Subscription Box Answers

Quitting Your Job & Going Full-Time In Your Subscription Box Business

• Liam Brennan

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In this episode of 'Subscription Box Answers', Liam shares his personal experience of transitioning from a traditional job to running a full-time subscription box business. Drawing on his own experience with BusterBox, which he co-founded with his two business partners, Liam demonstrates how achievable this dream is. He emphasizes that with the right mindset and planning, it is possible to quit your job and create a fantastic life for yourself and your family by running your subscription box full-time.

Liam has helped many subscription box owners achieve this through his 'Subscription Box Experts' program. In this episode, he offers invaluable insights into what it takes to make this transition successful. From essential preparatory steps to key strategies, Liam covers everything you need to know about shifting to full-time entrepreneurship in the subscription box industry.

If you have a question about your subscription box journey, don't hesitate to get involved. Join our free Facebook group at www.SubscriptionBoxResources.com, post your question, and it could be featured and answered in a future episode. Tune in to this episode of 'Subscription Box Answers' to equip yourself with the knowledge and inspiration needed to take your business to the next level."

Speaker 1:

Welcome to Subscription Box Answers with your host, liam Brennan. You're no rubbish, no crap. Straight to the point podcast with real, actionable tips, real strategies and insights from the industry which will help you start and grow your own successful subscription box business. You ask the question, you ask the questions, liam gives the answers. It's as simple as that.

Speaker 2:

Welcome back to a brand new episode of Subscription Box Answers. Hope you're having a really nice day. On today's episode we are going to discuss something which is a big reason why people set up a subscription box business in the first place, and that is what it looks like to transition from full-time employment into your subscription box business Having your subscription box business provide you with your main source of income. I obviously know this topic quite well because I achieved this in BusterBox. Mainly two business partners achieved this in BusterBox a number of years ago. I've also helped so many different subscription box owners in so many different niches reach this point as well through my subscription box experts program. This is a big driver for a lot of people who set up their business. Now. There's some people who just want to use their subscription box as a side hustle, and that's completely fine. But the vast majority of people I speak to want it to become their main source of income and they want to jump into it full-time. Now to kick things off, I will explain the backstory of BusterBox and I'll explain to you what it looked like when we went full-time in the company.

Speaker 2:

So myself and my two business partners originally came up with the idea for BusterBox back in 2015. We were floating a few different ideas around about potential subscription boxes, but we settled on the dog idea. We wanted to do a box of toys and treats for dogs, so we settled on that around late 2015. This was probably around November December time. We then started working on the idea straight away, saw some products coming up with, our website design, settling on our platform, registering the company, all of that stuff. Our first box then went out in April 2016, and, to be honest with you, it was actually a flop. We only got about 12 people signed up the first month and I was making a big deal saying I wanted to get, I believe, 300 people signed up the first month, because I worked out if we got 300 people signed up the first month, we'd be generating like 10 grand a month and at the time I thought that would be really successful. But it never worked out. We only got like 12 people signed up the first month and we never really had the idea of how to acquire customers and at the start we wasted a good bit of time and a bit of money figuring it out. But after a few months we were slowly getting to grasp with marketing and we figured out how we could actually get people signed up through Facebook ads.

Speaker 2:

Now, the first year of Buster Box was more like a hobby, to be honest with you. We were working full time and we would finish work and then we would go straight to our office and we would work in our office until late at night. We got an office pretty much immediately because one of the big toy and treat suppliers in Ireland, at the UK, said to us they would only actually work with us if we had an office. They weren't going to deliver things to a house and at the time we basically had to work with this supplier because they had such a big range of toys and treats and we just had to figure out a way to actually make that work. So we went out and we got an office. Now, obviously, that's not ideal at all, going out to get an office if you're generating absolutely no revenue whatsoever. You want to keep your overheads down, but for us we actually had to get one because we needed to work with this supplier. There's more of a backstory around that, but I'll just leave it with the fact we had to work with the supplier. So we had the office. We had other overheads like software, accountancy fees, things like that, and we had absolutely no revenue because we had no subscribers signed up whatsoever.

Speaker 2:

Now I remember for the first few months of this business I was basically getting paid and I'd have no money left whatsoever out of my job because between my personal bills and this business it was just completely cleaning me out. But we kept chipping away and over the course of the first year, pretty much it it was a hobby, but we were chipping away. We were growing really, really slowly, but we were doing everything we possibly could do to learn how to actually build a successful and sustainable subscription box business. Now, during that first year, I actually got made redundant from my job and I thought that would be a perfect opportunity to go into Busterbox full-time and that was actually my intention. So I finished up in my job and, instead of looking for another job, I just started working on Busterbox full-time for a number of months and we were growing.

Speaker 2:

But we were growing really slowly and I was running out of cash and I knew, unfortunately, it wouldn't be possible to keep working in Busterbox full-time because I'd reach out of no money left and we weren't going to reach the point we needed to reach to actually turn it into some kind of income. So I ended up going back to a job I think it was around January 2017, I believe and I knew immediately that I wouldn't be in that job for a very long time because I was absolutely 100% determined at that point to get Busterbox to the place that needed to be to actually become a viable business. So I was working full-time. I would finish work and then I would go to my friend's house, my business partner's house, and we would work until really late at night. Then it would get to Saturday. We'd work all day Saturday. You get to Sunday work all day Sunday. It was just work, work, work. But I didn't really care whatsoever because I knew we were on the right path and I was determined to get out of that job as quickly as I possibly could because I had absolutely no intention in becoming comfortable in a new job and then been stuck in the job for years. So I'll never forget it.

Speaker 2:

It was towards the end of that January, maybe early February, my business partner texted me and he was like I've applied for us to go onto Dragon's Den Now. We've shared this story in a previous podcast. I definitely recommend checking it out if you're interested in hearing about what actually goes on in Dragon's Den behind the scenes. For any of my American friends that are listening, dragon's Den is basically Shark Tank in Ireland and the UK. So my business partner texted me anyway and he said he applied for us to be on Dragon's Den and I knew immediately. Something just told me that we were going to be accepted and that would be our ticket into full time employment with Busterbox. Because I thought that if you appear in Dragon's Den, you'll literally get a thousand people signed up the first night and thousands of people signed up over the next few weeks with no marketing cost whatsoever. Now, long story short, we did appear on Dragon's Den, we were accepted and we filmed it around February time I believe late February and then the episode was scheduled to go out towards the end of April.

Speaker 2:

Now Dragon's Den airs on a Sunday and I'll never forget it. It was Friday in work and I basically said to myself look, I'm going to quit the job at this point, I'm going to quit the job and I'm going to go full time in Busterbox, and now is my opportunity to do it, and I want to do it now, before the episode goes out, because if the episode flops and it doesn't generate as many subscribers as we hope it will, well then it will probably leave it sour taste in my mouth and I won't quit the job. So I said I'm going to quit it on the Friday and I'm going to see what happens on the Sunday. So I handed in my notice and I knew that was it. I would leave, even if it flopped. I literally didn't care, I'd find another way to make Busterbox work.

Speaker 2:

Now the thing about it is, unfortunately it did kind of flop. It definitely helped us, but it generated nowhere near the amount of subscribers we thought that it probably would. I think we got something like 30 people signed up the first night but then it kept continuing for a few weeks. We were rung in some ads and it was like giving us a boost and I think it generated a few hundred subscribers overall, which was big for us at the time because we were a pretty small company, but it was nowhere near like 10,000 or 5,000 or even a few thousand. I think if we appeared on the UK version we would have got a lot more people signed up, but it was the Irish version, which is a lot smaller Now when I quit my job.

Speaker 2:

I believe I only had around four grand saved at the time, which was definitely not going to last me a very long time, and I believe the business had around 300 to 400 subscribers signed up, which was definitely not enough at the time to generate any kind of decent income for myself and my two business partners. But we just knew it was time to give this a go full time, if we were serious about actually turning it into a viable business. Because we're doing it on the side, we're rung in ads, basically a hobby pretty much for the first year, and it was just time to give it a good go. And the way I thought about it was, and the way I always think about it is, when people talk about quitting their job and going full time in their business is look, you're always going to be able to get another job again. There's no shortage of jobs out there and at the end of the day, if you give your business a good go and it doesn't work out, you can just go and do that, just go and get another job. But you may only get a few opportunities to actually give your business a good go. So it's definitely worth it if you plan it out correctly. It's definitely worth it because if you get the business right, it will completely change your life.

Speaker 2:

Now I remember the first Monday where we were all in the business full time and we moved into a new office and we're literally just sitting there going, okay, we have to figure this out now. And thankfully we did figure it out. We've gone on since to sell a lot of boxes. We've done millions in revenue since then. We went full time into the business, so thankfully it all worked out in the end. Well, at the start it was quite difficult because we never actually got paid. For the first few months I only had like four grand saved up and I think we went from April until July without getting paid. And then right at the end of July, around my birthday time, we actually managed to get paid. We got paid something like a thousand euro each for the whole month and, believe me, I was very thankful for that thousand euro at the time. I think it was my favorite thousand euro that I've ever earned in my life. Now, thankfully, we've gone on since that point and we've grown in much bigger company and everyone gets paid very good salary now, but I always look back to that thousand euro because that started it all really and we actually haven't missed a payday since and we've obviously we've increased as the business has grown. Now that's our backstory really, and I just wanted to share that with you because it may give you some inspiration if you're actually thinking about going full time into your business.

Speaker 2:

And they actually have five things laid out here that you need to do if you are thinking about going full time and giving your subscription box a good go. So let's break them down. Number one you need to get your cash together. You need to have savings sitting there, and I would recommend a minimum of six months savings sitting there, with potentially more if you don't like risk and pressure. Now, obviously, I never did that. I only had four grand saved up and I definitely wouldn't recommend that for the vast majority of people. I would give yourself a bit more of a cushion than four grand, because four grand can go very, very quickly and then you're in trouble. So give yourself some decent runway a minimum of six months and potentially more if you don't like risk.

Speaker 2:

Number two work out how many subscribers you need to sign up for your business to be viable, you need to know what this number actually is. Okay, is it 300?, is it 400?, is it 500? Is it 600? Is it 800? Is it 1,000?, is it 1,000? That's what you need to aim for to basically completely change your life. Number three don't jump until you have positive traction and you have a basic understanding of how to sign up subscribers.

Speaker 2:

I definitely wouldn't recommend jumping. If you only have a handful of subscribers and you have no marketing strategy at all, you have no way of acquiring subscribers. I definitely don't recommend doing this, because hope is a very bad strategy when it comes to marketing. So I'll give you an example when you launched your subscription box business and you have like 10 people signed up, but those 10 people came from posting organically on social media or from speaking to friends or something like that, and you have no idea how to get the next 10 people signed up, or you haven't even proven to yourself but you can get the next 10 people signed up. I would definitely not recommend jumping until you figure out some sort of basic strategy to get people signed up. Ideally, to have a successful subscription box business or any kind of business, you need a scalable, profitable and repeatable way of getting subscribers. And if you don't have that and you're just like posting sporadically on social media and you pick up a subscriber here and there, like you might get a subscriber on a Tuesday, and then you won't get another subscriber for 10 days, that's not a good time to jump into your subscription box business full time because you're going to be under immense pressure damp, so don't do it.

Speaker 2:

Before you even think about handing in your notice, figure out some kind of way of requiring customers. It could be paid ads, it could be influencer marketing, it could be affiliate, whatever that is. Figure out a Reliable way of getting people signed up. It may even only be a really Small number of people that get signed up, like for us. Or remember, at the start our whole goal was to get six people Signed up a day. If we could get six people signed up a day, then we knew we were going in the right direction and that's what we figured out how to do with Facebook ads and with the budget that we had At the time. We knew if we turned on these ads, we will get a minimum of six people signed up per day. We get six people signed up on Monday, on Tuesday and Wednesday and Thursday and Friday, saturday, sunday the ads will be on and we will get a minimum of six people signed up per day. There was absolutely no hope whatsoever in our marketing strategy. We weren't depending on algorithms or hope or organic posts to generate these subscribers. We knew we were paying this in marketing per day and we were going to get six people signed up and at a minimum. And if we just kept doing that, then we knew we were heading in the right direction. It may take a bit of time, but we were going in the right direction. So make sure you have something like that implemented into your business.

Speaker 2:

Point four Reverse engineer your strategy and figure out how long it will take to get to the subscriber number that you need and what will it actually cost. That's really important because there's going to be a time gap in how long it takes to actually get to the level you need To pay yourself a salary. But there's also going to be a cost associated with that as well. It's going to cost you some money in marketing, in business overheads. There's going to be a cost that you're probably going to have to account for Before your business becomes fully sustainable and foiable, and you'll need to factor that in as well. And when you are doing the calculation and reverse engineering how long this will actually take, make sure you factor in churn, because there's going to be some kind of churn in the business as well. So you need to include that in your prediction and that will give you a very good idea At the start if you have enough cash to actually reach the point that you need to reach Before the business becomes sustainable. Really important Now, finally, the fifth and final point I'm going to discuss today is Everything probably won't be perfect in your life.

Speaker 2:

Before you go full time in your business, if you're waiting for the absolute perfect moment, the truth is it may never even show up. There will always be something going on which will make you say to yourself oh, I can't go full time now because it's not perfect, I don't have enough money saved up, I'm doing this, I'm doing that, we're going on holidays, we're doing this. But the truth is, if you want it bad enough, you will have to find the point to jump, because, in my belief, right you will never take your business to the height that you can take it if you're only working on it Part time, and that may be absolutely fine if you want to run a side hustle and you've no aspirations of going full-time in your business. But if you set up your subscription box business With the intention and the ambition of building a really great business that provides a great Lifestyle for you and your family, you will have to jump at some point, and it may not be Perfect in your life.

Speaker 2:

When you do jump, you want to get it as close to perfect as possible. You don't want to do something absolutely ridiculous where you don't have enough money saved up or anything like that. But you will have some risk when you jump. You just need to accept that and, as we said earlier on in the podcast, if it doesn't work out for whatever reason, what's literally the worst thing that will happen? Well, you'll just go and you'll get another job. You'll end up right back at the point you were before you decided to give your business a good go, but at least you will know that you actually tried to make it happen and I think that's really, really important to know that you actually gave it your best shot. Now I hope you found this podcast helpful.

Speaker 2:

As I said, I wanted to record it because I know this is a goal that a lot of people strive for with their subscription box business. So I wanted to share our story to show you that it can actually be done, and I wanted to give it a voice and put the whole thing in perspective and look if you have any positive traction in your subscription box business, this is Possible for you. If you can get people signed up and you've proven the concept, you will be able to go full-time in your subscription box business and you will be able to earn a really great salary and get a really great life from your company. You just need to make the jump and you just need to plan it before you actually do it to give yourself the best possible shot at making it a success. So we will be back next week at the exact same time.

Speaker 2:

If you enjoyed this episode or you've been listening to the podcast for a while and you've got some value from the episodes, can I ask a massive favor and I never really ask this, but you should probably do it a bit more often Would you mind giving me a review on Spotify or Apple Podcasts or wherever you actually listen to this? It just really helps me get the show out to more people. If you have a question you want answered on the podcast, as always, head over to SubscriptionBoxResourcescom, join the free Facebook group and post your question there. Thanks very much for listening and I'll chat to you next week. Have a great day, bye, bye.