Become free!

[jon.M]

1. The past
I'm 17. In my country there are different types of "lanes" in high school, and I was in the toughest one. Loads of chemistry, physics and math. Most students in my class went to school from 07.00-16.00, and after that they'd go home to study some more. They literally had no other life besides studying.

This got me thinking. They're wasting their youth on reading stuff they'll forget 90% of, for what? Some DISGUSTING 9-5 job where they'll make around $3500 a month (that's a great income where I live).

I want to become free and independent - to create something that is my own. So then I won't have to worry about grades, that chemistry test about chemical bonds or drawing the same velocity-time graph for 6 months. I'll just have to learn what I really need to succeed.

Real knowledge > Grades and "education"

So before I went on summer vacation, I started learning programming. Ruby and Python - all on a very basic level. Then I moved on to the front-end languages for the web, which I found more engaging. It went really good, and I learned at a lot faster pace than I would've in school.

2. Now
A few days ago I read Fox's thread here on the forum, which inspired me to make some money making web pages for people. Actually I'd gotten the idea weeks before from one of James Altucher's articles, but that thread got me interested for real. Luckily I had experience with WordPress from a job I had before, and over time I'd gotten pretty good with HTML, CSS and JavaScript.

Why not try it? Can't see myself coding webpages in the future, I want something greater than that, but it could be a good hustle for now.

That will be a job in progress. Although I'm quite comfortable with the web design part, acquiring customers is something I'll need to work on. Really have no clue how to do that in this business. I tried to e-mail local business owners in my town, asking them to contact me if interested, and they either:
a) Don't respond
b) Get mad because I imply their 2007 website might need an update.

3. Goals
1. ONE WONDERFUL THOUSAND
Believe me - I think big. However I can't start thinking about those glorious millions before I've even made $1,000, so that will be my goal for now.

$1,000 is a lot of money for me, that'll be a challenge. But I'll achieve it. Then I'll make $10,000.

2. LEAVE THIS COUNTRY
This is more of a long term goal - ideally I will achieve this in about 2 years.

Why? My country is cold, unpleasant, and got a lot of taxes. The government can take about 60% of your income, which isn't exactly great. I've also got a lot of bad memories here, memories I just want to leave behind. I simply want to start a new life together with my wonderful girlfriend in a fresh place.

I'm thinking some place warm instead.

To summarize:
1. Try to make websites for profit
2. Earn $1,000
3. Increase earnings
4. Leave country

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[jon.M]

Spent this morning making a mock-up website and writing some e-mail copy for a local laundry company. Got a good feeling about this one.

My girlfriend and I acquired a set of chairs and a table - all in a very bad condition. We renovated them and made them look really nice with sandpaper and paint. Now they're sold.

Not exactly fastlane, but to be honest we enjoyed it and I learned something. Creating something good means creating value - and that's what people want. I could probably use that knowledge in ALL aspects of life. Make something great that ATTRACTS money - then you won't need to chase it.

 

[Andy Black]

Do you already know people who could benefit from a website?

Just curious if warm/hot will do better for you than cold emailing, cold calling, or cold traffic...

 

[jon.M]

Do you already know people who could benefit from a website?

Just curious if warm/hot will do better for you than cold emailing, cold calling, or cold traffic...

I asked around a couple of days ago. Nobody I know directly needs a website. However I've asked my friends and family to refer to me if they run into someone who does need one. It'd be great if I found something that way, so I'm still on the lookout. Might see something unfold later.

Today I worked at the warehouse of one of my country's biggest online stores. Good money actually, compared to other jobs people in my age have. It was also interesting to see the logistics of a really big e-commerce business.

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[jon.M]

Now I'm no longer working as a fill-in at the warehouse (they had no demand for it). Still got a lot of hours done so that's great.

Otherwise I feel kind of lost and restless. Before I've always had a "next step", and even though it maybe wasn't the right one I had it. But now I've no idea what to do. Got some options:
1) Continue trying to make money creating websites. This is by no means an unique idea, and I am not the best at it. However it requires very little money from my side - which is great since I have just that amount. It's also scalable, outsourcable, can be of great magnitude, and you could do it anywhere.

Then I'll need to figure out how to get business. (And actually regain focus and find out what to do next)

2) Start finding something else to do.

 

[jon.M]

Finished TMF today - reread it for the third time.

Picked up the yellow pages and compiled a list of 56 local companies with wonderfully terrible websites. If I expand the search radius I'll easily reach 100 tomorrow. Planning to contact all of them - if just 1% answers I've still succeeded. It's a numbers game - right? Some of them make 24 million dollars of revenue per year but they still got bad websites.

 

[jon.M]

Been going through Grant Cardone's course on Udemy today. Haven't made up an opinion on it yet.

Started approaching advertising/printing companies (that don't do web design), thought about trying to make some kind of deal with them. They get to give their clients a big discount for web design - and they bring me work.

Last few days I've become more invested in this thing. ALL web design companies in my area are to be honest quite shit. Their websites don't look good and they focus more on features than benefits. If I'm able to combine great web design and decent selling skills it wouldn't be hard to establish something here. If that's possible I'll scale the shit out of this. (Well, now I'm getting ahead of myself - but my mind wanders.)

I've started to wake up earlier, around 6 AM. Want to get more things done.

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[jon.M]

Got one years hosting and a domain for $1.45 at my favourite web host, so I made a website today. Not fully complete yet, but in my opinion it's beautiful.

 

[jon.M]

I've been studying today - mostly front end - and reading about the new CSS grid.
Thinking about buying Unscripted when I've got money.

 

[jon.M]

There's less than a month until I'll have to pick up my studies again - and it sucks. You're basically listening on life advice from people who always complain about their job and earn $3,000 a month.

Fortunately I've arranged it so I'll need to spend considerably less time on it than before. Hence I'll get more time for more profitable ventures, and I'm sure as hell going to use that, because I've become COMPLETELY DETACHED from this society. There's nothing holding me back right now.

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[jon.M]

It's vacation times, which is holy in my country. Nobody answers their phone or mail, so I've spent my time learning programming and sales instead. Started "The Web Developer Bootcamp" on Udemy, pretty good course (finished ~35% so far).

I just applied for a sales job! Although I'll never accept the Slowlane it might be beneficial in some ways:

• Free crash course in sales
• I'll be forced to cold call and try to sell, so I won't just get paralysis by analysis and never take action.
• Gaining experience and knowledge

But it's really hard getting a job here when you're under 18.

 

[jon.M]

Today the manager at the company emailed me, and we set up the date for an interview even before the application period is over. I got quite chocked, since I didn't believe they'd even answer back.

To be honest I'm nervous, I've never been to a REAL work interview before. How in the world do you prepare for that? Then there's my age. Although I wrote that I'm in high school in my CV, I didn't mention it explicitly elsewhere. Maybe they'll reject me when they learn of my age.

 

[jon.M]

Going to the work interview tomorrow, I'm nervous. I hate going somewhere without ANY knowledge of the place, situation, or really anything at all. However it'd be great to make dough and get cold-calling experience.

But I always want to have a backup plan. So if I don't get the job, I'll either start doing it by myself (and probably waste some potential clients) or partner up with someone.

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[TheNewRich]

It's vacation times, which is holy in my country. Nobody answers their phone or mail, so I've spent my time learning programming and sales instead. Started "The Web Developer Bootcamp" on Udemy, pretty good course (finished ~35% so far).

I just applied for a sales job! Although I'll never accept the Slowlane it might be beneficial in some ways:

• Free crash course in sales
• I'll be forced to cold call and try to sell, so I won't just get paralysis by analysis and never take action.
• Gaining experience and knowledge

But it's really hard getting a job here when you're under 18.

A job in sales is never a bad move! It's an amazing skill to have!
Check out Brian Tracy and Grant Cardone. Those are my go to guys for sales books and knowledge in sales.
I usually read through a good sales book twice back to back. If you drive or commute a lot I recommend Audible.com. (Not an Affiliate Link)
Sell or Be Sold is awesome.

 

[jon.M]

A job in sales is never a bad move! It's an amazing skill to have!
Check out Brian Tracy and Grant Cardone. Those are my go to guys for sales books and knowledge in sales.
I usually read through a good sales book twice back to back. If you drive or commute a lot I recommend Audible.com. (Not an Affiliate Link)
Sell or Be Sold is awesome.

Thanks! Cardone's Youtube videos are great, his charisma and energy fires you up. Going to take a look at the book, and Brian Tracy. I've actually been looking for books about selling.

 

[amp0193]

Why? My country is cold, unpleasant, and got a lot of taxes.

Next summer I'm leaving my country to come to yours.

Sweden's quite lovely in the summertime


I don't have to pay the taxes though.

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[jon.M]

Next summer I'm leaving my country to come to yours.
Sweden's quite lovely in the summertime

I don't have to pay the taxes though.

Yes, the Swedish summers are wonderful. Especially on the countryside, where it almost feels like you're living in a pretty landscape painting. Hope you'll get great weather next year. Although some days have been lovely, this summer's been a little bit gloomy at least where I live.

In what part of the country are you going to stay?

 

[amp0193]

Yes, the Swedish summers are wonderful. Especially on the countryside, where it almost feels like you're living in a pretty landscape painting. Hope you'll get great weather next year. Although some days have been lovely, this summer's been a little bit gloomy at least where I live.

In what part of the country are you going to stay?

Yes, the countrysides are very beautiful there. Almost unbelievably so, like you say.

Malmö. We were there last summer and are missing it very much as we are here in 38 degree Texas weather.

Malmö was a bit more cloudy than I would've liked, but it was still much nicer than here!

 

[jon.M]

I got the sales job! Starting next Monday with some training, and I'll begin calling the same day. Everything felt really good.

Yes, the countrysides are very beautiful there. Almost unbelievably so, like you say.

Malmö. We were there last summer and are missing it very much as we are here in 38 degree Texas weather.

Malmö was a bit more cloudy than I would've liked, but it was still much nicer than here!

Nice! Skåne (the province Malmö belongs to) is really great, and the people there are very nice as well IMO.

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[maverick]

I haven't read the full thread so forgive my ignorance if this has been said before.

Nobody buys websites. Especially small business owners. People are looking for results. Small business owners won't drop a few thousand just to have a pretty website. What has your new design got to offer that the old one hasn't? How are you going to quantify your added value?

Webdesign has been commoditized. You can buy out-of-the-box products that give you an okay website (which is enough for a lot of businesses). You would be much better off growing your knowledge on how the digital sales funnel works (i.e. AARRR) and how you can add value there. You will be able to dissect the funnel for each company and come up with actionable insights that people will understand. Examples of this would be the many lead generation posts on this forum, driven by the Adwords posts by @Andy Black. This however, is only 1 part of the funnel.

Become a master at acquiring, converting, retaining and up-selling customers and you will go a long way.

Spending time on commoditized skills such as web design, front/back end development and any other discipline that can be outsourced is a waste of time in my opinion.

 

[jon.M]

I haven't read the full thread so forgive my ignorance if this has been said before.

Nobody buys websites. Especially small business owners. People are looking for results. Small business owners won't drop a few thousand just to have a pretty website. What has your new design got to offer that the old one hasn't? How are you going to quantify your added value?

Webdesign has been commoditized. You can buy out-of-the-box products that give you an okay website (which is enough for a lot of businesses). You would be much better off growing your knowledge on how the digital sales funnel works (i.e. AARRR) and how you can add value there. You will be able to dissect the funnel for each company and come up with actionable insights that people will understand. Examples of this would be the many lead generation posts on this forum, driven by the Adwords posts by @Andy Black. This however, is only 1 part of the funnel.

Become a master at acquiring, converting, retaining and up-selling customers and you will go a long way.

Spending time on commoditized skills such as web design, front/back end development and any other discipline that can be outsourced is a waste of time in my opinion.

That's what I've been aiming for - maybe it was unclear. "I help companies get more customers online"
In my local area there are some web designers, but guess what? Although they know how to create cool CSS animations and effects, they've no idea how to make websites profitable. While I'm no expert myself (and I won't wait until I become one), I've got some basic knowledge and I see a field that's completely empty.

Thanks for your post. I'll certainly read @Andy Black 's posts (read quite many of them already, and they're great!)

 

[jon.M]

I did my first day selling with the phone today...
Here are my first impressions and some things I learned:

• Doing your first cold calls in a call center can be good in a way, because you're only a cog in the wheel. You won't need to worry about anything else, just talk to the person on the other end of the line and make him say yes.
• My boss told me scripts can be good for beginners, but then you have to speak clearly and pretty slow. Then it won't sound as much like you're just reading from a Word-document. I tried it and it worked great - it's also good to remember that when you're talking to older persons.
• The job can be quite boring, because you'll have wait for anything between 1-5 minutes until you get a call (at least where I'm at right now). But on the other hand it's a fricking walk in the park, since you literally just sit at a desk and make phone calls.
• Cold calling is really easy. Just get in a good mood, care about the customer and you'll get a sale in no time at all.

Here's something I learned about dealing with objections. It's pretty basic stuff but I might as well share it to you.

1. Understand the customers objection
2. Explain why that objection isn't a problem
3. Continue with the script - or close the deal. (Depending on what stage you're in)

For example:
"Hello Mr. XYZ, I come from XYZ company and I have some pretty good news for you!
"Oh yeah?"
"We celebrate our 15-year anniversary, and we'd love to make it really special for you. That's why you can get a sweet, moist package of BooZap for ONLY $15."
"Oh yeah? And then I get an goddamn expensive subscription for BooZap every month? Don't get me wrong, I love BooZap, but I'm tired of you salesmen screwing me over for that!"
"Sir, we know of those companies who do that, and we understand your concern. That's why we give you this offer. It's a one time purchase - no hidden fees - ONLY $15! We aren't like those shady companies."
"Damn boy, my mouth's already watering for that wonderful BooZap. Sign me up!"

That's what I learned today. Going to reflect on what I do everyday in here.

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[jon.M]

Sales today: 11
Difficulty: Pretty easy, there were a lot of qualified leads.
Comments:

• Almost every call got to the voicemail, or the number was inactive. We're supposed to just hang up in that case. So nearly 85% of the time was "dead" time.
• A lot of people had used the service before, but they'd had a terrible experience with it.
• People seemed more willing to buy around 12:00-16:00. In the morning (well, around 09:30) some people got pissed off because we woke them up.
• If I make people feel safe, they're much more likely to buy. The company we sell for is pretty serious compared to the competitors, so it's great to emphasise that.

 

[jon.M]

Thursday and Friday I've made around 17 sales a day, which is pretty decent. There's a leaderboard at the office, and I've placed myself in the top 4 for the last few days. However, a MONKEY could do the job.

That motivates me even more to do something on my own!

 

[jon.M]

The CEO of a big industrial, multi-million company emailed me today about their website. We set up a meeting this Wednesday. Exciting!

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[jon.M]

Don't wait for it!
Lately I've been selling lottery tickets on the phone. They're of the more expensive kind, about $27 each, but it's pretty damn easy to sell them.

Do you know which group of people that buys them the most?

Old people.
They always live in a tiny apartment.
They always complain about their terrible state pension that gives them $1000 per month to live on.

And they always talk about how much winning the lottery would change their life.
And they say they've been playing for 40 years without winning.
And they pray that this might be their moment.

Are you going to be like them, waiting around for years, waiting for that moment? Are you going to expect that things out of your control will happen?

Younger people are harder to sell tickets to. Oh boy. They're always so smart, because they're not buying any of this gambling bullshit. And well, they are.

But then I walk into the breakroom and see the same young, smart people talk about that Subway job they applied for, that leaked episode of Game of Thrones and last night's TV-episodes.

And then you sometimes hear somebody mentioning an expensive sports car. Some of them want to travel abroad. All of them want to live free.

But hey, they all wait for it to happen. They don't know how, but in ten years it will be reality. Without a plan, without any action. Maybe a dream is all they need?

I won't wait for it anyore.

 

[jon.M]

I've been very busy! School has started, I've been working at my job, and doing some other, more business related things.

That big company I mentioned earlier in this thread?

• They're bigger than I thought, basically one of the country's leading companies in their niche.
• I've been e-mailing back and forth with their CEO, who in some way must be interested to meet me, since he's been very polite and cooperative when making an appointment.
• That meeting got postponed to Thursday next week. (Neither of us could meet until then)

Other than that, I've been reading about some books, mostly about marketing.

I recommend "The Magic of Thinking Big" by David J. Schwartz, my main takeaways from it are these:

• Think of reasons why something is possible, rather than why it isn't.
• To quote the book: "It isn't so much what you know when you start that matters. It's what you learn and put to use after you open your doors that counts most."

 

[Van Halen]

A nice thread you have going on here. Enjoyed reading it from the start. Good work

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[jon.M]

Thank you mate! Appreciate it.

 

[KSR]

Very interesting thread! You're a smart kid, keep it up.