Damn the Torpedoes, Full Speed Ahead

I’m looking at a $150,000 decision I can’t afford to make. If I don’t, one business dies and 14 years of work along with hundreds of thousands in investment go with it. My other software project has almost no overhead expense or financial risk but is too new to accurately gauge revenue.

If I walk away now, I might be better off. Or I might be walking away from hundreds of thousands in income within a few months. This exact thing has happened two other times in years past. Everything happens in cycles, nobody can predict the timing. The timing is the difference between failure and wealth with no middle ground.

Last month, Tennessee Arms lost its primary supplier. Since then I’ve been stuck in a bit of a doom loop trying to find a way out. There simply isn’t a clean solution.

The only real option is to bring manufacturing in-house:

• 150-ton injection molding machine

• 2-axis CNC lathe

• facility expansion

About $150,000 total. Money I don’t have.

Best case, we’re back in production next spring. Realistically, something goes wrong because it always does.

Zoning is tentatively approved, so at least I don’t have to move. But I don’t know enough about injection molding or machining yet. That means courses, hiring people, and figuring it out under pressure.

We only run a few parts, so in theory I can learn enough to operate the machines myself using presets. But there’s a difference between theory and being $150,000 deep and realizing you’re in over your head.

YouTube can only take you so far.

At the same time, SimpleSaaS is moving exactly as planned.

54 micro-SaaS businesses launched.
A small amount of revenue, almost nothing, but not zero.

Everything is still in the SEO sandbox. Traffic is basically nonexistent, which is expected. If the model is right, the first real signals should show up in 60–90 days.

From the outside, it looks like nothing is happening. But this is exactly what the process is supposed to look like early.

Build. Launch. Wait. Double down on what works.

The hard part is living inside that silence.

Because right now, things are brutal:
I’m working constantly and making no practical progress.

No meaningful income.
No margin for error.

Just time and effort going out with nothing obvious coming back yet.

Tennessee Arms is immediate pressure.
SimpleSaaS is delayed payoff.

One could bury me in the short term.
The other might save me long term.

I already have a $150,000 facility and $400,000 in molds. I either expand into manufacturing, or I let it all die on the vine.

On top of that, the political cycle isn’t helping. Business is slow. It won’t stay that way forever, but there’s no guarantee I make it to the other side without making this move.

So the investment makes sense. Even if it nearly kills me in the short term.

There aren’t enough hours in the day.
There’s no real income yet.
I’m only still here because I have no debt and no other option but to keep going.

The outcome of any decision I make now won’t be clear for another year, even in the best case.

The exhausting part isn’t the work. It’s choosing a direction and committing to it fully, without second guessing. Because anything less is how you actually fail.

So for now, there’s only one option:

Build nonstop.
Pick a direction.
And keep climbing.

I don’t know any other way.