We were close to selling A Sweet Pea Chef, a business doing 70% margins, for $1.5 million. Instead we stuck with our plan to turn it into Cleanish and launch a supplement company to try and chase a $5 million exit in two to three years.

Welcome to Grind Optional: AI, tech and business for entrepreneurs making $200K to $3M who don't buy into the hustle culture. Below: what I did instead of leaving a good thing alone, whether Finaloop actually beats QuickBooks plus a bookkeeper, and why businesses with no employees might be carrying more of the economy than they get credit for.

Dustin Baier

BY DUSTIN BAIER

This story starts pre-COVID if you can remember that far back. Our business, A Sweet Pea Chef, was humming along and we had grown 50% or so every year. We had already started the process of turning it into Cleanish, but COVID kept delaying everything.

In 2021 we cleared $600K for the first time. It felt like we could do no wrong.

In retrospect we could have just kept doing the same thing and probably continued growing but maybe at a slower rate. Instead I looked at the numbers and felt like we needed them to be larger and to grow faster. That same year we had talks to sell it for $1.5 million. The idea of making $1 million a year was very enticing, and then exiting at a larger dollar number felt important.

Instead of focusing on a lifestyle business that had 70% profit margins we started honing in on Cleanish and a supplement company that would not have those margins. At the time this seemed easier for some reason but reality would be a much different story.

We spent about $60,000 on protein, and with COVID the manufacturer stopped making it. It took about a year to get it. Then an Apple update changed the Facebook ad model I had been studying. With COVID hanging over our protein being made and delivered we decided as all confident entrepreneurs do that we could do more and that another business would not be a distraction.

With that we decided to purchase a second ecommerce business, this one in a different space: fitness apparel. At the time this seemed reasonable. Hey, let's learn from a smaller existing business with a customer base that would also want our supplements.

This led to burnout and distraction. We paid about $84,000 for the apparel company in 2021 and sold it a year later for $78. That does not count the warehouse, the equipment or the inventory we bought to get it back up to speed. A Sweet Pea Chef ended up subsidizing both the supplement company and the apparel company.

The distraction plus COVID really cost us in scaling the supplement company and the time and mental fatigue we really never recovered from. At one point we also had to replace a lot of the protein, which was a major headache and cost us time, as well as having to change manufacturers for the fourth time.

At the end of 2025, after Lacey's dad passed away, we decided to stop subsidizing it. We sold off some of the inventory and got rid of the rest. In total, we put about $127,000 into the supplement products alone.

Quick high-level breakdown of the two companies:

Counting everything, the supplement and apparel companies cost about $574,000 and brought in about $210,000 from 2020 to 2026. That's a loss of roughly $364,000, on top of walking away from a $1.5 million sale.

Now I see the value in that high margin business and realize that you can almost always just do more of what is working and figure out how to improve it rather than spreading too thin across more businesses. We could have built our moat out more or even reinvested the revenue into more scale in a business we already understood.

Looking back, I would probably have sold it so we could work on something new with a cushion. That seemed to be what we wanted to do, but it felt like the offer was too small.

Now, before we start something new, I try to really understand the business model better first, then what channels that business model needs to be successful, and whether or not we are good at or have experience with those channels.

I understand now that a lifestyle business is not a failure just because it's smaller in total revenue. Having a larger margin and extra time was overall very positive.

Cleanish is a weekly newsletter from nutrition coach, Lacey Baier. Every Monday, get a straight verdict on whatever health claim is going around and the research behind it in plain language. No protocols, nothing to buy, and perfection not required. Free to subscribe.

Accounting software built for ecommerce and multichannel sellers, with a dedicated accounting team on its Full-Service plan. It replaces your accounting software rather than syncing to it, so there is no QuickBooks underneath.

Books that are current today instead of closed three weeks after month end, with inventory and COGS tracked automatically across Shopify, Amazon and your payment processors.

The Starter plan is $245 a month for brands under $1M in annual gross revenue that have been in business 4 years or less. Full-Service, which adds the accounting team, is quoted on revenue and complexity.

Sellers with inventory and more than one sales channel, where COGS is the thing your generic bookkeeper keeps getting wrong.

The only con is if you're a service business you aren't really getting the value from all the COGS and ecommerce stuff the tool has.

Less obvious fit for service businesses with no inventory, although at Cleanish we still use it as QuickBooks and a separate part time bookkeeper was just as expensive and more difficult and time consuming to manage.

Real reviews of tools we have used, no affiliates.

Shopify opened checkout to browser-based AI agents
Agents could already search a merchant's inventory and add items to a cart. As of September 28 they can inspect the checkout, change the address or delivery option, and place the order once the buyer authorizes it.
Why it matters: Shopify is enabling small businesses to sell using AI more easily, while Amazon is going the opposite route and blocking AI purchases.

Meta launched a free AI agent for small businesses
Muse for Small Business connects to Facebook pages, Instagram analytics and Meta ad accounts, plus Shopify, Stripe, Slack, Asana, Notion and Canva. It is live in the US and Canada, free with usage limits, with a paid plan for heavier use.
Why it matters: If your customers find you on Facebook or Instagram, this is a free agent already wired into your ads and storefront.

Tech layoffs are outpacing last year
Crunchbase's tracker has 2026 running ahead of 2025, but the pattern has changed. Cuts are arriving in sharp bursts at large companies rather than as a steady drip across the sector.
Why it matters: More experienced tech people are looking for work, which makes this a good time to land a contractor or fractional support you could not have afforded two years ago.

A CPA left his own firm to automate bookkeeping
Ahad Ali was running a 20-person accounting practice handling more than 2,000 returns a year. He now runs Tabby, a real-time bookkeeping tool built on live bank data. Fourteen months in: 5,500 businesses, roughly $100,000 in annual recurring revenue, a team of seven, and a $1 million pre-seed in progress.
Why it matters: Real-time books are getting cheaper and more common. So waiting 3 weeks to see your last month's numbers clearly is no longer reasonable.

Parents who use technology (AI, social media, search) plan to spend $356 more per child
Deloitte's back-to-school survey found parents using AI, social media and search plan to spend $737 per child. Parents who use no technology, representing 20% of respondents, plan to spend $381. Deloitte calls it a correlation: the more digital tools parents use, the more they plan to spend. Price comparison is the top use for AI (53%).
Why it matters: The parents planning to spend the most are the ones shopping with AI. If AI tools cannot find and compare what you sell, you are missing those buyers.

THE BILL SIMMONS PODCAST  •  28 MIN  •  START AT 2:19

Simmons on the Lakers sale to former Disney CEO Bob Iger and Josh Kushner. Hint: private equity is pushing prices way up, and brand matters a lot in sports. Good listen if the business side of sports is your thing.

LISTEN ON SPOTIFY

of total US economic activity in 2022 came from businesses with no paid employees.

About 29.8 million solopreneurs contributing roughly $1.7 trillion, and 82% of small businesses run without a single paid employee. Once again showing how important small and solo businesses are to the economy.

Sources: US Census Bureau, Nonemployer Statistics 2022; SBA Office of Advocacy, FAQs About Small Business 2026

Somehow just got around to watching True Detective Season 1 for the first time. Really enjoying it. I especially like the time dynamic and how they rely on unreliable narration with time jumps. Worth it if you like a slow-burn mystery where you're never sure who to trust.

If you would rather have a business that works for you instead of one that consumes you, you are in the right place.

P.S. Know someone running a business between $200K and $3M? Send them this. It is the single most helpful thing you can do :)