29 years old, one company, three years, no traction, but overwhelming passion. Help!

Perhaps you’re really close to the point where your business becomes viable, perhaps you’ve got a long way to go still. We can’t say. However, it seems like you’re looking at others’ success in an unhealthy way (“feel like a loser”, comparison with relative success of peers).

You’ve got to try to keep your head straight and to focus on your goals and what it takes to achieve them. Five years from now your business may be flourishing and their businesses may have gone bankrupt. Or maybe their businesses will soar. It’s insignificant compared to your own success, so just don’t worry about it. You’re still young and you knew the first couple of years were going to be struggle when you committed to this. It’s the exception where people reach product-market fit right away, not the rule.

Start spending more time on marketing and see what you can do to move the needle on revenue. There’s no shame in focusing on short term results when you’re starting out. If you work obsessively on your grand vision at the expense of short term results you risk losing it all. You won’t find a guy who can use his business wizardry to fix your business make you rich overnight. You’ll have to figure it all out by yourself. No deus ex machina.

Good luck.

If they have a $500K revenue company, they may not be bringing home any more money than you are. Set that aside.

Don’t know what kind of business this is, but it sounds like you don’t need marketing as much as you need sales. Sales cures a lot of issues. You can waste a lot of money on marketing – trust me, I have – but at the end of the day, it’s all about sales.

Go take a sales class, online selling course, whatever. You need to sharpen your sales skills and customer value proposition…or just sit and wait for deals to come in. Takes smarts, hard work, and a little luck to make it happen. Go make some luck!