My 2016 Goals - 1K a week, experiences, travel, ETC

[NewJamesBond]

Hi everyone,

I'm starting this thread to begin to plan and track my goals for 2016. As the next month rolls on I will make these goals clearer. This thread will be updated as I continue to think about my 2016 goals

My goal is to hit 5K a month by the end of 2016. This means it's time to start hustling I have done internet marketing, SEO, social media marketing and web design for the last 8 years. This is the first time though that I am going to get very serious about creating my own agency/business.

1st week to do list:
Buy Agency domain
Establish splash page for the Agency
Design Basic Logo for the Agency
Set Up Daniel@_________.com email with rerouting to Gmail
Clear my personal social media accounts of old cluttered branding *Unrelated posts or anything spammy*

Thanks, Daniel

 

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[NewJamesBond]

Tonight I will be going over my goals with a mentor.
We will talk about whether I should even try to launch my charity business right now or not. If not, I will begin to work on my marketing agency.

 

[NewJamesBond]

Updated the thread with 1st week goals.

 

[LightHouse]

1st week to do list:
Buy Agency domain
Establish splash page for the Agency
Design Basic Logo for the Agency
Set Up Daniel@_________.com email with rerouting to Gmail
Clear my personal social media accounts of old cluttered branding *Unrelated posts or anything spammy*

Thanks, Daniel

This sounds like the first 2 hours, what are you going to do the rest of the week?

 

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[NewJamesBond]

This sounds like the first 2 hours, what are you going to do the rest of the week?

Wow! I love this forum. I will make a bigger list of more substantial things later tonight. I haven't had a client call since restarting my business, but I got my first client call in a few hours which I'm excited for! {PROGRESS}

 

[AgainstAllOdds]

Wow! I love this forum. I will make a bigger list of more substantial things later tonight. I haven't had a client call since restarting my business, but I got my first client call in a few hours which I'm excited for! {PROGRESS}

I'll help you.

Goal #1: Get first paying client.
Goal #2: Complete work for client.
Goal #3: Cash first check.

Just do what's necessary to hit #1. Creating a list of 50+ goals is mental masturbation. Don't overcomplicate things.

 

[NewJamesBond]

I'm going to update the thread later after my client call. I think I can get a small social media management job.

 

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[NewJamesBond]

Got the client....

 

[LightHouse]

great, how much closer are you to your goal, and whats the status on the above 2 hours worth of work?

Do you want this, or do you just want it to walk through your door and sit on your couch when you are ready?

 

[NewJamesBond]

I'm in the middle of college finals. Once I finish all my papers my journey will speed up. Also, I got another small marketing job. What I've already realized though is I'm underselling myself and that my prices need to be higher. Like lots higher. I'm still waiting for the Fastlane book to get to my school mailbox. I'm also now going to order or listen to 10X rule.

Today I will:

• I will put up the splash page for my new agency
• Design a basic logo for the agency
• Set up Daniel@_________.com email with rerouting to Gmail
• Clear my personal social media accounts of old cluttered branding *Unrelated posts or anything spammy*
• Do 1 hour of client work
• Link Freelancer.com account & Upwork.com account to my new business
• Get a notebook to start brain storm "standardized prices"
• Optimize my "Streak" email leads (Get 20 leads to in there)
• Merge old emails list from my blog and set up new MailCheat(Chimp) account stuff

I will post back tonight with my progress.

 

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[Carnage]

May I ask how old you are?

"I have done internet marketing, SEO, socialmedia marketing and web design for the last 8 years."

"I'm in the middle of college finals."

What are you in school for? Thanks.

 

[NewJamesBond]

I'm 19 years old. I'm doing creative writing in school.

Today I will:

• (COMPLETED) I will put up the splash page for my new agency (Coming soon page)
• (ERROR) Design a basic logo for the agency - having trouble with photoshop...
• (COMPLETED) Set up daniel@_________.com email with rerouting to Gmail
• (COMPLETED) Clear my personal social media accounts of old cluttered branding *Unrelated posts or anything spammy*
• (COMPLETED) Do 1 hour of client work (did 40 mins) finished project quickly
• (Haven't finished website, so not yet) Link Freelancer.com account & Upwork.com account to my new business
• (COMPLETED) Get a notebook to start brain storm "standardized prices"
• (ERROR, I had old fundraising things in Streak, I will use a different program for lead prospecting) Optimize my "Streak" (Get 20 leads to in there)
• (COMPLETED) Merge old emails list from my blog and set up new MailCheat(Chimp) account stuff

BONUS Stuff
(COMPLETED) Create company Twitter (unbranded)
(COMPLETED) Create company Facebook (unbranded)
(COMPLETED) Get 'Old Business Folder" down to below 100-Megabytes (optimize old stuff)

I will post more updates tomorrow. That's enough work for today.

 

[Carnage]

"I have done internet marketing, SEO, socialmedia marketing and web design for the last 8 years. "

"I'm 19 years old. I'm doing creative writing in school."

Can you explain the SEO, social media marketing and web design that you've done since you were 11??

 

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[NewJamesBond]

Can you explain the SEO, social media marketing and web design that you've done since you were 11??

I left school for for a bit when I was very young and I taught myself web design and began experimenting with internet marketing. From 6th grade on I coded websites (HTML, CSS, some Javascript, and some PHP). If you would like to know more feel free to PM me.

The reason I left school is because I was pretty sick.
I was born with a lot of congenital health conditions.

 

[LightHouse]

"I have done internet marketing, SEO, socialmedia marketing and web design for the last 8 years. "

"I'm 19 years old. I'm doing creative writing in school."

Can you explain the SEO, social media marketing and web design that you've done since you were 11??

Who F*cking cares, this is a progress thread.

 

[NewJamesBond]

Who F*cking cares, this is a progress thread.

I totally agree! Thank you

 

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[NewJamesBond]

Ok, I've reached my first roadblock. :/ All the pre-work for the company is done (besides logo/branding) and I have decluttered/optimized my old websites. In simplicity, I have everything set up for my agency, but I'm having trouble with deciding how I want to productize my services. I want to have a few packages I can provide, but I also want to do hourly consulting.

I'm feeling stuck with creating packages.

What I would like to do is build high converting websites for clients then provide local optimization (Google Pages / Webmasters) & basic SEO work. Then create an email funnel for them to help capture and cultivate leads. In addition I would do over the phone marketing consultations once week. I would want the price for service to be somewhere at $1200 the first month, then addition months maintenance would be $200 per month. Additional marketing consultation would be $100 per hour. This is a super rough outline. I am needing help narrowing down my packages.

Any advice on productizing my services?

 

[NewJamesBond]

I figured out my productize service and I will begin building the site sometime this next week.

I'm in finals weeks at school, but I managed to get 3 small freelancing clients.

I created a spreadsheet to track all my earnings and expenses.

In three days I've made after all the purchases (hosting, domains, etc) about +$60... ha

 

[eekern]

Damn, you are blowing up man

But one thing I need to get out of the way..
If you read this thread you notice a pattern where you:

1. Ask first
2. Take action
3. Get result / or find the answer

You will get 10x better feedback if you:

1. Get a challenge
2. Take action
3. Ask question based on the result/lack of it.

Again, great result so far, 3 clients in that short time!
I am interested in hearing how you got them.
What was the price and is it residual or one timers?

 

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[NewJamesBond]

Damn, you are blowing up man

You will get 10x better feedback if you:

1. Get a challenge
2. Take action
3. Ask question based on the result/lack of it.

Thanks for reply

Can you give a quick explanation of what you mean by that?

Get a challenge? (How to I get one? Like create a challenge for myself?
Take action? (example?)
Ask question based on result/lack of it. (Like if it does well, ask how to expand it, or if does poor ask how to change the process?

I don't think I'm blowing up. The clients are low value clients. I'm charging them very little, but I was to scared to charge more, which was a mistake. :/

I am not going to take on any other small clients. I'm setting some standards for the level of my future clients. I got 3 clients through a freelancing site

 

[eekern]

But how do you got the clients in the first place ? Low ticket client is still a client, try raising the price with 20% with every project, that will put the price in a system and you will slowly get used to charge more. Charging too little is something I have a problem with myself.

Can you give a quick explanation of what you mean by that?
I just meant that if you can answer your own question within 1 day, you asked too soon

 

[NewJamesBond]

Can you give a quick explanation of what you mean by that?
I just meant that if you can answer your own question within 1 day, you asked too soon

I get you

I'll update everyone with my next series of goals after I get some sleep.

 

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[NewJamesBond]

I have finals the next two weeks so I have to focus on that, but I have gotten a good start on laying the groundwork for my business.

Things to do this weekend:

• Find a "Quick Tweet" app so I can utilize Twitter more
• List all my old clients in spreadsheet
• Set up Hootsuite
• Create basic headers for my companies Facebook & Twitter Page
• Find post card company to send "Gift" postcards to clients
• Order all files in my business folder (PQ)
• Get folders down to 85MB (Old business stuff on Google Drive)
• Create "Launch Thread" which essentially a marketing plan for my business
• Write script for a short video pitch I will share with prospective clients

Things that I am still brain storming and researching...
Creating a better homepage (find a great Wordpress theme)
Thinking about pricing and packing my services
Thinking about the websites logo

Once I have the a good draft of the website completed and the packages put together then I will begin a massive marketing efforts...

I want to thank @eekern. He has been super helpful.

 

[LightHouse]

I have finals the next two weeks so I have to focus on that, but I have gotten a good start on laying the groundwork for my business.

Things to do this weekend:

• Find a "Quick Tweet" app so I can utilize Twitter more
• List all my old clients in spreadsheet
• Set up Hootsuite
• Create basic headers for my companies Facebook & Twitter Page
• Find post card company to send "Gift" postcards to clients
• Order all files in my business folder (PQ)
• Get folders down to 85MB (Old business stuff on Google Drive)
• Create "Launch Thread" which essentially a marketing plan for my business
• Write script for a short video pitch I will share with prospective clients

Things that I am still brain storming and researching...
Creating a better homepage (find a great Wordpress theme)
Thinking about pricing and packing my services
Thinking about the websites logo

Once I have the a good draft of the website completed and the packages put together then I will begin a massive marketing efforts...

I want to thank @eekern. He has been super helpful.

every one of these is an action fake. None of that gets you more clients. Throw that list away, and wrote one thing down.

Sell.

That's the key to success, not cleaning up old files on your computer. Your clients don't care how big that folder is and neither do you.

And yes, you can make sales calls during finals week. Those jobs won't start right away anyway.

 

[NewJamesBond]

every one of these is an action fake. None of that gets you more clients. Throw that list away, and wrote one thing down.

Sell.

That's the key to success, not cleaning up old files on your computer. Your clients don't care how big that folder is and neither do you.

And yes, you can make sales calls during finals week. Those jobs won't start right away anyway.

I agree. None of what I'm doing will make me money or expand my business. It will however make things less stressful and more systematic for when I do start pitching to clients. That being said your right. I need to go back to the #1 thing that makes me money/benefits my business, which in my case would be pitching clients.

 

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[NewJamesBond]

Things to do this weekend:

• (DONE) Find a "Quick Tweet" app so I can utilize Twitter more
• (DONE) List all my old clients in spreadsheet
• Set up Hootsuite (Debating whether I'm going to use it or Buffer.com)
• (DONE) Create basic headers for my companies Facebook & Twitter Page
• (DONE) Find post card company to send "Gift" postcards to clients
• (DONE) Order all files in my business folder (PQ)
• (DONE) Get folders down to 85MB (Old business stuff on Google Drive)
• (DONE) Create "Launch Thread" which essentially a marketing plan for my business
• Write script for a short video pitch I will share with prospective clients (Still working on it)

@LightHouse is really right. I need to start pitching clients; hints doing the thing that will help earn money and expand the business. (This way I will be going after results.)

 

[Mattie]

I agree. None of what I'm doing will make me money or expand my business. It will however make things less stressful and more systematic for when I do start pitching to clients. That being said your right. I need to go back to the #1 thing that makes me money/benefits my business, which in my case would be pitching clients.

Think the point they're trying to make is if you don't have everything in the right direction, you're wasting your time with the steps until you're known or have some kind of interaction that produces money. Otherwise you're just signed up with these services and wasting time, and money, if you don't have a strategy or action plan.

 

[Michał Kóska]

what kind of agency is that? You still want to do SEO etc?

 

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[NewJamesBond]

I will be doing high conversion web design. (Conversion rate optimization and web design)

I will probably change a bit in the future though

 

[NewJamesBond]

Well the website is completed for now and I have set up a auto emailing service for prospecting leads. Now the real work happens which is going to be pitching businesses. Got a logo!

Goals for Weekend:

• Search for 100 leads and put them into funnel (Replyapp.io) sales funnel (Continue to learn how to use it)
• Call 5 people who open the email to over the phone pitch
• Set Up Personal Hootsuite *Personal Twitter, Brand/Agency Twitter, and Brand Facebook*
• Set Up Clients Hootsuite (new client)
• Brand Twitter, Facebook, and Linkedin (I have a logo now, so that should be to hard )
• Finish up my Freelancer.com Projects