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Diary of Young Entrepreneur from Poland

A detailed account of a Fastlane process...

najz

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Hey everyone, I'm majk.
I'm learning a lot English right now, nowadays so I just thought that ill show up my all my story to someone.

First stage - Slow Lane Brain (pleasure first)

When I was a 16 year old kid I try a lot of different businesses, some kind of them was pretty profitable.
I read a lot of books and keep trying new things like building awebsite for people like me, open minded ( I really like personal development, lucid dreaming, fast reading and other stuff).
A couple years later I started to hang out with too many women, partying till the morning

I started to think that I need money for that kind of life so I just go to many slow lane works. (interior, assistant surveyor, seller, builder, even illegal busines). My websites lost traffic, because of that kind of useless things that I was doing. It was a pleasure but only for a moment and I realize it many years later.

Second stage - I hate my life I need to change it

When I was 21 years old I worked in my day dream job. Selling andplaying video games 8-10h/day. After that I try still to learn personal development and making a new website. I realize that Idon't control my life at all. I made another mistake.

Third stage - I cannot live like that

(first time when i read MJ Marco book)

It's more important for me, that I did not give up. I still am learningcode, cms, copywriting, SEOoptimizing websites, when I was working as a miner.
I even invest most of my money, but Iknow that this way it takes all my life to get me somewhere I want to be.
After 1,5 years of working under the ground I say - I cannot do it any day longer I quit. I get a document and I was free for 2 weeks, because of sickness. I got time.

Four stages - changing my destination.


I visited the employment office and I heard about fundings they offer. It was attractive to me so I did everything to achieve it. Many people said that I cannot do it and it's not profitable to run a business in my home town. Then that I don't have skills and other staff to provide a business. It was sad for me that so many people won't believe in me.
Still I tried and created a very good documents that provide me fundings. Then i started to believe in my value.
I open a business ( TechWord - http://techword.pl) that is providing computer service, websites, SEO link building, AdWords campaigns.
I like my work now and i like environment that i created. I'm still learning a lot, but i now that from now one, ill always work for my own bill.

Five stage - There is something more i know it.
(second time when i read MJ Marco book)

Now I'm 24 years old.
I got a company and a strange feeling that it's still not where I wanna be.
When I got only a free time I'm trying to understand what most value I can provide to people.

I just want to find really good ideas (with all advices from Marco) for building a website, application, software that provide.

My passion from now one, is a idea extraction.

ps.
If ill make mistakes, forgive me - still learning english.

Regards, Majk.
 
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najz

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Dziękuje serdecznie :)
 

najz

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I found an awesome information here, by a man who know how to make SaaS business :
"
Whats the most reliable way to find niche markets to start idea extraction ?
Criteria Number 1: Lucrative industries are preferred
Criteria Number 2: Profit driven businesses
Criteria Number 3: Roughly 5,000 to 10,000 businesses (or more) in the market industry
Criteria Number 4: Reachable by phone, email, facebook, linked in, twitter, or message boards.
Criteria Number 5: Can get person with pain point on the phone
Criteria Number 6: The average successful business earns at least $100k per year in revenue, and ideally profit (guestimate this)
Criteria Number 7: The business currently pays for software of some kind

Examples: property management companies. physical therapy practice, chiropractors, pilates or yoga studios, graphic designers, realtors"

I think that this can help me a little bit.
 
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najz

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Updates*

I listened too awesome podcasts,
So eye-opening!
Here, are they:
  1. http://www.smartpassiveincome.com/no-ideas-no-expertise-no-money-business/
  2. http://www.smartpassiveincome.com/no-ideas-no-expertise-no-money-business/
I make lot's of notes, but i show some of them, that are for me really important to take an action.
It's really important to take an action when u starting to learn something new. I learned all my life from Google, podcasts, blogs, awesome books and i got a little experience with that. Most important thing to do, is to take action after read something eye-opening. It's just what i feel.

I read about 6 months.

The six months of The Foundation are like month 1, you find the pain in a market; month 2, you validate and try to sell it; month 3 you hire the team and put the place in to build that software and get the sales to fund that; month 4 you start building a list of people that are interested in the software; month 5 you build a relationship and a rapport with that list while the software is being developed; and month 6 you watch and you start charging users.

1 Stage - you find the pain in a market

So i know exactly from now one, that i got 1 month for idea extraction.
I planned that from new year i want to try and sell my concept to others business owners.
It's pretty awesome, cause my company is related with building web applications so my cold e-mails will be looking great and i also sold already one web application, but i was only a broker in that.
Also great experience.

I always try to determine a deadline for any kind of projects.
I promise that ill do everything in my power to find lucrative market and pain associated with that to the end of this year.
I got exactly 23 days. I can put from 8-12h/day for it.
It gives me 184h - 276h hours to work on idea extraction :) !

I'll try too makes update when something bit happens or if just any one ask for that.
Listen to the podcasts they are really mind breakers - in positive way.
 

najz

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If someone is searching for awesome topics, like main here You are ;
  1. https://www.thefastlaneforum.com/community/threads/saas-execution-dane-maxwell-style.51733/ << Pure Action Taker! I read it all. This is all what MJ says about "process" in live example.
  2. https://www.thefastlaneforum.com/co...s-with-no-money-like-in-the-foundation.53140/ << Another great example
  3. https://www.thefastlaneforum.com/community/threads/funded-webapp-saas.53917/ <<< I'll try to read this in free time
Blog,by Pascal "The Foundation Experience"
  1. http://makeawesomeshithappen.com/category/thefoundation/
I read all of topic above and couple of posts form MASH and i realize one thing :

Best way to verify my idea is to make as many cold calls with CEO's as it's possible.

Also i read that face to face meeting can be the most valuable experience.

I already done research about industries that meet the criteria and I'm pretty sure, that we will be going in too Real Estate industry.

We got awesome webiste's like www.panoramafirm.pl where i can see numbers of registered and active companies right now.
There are plenty of use full informations ; @, phone number, company address, websites and other stuff.
I love to see this kind of numbers ;
"Purchase, sale and rental of real estate, the secondary market, commercial premises and buying and selling a house, information about real estate agencies, intermediaries in buying and selling real estate, affordable housing."
  • Property Valuation - 1515 found
"Valuation of property, list of appraisers and real estate agents, selling and buying property, flats, plots and home, property valuation for mortgage, the cost of the valuation of real estate agencies and in expert."
"Property management, property managers and building administrators and estate, property management, commercial premises, green areas."

Summarizing there is 34,451 cold calls to make.
From only one website.

Important task & things to learn and do now :

  • Know how to charm gatekeepers and talk only direct to CEO, CFO, Managers.
  • Gather all the great questions that i can ask and translate them to my native language. ( Idea Extraction )
  • Make a great data base using File Maker Pro ( i heard that it's good )
  • Prepare a couple of e-mail templates and automatize sending it. (i talk with my girlfriend, she want's to help me with this case and with the gathering of the informations)
  • Talk to all my friend that have connections with Real Estate CEO (ill try this when ill get a little more experience by the phone i feel that that kind of interview can be really important)
I'm also thinking about, books like :

  • Sping Selling,
  • Get Real (web application)

My main target is to get prepared to make cold calls.

I got also updates about my actually company, I'm making a website for CEO that is insurance intermediary. I can have an IE with him also, it's good cause ill try also others industry. Further we are preparing a software that handles caretakers management.

(this kind of opportunity was just a luck, cause i send many messages at facebook offering IT services and from then i got a first commission for a software development. )

We have got a first beta version with video instructions, it's so awesome! :)


Good things happen when you start taking action... << I think the same, MartinH You are my inspiration!
 
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najz

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Hey,

Lot's of good things has been done last couple of days.. :)

I'm glad that I'm an action taker.

I was working with my friend that is quite good with programming and i also heard that our web application is attractive not for only one company but for couple of them.
So i saw the possibility to scale it more that for one company.
I offer what kind of percentage we will get working together (with my friend - programmer) and i see quite lot of chance going in to this.
We already got great solution for "agencies working daily with Excel".

It will be short update, cause I want to still do "the job" too night.

I know that this craft - home care, is something new too me.
I said also that I'll go in it for only couple of months.
My plan is simple, cause it's changed ill write down on what I'm working right now :
  1. Get awesome customer base with home care owners, steering people also.
  2. Send e-mails with our demo web applications + description of the benefits (Thinking about doing something like Carl-ClinicMetrics-Infopack.pdf)
  3. Making as many cold calls as it's possible during my day job.
  4. Try to understand pain, update our solution or sell it, if it will be matched good.
So from now on, in short sentence - I'm going in home care industry, cause we got solution provide for couple of company's already interested.
I said that ill try this for the end of February.

I have one question if someone is reading this,

Is that kind of information is helping You?
Do You think that i should continue to make updates?
I got many information about Polish industry if someone is interested i can send PM.
 
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Hicks

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Is that kind of information is helping You?
Do You think that i should continue to make updates?
I got many information about Polish industry if someone is interested i can send PM.

Hi, yes this helpful, and people are reading. Keep it up!
I'm thinking about selling books in Poland as (as I understand it the Polish read a lot/buy a lot of books). I have access to a distributor but as it will be a commitment, I'm still researching.
 

najz

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Thanks everyone who send me a PM or just like the post it's very nice to heard that i kind of help someone just writing my path to building automate, lucrative business.

Hicks*

Try to look out at this website : http://www.zlotemysli.pl/, they got plenty of books online and i think that they will answer couple of Your questions. They are some kind of most popular 'publishing ebooks online' in PL.

TylerBiz*

Staram się utrzymywać tempo :)

Updates*

  1. We got little over 50 - 60 companies in our database (still growing.
    Deadline where i will be start cold calling and sending @ i think that is set for 4 January, cause christmas time is not a good time for that kind of work. People just thinking about their families, gifts, and free time + new year).

    We are using this http://joshuaisaak.com/ninja-how-to-find-almost-anyones-email-address/ tips, to get Business owner name, @, phone, whatever etc. Additionally File Maker Pro is quite comfortable for doing this kind of work + I recommend Layout Contacts.

  2. I made first version of Infopack, here You can look (I used PowerPoint 2013 - great for this). Ill change text and couple of images, but if You want to look at it, at beta version - here it is : http://tinyurl.com/k2wpe9w
  3. There is also video, explaining to clients, how everything work. This version is hardly cut, cause it's beta version for first look and impressions for our first client. I will need to update it, change, add music + effects - it's not a priority right now. Here it is, if someone interested : http://tinyurl.com/lx87t6v
  4. Made first version of e-mail templates translated and ready to rock.
Focus :

  1. I'll focus still on gathering database
  2. Listen to all podcast - Starting from Nothing ( this knowledge is awesome before sleep! - http://tinyurl.com/kp92o4z)
  3. Today i will read about how to be really good on the phone with costumer and avoid the gatekeepers.
    Deadline is comming up and i dont want to miss chance to try idea extraction :)

There are christmas comming soon, so

Wishing You all a very Merry Christmas! May it bring you joy, happiness and everything else you deserve at Your fastlane travel.
 
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najz

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Hey,

Currently this is my list of task to do, before ill start Cold Calling ( i think about 7 - 8 Januray )
It's look like this : http://tinyurl.com/oaqf3ow ( it's only in PL version, I'm sorry for that - maybe one day ill translate everyone document i share in this topic)

Last couple of weeks was very awesome for me, because we (me & programmer) installed software for the first time for our first costumer. We also did couple of other services, e-mail configuration on android, install new monitor, configuration router for static ip (for the one PC, cause it's a local server)
I did my first Idea Extraction and i heard that we will be in touch for the opportunity to meet 3-4 other companies (close friendly to this one first)
Now we are waitning for report (UE from first costumer), if everything goes fine, we will meet more companies without even marketing our product. It's really good opportunity.


Ill start sending my first e-mails at 4, and start my first Cold Calinngs at 7-8 January.
My task list is long, ill do my best to prepare as good as i can, to make awesome phone calls.

It's very fast and short update, because I'm still working also in my PC service company, so I'm really busy. I also got a meeting with CEO of Real Estate company in the next week !! It's a great way to prepare for another Idea Extraction, cause i think that this
industries just rocks.

What do You think about making completly free website (for him) in return of asking him about his company and trying to meet other CEO from his reference? Is this a good idea? Free Website = couple of meetings, just questions and normal talk. I just want to be INSIDERS too see how everthing about Real Estates comapny work in our country and it's great opportunity for that.

I'm gong swimming now!

May this New Year bring you
Immense happiness in all you do
Whising You happy New Year.
 

TylerBiz

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I think building a website for free is a good way to start building a relationship, try it if you have enough time.

A lot to do, good luck with all tasks:) and All the best in 2015!
Trzymamy kciuki;-)
 

najz

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Thanks Tyler for Your support and awesome tips, i will share how that business talk goes in next week here :) I will try to make this website for 50% discount in return for meetings with CEO in Real Estate Industry, we will see if he likes that idea.

I got all the Saturday for myself - i will do today as much as i can, to be better at listening and talking to other people. I just feel it, that this is the gold nugget.

Have a nice day, everybody :)
 
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najz

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Hey,
Today I'm sick, I got stomach flu.
I will watch Jordan Belfort - Straight Line Persuasion Home Study Course, I heard that it's good specially for cold calling and influence others by the phone and I need that for sure.
10 hours of knowledge.

I know that JB is an American author and former stockbroker who pleaded guilty to fraud and related crimes in connection with stock market manipulation, but I think that I can learn from this guy a lot.
I'm just curious how his strategy work with so many wealthy people.

I know about 4 seconds on the phone theory and also about tonality, but it's not too much. If ill find something interesting ill share it (of course if it only works for me)

ps.
Thanks everybody for the support .


Dziękuje wszystkim za wsparcie.
 

najz

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Quick update*

I send over 100 e-mails messages
I made my first couple of cold callings (so exciting - this is the most important area of SaaS business )
Some of the company owners called me first, before I even made a cold call. ( They ask standard questions, like "How many it costs" "Is there possibility to add function like this / that )
I got technical problems with my phone (LG Nexus 4) with call records, booths voices. I'm reading right now what too do about that.
It's for me the most important part, cause I know I need to learn so much about how to speak great by the phone with company owners. This is still my priority.
 
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LTL

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Quick update*

I send over 100 e-mails messages
I made my first couple of cold callings (so exciting - this is the most important area of SaaS business )
Some of the company owners called me first, before I even made a cold call. ( They ask standard questions, like "How many it costs" "Is there possibility to add function like this / that )
I got technical problems with my phone (LG Nexus 4) with call records, booths voices. I'm reading right now what too do about that.
It's for me the most important part, cause I know I need to learn so much about how to speak great by the phone with company owners. This is still my priority.



More updates!!!!
 

najz

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Hi everyone,
I wrote a long time ago, but i got interesting update's if someone still reading this topic ;)

It's all about ACTION and not GIVING UP.

I send another's e-mail by the January and February (200-300? something like this)
I was able to arrange a business meeting at Warsaw, but .. my business partner - programmer, said that for now "it's too much for him, he cannot handle another company and this CEO was very demanding on adding another functions too our applications ) He said sorry and i understand that. It's only my fault that i did not keep the rules about working with programmer.

They are like this :

https://thefoundation.com/blog/hire-a-rockstar-developer

There are more that 16 expectations for programmer :

1. Full time focus on this one project. I don’t want your attention spread, I want you to work solely on my project.
2. To challenge me, tell me I’m an idiot if I’m being one. In other words, don’t blindly listen to me. I’m not your boss, we are partners.
3. But we do have one boss: The customer. That means we do whats best for them. When questions about building a feature arise, we consult the customer. We don’t guess.
4. You must have a track record for completing projects. Working them through to completion. Too many developers just go 80%. You must be a 100%’er or we can’t work together.
5. You must be a problem solver. Don’t come to me with problems, come to me with a problem and then the potential solutions for the problem. Then we can brainstorm and pick one of the solutions. I don’t expect you to know solutions to problems, I expect you to consult forums and use Google to find solutions to problems on your own. I want a driver, not someone I have to babysit.
6. To understand Rapid Application Development. Release early, release often, get feedback, and make progress

I know about that, but i simply think that he want the same as me, cause we already talk much more about that, but at the end he's right and i need to find another problem idea to solve.

First of all it's p
ositive experience for me :
  1. 1st web application project with satisfied customer.
  2. Maybe in couple of months (2 - 3 months) we will be back on this
  3. i got 2 costumers already interested, spoken about 1-2h with CEO of other companies about it
MY ACTION BOOK for now :

  1. Follow the rules of the foundation (like above it matters to do it right)
  2. Start from the beginning - Email's IE :
  3. Rules for IE :
Your email should be very simple. Here are a few rules.

- Always address a person directly. If you don’t, you are unlikely to get a response.

- Keep it short (under 5 sentences)

- Include something personal about them on the first line of the email.

- Make it easy to reply by asking one simple question.

- Adjust your email as you learn more about your market to improve open and response rates. Test, adjust, repeat.


I'll send 30-50 e-mails per day for one niche and ill try to pick 3 - 5 industry just for Idea Extraction.

I also work hard on my mourning routine, there is great app called HabitBull if someone like to push him self, have a look at it, it's really simple and effective.

Thanks to everybody who supports me or is demanding for more updates - guys ill not let You down. Right now I'm going to send others e-mail, make a spreadsheet in excel for e-mails and try to make Cold Calls cause I'm now a little better at it.



 
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D

Deleted21961

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Awesome, man. Keep us updated. Also, if you want, send me a PM with some contact info for future gigs we may one day do together. ;)
 

najz

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Entirely I changed direction, I will create the distinct subject literally in a few days.
 
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