My one business that really, really bombed

I’ve started four businesses. Three of them worked out great. Crushed it, really.

Not number four. Not by a long shot.

Business #1 —  Strauss Law Firm. Made a profit the very first month.

Business #2 —  Strauss Content Co. Syndicating my USA TODAY columns, generating brand deals with Microsoft and Bank of America. Bingo!

Business #3 —  TheSelfEmployed.com, built with great sponsors. Boom!

Business #4 —  Strauss Law Firm, Office #2. Seventy-five miles away in San Francisco.

I want to tell you about that fourth one, because it explains why this One Person Empire Accelerator exists at all.

A long time ago, in a city far, far away (Sacramento), I had a very successful law practice. So successful was I, and so arrogant, that I got this half-baked, dimwitted idea to open a second office in San Francisco, an hour and a half up the road.

I had this plan despite never having run a remote office. Never having hired another attorney. Never having managed other attorneys, let alone managed them in another city entirely. And there was barely the rudiments of an internet back then, so communication was, shall we say, spotty.

What a dumb idea.

What a half-cocked plan.

What a heaping bowl of naiveté and arrogance.

And no, it was not a slow bleed. It was a genuine, expensive, humbling capital-F Failure.

That six-month adventure cost me about $65,000. We were newly married at the time. Little babies in diapers, the whole thing. I could ill afford such a mistake.

And for years afterward I told myself a story about why. It was the market, I tell you! The timing! The bad location I picked!

(Err. The Embarcadero was actually pretty sweet.)

Here’s what was true: I didn’t know what the heck I was doing. Not a clue. And I most certainly didn’t have the right help.

Unlike when I built my first law firm — where I asked everybody I could find — this time I never talked to a single soul who had done it. Not an old partner from where I used to work. Not a lawyer in the city who could give me some insight. Not even an office manager.

No mentors. No realistic plan. No feedback.

I just winged it, thought I knew better.

Now compare that to the best business I ever built.

TheSelfEmployed.com took off because I partnered with a big brand who handed me the resources and expertise I needed. I brought on a design expert (Abby — still my trusty tech sidekick all these years later). A video team. Startup know-how from the brand that I flat-out lacked. Then came the sponsors and partners: Microsoft. Staples. Visa. Bank of America.

And then Mark Cuban and his company Zen Business came and bought it.

Same guy. Same work ethic. Same skills. And honestly, an older and more tired brain the second time around.

The difference was help, expertise, and a road map.

Which brings me to why I’m doing this Accelerator live instead of selling you a DIY video course.

Here’s the thing people get wrong about a One Person Empire: one person doesn’t mean always all alone.

Business is a team sport. As Rocky said about him and Adrian — “I got gaps, she got gaps, together we fill gaps.”

I want to help you fill your gaps. Microsoft and Staples filled mine when I needed it, and it made all the difference.

And the other members of the Accelerator will do the same for you, as you will for them. You’ll have the genius of the entrepreneurial crowd at your back.

Four Thursdays, live, starting September 10. You bring your business — your questions, your ideas, your dreams, your vision — and I give you my honest read. Feedback, insight, options. Hot seats where we work on one person’s situation in front of everybody, which is where half the learning happens.

You are not buying my calendar. You’re buying thirty-five years of judgment, pointed directly at your business.

And then, each week, I will give your another brick in the foundation, the plan, and the process. Marketing made easy. Social media strategy. Creating Multiple Profit Centers. Follow the process, lay the. bricks, and you’ll create a business that spits out leads, sales, and money — and an enjoyable, workable, profitable business that will be, yes,

Your One Person Empire.

That is the thing I did not have in San Francisco. No plan, no help, no foundation. It cost me a business. It probably cost me a decade. I’d really rather you didn’t find out the same way I did.

See the whole thing here →

ALSO - Two things you get by enrolling now.

First, the founding price of $397. Tuesday night it goes to $497, and it climbs from there until enrollment closes.

Second, the bonus live Money Session Tuesday night. I’ll show you where the money is hiding and how to find it, even when you don’t have any and your credit is bruised. Grants nobody applies for. Getting paid before you build. And the lenders who don’t run credit checks at all.

Both the bonus session and the $397 close Tuesday night.

Join the Accelerator →

I really hope to see you on the inside. Let’s build your dream!

It’s your turn.

Steve

P.S. Wait too long and the price goes up and the free money session disappears. I’d act now. Enroll here: mrallbiz.com/accelerator