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My Digital Marketing Consulting Business - Updates

Marketing, social media, advertising

openheavens

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May 4, 2020
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I am using Sean Marshall's awesome checklist to help me with this journey. I am using this thread to keep myself accountable. I think this might actually help me to gain traction on my entrepreneurial journey.


Here is my progress report as of this morning (05/07/2020 2:57 AM Eastern).

DONE: Start thinking about your business brand including your business name. Think about what kind “feel” you want your business to have. Write out at least 10 possible names.
  • I already have an S-Corp that i registered awhile back that has been gathering dust. I have also been paying taxes on it with zero revenue to show for it. In the Commonwealth of Massachusetts where I live, you pay a minimum tax on your S-Corp even if you have zero revenue.
  • I have come up with at least 10 names of different variations.
  • What I intend to do is to register a Doing Business As for marketing the digital marketing consulting business instead of using the S-Corp name that I registered. I believe doing things this way we help my SEO ranking.
DONE: Look up “online marketing company” and check out the first few sites – the goal is to get a feel for what they do and what you’ll be doing.
  • I found a few websites that triggered a few ideas of what I can do differently in my own business. I noted down their links so that I can refer to them later when I am doing in-depth competitive analysis - see below.
  • This search also triggered a few niches/industry verticals that I could focus on. I did not want to be saddled with analysis paralysis, so after coming up with a short list of seven industries. I decided to settle on Professional Services (Accountants, Architects, Doctors, Engineers, Lawyers). I will focus on Accountants first as my niche with the intention to expand later once I have established my market presence for the accountant niche.
  • Even though I have deep expertise in the energy industry, I put the sales lead time into consideration - Closing sales with energy companies can take a long time with various stakeholders involved even if I am working directly with their marketing directors. So I want to deal with small business owners since the owners of these small businesses are the economic buyers unlike in energy companies that the economic buyer might be the finance director, for example.
  • I also came up with a rough list of likely services that I could offer.
ONGOING: Consider taking a class or two on Udemy.com or Lynda.com to get an overview of the online marketing world. Strongly consider also going to QuickSprout.com/University
  • I have started taking a few online courses in addition with the copywriting courses that I had already been enrolled in. I have a spreadsheet already made with the list of all the relevant courses / articles so that I can check them off as I go through them. This will take a bit of time for me to go through - the game plan is to keep checking off the list daily as I work on the items on the Checklist.
ONGOING: Think about an industry you might like to serve (i.e. – chiropractors) and then look up “online marketing for chiropractors” or similar terms and study what comes up.
  • I have already settled on focusing on Accountants for my business.
  • I marked this as ongoing as I would like to complete the in-depth competitive analysis before I close out this task.
DONE: Write out (or type out) your motivation. Why are you interested in starting this business? Answer this with something more specific than “to have more money”. Get as specific as you can. Don’t skip the mental work!
  • I have this written in details - one of my key motivations is so that I will have time to spend with my family, obviously and my other interests - I love academics, so I will love to go back to college to get a PhD - not because I need it for work, but for the fun of it - without depending on any professor paying for my studies - I just want to go back and show them what fast lane lifestyle is - studying for the fun of it, not because I need it to get ahead in life.
DONE: List out the amount of money you would like to make in your first month, second month, following months. Include your first year’s goal.
  • I have this also detailed out in my notes.
    • I have zero revenue at the moment. My targets for the next 3 months are:
      • Month 1 (May 2020) - at least $1,000 for this month in revenue. I know this is small, but I wanted to set the bar low because I have never sold anything in my life.
      • Month 2 (June 2020) - at least $5,000 for that month in revenue.
      • Month 3 (July 2020) - at least $12,500 for that month in revenue.
    • My target is to make over $250K in revenue before December 2020. I hope this goal is not too ambitious.
ONGOING: Go online and look up other online marketing companies (again) – jot down everything that you like and that you would like to emulate.
  • DONE: I have come up with various search terms I am going to use.
  • DONE: I have develop a Google Sheet template that I am going to use to capture my research.
  • TODO: I plan to focus on this later today. This is the in-depth competitive analysis I mentioned earlier.
 
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Phikey

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Great stuff! I wish you all the best. Do you have a plan for getting your first clients?
 

Putt

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I feel that if you continue with this mindset, you'll be able to achieve good things. Looking forward to following your progress.
 

openheavens

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May 4, 2020
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Great stuff! I wish you all the best. Do you have a plan for getting your first clients?
Thank you.

I have already approached a friend who is an accountant - I have already offered to help him in exchange for testimonials.

I plan to reach out to my first connection network (friends & family) once I have been able to define my offerings.
 
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Reign777

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Jun 24, 2020
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Thank you.

I have already approached a friend who is an accountant - I have already offered to help him in exchange for testimonials.

I plan to reach out to my first connection network (friends & family) once I have been able to define my offerings.
Great stuff looking to hear much more good news and updates
 

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