Our Small Business Just Made $100,000 In Less Than 7 Months

August 8, 2026

My brother and I started a small business in the branding and apparel industry mid-January and have now hit the $100,000 mark in just under 7 months.

We are estimated to close our first year in business around $177,000 – $250,000.

Along the way, we’ve hired, built an SEO-focused Google for small businesses campaign that attracts walk-ins, and have become the preferred choice for some of the leading companies in our industry.

Today I’m going to go over some key insights to our success and how you can replicate some of these steps to take your small business to the next level.

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How to Make Your Small Business Successful

Making your small business successful is going to require you to be an expert in your field.

The greatest shortcut to creating success in your small business is to know everything about your product or service, who you’re selling it to, and how to create a brand perception that bolsters your reputation.

Your advantage in being able to sell in your industry is directly tied to the knowledge you have about your industry and about what you’re offering.

The more you understand how the industry works, what it is that your ideal customer/clientele is looking for, and how you can be that tailored solution for them, the higher probability you have of landing top-dollar clients.

I worked both hands-on and administratively within our industry for five years. I then transitioned into the broker and retail side of it for another two years.

Building my digital media publication over a course of six years helped bring new and fresh ideas to this new traditional business, particularly within SEO and brand building.

In short, building a successful small business is going to require knowledge, experience, and skill sets that differentiate you from your competitors.

How to Remain Top-of-Mind-Awareness

When you’re pitching out to prospects and warm leads, you must maintain a cadence of being top-of-mind-awareness.

Being top-of-mind in your field simply means being remembered.

How can your prospects and warm leads remember you, your business, your brand, your identity, or your product or service?

It’s in everything from:

Your energy and enthusiasm over the phone
The diction (word choice) you used in that cold email
Your overall persona and impression left in in-person-meetings (or online meetings)

To even the smallest details such as:

The name of your company
How helpful and authoritative your website is
Brand mentions and associations

Being top-of-mind-awareness comes down to simply being consistent and showing up.

You must follow up with prospects and warm leads often, then time to time as you tailor to their schedules and needs.

The key here is to build a relationship with them during this follow-up season. For them to get accustomed of you being part of their work-world, their work-life.

When they need what you’re selling or offering, you’ll be the first person they think about.

Before you know it, they’ll view you like a peer and test the waters to see if you have the potential to be a long-term fit.

Once you receive that golden opportunity, work harder than anyone else to prove why you deserve to be their partner over anyone else.

How to Market Your Small Business

Marketing your small business is going to be essential for driving walk-in traffic and feeding your sales pipeline.

Our small business hit the $100,000 mark in under 7 months without the use of social media.

In today’s landscape, your traditional business may not need social media marketing or management from the start.

And that’s coming from a digital media entrepreneur who used social media to kickstart my publication.

Your small business is going to require using a Google Business Profile that tells your surrounding customers, and the world, where your business is located, and what you offer.
Google for business works best when you armor it up with an incredible website that demonstrates all of your capabilities and uses the proper SEO (search engine optimization) formatting.

These two strategies will be key to driving ongoing walk-in traffic, referrals, and success to your small business.

The great thing about setting up your Google Business Profile is that the results compound over time.

The ROI is incredible for a small booster engine to your business that can yield extra income on the side without spending any money for marketing.

As of August 8, 2026, walk-in customers have brought us $2,000 in sales this year just by finding us on Google.

While social media can be another great engine, it’s important to understand that if you do not have a direct call-to-action strategy to sell on a platform, do not waste your time using it.

First focus on what will drive sales to your business without spending marketing dollars, then strategize, plan, and execute a tailored system specifically for social media platforms.

I will write on this in another blog post.

But if you have any questions in the meantime on how to start, simply send me an email and I will respond on the weekends.

Building A Successful Small Business Will Require Sacrifice

If you want to make six-figures with your small business it’s going to rquire sacrifice.

Long work hours means time away from home.

From my experience running a successful online digital media asset and now this traditional apparel and branding company, I have found there is actually a formula for attracting big results.

That formula is based on output.

A minimum of 12 hours per day, ongoing 14 hours per day, and peak work hours of 16 hours when necessary is what will attract 5-figure months, or 6-figure years.

Working on weekends is also a big key to that compounding success, though these may be limited hours if you choose.

Every hour must be spent moving the needle in the right direction.

I dive deeper into this with 4 Traits Every New Entrepreneur Needs to Survive and Thrive.

Ultimately, if you keep playing small you will remain small.

The hours required to build a successful small business are non-negotiable.

In closing, it was all of these strategies that helped our small business make $100,000 in less than 7 months and attain success in its first year.

I had to gain experience and knowledge in the industry as a grunt worker and then in an administrative sales role for the first five years.

Another two years as a broker selling on the retail end of the industry. And finally, combine my knowledge and expertise gained in the media and digital space to create this reality for my new traditional business.

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