I Lost Nearly $500K on My Third Business. Here Are the 4 Lessons.

In January 2023, I launched my third business with a color-coded, detailed proforma. By the end of 2024, I had lost nearly half a million dollars. This is the TBS story — and the four lessons I learned the hard way. I'm Scott Monday. I run two businesses in California's Central Valley. Trinity Builder Solutions (TBS) was my attempt to move into the commercial stone market after years of running kitchen & bath CRATE. It was a new industry, a new model, and a fresh start at 43 years old. It did not go the way I planned. 0:00 — Lost nearly $500K on my third business 0:22 — Who I am and what TBS is 0:44 — The TBS story: January 2023 1:06 — First gut punch: key team member resigns mid-2023 1:46 — Proforma off by 2x + COVID/interest rate headwinds 2:09 — End of 2023: $289K revenue, $239K loss 2:38 — 2024: lost even more — the decision to keep going 3:00 — Mid-2025: a hard call on a key employee 3:19 — End of 2025: things start to turn 3:42 — Lesson 1: Forecasting a new business is mostly fiction 4:00 — Lesson 2: External forces will happen — pivot quickly 4:17 — Lesson 3: Starting over at 43 is nothing like starting at 28 4:41 — The hunger gap: dumber but driven vs. smarter but comfortable 5:03 — Lesson 4: Relationships matter in B2B just as much as B2C 5:22 — How we changed our approach in mid-2024 5:40 — Where TBS stands today 5:58 — My question for you + CTA TBS is not a success story yet. But it's not a cautionary tale either. I'd do all of it again. The 39 months of having my face rubbed into the ground made me a better leader and a better business owner. If you've ever built something on assumptions that turned out to be completely wrong — I want to hear your story in the comments. Subscribe for a new episode every two weeks. Real lessons from real businesses, no fluff. I write about this every week in The Scott Monday Newsletter: https://scottmonday.substack.com