Nathan Hirsch

Search “pros and cons of entrepreneurship” and you get the same tidy list every time. Freedom and money on one side, risk and stress on the other. All true, and all a little too clean. I have lived both ends of it. I started a business in my college dorm in 2009, sold over $25 […]

Most people starting a business assume the wrong things. They assume it will move faster than it does, cost less than it will, and work out because the idea feels good. I have started seven businesses and sold one, FreeUp, for eight figures after four years. I put in $5,000 and grew it to $12

A common concern facing many founders and entrepreneurs running service businesses is how they can grow their companies and increase market share without having tangible products to show their evolution. Connor Gillivan and I had similar concerns when we started offering B2B services, such as bookkeeping and SEO, to make entrepreneurship simpler for others. Over

Growing a business gets a lot harder when you can’t predict where your next customers will come from. One month, your marketing is working, and in the next month, leads slow down, sales become harder to forecast, and every new campaign starts feeling like another attempt to get back on track. The businesses that keep

A Forbes report shows that 65% of businesses fail due to founder conflict. What was once a shared business vision falls apart, leading to situations where you have to let go of your company partner, perhaps due to disagreements over business direction, money, management styles, or personal issues. Whatever the reason, you should understand how

The biggest difference between businesses that sell well and those that don’t comes down to one thing. Can it run without you? I didn’t build with an exit in mind at the start. After years of building and scaling businesses, I co-founded FreeUp, grew it to $12M ARR, and exited in 2019. Going through that

If you had 10 minutes with a successful entrepreneur, what would you ask? Most people think of the most obvious questions: How did you start? How much do you make? What was your big break? The problem is that those answers will not tell you how the business actually works. After more than a decade

The one certainty with a business partnership, as with any close relationship, is that conflicts will arise. Research indicates that approximately 70% of business partnerships fail within the first five years, often due to role confusion, financial disagreements, or ineffective communication. The difference between a clean exit and a catastrophic collapse usually comes down to

Many of us shake hands over a partnership without knowing the behaviors that will destroy a business partnership. We expect that the partner will always be committed, loyal, and truthful. However, that’s not always the case. Missed updates, mismatched finances, or an offhand remark can be discomforting. And before you know it, you can’t stand

Ever since 2009, I’ve been interested in blue-collar business ideas that anyone can start and make a living from. Over my 16+ years of entrepreneurial experience, I’ve noticed that everyday problems need people to solve them. Take shoveling snow or walking dogs, for example. They may seem simple, but when you’re running late for work,