“So, how do you ACTUALLY build a successful business and earn a million dollars?”
That was the single thought that ran through my mind as I sat across Sant in Plaza Singapura’s Ajisen Ramen last Sunday.
For those of you who don’t know who Sant is – he’s one of Singapore’s top profit strategists, perhaps better known as the “secret weapon” behind many successful local businesses. Do a quick google search of his name, “Sant Qiu” – the results will blow your mind.
Here’s the exciting part –
On the pretext of writing this piece, I had the golden opportunity to sit him down, and dig out from him what building a 7-figure business really meant – and like an excited kid interviewing his favourite band, I wasn’t about to let this chance slip.
So, if you’re a fellow entrepreneur, or business owner trying to grow his business and achieve that $1,000,000 that we all dream about – here are some of his insights on how to take your business to 7-figures that I found myself scribbling (or typing) out furiously on my mac’s notepad.
You might wanna bookmark this page.
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When I first met Sant – he really challenged my impression of what a successful business owner / entrepreneur would be like.
I guess I grew up looking at people showing off their fancy watches and expensive cars on Facebook & Instagram, and I always thought perhaps that was what success was supposed to look like.
They never actually really show you what goes on behind the scenes, do they?
So when I first met Sant, I was pretty taken aback – no nice car, no fancy house, no shiny “rich” toys, nothing. (It still surprises me till today, actually.)
Instead, he came across as pretty quiet, and sometimes i’d see him carry his newborn baby around and think to myself:
“That’s the most normal looking guy you could ever have met on the street and walked past without a second glance.”
Then I remember that he’s the owner of a 7-figure business.
And I remember that we’re still growing at an insane rate every day. (We’ve already more than doubled what we did the entire of last year, possibly close to triple even.)
So that’s really challenged my opinion of what being truly successful really means.
If you take away the bling, the money, and other “distractions”, what does having a 7-figure business actually mean?
In Sant’s own words:
(Oh, and check Gary V out if you have the time – he grew his dad’s business from $1m to $50m a year.)
Anyway, if “being fake will only take you so far”, how does an entrepreneur / business owner achieve that long – term growth and success that they dream of?” –
With this thought fresh in my head, I gleefully started “grilling” Singapore’s Top Profit Strategist.
1) Get Capital (Capital, not Funding.)
I’m going to start off with the juiciest bits first – the biggest question many entrepreneurs including myself (and probably you) have is:
Things are much easier to run when there is money that you can use to grow – But how do you get past the initial stage?
The inertia is always the hardest at the beginning, and not everyone is lucky enough to get funding. (In fact, most small business owners don’t get any funding at all.)
So I asked Sant the burning question – Back in 2014, how did he get his initial capital when he started the company with $0?
His response was pretty incredible – you’d definitely want to write this part down.
First, he started posting content on Facebook about business growth (the niche that we’re in.). To add on to that, he recorded a 4 – part video series on getting quick profits and uploaded it to YouTube. (He calls this his sequential marketing system.)
From there, people started sharing the content and videos. (Quick Tip: It’s extremely crucial that the content is valuable, not half – baked, or people wouldn’t bother sharing.)
In his words:
“I then wrote registration instructions for a workshop on a simple Facebook post. If you wanted to sign up, private message me, and we worked out payment details via cheque. There was no payment system set up yet at that time.”
And honestly, the craziest part that Sant shared was that –
The workshop was priced at $2,000- $5,000 (Depending on which stage they signed up at.).
And the people who were signing up weren’t old clients, referrals, or “warm”.
They were completely new.
Spent: 1 month, and less than $100 (Boosting posts on Facebook)
Profit: Over $50k. (The first class was about 20-30 people)
Talk about ROI.
Anyway, the above is just an example – I’m not saying that everyone’s going to use a Facebook content marketing strategy to cough up their initial capital.
But the basic idea is – if you’re really able to help people with what you do, find that small initial group of them that you’re able to help first.
If you’re in F&B, or health & beauty – you could be putting up Instagram posts, Pinterest posts, or YouTube tutorials.
If you’re in IT or software solutions – the geek forums like hardwarezone are your strongholds of expertise.
And that’s just online. Most of the time, you need to go offline and get to the places where you can find the people who need you.
If you’re an entertainer, go to a bar. If you’re a fitness trainer, go to a gym – network, and be resourceful.
These are just some examples.
The important thing to remember is that whatever you do – you’re going to have to put in the hard work, no way around it.
At the start, because he was the only trainer – Sant had trainings from 9am – 1am, 4 days a week.
Of course, no one can keep that up forever, which is exactly why the next crucial part of building a million-dollar business is building the right team.
2) Build A Team
“No man is an island” – I’m sure most of us have heard this phrase before.
And everyday, being part of a committed team reinforces how true this simple saying is.
I’ve seen the insane speed we’ve been growing at – and I’m definitely not saying this to brag about our success.
Thing is, none of us would have been able to make this massive growth happen alone.
Back when Sant first started the business,
He put out an apprenticeship notice – The opportunity to come and learn from him, and build a million dollar business together with him.
As glamorous as that sounds, as entrepreneurs, we all know that the start is probably the worst place to be in a business.
There’s no fame, no glory, and no money.
Just blood, sweat, long hours and hard work.
But Sant knew he couldn’t do the bigger things himself, so he put in effort trying to find the right people, and from the 30+ applicants, he chose less than 5 – but it was enough to begin with.
One of his first apprentices was Adam Teow, who most of you know as our favourite Facebook & Online Marketing Expert.
This is important because if you’ve ever met Sant, you’d know he’s not the best with technology.
But he had the clarity to acknowledge that from the start.
And we wouldn’t have been able to do half of the things we’ve achieved today without the team that he built.
One of the most important things he’s always saying is:
“You build a team so you can have experts who can do the things that you cannot do.”
And it’s amazing how much you can grow once you have the right people.
Lets look at this with added clarity:
Sant’s our main man – the business growth “guru” with the high level strategy.
Then we have Adam, who’s managed more than $5.5 million dollars worth of online advertising budget at some of the biggest advertising brands in the region. (P&G, MediaCom)
Then there’s Joel – Those of you who know him have probably already bought something from him.
And Chap – He drives so much traffic for us it’s impossible to function a single without him.
The list goes on.
That’s what’s possible with a great team – You’ll be able to function at higher levels and achieve more in faster periods of time.
Now, you’ve got some capital to keep the engine oiled, and you’re building a team to keep your machine running. The next thing you’re going to need is a partner.
More importantly – the right partner. (Even if that sometimes means your partner is yourself.)
3) Choose The Right Partner
Most of you probably don’t know this, but at the beginning, Sant worked with a few partners to scale the business.
And at the start – It definitely seemed like the right choice.
More people working together meant more resources, and more resources meant the ability to do larger scale projects and bring in bigger revenue & profits.
In fact, working with his partners – Sant managed to pull off the biggest training way back in December 2014.
It was a milestone for the company – the first workshop that broke 6-figures for the first time with an attendance over 50pax strong.
Things looked like they were on a fast track to the top – then disaster struck. I’ll let Sant explain the rest.
“Then, right after, in January – everything started to crumble. The partners started to disappear. After a couple of challenges, they decided to split. Suddenly, we were saddled with having to take on everything – the logistics, training, frameworks.
The worst part was probably the office rental – with the partners gone, we were expected to take over the entire rent ourselves, which was too expensive to be logical.
I was racing against the clock to find a new office, quick – and at the same time I found out my wife, Olivia, was expecting.
I wanted to do things faster, which is why I leveraged with partners, to build a team faster by hiring more people.
The regrettable part is about not being more stringent and meticulous in choosing the right partner at the beginning of our journey.”
The split impacted some critical areas –
Disrupted the momentum of the entire business.
Took about 3-4 months to search for a new office, renovate, and move.
From Sant’s words – it definitely didn’t sound easy.
However, because of the strong foundation that had been built, we were able to recover ourselves pretty quickly.
The important lesson here is to choose the right partner – and that it might even be better to do things yourself – there’s the possibility that you’d achieve your goals even quicker alone.
And you’ll be able to build a stronger, more stable foundation – this was the only reason that we were able to get hit multiple times and still push forward massively.
4) Build A Strong Foundation
Stuck on one of the plain wooden cabinets in our office is a simple piece of paper.
And it’s a running joke in the office. (Along with the fact that we have no nameplate outside our door.)
We’re always laughing at these things – not because of what’s on them, but because of how simple everything is.
Sant says that in the rush to get a new office, he had to focus on the important things.
He tells me that most of the furniture was bought from IKEA, and the table that I sit at was assembled by the early team members themselves.
In his words again:
“Building the foundation is important – Chasing the money will make you stuck. Even though initially it took me time and reset and challenges, now we are in a good position to scale, and I know that I have some stable and strong team members and leaders in the team.”
And that makes that white, simple piece of paper seem really important –
Because NOT chasing the money, “somehow” landed us past a million dollars, and on the way up still.
(No, not somehow – that’s the importance of building a strong foundation for your business.)
The money will come when you have a clear direction of your goals and where you want to be headed.
5) Have A Clear Direction, and FOCUS – Don’t Get Distracted.
At the start of this article, I was talking about the “rich”, fancy lifestyles that we sometimes see on social media.
And as a business owner, you’re probably tempted to live that life that you’ve been working so hard for.
But trust me when I say you’re going to need to have a bit more patience, and patience isn’t something that many people have.
Back then, when he made the decision to start his own project, Sant was already part of a million dollar business that he helped build, and he left that previous business to start GrowthTribe.
“To let go of doing $1m, $2m a year, and restart from zero, restart with an unproven team, right at the beginning – took a lot of patience. Two years into GrowthTribe, it still wasn’t exactly a big explosion.”
I guess the question I have for myself at this point, and what my fellow entrepreneurs should ask yourselves is:
Would we have been able to do that, at that point of time?
To leave everything behind, and start from scratch again.
And that’s the importance of being focused and having a clear direction, because if you don’t have a clear direction, it’ll be extremely easy to get derailed, and lost sight of your goals.
Have a clear direction – The goal doesn’t have to be very specific even.
What’s crucial is having a strong vision and purpose that you want to achieve.
Here’s how you achieve that focus in your business:
Shut your blinders, and shut out all distractions. Ignore the “glitz”, and focus on the work.
Control what you can control – and be adaptive to what’s outside your control. React fast. No plan, however perfect it is, survives the battleground – adaptability is equally important.
Having strong mental resilience is crucial. It’s going to be stressful, and hectic – but you’re going to have to find the right solution.
And that takes us to the last, but perhaps most important mindset you’ll need to have as a business owner / entrepreneur.
6) Don’t Ever Expect Business Growth To Be Smooth Sailing (Have Patience)
Recently, people have been complementing the team, and the business in general, and it looks like things are going really well – and they are.
But the important thing to remember is that they weren’t always that way. More importantly, it’s that they might not always be that way in the future.
You see, most people think that business growth is a smooth graph –
First, you grow slowly as you handle the initial inertia.
Then once you hit a certain point and find the right “combination”, your business will skyrocket upwards.
Unfortunately – that’s both wrong, and pretty dangerous.
Business growth kinda looks more like this:
Above, I talked about the biggest training we held in December 2014 – and how a month later, we were setback by the splitting of the partnership.
And that wasn’t the only time we ran into obstacles.
Way back at the start, Sant lost one of his first apprentices and had to restart again with Adam.
We’ve lost other team members along the way.
Two years in, we still weren’t growing as quickly as we’d like.
But in 2015, we crossed a million dollars.
This year we’re doing minimally double what we did last year, possibly close to triple.
What most people don’t know is that earlier this year, for 3 months, we weren’t able to sell anything at all, because we ran into obstacles.
Then, last month, we did 6-figure weeks for the entire month.
And what we’ve learnt from all this is:
You can never expect a smooth sail.
Things are going to spike up and look really great some days,
And on others you’re going to get smacked down by a heavy dose of reality.
When you stretch and do something new, something that is foreign, and you fail, most of you might think that as as failure.
However, if you view it from the right context – every failure becomes a learning experience that leads to the next big success.
We wouldn’t have hit 6 figure weeks without facing our challenges head on and learning from them.
Point is, as business owners, if you have that long-term perspective to treat every failure as a learning point, that kind of winning attitude will make you always grow.
All you can expect is that when you run into obstacles, you take a step back, refocus, and then continue pushing forward.
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Anyway, if you’ve read to the end of this blog post – you’re definitely an entrepreneur / small business owner. (Doesn’t matter which stage you’re at – $0, $100k, $500k, maybe even past a million bucks.)
And what I’ve been talking about are some of the crucial foundations of building a long term, stable business – getting the initial capital, building a team, having the right people and mindset for long term scalability and growth.
But as a business owner yourself, you know that foundations and mindsets are great and all – but on the ground, doing the actual work is a whole different ball game.
And you’re probably wondering what some of the practical, strategic areas we had to cover to actually EARN this $1,000,000.
We know this, and now that you have your foundations clear –
We’ve broken down some of the key crucial areas every business needs to focus on to scale to 7-figures and beyond. (e.g. getting customers, making sales, managing your staff.)
You’ll find this checklist useful if you’re trying to figure out the state of your business and where you lie in your million-dollar journey –
So download it, print it out, hang it up on your wall, or fold it up and keep it in your wallet.
Stay tuned to GrowthTribe, because we’ll be going in-depth into the practical strategies and their action steps in the coming days.