Letting Go Of Control Helped Me Grow My Business To $6M/Year [Update]

Ryan S Maltbie

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Published: March 29th, 2022

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Ryan S Maltbie

Founder, BBQGrills.com

$500K

revenue/mo

Founders

Employees

BBQGrills.com

bbqgrills.com

from Brentwood, CA, USA

started December 2019

$500,000

revenue/mo

Founders

Employees

Discover what tools recommends to grow your business!

Discover what books Ryan recommends to grow your business!

Want more updates on BBQGrills.com? Check out these stories:

1. From My Last $600 to $10M in Three Years [+ Acquring BBQs.com] (2023) ➜

2. From $600 left to $2M in sales in its first year of Business Selling BBQ And Outdoor Kitchen Equipment (2021) ➜

This is a follow up story for BBQGrills.com. If you're interested in reading how they got started, published almost 4 years ago, check it out here.

Hello again! Remind us who you are and what business you started.

It’s an absolute pleasure to have the opportunity, once again, to share our story with StaterStory and the incredible progress that BBQGrills.com has made over the past 12 months.

For those of you that may not know, my name is Ryan Maltbie and I’m the Owner/Founder of BBQGrills.com, one of the largest and fastest-growing online retailers of outdoor kitchen equipment, outdoor heater, and you guessed it, BBQ Grills.

In this article, I’m going to cover what our company has experienced over the past few years, mostly going over our last 8-12 months in business and capturing our focus since our last article, where we showcased our biggest achievement of hitting one million in overall sales revenue.

I’m beyond excited to share this incredible journey with you all, so without further ado, let’s get right into it!

Tell us about what you’ve been up to! Has the business been growing?

Have you ever had an incredible dream? One that is so realistic that you can almost feel the moment where victory, success, and all of your five senses are being used? So real, that when you awaken, you have to sit at the foot of the bed and ponder for a few minutes just to realize that it was all a dream?

For me, that was BBQGrills.com, and over the past 2 years, that’s what this entire journey has felt like…a dream! From being down to my last $600 to now experiencing the full emotions of what it means to be a CEO of the fastest growing online company in our industry…it’s simply incredible.

When I last sat down with StarterStory, we announced the news that our company had crossed the one million dollar revenue mark, an achievement that many businesses don’t get the honor of seeing. It’s with incredible excitement that I announce that as of today, our company has officially reached our next goal - $5 million in overall revenue in 2 years. To say that I’m proud, would be an incredible understatement. The team that we have, the vision that surrounds or synergy and the incredible opportunity that we get to help our customers create beautiful backyard oasis’ is a dream come true.

In 2020, our first year in business, and I haven’t stated this publicly, I handled every facet of the business. From bookkeeping to order entry, sales to marketing and order packaging and tracking to customer service. At the end of 2020, my brain was fried, I was mental and emotionally exhausted and although I had reached the pinnacle of what I thought would bring me happiness, I was more depressed and experienced more emotional instability that I had ever felt in my life. I felt as if I had lost every fiber of my being to chase what I ‘thought’ would bring me happiness, I was strongly mistaken.

At the start of 2021 I made myself a promise, get help, not just mentally but in the business as well. I read a quote a long time ago and it stated “you can’t be successful in business if your personal life is in disarray” and there’s nothing more true. I spent Q1 of 21’ getting a team together to take care of everything I could no longer hold on to. I spent months training each one to do their job effectively and efficiently, and by the end of Q3, I had felt freer and was able to put my full focus into growing the business. Getting back to where I needed to be and taking myself out of the business and allowing myself to focus on the big key aspects.

Sure, there are things that I still dabble in this day, but I’m very happy to be able to take a step back and look at the big picture and have a team, that’s just as dedicated as I am to making this company the best that it can be.

Growing sales is always a hard thing to do, especially in a day and age when the cost to do so can outweigh the profit. It’s razor thin, and finding a balance in navigation for any business owner can mean the difference between thriving and dying. One thing that we’ve done over the last 12 months is owning our marketing, not allowing outside agencies to take ahold of this, and allowing us to take it by the reins. One of the most untapped marketing opportunities for any e-commerce business is email marketing and SMS marketing. The ability to communicate directly with our clients, develop a trustworthy brand and focus is unmatched and we see ROI 10x higher than any other form of marketing or advertising. With this focal point of giving back to our clients, we’ve noticed a 150% growth in traffic, while experiencing a 30% growth in retention. In English, more customers are coming to our site, and staying for longer. It’s the perfect comparison to saving money, all while making more. It’s exactly the numbers you look for, in any business.

What have been your biggest lessons learned in the last year?

Navigating any business in these times is hard enough, experiencing 150% growth month over month for the last year, with a limited team while trying to man the ship…can sometimes be a nightmare.

The biggest lessons that I’ve learned over the last twelve months lies from within. Focusing on my mental health and making sure that this same understanding is replicated to my employees is predominant in the success of our company. We’re all humans, right? We all have days, stress can get to us from in the office, even from outside events, we don’t want that going out to our customers.

This is why over the past few months I’ve taken the stand in allowing our team to step away when they need to, have offered the ability to take vacations (paid by myself) to distance themselves from this space and realign themselves with where they need to be. Reduced hours, all while increasing pay to ensure that our team is getting exactly what they need.

I’m not a Fortune500 company that brings in billions of dollars in revenue, but what I am is an understanding CEO that realizes that life is all around us and if I can help strengthen my inner circle from within, motivate and create a solid foundation, I don’t need to worry about the success of my business, those fruits will yield as long as I focus on the inner workings.

What’s in the plans for the upcoming year, and the next 5 years?

We have a 5-year plan, hell, we have a 15 year plan. The point is, we know where we need to be, but we don’t focus so much on it that it distracts us or throws us off-course from where we are right now. I always tell my team “be where your feet are”, don’t allow anything or any vision to distract you from where you are now, soak in every moment and allow it to continue to push us to the next.

It’s perfectly fine to be misunderstood, it’s perfectly fine to fail and have moments where you question where you are…I have them almost daily.

On a higher level, we’re very excited for the next 5-years and I truly feel that they’ll be the most life/game-changing years that this industry has ever seen. As I type this, I’m currently working with our next partnership, which will be a brand of secondary items on it’s own site that I truly will be just AS big as BBQGrills.com. Both companies will market off of one another and will provide true value to each other. I’d announce it, but the deal is simply in the final stages and I won’t jump the gun, all I will say is…it’s going to be ABSOLUTELY INSANE!

Have you read any good books in the last year?

I recently purchased from Alabaster (biblical book with beautiful imagery) the book of Proverbs, I truly feel that every business owner and individual that aspires to reach a greater meaning of themselves reads that chapter of the bible.

It covers many focal points of not only life, but hardships, success, and reminding us where we all need to be.

Advice for other entrepreneurs who might be struggling to grow their business?

Just keep going…I know it sounds cliche and ‘everyone says it’, but you have to just keep fighting and working towards what it is that you believe in. It’s perfectly fine to be misunderstood, it’s perfectly fine to fail and have moments where you question where you are…I have them almost daily.

It’s human nature to want to react to every situation, don’t. Allow yourself the time needed to understand your passion, your emotions and most importantly your attitude towards the choices and things that are throw your way. I tell my 10-year old Son almost every morning. Every day, we get a chance and a choice - a chance to do the right thing, and the choice if we’re going to do it or not, it’s all up to you.

I want to thank each and every one of you for reading this story and if you’ve made it this far, I truly appreciate you taking the time to get to know not only myself, but this incredible thing that we’ve created. I hope everyone has a beautiful day, may you always keep working and trying your best and always know where you need to be. Thank you guys, much love.