Starter Story Sunday Breakfast #4

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Updated: August 1st, 2022

This is an archive of the Starter Story newsletter, which is read by 224K people every week.

In each issue, we share the biggest business ideas that are working today, along with case studies of founders who are making millions every month. Sign up today ➜

1. The orange juice 🍊

This couple built an $18M business selling photo booths.

A marketing strategy to mimic? They created a video series showing how one of their customers went from $0-$100K in only 10 months. They even recorded the mentor calls and posted them on YouTube. Is there a better way to show that your product works?

Real-life testimonies work. Ask your customers for them, most would probably be happy to be part of your marketing (they’ll get exposure too).

2. The coffee ☕️

This side hustle grew to $1.2M/year.

Car accessories is a $489 billion global market. It’s so huge that a simple side hustle was able to become a 7-figures revenue stream.

Biggest takeaway? Go to the market before you start building anything and talk to your potential customers. This founder always spends time on forums engaging in conversations with active members who fit his ideal customer profile and gathers feedback from them. This helps to fine-tune what you're doing and gives you a higher chance of success.

3. The eggs 🍳

This guy makes $60K/year selling custom hand-painted sneakers.

The most amazing thing? He has landed huge brands such as Amazon, Netflix, and Corona as customers.

A lesson to learn? When you're trying to grow a business you need to say no to certain opportunities that come. Custom shoes have a higher profit margin than T-shirts, so when an opportunity came to start designing T-shirts, it didn’t make sense. It could seem like your expanding (new products), but in reality, you’re taking attention from your business core.

Want to become a master on how to say no? Read this.

4. The toast 🥪

This business reached $3M/year despite being banned by the big tech companies.

With Google deranking its website, Facebook shutting down its ads account, and Amazon kicking its products off the marketplace; this company has had to become very creative with its marketing.

How have they overcome these obstacles? Focusing on channels that don’t rely on Big Tech, such as podcast advertising, affiliates, paid email advertising, and alternative social media websites.

Key takeaway: There’s no silver bullet when it comes to marketing. Common strategies may not be right for you, but when there’s a will there’s a way.

5. The pancakes 🥞

These first-time founders started an $840K/year business with $300.

Today their marketplace holds over $40M of in-stock inventory and has done nearly $2M in lifetime sales.

How have they done that? They quickly did everything possible to become self-taught SEO experts. This industry is restricted from running social and search ads so organic traffic is paramount to the business.

Enjoy your Sunday, and have a great week ahead!

meet the author

David Bustos

Hey there! 👋 I'm David, and if you ever got an email from Starter Story, I probably wrote it. With a background in working with startups and writing, being part of this team is kind of a perfect fit for me.

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