Turning In A Million-Dollar Profit In Your First Year Of Business – Yes, It’s Possible

Raking in seven figures within one year of starting a business is no small or easy feat, obviously. Many entrepreneurs who hit this jackpot that early in business admit to having little or no anticipation of it. “Yes, we are aiming for seven figures one day, but come on! Within one year?” However, when the orders and purchases pile up in heaps, when appointments are exceeding all initial expectations, and when uncharted locations begin to demand your product/service, it quickly stops being a fable as you watch the numbers run up.

In retrospect, a lot of these business persons attribute their early success to the same or at least, a similar set of strategies and personal qualities that accelerate the growth curve and streamline their market infiltration processes. You can’t just waltz into an overcrowded industry and pick up the pace, toeing the common line and doing exactly what everyone else is doing.

According to Irish bodybuilder Kim Constable, the founder and CEO of The Sculpted Vegan, customer satisfaction is often a mindset that cuts out a unique path for passionate entrepreneurs.

“Most people in business go about it all wrong,” says Constable, also the founder of The Million-Dollar Mentor, a personal business coaching program with one-on-one guidance from Kim herself. “They focus on trying to find more people for their programs instead of more programs for their people. From the outset, I focused on supporting and serving my people more than I focused on finding more customers. When people try new things, they are vulnerable and need support. And when you’re there for them every step of the way, They realize that you aren’t just there to ‘take their money.’”

A Niche Within a Niche

At the core of laying out your business plans, you should aim to carve out a tiny, highly specific sector of an existing or a brand new market to target. Targeting a fresh market is usually riskier than other entry strategies because there’s little data to predict the progress trajectory. However, this is the sole reason why market surveys are indispensable. Micro-niching or specific niching allows you to dominate a small part of a broader market to spread out your resources and customer reach as optimally as possible. Also, you tend to have less competition when you run your own little but profitable turf.

A micro-niche in the hairstyling industry could be providing only hair coloring services, experimenting wildly with amazing colors, contours, and stunning combinations. One hilarious micro-niche that gained major popularity in 2020 during the coronavirus lockdown was “adult ice cream trucks”. Mobile trucks moving around neighborhoods selling margaritas, mojitos, and other iced cocktails to adults, much like ice cream carts in a children’s park.

Constable honed in on the micro-niche of tending exclusively to vegans in the fitness industry. There are many fitness apps that “include” vegan recipes and workout videos, but Constable’s brand recently launched The Sculpted Vegan, the world’s first and only all-vegan fitness app with vegan-targeted plans, expert-curated meal plans, and 24-hour coaching support.

“The reason our brand is successful isn’t just because we service vegans; it’s because of HOW we service the vegans,” Constable says. “We provide professional vegan bodybuilding plans for regular people. Our plans are professional fitness plans designed by pro bodybuilders. They are highly curated, precise and formulated to get unparallelled results. Bodybuilder science is difficult enough to master and apply. Add another layer such as veganism, and you are micro-niching down even harder. That is why we are so successful. It’s a skillset that is not widely available, and therefore, more valuable.”

Be Heavily Intentional About Promotion

As long as your product/service serves a useful purpose and offers solid value for hard-earned money, people are going to tap into your brand if they see you – and decide you’re better than the competition. However, before anything else, prospective customers have to know your business exists. There’s no point in launching an awesome brand with incredible aesthetics when there’s no real effort to put your value out to the public. What’s the gain in targeting the wrong audience?

In reality, many businesses are spending tens and hundreds of thousands of dollars on social media ads, and yet, many still struggle with tiny, non-profitable customer pools. You need to be strategic and extremely intentional about the content you advertise to promote your business. Targeting a million dollars means you’d have to go way above the average, and from your sales copy to cover designs and video content to brand ambassadors, high quality and instant value are non-negotiable.

Aim for content that can convince viewers to become leads and eventually, loyalists within the first tens seconds of interaction.

“It’s not about trying to convince viewers to be leads but about reaching those who are struggling with a specific pain point,” Constable explains. “Very few people search for “vegan fitness plans”. But millions are searching for “how to get rid of cellulite/back fat/mom belly” etc.  When advertising we focus on the specific pain point our potential customer is experiencing and it all makes sense. Successful advertising is simply understanding what your customer is filtering for, and showing that to them in your ads.”

Grow With Brand Ambassadors

One of the surest ways of getting your business out there is to channel your content out through brand ambassadors, people who have solid followings online and in the real world with the credibility to endorse your business. They could be popular celebrities, online sensations, and even people who just have massive followings on social media.

Choosing a brand ambassador is a delicate process.

Contrary to the general perception, it’s not just about the number of followers a page has. Many brands have had more luck working with celebrities who have only 50,000 loyal followers than global personalities with millions of followers. A few core boxes to tick off – Is their online reputation in line with the type of value your brand is offering? How many of their followers are actually real and not bots? How credible are they? Are their fans active loyalists or dull space watchers?

You must also consider your endorsement budget and their price bids. Bigger pages tend to have higher endorsement fees, and while you’re more likely to reach a larger audience, the real value actually lies in how much the followers trust the judgment of the personality.

In conclusion, turning in a thousand-dollar profit is hard enough, much less a million dollars, especially for a young, budding business. However, it’s not a dream lodged in ambitious clouds. If you play your cards right, you don’t have to wait ten to twenty years to boast of a seven-figure business. As long as you’re offering real, in-demand value through high-quality channels, hitting the jackpot in one year is pretty achievable.

Lead Photo by fauxels from Pexels.