BIO: Chris Do is a self-described loud introvert, recovering graphic designer, middle child, serial entrepreneur, Emmy award-winning director, educator, and founder of TheFutur.
STORY: Chris’s business was based on the West Coast, and they wanted to expand to the East Coast for a bigger market share. So they opened a small office hemorrhaging money and didn’t generate substantial revenue.
LEARNING: You can’t export your core competency. Optimize your business before you scale.
“Optimize your business before you scale. Because when you scale, you scale all the success and all the mistakes.”
Chris Do
Guest profile
Chris Do is a self-described loud introvert, recovering graphic designer, middle child, serial entrepreneur, Emmy award-winning director, educator, and founder of TheFutur.
Chris has an audacious mission of teaching one billion people how to make a living doing what they love.
Worst investment ever
Chris’s company was a West Coast LA-based motion design firm. They realized that for the business to get the market share they wanted, they needed to have an East Coast office. They rented a small office and renovated it. They hired an office manager, an executive producer, and a creative director to run it for them. No one from the West Coast office wanted to live on the East Coast. So they had to run two offices incurring double the expenses, but we’re still not growing their revenue. Now they were shrinking profit.
This happened over five years. The company was putting more money into the East Coast office year after year with no reliable revenue. Ultimately, they closed the office because it didn’t work for them.
Lessons learned
- Don’t put good money after bad.
- You need to export your core competency.
- Optimize your business before you scale.
- Do an accurate cost-benefit analysis and understand your risk.
Andrew’s takeaways
- You can’t have someone else fight your battles; you’ve got to be on that front.
- Always consider all the possible risks when you’re looking at expanding your business.
- Get monthly, accurate, and on-time financial statements.
Actionable advice
Before you expand your business, question your assumptions and analyze whether the effort is worth the risk.
No.1 goal for the next 12 months
Chris’s number one goal for the next 12 months is to launch his mastermind, a high-level group for people making between one to 5 million a year.
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