This morning I lit $81,666.66 on fire.Ā š„š„š„
Well, at least thatās what it felt like.š
See, if youāve been reading my blog recentlyā¦
Then you saw my blog post about how I started that agency in 2018, how that business failed, and how it cost me around $1.5MM.š
Well, actually it looks like we can update that number to $1.75MM.š
Hereās why:Ā
My agency had a traffic partner back in 2019 who sent us a TON of salesā¦
But it was for offers owned by some of those former āFree Trial Guysā I mentioned in the other blog post about the agencyā¦
And over time, several of those guys ended up skipping their bills and stiffing my agency.
By a lot.
When that happened, the agency didnāt pay out the traffic partnerā¦
But over the past few months, that partner started hitting me up about the moneyā¦
And after some back and forth, I was faced with a difficult decisionā¦
Do I just pay him the money heās āowedā or tell him tough s**t?
Because hereās the thing, I feel like I did have some grounds to push back:
Ā Ā 1 āĀ The traffic partnerās sales all came from their email list.Ā
So they didnāt āspendā any money to drive these sales. However, they did have an opportunity cost associated with sending to offers that were on my affiliate network, instead of someone elseās.
Ā Ā 2 ā For all the sales that the traffic partner sent, for something like $190k's worth of sales we never collected any money from the offer owner.Ā
So they sent the traffic to the offer owner, the owner kept it, and my network got stuck with the bill. Meaning we got screwed.
And yes, we've gone down the legal path with some of those offer owners to try and get the money owed, etc. But itās a slow and painful process, so I donāt know if weāll ever get it back.
Ā Ā 3 āĀ Then thereās another $39k in sales that this traffic partner sent after Iād already told them to stop.Ā
Granted, it wasnāt a formal notice. But during a conversation with the owner of this company back in September of 2019, I told him three times he should probably stop sending traffic to the offers on the affiliate network since it wasnāt very solvent.
Ā Ā 4 ā And then thereās the fact that sometimes stuff doesnāt go the way you think it will in business.Ā
Isnāt that the point of an LLC? To give you an āout?ā
Couldnāt I just claim insolvency and tell him if he wants the money, to sue me for it?
Realistically if I did that, it would drag on for several months and almost certainly end up in a settlement for a fraction of the total amount owned.
And yet, after some soul searchingā¦
I decided that despite all of these things, Iād just send them all of the money owed.
Why?
You can almost always bounce back from a hit to your finances, but itās much harder to bounce back from a hit to your reputation.Ā
Really, in any business or industryā¦
Your reputation and your name is everything.
If people trust you, and they know that youāll do the right and honorable thingā¦
Even when itās the hard thing and even when it SUCKSā¦
Every door becomes open to you.
You get opportunities that others donātā¦
Deal making is frictionlessā¦
And you cement yourself as the kind of person that people want in their lives.
But if you go back on dealsā¦
Or donāt honor your wordā¦
Or make excuses when the going gets toughā¦
People take notice.
Word starts to spreadā¦
And before long, things become increasingly difficult for you.
So thatās why, even though it SUCKS, I agreed to just pay back the full amount of $245,000.Ā
Iām doing it in three payments of $81,666.66 (one payment every 30 days)ā¦
And I just sent out the first one this morning.
It's a large chunk of change (at least for me)ā¦
Especially since I just put $650k down on the house I boughtā¦
And Iām now spending more money furnishing that houseā¦
Plus, I just had to pay taxes too.
Yet at the same time, I have a feeling of satisfaction in my gut as I write this, because at least I know I did the right thing.
ā SPG
P.S. This post originally came from an email I sent to my private list. If you want to see more stuff like this from me, you can apply to join my list using this link.
