The Amazing Escape Plan - Sumner Hobart

Team Subkit -

Interested in starting your own entrepreneurial journey but unsure what to expect? Then read up on our interview with Sumner Hobart, Founder of The Amazing Escape Plan, located in Independence, KY, USA.

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

Our business is The Amazing Escape Plan which helps creative, hard-working individuals who are sick of being paid less than what they are worth by a company that truly doesn't care about them or their families. We teach proven, creative methods for generating a part-time to full-time income by creating and selling physical and digital products on Amazon, Etsy, Walmart, Udemy, Skillshare, and YouTube.

Tell us about yourself

After graduating summa cum laude with a marketing analytics degree and applying to 30+ companies, I ended up accepting a position in a qualitative research startup. At first, it sounded like a great opportunity, but I soon found the company culture to be toxic, where talking about one's sex life and spending extra hours in the office was preferred to delivering tangible results. My day-to-day job was literally listening to videos of teenage athletes and writing down word-for-word what they said. I hated my job so much that I remember pulling into the parking lot and crying in my car, thinking this would be the rest of my life. In 2018 I decided to quit with no real idea of what I would do next.

With my wife working full-time at an architecture firm, we were able to (barely) pay our bills while I figured out another income stream. I knew I never wanted to work an 8-to-6 again. I believed I was worth more than any company could pay me as an employee. So, I decided to research "ways to make money online." That's when I came across this business model called "Amazon FBA," where you identify a product idea with high demand and low competition on Amazon.

Find and partner with a supplier in China to create that product idea and send a test order to Amazon's warehouse, where they handle all storage, shipping, and customer service. In 2018 we launched our first product, and within a few months, that product was earning more profit per month than my wife was making at her full-time job. She decided to quit shortly after, and we both worked on our "Amazon business" full time. We had some successful products, and we had some duds.

Learning entrepreneurship (time management, taxes, bank accounts, cash flow, profit, outsourcing, etc.) on top of this brand-new business model was definitely stressful in the beginning. But we pushed through and ended up making more money on Amazon than we made at our previous jobs while working fewer hours. We decided that earning in USD and spending in the US was inefficient when there are so many beautiful, amazing countries in the world where the USD goes much further. So, we decided to sell nearly all of our physical possessions, pack our two bags, and live in Florianopolis, Brazil, for six months.

We loved living abroad so much that we now do it full-time and have traveled to over 20 countries at the writing of this article. Our Amazon business was great, but we realized the need to diversify, so we began selling our same products on Etsy and Walmart. We also noticed that a lot of courses and YouTube content online were either misleading or missing vital information. So we have taken our knowledge of creating a business that allows us to work fewer hours and travel the world and create content on YouTube and affordable, in-depth courses on Udemy and Skillshare.

What's your biggest accomplishment as a business owner?

I would say my biggest accomplishment is successfully creating systems and hiring others to fulfill and update those systems allowing me more free time and to scale our business. At some point in the solopreneur's journey, you realize that having lots of money with no time is miserable. You start off hoping you make as much money as you did at your previous job. Once you accomplish that, then you hope to make MORE than you did at your previous job. Once you accomplish that, you realize how valuable time is and how little of it you have. You also realize you've reached a plateau where if it's just you or you and your partner, you won't be able to grow the business much further than where it is now.

This is when you need to outsource. You need to identify the tasks that are not worth your time, create training systems on how to complete these tasks on a daily, weekly, monthly, or annual basis (could be as simple as a Google Doc or Loom video), and then hire domestically or internationally for those postings. Many entrepreneurs are shocked when they realize they can hire top-tier virtual assistants for as little as $5.00/ hour.

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

Making my own decisions about nearly everything. When you work a traditional 9-to-5 job, you are told by a manager what to do and how long you have to do it. Then you do it. You may not like what you do, but it's easy.

As an entrepreneur, you have to figure out and decide EVERYTHING on your own. Sure there are YouTube videos and paid mentors, but they're not going to do anything for you. YOU have to.

It may not sound like a big deal, but when you realize how many problems and questions arise as an entrepreneur, such as:

• Will revenue be higher next period compared to this period? Why?
• What are the biggest drivers of sales? How do you know?
• A new competitor just came on the market and is stealing your customers. What do you do?
• Why will people buy your product or service? How do you know?
• What do you do when you lose your main revenue source overnight?
• How much time should you spend with family vs. working on your business?
• How do you deal with relatives asking you for money?

You either cower in fear or buck up and take the necessary responsibility.

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

Here are six crucial tips for anyone looking to successfully run a new business:

  1. How much do you hate your current lifestyle on a scale from 1-10? If it's not a 10 or 11, don't quit your job. You have to HATE where you are bad enough to change. If you want to "give this entrepreneurship thing a try," you will fail. It's just a matter of time. Instead of "giving something a try," have the mindset that, "I WILL make this work, or I will DIE. Period."
  2. Start hiring virtual assistants as soon as you are profitable. Do everything possible yourself (rely on agencies and freelancers as little as you can in the beginning stages) and find creative ways of marketing and advertising your business.
  3. To start making serious money with a new business, you have three options:

    • Spend a TON of time
    • Spend a LOT of money
    • Spend a lot of time AND money

    There is no escaping one of these three things. SO MANY people want a business that costs $0.00 to start, and you can start making 6-figures in profit in 12 months—not happening. Look at businesses that are working (Amazon FBA, Udemy courses, Etsy digital products, YouTube channels, dropshipping, lawn care services, plumbing, automated carwashes, etc.) and commit to building a successful business in that space over three years. You are not allowed to give up in less than three years.

4. Read the book "Profit First," or you could go into serious debt and depression.

5. Get ready for your friends and family to dislike you.

6. Pay for information is better than not paying. After three years, you will realize that trying to grow your business with free information online (or, even worse, NOT learning at all) will cost you significantly more than paying someone who already has success in your space in the form of online courses or consulting calls. Some of you reading this will take this to hear and pay for valuable information. Others will think this doesn't apply to them and will grow significantly slower, make significantly less, and be significantly less happy than those who pay for information.

Where can people find you and your business?

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/sumnerhobartofficial
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sumnerhobartofficial/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/sumnerhobart
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sumner-hobart/
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@SumnerHobart

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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