Entrepreneur or Blown-Up Corporate Job?

[Unngabunga]

Hey guys,

I guess I'm in a rut between figuring out if what I'm doing aligns with my vision/purpose.

4-years ago I started my journey to become an entrepreneur through this website. I was a broke, low-income student working out of my mom's small office, trying to chase a dream I couldn't visualize and can't seem to grasp right now.

I created websites, learned skills, studied marketing, did everything and anything to make it.

And here I am now.

A 22-year college graduate running Facebook Ads and creating SOPs/Processes for my friend's company . The brand makes around $70k-$100k a month, and I run ads as smooth as I can. (4-5 ROAS a month). He started the brand almost two-years ago, and I've been here for 8 months.

I have zero equity.

Around the 6-month mark he promised to give equity (5-10%) to me, but he said I wasn't nearly doing enough work or bringing the results he "knows" I can bring. Which is understandable. But I work damn hard and the amount of revenue I bring in running ads alone for this e-commerce brand in huge compared to my salary. My performance since the last 2-months is insanely better.

I get a $1000-$2000/month check for my work.

On the side I work as a server for more cash flow.

Is this the dream?

Do I continue to chase the equity? In which I'll always make less than the founder? Ask for a pay raise? But it's always everything earned, nothing given.

WHAT AM I DOING?

I'd always imagined that four-years into my journey something would come into fruition. I would have expected to bank at least $100k in my bank account. Am I a failure for this? That I've worked so hard for the last couple years just to end up being someone's media manager?

I'm not even sure anymore.

I want to build.

I love building.

It's just that the building left me nowhere for the past 3-years, minus one store (which I profited $3k from). So as soon as this opportunity came, I took it. But I want to build my own thing. My own vision.

But I'm scared that I'm going down the wrong path. That I will never get equity. That I'll always be stuck as the second-man, the help. Not the founder or the visionary. But at the same time, is that my role? Am I here to do my job, and do my job well-enough to get a small check slapped on my table at the end of the month? Is that truly my worth?

Sometimes it feels like I rely too much on the idea that I may get some equity.

Or that if I do venture off again to do my own thing, that I'm not cut out for that founder life.

At 22-years old, I have all the years ahead of me but I wish I was in a damn better place than I am right now. And that kills me inside because I know I can do more. That I'm set for greatness but that mindset could also be the death of me.

I guess at the end of the day I ultimately love what I'm doing. I love learning and building and being creative and there's nothing in the world that could ever stop me. But that's why I'm stuck here questioning if what I'm doing is really just a goddamn corporate job. And even venting about it and writing it out makes me feel like a Pu$$Y.

What do you guys think? Any thoughts?

Thanks

 

[bernard]

At 22-years old, I have all the years ahead of me but I wish I was in a damn better place than I am right now. And that kills me inside because I know I can do more. That I'm set for greatness but that mindset could also be the death of me.

You're in a great place.

Your salary isn't high, but that's probably because you're in a low income country.

In any case, whatever you do, you have all the opportunities now, you're a graduate, you have work experience and self employed experience, it should be very easy for you to find opportunities.

I'd recommend getting out and meeting new people. Go to conferences and meetups. Talk to industry people, meet people with money and so on. Just meet a lot of new people. Opportunities will present themselves and then choose some or use them as leverage against your buddy.

 

[JOoa0ky]

As a business owner, my motto is: always sell debt, never sell equity.

As your friend's business grows and becomes more valuable, the chances of him giving you equity decreases.

The most likely time for you to get equity is at the beginning when the business is worth NOTHING. That is because people often give away things freely when they perceive that it has little value.

Now that value is increasing, it is becoming more precious.

Let me ask you a question.
How likely are you give away a pencil?
How likely are you to give away your most prized possession?

That business is most likely your "friend's" crown jewel.

What am I trying to tell you? You have a plan A but you need a plan B and C bro.

 

[makoloko]

Your boss (friend) isn't going to give you equity, so don't expect that.

But I want to build my own thing. My own vision.

Or that if I do venture off again to do my own thing, that I'm not cut out for that founder life.

Why not try it? You clearly want to. Fuck fear of failure.

Start building your own thing + keep working your job(s) for steady income at the beginning.

 

[Poplanu]

If you're not easily replaceable, you could negotiate a salary increase, or offer him to negotiate some kind of salary + bonus situation that depends directly on how much money you are generating for his company. So the more profit you generate for him, the more money you earn. Make it high enough so that you're motivated to stay without equity.

My friend had a situation like that with linkbuilding. Was making $1.5K/mo, then renegotiated for a flat fee per link that meets certain metrics. Went to making $4K/mo, and obviously more motivated to work as well.

 

[bernard]

Remember that equity is one thing, but warrants is another.

I used to work in a startup, well established at that point, where every full time employee got warrants.

In case you didn't know, warrants are stock options provided directly to the company, to example - key employees and can be set for when and if a company goes public.

The benefit here is that the owner keeps equity, but the employee gets a part in the potential upside. It allows the owner to sell off his equity to investors, but the employee will still have compensation regardless of who ends up owning the company.

It's obviously not as good as equity, but can still be quite a motivation.

 

[Upsilon]

Don't get this image as an attack. I just want to poke fun at the situation and lighten the mood a bit.

Bro, you are 22. You are in a very good spot.

I would take all the advice above to heart and do everything, so I won't reiterate what's already been said. But again, follow everything.

Additionally, I would look into freelancing. Seems to me you are already getting good results for your friend. Why not use the results to get yourself a client? Take every. Single. Piece of reporting that proves your worth and use it. Make your own website and write a case study of what you've done and the end result. Milk everything.

That's one.

Secondly, you can see a brand grow from almost 0. Record every single process you yourself are not part of. How do they purchase products? From where? How did they find the supplier? Learn everything you can learn. Then use that + your own experience with ads and start your own e-commerce store.

Just a thought.

 

[Ryuzaki]

I agree that you aren't getting equity, period. That's the danger of allowing that kind of thought to enter your head. It becomes a festering little seed of rot that poisons the rest of your experience.

You're being paid to learn a skill that most people don't get to learn because they don't have the war chest to fund it. It's not cheap to learn PPC. Not only do newcomers have to fund the campaigns to get the data, but they have to lose money because they don't know what they're doing at first. You're getting past both of those hurdles while being paid for it. You're in a great spot.

I say that to try to bring some joy back to it because you need to keep that cash flowing. The whole "burn your bridge" mentality is for the very few, and those of us that have done it (myself included) were forced to do it (myself included). It's not something we chose. What people don't tell you is that the added stress of the clock running out on you and your bank account dwindling (if you even start with any cash reserves) is such a huge stressor that it can cripple your chances of success.

If you want to do your own thing, do it, but keep the day job because that cash flow is allowing you to only worry about your business instead of also paying the mortgage, etc.

If you think you aren't cut out for the life, you may not be... maybe even very likely aren't. It's another thing you don't choose. It's something that's thrusted upon you by God / Fate / the Universe, etc. It's a personality trait.

If you can't picture yourself strapping on a bunch of plate mail, picking up a battle axe, and leading the charge into an army of equally armed enemies, then you're probably not meant to be a founder or entrepreneurial type because they're the exact same archetype, just planted in different periods of time. Both are warriors where success isn't a given and death is likely, and yet you still charge forward.

But maybe you are that type. You can cut your teeth on a smaller project, see it through to completion, and sell it. Then you can decide if you want to go big or not. But don't quit the job and don't become a sourpuss about the equity. If you want equity, build your own business or buy the equity as a shareholder. It's not going to be given to you in a business that's already turning over six figures a month.

 

[eliquid]

Hey guys,

I guess I'm in a rut between figuring out if what I'm doing aligns with my vision/purpose.

Do you know if your vision or purpose is actually what you want? Have you done detailed exercises like this to really know? Or did you trust your gut and what other people promised you?

https://www.buildersociety.com/threads/not-fulfilled-depressed-maybe-you-need-an-alignment.3235/

4-years ago I started my journey to become an entrepreneur through this website. I was a broke, low-income student working out of my mom's small office, trying to chase a dream I couldn't visualize and can't seem to grasp right now.

I created websites, learned skills, studied marketing, did everything and anything to make it.

And here I am now.

A 22-year college graduate running Facebook Ads and creating SOPs/Processes for my friend's company . The brand makes around $70k-$100k a month, and I run ads as smooth as I can. (4-5 ROAS a month). He started the brand almost two-years ago, and I've been here for 8 months.

Several things here:

1. Is this $70-$100k a month from just only FB ads? Or the whole website from all channels?

2. Is the 4 or 5 ROAS the ROAS metric provided by FB? If so, it's not accurate and probably more like breakeven honestly. Since iOS 14.5, ROAS is a poor and inaccurate metric in FB and can not be relied on. All off platform metrics on FB are unreliable and inaccurate.

I have zero equity.

As you should, you're 22. What did you expect?

Ok, you have some skills. You have worked for him for 8 months. That doesn't deserve equity though.

Around the 6-month mark he promised to give equity (5-10%) to me, but he said I wasn't nearly doing enough work or bringing the results he "knows" I can bring. Which is understandable. But I work damn hard and the amount of revenue I bring in running ads alone for this e-commerce brand in huge compared to my salary. My performance since the last 2-months is insanely better.

I get a $1000-$2000/month check for my work.

On the side I work as a server for more cash flow.

If you are working for him full-time, quit. $1-2K a month is below poverty. Most "marketing" people doing what you do easily earn 4-5x what you make.

But quit thinking you work hard. Hard is relative.

Everyone is going to say they work hard. Saying you work hard only brings in an entitlement mentality.

The garbage man that picks up my trask probably works harder than me, but that doesn't mean he deserves more than me.

Also, how do you know the revenue you bring in from the FB ads? Again FB metrics are inaccurate and unreliable if you are using FB metrics.

FB amplifies good business models. It doesn't exist to be the direct sales, last-click attribution platform you may be looking at it as. Most people do FB wrong and just want to make themselves look good, without knowing how the whole system actually works.

If you are the kind of marketer that tries to take credit for other channels, because FB shows you these metrics, then yeah... you aren't doing enough and you are actually doing FB incorrectly, not matter what FB shows as revenue or ROAS. You're just the marketer that is taking credit for other channels actually, by doing that.

If you want more info on this, I can explain later, but you would have to divulge some info on the business for me to show you.

Is this the dream?

Do I continue to chase the equity? In which I'll always make less than the founder? Ask for a pay raise? But it's always everything earned, nothing given.

Why do you want equity so bad?

1. Right now, without equity you make less than the founder.

2. With equity, you will make less too.

Why are you chasing equity?

Most times, I'd rather get paid $250k annually as an employee than to own 5% of a business and make $45k annually and "own" 5% of a company that someone else owns 95% of and could override me on voting and then also drain the company of assets and steer it in the wrong direction over 6 years and make my 5% be worth $0

Ask me how I know.. I've own equity in several companies.

WHAT AM I DOING?

I'd always imagined that four-years into my journey something would come into fruition. I would have expected to bank at least $100k in my bank account. Am I a failure for this? That I've worked so hard for the last couple years just to end up being someone's media manager?

I'm not even sure anymore.

I want to build.

I love building.

I think you had really poor expectations.

Why on earth would you think after 4 years you have $100k in your bank account?

That you would be way better off than you are now.

You're twenty fucking 2 dude. Not 54 with a ton of experience.

Most 22's don't have $100 to their name or a job. Mommy is still paying their cell phone bill for them. Why did you think you would be different? Because you had a dream?

And what's wrong with being someone's media manager? I know people that are someone else's media manager clearing $250k a year with a $80k bonus and doing 1000x better than a "founder" of some LLC or sole prop.

It's just that the building left me nowhere for the past 3-years, minus one store (which I profited $3k from). So as soon as this opportunity came, I took it. But I want to build my own thing. My own vision.

All that shows is you built the wrong stuff for 3 years. Keep building until you build the right thing.

But I'm scared that I'm going down the wrong path. That I will never get equity. That I'll always be stuck as the second-man, the help. Not the founder or the visionary. But at the same time, is that my role? Am I here to do my job, and do my job well-enough to get a small check slapped on my table at the end of the month? Is that truly my worth?

Sometimes it feels like I rely too much on the idea that I may get some equity.

Again, why do you want equity?

Let's say this friend of yours gives you 10% equity.

You still aint a founder or visionary. You didn't have the vision to start the company. You didn't "found" the company 2 years ago.

You're just someone that piggybacked on the early success, got lucky to be his friend and eek out a 10% equity deal in exchange for even less pay.

So even if you get this 5-10% equity ( or any number ), you ain't gonna get what you "dreamed" of.

Only way you will be a visionary or founder, is to actually start and build something that is visionary and not done.

Else, you are just either a copycat me too product, or someone that got lucky to be able to jump on your friends vision and founding. Getting 10% doesn't actually "change" that.

Also, if you are getting a small check, that is what you are worth. You determined that yourself when you accepted the small check and continued to work.

Only you can set your worth, with your actions.

Or that if I do venture off again to do my own thing, that I'm not cut out for that founder life.

Maybe you will, maybe you won't. Only you can determine that. Get started.

At 22-years old, I have all the years ahead of me but I wish I was in a damn better place than I am right now. And that kills me inside because I know I can do more. That I'm set for greatness but that mindset could also be the death of me.

Then go do it!

I guess at the end of the day I ultimately love what I'm doing. I love learning and building and being creative and there's nothing in the world that could ever stop me. But that's why I'm stuck here questioning if what I'm doing is really just a goddamn corporate job. And even venting about it and writing it out makes me feel like a Pu$$Y.

What's wrong with a corporate job?

There are people out there with corporate jobs that have more money, and more freedom than 90% of the people on this forum.

 

[kyescontent]

OP, I agree with everyone here who has said this person isn't going to give you equity. Continuing to believe otherwise sounds like wishful thinking to me.

I think @eliquid has offered a lot of solid perspective here as well. What's most important is finding ways to maximize your financial freedom, not whether you are defined as a media manager, company founder, employee, etc. There isin't one best way to pursue freedom, just whatever is actually delivering results for you.

 

[miketpowell]

Having equity in small/medium businesses is not really a thing unless you are a founder for many reasons. If your work is far above average and driving added value profit sharing/bonus should be the goal.

The other way you could leverage your situation is by starting your own business and getting some funding/advice from your friend in exchange for equity.