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My Entrepreneur Journey

A detailed account of a Fastlane process...

HerrUnternehmer

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Oct 3, 2019
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Hi folks

That's my progress thread.

You can find my introduction here.

The next 4 months I will try different things. My goal: Having a successful online business (1k monthly income would be a mega success for me for the next 4 months)

What I'm gonna do next:

1. I have had designs made on Fiverr this week. I will set up a Shopify store, find a print on demand supplier and then try to sell the t-shirts through FB Advertising. I've picked out a niche/theme where there are already other sellers who make good sales (I can see it from the sales figures), but my t-shirts are still new and innovative. That probably won't earn me much money, but I hope to break even and gain a lot of experience.

2. I have an idea for an affiliate site. I have no experience with affiliate sites. I will start the project next year to be able to go live next year and then post weekly on a regular basis. I myself have the problem and would like to solve my own problem through this affiliate site. My goal with this project is to gain experience and a monthly continuous income of 100-500€ next year. My main goal is to gain experience in SEO and web design.

3. my next project is that I finally want to successfully offer online marketing services /webdesign services myself. So far I have offered webdesign. However, I see the problem that I am bad in design and so far have little success with client acquisition and therefore prefer to have a business model where I have a recurring income and only once have to worry about client acquisition. I was thinking about a complete package for real estate agents with website, Local Seo, Google Ads and Facebook Ads for a monthly flat rate. But first I have to think about who I can help and what I can do for them. Then I have to improve my web skills and take care of clients.

4. local lead generation I find a very interesting business model. Especially building SEO sites that generate leads for small-medium cities and then sell those leads on. However, I see the problem that I have to be careful not to violate German data protection laws by passing address data to third parties. In any case, this is something I will investigate more closely.

5 I still have a few courses and books that I have already bought but have not worked through. I want to work through them in the next 4 months.
 
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HerrUnternehmer

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Oct 3, 2019
16
12
Germany
Hi folks
I want to give an update and share my thoughts.

I had the designs made on Fiverr and published on redbubble. It was the easiest way to do this without a lot of effort and I used Facebook Ads and it was good for testing before I set up a shopify shop. However, I could only run one traffic campaign, because I could not install a Facebook pixel. My goal was to see how the designs were received. I spent 50€ in one week as test budget. No purchases were generated. This is of course not so good. But I have good CTRs. Reasons for this can be:

1. When people click on my store, they see competing products.
2. Maybe the designs were not good enough.
3. The designs have been used more often. Maybe I need new fresh designs that are not yet available.
4. Maybe people do not want to wear such designs on a t-shirt.
5. I don't have a social proof and a real sales page on the shop page.

What happens now? Well, I will continue to pursue the idea. Why? I have this idea and will improve and test a few points. The alternative is that I give up already now. I don't want that. Worst case, I won't sell anything, but I'll gain more experience. My plan:

1. Set up a Shopify store. This way, the products of the competition will not be displayed. I can make better selling sites. I can run conversion campaigns. I also learn how to use Shopify and Print on Demand.

2. I will try out other designs. As I mentioned in point 4, people might not want to wear such designs as shirts, but maybe as posters. I will test with my designs if people prefer funny Photoshop pictures or real artwork. I also want to test if people want to have the pictures on t-shirts or rather as posters.


I have started my affiliate page. I designed the website, put it online and am currently writing reviews. But actually I'm still a little bit in doubt if the reviews, as I write them now, are really the most effective for the reader. I am still thinking about how I can make the reviews even better. I will definitely do the project this year. As soon as I have a good number of reviews (more than 10), I will also start looking at backlinks, social media and forum posts.

Another project is my self-employment as an online marketer. I just finished a website project and already have another website project promised that I will do. But I want to do more in the area of online marketing. In fact, my goal is to get into the area of Monthly Recurring Income or bigger contracts. That's the reason why I'm still thinking about:

1. who are customers I want to have
2. what are their problems and how can I help with online marketing.
3. how does my pricing look like?

At the moment I am still a bit split. On the one hand I could imagine going into a sector (financial sector or real estate sector) and start and manage PPC campaigns there and charge a monthly fee. However, I have to say that I see with many companies that the website is outdated and slow and nothing has been done in the Seo sector. Especially in more rural areas you can reach top rankings with a little bit of local Seo. But of course I have no recurring income here. I will continue to think about it and soon I will have to make a decision.

In general I have read a lot since my last post (8 books). For me Mode One was the best book so far with many eye-opening moments. This book was also recommended in a thread here and is worth every cent. The book Intimate Connections was also very good.

One problem what I still have: I have no clear focus. My attention is on the 3 projects at the same time and every day I work on something different. So it changes throughout the week. I want to start several things, because I don't know exactly what I want to do and I can't abandon the ideas. I already have a long list of things I want to do. The other day I read a good article from @Andy Black who said that it's not bad to try a lot in the beginning to see what works and what doesn't and then focus later.

If you have read up to here, I hope I haven't wasted your time. I would be happy if you leave me your thoughts or tips.
 
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D

Deleted74396

Guest
Hi folks
I want to give an update and share my thoughts.

I had the designs made on Fiverr and published on redbubble. It was the easiest way to do this without a lot of effort and I used Facebook Ads and it was good for testing before I set up a shopify shop. However, I could only run one traffic campaign, because I could not install a Facebook pixel. My goal was to see how the designs were received. I spent 50€ in one week as test budget. No purchases were generated. This is of course not so good. But I have good CTRs. Reasons for this can be:

1. When people click on my store, they see competing products.
2. Maybe the designs were not good enough.
3. The designs have been used more often. Maybe I need new fresh designs that are not yet available.
4. Maybe people do not want to wear such designs on a t-shirt.
5. I don't have a social proof and a real sales page on the shop page.

What happens now? Well, I will continue to pursue the idea. Why? I have this idea and will improve and test a few points. The alternative is that I give up already now. I don't want that. Worst case, I won't sell anything, but I'll gain more experience. My plan:

1. Set up a Shopify store. This way, the products of the competition will not be displayed. I can make better selling sites. I can run conversion campaigns. I also learn how to use Shopify and Print on Demand.

2. I will try out other designs. As I mentioned in point 4, people might not want to wear such designs as shirts, but maybe as posters. I will test with my designs if people prefer funny Photoshop pictures or real artwork. I also want to test if people want to have the pictures on t-shirts or rather as posters.


I have started my affiliate page. I designed the website, put it online and am currently writing reviews. But actually I'm still a little bit in doubt if the reviews, as I write them now, are really the most effective for the reader. I am still thinking about how I can make the reviews even better. I will definitely do the project this year. As soon as I have a good number of reviews (more than 10), I will also start looking at backlinks, social media and forum posts.

Another project is my self-employment as an online marketer. I just finished a website project and already have another website project promised that I will do. But I want to do more in the area of online marketing. In fact, my goal is to get into the area of Monthly Recurring Income or bigger contracts. That's the reason why I'm still thinking about:

1. who are customers I want to have
2. what are their problems and how can I help with online marketing.
3. how does my pricing look like?

At the moment I am still a bit split. On the one hand I could imagine going into a sector (financial sector or real estate sector) and start and manage PPC campaigns there and charge a monthly fee. However, I have to say that I see with many companies that the website is outdated and slow and nothing has been done in the Seo sector. Especially in more rural areas you can reach top rankings with a little bit of local Seo. But of course I have no recurring income here. I will continue to think about it and soon I will have to make a decision.

In general I have read a lot since my last post (8 books). For me Mode One was the best book so far with many eye-opening moments. This book was also recommended in a thread here and is worth every cent. The book Intimate Connections was also very good.

One problem what I still have: I have no clear focus. My attention is on the 3 projects at the same time and every day I work on something different. So it changes throughout the week. I want to start several things, because I don't know exactly what I want to do and I can't abandon the ideas. I already have a long list of things I want to do. The other day I read a good article from @Andy Black who said that it's not bad to try a lot in the beginning to see what works and what doesn't and then focus later.

If you have read up to here, I hope I haven't wasted your time. I would be happy if you leave me your thoughts or tips.


Looks like you're on the right track! If you're using FB ads, you could also try using Shopify Lite whilst you find what products sell. It's only $9 but allows you to sell products on Facebook :)
 

Andy Black

Help people. Get paid. Help more people.
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Some thoughts:

Maybe read/consume less and instead learn from being at the coal face engaging the market?

I like that you have ideas for “tests”. This can keep you going when the results of tests aren’t what you’d like.

If your goal is to get to 1k/mth then maybe focus on getting clients first?
  • Your knowledge and skills are already way ahead of most brick and mortars business owners and you should be able to add value to them, and get paid.
  • The beauty of working on client campaigns is that you get paid immediately and don’t have to dip your hand into your own pocket running Google or Facebook Ad campaigns.

If you go the service route then maybe focus a bit more on one of the many technical things you’re doing that you enjoy, that can add value, that people pay for, and that you can get work doing?
  • For instance, I’ve focused on Google Ads, but there’s still soooo many different ways to add value and get paid.
 

Dramolion

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Apr 13, 2018
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One problem what I still have: I have no clear focus. My attention is on the 3 projects at the same time and every day I work on something different.

Try to finish smaller projects first, or get them to the stage where they don't need much work anymore.
 
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HerrUnternehmer

New Contributor
Read Fastlane!
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
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Oct 3, 2019
16
12
Germany
Looks like you're on the right track! If you're using FB ads, you could also try using Shopify Lite whilst you find what products sell. It's only $9 but allows you to sell products on Facebook :)

Oh, i didnt see that option. I thought that i have to pay 29@ per Month. I will check that out. Thank you very much.
 

HerrUnternehmer

New Contributor
Read Fastlane!
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
75%
Oct 3, 2019
16
12
Germany
Some thoughts:

Maybe read/consume less and instead learn from being at the coal face engaging the market?


I like that you have ideas for “tests”. This can keep you going when the results of tests aren’t what you’d like.


If your goal is to get to 1k/mth then maybe focus on getting clients first?

Your knowledge and skills are already way ahead of most brick and mortars business owners and you should be able to add value to them, and get paid.

The beauty of working on client campaigns is that you get paid immediately and don’t have to dip your hand into your own pocket running Google or Facebook Ad campaigns.


If you go the service route then maybe focus a bit more on one of the many technical things you’re doing that you enjoy, that can add value, that people pay for, and that you can get work doing?

For instance, I’ve focused on Google Ads, but there’s still soooo many different ways to add value and get paid.

Yes, you are right. I consume too many information and courses instead of going out there and start working with clients.

Do you have a method do get in contact with clients without meeting them in person (I read your diesel and coffee guide)? I suck at that (mabye thats why i should do diesel and coffee?!). Do you have a method to get in contact with clients via the internet? I already wrote cold customized email, without any reply. Now i am thinking about writing blog posts and recording a few youtube videos to show my skills and distribute them via linkedin and xing.

Thank you for your help.
 

HerrUnternehmer

New Contributor
Read Fastlane!
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
75%
Oct 3, 2019
16
12
Germany
Try to finish smaller projects first, or get them to the stage where they don't need much work anymore.

Yes, that would be my goal. Start the project and then let the habit take control.
 
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Andy Black

Help people. Get paid. Help more people.
Staff member
FASTLANE INSIDER
EPIC CONTRIBUTOR
Read Fastlane!
Speedway Pass
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
370%
May 20, 2014
18,563
68,692
Ireland
Yes, you are right. I consume too many information and courses instead of going out there and start working with clients.

Do you have a method do get in contact with clients without meeting them in person (I read your diesel and coffee guide)? I suck at that (mabye thats why i should do diesel and coffee?!). Do you have a method to get in contact with clients via the internet? I already wrote cold customized email, without any reply. Now i am thinking about writing blog posts and recording a few youtube videos to show my skills and distribute them via linkedin and xing.

Thank you for your help.
Check out the inbound/sales thread in my signature.
 

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