Scale, Exit, and Build International Freedom - Danny Carlson

Interested in starting your own entrepreneurial journey in business development but unsure what to expect? Then read up on our interview with Danny Carlson, a digital agency growth consultant based in Vancouver, BC, Canada.

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

After selling my agency Kenji ROI (7-figure annual rev) in 2022, I helped other agency owners scale from $10k to $100k per month and ultimately sell their businesses.

Tell us about yourself

When I was a carpenter, I hated my job and started selling products on Amazon. I grew that business to $40k per month in revenue, then got my Amazon account suspended.

What's your biggest accomplishment as a business owner?

From that experience, I started the agency Kenji ROI. I grew it to 7 figure annual revenue before selling the company in 2022. There were 25 full-time employees.

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

Extreme responsibility. Knowing that every month I had to make payroll amounting to tens of thousands per month kept me hyper-focused on sales and marketing. At every step of our growth from $20k per month to over $100k/m, I was challenged with new skills I had to learn to keep up. Hiring and scaling a sales team, passing off key marketing functions, and eventually, team culture and HR all became new challenges in the growth. The constant need to learn and grow was a huge challenge that was ever-changing in my agency's growth.

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

1. Read and understand the book "The Slight Edge." It perfectly illustrates the non-linear growth curve of all businesses. If you know this to be true, you will not get discouraged when after 6 months, you don't have the results you expected. They will come.
2. Become masterful at sales and marketing. Without them, your business will fail. Outsource them, and your entire business relies on someone else. With them, you can grow ANY business in any niche. Master sales and marketing, outsource fulfillment & operations.
3. Reinvest profits at every stage. There is always someone to hire, marketing strategies to implement, and other places to put your profits to work. Don't harvest your profits too early; otherwise, you will stop your growth in its tracks.

Where can people find you and your business?

Website: https://dannycarlson.co/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/iamdannycarlson
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/iamdannycarlson/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/IamDannyCarlson
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/danny-carlson/

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.

Turn your craft into recurring revenue with Subkit. Start your subscription offering in minutes and supercharge it with growth levers. Get early access here.