$120M/year selling foldable homes

•

Updated: February 13th, 2022

This is an archive of the Starter Story newsletter, which is read by 247K people every week.

In each issue, we share the biggest business ideas that are working today, along with case studies of founders who are making millions every month. Sign up today ➜

A Resource Site For Chefs Like Me Generates $60K Of Extra Income

"Around 2015 I had over 250 pages of content and began to make a small amount of revenue from Google Ads. In 2016 I had over 350 pages of content and I added a paid subscription/donation option. In 2019 I earned $17,000 primarily from advertisements income. In January 2020 I saw that I had over 4,000 subscribers but only 5% were paid, subscribers. This was my "aha!" moment. This is when I made a big change!"

My Gym Passion Led Me To Start A $15M/Year Fitness Equipment E-Commerce

"On January 10th, 2010, I placed my first PO for $2700 with a mix of student loan money and savings from my summer bouncing gig at the notorious Calgary Stampede. Shortly after, I began selling the gear directly to my network of fitness people and on craigslist - out of my $500 1991 Ford Festiva.

Shortly after, a friend of mine introduced me to BigCommerce, and on July 18, 2010, I did my first transaction with them. In my first year, I did about 150K in sales and moved into a 3PL in 2011. Shortly after, I graduated, quit my day job at the fitness store, and went full time with Bells during the day and as a head bouncer at a local hipster bar at night."

This Company Sells Foldable Homes & Makes $120M/Year

"Without a doubt, social media and clever marketing have driven the massive interest in our company. The attention has resulted in a waitlist with over 50,000 names for our signature Boxabl Casita. When I first began marketing, I attempted to get on traditional media outlets like the local news. At some point, I reached out to a YouTuber, Kristina Smallhorn. She ended up coming out to Vegas to do a video on our company.

I immediately saw our web traffic, social media following, and inquiries increase substantially. We ran with this. I reached out to as many YouTubers as possible and pitched our company to them. I hoped that our product was unique enough to showcase in one of their videos. The plan worked. Our online presence exploded."

How I Started A $96K/Year Digital Consultancy Business As A Single Mother

"My passion is helping creative entrepreneurs and businesses worldwide, leverage the power of digital technology to reach virtual markets; to build a larger presence online, discover the best ways to make money online, and grow the foundation for a successful online business.

I started my blog from home with zero followers, and it has grown to a community of over 4 million. Through a combination of affiliate marketing, advertising, digital courses, and product reviews, the blog earns over $8,000 monthly."

I Left My Old Career & Started A Meditation Online Courses Business

"I began my working life by joining the London Fire Brigade when I was 18. After about 10 years of service, I took a career break and traveled around India with my girlfriend. It was during that trip that I:

A) Discovered meditation after attending a 10-day silent meditation course.

B) Decided that I wanted a job that was more flexible and didn't require me to stay located in London or the UK until it was time to retire."

From Making Baby Bibs In My Kitchen To Building A $4.8M/Year Global Brand

"Our first product was invented as a result of my frustration feeding my twin daughters. I simply couldn't find anything that would keep them clean through a meal and was fed up with washing their clothes after every meal, so I cut up an old umbrella in my kitchen and sewed some straps to it! It's hard to believe that it's now a multi-award-winning product that is loved by 1 in 7 parents of babies at weaning age in the UK and many more around the world.

Over the last 5 years, we have gone from a kitchen table start-up to a global brand distributing products in over 25 countries with global sales of over 500,000 bibs."

20 Free Sales Tracking Templates

We know that keeping track of sales, conversions, commissions, etc can be a bigger pain than expected before starting a business. And because our goal is to make the life of the starters and doers around the internet easier, we've put together a set of templates to help you manage that part of your business. Check them out!

I Bootstrapped A $1.2M/Year Business By Flipping And Investing In Websites

"We mainly have three offerings:

1-1 Investment - We do everything, from scouting the deals, doing due diligence, negotiations, and the business transfer. We also operate the business on behalf of the investor once it's been bought, The minimum investment needed to avail of this offering is $100,000.
Group Buy - This is also a fully managed service but with a much lower entry point at $25,000. Here, we pool money from multiple investors and then buy 3-4 assets in each pool we do.
Deal Finding and Vetting - This is a service for people who either do not have $100,000 or wish to be more hands-on but still need some hand-holding in finding and buying the right business. The fee for this starts from $5,000."

Looking for a job, or some work on the side?

Get your feet wet before you take the plunge into founder life.

Many of the companies we interview are hiring in operations, design, marketing, engineering, and more...

Check out our jobs portal for all new opportunities - new jobs are added every day!

Thanks for reading.

meet the author

Pat Walls

I'm Pat Walls and I created Starter Story - a website dedicated to helping people start businesses. We interview entrepreneurs from around the world about how they started and grew their businesses.

See full profile