Rock Your Brand Podcast

I’m excited to announce it’s our one year anniversary of launching Brand Creators Academy. To celebrate, we are open for registration from October 26th-October 30th. Head over to brandcreatorsacademy.com. After we close registration, we’re going to change the process and will start taking applications. This will allow us to see where you are in the process and if you’re a good fit to join Brand Creators.

 

Today we have Nathen Hirsch on the podcast. He recently sold his company, “FreeUp.” He’s going to share with us why it happened, how it happened, and what he is working on now. He’s also going to share his tips on how to build a successful business and what it takes. Let’s get right to it!

 

The Process of Selling FreeUp

 

When I originally started FreeUp, I wanted to build a sellable business and have the opportunity to sell it if the time was ever right. Last year I had a client reach out to see if my partner and I would be willing to sell the business. The offer we received was very reasonable. It required a lot of due diligence on both ends but turned out to be a win-win situation for both the buyers and us. There are only so many ways that you can grow a business, and I knew that I wouldn’t want to take on investors, so selling the business was always something that I had been willing to consider.

 

How We Expanded FreeUp’s Target Market

 

Once we decided to expand our target market with FreeUp, we went after the marketing niche. We were able to get a lot of influences to promote us. It’s a lot easier to get in with tier A influencers within the eCommerce community vs. the marketing space. However, we slowly chipped our way up, and by the time we sold the business, we were focused mainly on the eCommerce and marketing space.

 

We were also very diversified in our marketing efforts. I would say the most successful marketing efforts came from podcasts and affiliate links. We also had success with content swaps and networking on social media. We actually scaled the business without any paid ads. It was tough to track ROI with paid ads with FreeUp, but with my new business, we’re starting to test out paid ads now that we have the other aspects of our business figured out.

 

How Nathan Handled Tough Times In His Business

 

I realized that FreeUp couldn’t scale when I was the one taking all of the calls and talking to everyone who wanted to join. By year three, we had to hire VA’s to take calls to streamline the process. It also took us a while to work with developers to create a better experience. It just took us a while to figure that all out. It was also stressful during the sale of the business. It was tough to spend so much time selling the business and balancing managing the business at the same time. It was overwhelming to know that they could back out of the deal at any time. It was really tough when the sale was finalized because we had to tell our entire internal team. We hadn’t told them until it was final in case it fell through.

 

It wasn’t until a few days after we signed the agreement that we were able to celebrate. We sold our business in November of 2019. I spent some time with my family, and after that, my business partner and I decided that we wanted to continue working together. I spent the next few weeks listening to quite a few podcasts and learning about managing properties to see what we wanted to do next.

 

However, around the same time, we had a lot of people ask us if we could share with them how to hire a VA. From those questions, we create and launched a course the week that COVID hit. Our goal was to get 100 people to sign up, and we were surprised that we hit that number within a week. From there, we created Outsource School to create a community and a membership platform. Our goal was to make sure we had a steady stream of revenue coming in, and a subscription-based business allowed us to do that.

 

How Nathan Met His Business Partner

 

Conner was my first hire back in college. I was running my Amazon business, and he worked with me for a while until I decided to bring him on as a partner a few years later. We have the same values, and we both care more about the bigger picture and treating people well. We have completely opposite skill sets which has worked really well for our business, and that’s what makes us work so well together. If you’re looking to bring on a business partner, remember that it’s important to work together before becoming partners to see how you work together through both the good and bad times. You may get along well when things are going great but may discover later that you don’t do well when faced with conflict.

 

The Goal For Outsource School In The Next Two Year

 

We currently have 400 members within our community, and our goal is to get to 1000. We’ve been working on making updates to our messaging, pricing, creating a library of resources, Facebook group, offering live coaching calls, and perfecting our software. Our software is meant to bring all your SOPs into one place and allow it to connect to your other tools. It also makes it easy to update videos, specifically certain video clips, when parts of your process or business need to be updated.

 

The Importance of Social Media In Your Business

 

After I started FreeUp, I started posting to social media every single day. Every single thing that got engagement, I would create additional posts that were similar and remove any posts that didn’t gain any traction. I learned as I went. Consistency really is everything. I have rules for each platform and always schedule posts in advance. We run our ads from our business page, but many people engage with me directly from my social media profiles.

 

People don’t want to just hear your advice all the time. So I talk about podcasts that I’ve been on, tips for hiring a VA, and highlight things Conner and our other partners have to say. I also ask my community a lot of open-ended questions on social media. You want to always ask questions and include a call to action to get the best results. People love talking about themselves and giving feedback, so I’ve found that it’s been really helpful for our business. 

 

The Secret to Creating a Successful Business

 

In order to manage a successful business, you need to have streamlined processes in place. Break it down into why you are doing this task and how it impacts the big picture. Make notes on how to complete each task and reminders of how to do it accurately. It’s also important to make sure that your business can run without you for the most success.

 

Feel free to follow me on any social media channel if you’d like to connect. You can also try a free trial of Outsource if you’d like to easily find some rockstar VA’s to help you grow your business and make it easier on you. We give 3% of all of our sales to one of our favorite charities, “Teach for the Philippines.” They help children give an education who may not have an opportunity otherwise.

 

Final Note From Scott

 

There you have it. Nathan is an amazing guy. It was great to learn how he always tries to focus on recurring business or products that the customer needs to buy time and time again. Think about that in your own business and how you can incorporate a similar strategy.

 

If you’re interested in building your own brand and want the support of a community dedicated to helping you take action, you’re going to want to head over to brandcreatorsacademy.com.

 

As always, I am here for you, I believe in you and am rooting for you. Now it’s time for you to take action and go rock your brand!

Take-Aways From Today’s Episode

  1. The Process of Selling FreeUp (4:30)
  2. How We Expanded FreeUp’s Target Market (11:28)
  3. How Nathan Handled Tough Times In His Business (16:35)
  4. How Nathan Met His Business Partner (27:49)
  5. The Goal For Outsource School In The Next Two Year (30:48)
  6. The Importance of Social Media In Your Business (35:15)
  7. The Secret to Creating a Successful Business (45:09)

 

Quote: In order to manage a successful business, you need to have streamlined processes in place. Break it down into why are you doing this task and how it impacts the big picture.

Links

Outsource School: https://www.outsourceschool.com/

Brand Creators Academy:

Direct download: RYB900.m4a
Category:general -- posted at: 3:00am EDT