Day 19: How My Business Was Stolen (+ Starting Over)
This is the story of how my business was taken from me, and how I rebuilt it so it was 50x bigger and better…
Get the behind-the-scenes strategies and secrets used by the world’s most successful online entrepreneurs. These are powerful tactics that I’ve used to launch and grow my own online business… and they can work for you, too.
Ben Brown says
August 19, 2016 at 9:24 am20 years, Wow Keep it going buddy. I alway refer people to you when they think they want to do a launch. I first send them to get your book.
Sam Lyons says
August 19, 2016 at 9:28 amHi Steve:
I am really enjoying your videos. Today’s video really hit home. I completely understand, because that’s where I am today.
I’m trying to build a new business after 36 years of success in the guitar business. Thanks for your inspirational videos. They are fantastic. Looking forward to the others.
Kathy says
August 20, 2016 at 7:16 amWho’s Steve? Do you mean Jeff? 🙂
Roy Patterson says
August 19, 2016 at 9:29 amGreat story. Very inspiring.
Ndifreke Atauyo says
August 19, 2016 at 9:30 amHello Jeff – Thanks so much for sharing with us the strategies that you used to rebuild your business to 50x bigger and better. I will surely use these strategies to rebuild web design nigeria market. Thanks Jeff.
Joyce says
August 19, 2016 at 9:42 amFind your videos so valuable. Great delivery really helps me relate to you. Thanks for sharing!!
Mark Manion says
August 19, 2016 at 9:42 amHello Jeff,
I a way my business was stolen in 2003 when a client failed to pay me the $1,000,000 they owed me for technology services. I just finished paying off the state of Michigan the last of $90,000 in sales and withholding taxes, thankfully they settled for $8,000.
It has been a long recovery personally and spiritually for me, the challenge at age 60 is rebuilding a retirement nest egg when my business went under.
Your video was heartfelt on this end!
Regards,
Mark
Aaron Koral says
August 19, 2016 at 9:58 amAwesome video, Jeff! Love the video and today’s lesson about building your skills to deliver value to your customers. You only have to do it once before having the confidence to know you can do it again and again. It’s all in the baby steps you take as a first time entrepreneur like myself. Thanks for this terrific reminder – you’re the best, Jeff!
Kathryn Costa says
August 19, 2016 at 10:06 amGreat story Jeff. You underscore a really important lesson here: one may as in your case steal your business, or others may copy, but they can’t take what is truly yours, your ability to have a vision, create value and content, and deliver it. My husband reminds me that my copycats don’t have what I have which is my creative font of a brain, my passion, drive and awesome skill set. I don’t worry about the copycats. I’m enjoying this video series a lot. Thanks for doing it! I appreciate these moments to check in and reflect on your stories and how they relate to my own journey.
Miriam says
August 19, 2016 at 10:26 amGood for you, Jeff! You took the opportunity and ran with it, you made the most of your knowledge, expertise and applied it to the next adventure. Good for you! This should speak volumes. Never give up! Thanks again for sharing and being transparent. By the way, I just signed up for Stu McLaren’s free workshops you recommended.
femi says
August 19, 2016 at 11:44 amAwesome Jeff. I’m inspired. I’m at that stage of rebuilding now.
Cory Kill says
August 19, 2016 at 11:58 amWhat an impactful story… It is one thing to be successful and respect someone for being successful. It is much more to do it again and know that it was not just being in the right place at the right time that made someone successful. Thank you for the perspective.
Dave Jaworski says
August 19, 2016 at 12:31 pmThank you for doing this 30 day challenge. You are so inspiring!
Yes, as an Entrepreneur we often do get a “do over”, and not always by our own choosing. I also like how you took the “high road” in dealing with it. Thank you for sharing this story.
Praying for your continued abundant success! Thank you for 30 days of inspiration!
Dave
Aaron Roe says
August 19, 2016 at 3:27 pmEvery time I start to slow down, one of your great messages comes through and new motivation springs to light.
Thanks for keeping the stories coming!
Mark says
August 19, 2016 at 7:19 pmHi Jeff,
Thanks for all that. It has been good to hear more detail in the background stories of your history. You are probably right that you are not getting as many click throughs from your emails in this 30 day challenge as I tend to go straight to your blog rather than opening from the email.
My wife and I tend tend to listen to one of these (along with all your previous blogs) every morning while eating breakfast rather than switching on early news etc. Much more inspiring for the day.
There have been changes going on for me lately and this current story of a change in direction rang true to me today. I was at your last Product Launch Event. I had been building an idea for launch before the event but had no response to a promotion to build a list for it. I spent a 10 minute session with Paul who clarified why that was – my idea would have required a bigger investment than just the information product for those joining. So for the rest of that day I was sort of bummed out. But… realising there are always more ideas.
Well one that sparked the next day was when you commented a couple of times on things. One was how you had not been wanting to get in front of the camera recently because you had put on a couple of unwanted pounds. And the other was experiencing those sugar cravings at times.
I had adopted a change in some things we did at home in the months prior to the event and noted that my sugar cravings had gone and chocolate we had been given at Christmas had been left unopened in the pantry. So I started to explore this as well as another idea.
More important than that was something else you shared since the event. That was the book by Michael Hyatt about Living Forward – making a life plan rather than drifting.
I sat down and worked through his suggestions a few weekends after starting reading it. That written life plan has helped to pivot me forward to the future that I want. Actually the eulogy idea that I wrote out sounded a bit excessive really – maybe over-reaching myself. However it has helped guide my decisions on what to spend time on and invest in as I go forward.
Then you promoted Ryan Levesque. More lights came on and it simplified ideas on how to move forward with my hunches. More especially a video he had for those joining culled from a prior live training he did really spoke deeply to me and lined up with that rather expansive eulogy idea. It was from ideas of the psychologist and marketer Dr Livingstone that Ryan built his Ask method off – the seven stages of business or entrepreneurship – discovery, confidence, mastery, freedom, reflection, impact and legacy. Suddenly my apparently outlandish eulogy ideas did not sound so out there. Before from time I had spent with other personal development people, including Tony Robbins in the 1990s, tended to suggest it was great to work out this future goal of freedom. What I would want to have in my life if money was not an object. My ideas tended to line up with the sorts of things whoever was sharing the personal development program had – more houses, personal islands, travel, etc, etc. What I found in the seven stages of entrepreneurship was something deeper and more motivating in looking toward a legacy.
Which is a long way to say I see the ideas you, Ryan and others are promoting out there that will enable many entrepreneurs to establish viable businesses that will impact the world in a major way and leave a lasting legacy for good for many generations to come is really what this way of thinking and working can ultimately do. THANK YOU!
Katie says
August 20, 2016 at 3:30 amLoved this video ! I’m starting out but it inspired me to stick to it. I believe in me…even though it feels like no one else does 😉
Ndifreke Atauyo says
August 20, 2016 at 7:23 amI love the series of videos you are giving us free. I awaiting Day 30 so I can take action that boost my launches.
Andrea says
August 21, 2016 at 9:39 amJeff, thank you so much for sharing this story. My business had a recent event that negatively impacted my business. Your video reminds me that I can regroup and rebuild. I cannot imagine how you felt when your partner took your business! Your story is powerful! Thank you for sharing and giving me the courage to move on.
Paul says
August 21, 2016 at 9:17 pmJeff, these are great videos and encouraging to watch. What product or service did you offer when you restarted your business?
G says
August 22, 2016 at 11:49 pmWhy did he steal your business? How could he do it?
Ann Marie Michaels says
August 25, 2016 at 8:35 amHi Jeff,
Thank you so much for making this video! A friend just sent it to me. I can really relate to your story!
I started my online business — a blog network — in 2008. I grew it to over $1 million in annual revenue within 5 years. The next year, in 2014, most of my top bloggers quit, in breach of their contracts. I could have sued them but I didn’t want to spend years in court. We went from over $100K per month to $10K per month overnight. And we had an office, several people working for us, and my family was totally dependent on the business. And I was pregnant with our second child!
It was a tough couple years but I finally feel like I’m ready to get back to work. I just restarted my blog and am currently in the process of redesigning my future business. I have been saying for the past couple years that I know I can rebuild and that this time I can do it much faster and can grow it a lot bigger than I did before.
It was really good to hear you say that you actually did it.
Looking forward to watching the rest of your videos.
Ann Marie
Oludami says
September 1, 2016 at 6:26 pmWow. So I finally have a favourite video. Thanks for this particular one, Jeff. Thanks for talking about such sensitive stage I am right now, and I can relate so much with the “confidence to build” part.
And thanks again for subtly spilling some gold in-between… I hope I’m not the only one that caught it. Lol.
God bless you!