Throwback: Five Mistakes That Almost Cost Me My Business

In this Throwback episode, Josh, a seasoned entrepreneur, is interviewed by Chad Franzen of Rise 25. Josh shares five costly mistakes he made scaling his Amazon-based business, including over-diversifying sales channels, hiring without clear roles, delaying process documentation, underinvesting in talent, and launching unoriginal products. Their candid discussion offers actionable lessons for 6-7 figure business owners aiming for 8 figures: focus on your best channels, hire strategically, document processes early, invest in quality talent, and prioritize innovation. Listeners gain practical insights to avoid common pitfalls and accelerate their path to greater scale and profitability.

Chapters:

Introduction & Overview of 5 Mistakes (00:00:00)
Josh introduces the five major mistakes he made in his entrepreneurial journey.

Mistake 1: Over-Diversifying Sales Channels (00:01:09)
Josh discusses spreading efforts too thin by moving from Amazon to Shopify and Etsy, and the resulting lack of success.

Mistake 2: Hiring Without Clearly Defined Roles (00:04:01)
Josh explains hiring people without clear roles, leading to ineffective hires and wasted resources.

Mistake 3: Waiting Too Long to Document Processes (00:06:13)
Josh talks about delaying documentation of business processes, which hindered scalability and efficiency.

Mistake 4: Hiring at the Cheapest Rate Possible (00:08:05)
Josh describes the pitfalls of trying to hire the cheapest talent, and the benefits of investing in quality hires.

Mistake 5: Launching "Me-Too" Products (00:10:46)
Josh shares lessons from launching unoriginal products and the importance of unique, differentiated offerings.

Key Takeaways & Ideal Process (00:12:48)
Josh summarizes the main lessons learned and outlines the ideal process he wishes he had followed.

Closing Remarks (00:15:37)
Chad and Josh wrap up the episode and thank each other.

Links and Mentions:

Tools and Websites
Amazon
Shopify
Etsy

Transcript:

Josh 00:00:00  For everybody listening. You're able to avoid these mistakes that I made and help you move faster in your own journey as an entrepreneur. So let's talk about mistake number one is thinking that I have to be diversified in every sales channel, possibly or possible out there. Okay. Number two is going to be hiring people without having like clearly defined roles and probably hiring people to just solve a problem without me actually understanding the problem and very clearly defining that role. Number three is going to be waiting too long to document the processes in my business. And then number four is hiring trying to hire people at the cheapest rate possible. And then number five is launching or creating me two products that aren't 100% original or unique. So those are going to be like the five big mistakes that I'd love to share with the audience today. Today I am excited. I have Chad Franzen in here of rise 25, who has done hundreds of interviews with successful entrepreneurs and CEOs. We have flipped the script and he will be interviewing me today.

Chad 00:01:09  Yeah. You know, when I hear you list those mistakes, I think, like, I think most people would probably think along the same lines, that you were thinking maybe when you first started making those mistakes. So I think it'll be very, interesting and informative to hear some kind of your journey regarding these mistakes. Why don't we start with the first one? Having you felt like you had to diversify the business and communicate through all channels. Tell me, maybe what your thought process was going in and why. That seemed like a good idea at the time.

Josh 00:01:36  With Amazon, we were selling physical products, right? And we had this great idea that's like, hey, let's diversify ourselves. Let's go create a Shopify site. And then, hey, there's also this good opportunity on on Etsy where people are selling these digital files. And so we had this genius idea at the time that was like, okay, so many people talk about how, you know, physical products, brands, you know, so much crap gets tied up in inventory that cash flow becomes a problem.

Josh 00:02:08  So, yeah, I think it would be great if we did just digital products. Let's go dominate that on Etsy. And then let's open up our own Shopify site. We can maybe sell some of our physical products there, but let's really sell these digital products. And again, we did this all out of fear and running away from Amazon, which was which was working great for us. So we end up going in and we spend literally we spent the last those next three years from 2017 until 2020, we spent building out our our Shopify site, which honestly like I think the