Lessons That Helped Build A Small 6-Figures Profit Business at 21

LightTools is a small development business co-founded by Jacquemus and NFTPrada in the summer of 2020. It currently operates as a b-2-b business that accelerates the growth of entrepreneurs’ businesses on various social media platforms by granting them access to a limited supply chain. The two partners work with a diverse range of clientele from smaller businesses to clients with over 500,000 followers.

Prologue

Jacquemus and I grew up in humble backgrounds. Both of our parents never attended college but did everything they could to give their children the opportunities they never had. Our fathers worked back-breaking hours at Chinese restaurants to support the household financially. However, they would never fail to greet us with a smile and a warm meal regardless of what happened during the day. Their sacrifice gave us a strong desire to provide for our loved ones one day and influenced the way we run our business- with humility and dignity.

Lesson 1

Don’t feel like you have to reinvent the wheel. Chances are that the business idea you have in mind is already out there in the world. However, this doesn’t mean that you can’t pursue the idea. It is likely easier to identify what gaps are missing in an existing business model than completely coming up with an untouched idea.

Research the niche that you’re exploring. Find out if there are other people in the niche with your idea. If they do, it’d be good to examine their business models. Find out what sings to you and find out what is lacking in your competitor’s business models. LightTools was born out of finding an existing gap that needed to be fulfilled.

Lesson 2

If it doesn’t work, get back to the drawing board. The entrepreneurial path is certainly not always rainbows and sunshine. The headaches that Jacquemus and I ran into during our first batch of iterations for LightTools are still palpable now. We scrapped our product's UI and UX design many times despite the hours poured into each iteration. However, each failed trial gave us valuable insight to get us a step closer to our ideal prototype.

Lesson 3

You’re not selling a product. This is a mistake that I learned early in managing the business side of LightTools. I struggled to close clients when Jacquemus and I first created an iteration of LightTools that we were finally proud of. The model worked well and we were confident in its ability to accelerate the growth of other businesses in the niche. However, the way I was communicating the product to prospective clients was not right.

I was too focused on highlighting the competitive edges that our product would deliver and all the unique features we developed. I realized that expressing how LightTools can help the respective client and their brand reach their goals while aligning with their values was much more important in closing sales.

Lesson 4

Value your instincts when hiring for your team. Finding the right team member demands more than just knowing their competence for the respective desired skillset. For our first hire, Jacquemus and I onboarded a brilliant developer. Their skillset was well equipped to tackle the goals we wanted to achieve as a team. However, the developer lacked communication skills, was not responsible with their deadlines, and didn’t fit into the team culture that Jacquemus and I sought to build. We spent a lot of resources, time, and frustration giving more than a handful of chances for the new hire to prove themselves. After evidently failing to meet expectations, we had to relinquish them from the LightTools team. While this was a tough decision, it was a necessary one and a learning lesson that we look back on today.

Lesson 5

Take care of your clients like your loved ones. Throughout the journey with LightTools so far, our clients have said that they were surprised by the quality of customer service that is provided when assistance is needed the most.

Growing up, our parents have taught us the importance of respect and humility. Fulfilling the demands of the clients is imperative but taking the extra step to get to know them on a more personal level establishes a long-lasting business relationship. Most of the clientele of LightTools were closed through word-of-mouth communication of our services from happy clients.

Take care of the clients and they’ll take care of your business.

Lesson 6

Record. It becomes easier to delegate responsibilities and track team progress if you have the right tools in your kit to do so. Take advantage of free applications to track expenses, customer information, payment information, and other important information that would be helpful to remember. Our team utilizes many platforms daily to sustain operations such as Stripe, Notion, and Humongous.

Lesson 7

Reflect. It’s easy to get lost in the process or feel frustrated during the journey of starting a business. A temporary issue may obscure the bigger picture. Take some time periodically to reflect on the goals you’ve accomplished during each period, what processes could’ve been better, and what needs to be worked on moving forward. It’s important to take a step back and realize the journey you’ve embarked on when you first started your journey.

While LightTools is still a small business and has much room to grow, we’re proud of the impact it brings to our clients’ lives.

Lesson 8

Don’t chase money. The worst mindset to starting a business is the mindset to solely generate cash flow. The best businesses, at least in our opinion, are those that seek to make others' lives easier. Money comes and goes. Instead, you should focus on making someone’s life less difficult, fulfilling an existing bottleneck, or figuring out a solution to a currently blatant issue. Understand your audience and serve them honestly with your best effort. Your business’ efficacy and revenue will follow with it.

Epilogue

We hope that you’re able to take away something valuable from the lessons we’ve learned during our journey of creating a small start-up. LightTools is less than a year old and we hope to be able to share more experiences along the way as we grow.