Post: #676

(07-30-2017 02:24 PM)Burn Wrote:  Two days left of the month and it is looking very good. Will update the first of August.

July ended up $1040, last was $600 so a huge jump Will be difficult to continue this growth and alot of the results came from the site we bought, $1200 of which mine is $600. This means $440 from the sites i have done myself. Goal for August is beating July.

Post: #677

(08-01-2017 02:33 AM)Burn Wrote:  

(07-30-2017 02:24 PM)Burn Wrote:  Two days left of the month and it is looking very good. Will update the first of August.

July ended up $1040, last was $600 so a huge jump Will be difficult to continue this growth and alot of the results came from the site we bought, $1200 of which mine is $600. This means $440 from the sites i have done myself. Goal for August is beating July.

Nice work, man.

Are you by any chance using Flippa?

Post: #678

It would be cool if somebody could do a datasheet for beginners about how to buy and run a website. From what I have read its apparently very easy to get suckered into buying a lemon website. I would not know though because I never tried it.

Post: #679

(08-01-2017 03:04 AM)CleanSlate Wrote:  Nice work, man.

Are you by any chance using Flippa?

Thank you!
No, i bought from a friend of my friend and could have it validated it was a good buy. I had no idea at that time but trusted my friend, which turned out to be a good decision.

(08-01-2017 03:24 AM)Australia Sucks Wrote:  It would be cool if somebody could do a datasheet for beginners about how to buy and run a website. From what I have read its apparently very easy to get suckered into buying a lemon website. I would not know though because I never tried it.

I have no experience with this, but my advice would be not to buy a site when starting out.

Post: #680

Time for a weekly update, as promised. I recently embarked on a 4 week period with minimum hourly work, leaving me free most of each day (and sometimes the entire day) to work on product development.

This past week was very exciting and productive. I had a couple slow days where due to some bad sleep the night before, I wasn't in the mood to accomplish very much, but also a couple of highly successful days where I was in the zone.

I did a lot of grunt image editing work with results that I was very proud of and created several new products (as part of the large product suite that I'm working towards finishing up this summer). I solved several problems that I hadn't yet gotten around to figuring out and ultimately finished last week and began this week very satisfied with my results.

Let's hope that this week ends up being equally positive.

Last January I spent a month in Malaysia with the intention of doing a lot of product development, but got next to nothing done. I realized after that experience that I needed to learn the arts of scheduling myself and staying focused on the task at hand. I worked on learning to do that from March to June and I see this period of successful productivity as a direct result of practicing those skills.

What works for me, is simply getting out of my house. I'm not a coffee drinker, but I'll usually hit up a coffee shop and buy some tonic water and maybe a small wrap if I need breakfast and get myself in the mode of working, which isn't hard for me to do, provided that I get out of my house.

Once I'm out of the house and in an environment conducive to getting some work done, I don't allow myself to check RVF or watch any movies or TV shows until I've put in at least 4 hours of work, after which if I'm feeling tuckered out, I'll allow myself to either take an extended break or quit for the day. I can listen to music or academic lectures in the background. I usually put in earbuds to block out distracting background noises.

If there is work that I must do at home (I have tools at home that I can't take with me to a coffee shop), I'll do that later after I'm already in work mode.

Another highlight is becoming more skilled at using Inkscape to professional edit photos. I achieved some results this past week that I was previously incapable of.

As for future tasks, I'm rounding the corner on having a minimum viable product ready for consumers, so getting a website up is a priority. I need a professional grade logo, but before prioritizing that, I need to finish writing up the website text. I also need to start working on producing some videos that demonstrate the functionality of my products or find someone affordable to do it for me. If anyone here has the skills to create some 5-10 minute Youtube quality videos and can do so at a reasonable cost, PM me.

Post: #681

Suits check out rawshorts.com.

Drag and drop style animation tool. Pretty easy to use. They put a watermark on the end of your video unless you pay for premium exports (like $10 a piece I think).

I've used them in the past. Mock up little 30 second clip,get the free watermarked version, show it friends and family for feedback, make the changes, then pay for the export.

Post: #682

Hey Suits! I did a couple logos for other members here. I can take a shot at yours if you want...

Post: #683

(01-31-2017 09:56 PM)Off The Reservation Wrote:  No need for a new thread but just wanted to say The Founder, which is a current theater movie about Ray Kroc (McDonald's), is superb. If you are a guy who starts new things or a driven entrepreneur you will love this movie.

Michael Keaton is fantastic, the writing is great and it is edge of your seat.

This extraordinary movie is on netflix now.

Post: #684

I just released my second product yesterday and most of the people who have bought so far are repeat customers. I've always known intellectually that existing customers are going to be easier to sell to than non-customers, but actually experiencing it is a makes me realize some things:

I can charge more for an individual product because my customers have more to spend.
I can package multiple products together and people will buy if each product meets their needs in some way.
I can offer tiers for a single product.

Now all I have to do is create more and better products.

Post: #685

(07-25-2017 10:42 PM)NewDayNewFace Wrote:  So I started a consulting firm in Healthcare IT. I have the website and business plan already set up. I've finished my marketing plan as well. Anyone have advice on how to approach marketing to potential clients and getting my first clients? What techniques have helped you guys the most?

Your marketing plan answers three questions:
1) Where I am?
2) Where I want to be?
3) How am I going to get there?

I suggest you go back and re-do your marketing plan to answer these three questions. You need to draft it, brain storm it, and write ... put it in practice and revise it accordingly to the reality of what is going on.

The basics basics (bare bones) of the marketing plan is the following:
You need to look inside of your company, recognize its strengths and its weaknesses. You need to look outside of your company, recognize the opportunities and threats.

You need to look at the industry and identify the competition; then analyze it; see what they are doing right and what they are doing wrong.

Then, you set up your objectives ... real, tangible, in numbers, measurable objectives. After you have this down, you get to work on your actionable strategy. First, you paint a picture of your "client" - the segment of the market you want to be your client, define it with as much detail as possible, know your target inside and out; obviously, so you know how to reach them. You profile them.

Then, you find a market segment .. what type of player you want to be; i.e. high price, low price, basic service, premium service, etc.

And now you can move to the market program .... start by describing your service with detail, as much detail as possible. Do your pricing policy having in mind the goals set earlier and how you will reach those goals. Then, you do your advertising and promotion strategy, this is probably what you were asking about ....

Put the above in writing with as much detail as possible. There is a lot more to go on and on .. but this here is the basics .... not sure what type of marketing plan you have done but if it doesn't cover at least these basics points, it is not real useful.

Even thought I didn't answer your question, I believe that after you have your real marketing plan done, you will have much better insight as to what are the techniques (marketing mix) that will help you the most.

Post: #686

(08-09-2017 02:20 PM)Corollary Wrote:  I just released my second product yesterday and most of the people who have bought so far are repeat customers. I've always known intellectually that existing customers are going to be easier to sell to than non-customers, but actually experiencing it is a makes me realize some things:

I can charge more for an individual product because my customers have more to spend.
I can package multiple products together and people will buy if each product meets their needs in some way.
I can offer tiers for a single product.

Now all I have to do is create more and better products.

Congrats on the new product. I don't know about you guys, but it seems like an up hill battle to get a product to market.

Your experience is exactly why I suggest serving a market.

It can cost a lot of money to get a customer. The more products you can sell will increase your customer lifetime value.

A lot of people are afraid of paying for customer acquisition. The main reason I have seen is because they have one product to sell and then on to find the next customer.

The guys paying a lot of money to bring in customers are also selling a lot of stuff to the same customer. That is why they don't bat an eye at the higher costs while the small time sellers can't afford to get into the game.

Keep building up products for your market. I have 5 product lines right now. I will be removing two product lines just because they aren't performing well. I can add those product into my other lines as bonuses to increase sales. I'll make money on those products one way or another.

Post: #687

Forgot to update last Sunday.
Recently I have met up with a super successful person in my area of work, got some really good pointers on where to focus my time and overall strategy which made me very motivated and have worked more hours every day than ever before. Got alot of stuff done and i have started the process of outsourcing copy. Sent a request to someone for ~2000 words to start, if it works out well i will outsource a lot of words in the near future. Right now, the future looks very bright.

The goal right now is to spend all money coming in on things moving things forward as fast as possible and scaling as hard as possible. I've heard Christmas times are crazy and by that time i will dominate at least one of my niches.

Post: #688

I attended a weekly dinner for entrepreneurs on Wednesday night. I didn't go with the intention of "getting motivation" (I'm pretty fucking motivated already) or finding people to get advice from (I have a plan that I'm very confident about already), but you never know you might meet if you get out and network.

Attending was definitely a net positive. Most of the people there were simply curious about entrepreneurship and one guy was sketchy as hell and seemed like he was simply there to try to sell a product that he pretended wasn't of his creation, but there were definitely a couple of people there that is was good to meet.

I brought a couple samples of my products along with me and showed them to a few people who wanted to see. Feedback was very positive and a guy who works in the same industry as me was very eager to meet up for a coffee. Attending such meet-ups is difficult with my work schedule, but attending once in a while during slow weeks could prove beneficial.

Post: #689

I started a website about a month ago and it made its first dollar this week I think, so that is nice.

I have another venture that I hope will turn its first profit this month.

Lots of work to do this weekend.

Does anyone have any good resources on collecting backlinks?

Post: #690

Has anyone gone to SCORE (Service Corps Retired Executives)? I did when I first started my company over 10 years ago and didn't get much help. I'm thinking about going back.
The reason is the utter mess my company is in at the moment. Out of product to sell, processing machine needs fixed, cash reserves on empty and I've been in the red for several months. Sales are lackluster but not abysmal. Oh, can't get any more credit from my finance company, although I hadn't asked for any in five years. Before I go the sleazy credit people who continue to send me offers, I thought about visiting SCORE.

Post: #691

Just popping in with my Flippa auction. Spent 7 years building up these twelve sites into a fun micro-biz - Just unloading to heighten focus on other commitments.

https://flippa.com/8962071-123guitartuner-com

Post: #692

Does the auction site allow you to drop the reserve and accept the highest bid if it comes to that? Look's like a huge offer considering the revenue.

Post: #693

(08-13-2017 05:31 AM)yellowfever Wrote:  Does the auction site allow you to drop the reserve and accept the highest bid if it comes to that? Look's like a huge offer considering the revenue.

Nope and the price was stupid low. Nevertheless, a private buyer just snapped it up for a tidy sum and certainly more than I listed. A websites value isn't just measured by income, but also by technical stature and traffic. Also, the age of a domain is factored in. Of course, a domain name should be as short as possible with a .com still being the extension of choice.

In asia, random numeric domains like 337.com or 332, etc have sold for millions with zero content, so it really is the wild west.

Post: #694

Just getting started on my first business venture, should be launched by the end of the day. It's an online service-based business with my own spin on it. Just to clarify it's not a SaaS, I'm performing a b2b service online.

Plan on differentiating through better service, marketing and sales tactics. Includes a recurring revenue structure and should be scalable once I fine tune the processes and hustle for enough clients.

The plan is to secure my first customer by the end of the month at the latest and have $5k+ MRR by the New Year. Goals don't matter though, only execution.

Wish me luck.

Post: #695

(08-13-2017 11:41 AM)tonysoprano Wrote:  Just getting started on my first business venture, should be launched by the end of the day. It's an online service-based business with my own spin on it. Just to clarify it's not a SaaS, I'm performing a b2b service online.

Plan on differentiating through better service, marketing and sales tactics. Includes a recurring revenue structure and should be scalable once I fine tune the processes and hustle for enough clients.

The plan is to secure my first customer by the end of the month at the latest and have $5k+ MRR by the New Year. Goals don't matter though, only execution.

Wish me luck.

Best of Luck!

Actually B2B is where its at - I own one back in the states. It's mostly offline though and I will have to head back at some point to scale/sell

Post: #696

(08-13-2017 12:44 PM)Leads Wrote:  

(08-13-2017 11:41 AM)tonysoprano Wrote:  Just getting started on my first business venture, should be launched by the end of the day. It's an online service-based business with my own spin on it. Just to clarify it's not a SaaS, I'm performing a b2b service online.

Plan on differentiating through better service, marketing and sales tactics. Includes a recurring revenue structure and should be scalable once I fine tune the processes and hustle for enough clients.

The plan is to secure my first customer by the end of the month at the latest and have $5k+ MRR by the New Year. Goals don't matter though, only execution.

Wish me luck.

Best of Luck!

Actually B2B is where its at - I own one back in the states. It's mostly offline though and I will have to head back at some point to scale/sell

Lots of opportunities in offline business too, definitely an overlooked area because people tend to gravitate towards online stuff these days. B2B is great b/c businesses can justify paying for a service if the ROI is positive or it allows them to avoid hiring an employee to do the same job.

The end goal is to be in eCommerce/product development or software but this venture requires very little capital and should provide some valuable experience and help build capital for bigger and better things.

Post: #697

My best advice is to go the extra mile and meet clients in person, if possible. I've found this to be a force multiplier - unreal how many people miss it. Simply hit industry conferences and meet key folks in the respective market. Heck, this expense alone can be used as a reason for travel

Post: #698

Has anyone read Efficiency by Wall Street Playboys.

Read the book and will probably re-read again for finer details.

Curious to hear what you guys feedback is.

Post: #699

No, but I plan to. The blog is elite level tier.

Post: #700

(08-13-2017 02:17 PM)Leads Wrote:  My best advice is to go the extra mile and meet clients in person, if possible. I've found this to be a force multiplier - unreal how many people miss it. Simply hit industry conferences and meet key folks in the respective market. Heck, this expense alone can be used as a reason for travel

Yes yes yes!

You just made me have a business advice orgasm with this good point.

I have visited every client I have ever had in person even when it did not seem required. Consequently I have also travelled the world and been to many, many remote places.

I once had a forbes list billionaire personally compliment me for visiting him in person and referred to that as one of the factors of his success.