Brian Sloan attended law school but after graduating he chose a different path: he built an online and offline sex toy empire from the comfort of his favorite cafe. His strategy of creating viral online contests and crowdfunding campaigns lead to his products appearing on tv and on thousands of news websites in dozens of languages, including an 8 page profile in Playboy magazine. After raising almost a million dollars through crowdfunding, his invention, the Autoblow, sits on the shelves of thousands of adult retail stores worldwide.
Entrepreneurial Role Models:
- Entrepreneurs Brian Knows
- Some EO Members
When business started difficulties overcame:
“After you go to law school people, your family, other people expect that you will be a lawyer. And so I think first I had to overcome the expectations of other people that I decided to take a different path and I had to sort of justify that to myself and two other people. Because law school in the US at least is a big financial investment, I took $120,000 of loans so people think whoa if you are a lawyer definitely can make sort of okay money and you will have a normal life. But if you tell people I am going to sell things on eBay for a while you have to justify that and that’s kind of emotionally a sort of stressful thing to do…[Listen for More]
Favourite Books:
Atlas Shrugged Book by Ayn RandFavourite Quote:
“The question isn’t who is going to let me; it’s who is going to stop me.” Ayn Rand
Recommended Online Resources:
- Flippa – Sell your business on Flippa. Flippa helps you list faster, connect with buyers and sell your business to someone just as passionate as you
- BizBuySell – The Internet’s Largest Business for Sale & Franchise for Sale Marketplace. Over 45,000 businesses for sale on the Internet s largest business for sale exchange. Sell a business for sale with a confidential ad or use a business broker.
Best Advice to Other Entrepreneurs:
“my best advice is never give advice. I never give advice to anyone. I only share experiences because advice is pretty worthless if it’s not exactly on the topic of the experience that I’ve actually had that’s related to the experience that another entrepreneur is looking for this kind of advice on. I would say to everyone else don’t give advice, get the word advice out of your mind and only share experiences with other people where you yourself had an experience”…[Listen for More]
More About Brian Sloan:
Neil’s Quote at the Beginning:
“Why do we fall sir? So that we can learn to pick ourselves up” Alfred, Batman Begins
Other Quotes From the Chat with Brian Sloan:
- “a huge first step for anyone who is interested in any particular industry is to go to the tradeshow of that industry. It’s where you can bump into people randomly, you can chat with people when they are having coffee, you can annoy people by asking them things, you can introduce yourself to people, you can look at everyone’s product offerings, you can hang around a booth and listen to a sales pitch being made. I think just being exposed to everyone at a tradeshow of your industry is super important to understanding the playing field”
- “because I didn’t take any investor money I had to figure out how to do everything from the beginning. I couldn’t use money to solve time problems”
- “I don’t think that anything is a secret. I think it really just takes, and it’s not hard work, it’s smart work and it’s putting in the time”
- “I try to be, at least in my sub niche, I try to be the driver of change. I don’t want to respond to change I want to cause the change”
- “I just make sure that I am following my own sort of internal guidance system and I make sure that I don’t comport myself to what other people want from me or expect from me”
- “I think it’s important that I always have a full overview of other types of businesses, that I am aware of how other people make money, and I think sometimes one can apply what they have learned about other business types to their own”
Leave a Reply