Hey Contrarians,

We don’t often get the chance to write about urban beardsmen, let alone their philosophies on financial freedom. But here we are.

A short while back, we sat down to meet the founder of Beardbrand, Eric Bandholz.

It’s all here. Musings on financial freedom. A look under the hood of a challenging year for his biz. What beards and finance have in common.

And no, you don’t need a beard or chest hair to read it.

What beards and finance have in common

Here’s a question: What do you think is the background of a CEO whose company sells men’s grooming products, operates a barbershop in Austin, and was built to unite a community of “Urban Beardsmen…”

Was he a trucker? A hipster Brooklyn mixologist? Did he have a stint as a lumberjack?

Wrong, wrong, and wrong.

“I was a financial advisor at a national investment bank before I started Beardbrand,” says Eric.

He adds, “If you’ve worked as a financial advisor at a mega bank, it’s a no-brainer why you’d want to get the f*** out of that place.”

Early in our conversation with Eric, one thing became clear: You may be able to take the beardsman out of finance, but you certainly can’t take the finance out of the beardsman.

“Sound financial practices, investing, and prudent spending habits have always been of high importance to me,” Eric wrote in a 2017 post titled “Financial Wisdom Sets Your Beard Free.”

Inside? Eric’s personal finance tips on budgeting, spending, paying off debt, and saving.

“I know this article won’t get the same amount of traffic or views as the other content — but it’s one that may make the biggest impact on a person’s beard,” he noted.

Wait… On a person’s beard?

Yup, here’s Eric’s logic:

Growing a beard. Personal finance. Neither is particularly complicated. For the former, stop shaving. For the latter, stop spending (more than you make).

But remember, there’s another part to this — the part that “sets your beard free…”

According to Eric:

• If you master your finances
• Then you’ll have “f*** you money”
• And that means you can say “f*** you” to whoever tries to dictate what you do with your beard

But know this. By “f*** you money,” Eric’s not talking about:

• Private jets
• A house in the Hamptons
• A spot on an Ivy League rowing team that your parents bought you with a $5M donation.

He’s talking simply about having enough control over your finances to have control over your freedom.

The number is different for everyone, he says.

Per Eric, you’ll know you’ve reached it if someone gives you s*** about your beard and you can tell them to “f*** off” without concern for the consequences.

“Our core values are freedom, hunger, and trust. And it’s quintessential to the way we build the business,” Eric told us.

“The reason we don’t have investors is freedom. The reason we chose to bootstrap and focus on that relationship with our customers is freedom.”

We wondered: What else drives Eric’s day-to-day grind? How does he define success for his business?

Here’s what he told us:

“I would argue that you win [in business] when you pass your business on to your children and your children are competent at maintaining the legacy of your business.”

Now, here’s why that’s especially important for Beardbrand today…

Lessons from Beardbrand’s hairy 2023

That lesson Eric just mentioned, the one about passing a biz on to your kids — it’s a reminder for the bad days, he told us.

“For me, this year, 2023, has been an absolutely terrible year.”

Now Beardbrand’s 11th year in existence, Eric says, “Everyone wants to do conversations about how [we] grew.”

Not only are there “a million different ways to grow,” he explained, but Beardbrand’s 2023 was actually really HARD — and one of its toughest ever in terms of sales and growth.

“It’s been a perfect storm of calamities for us this year. Seemingly anything that could go wrong has. We’ve stacked losses month after month. It tests my will to continue,” Eric wrote in a post in July.

At that point, the company was struggling in 3 main areas:

• Product: This included issues with order quantities, quality control, and packaging.
  
  
• Marketing: Beardbrand saw a decline in pay-per-click ad performance, a drop in organic content effectiveness, and slow growth on the affiliate marketing front.
  
  
• Operations: The loss of Target as a retailer meant Beardbrand’s fulfillment costs skyrocketed.

“There’s nothing to brag about… I feel like a complete fraud and failure after this year. But I also know that it’s temporary, and if I show up every day, that I will eventually solve the problem,” Eric told us.

And he has made progress.

According to another post, As of early November:

• The team (which had been furloughed briefly) is now back full-time.
  
  
• The company is nearing a 7-figure annual run rate on Amazon, which is halfway to its goal there.
  
  
• Between new inventory and incentive strategies, the biz is no longer “hemorrhaging cash.”

As Eric has put it, “It really does feel like at this point over the past 6 months, I’m at day number 1 with a startup, like buying a brand new business and trying to figure it all out again.”

Freedom is the North Star and the arena leads you to it

Nowadays, it’s not often you hear about a founder who’s simply okay with their biz not growing that much.

But that’s exactly who Eric is.

“About 3 years into the business… We’re like, hey, look, if the business never grows another dollar and we’re doing 20% profit on $3M, that’s $600k a year,” he told us. “We had won the game of life, in my opinion.”

Why?

Because they attained the financial freedom to do what they wanted.

They could pay themselves, focus on the bottom line, and if the top line didn’t grow, they’d be fine. No venture capital. No billion-dollar unicorn status. Just a relatively small, profitable biz.

And that’s A-OK.

“That was kind of the shift in the mindset for the business… To work hard and on projects that we find valuable, but because we enjoy them, not because we’re trying to be on the cover of Fortune magazine.”

Freedom was and remains their North Star, even when times get tough.

Want 3 other wisdom shavings from Eric?

1. On starting a biz: “The biggest mistake in starting the business was trying to convince non-entrepreneurs to go into business. The first step you want to take if you want to start your own business is to be around other entrepreneurs. They do think differently. They see the world differently. They don’t wait for things.”
   
   
2. On hiring like a pro, not a bozo: “In the early days, I think our hiring process was terrible. Now it’s like a 9-step process with reference checks and skill tests and all sorts of shit to make sure that we feel pretty confident with the person we're bringing in.”
   
   
3. On being an owner: “Another mistake that I constantly run into now as an established business owner is wanting to run the business like I did in startup days, focusing on speed and just doing things and launching things and not planning and organizing. But the business at this time needs more structure and patience, SOPs… There’s this fine line between speed and execution.”

Being “in the arena” is a meme because it’s real…

“I know it’s a meme, but I’m still in the arena,” Eric wrote in a September tweet.

He continued, “The world isn’t only built by the exceptional; it’s also built by those who build… You will have setbacks that may be weeks, months, years, or even decades. Don’t stop. As long as you wake up, you can work to make improvements.

Keep on growing.”

SO not boring...

🧔‍♂️ Check out Beardbrand’s YouTube channels (here and here). They’re masterclasses for small biz’s looking to leverage video in their marketing.

📊 ... And then check out this: Our latest video — 10 Businesses To Start BEFORE You Get Laid Off In 2024...