But I’ve seen this before, and I now understand the only way to see if it will work, is to see it all the way through.

• At the end of the day, that’s the core of entrepreneurship. You’re almost always in a state of unknowingness, and that’s why it’s so damn hard sometimes. It can really get to you, if you don’t build proper systems in your life to combat it.

In summary…

When the road gets bumpy, most give up.

That’s why there are so few successful entrepreneurs.

I’ve found the main difference between non-successful, and successful people oftentimes is simply their willingness to keep going.

Before Greekify, I started more businesses than I can count on my fingers, most of which failed…

I’m hoping the above breakdown can serve as inspiration for anyone who’s in the “thick of it,” to keep pushing along.

If anything, this email was an excuse for me to reflect on my journey, and to remind myself that slow and steady progress is okay.

We often want overnight results, but it rarely happens that way.

As long as I’m waking up each day, and doing SOMETHING to try to push the needle forward, that is enough.

I said it in the start of this newsletter, but I’ll say it again:

It’s a marathon, not a sprint.

This week’s “1×1×1”

1 creative quote. 1 creative inspiration. 1 photo from my life. Format inspired by Ben Sampson: check his newsletter!

💡 Creative Quote of the week:

🌅 Creative Inspiration of the week:

I recently picked up surfing out here in Bali, and I’m obsessed. There are so many parallels between the ocean/surfing, and life. This subject could be an essay in and of itself, but to name a few:

• Surfing is just like entrepreneurship. HARD (but incredibly rewarding).

• Consistency is everything (dirty reps > perfection).

• Patience is the name of the game.

📸 Photo from my life:

Fresh coconut post surf!

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