Happy Thursday!

In case you forgot, I’m that guy (@thekoerneroffice on IG + FB + Tiktok) that you probably found in a short form video talking about random business ideas.

Today I’m showing you how to manage a small business without royally screwing it all up, whether you already own one or want to start one.

In this weekly newsletter I get super tactical about cool, random business ideas and how to launch them. You’re getting this email because I gave you a free business plan and toolkit («-bookmark this!)

Who am I? I’m Chris Koerner: Dad of 4, husband of 16 years and proud Texan. I’ve started 75+ business (3 worth over $10m) and give away all of my learnings for free in a once/week email.

Let’s get to it, shall we?

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I've Started 75 Businesses. Here Are the 6 Most Important Things I Wish Someone Had Told Me About Running Them.

I was recently asked to give a talk to 200 entrepreneurs about the role of a CEO. But as I planned the speech, I realized that I hate that word.

CEO sounds like you've got a corner office and an assistant who brings you coffee - not that I drink coffee, but you know what I mean. That's not what we're doing at our level.

I prefer "CEOwner." Chief Everything Owner. Because when you're running a six to eight figure business, that's exactly what you are. Chief of Sales when your rep quits. Chief of customer service when things break. Chief of morale when everyone's freaking out.

If you prefer to watch or listen to me talk about these lessons, here are the links: (Apple - Spotify - YouTube)

I've started 75 businesses in 15 years. Some failed in spectacular fashion. Some grew to eight figures. All of them beat the crap out of me and taught me what it really takes to survive as a business owner.

Here's what I wish someone had told me before I stupidly signed my first 5 year personal guarantee as a college senior.

Speaking of conferences, this month I’m speaking at a free virtual conference called the Creator Business Summit. There are only 4 speakers - me, Shaan Puri, Codie Sanchez and Tyler Denk, the founder of Beehiiv. We’re talking about all things product launches, monetization, audience growth and about a ton more tactics to help you start or grow your business. Register for free here!

6. Build Your “Make It Happen” Gene.

Okay, here's my first business story. I opened Phone Restore as a senior at Alabama. Problem? I had never fixed an iPhone in my life.

When customers walked in with broken phones, I'd say, "Cool, cool, cool. Give us a few hours." They'd leave, and I'd immediately go to YouTube and learn how to fix their specific phone. With their phone. Talk about learning under pressure.

Then April 27th, 2011 happened. Tornadoes ripped through Alabama. Our store? Rubble. Revenue? Zero overnight. Personal guarantee? Still very real. Newborn son? Still needed to eat.

We put up a hand painted sign from Home Depot. People felt bad for us and bought phones. We listed our buyback inventory on eBay. We made it happen, and here’s proof:

That's the MIH gene. Make It Happen. Everything is figureoutable. You either develop this muscle or you don't survive as a business owner.

Everyone asks: Should you work IN the business or ON the business?

Wrong question. You need to START in the weeds. Learn every detail. Then strategically climb out.

I was running our fourth location. A kiosk in Huntsville's mall. Customer brings in a $600 iPhone for a simple battery replacement. I'd done hundreds of these. Here’s the kiosk:

The phone was hot from gaming. I accidentally punctured the battery with my screwdriver. Black, yellow smoke started spewing with this awful hissing sound. In the middle of the mall. Everyone staring. The smell was like death itself.

I threw it in a UPS box, slammed it shut, and bought her a new phone. She lost all her data.

But I learned something critical: You have to understand every single process in your business before you hand it off to someone else. Know the weeds intimately, then teach others to navigate them.

Picture a funnel. At the top are all your employees dealing with normal day to day challenges. Most of it they handle without you ever knowing. Good.

But the worst stuff. The absolute disasters. Those filter down to you. That's your job. You're the shock absorber.

I was at a gas pump one night when my employee Ryan called. "Someone threw a brick through the window. Stole all our phones and cash. Everything's gone."

Turns out Ryan was the thief. He staged the whole break in.

As the CE Owner, you have Caspian Sea levels of surface area for disasters. Your employees are W2. They don't have your upside, so they shouldn't carry your stress.

5. Find Out Which Revenue Numbers Actually Matter.

Let me give you some real data from my journey:

Phone Restore: Four locations, eventually sold
LCD Cycle: $2M year one, $4.8M year two, $8.8M year three
Send Eats: $300k/month top line (not profitable. Learned that lesson hard)
Bitcoin Mining: Zero to $10M in three months, $15M in 12 months

Here's what those numbers don't tell you: The Bitcoin business looked like genius level execution. It wasn't. Right place, right time, money printing everywhere… China banned mining.

Send Eats looked successful at $300k monthly revenue. We were competing with Amazon without Amazon's resources or focus. Wrong place, wrong business model.

Revenue vanity metrics will lie to you. Profit and sustainability tell the truth.

But here's a lesson about capitalizing your business that changed everything for me. John Nolan from my church barely knew me. But he heard I needed capital for LCD Cycle's growth phase. No paperwork. Just handed me money. When I paid him back, he refused equity and asked me to donate to his nonprofit instead.

Sales solve everything, but capital is fuel. Run out of fuel, run out of business.

I got a term sheet later. $1M for 20% equity from a Birmingham VC fund. Everything looked perfect on paper. But when I prayed about it, the answer was clearly no.

Eight years later, I reread that term sheet and saw the liquidation preferences clause. When LCD Cycle started shrinking, I would've had to give them the first fruits of all profits. We wouldn't have been able to move to Dallas or build our dream home.

4. Take advice from the RIGHT experts, not just ANY expert.

Sometimes I think about the Jeff Goldblum quote in Jurassic Park: "Your scientists were so preoccupied with whether or not they could, they didn't stop to think if they should."

Just because you CAN start a business doesn't mean you SHOULD. I've made this mistake dozens of times. The bread business that became seven figures? Shouldn't have started it. The Send Eats fulfillment business that hit eight figures? Definitely shouldn't have started it.

Both taught me expensive lessons about the difference between "this will work" and "this should be done."

And if you want personalized advice from me, check out my community where you can ask me as many questions as you want for only $99/month via video call or Slack DMs. Here is a link to today’s AMA (WARNING: IT IS REALLY REALLY GOOD AND PACKED WITH GOOD STUFF!) if you want to see how they usually go, and here’s a link to the community itself. We’d love to have you!

3. Protect Your People. Protect Your Culture.

October 2021 was the craziest month of my life. Send Eats was doing $300k monthly with 32 employees. Bitcoin mining was exploding. 80% close rate on sales calls. Everything was perfect.

Except my daughter was dying in Texas Children's Hospital in Houston. She needed a double lung transplant.

I was taking Bitcoin sales calls from her hospital room while my customer from Send Eats (who represented 85% of our revenue) was screaming at me daily. This guy was toxic. Awful human being making everyone's life miserable.

We fired him. Lost 85% of revenue instantly. Had to lay off most of our team.

But I was in "my daughter might die" mode. It was actually the perfect time to make that decision. You have to protect yourself and your mental health first, or everyone suffers.

If your best employee has to ask you for a raise, you're already too late. You should be coming to them proactively.

I learned this from watching Nick Saban. When one of his players was convulsing on the field during practice, Saban stepped over him and walked to his office. The media destroyed him for being heartless.

Truth? He stepped over the player to immediately call paramedics while everyone else was panicking and pulling out phones. He stayed calm, handled the crisis, protected his team.

That's your job. Be the captain who goes down with the ship while keeping everyone else safe.

2. Watch Out for What I Call “The Pride Signal.”

My friend tweeted 18 months ago about how awesome everything was going. All his businesses were crushing it. He felt unstoppable.

When I had him on my podcast recently, he called that his "local top." The next 12 months? "Eating glass and staring into the abyss."

I've been there. When you think nothing can go wrong, that's your warning signal. I don't know how to prevent what comes next, but at least you can recognize the pattern.

The flip side? When you think everything is terrible and nothing will ever get better. That's usually your bottom. Things are about to turn around.

Michael Girdley says: "Hire smart people, leave them alone." Andrew Wilkinson says: "Your job is to do nothing as a CEO."

Both are wrong at our level.

If you hire a rockstar and don't check in regularly, you'll watch them die on the vine. They'll think you don't care about them or the business. They'll assume you're too busy with your four other side projects.

Even Elon Musk proves this point. If he focused on just Tesla instead of Tesla, SpaceX, Boring Company, and Twitter, Tesla would probably be 50% bigger. Maybe 500% bigger.

You've got to know the score. Splitting focus means none of your businesses reach full potential.

At our level (six to eight figures) your rockstars still need investment from you. Regular check ins. Proof that you care about their success and the business's success.

1. Learn The REAL Role of a CEOwner.

After 75 businesses and more scars than I care to count, here's the truth about being a CEOwner:

Your job isn't to be the smartest person in the room. It's to develop an unbreakable Make It Happen gene. To absorb chaos so your team doesn't have to. To know every detail of your business intimately before you delegate it. To protect your culture like your life depends on it (because your business does).

Most importantly? To remember that when you sign those paychecks, you're not just responsible for revenue numbers. You're responsible for mortgage payments, kids' college funds, and families who trust you with their livelihood.

Master these fundamentals, and you'll survive the inevitable disasters that come with business ownership. Ignore them, and you'll become another statistic in the "90% of businesses fail" category.

Everything else is just details.

Want more CEOwner talk?

This newsletter touches on some major points from my talk at the conference, but if you’re interested in diving in further, check me out on stage here on this YouTube video.

I share deep dives on business ideas and complete playbooks three times a week on YouTube and every podcast platform. While everyone else is chasing the same oversaturated opportunities, I'm digging up hidden goldmines for you.

Thanks for reading!

-Chris Koerner