Business Opportunities — Winners & Losers

So there’s going to be a lot of winners and losers out of all the things that are happening. And this is not to be negative, and I don’t want anyone losing, but there are no participation trophies and paying your rent. 

I want to talk about how you and I and hopefully everyone can be a winner after this chaotic time that’s still happening. And it is going to be happening for so many times to come.

We’re trying to figure out how we get on the winning side because there is a wealth distribution happening right now. And what’s happening is a lot of the wealth is going to certain companies.

Amazon is doing well. Walmart is doing well. Essential food products like this Valley Food Storage is doing really well. So the question is, are you part of the essential winners? Or are you a part of the losers? 

There are things that we can do about it. So there’s going to be a lot from this event, and especially in your business or whatever you’re working on.

You really got to think about whether this is an essential thing that people are gonna need. Especially during a hard time.

Are they going to still need banks? Are they going to still need food? Are they going to still need services? I was talking with my friend yesterday and he’s like, yeah, he looked over his bills. He cut all the non-essentials and that’s what a lot of people do.

And that’s on the loser side. But a lot of you, especially if you have an online business, you’re probably keeping your hosting. You’re probably keeping your emails, you’re probably looking for more affordable solutions and reducing solutions that you have. 

A lot of people are looking to AppSumo for affordable software and SendFox for an inexpensive email tool. 

What if you’re not essential? It doesn’t mean that you can’t fix that or adapt to this modern world.  

Paul Graham put out something explaining how this is a great time. Everyone at home, you’re restricted and it’s an opportunity to go create things or solve for things. 

So a few other things to become a winner. This will get resolved. In 10, 20 years, we’re gonna look back and be like, wow, that was such a wild and crazy journey.

I’m glad we got to experience it. It’s unfortunate. It’s interesting that we get a fortunate experience in our lifetime. 

 

Quiet Time

So first off, in terms of being a winner and loser, this is the biggest thing that I’ve noticed, is that you’ve got to just go have some quiet time. I’m on some of these text groups, threads, Twitter and it’s just every day is a roller coaster.

And so yesterday I went for a bike ride. I had 30 minutes just quiet for myself. 

And I just was like, f**k, finally I can just think for myself cause it’s so hard with all this different information going on and all the different things. 

So get some quiet time for yourself and then write out your different opinions. Just form your own opinions and stop worrying about everybody else’s. I wrote down what we need to do at our company for AppSumo.

I wrote down my investment thesis of things that I’m thinking about there. So write down your thoughts and assessments of the situation and that will help you in becoming a winner in this situation. 

 

Big Wins

Next up is focusing upon the big wins. 

I get worried about the stock market. I’ve lost maybe on paper $300,000, and each day it’s like $50,000 goes down or $70,000 goes down or it goes up a little bit. 

But in reality, my big win is our company Sumo Group. That’s where I think my wealth and our business and livelihood will be created for years to come. Hopefully generations.

But I’m distracted by the small things. For you in your life, think about the most important stuff to be working on. 

Is it in your company? Is it as part of your employer? Is it your family? 

Think about the big stuff and the small stuff. Try to reduce it or figure out a plan for these things, to remove distractions. 

Don’t let the PENNIES distract from the DOLLARS. 

That’s something I noticed. So I’m coming back to it and trying to remind myself, you and the rest of our team. 

 

Wealth Distribution

Next up wealth distribution is happening. Money is just being moved around. 

Blue Apron should be out of business, but somehow people are thinking a lot of the food is going to be delivered.

Then people might cancel subscriptions and Blue Apron will likely come back down in a few months. But the point is wealth is getting moved around. 

So this is an opportunity. 

I don’t want to say take advantage. But I want you to realize that in six months or six years, the world will have changed, but we’re going to still be alive (hopefully). 

So I want you to not put your head in the sand and get no information and do nothing. I want you to think about how you can look back on this time and realize that you were a part of it.

 Wealth disruption is happening. How can you be a part of it? Can you go drive for Uber? Can you create a new delivery service? Can you go help local stores move online? 

Like El Arroyo here in Austin now said they’re going to deliver drinks within five miles. I love the creativity that’s happening. 

And a lot of the opportunity is in the chaos. 

It’s a chance for you to go do something. And especially with all the craziness, there are a lot of limitations. Maybe your money is down, maybe customers are going. So now is a great chance for you to try some things that you haven’t tried before. 

I bet if you wrote down five business ideas for yourself and you did them today, you’d be surprised. 

The world’s going to return to normal. There’s going to be adjustments. Maybe we’re not buying, we’re not using as much gas. Maybe we’re flying a little less.

Maybe not as many people go on cruises. Maybe people are eating at home. Maybe we’re not working in offices. 

Our office is empty. I just came to make this quick video to show like. There’s no one here, but we’re still paying $40,000. 

I think there’s a world where more companies like ours are going to be like, it doesn’t make sense to have this large space. Maybe we have space where we can meet once a week while we work from home and save money.  Maybe we help pay people’s rent or pay people’s mortgage instead of this expensive office.

Eventually, there’ll be a new normal and think about where you want to be in that new world. 

Another thing is that you got to act immediately. I want you to act immediately, but plan for tomorrow. So it’s a little contradictory, but you gotta act now because some things are happening. 

The world is moving insanely quick with the virus and the stock market. The business changes are just happening SO fast. It’s phenomenal and I love it. So you’ve got to move quickly in your stuff and write down your plan.

It will come back in six months. We will be flying again. People probably will be on cruises or some form of that. People will probably be stockpiling more food. So you got to do some things right now because this is a very unique time. But realize in the long run, we’re gonna probably keep living.

We’ll probably keep having housing. We’ll probably have the stock market go up. So, but use your own brain to act now on some things. I think index funds are changing. I know that’s popular for a lot of people worldwide, but now I think they’re blended with a lot of companies, which is okay.

So maybe you need to be a little bit more strategic yourself in your own decision making. 

 

Surviving or Thriving?

That’s a mantra and something I’m thinking about a lot for myself. For a lot of us, if you don’t have money, if you’re worried about your rent and things are tough, which is happening for a lot of people, you’re in survival mode.

I noticed each day, I probably yo-yo back and forth between those two, but you really need to be in THRIVE mode. 

So if you’re home and you don’t have a job or maybe your employer is off, can you get your employer online? Can you go deliver for Amazon? Can you go create a new business online?

Can you go do something new? How do you get back to the thrive mode? 

So really think about that mindset. Instead of just surviving, think about how to actually thrive during this period. How do I come out stronger? 

We will come out of this.

There will be winners and losers and I want you to be on the WINNING side. 

 

Action and Trigger

This is something that we’ve done in our company to have specific plans. 

So if our revenue or our numbers start going down dramatically, we have different actions that we’ve planned out. And then we have a trigger. So if this is happening, we’re going to do this action. 

You need to really think about it in your business, maybe in your investments. I know something that I’ve talked about with my stepdad is if the gains of my overall portfolio eventually hit a certain percentage I’m just going to dump. That’s like my worst-case doomsday scenario.

But I have an action and a trigger. The more that we remove some of the emotion, the better. We can do some planning for right now and later. 

Then if/when those things do happen, it’s a lot more calm and rational versus looking around for different answers. 

What are the things that you know for certain? Deal with those. A lot of the uncertainties are really hard to predict. So you’ve got to do your best with it and protect yourself.

There will be a lot of winners and losers in this. I’m doing my best to share with you things we’re doing as a company and things I’m doing myself. So hopefully you can apply both for your situation. 

I love you, dogs. Go get it.