The popular adage, “Your network is your net worth” is wrong.
As a self-made multimillionaire and founder of several successful, fast growth and most importantly, profitable, companies, I’ve learned my self-confidence and acquired skills added together are my net worth — it has nothing to do with anyone else.
Yes, I have employees and partners. To build a healthy, fast-growing company (or companies if you’re ambitious like me) I’m not suggesting you do everything yourself. Instead I want you to be different from far too many founders and networkers who I’ve met over the years who inevitably failed by putting too much value in partnerships and relationships.
As company founder, you are the soul of everything and it’s up to you to create great products and you are responsible for everything that happens from day one.
Here are my tips for building a profitable company on your own:
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Recognize your weaknesses and outsource.
In a perfect world I would only rely on myself because I know I can do the job the right way. Unfortunately, I don’t have enough time in the day to do all that’s required, human cloning is banned by the United Nations and I don’t know programming, PR, SEO or sales so I have outsourced all of those jobs to others.
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Focus on your strengths and refine them.
Many people ask why I don’t learn other skillsets to compliment my existing talents, but I have zero time to learn given how fast my companies are growing. It’s difficult, but ultimately necessary, to realize that by honing your strengths, you can become a true master as opposed to just being competent in several different skillsets. There’s far greater value in being a recognized expert in any one subject.
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Use catalysts and milestones to tell your story.
Startups usually love consistent attention – it’s good for the ego, company morale and business, but I’ve learned to only go all out with telling my company story when the timing is right. For example, when I hit $3 million in trading profits, every trade detailed, I held a milestone webinar to attract new students in which I gave the same advice I’d have given if I was at $2.8 or $3.3 million (now I’m up to $3.77 million and am preparing for another milestone webinar when I hit $4 million). Similarly, when my 2nd student passed $1 million in profits after starting with just $1,500 of his own money 3 years prior, I hired a PR person to get the word out and she helped us tell that story on CNN and that was a big hit (he’s now up to $1.64 million in profits just 3 months later, but we have no more stories planned until he reaches $2 million). Headlines and milestones are key to getting others interested in you and your products even if they are meaningless in the long run.
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Don’t rush exposure, ensure you are prepared for growth.
I’ve been a stock trader for 15 years and a teacher for 6 years, but had I started promoting my educational services right when I first began teaching, I wouldn’t have been prepared for the onslaught of customers and it would’ve been disastrous. Even now with business doubling year-over-year, I underestimated the work it would take to handle 5,000+ students and I’ve had to make several rushed hires to help deal with this growth.
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Have vision from the beginning, be open to adaptation and execute.
When I got into teaching people how to trade stocks, I didn’t know exactly what tools and type of content would be the most effective, but I had a grand vision for creating millionaires from scratch just like how I turned $12,415 into $1.65 million in 4 years when I first got started. Over the last few years, I’ve written a book, 8,000+ blog posts, made 1,500+ video lessons, posted 250+ videos on Youtube, done over 300 webinars, written nearly 1,000 stock watchlists, given over 7,000 stock commentaries, nearly 1,000 trading alerts and now have half a dozen websites all in an effort to maximize the effectiveness of my teachings.
If you look at my earlier Youtube videos I talk endlessly about this goal and I sound like a scam an/or absolutely out of my mind. But now 6 years into this business, I have created not one but two millionaires from scratch and now the question has gone from “can I create a millionaire from scratch?” to “how many millionaires can I create?”
No matter how crazy your plans seem, if you can envision it, it is possible if you work hard enough and are open to adapting in the pursuit of success along the way.
Timothy Sykes is an American stock trader, entrepreneur, and penny stock expert. He is best known for turning his bar mitzvah money into over $1 million by day trading in-between classes at Tulane University. He is the author of An American Hedge Fund. Follow him on Instagram and Twitter at @timothysykes.
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