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Reading this morning about Monster Venture Partners closing doors, it brought back recent thoughts I was going over and yet to write about.
I visited our office yesterday, said hi to all, spent few hours with our teams going over stuff, the usual. I asked a little about revenues, progress, milestones. Talking with my partners further I thought to myself maybe it’s time to trim some costs, maybe it’s time to explore selling some ventures. I remember the days we were burning through hundreds of thousands per month and it meant nothing to us. I remember the days where we were offered hundred of thousands for a domain that didn’t have much value and we replied “We just don’t have what to do with the money”. - worst, we actually meant it!
The world has changed.
For some, as with MVP, it is too late already. For others, it is on the verge of disaster, and for many others, the thought of things going south, as they very well may, is terrifying. What are your options is the question you should be asking yourself. A couple of years ago while visiting a close friend in North Carolina, the question was put in front of me. “What would you do if your income was to cut to half tomorrow morning?”. We got on the phone with my partner Jeff talking about this issue, and while it was again unrealistic, Jeff agreed we need to prepare as well. I left that day with the thought I must put something on the side, fast. Not that we haven’t until that point, but we had to kick things up a notch. We’ve prepared very well over the years. We own many different businesses, many revenue streams, as well as built a very efficient liquidation engine (Bido), for you as well as for us. The question is, have you prepared? And let’s ask this question again, as many believe the worst is yet to come. What if your income again cut by half? Can you take that heat? Do you have enough on the side? Do you have exit strategies in place? Can you generate your current income at will if current disappears? Yes, many said it will never happen to them. Of course, many were wrong. One of my favorite books out there is Ben Stein’s “How to ruin your life“. I applied his process to Health before, but let’s try it now with financials, shall we?
1. Your financial position is sound and safe: Everyone else is wrong, you are right. Your financial situation is just as safe as yesterday, the year before, and ten years before. Matter of fact, it is SAFER. It is because the worst is now behind us. It is because Madoff got caught. It is because the stock market bounced for a couple of days in a row (excluding yesterday, but that doesn’t matter to you!). You are safe because you have 14 days of income on the side, and in the worst case scenario, 14 days is more than enough to do it all again. Who needs more? That is two full weeks for god’s sake.
2. You will never go out of business: All these others people who do go out of business are really clueless about business. Rob monster? It’s a different generation right? He is a dinosaur, he does not understand the times, the internet, generation X/Y/Z. He failed a couple of times before too therefore is it really a surprise he failed yet AGAIN? He really doesn’t understand business. You on the other hand, it is your first business, maybe second, and you have never failed before. You are a rock star. You my friend, are perfecto! Going our of business? Who are we kidding?
3. Never fire anyone: You read it right. Hire and hire and hire some more. Firing is not an option. Google just fired some 200, many other companies have fired many tens of thousands, but not you. You need to hire more. Times are tough and it’s time to get tougher. They fire, I hire. Oh right, you do not have anyone in the co. besides yourself but still, firing is dumb!
4. The sky isn’t falling: They all scream but you know better. Of course, you haven’t been around much in your life, but you know better. Why? Intuition of course! THEY don’t have that now do they? They are not as gifted as you are they? So brush it off, the sky isn’t falling.
5. Our industry is recession proof: Of course it is. The rest of the world falls apart but not us. Have you read the latest DNJournal articles? New services, stellar sales prices, million dollar sales every couple of weeks. Right, not in your bank account but still, everyone else is getting rich, and while you have no idea of the fine details, they really don’t matter!
6. If you need to, you can always sell for half of what you want, they will all pay: Now why nobody had though about it. You own an asset, say a domain, and you KNOW it is worth 100K. You can always sell it for half tomorrow right? It doesn’t matter that no one out there believes it’s worth 500$. For you, it is 100K, and if you were to sell (of course you do not need to find out, you KNOW) people will pay up. Right? Right!
7. Party much, party hard!: Let’s go to Vegas shall we? Let’s go to Cancun shall we? Let’s go to Mexico, New Orleans, LA? Party hard baby, and don’t ever stop. You work hard you deserve to party hard. Defy the times, defy the economy. People are out of jobs, people are trying to figure out what to do, people go out of business, some are even hungry, but all that has NOTHING to do with you. Book that flight baby, book that 500$/night hotel. book it now!
8. Add yours here.
Cheers
Sahar
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