ManWithABeard
Bronze Contributor
I've been wanting to post a progress thread for a while but have been pretty nervous. The fastlane forum can be intimidating at times. But awesome people here nonetheless.
I feel foolish for quitting my job, my family and some friends have been chastising me about it, so of course that makes me think that maybe I am making a mistake, but oh well, what's done is done, can only move forward. I have money set aside for the basics: food and bills, so it's not like I quit with nothing in my bank.
So here's the deal, I have a website in a fairly new niche, the past six months, I have grown the traffic from nothing, I have a pretty good number of subscribers, many of them are other companies in the biz as well as a couple well-known authorities in the biz and community as well, which is damn awesome.
For the first time, I actually have identified a problem and have worked to find a solution to this problem. I now understand the most important aspect of business: the need. my past ventures, I did not solve any need, which is why they failed.
The problem lies in the existing product, which I personally rebuilt and tested. and have even had others, strangers, test it as well, with good feedback. I don't go to friends any more, most don't even know about this venture to be honest.
I engage heavily with my market, I am extremely active and I stay asking people in the market questions and finding out the pain point. I've even went to local B&M's in the business and talked with the staff and owners. I just walk in ask questions. I used to be scared of doing that but screw it, it's the only way I'll find out what the needs are.
This time, I will be going about things differently, I no longer want to just focus on making a profit, I want to focus on great customer service and being able to fix my prospective customers' problems in one shot. Customer satisfaction is what my goal is and it is what it'll always be going forward. quite a few businesses in this industry seem to not put much focus in this area.
Anyway here's what I've done so far:
-Started a site (about six months ago)
-Grew the traffic through unique content and engaging the market with content + giveaway contests
-Created a prototype of the product I am going to be selling
-Identified a couple of chinese manufacturers that I want to work with
-talked with a couple of local B&M's about possibly vending my products
Now here's the agenda for the weekend:
-E-mailing and scheduling a time to talk with a local business that sells accessories for my products
-posting more unique content
-setting up my ecommerce store and making sure it's the way I want it. I know how to code, so I will more likely be making the changes and improvements myself. fun, fun.
I'll be posting hopefully every few days or so detailing my journey. I look forward to having you join me
. happy valentine's day everyone.
P.S. I promise I won't be selling ghillie suits and camo blinds nor will I be authoring a book on how to be a successful millionaire through entrepreneurial means
I feel foolish for quitting my job, my family and some friends have been chastising me about it, so of course that makes me think that maybe I am making a mistake, but oh well, what's done is done, can only move forward. I have money set aside for the basics: food and bills, so it's not like I quit with nothing in my bank.
So here's the deal, I have a website in a fairly new niche, the past six months, I have grown the traffic from nothing, I have a pretty good number of subscribers, many of them are other companies in the biz as well as a couple well-known authorities in the biz and community as well, which is damn awesome.
For the first time, I actually have identified a problem and have worked to find a solution to this problem. I now understand the most important aspect of business: the need. my past ventures, I did not solve any need, which is why they failed.
The problem lies in the existing product, which I personally rebuilt and tested. and have even had others, strangers, test it as well, with good feedback. I don't go to friends any more, most don't even know about this venture to be honest.
I engage heavily with my market, I am extremely active and I stay asking people in the market questions and finding out the pain point. I've even went to local B&M's in the business and talked with the staff and owners. I just walk in ask questions. I used to be scared of doing that but screw it, it's the only way I'll find out what the needs are.
This time, I will be going about things differently, I no longer want to just focus on making a profit, I want to focus on great customer service and being able to fix my prospective customers' problems in one shot. Customer satisfaction is what my goal is and it is what it'll always be going forward. quite a few businesses in this industry seem to not put much focus in this area.
Anyway here's what I've done so far:
-Started a site (about six months ago)
-Grew the traffic through unique content and engaging the market with content + giveaway contests
-Created a prototype of the product I am going to be selling
-Identified a couple of chinese manufacturers that I want to work with
-talked with a couple of local B&M's about possibly vending my products
Now here's the agenda for the weekend:
-E-mailing and scheduling a time to talk with a local business that sells accessories for my products
-posting more unique content
-setting up my ecommerce store and making sure it's the way I want it. I know how to code, so I will more likely be making the changes and improvements myself. fun, fun.
I'll be posting hopefully every few days or so detailing my journey. I look forward to having you join me
. happy valentine's day everyone.P.S. I promise I won't be selling ghillie suits and camo blinds nor will I be authoring a book on how to be a successful millionaire through entrepreneurial means
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