Nobody launches four businesses at once without something going sideways.
Actually, scratch that.
Nobody launches one business without something going sideways.
I’m doing four, so the maths here isn’t complicated.
This post is a status check.
Not a highlights reel.
Not a “lessons learned” listicle dressed up in failure cosplay.
Just an honest account of what’s already off-script, and why that’s not the disaster it might look like from the outside.
The Epiktet Supplies situation
Things are going slower than expected.
The biggest speed hump that I have seen so far is the lack of understand of how these chemicals work and their effectiveness.
What am I doing about it?
I am developing a series of brochures and blog posts that talk about just that.
What am I not doing?
Panicking.
This was always the likely outcome on a short timeline, and I built some buffer in for exactly this reason.
The VCA is moving slower than the idea
Building a certification body from scratch is not a quick project. I knew that going in.
What I underestimated was how little business owners understand about what this certification is.
The Vegan Certification Authority exists.
The infrastructure is being built.
The timeline I had in my head was to have it approved by the ACCC and in market.
The timeline I’m now working with is probably 6 – 12 months longer.
That’s not failure.
That’s the difference between building something credible and building something fast.
I’m choosing credible.
Dark Quill isn’t off the ground yet
I haven’t landed a client.
The agency is set up.
The positioning is done.
The work is ready to be done.
This is the one that could be awkward to write about publicly.
Because the gap between “I’m building a ghostwriting agency” and “I have clients” is where a lot of coaching-industry types would insert a motivational flourish.
I’m not going to do that.
The reality is the hardest bit for me is the selling.
And the reason it’s fine is I have more work to do on and in my self for this to not be the barrier that it is.
BYVB is the clearest of the four
Build Your Vegan Blog is actually in the best shape of the lot.
Not because everything is going smoothly, its because the scope is the most defined and the content is the most developed.
The problem here is that because I have nothing to sell it is harder to track the ROI.
That being said, there are a respectable number of subscribers to the email list.
Even the smoothest of the four has something.
That’s the point.
Why I’m writing this
The whole premise of NABB.coach is that I’m building real businesses and documenting what actually happens.
If I only show up when things are going well, this blog is useless.
The coaching industry runs on curated success.
The before-and-after shot.
The “I was exactly where you are now” hook that’s engineered to make you reach for your wallet.
That’s not what this is.
What this is, is a real-time record.
And right now, the record shows: four businesses in various states of progress, at least one thing broken in each of them, and nobody panicking.
That’s probably what building businesses looks like.
I’ll report back when things change, in either direction.
A note on “it’s fine”
The title isn’t bravado.
It’s not toxic positivity dressed up as honesty.
It’s this: nothing that’s gone sideways is terminal.
Nothing is a surprise that changes the fundamental logic of what I’m building.
And nothing is being hidden from you to protect a personal brand.
That’s what “it’s fine” means here.
Not great.
Not catastrophic.
Fine.
And moving.
Cameron is building Epiktet Supplies, the Vegan Certification Authority, Dark Quill Agency, and Build Your Vegan Blog, simultaneously, publicly, and with no coaching qualifications.
Cameron is building four businesses at once and documenting every win, loss, and ugly middle bit in real time.
He’s the founder of Build Your Vegan Blog, the Vegan Certification Authority, Epiktet Supplies, and Dark Quill Agency.
He is also the voice behind NABB.coach, where he writes about the realities of starting and running businesses without the coaching industry’s usual spin.
No blueprints.
No gurus.
Just what’s actually happening.