Ash Hess has been in the profession of firearms since 1995. He changed how one million soldiers in the United States Army shoot guns. He wrote the doctrine. He ran the marksmanship school. He deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan. And then he retired and had to figure out how to turn all of that into a business.
He built a competitive shooting match company called Kona 5 Performance from a single $15,000 event into a $150,000 a year operation with 75 events across 17 states. Then he drove it into the ground. And he is honest enough to tell you exactly why.
He built it for love of the game. Not as a business. He built the product he wanted. Not the product his customers needed. He hit the valley of despair where the business was too successful to ignore but not profitable enough to hire help. And he lost interest in his own customer base.
In this episode we unpack every lesson from that journey. Why you should never build a business without an exit strategy. Why the difference between a product and a company will make or break you. Why you must protect your ideas legally before you tell a single person. And why the fear of failure is the only thing actually stopping most people.
Key Takeaways
- Build for exit, not for love of the game. If you cannot see the exit strategy, do not start until you can.
- The valley of despair is real. Your business makes too much to quit and too little to hire. That is where most companies die.
- Protect your ideas before sharing them. Someone with more money will beat you to market and beat you in court.
- Every soldier who tells a jump story is already a salesman. You have been selling your whole life whether you realize it or not.
- Do not be afraid to crash into the ground. The data you collect from failure is worth more than the comfort of never trying.
- Social media is your free sales channel. The fear of being visible is the only thing between you and your next opportunity.
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