Will Aitken

Summary:

Will earns 500k / year after just 12 months in business. He is killing it with just two services: sales training and content creation. Wanna find out more? Let's dive in...

Tell us about yourself and the businesses you created?

Hi, I’m Will Aitken and I started a company called Will Aitken Sales in November 2023.

My business has two parts to it really:

• Sales training: This is where I do 1:1 coaching, team training and sell digital products / courses. I’ve worked with brands like Demandbase, Revenue.io, Autodesk etc. to help their sales teams drive more pipeline and close more deals 
• Video agency: This is where I help brands (like 30 Minutes to Presidents Club) create revenue focused videos for social platforms. I support with video editing as well as creating net new videos from end to end

Both my companies are under Will Aitken Sales at the moment, but my plan is to separate them into two different entities. Will Aitken Sales will be focused purely on ‘sales’ (duh) and then I will separate the video agency to focus purely on the content creation stuff (I’m busy working on a name and brand for this as we speak... stay tuned). 

Prior to starting my business, I worked in sales teams, marketing teams and recruitment teams all over the world. I had some great bosses but I also had some really shitty ones. Eventually, I just decided that I’m sick of “tossing a coin” to see if my next boss is going to be good or bad, so I decided to be my own boss rather… I haven't looked back since!

How did you come across your business idea?

It was straight forward really - over the past 3 years working for my full time employer (at the time) I had accidentally built a personal brand as I was sharing a lot of sales training videos on LinkedIn.

I was at a crossroads in life where I was unhappy with the boss at my last job and so I had to make a choice – Do I look for another job? Or do I start my own thing…

The thought of working for another company exhausted me. So I looked at my skill set and thought, I know sales and I know content creation, why don’t I do both? So I did.

I started reaching out to people in my network and basically pre-sold 2 deals while still working full time. This added a cushion for me to confidently go to my boss and resign as I knew I had at least these two deals lined up. The rest would work itself out...

What is the specific problem that your businesses solve?

At its core, everyone needs good sales people and everyone needs good content.

Now, I must admit, I do have 2 massive advantages here (some people call this the "unfair advantage principle"):

• Perspective: I have worked in sales and marketing my whole life. I am a salesman and a content creator by profession. I am pretty uniquely positioned to be able to offer a service to my clients where I am, not only the target audience, but also an active daily user. When it comes to sales training, I don’t pretend to be an expert in Enterprise sales (I never did that and I hate the whole “fake it till you make it” theory), but I do have the expertise when it comes to outbound and mid-market sales. In addition, when it comes to the content creation side of things, I typically do a lot of this for revenue driving businesses because I am able to speak from the perspective of a salesman. I have real insight into what salespeople need, like and want.
• Personal brand: Over the last 3 years, I had been working for companies where I was creating and distributing content all over socials. I was recording videos & editing videos daily. Thus, through this, I was unintentionally gaining a social following and building a personal brand. I now have just under 60K followers on LinkedIn, and around 100K on TikTok. This helps massively when reaching out to people as I have credibility in the industry.

How did you find your first customer(s)?

Whilst working full time at my last job, I picked three companies to do direct outreach to. These companies all sell to the people that follow me on socials, so I approached them and said “hey, love your stuff, I’ve got this following, wondering if it would make sense to do a partnership here.” They agreed… I pre-sold two deals and had commitment from them before quitting my job. This gave me a lot of confidence to just say: “you know what, let's do this”. The worst that could happen is that, if it didn’t work, I’d just have to go back and get another job (which, to be honest, isn’t that bad if that’s the worst possible outcome). 

How do you continue to find new customers on an ongoing basis?

Frankly, I've benefited a lot from growing a brand. It was never intentional, but because of that, I get a lot of inbound inquiries through LinkedIn, Instagram and other channels. So I don’t really have to do any outbound, which has been really helpful. 

There is the question that, if I had to do some outbound, I'd probably be more successful than I am right now. But I've been pretty darn slammed and I’m making more money than I thought possible. So I’m in a good place at the moment.

What are your current revenue streams and how much do you earn from each?

Today I have 6 main revenue streams. Altogether they generate $500 000 / year. I have two full time employees that help out on the agency side of things (a social media manager and a video editor). The sales training accounts for about ⅓ of all revenue and the beauty of this is that, because it's just me, it operates at almost 100% profit. The media agency accounts for the bulk of the other ⅔ and because of my two employees, it isn’t operating at the same profit margins, but is still pretty lucrative. My revenue stream vary year-on-year, but the main drivers are as follows:

• Sales training 
• Content creation
• Digital courses
• Partnerships
• Youtube
• Merchandise

What are your future plans for the businesses?

I have two main focuses right now:

• Separation: I want to separate the video agency from my personal brand. My personal brand is what people pay me for. Will Aitken Sales should be all about sales and the video agency should focus only on content creation.
• Self-sufficiency: I want to build the agency up in a way that I don’t have to be so damn hands-on, because that's killing me right now. Today I edit a lot of the videos we make. No video editor on earth earns $500K / year, so there is no way I should be spending my time doing this. 

In what ways has your life changed since starting your own business?

I'm British, but I'm settled in Canada now. I can fly in and out of different cities, and I've got a schedule that feels flexible and less stressful than the corporate jobs I used to hold. Sure, this probably means that from time to time I have to give up some weekends or stay up late at night. But the sacrifices are so worth it. I have more freedom than ever before and I'm earning a lot more than I ever thought possible.

What piece of advice would you give to someone wanting to start a business?

Start before you start...

It is really tough to start a business and then have to try and grow from a place of desperation. Have a safety net first and your journey will be so much easier. There are two things you need to do to make sure you have this net in place:

• Savings: Things can take time to start cash flowing and if you run out of money, you’re up shits creek. Either pre-sell deals and have a signed contract, or have a runway of savings in the bank. 
• Validate: Make sure that you've got a service people are actually willing to pay for. Before you quit your 9-5, speak to your target audience and see if you can get them to part ways with their money, before you dive in head first.

In summary – if you have a safety net that can last a few months and if you’ve physically sold your service to someone, then you’re off to the races.

Where can people find you and your company?

Hit me up on LinkedIn. I respond to a lot of messages. So if you ever have any questions or want a little piece of advice, drop me a DM and I will happily respond. 

Alternatively, HERE is my website where you can find me, my company and what I do.