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Building a Business to Replace My Pilot Income

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The Racing Driver

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<div class="bbWrapper">This thread is a continuation of my <a href="https://www.thefastlaneforum.com/community/threads/26-and-going-for-first-£3000-month.106873/" class="link link--internal">successful progress thread </a>where I documented my journey towards achieving £3000/month. I achieved this goal by completing my pilot training and getting hired by an airline. I am slightly discontent with how long it took me to achieve that goal, and for not being able to achieve that with a business yet.<br /> <br /> So before 2025 begins, I’m starting this new progress thread to be all about execution in my business. I&#039;ll be doing whatever is required for my pilot job, but will keep that separate from this thread.<br /> <br /> My Goal: <b>$10,000 / month</b><br /> <br /> As a newly qualified commercial pilot, I can say the salary progression is quite good compared to other careers and I know that I can be easily making a six-figure income in the next 2 years. By getting to $10k/month with a business, I would consider this amount sufficient to replace my pilot income.<br /> <br /> I will be flying a lot over the next few months and years likely. So I’m committed to building something that works separate from my time, since I’ll be spending a lot of time 30,000+ feet above the ground.<br /> <br /> Let’s go!</div>
 
<div class="bbWrapper">I&#039;ll admit, I have many ideas and at the moment I don&#039;t exactly know what would be the best product to sell to achieve my goal. <br /> <br /> So I&#039;m taking things one step at a time, doing more of what works and executing on an online business idea.<br /> <br /> Building and managing websites is one of the specialized skills that I have and want to improve. I currently have 2 clients paying me a small monthly fee (~$200 / month total) to manage their websites. <br /> <br /> The plan to grow my revenue involves: <br /> <br /> 1. Building and Maintaining websites for more clients (What I do right now)<br /> 2. Create a new income generating website (My objective)<br /> <br /> <br /> <b><u>Q1 2025 Plan</u></b><br /> <br /> In the <a href="https://www.thefastlaneforum.com/community/threads/weekly-meetup-accountability-call-megathread.109163/page-40#post-1152316" class="link link--internal">Weekly Meetup Accountability Group</a>, I said I&#039;d do the following for Q1 2025.<br /> <br /> <blockquote data-attributes="member: 99278" data-quote="ElDiablo" data-source="post: 1150920" class="bbCodeBlock bbCodeBlock--expandable bbCodeBlock--quote js-expandWatch"> <div class="bbCodeBlock-title"> <a href="/community/goto/post?id=1150920" class="bbCodeBlock-sourceJump" rel="nofollow" data-xf-click="attribution" data-content-selector="#post-1150920">ElDiablo said:</a> </div> <div class="bbCodeBlock-content"> <div class="bbCodeBlock-expandContent js-expandContent "> <i><u><b><i><u>Goal for March 31, 2025:</u></i></b></u></i><br /> I will establish a thriving online motorsports directory with measurable milestones: 2,000 monthly visitors, 200 listings, and 10 paying clients. Additionally, I’ll begin flying passengers as a first officer for my airline in February 2025. </div> <div class="bbCodeBlock-expandLink js-expandLink"><a role="button" tabindex="0">Click to expand...</a></div> </div> </blockquote><br /> I spent a lot of time this year building the directory site with a no-code builder (Bubble.io), but I discovered it has some major SEO issues, which would be a HUGE downside for my business. Hence I&#039;ve decided to build a new site using WordPress, because I know WP fairly well and know it can serve as a good base for content marketing for the time being, while I research other suitable web frameworks.<br /> <br /> <br /> <b><u>Week 1 2025 Plan (30th Dec - 5th Jan)</u></b><br /> <br /> 1. Get new website live with first article posted.<br /> 2. 3 hours of writing content for my website (30 mins x 6 days)<br /> 3. Work out what productized service I can offer to 10 clients in the motorsport space (I&#039;m learning towards website maintenance since I already do it)</div>
 
<div class="bbWrapper"><b><u>Week 1 2025 Review (30th Dec - 5th Jan)</u></b><br /> 1. Get new directory website live with first article posted. <b>(FAIL - I managed to get it up today morning with two articles)</b><br /> 2. 3 hours of writing content for my website <b>(FAIL - Did 1.5 hours)</b><br /> 3. Work out what productized service I can offer to 10 clients in the motorsport space (<b>DONE - Explained below)</b><br /> <br /> Last week I had plenty of airline home study assignments, and 3 days of in person training. I was mentally fatigued and didn&#039;t anticipate those tasks to take such a long time. Also spent too much time talking to friends, which isn&#039;t a bad thing, but I should have prioritised things better.<br /> <br /> <br /> <b><u>Week 2 2025 Plan (6th - 12th Jan)</u></b><br /> <br /> To get my first sales coming in while I build and improve my directory site, I&#039;ve decided to offer:<br /> <br /> - Google My Business Listing Optimization<br /> - Website Builds (Ideally one-pager websites)<br /> <br /> I realised many of businesses in motorsports don&#039;t have or haven&#039;t optimised their Google Maps listing, and I can see there&#039;s a ton of value to be gained from improving that.<br /> <br /> I&#039;m picking fairly simple services because the plan is to offer this as a productized service, rather than have clients hire me as a freelancer.<br /> <br /> I want to be outsourcing the work soon by hiring a team member. I&#039;ll be busy flying in my airline in a couple of weeks from now, and have various training days this month, so I need to be offering a service that doesn&#039;t require my constant involvement.<br /> <br /> 1. Create a written offer and talk to potential prospects<br /> 2. 2 New Blog Posts<br /> 3. Develop homepage on directory site</div>
 
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<div class="bbWrapper">Didn&#039;t get down to posting here for the last few weeks. I was badly food poisoned and then had a 5-day training trip. I&#039;m all recovered now.<br /> <br /> Here&#039;s how my last few weeks went. <br /> <br /> <br /> <b><u>Week 2 2025 Review (6th - 12th Jan)</u></b><br /> <br /> 1. Create a written offer and talk to potential prospects <b>(Partly done. Haven&#039;t put it in front of people, but I started reaching out)</b><br /> 2. 2 New Blog Posts <b>(Done)</b><br /> 3. Develop homepage on directory site <b>(Done)<br /> <br /> <u>Week 3 2025 Review (13th - 19th Jan) </u></b><br /> <br /> 1. 2 Blog Posts. Detailed Guides <b>(Done)</b><br /> 2. Website Updates Action Plans for two websites <b>(Done)</b> <br /> <br /> <b><u>Week 4 2025 Review (20th - 26th Jan)</u></b><br /> <br /> 1. Implement SEO best practices on directory site <b>(Done)</b><br /> 2. Improve 5 existing posts. <b>(Done)</b><br /> 3. Work on directory feature. <b>(Done. Had to modify PHP code, which I knew almost nothing about but made progress )</b><br /> <br /> <br /> All the blog posts mentioned above are for my directory site, they take quite a while to research and write. I&#039;m working on creating the best content in the space, to give some value to my audience and to also improve my SEO.<br /> <br /> This week I need to start working on sales. So apart from coding and continuing to build my site, I will be starting outreach to potential clients.<br /> <br /> <b><u>Week 5 2025 Plan (27th Jan - 2 Feb)</u></b><br /> <br /> 1. Tracks Directory Feature Set up <br /> 2. 2 New Blog Posts <br /> 3. 20 Outreach Emails/Calls/Meetings</div>
 
<div class="bbWrapper">I like setting weekly goals am posting in the weekly accountability thread, but it looks like posting progress reports fortnightly is working out better, because I feel I&#039;m making hardly any progress in a week, but in two weeks I can get something more significant done alongside my pilot job which is starting to take up quite a bit of time. <br /> <br /> I&#039;ve had 3 days of observation flights last week, and today (10th Feb), I had a simulator session after over 2 months out and it didn&#039;t go well at all. I&#039;ll be needing to repeat it <img src="/community/imgs/emoticons/em-frown.png" class="smilie" loading="lazy" alt=":(" title="Frown :(" data-shortname=":(" /><br /> <br /> <br /> <b><u>Week 5 2025 Review (27th Jan - 2nd Feb)</u></b><br /> <br /> 1. Tracks Directory Feature Set up (Not finished. Worked on it, but just constantly ran into issues)<br /> 2. 2 New Blog Posts <b>(Done)</b><br /> 3. 20 Outreach Emails/Calls/Meetings <b>(Done)<br /> <br /> <br /> <u>Week 6 2025 Review (3rd - 9th Feb)</u><br /> <br /> Big L this week.</b> I planned to: <br /> <br /> 1. Get new client&#039;s website live (<b>Done </b>what I could on my side, waiting for the business partners to figure out who registered their domain name)<br /> 2. 10 Outreach Emails/Calls/Meetings (0/10. Didn&#039;t make any effort, when I had existing prospects I still haven&#039;t gotten back to)<br /> <br /> Was occupied everyday with observation flights and then travelling to a family wedding, then travelling to Hungary for airline training. Couldn&#039;t get to my goal of reaching out to 10 new prospects. I need to send proposals to existing leads first and also work out a strategy to scrape leads.<br /> <br /> <br /> <b><u>Week 7 2025 Plan (10th - 16th Feb)</u></b><br /> <br /> Had some airline training scheduled which didn&#039;t go to plan, and plenty of things to catch up on and develop for my directory site. For this week I plan to finish the following: <br /> <br /> 1. Follow up and send proposals to prospects who responded to me<br /> 2.Make progress (ideally finish) a local SEO course to improve my knowledge and offering to new clients</div>
 
<div class="bbWrapper"><b><u>Week 7 &amp; 8 2025 Review (10th - 23rd Feb)</u></b><br /> <br /> 1. Follow up and send proposals to prospects who responded to me <b>(Done!)</b><br /> 2.Make progress (ideally finish) a local SEO course to improve my knowledge and offering to new clients <b>(Done!)</b><br /> <br /> It&#039;s been a positive two weeks. <br /> <br /> What went well: <br /> <br /> - Finished a client website and got it live,<br /> - Landed a new client to optimise their Google Business Profile.<br /> - Sent some proposals and had calls with prospects seeking my advice. <br /> <br /> What didn&#039;t go so well: <br /> <br /> Last week planned to do 1.5 hours of deep work a day, but didn&#039;t get to doing it. Maintaining my focus for extended periods of time is a weakness of mine.<br /> <br /> <br /> <hr /><br /> <b><u>Week 9 2025 Plan (24th Feb - 2nd March)</u></b><br /> <br /> My airline training has been quite delayed, so I&#039;m mostly off this week. <br /> <br /> In terms of business, my effort is spread between 3 areas. <br /> <br /> 1. Google Business Profiles Optimisation<br /> - Made 1 sale last week. Quick turnaround, lower effort per project to get in the door. <br /> <br /> 2. Responsive Website Development on <a href="http://framer.com" target="_blank" class="link link--external" rel="noopener">Framer</a><br /> - I have two client websites live and am getting good at this platform.<br /> <br /> 3. Directory Site<br /> - My long-term project. Progress has been slow as I&#039;m running into difficulty building the directory feature on WordPress.<br /> - My site is starting to show up in the search results and get impressions from search engines which is reassuring. <br /> <br /> Sales and Prospecting takes a lot of time and energy for me, and is something I want to get much better at. I need and want to start delegating some of the tasks I do. For this week I plan to<br /> <br /> 1. Hire someone for some tasks I can outsource. <br /> 2. Have at least 1.5 hours of uninterrupted deep work session per day.</div>
 
<div class="bbWrapper"><b><u>Week 9 2025 Review (24th Feb - 2nd March)</u></b><br /> <br /> 1. Hire someone for some tasks I can outsource <b>(Done!)</b><br /> 2. Have at least 1.5 hours of uninterrupted deep work session per day <b>(Done!)<br /> <br /> <br /> <u>Feb 2025 Review</u><br /> <br /> Freelance / Service Type Business</b> - Finished a new client&#039;s website that I can now use as a portfolio piece, sent several proposals, and got promising new leads for my website services and local SEO.<br /> <br /> <b>Online Business (Directory Site) - </b>Progress was slow as I put a lot of time into the above as well as my pilot career. I have hired someone to fix an issue with the website, so that I can really start growing the website&#039;s content.<br /> <br /> <br /> <b><u>Week 10 2025 Plan (3rd - 9th March)</u></b><br /> <br /> 1. Plan month of March to achieve my Q1 2025 <a href="https://goalsumo.com/?utm_source=TFFkw" target="_blank" class="link link--external" rel="noopener">goal</a> (Posted earlier).<br /> 2. Post new blog article on directory site<br /> 3. Continue talking to new prospects and selling my services</div>
 
<div class="bbWrapper">Hey Man! Appreciate the updates on your progress. Keep going! <img src="/community/imgs/emoticons/em-smile2.png" class="smilie" loading="lazy" alt=":)" title="Smile :)" data-shortname=":)" /></div>
 
<div class="bbWrapper"><b><u>Week 10, 11 &amp; 12 2025 Review (<b><u><b><u>3rd</u></b> - 23rd March)</u></b></u></b><br /> <br /> Sorry guys for not updating in a bit. I have been around the forum, but was working hard on both my business and pilot career, which all took a lot of time.<br /> <br /> <b>Biggest Achievements over the last 3 weeks</b><br /> <br /> - 1 new client. Closed on a proposal to optimise a business&#039;s Google Business Profile and local SEO.<br /> - Flew a big jet for the first time! (That&#039;s me on the right starting the engine).<br /> <br /> <a href="https://www.thefastlaneforum.com/community/attachments/first-flight-airbus-webp.64522/" target="_blank"><img src="https://www.thefastlaneforum.com/community/data/attachments/59/59040-0bce1be122a13d2386a87c49f5fd4ca5.jpg?hash=b-jnUF7W-p" class="bbImage " style="" alt="first-flight-airbus.webp" title="first-flight-airbus.webp" width="288" height="200" loading="lazy" /></a><br /> <br /> <br /> In February, I was scheduled to do my first Base Training flight, which consists of 6 take-off and landings in an empty aircraft without passengers, but the day before the flight, I had to do a landing training session in a new simulator. For some reason, possible due to the long break out of the simulator, I struggled and had a few hard landings which knocked my confidence.<br /> <br /> So I didn&#039;t end up progressing onto the real aircraft which was a huge setback. I was worried sick about not passing the 2nd time, because of how much the airline invested into my training up to this point.<br /> <br /> After some remedial training in the simulator and a training flight in a light aircraft, I went back last week to do the landing training sim session and my first flight in the Airbus A321. Thankfully it went great and in a few weeks from now, I&#039;ll be flying passengers.<br /> <br /> Ok, enough about my pilot job. With regards to business, I had a few small wins over the last few weeks.<br /> <br /> Week 10 - Post new blog article on directory site. Continue talking to new prospects and selling my services. <b>(Done)</b><br /> Week 11 - (W) Create at least 50 Listings on Directory Site. Research 10 New Article Ideas. ⁠1 new post on blog. <b>(Done)</b><br /> Week 12 - (W) Make progress on Directory Site (Made a little progress, but was occupied with my airline training this week.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <b><u>Week 13 2025 Plan (24th - 30th March)</u></b><br /> <br /> 1. Contact 20 new businesses<br /> 2. Improve Site / Page Structure of directory site<br /> 3. 2 New Articles Posted on directory site<br /> <br /> I will continue reaching out to new potential clients and will work on improving the look and layout of my directory site. Posting content in the form of blog posts is already helping my directory site rank for some keywords, which is looking promising!</div>
 
<div class="bbWrapper"><blockquote data-attributes="member: 30971" data-quote="The Racing Driver" data-source="post: 1163122" class="bbCodeBlock bbCodeBlock--expandable bbCodeBlock--quote js-expandWatch"> <div class="bbCodeBlock-title"> <a href="/community/goto/post?id=1163122" class="bbCodeBlock-sourceJump" rel="nofollow" data-xf-click="attribution" data-content-selector="#post-1163122">The Racing Driver said:</a> </div> <div class="bbCodeBlock-content"> <div class="bbCodeBlock-expandContent js-expandContent "> I was worried sick about not passing the 2nd time, because of how much the airline invested into my training up to this point. </div> <div class="bbCodeBlock-expandLink js-expandLink"><a role="button" tabindex="0">Click to expand...</a></div> </div> </blockquote>It&#039;s all good dude, airlines factor all this into thier calculations. Presumably it&#039;s like 3 years of training to get to this point, they won&#039;t give up on you easily.</div>
 
<div class="bbWrapper"><blockquote data-attributes="member: 30971" data-quote="The Racing Driver" data-source="post: 1163122" class="bbCodeBlock bbCodeBlock--expandable bbCodeBlock--quote js-expandWatch"> <div class="bbCodeBlock-title"> <a href="/community/goto/post?id=1163122" class="bbCodeBlock-sourceJump" rel="nofollow" data-xf-click="attribution" data-content-selector="#post-1163122">The Racing Driver said:</a> </div> <div class="bbCodeBlock-content"> <div class="bbCodeBlock-expandContent js-expandContent "> <b>Biggest Achievements over the last 3 weeks</b><br /> <br /> - 1 new client. Closed on a proposal to optimise a business&#039;s Google Business Profile and local SEO. </div> <div class="bbCodeBlock-expandLink js-expandLink"><a role="button" tabindex="0">Click to expand...</a></div> </div> </blockquote>well done mate. This puts you in the top 1% of people who ever thought of opening a business. Onwards and upwards</div>
 
<div class="bbWrapper"><b><u>Week 13 2025 Review (24th - 30th March)</u></b><br /> <br /> 1. Contact 20 new businesses <b>(Fail. Contacted 14)</b><br /> 2. Improve Site / Page Structure of directory site <b>(Done!) </b><br /> 3. 2 New Articles Posted on directory site <b>(Fail. Posted 1)</b><br /> <br /> <br /> I feel I spend too much time when I do cold outreach, searching for prospects, researching them, identifying how I can help them, then writing a good cold email. I spent hours researching a specific type of customer (lost count) and only managed to contact 14 in total, before my brain fizzled out at the end of this week. So far I have not heard back from any of them.<br /> <br /> I know sales is a numbers game and it is a grind, but I do need to find a way to get quicker and better at cold outreach.<br /> <br /> <br /> <b><u>Week 14 2025 Review (31st March - 6th April)</u></b><br /> <br /> 1. Improve directory site <b>(Done)</b><br /> 2. Set up Instagram account <b>(Done)</b><br /> <br /> I had airline simulator training this week in another city, so that involved a bit of travelling, and consequently less time that I could spend on my developing my business.<br /> <br /> My directory on WordPress is coming together, and I&#039;ve received lots of help from <a href="https://www.thefastlaneforum.com/community/members/44058/" class="username" data-xf-init="member-tooltip" data-user-id="44058" data-username="@Richard Peck">@Richard Peck</a> who&#039;s been very supportive. There&#039;s plenty that I still don&#039;t understand how to do, as my web dev knowledge and coding skills are still too basic for the type of project I&#039;m undertaking.</div>
 
<div class="bbWrapper"><b><u>April 2025 Plan</u></b><br /> <br /> Q2 2025 has begun and I still haven&#039;t defined a clear quarterly goal. I admit, I have difficulty setting good goals, but for this month, here&#039;s a rough overview of what&#039;s going on in my life. <br /> <br /> <br /> <b>1. Pilot Job</b><br /> <br /> - 3 Simulator Sessions until Wednesday (9th April), one of which is an Operator Proficiency Check which I need to be very well prepared for. Plus extra studying and preparation for my first real flights the following week.<br /> <br /> <br /> <b>2. Freelance Services</b> <br /> - I have some leads I’m following up with to build websites or improve their Google listings.<br /> - I have a flying school, who I’m helping with their local SEO. The owner is interested in working with me further.<br /> - I have a racing team, who I just built a website for. I just received the final payment last month, and there’s chance I will be able to work with them for more marketing related activities.<br /> <br /> <br /> <b>3. Directory Site</b> <br /> - I will continue developing the website’s content to help it rank better and be valuable in general to motorsports enthusiasts.<br /> - Last week I set up an Instagram account to reach out to drivers, teams and tracks. It seems like people in motorsports are far more responsive on their social media pages.<br /> <br /> <br /> <b>Current Weakness:</b><br /> <br /> I have a lot of ideas and areas to improve on my motorsports directory site, however I don’t have a good understanding of how to go about it. As in what web languages, frameworks, integrations (APIs) to use.<br /> <br /> By getting better or by becoming more knowledgeable in web development it provides a good insurance policy, where I will:<br /> <br /> A) Learn a valuable skill, no matter how things turn out with my directory site.<br /> B) Be able to lead a team or other developers better, because I have some coding knowledge in a technical project.<br /> C) Go from idea to implementation quicker.<br /> D) Improve the quality of websites I create for my freelance website clients.<br /> <br /> <br /> <b><u>Week 15 2025 Plan (7th - 13th April)</u></b><br /> <br /> 1. Work with past clients and help existing clients. <br /> 2. Take advanced courses/lessons in web dev (This could mean even watching videos on YouTube. The most important thing here is that I learn something useful that I can implement my business/projects.)</div>
 
<div class="bbWrapper"><b><u>Week 15 2025 Review (7th - 13th April)</u></b><br /> <br /> 1. Work with past clients and help existing clients <b>(Done. I made some progress but it could be more I admit)</b><br /> 2. Take advanced courses/lessons in web dev <b>(Started a very relevant course in web dev!)<br /> <br /> <br /> <u>Week 16 2025 Plan (14th - 20th April Plan)</u></b><br /> <br /> My final simulator sessions for my pilot job didn&#039;t go to plan last week as the sim broke down. Thanks to that, I couldn&#039;t finish the last bit of training and I will not be doing my first commercial flights this week. <br /> <br /> On the bright side, I now have extra days off plus some holidays for these next 2 weeks.<br /> <br /> For this week I plan to focus on my directory site and do the following:<br /> <br /> 1. Scrape data on existing locations from other directory.<br /> 2. Complete listings with featured images. Do as many as possible. <br /> <br /> + Make a condolence visit and travel overseas to visit family I have not seen in years.</div>
 
<div class="bbWrapper"><b><u>Week 16, 17, 18, </u></b><u><b>19 2025 (5th to 11th May) Review </b></u><br /> <br /> Sorry for the lack of updates. Around a month ago I said I&#039;d do the following.<br /> <br /> 1. Scrape data on existing locations from other directory <b>(Done)</b><br /> 2. Complete listings with featured images. Do as many as possible <b>(Mostly Done)</b><br /> <br /> I haven&#039;t posted for a while since I had to travel for family reasons and then prapre a ton for my first flights with my airline. I did my first commercial flight (with passengers) in the last week of April, and the last two weeks were intense with 8 days of flying two sector days.<br /> <br /> I was exhausted after a block of days flying and felt a bit behind at times on the thousands of things us new pilots expected to know. I&#039;m in a stage called &quot;Line Training&quot;, and on each flight I&#039;m being evaluated by a training captain. Hence I&#039;ve had to spent a lot of time preparing prior to each flight reading company/aircraft manuals and practicing on my home sim. <br /> <br /> I was worried sick at times about underperforming and put almost everything else aside to focus on my new job these last few weeks. <br /> <br /> In terms of business, an old client got back to me asking for some help and I did a little work for some existing clients.<br /> <br /> <br /> <u><b>Week 20 2025 Plan (12th - 18th May)</b></u><br /> <br /> This week is thankfully a lot calmer as I only have two flights midweek, but nonetheless, I want to perform well and will be spending a lot of time preparing for them. <br /> <br /> For business, I plan to spend at least 4 hours on the following tasks. More tasks will come up, but this is the bare minimum I plan to get done this week.<br /> <br /> - Improve and clean up listings on my directory site<br /> - Web development course (to improve my directory site) <br /> - Client web dev work.</div>
 
<div class="bbWrapper"><blockquote data-attributes="member: 30971" data-quote="The Racing Driver" data-source="post: 1168854" class="bbCodeBlock bbCodeBlock--expandable bbCodeBlock--quote js-expandWatch"> <div class="bbCodeBlock-title"> <a href="/community/goto/post?id=1168854" class="bbCodeBlock-sourceJump" rel="nofollow" data-xf-click="attribution" data-content-selector="#post-1168854">The Racing Driver said:</a> </div> <div class="bbCodeBlock-content"> <div class="bbCodeBlock-expandContent js-expandContent "> - Web development course (to improve my directory site) </div> <div class="bbCodeBlock-expandLink js-expandLink"><a role="button" tabindex="0">Click to expand...</a></div> </div> </blockquote>Do you really need to do this?<br /> <br /> I don&#039;t know how to write Apps Scripts for Google Sheets but knew what I wanted and got ChatGPT to write a short script for me.<br /> <br /> I posted screenshots of a tab and said I wanted a snapshot of the data appended to the data in another tab every Monday morning, with a column showing the date the data was copied over.<br /> <br /> It took well under and hour to get the script written and automated to run every Monday morning.</div>
 
<div class="bbWrapper"><blockquote data-attributes="member: 23590" data-quote="Andy Black" data-source="post: 1168860" class="bbCodeBlock bbCodeBlock--expandable bbCodeBlock--quote js-expandWatch"> <div class="bbCodeBlock-title"> <a href="/community/goto/post?id=1168860" class="bbCodeBlock-sourceJump" rel="nofollow" data-xf-click="attribution" data-content-selector="#post-1168860">Andy Black said:</a> </div> <div class="bbCodeBlock-content"> <div class="bbCodeBlock-expandContent js-expandContent "> Do you really need to do this?<br /> <br /> I don&#039;t know how to write Apps Scripts for Google Sheets but knew what I wanted and got ChatGPT to write a short script for me. </div> <div class="bbCodeBlock-expandLink js-expandLink"><a role="button" tabindex="0">Click to expand...</a></div> </div> </blockquote><br /> I feel I need to expand my knowledge a little bit to solve the problem I&#039;m facing.<br /> <br /> The course I enrolled into isn&#039;t terribly long, and is a very specific one that builds a sample website with the exact same features that I&#039;m looking to implement. I find it&#039;s saving me time from scouring the internet for answers.<br /> <br /> My weakness is that my web dev knowledge is too basic for the type of project I&#039;m creating. I don&#039;t really know how to ask ChatGPT what I should do.<br /> <br /> I hired someone on Upwork, who did what I asked him to, but he didn&#039;t do things the best way and got stuck when I tried asking him to implement something new on top.</div>
 
<div class="bbWrapper"><blockquote data-attributes="member: 30971" data-quote="The Racing Driver" data-source="post: 1168915" class="bbCodeBlock bbCodeBlock--expandable bbCodeBlock--quote js-expandWatch"> <div class="bbCodeBlock-title"> <a href="/community/goto/post?id=1168915" class="bbCodeBlock-sourceJump" rel="nofollow" data-xf-click="attribution" data-content-selector="#post-1168915">The Racing Driver said:</a> </div> <div class="bbCodeBlock-content"> <div class="bbCodeBlock-expandContent js-expandContent "> I feel I need to expand my knowledge a little bit to solve the problem I&#039;m facing.<br /> <br /> The course I enrolled into isn&#039;t terribly long, and is a very specific one that builds a sample website with the exact same features that I&#039;m looking to implement. I find it&#039;s saving me time from scouring the internet for answers.<br /> <br /> My weakness is that my web dev knowledge is too basic for the type of project I&#039;m creating. I don&#039;t really know how to ask ChatGPT what I should do.<br /> <br /> I hired someone on Upwork, who did what I asked him to, but he didn&#039;t do things the best way and got stuck when I tried asking him to implement something new on top. </div> <div class="bbCodeBlock-expandLink js-expandLink"><a role="button" tabindex="0">Click to expand...</a></div> </div> </blockquote>Cool. As long as you&#039;re not doing some mad long course.</div>
 
<div class="bbWrapper">Yeah, do the course, it will give you a nice idea of how to code etc. You won&#039;t be 100% at the mercy of shoddy developers.<br /> Also, think about outsourcing the hard technical stuff.<br /> You have disposable income + your time is at a premium.<br /> Every time you go to your office, your effort needs to go into strategy.<br /> <br /> Stuff like...<br /> Who am I building this for? How will I get traffic? How do I beat the competition? etc etc</div>
 
<div class="bbWrapper"><b><u>Week 20 2025 Review</u></b><br /> <br /> - Improve and clean up listings on my directory site <b>(Done!)</b><br /> - Web development course <b>(Made Progress. ~2.5 hours spent)</b><br /> - Client web dev work (<b>No.</b> Clients didn&#039;t get back to me. Wasn&#039;t that high a priority)<br /> <br /> I also participated in my First Half-Marathon yesterday, which I finished in under 2 hours!<br /> <br /> I&#039;m quite happy with the level of fitness and mental fortitude that I&#039;ve developed. <br /> <br /> <br /> <a href="https://www.thefastlaneforum.com/community/attachments/hackney-half-webp.66267/" target="_blank"><img src="https://www.thefastlaneforum.com/community/data/attachments/60/60074-60e9b54881fc9e41bd9adbd28350f6b6.jpg?hash=mm2MMkSBn4" class="bbImage " style="" alt="hackney-half.webp" title="hackney-half.webp" width="200" height="253" loading="lazy" /></a><br /> <br /> <br /> <b><u>Week 21 2025 Plan <b><u>(19-25 May)</u></b></u></b><br /> <br /> I have a 3 days of flying this week and a lot of things to prepare for.<br /> <br /> For my business goals, I have been going back through all the tasks I said I&#039;ll do at the beginning of this thread, and I see that I&#039;ve been lacking real consistency. <br /> <br /> Some weeks I say I&#039;ll write a high-value blog post for my directory site, other weeks I say I&#039;ll contact prospects to sell Google Business Optimisation services.<br /> <br /> Obviously it&#039;s hard to be consistent when every week is different. Some weeks I have 5 days of flying, and other weeks I have had 2 days. <br /> <br /> I&#039;ve decided to stop taking on new freelance clients for the time being, because of how intense my on-the-job training has been at my airline. With my own projects, I can commit time to it as needed.<br /> <br /> For this week my plan is to do,<br /> <br /> 1. Directory Site Fixes <br /> - The product I have isn&#039;t good enough yet. Getting a few things sorted on my website will make everything else easier.<br /> <br /> 2. Advanced WordPress Course (at least 2hrs)<br /> - Taking a few lessons has cleared up so many questions and doubts that I&#039;ve had. <br /> - I do find programming and web development interesting and I feel it&#039;s something worth doubling down on for me, as I mentioned earlier.<br /> <br /> <blockquote data-attributes="member: 30971" data-quote="The Racing Driver" data-source="post: 1164857" class="bbCodeBlock bbCodeBlock--expandable bbCodeBlock--quote js-expandWatch"> <div class="bbCodeBlock-title"> <a href="/community/goto/post?id=1164857" class="bbCodeBlock-sourceJump" rel="nofollow" data-xf-click="attribution" data-content-selector="#post-1164857">The Racing Driver said:</a> </div> <div class="bbCodeBlock-content"> <div class="bbCodeBlock-expandContent js-expandContent "> By getting better or by becoming more knowledgeable in web development it provides a good insurance policy, where I will:<br /> <br /> A) Learn a valuable skill, no matter how things turn out with my directory site.<br /> B) Be able to lead a team or other developers better, because I have some coding knowledge in a technical project.<br /> C) Go from idea to implementation quicker.<br /> D) Improve the quality of websites I create for my freelance website clients. </div> <div class="bbCodeBlock-expandLink js-expandLink"><a role="button" tabindex="0">Click to expand...</a></div> </div> </blockquote><br /> <br /> And yes, <a href="https://www.thefastlaneforum.com/community/members/145549/" class="username" data-xf-init="member-tooltip" data-user-id="145549" data-username="@FJ123">@FJ123</a> you&#039;re right, I must not get too carried away by the technical elements and always think of my customer.<br /> <br /> <blockquote data-attributes="member: 145549" data-quote="FJ123" data-source="post: 1169051" class="bbCodeBlock bbCodeBlock--expandable bbCodeBlock--quote js-expandWatch"> <div class="bbCodeBlock-title"> <a href="/community/goto/post?id=1169051" class="bbCodeBlock-sourceJump" rel="nofollow" data-xf-click="attribution" data-content-selector="#post-1169051">FJ123 said:</a> </div> <div class="bbCodeBlock-content"> <div class="bbCodeBlock-expandContent js-expandContent "> Stuff like...<br /> Who am I building this for? How will I get traffic? How do I beat the competition? etc etc </div> <div class="bbCodeBlock-expandLink js-expandLink"><a role="button" tabindex="0">Click to expand...</a></div> </div> </blockquote></div>
 
<div class="bbWrapper"><b><u>Week 21 2025 Review (19-25 May)</u></b><br /> <br /> 1. Directory Site Fixes <b>(No)</b><br /> 2. Advanced WordPress Course 2hrs <b>(No)</b><br /> <br /> I spent a lot of time preparing for my flights and flying. On one day we had to divert due to an emergency. I was exhausted after that. Anyhow, I won&#039;t blame anyone but myself for my lack of achievement. I was stressed, distracted and didn&#039;t make enough of an effort.<br /> <br /> <br /> <b><u>Week 22 2025 Plan (26th May - 1st June)</u></b><br /> <br /> I&#039;m around halfway through my airline line-training, and to ensure I finish on time and get through this stage without the need for additional training flights. I&#039;m going to dedicate myself to studying and preparing thoroughly for the remainder of my training flights over the next 3 weeks. <br /> <br /> I&#039;m going to take a short break from these weekly updates, until I have more concrete business targets and progress to share. For now my plan is to:<br /> <br /> 1. Get clear on business goals and KPIs I need to hit to get closer to my financial goals.<br /> 2. Take care of personal backlog. All the unfinished tasks in my personal life, job, and business, that I said I&#039;ll do that&#039;s bogging me down.</div>
 
<div class="bbWrapper">Dude, I cant get one thing.<br /> <br /> If you want something to run rather passively, why are you doing agency work?<br /> <br /> You are creating a second job for yourself.<br /> <br /> At the beginning of every endeavor, nothing is really scalable or delegatable.<br /> <br /> I would rather focus on my career and do real estate, if I were you.</div>
 
<div class="bbWrapper"><blockquote data-attributes="member: 30971" data-quote="The Racing Driver" data-source="post: 1170598" class="bbCodeBlock bbCodeBlock--expandable bbCodeBlock--quote js-expandWatch"> <div class="bbCodeBlock-title"> <a href="/community/goto/post?id=1170598" class="bbCodeBlock-sourceJump" rel="nofollow" data-xf-click="attribution" data-content-selector="#post-1170598">The Racing Driver said:</a> </div> <div class="bbCodeBlock-content"> <div class="bbCodeBlock-expandContent js-expandContent "> i was exhausted after that. Anyhow, I won&#039;t blame anyone but myself for my lack of achievement. I was stressed, distracted and didn&#039;t make enough of an effort. </div> <div class="bbCodeBlock-expandLink js-expandLink"><a role="button" tabindex="0">Click to expand...</a></div> </div> </blockquote>Hey man, I’ve been there. Just two weeks ago I was doing 14 hour days and got severe burnout. I literally was forced to take a week off.<br /> <br /> So first thing… look after yourself<br /> <br /> Second thing. If you’re exhausted and feel like you’re not getting things done AND you’re blaming yourself then you need to fix that issue asap.<br /> <br /> It could be that you’re trying to do too much. It could be that you’re not working hard enough (doubt it)<br /> Most likely, you’re doing too much. Take a week off to figure stuff out</div>
 
<div class="bbWrapper"><blockquote data-attributes="member: 44719" data-quote="ygtrhos" data-source="post: 1170635" class="bbCodeBlock bbCodeBlock--expandable bbCodeBlock--quote js-expandWatch"> <div class="bbCodeBlock-title"> <a href="/community/goto/post?id=1170635" class="bbCodeBlock-sourceJump" rel="nofollow" data-xf-click="attribution" data-content-selector="#post-1170635">ygtrhos said:</a> </div> <div class="bbCodeBlock-content"> <div class="bbCodeBlock-expandContent js-expandContent "> Dude, I cant get one thing.<br /> <br /> If you want something to run rather passively, why are you doing agency work?<br /> <br /> You are creating a second job for yourself. </div> <div class="bbCodeBlock-expandLink js-expandLink"><a role="button" tabindex="0">Click to expand...</a></div> </div> </blockquote><br /> You&#039;re right, it&#039;s difficult to scale an agency unless I&#039;m all in, which I can&#039;t do right now as I&#039;m under training and coming up to my airline check.<br /> <br /> I&#039;ve decided to stop taking on new clients and at the moment I just have 2 clients who are like friends that I currently do a little work for. Their work is very manageable, it barely needs a few hours per month.<br /> <br /> <blockquote data-attributes="member: 44719" data-quote="ygtrhos" data-source="post: 1170635" class="bbCodeBlock bbCodeBlock--expandable bbCodeBlock--quote js-expandWatch"> <div class="bbCodeBlock-title"> <a href="/community/goto/post?id=1170635" class="bbCodeBlock-sourceJump" rel="nofollow" data-xf-click="attribution" data-content-selector="#post-1170635">ygtrhos said:</a> </div> <div class="bbCodeBlock-content"> <div class="bbCodeBlock-expandContent js-expandContent "> I would rather focus on my career and do real estate, if I were you. </div> <div class="bbCodeBlock-expandLink js-expandLink"><a role="button" tabindex="0">Click to expand...</a></div> </div> </blockquote><br /> Yes, I am focusing very much on my pilot career, as it has a high barrier entry and is in a massive industry.<br /> <br /> I really don&#039;t know much about real estate, nor do I have so much of an interest in that area, but my family is involved and I help out a bit.</div>
 
<div class="bbWrapper">Well, if you cannot scale the agency, why are you doing it then?<br /> <br /> You might not be interested in real estate, that is OK. But there is very little that can offer you income that passively, I am afraid.<br /> <br /> I think you lack a strategy.</div>
 

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