The Udham Spotlight Q&A of this aspect is Ross Freedman, 26, a 26 -year -old Massachusetts in the Spotlight Q&A. Founder of Freedman Slakeer Media GroupA live event company is curing experiences at the intersection of music, lifestyle and entertainment. See how he extended the venture from the side hustle to a successful full -time business. Reactions have been edited for length and clarity.
Image Credit: Courtesy of Slacker Media Group. Ross Freedman.
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What was your day work or primary business when you started your side hustle?
I started my business when I was in high school and continued to run it through college. During the early days of business, I was a full -time student.
When did you start your side, and where did you get inspiration for it?
I started my business in late 2016 when I was 16 years old. I was DJ-ING from the age of 11 and wanted to find a place to play and party with my friends. I did some research and found some companies that were running “Teen Nights” in other cities, but there was no one in the Boston region. I decided that I would do my own work, and the rest is history.
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What were some of the first steps you take to remove your side from the ground? How much money/investment was made in launching?
For my business, the first step was to find a place. Unexpectedly, many nightclubs were not ready to rent their club to a 16 -year -old child. After reaching almost every nightclub and event venue in the Boston region, I was finally able to close a date in the Cambridge, Massachusetts on a date in the Middle East – on Monday night.
It took around $ 3,000 to rent the venue and bring the event to the market, which I saved from DJ-English Bar Mitzwa and Prom. This first incident was brought to over 400 people, and I made a profit of about $ 3,000, making me discovered that it could be a viable business.
Are there any free or paid resources that have been particularly helpful for you in starting and running this business?
YouTube and Google are the best friends of the entrepreneur. Entrepreneurs need to have a Swiss army knife in many ways. Between those two platforms, if you are emotional enough, you can learn anything for free.
He said, I believe that the college also played a big role in the success of its business. Especially a professor, Richard Sparsio, made me aware of a new way to think about the business, which was fundamentally changed how I work. My professor handed over a book E-gentle Michael E. The Gerbar who really used to talk to me. The book talks about how many small business owners often try to do everything within their business, and in doing so, they start working for business rather than doing business work instead. The book focuses on the importance of establishing repeated and educational systems within your business to get out of that cycle. After reading the book and discussing it in the classroom, I was able to take a step back from where I was with my business and began to build my own system and procedures, inspired to hire my first full -time employee and take the business to our first $ 1 million years. From that point, the growth of business has been exponential.
Related: I took my side full -time and earned $ 222,000 last year. Here’s how – and sometimes why do I work only 10 hours a week.
Image Credit: Courtesy of Slacker Media Group
If you can go back to your professional journey and change a process or approach, what would it be, and how do you want you to do it in a different way?
I really want me to learn to rent earlier. I always had a great team around me, from the early days till now, but for most of my career, I was the only person working on a full -time project. I made myself responsible for so much, and finally, it limited business growth. Learning to bring people and hand over the tasks has changed my business and my life.
When it comes to this specific business, you should be particularly challenging and/or surprising that people who come in this type of work should be prepared, but not the possibility?
Tension. Live event industry is a highly challenging industry; Coupled with underlying stress of entrepreneurship, can be too much for many people. Being capable of managing the stress of running a business based on variables, which I have no control, is one of the biggest challenges of my career. Working on it for many years, however, learning stress management skills is something that has greatly benefited me not only in my professional life but also in my personal life.
Can you miss a specific example when something went very wrong? How did you fix it?
There are many examples where things have gone very wrong, but the biggest epidemic for all of me and live events was the biggest epidemic shutdown for all. Before the shutdown, I was throwing college nights in Boston, yet working below the Middle East. I had closed only one weekly on Thursday night in residence and placed it on line to work. Then, the world closed.
With in-tradition events from the table, I did not slow down-I simply moved the gear. I thrown myself in learning everything about social media, development of audiences and brand-building. Whatever I learned about social media, it decided to launch the Slacker University network, a series of targeted Instagram pages, which combines school-specific materials with a slacker content. The network enabled me an underlying audience to target events after the world opened.
Therefore, when the events returned, I hit the field while running. That social network became the engine behind my first national tour – and we sold it.
Related: The people of this 29 -year -old took people ‘dark green’. It earned $ 10,000 within 2 days and see 6 figures a month.
How long did you take to see continuous monthly revenue? How much did the side hustle earn?
It took me years to see the continuous revenue. Live events industry can be very unstable and carries a lot of financial risk, so pre-political, years were where I did very well, and a few years where I did not. Things really became beneficial for me after the epidemic, and in the decline in 2021, I only earned more than $ 100,000 in two and a half months.
What does development and revenue now look like?
We are on track to approximately $ 2.5 million in more than 150 events this year, with more than $ 1 million already born year-on-year. Our lifetime sales are now more than $ 4 million, and we have brought more than 250,000 attendees to our programs.
How long do you spend on your business daily, weekly or monthly basis? How do you structure at that time? What does a specific day or week work look for you?
As a start-up, single entrepreneur, I was always “working” on my business. Since I was responsible for everything, I did not really separate the work from non-work. It was always in my mind, either in front or behind.
In the last one year, I was finally able to bring my first full -time employee, and I have now brought to another full -time employee this year. The construction of the team around me has completely changed my life, and I am now doing an average of 40-hour. Of course, a few weeks are required, but I am very lucky for a wonderful team that has allowed me to recover my time and make this business durable for a long time.
What do you enjoy the most in running this business?
I get personal happiness and joy by making others happy. This business has allowed me to do this on such a large scale, and it gives me great pleasure to know that I am making the lives of hundreds of thousands of people a little better. Nothing makes me happy with being on site in a successful event and smiling and having a great time.
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What is your best piece of specific, actionable business advice?
Start a two-do list. In writing, it becomes easy to remember not only what to do, but it really forces you to think what specific tasks you are going to take. As is basic, a two-do list organizes your ideas, actually motivates you to execute your thoughts and give you a great understanding of satisfaction when you can do something from your list.
This article is part of our ongoing young Entrepreneur® series, which exposes stories, challenges and victory Owner of youth business.
