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How Has Quitting My Job (and Starting a Business) Gone For Me So Far?

April 13, 2015 · By Vincent Nguyen · 18 Comments

How Has Quitting My Job (and Starting a Business) Gone For Me So Far?

WARNING: STREAM OF CONSCIOUSNESS AHEAD

Ah, officially 101 days (at the time of this writing) has gone by since opening up shop.

That’s right, we’re in the triple digits, baby!

After leaving my dream job in December, I took the next two weeks off to pick up an old habit of mine:

Playing a ton of online video games with my high school buddies.

It was fun spending hours gaming while talking with my friends on Skype like the good old days.

Then the day after New Years hit, it was time to get back into business. Or rather, time to start my first business.

On January 2, 2015, at approximately 6am Arizona time, I popped open my laptop and got to work. I had an idea in mind and a name. A name that’s been on the receiving end of a lot of compliments:

Growth Ninja

Oh. Yeah. Buddy!

Now, I’m not sure how relevant the finer details of my business is to Self Stairway, but I’ve had some people ask if I was going to talk about it on this website in at least some semi-specific fashion.

I’m in a very stream of consciousness mood and I thought it’d be kind of fun to talk about. So why not?

Some of my entrepreneurial friends take a very transparent approach and publish monthly business reports that details their revenue for the month—which I think is absolutely awesome of them—but I’m not sure I’m going that route, especially not on this site.

But I’m more than happy to share my ups and downs on occasion, only if that means I get to present it in an unstructured mess of a monologue. Today’s such an occasion.

Remember when I said I quit my dream job in December? Justin and Joe, my former bosses, are still good friends and we actually still work together.

Even though I’m no longer their employee, they’ve been my clients since early February. BOOM!

In fact, I’ll be hanging out with them in Southeast Asia early May, along with the many others in our entrepreneurial community in places like Davao, Saigon, and Chiang Mai.

I’ve been in the states for nearly half a year now and it’s about time I get back on a plane that takes me further than 350 miles.

Back to the business:

To date, I have 16 clients and I’m regularly receiving referrals from my network. The majority of my current clients were either people I reached out to who already knew me or came from someone who vouched for me (thanks everyone!)

As for cold emailing and cold calling, it’s been a whole lot rougher. Almost zero progress on that front.

I’ve got a plan in place for when I’m ready for some serious scaling that’ll be much more efficient at finding people who are a good fit.

No cancellations yet, but I’m not going to say things have all been smooth sailing.

With the very unpredictable nature of my industry, things don’t always go your way.

I’d give you more details, but some of it is inside baseball and potentially could draw a target on my back from the hand that feeds (Facebook itself). Though, feel free to shoot me an email if you’re curious.

I’ve turned away a lot of money these past few months by declining clients who I felt I wasn’t a good fit for.

Literally saying no to people–and as a result, money–who want to work with you can be hard, but I’m much more in favor of planning for the long-term and doing good work for those I work with vs. making money on the short-term and failing.

Unfortunately, I had one person take this the wrong way when I suggested we weren’t a good fit for him. I’m almost tempted to publish the contents of the email because of the way he aggressively attacked me–not going to lie, I shared some of it with a few close friends.

As for the revenue side of things, the business is doing better than I had anticipated. I’ve managed to hit 5-figures in Q1 and hoping to make that amount on a monthly basis by the end of the year.

My next big step is to hire my first full-time employee or Virtual Assistant. I’m finding myself constantly turning the (sales) faucet on and off to keep up with demand and setting up for new clients.

Right now, it’s a one-man-show but I’ll have to build a team and replace myself over time if I want to scale this thing to six-figures and beyond.

With the help of some very smart entrepreneurs, I’ve had my eyes opened to what my business could one day become. Something scalable with a large team that automates most of the tasks. That’s not something I had envisioned for it from day one, but it’s where I’m planning to head in the future.

This whole journey really is an emotional rollercoaster and it’s hardly been 101 days.

Some days, I’m on top of the world because everything is going my way. Everyone’s happy, my clients and myself. I feel unstoppable.

Then some things go wrong and fires begin. Some imaginary and some real.

Rinse and repeat.

And although I find myself struggling with subtle feelings of complacency, I’m not going to slow down.

I wouldn’t trade this whole experience for the world.

Besides, I love being on edge just a bit. It keeps me driven and it makes me hungry for improvement.

Here’s to the next 101 days and many more to come.

Feel free to ask me (almost) anything in the comment section!

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. John Lee Dumas says

    April 13, 2015 at 7:57 am

    Wow, what a great article Vincent! Thanks for the mention, it’s an honor 🙂

    Reply
    • Vincent Nguyen says

      April 13, 2015 at 8:06 am

      No problem, John!

      I heard you were in Arizona for ICON?

      Reply
  2. Jamie Alexander says

    April 13, 2015 at 10:53 am

    Why complaints about the name?

    Well done btw, only going to get better.

    Reply
    • Vincent Nguyen says

      April 13, 2015 at 10:55 am

      Compliments, not complaints. 🙂

      And thanks!

      Reply
      • Jamie Alexander says

        April 13, 2015 at 12:03 pm

        Haha, don’t know how I missed that.

        I did think it was a great name when I first heard you mentioned it, so wondered why everyone was giving you such a hard time.

        Reply
  3. Joff Panos says

    April 14, 2015 at 7:10 pm

    happy for you Vince! And inspired too. See you when I see you in Davao!

    Reply
    • Vincent Nguyen says

      April 14, 2015 at 8:44 pm

      Thanks, man! Can’t wait to catch up!

      Reply
  4. Taylor says

    April 14, 2015 at 7:58 pm

    I really love getting emails from you. You have so many wonderful things to teach, I can easily say I’m inspired! I was wondering if there is anyway your book might show up on audible anytime?

    Reply
    • Vincent Nguyen says

      April 14, 2015 at 8:48 pm

      Thanks, Taylor!

      You’re actually the first person to have suggested creating an audiobook version!

      Hmm… If I were to do that then I’d much prefer narrating it myself vs. hiring someone else to do it.

      Interesting to think about but I’m not sure it’ll be anytime soon.

      That doesn’t mean never though!

      I’ve been toying with the idea of narrating some of the articles and including it to email subscribers as a weekly exclusive. What’re your thoughts on that?

      Reply
      • Taylor says

        April 14, 2015 at 9:05 pm

        You definitely should narrate your own book. I haven’t gotten the chance to read it, but there’s just something about it that I find important you can hear the passion and that makes it so much better. And I think it can’t hurt! As long as it doesn’t take up more time than it’s worth, but you never know, it could work out great! Excited to see what you decide to do! 🙂

        Reply
        • Nick says

          April 16, 2015 at 10:27 am

          Agree with Taylor. Your Youtube vid was very well done and you have a great speaking voice.

          Reply
          • Vincent Nguyen says

            April 16, 2015 at 10:02 pm

            Thanks for the encouragement! Gives me a bit more motivation to get it done. 🙂

            Reply
  5. Nick says

    April 14, 2015 at 10:48 pm

    I got a lot out of this post. It makes me happy for you.You are something else. Your dreams are inspirational. I will dream about you and your success tonight. Keep on keeping on! 🙂

    Reply
    • Vincent Nguyen says

      April 16, 2015 at 6:36 am

      Thanks, Nick!

      Reply
  6. Rob Leonardo says

    April 20, 2015 at 10:25 pm

    Real stories like this creates inspiration. Well done Vince!

    Reply
  7. Jimbob says

    May 26, 2015 at 9:52 pm

    Ya, this is inspiring man, it sounds like you´re really hitting a sweet spot in life where things just start to “click”. Its a great feeling. I wish you all the best

    Reply
  8. Ruang Kerja says

    June 24, 2017 at 3:01 am

    yes, you need more entrepreneurial friends to motivated you.

    Reply

Trackbacks

  1. Be Your Biggest Supporter - Self Stairway says:
    April 27, 2015 at 4:20 am

    […] I’d get shiver and get goosebumps at the thought of running a business. […]

    Reply

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