Like most entrepreneurs, I’ve tried and failed many times before I found my niche.

My first venture was car flipping.

Random, I know.

It’s completely unrelated to the Bookkeeping and CFO firm that I run today, but it’s a big part of why Scalable works today.

Here’s how it all went down.

The Car Flipping Business

It all started in college.

I needed about $2,500/month—mainly for expenses, some small investments, and most importantly, beers.

A friend of mine told me about flipping cars, and we decided to join forces.

Our first attempt at this turned out to be barely worth the effort though. We had been going to regular car auctions in Houston and flipping them at about a 10% margin.

We needed something better.

Then, we spotted a goldmine: wrecked luxury cars.

We started buying them for $3-5K each, fixed them up, and resold them for about $15K.

Just by going up-market, we’d doubled our margins. We did it by finding our perfect market: Houston folks who wanted to look rich. They got luxury cars at half the price, and we got pure cash deals.

From there, the numbers got crazy.

In 24 months, we sold 50 cars and made $250,000 in revenue. Not bad for two college kids with no business experience.

The Big Lesson?

Know your market intimately, then focus on it relentlessly. Everything else is noise.

Today, I run Scalable CFO & Bookkeeping.

Our firm focuses on helping $1M-$40M/year businesses get their finances in order and scale.

We currently manage over $700M in revenue and serve 75+ clients.

Different businesses, same lesson:

Find your niche, serve them well, and never look back.

Need help scaling your business or just want to ask some finance questions?

Hit reply or DM me. As always, I’m happy to help.

Putting It All Together

Here are your top takeaways from this week’s post.

1. My first business failed completely, but it taught me the importance of knowing the market and serving it relentlessly. To do that requires commitment—often saying no to a lot of other good opportunities.

2. It may take some trial and error to find your niche, but it’s time to get focused once you have. Everything else is just noise.

Hungry for More?

1. Follow me on Twitter and LinkedIn for daily content to take your business to the next level.

2. Book a call to learn how Scalable can transform your SMB.

3. Shoot me an email with your questions or requests for what you’d like me to write about next.

‘Til Next Time,

Connor