reSee.it - Tweets Saved By @huntercdurham

@huntercdurham — Hunter Durham | Impact Industry

Posted - September 5, 2023 at 9:33 PM

Saved - September 6, 2023 at 5:45 AM

reSee.it AI Summary

From quitting my job at Facebook to exploring the Impact Industry, my journey seemed promising. I joined the search funder community, bought a business, and closed a lucrative deal. However, challenges arose. A foam shortage, cracks in the ecommerce business, and customer concentration took a toll. Despite landing a public company as a client, losses piled up. Major cracks appeared, and resources dwindled. Losing clients, struggling with cash flow, and facing bankruptcy, I realized the harsh reality of business. Transparency is crucial, and I hope my story helps others going through tough times. Business is hard, and anyone claiming otherwise has ulterior motives. Now, I'm working on liquidating and dealing with personally guaranteed loans.

@huntercdurham - Hunter Durham | Impact Industry

Here's the timeline towards bankruptcy: HINT: Don't do this. Give your lessons time to simmer. Mar. 2019: Quit job at Facebook May: Joined largest client Sep: Got fired Oct 2019: Went down Warren Buffet rabbit hole. The idea of Impact Industry was born. Jan 2020: Found search funder community (should joined Twitter) Feb 2020: put together documents to buy a business. Mar. 2020: COVID happens E-commerce blows up. April: Start taking on new client's full time at Impact Industry marketing. May 2020: Have second child August: landed first 5-figure client. October: Go under contract to buy first company. 2020: Impact Industry Marketing: $250K Rev. Feb 2021: Close $1.2M deal for e-commerce furniture store. 10% down 10% Seller Finance. 6.5% interest. Agency at $35K MRR. Mar 2021: Freeze in Texas, main foam chemical supplier looses power. Massive foam shortage in industry. Lead times go from 14-16 weeks to 28-32 weeks. Apr. 2021: Everything going as planned. Aug 2021: Cracks start to appear in E-commerce business we bought, things are softening google traffic down. September: Agency hits $60K MRR. October: Go under contract for $2.6M on two furniture delivery businesses. End of 2021: E-com closes at $1.2M Agency closes at $562,000 Jan. 2022: Bring on a biz partner, this was the beginning of the end for me. February 2022: Transaction closes for $2.6M, 10% down, 0 seller finance. Now there are three businesses and I'm trying to spend time in each. March 2022: Biz partner gets really sick, loses control over his life, but still tries to work. April 2022: Lose $750K account. May 2022: Demote General Manager. June 2022: Accounts receivables balloon from $150K to $600K. Should have died here as we didn't have enough working capital. July: Heavy customer concentration is starting to form. went from 10% to 50% of the business as we grew the account. Didn't support with enough additional sales. August 2022: Shipping business needs full attention but we now have a floundering ecommerce website, the agency is still humming but starting to see cracks. Interest rates rapidly rising. September: Land a public company as client after working on them for a year. Mid 5-figure monthly contract. Nov. 2022: Biz partner no longer can work, given up a lot to him. Have to pivot and put someone else in place. End of 2022: Agency: $775K (Covered losses and expenses) Ecommerce: $775K (Huge Loss) Delivery Company: $5.7M (Serviced over $300K in debt) January 2023: Interest rates continue to rise, servicing about $40K a month now soon to be $45K by summer. February 2023: Major cracks are starting to form in all businesses. I don't have enough time to fill them and resources are getting constrained as i've had to personal supply working capital into shipping biz. March 2023: Things feel stable at shipping business for once but Ecommerce is getting into a cash crunch as overall demand as slowed. Churned a couple of clients on agency. June 2023: -Lost our largest client at the agency -Largest shipping customer owes us $400K and contemplating bankruptcy. -Ecommerce sales almost non existent. July 2023: We reach an agreement with shipping customer and get paid a large amount. -Agency loses all revenue and employees -E-commerce continuing to suffer. Third child born. August 2023: Mitchell Gold Bob Williams shuts down. Owes us $400K, Other businesses cease to exist at this point. September 2023: Working with bank to liquidate. Have a little over $2M in personally guaranteed loans.

@huntercdurham - Hunter Durham | Impact Industry

I'm going through some difficult times right now, trying to be as transparent as possible, and hopefully that can help others. If you are too, feel free to DM me.

@huntercdurham - Hunter Durham | Impact Industry

I’ve got dozens of messages from people in worst situations than mine. Business is hard. Anyone who tells you it’s easy… Has an incentive.