Welcome Back, Hard Knocks community 💰 

Today we are talking all about finding success as a new business owner. We sat down with an entrepreneur that has reached over 8-figures in annual revenue despite his company being in a very niche industry. This interview will be extremely helpful for anyone wanting to pursue entrepreneurship and how you can grow a successful business from the ground up!

Today’s Schedule

• $20 Million Smoothies: How this Entrepreneur Scaled A Smoothie Business to Over $20 Million

• From the Hard Knocks Library: Never Split the Difference by Chris Voss

• In Case You Missed It: We Interviewed The Owner of the Largest Sleep Testing Company in the USA and Supercar Owners Across Florida

Lets get into it!🔥

$20 Million Smoothies

There often comes a time in our lives where we ask ourselves this question: “Is this really what I want to be doing? Is this really what I wanted out of life?”

This moment of contemplation may come at a different moment for all of us but for this New York Entrepreneur it was after working on Wall Street for crazy long hours and making little-to-no money.

When we visited New York in April, we met a man by the name of Billy Loesch. Billy’s story is not like many others as he pursued a career path and business that is incredibly niche..

The acai bowl and smoothie business.

He has over 29 locations and this business is going to generate over $20 million in 2024.

We had the pleasure of sitting down with Billy and asking him questions that any first time business owner should tune into:

Q: Did you always want to be an entrepreneur? When was the turning point?

A: I was born and raised in Brooklyn NY. I would power wash store fronts and houses with my friend and got into painting at 15-16 years old at the time.

At 22-23 years old I realized I wanted to be my own boss. Went down to Wall Street and became a licensed broker. Despite being on Wall Street, I didn’t make any money, it was commission only, very cut throat, and I was working crazy hours.

In 2016, I decided to leave Wall Street and asked myself “what is the next opportunity?” At the time açai bowls were starting to have a lot of up and coming popularity. We created the product completely from the ground up. There was just an opportunity at the market at that time. I jumped in because the answer to the question “Is there a pathway to a billion dollars?” was yes - This is the path that led to Baya Bar

Q: Why açai bowls instead of something else? How do you find that right opportunity as an entrepreneur?

A: I was just looking for a problem to solve, an opportunity. I had no idea if it was gonna work out, but I will give it 150% and see how it goes! And if it doesn’t work out, then it doesn’t work out. Onto the next venture.

I had seen the proof of concept of this business on the west coast. So I assumed it would do well on the east coast as well. Smoothie and juice shops have been around for quite some time, the only thing I’m adding is the bowls.

The problem I wanted to solve was provide a healthy bowl and smoothie place to the people of New York. New York has a lot more people than Jersey, and as long as it’s done the right way, then it should work out.

When it comes to finding the right opportunity, don’t focus so much on the sexy thing going on right now, a lot of the best opportunities are within boring businesses. Another great option is simply making something accessible to a market that currently doesn't have it.

Q: How can an entrepreneur find the persistence to see if it’s going to work out?

A: I think the biggest thing people don’t realize is that what makes a good entrepreneur is having self awareness, being humble and having immense belief in yourself. The most successful people act as if everything they have is going to disappear tomorrow all the while having the mindset that they are better than everybody. Remember this - tough times don’t last, tough people do.

Q: You could have gone privately owning all the locations or franchising? Why did you go with the franchising model?

A: I wanted to empower others to own their own business. With franchising, you also have mitigated risk, you don’t have to worry about as much debt. I also wanted the people that ran my stores to have a seat at the table. For a store to run the right way, you need to have skin in the game, and a franchisee has that. If you’re considering having someone run an operation for you, it can incentivize them to do well if they have exponential opportunity.

Q: How can you become more comfortable with risk?

A: You have to try and take a chance. If you don’t take any risk in life you never know what it feels like. If you are too scared to even try, then maybe a path like entrepreneurship is not for you - and that is okay. Entrepreneurship is not for everyone, most businesses wouldn’t thrive without workers.

If you’re too scared to leave your 9-5, get better at time management so you make time to work on a side business while working your current job. You’ll have to take sacrifices to work on your business outside of work but this allows you to build a business while maintaining a paycheck. If you don’t make those sacrifices however, your business will never grow to a point where it can replace your day job.

Q: If you were to start a new business, how would you make it successful?

A: Lets play a game - I’m going to use a burger spot as my example. Here’s what you should do for any new business but in this instance we’ll use your new burger spot:

• What separates you better than anyone else? Figure out what makes your burger place better than anyone else’s burger spot - Is it the sauce? The experience when you walk in? Figure out that edge.

• Go to the best place that’s in the market that people go to, and make your place better than theirs. Who is the best burger place in town? Go there and find out why people like it - then make yours better.

• The riches are in the niches! What is the niche in the market that you can dominate - the market is burgers, but the niche could be bacon cheeseburgers. You will have less competitors when you do this.

• Put out social media content better than the next guy, become an expert in the space. Make content about how you make your amazing burger. When people see how great you are at your craft, they won’t want to do business with anyone else. Putting out better content allows people to find you. You could have the best burger in town, but if no one knows you exist…what’s the point!

• Location. Location. Location. - Don’t be scared of high rent if the location is great. If you have a great product, making your product accessible to as many people as possible (especially early on) will allow you to win in the long run.

Q: Any last advice for anyone starting their first business?

A: Just know that there is never a perfect time to start a business and that you have to be okay with failing because that is simply part of the process. You will never know all of the answers to your problems, just be sure to hire out the parts you hate and have someone help you with your weaknesses as soon as possible.

Watch our Full Interview with Billy here: https://www.instagram.com/reel/C5obxF4AS-F/?igsh=MW1naW9wd29nN2trdQ==

You can connect with Billy here: https://www.instagram.com/billyloesch?igsh=NDA2eXBicjd5eDd0

Check out Baya Bar here: bayabar.com

Words of Wisdom

From the Hard Knocks Library

In Case You Missed It

This past week we posted a video where we went all around Tampa, Florida and interviewed supercar owners on how they were able to become successful. We interviewed people in a variety of industries including the owner of the largest sleep testing company in the USA. If you want to learn more about what it takes to take a company from 6 to 7 figures, sales / negotiation advice and more then this is a great watch

Let Us Hear From You

What were your thoughts on todays newsletter with Billy Loesch? Please reply back with your thoughts or things you would like us to include in future newsletters!