Interested in starting your own entrepreneurial journey in business development but unsure what to expect? Then read up on our interview with Ryan Mathews, Founder of Consulting Label, located in Boise, ID, USA.

What's your business, and who are your customers?

At its core, Consulting Label is a specialized marketing agency. We build highly optimized sales funnels for online courses & coaching companies.

Tell us about yourself

My choice to pursue entrepreneurship was made due to a lack of options. While still in high school, I looked for careers that didn't require four years of school to then spend many more years climbing up the corporate ladder. At 16 years old, my dilemma was all of my options were minimum-wage jobs. So, I looked elsewhere. I first started in retail arbitrage. Scouring local discount stores and then reselling products online. I spent a few months mastering this to soon hit a plateau due to limited inventory.

So, I moved up the ladder and started a few small eCommerce stores. I had moderate success at that but was really just developing more skills I would use later. I eventually ended up in a sales position for an online course company that helped high-ticket eCommerce businesses scale with Google ads. I learned how to sell and watched the founders run the entire company. I was blown away by how quickly these businesses could become cash cows.

A few months in, I realized I had a basic understanding of the whole company and thought I could start my own. But there was one problem. I did not have any skills that I could teach, let alone charge people for. At this point, I thought I was out of luck, but just when I thought my dream of running an e-learning company had crashed before me I had a realization...

A friend of mine had spent the past several years learning how to grow clothing brands. He had learned how to source products, build storefronts, market them, and run the ins and outs of the company. I approached him and asked if he would be willing to partner with me. I'd get the clients, and he'd serve them. He agreed. I scaled that company, Shurpa's, over the coming 33 months from $0 to $4.1M to eventually sell my half to my business partner.

Since exiting, I have been working on Consulting Label where I apply the same model (I get the clients, you serve them) to many other online education companies. What motivates me is how much online education has shaped my life. I've invested more than I would have in college to develop tailored skills that have allowed me to build what I've built. More importantly, I know there are many extremely skilled doers in the world who could easily build valuable products, but there's only one problem. They aren't marketers, and they don't want to be.

My mission is to come along side those doers. I want them to continue doing what they love and are skilled at, but also enable them to build a profitable business while they are at it.

What's your biggest accomplishment as a business owner?

I feel my biggest accomplishment as a business owner has been the ability to replicate. When I scaled Shurpa's, I always had the thought, "can I do this again?". That was a frightening thought for someone who had burned all his boats to pursue entrepreneurship.  After starting Consulting Label, I've been able to help educate businesses to grow with niches across the board.

What's one of the hardest things that comes with being a business owner?

The hardest thing that comes with being a business owner to me is responsibility. It's both a blessing and a curse to be fully responsible. Responsible for client results, employees' livelihood, and the well-being of the company.

What are the top tips you'd give to anyone looking to start, run and grow a business today?

  1. Model & Learn from those who have built what you want to build.
  2. You don't know what you don't know. Be very skeptical of your ideas and work at first because you have no basis to know if they are good.
  3. What goes in comes out. If your business isn't growing, then the inputs are wrong. Change the inputs, and get a different output.

Where can people find you and your business?

Website: https://www.consultinglabel.com/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ryan.mathews/?hl=en
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ryan-mathews-34300719a/

If you like what you've read here and have your own story as a solo or small business entrepreneur that you'd like to share, then please answer these interview questions. We'd love to feature your journey on these pages.

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