EXECUTION 2020: Growing A Digital Marketing Agency And Achieving Financial Freedom As Fast As Possible!

[Andy Black]

My advice would be to just start and get data from running campaigns.

Given his circumstances and frame of mind I’d be tempted to just do this for free. I still don’t charge my first case study.

Also, I’d remove the personal stuff about your friend from the post above. Do things so that they’d be happy, even delighted, if he found what you wrote.

 

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[Simon Angel]

My advice would be to just start and get data from running campaigns.

Given his circumstances and frame of mind I’d be tempted to just do this for free. I still don’t charge my first case study.

Also, I’d remove the personal stuff about your friend from the post above. Do things so that they’d be happy, even delighted, if he found what you wrote.

Thanks. There's nothing really personal about him to get doxxed or anything, just saying it how it is. He's also open about his personal life, way too open, we barely know eachother.

I agree it's beneficial for both of us so I'll likely do it for free.

 

[Simon Angel]

Day 16
​

Just had breakfast. Almost choked to death. Apparently eating is easy to learn but difficult to master..

It's the 15th of June.

I'm $600 in my $2000 goal for the month.

Had at least 3 "almost" sales which would've put me above my goal and made me feel really, really good.

There's no use dwelling over that though, is there? Thanks, life.

ANYWAY​

Time to follow-up.

I've got multiple prospects from last week and just hopefully waiting for them to initiate would not be a wise move on my part.

WIll update as I go.

Please pray to the gods of Capitalism I get some sales today. Thanks in advance.
__________________________________________________________________________________________

Prospect #1: Hung up my call.

Her site is still broken, even though she was going to let her "site guy" know and fix it and then call me the same day. It's been 2 days, I called, she hung up. Fine with me, I'm not the one losing money.

I'll call her again later today anyways.


Prospect #2: Tensions are high.

"Hi X, it's Simeon, we talked about your online presence last we..*interrupted*

- "Yes, we talked, but now is not a good time. We haven't discussed this here yet so call later or another day."

"Of course, I'll call you later today."

- "Ok, have a good day!" (in a passive-aggressive tone, you know what I mean)

"Have a good day!"

My spideys senses are telling me she's likely going to end up being a long-term prospect.. will have to bug her multiple times until we strike a deal or she literally tells me to f*ck off.


Prospect #3: MIA.

One of my first cold calls and one of my first potencial clients - a driving school in a neighbouring city. We spoke twice over the phone, I called a third time and he agreed on a website redesign but said it'll be in the next few weeks as he's currently quite busy due to lack of staff, thanked me for my call and I could sense it was going well overall.

So that was on the 1st of June, 2 weeks later I called and he's not picking up. Cold be busy, could have decided against proceeding with it. That would be a bummer.

You already know I'm going to call him again later.

 

[Simon Angel]

I called a few more prospects. Nothing.

*In the voice of Duke Nukem* Now I am really pissed off.

Fortunately, I called my client with the cleaning company. Told him about Google Ads.

Explained how nobody else is running them from his competition neither in the city nor in neighbouring towns.

He asked about how much it'd cost.

I told him the budget will be low since we're not competing with anybody and that I'd do it for free to help him grow and for me to gain experience with Google Ads as I've only done Facebook Ads as of current.

He was ecstatic about the offer. His only concern was whether they'd be able to handle the extra clients and work, but was relieved once I told him the ads are on a daily budget and that we can stop them as soon as the leads become too many for them to handle.

"Let's collect some data and see where it goes, then we can think about what we can do it with!".

After getting him excited about the possibilities and promising to meet up in a few days to make this happen, I asked whether he knows or has heard of anyone needing help with their websites and online presence.

His response to that was he'll make sure I have more work "very soon".

 

[Simon Angel]

Day 17​

Launched my first Google Ad today for a past client who's a plumber! Got 90BGN to spend for free from Google, which is about $50. Set it up and everything, used a lot of exact matches. @Andy Black

However, for this client I entered my own card, name and etc in the billing information. Is that the proper way of doing it?

For example, should I also run my client with the cleaning company's ads from the same account, with my billing information (and have them deposit the ad budget to my bank account) or should I create new accounts for every client and have them enter their own info?

I could be getting a referral from the plumber soon, one of his friends is opening a massage studio and he said she is in need of a site and that he'll recommend me today!

 

[Andy Black]

Day 17​

Launched my first Google Ad today for a past client who's a plumber! Got 90BGN to spend for free from Google, which is about $50. Set it up and everything, used a lot of exact matches. @Andy Black

However, for this client I entered my own card, name and etc in the billing information. Is that the proper way of doing it?

For example, should I also run my client with the cleaning company's ads from the same account, with my billing information (and have them deposit the ad budget to my bank account) or should I create new accounts for every client and have them enter their own info?

I could be getting a referral from the plumber soon, one of his friends is opening a massage studio and he said she is in need of a site and that he'll recommend me today.

You could pay the bill, or they could. They’re different business models. I personally prefer the client to pay the bill direct to Google. It’s more transparent for them, and less risk of me being left holding the baby if they do a runner.

Create an account per client, and an MCC to manage all the accounts.

 

[Simon Angel]

You could pay the bill, or they could. They’re different business models. I personally prefer the client to pay the bill direct to Google. It’s more transparent for them, and less risk of me being left holding the baby if they do a runner.

Create an account per client, and an MCC to manage all the accounts.

That cleared billing up for me, thanks a lot. Might be a dumb question but what is an MCC?

EDIT: Apparently googling "MCC google ads" turns up quite a few results. Turns out it really was a dumb question.

 

[Simon Angel]

Quick update
​

I've been learning Google Ads and cold calling. Mostly the former.

I launched a lead gen ad for one of my past clients who's a plumber and it's getting $0.07 CPC. The competition locally is non-existent. We're ecstatic.

Made some cold calls today.

New, very engaged prospect!

We had 2 calls today - one introductory and a second to discuss everything in-depth.

They are a plumbing contractor with a good amount of clients and employees but also open to the idea of acquiring more.

We had a great talk - I had 0 anxiety and was leading the client through the process. They were assertive and loud, but that only made it easier to communicate with them as those people are usually very straight-forward and honest, which I value.

At one point they said:

"We both know where this is going to lead. We're going to discuss something that benefits the both of us."

- "You are correct. However, what matters to me the most is making sure you get the results and growth you are after. I've also worked with *X neighbouring city plumbing contractor firm" and we had X ROI. What I charge is more often than not irrelevant as I don't consider my job done until the people I work with get at least 5x more than they invested".

We agreed on a new website, Google Ads (explained the likelihood of game-changing results, the low risk and my other clients' results so far) so if everything goes smoothly (which is rarely the case) we should be doing business together from Monday onwards.

He asked how I found him. I told him the truth - I recently worked with a similar company, decided to look for other contractors that may need help and made a list.

I also told him how I first called his competition who did not appreciate my outreach, were rude and lacked a growth oriented mindset, unlike him. That seemingly stroked his ego as he continued by saying "That's right, I am open to everything and we've been doing very well even the past few months".

Special thanks for my girlfriend for telling me to pick up the damn phone today. I had been slacking.

Other currently not-so-noteworthy happenings​

One of my past clients is on the lookout for people to refer me to, and another has already referred me to someone who is opening a massage studio (I mentioned this before). However, I haven't contacted them yet.

Client said that the massagist is currently moving stuff and setting up the new place, so I am unsure if calling them right now is a better idea than waiting for them to contact me. I can't trust them to make the first move, so I'll probably be the first to initiate.

Still $600/2000 goal for the month, but I have some more time!

Been looking at apartments to rent. Found a super cheap one-room apartment that looks good enough for me.. *cough* and my girlfriend. I'm more motivated than ever to rent that place and move out for the first time ever!

EDIT: 2 more cold calls, 2 more prospects! Not as likely to end up being a sale as the one above, but we talked for more than 10 minutes with both and I really got to know their problems and how I could help them.

Both said "I really want to do this but 2 months from now/when Fall comes because.. etc".

I've had tens of calls just like these and I'm sure that at least 1 or 2 out of them will end up contacting me eventually, so it's worth it.

That's all for now, I'm done calling for today.

 

[Simon Angel]

Girlfriend's father offerred me a job. He's a higher-up in a big insurance company here. The pay is above average for my smallish city and the work hours are perfect for me and my business. A sure income would be great while I build up my network.

I could easily move now!

Less than 2 years ago I had nothing. I was a broken shell of a man, a frail, sick boy. People pitied me and thanked their God they weren't me.

Thank you for the opportunities, Universe. I've accepted my Destiny a long time ago and I know more difficulties lie ahead, but the path to Greatness always comes at a price which I am willing to take.

 

[Simon Angel]

SECOND DEAL CLOSED (BUT WAIT THERE'S MORE)​

Plumbing contractor.

$1200/2000 goal. Guess it's decent for my first month. Thought there's still a whole week left, I can sell more.

Upcoming recurring revenue:

• $100 a month from my cleaning company client for site and ads management.​
• $100 a month from my upcoming plumbing contractor project for site and ads management​

$200 a month is going to be just enough for my rent.

Possible referrals in the near future: 3

Starting a job in auto liquidation in an insurance company. From what I was told it sounds like a piece of cake.

And even if it's a piece of shit I ain't backing down. I already earned 1.5x more in my first month of business than the average wage around here, couple that with the job and I've got all the sweet money I need to grow that juicy digital marketing agency.

Also, like I said, I'm moving to my own place in the beginning of July.

Finally being independent, getting some balls deep action with my girlfriend AND not having my mother constantly nag her self-induced slowlane problems? Oh, baby.

I had ZERO just 25 days ago.

And I'm still a lazy f*ck. If I'd picked up the phone and called 10 people every day, I would've made at least twice as much as I did this month.

 

[Phikey]

Nice work mate!! This is action taking right here. I wouldn’t put yourself down too much. You’re miles ahead of most people that want to do what you’re doing.

I remember being in a similar hustling place years ago when I started my own agency too. Hustling like crazy and making as many calls and emails as possible. It was the best feeling hitting that $1k MRR mark, then $2k, then $5k then $10k and after that it just became whatever.

Once you get that network and momentum going it’s gravy.

 

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[Andy Black]

Quick update
​

I've been learning Google Ads and cold calling. Mostly the former.

I launched a lead gen ad for one of my past clients who's a plumber and it's getting $0.07 CPC. The competition locally is non-existent. We're ecstatic.

Made some cold calls today.

New, very engaged prospect!

We had 2 calls today - one introductory and a second to discuss everything in-depth.

They are a plumbing contractor with a good amount of clients and employees but also open to the idea of acquiring more.

We had a great talk - I had 0 anxiety and was leading the client through the process. They were assertive and loud, but that only made it easier to communicate with them as those people are usually very straight-forward and honest, which I value.

At one point they said:

"We both know where this is going to lead. We're going to discuss something that benefits the both of us."

- "You are correct. However, what matters to me the most is making sure you get the results and growth you are after. I've also worked with *X neighbouring city plumbing contractor firm" and we had X ROI. What I charge is more often than not irrelevant as I don't consider my job done until the people I work with get at least 5x more than they invested".

We agreed on a new website, Google Ads (explained the likelihood of game-changing results, the low risk and my other clients' results so far) so if everything goes smoothly (which is rarely the case) we should be doing business together from Monday onwards.

He asked how I found him. I told him the truth - I recently worked with a similar company, decided to look for other contractors that may need help and made a list.

I also told him how I first called his competition who did not appreciate my outreach, were rude and lacked a growth oriented mindset, unlike him. That seemingly stroked his ego as he continued by saying "That's right, I am open to everything and we've been doing very well even the past few months".

Special thanks for my girlfriend for telling me to pick up the damn phone today. I had been slacking.

Other currently not-so-noteworthy happenings​

One of my past clients is on the lookout for people to refer me to, and another has already referred me to someone who is opening a massage studio (I mentioned this before). However, I haven't contacted them yet.

Client said that the massagist is currently moving stuff and setting up the new place, so I am unsure if calling them right now is a better idea than waiting for them to contact me. I can't trust them to make the first move, so I'll probably be the first to initiate.

Still $600/2000 goal for the month, but I have some more time!

Been looking at apartments to rent. Found a super cheap one-room apartment that looks good enough for me.. *cough* and my girlfriend. I'm more motivated than ever to rent that place and move out for the first time ever!

EDIT: 2 more cold calls, 2 more prospects! Not as likely to end up being a sale as the one above, but we talked for more than 10 minutes with both and I really got to know their problems and how I could help them.

Both said "I really want to do this but 2 months from now/when Fall comes because.. etc".

I've had tens of calls just like these and I'm sure that at least 1 or 2 out of them will end up contacting me eventually, so it's worth it.

That's all for now, I'm done calling for today.

Well done.

@Blackman @sonny_1080 ... it might be worth you following this.

 

[Simon Angel]

Nice work mate!! This is action taking right here. I wouldn’t put yourself down too much. You’re miles ahead of most people that want to do what you’re doing.

I remember being in a similar hustling place years ago when I started my own agency too. Hustling like crazy and making as many calls and emails as possible. It was the best feeling hitting that $1k MRR mark, then $2k, then $5k then $10k and after that it just became whatever.

Once you get that network and momentum going it’s gravy.

Thanks man, I appreciate you stopping by to post this. I've seen some of your posts in the past and I was also able to relate to you. It's like something in your mind clicks just right when you hit a certain milestone and you just know you have to keep doing what you're doing.

May I ask what your MRR consists of? For example, what were you doing in terms of services offered when you hit your $1k, $5k, $10K and etc in MMR mark and for how many clients?

 

[Phikey]

At that point I was doing Google Ads and Website design for Local Services Companies.
I'd been doing this stuff for a while and had closed website deals between $2-$15k each but I hit a point where my income dried up because I wasn't closing consistent sales. This was while I was living abroad/travelling in Colombia and I really had to light a candle under my butt and hustle otherwise I'd have to move back home (and I was loving the digital nomad life). So I moved to Ecuador to force myself to be somewhere cold (Quito) and to stop partying and just knuckle down and build my agency properly.

I stuck to just google Ads as the service until I hit $11k MRR and then realised I liked my Ecommerce clients much more, I had a real knack for growing them consistently, and they had way more potential to scale (and my fee scale with them). It was frustrating for me to keep working with cleaning companies that were limited by geographic location or had staffing issues. At the start I did my first campaign for free (like you are) and I learned a lot. That guy is still a client of my agency 4 years later and he's now doing $400k+ monthly sales for his store. The first clients were $500 each or so but as I grew I'd raise my prices depending on the size of the client. Generally 10% of ad spend is pretty normal (some charge up to 20% of ad spend, depending on the industry).

Here's my strategy that worked insanely well back then and would work really well right now for you today too:

• Go into Facebook groups for your niche (I did it for cleaning companies) and contribute and become a known helper in that niche for Google Ads. You just want to answer questions and help where you can (don't ask for anything, just give as much value as possible)
• When people post about having any problems with their advertising, offer them a free google ads audit but on the condition that you can post it back in the group as a comment.
• I did this 5-10 times and it generated leads for months to come. I still get leads from it years later and I turn them down every month because I only work with Ecommerce now.
• What happens after you do that is that you're providing insane value to one person, and dozens of others will get value from that video too
• After 3 videos, once anyone asked a question about google ads, 3-5 people would immediately tag me and say I was the expert and I had immediate social proof
• This meant that my sales calls were never sales calls anymore. It was just negotiating on price to fit their budget.

Here are some of the videos I made (I still have some on my youtube channel as unlisted videos):

(Back when the old Google Ads layout was "Adwords")

I'm now executing a similar strategy for my Youtube channel but instead of in Facebook groups I'm trying to help the whole world of Ecommerce store owners. Same principle: give everything away for free, show people you can help them, and a small percentage will actually need your help.
Here's my channel with Ecommerce Tutorials so you can see this strategy in action now.

 

[Simon Angel]

@Phikey Thank you for this goldmine of information man! I'm going to consume all of it.

Really, thanks a lot.. I want to be like you when I grow up.

I noticed you've been focusing on growing your YouTube channel lately and while I can't give you any advice about that I wish all the best to you.

Going to tag you when I hit $1K MMR!

EDIT: I can't imagine having to charge clients $500 and that being 10-20% of the ad budget though.. I'm running a $10 per day ad for one of my clients with a $5 bid and there's virtually 0 competition and it's spending like $1 a day for 5-6 clicks. That's $30 a month.. I'd have to charge them $3. Am I doing something wrong?

 

[Sandy Dives]

Thanks man, I appreciate you stopping by to post this. I've seen some of your posts in the past and I was also able to relate to you. It's like something in your mind clicks just right when you hit a certain milestone and you just know you have to keep doing what you're doing.

May I ask what your MRR consists of? For example, what were you doing in terms of services offered when you hit your $1k, $5k, $10K and etc in MMR mark and for how many clients?

Follwing this thread! Awesome awesome to see someone taking action!

 

[Andy Black]

At that point I was doing Google Ads and Website design for Local Services Companies.
I'd been doing this stuff for a while and had closed website deals between $2-$15k each but I hit a point where my income dried up because I wasn't closing consistent sales. This was while I was living abroad/travelling in Colombia and I really had to light a candle under my butt and hustle otherwise I'd have to move back home (and I was loving the digital nomad life). So I moved to Ecuador to force myself to be somewhere cold (Quito) and to stop partying and just knuckle down and build my agency properly.

I stuck to just google Ads as the service until I hit $11k MRR and then realised I liked my Ecommerce clients much more, I had a real knack for growing them consistently, and they had way more potential to scale (and my fee scale with them). It was frustrating for me to keep working with cleaning companies that were limited by geographic location or had staffing issues. At the start I did my first campaign for free (like you are) and I learned a lot. That guy is still a client of my agency 4 years later and he's now doing $400k+ monthly sales for his store. The first clients were $500 each or so but as I grew I'd raise my prices depending on the size of the client. Generally 10% of ad spend is pretty normal (some charge up to 20% of ad spend, depending on the industry).

Here's my strategy that worked insanely well back then and would work really well right now for you today too:

• Go into Facebook groups for your niche (I did it for cleaning companies) and contribute and become a known helper in that niche for Google Ads. You just want to answer questions and help where you can (don't ask for anything, just give as much value as possible)
• When people post about having any problems with their advertising, offer them a free google ads audit but on the condition that you can post it back in the group as a comment.
• I did this 5-10 times and it generated leads for months to come. I still get leads from it years later and I turn them down every month because I only work with Ecommerce now.
• What happens after you do that is that you're providing insane value to one person, and dozens of others will get value from that video too
• After 3 videos, once anyone asked a question about google ads, 3-5 people would immediately tag me and say I was the expert and I had immediate social proof
• This meant that my sales calls were never sales calls anymore. It was just negotiating on price to fit their budget.

Here are some of the videos I made (I still have some on my youtube channel as unlisted videos):

(Back when the old Google Ads layout was "Adwords")

I'm now executing a similar strategy for my Youtube channel but instead of in Facebook groups I'm trying to help the whole world of Ecommerce store owners. Same principle: give everything away for free, show people you can help them, and a small percentage will actually need your help.
Here's my channel with Ecommerce Tutorials so you can see this strategy in action now.

Love this. Be seen to help people with XYZ and then they start tagging you as The XYZ Guy. Well done @Phikey. I love that you’re going bigger with it and hitting YouTube now as well.

 

[Paul David]

I do pay per show for my clients - No monthly retainer.

I control the whole process, I run the ads on my own page then i need "clients" to perform treatments for the leads.

I have my own team who follow up with the leads, educate them and book appointments, when they arrive at my clients I get paid.

Easy to sign clients as they don't pay anything up front.

 

[Phikey]

@Phikey Thank you for this goldmine of information man! I'm going to consume all of it.

No worries!

EDIT: I can't imagine having to charge clients $500 and that being 10-20% of the ad budget though.. I'm running a $10 per day ad for one of my clients with a $5 bid and there's virtually 0 competition and it's spending like $1 a day for 5-6 clicks. That's $30 a month.. I'd have to charge them $3. Am I doing something wrong?

Just have a minimum you charge per month. E.g. $500 per month and that covers up to $5k in ad spend. After that it’s 10% of ad spend. You can also do tiers ($500 for up to $5k ad spend, then $1000 for up to $10k ad spend).

Going to tag you when I hit $1K MMR!

Awesome, I’ll be waiting!

My big goal at that time was to hit $5k MRR because that was sign of REAL freedom for me. It was basically a regular job income right there. I clearly remember the day I hit that goal after working towards it for 3 months. Walking home from my coworking space as high as the moon with the biggest smile on my face. I was living in a foreign country and didn’t have anyone to celebrate it with, but that night while I lay in bed, I was the happiest man in the world.

Love this. Be seen to help people with XYZ and then they start tagging you as The XYZ Guy. Well done @Phikey. I love that you’re going bigger with it and hitting YouTube now as well.

Thanks @Andy Black !
@Simon Angel, Andy is the master of this (and runs a PPC agency too), if you haven’t gone through his threads, especially his Google Ads threads, do that as soon as you can.

For learning Google Ads, this is the number one course I’ve ever seen, by the way: Guide To Google AdWords Training: Turn Profit With PPC
It’s long (20 something hours) but goes incredibly deep, is up to date and is less than $40 when on sale (wait for the udemy sale and only get it cheap)

 

[Blackman]

Going to follow this, as I'm doing pretty much exactly the same thing aka offering lead gen via Google Ads for local businesses, except I don't do any website design or SEO for them, as I'm using my own landing page.

Don't get discouraged by cold calling - it can definitely be very daunting, especially when you keep hearing "not interested", "too expensive" and "we're already doing this", but remember that you need just 1 guy to say "yes", and that's it. Even if it's one guy out of 100 calls, but ideally it shouldn't take that long...

Thanks for the videos @Phikey , going through them now!

 

[Simon Angel]

Here's a conversation I had with @Phikey over PM:​

Hey Phikey,

I've been really pondering over what you said about charging $500 minimum and I was wondering who could REALLY benefit from spending 4 figures for ads + services per month.

Cleaning companies? Really low volume of searches here for most keywords in Bulgaria especially for my city, except for the capital city - Sofia.

Construction companies? Same issue.

However, I looked up "apartments for sale *my city*" and "real estate *my city*" and there's thousands of searches per month! Okay, perhaps I am up to something.

Then I checked out the first page results. 1 single top result ad from a real estate company that's nation-wide and 1 bottom result on the second page, again nation-wide.

But then on the second page I also found a real estate company that sell only locally. Lots of apartments and houses for sale inside, pretty decent website though not doing well SEO-wise since. No ads.

I'm going to contact them. But I wonder how should I handle the first interaction and more importantly the follow up call and meeting. I'm currently playing it out in my head like this:

"Hi X company, this is Simeon calling from *our city*.

I was doing research on the volume of real estate search terms locally in Google and found that there's only two competing companies that are spending very little but sitting comfortably in the first few results, followed by other nation-wide companies *stating which companies exactly* with very good SEO.

I noticed you only do business locally, however you're on the second page in Google and it looks like you're not running any ads. There is a lot of potential in running such ads as there's a high volume of monthly searches related to your business and most potential clients would only take a look at the first few results in Google before contacting a company. When executed well it could lead to much more business and thanks to the affordable nature of pay per click ads, very high ROI.

Would you be interested in meeting up to discuss this further?"

Then when we hypothetically meet my selling point would be something like this (example):

"Let's say the ads get you one additional sale per month. Let's say it's the lowest priced home you have - a one-room apartment. How much would you normally profit off such a sale?"

- "Around $20 000"

"Would you consider investing $2000 per month (1/10) for a $20 000 profit sale as a good investment?" (I'm going to be honest Phikey , the budget probably won't exceed $100-300 per month).

- "Yep, sure"

*other logistics + deal closed*"

What do you think? I'm really excited about contacting them but I want to make sure my approach is right.

Thank you so much in advance. My head has been spinning since yesterday when you posted in my thread."

His response was that my approach fine and that he has used this same approach.

Then the next day:

I found the boss of the brokerage today, pitched him rather quickly (but lead a discussion, not just like that) and his response was:

"I'm currently out of town and will be back on Monday, I also have to talk about this with my colleagues so let's talk then if you want." (I didn't really try to sell him anything, just lead the discussion towards how there's a big opportunity in the local RE market that they could capitalize on)"

- "Yeah, and we could also meet on Monday"

"Yeah, we can, gotta go!"

- "Bye for now*

" Bye"

I'm glad I managed to plant the seed and will follow up to push for a meeting on Monday! I'm confident I can close once we meet.

I'm pretty excited about this.

I went to the 24/7 store yesterday evening after having a pizza and beer at my girlfriend's and whilst I was walking I saw a car with another local RE brokerage's branding on it.

I got my phone and checked them out right away and.. no ads, bad SEO. I've got some options now!

Will update you all on Monday!

 

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[Simon Angel]

Small update for today:

I wrote down 7 more RE brokerages in my rather small city and and am very excited for Monday!

I'll also be looking for ecommerce clients (thanks again @Phikey) as I have extensive knowledge there, as shared in my OP. I know why stores convert (or don't), I know how to run Facebook Ads and I'm gaining massive amounts of knowledge on Google Ads as well.

 

[Andy Black]

Small update for today:

I wrote down 7 more RE brokerages in my rather small city and and am very excited for Monday!

Monday. Possibly my favourite day of the week. Well done escaping the TFIF herd.

 

[Odysseus M Jones]

Small update for today:

I wrote down 7 more RE brokerages in my rather small city and and am very excited for Monday!

You must be exhausted.
In other news, if you're interested in buying the course Phikey mentioned, it's £20.99 when you first sign up to Udemy.

For learning Google Ads, this is the number one course I’ve ever seen, by the way: Guide To Google AdWords Training: Turn Profit With PPC
It’s long (20 something hours) but goes incredibly deep, is up to date and is less than $40 when on sale (wait for the udemy sale and only get it cheap)

 

[Simon Angel]

You must be exhausted.
In other news, if you're interested in buying the course Phikey mentioned, it's £20.99 when you first sign up to Udemy.

It was €17.99 for me at first. I had €17.38 left on the card.

Exited checkout, came back 5 minutes later, Udemy offered me €15.99 instead. So about $18.

 

[Odysseus M Jones]

View attachment 33769

It was €17.99 for me at first. I had €17.38 left on the card.

Exited checkout, came back 5 minutes later, Udemy offered me €15.99 instead. So about $18.

Oooh good tip!
I forgot they do that when you don't complete the purchase.
I'll try that

 

[PJBuys]

Hi @Simon Angel, Love your stories, and how you sharing your progress.

I am from South-Africa, and my wife from Bulgaria (Plovdiv). Love it there, Beautiful country.

Good luck with your business, keep up the good work.

 

[Simon Angel]

We're now near the end of this month and the stats are as follows:

Unique numbers called: 100 +
Prospects: Many
Sales: 2
Services sold: Web design
Sales value: $1200

Experience, connections made and how much my life has changed in just 4 weeks cannot be put in numbers.

I barely had any idea what I was doing in the beginning of June. I didn't know how to pick my clients, how to frame the conversations over the phone, was very anxious before calling. I kept wondering if web design and building a digital marketing agency was truly for me and whether I should hop on to the next thing like I've done many times in the past.

When you stick with something long enough tend to you realize how foolish your thought process had been in the past.

Tip: When staring at your lead's number on your phone instead of having pretend-conversations and making needless preparations, which is just procrastination, have your hand push the call button and roll with it, just like you would with a cold shower - don't build up to it, just instantly crank the knob to freezing cold water.

Doing the above you'll probably notice two things:

• You're more prepared than you think. You've already noticed a problem with how they do their business, have the solution, so just sell them the idea they're missing out on a lot of money and push for a meeting.
• You'll have a more natural conversation with the client rather than reading your script for 30 seconds then being told "I'll think about it".
• You spend less time being anxious and worrying about making the "perfect call" to someone that could potentially blow you off in the first few seconds because they're in a bad mood.

Today's happenings:

Called cleaning company client. Asked how he's doing and whether he's noticed having more business than usual. He replied by saying it's been mostly the same with the exception that he gets 1-2 calls on average per day from the site + ads.

Although I have enough Google Ads experience currently to know that I've set up the ads well and wrote a converting copy (the CTR is 15-20% and the CPC is $0.13 on average), the volume of search terms related to his business are really lower around here, so the ads are actually at a budget of $10 per day but spending around $1.

Regardless of the fact, he didn't sound too thrilled about the service or anything so I told him it's been a full week of running ads and that I'll keep doing it for free for the whole of July.

After making a few calculations from the data we've gathered so far, I believe he could get a sale or two next month. Which would result in very high ROAS for him and leverage for me to negotiate monthly payments.

On a side note, I called a few real estate agencies today and arranged 2 meetings. (EDIT: another 2 more after calling all of the leads today)

One is this Wednesday, the other is happening 2 weeks from today.

I've been making up different scenarios of how the ads I create could help RE agencies and so far I've managed to convince myself it could be very profitable for them and for me too as a side effect. Which is good because if I'm convcined in my services' efectiveness, then I can usually convince the client as well.

It might seem a bit early for me to do this, but I've been straying away from just offering web design. I've found more value in doing Google and Facebook Ads as a service for future clients, many of whom have good enough websites.

For the majorirty of this month I was stuck on dealing with people who had close to zero interest in anything online. People with decent websites and online presence are much better qualified leads and usually can see the value in aiming for the next level.

In simpler terms, someone who already has a site (especially a well converting one) but doesn't take advantage of the power of PPC ads is much more likely to want to invest in them after you help them realize the potential of it all.

So right now I am selling ads. If the prospect wants ads, but their site is trash I tell them the ads won't be effective and money would be wasted without a landing page that is able to convert the traffic they pay for. That's exactly how I made my second sale.

My goal for July is to get to $1000 in MRR (Monthly Reccuring Revenue).

Why?

• Covers all my living expenses (food, supplements, bills, rent) comfortably.
• It's not just a one time thing, followed by a drought. I've never had a one night stand with a woman and never will, so why not treat my business the same - find high quality clients and build long-term, mutually beneficial relationships.

My goal for the next 12 months is at least $10 000 in MRR.

• If I can get to $1K in recurring monthly payments in just this next month, then all I'd need to do get to $10K is repeat the same process 10 times or less (I could raise my pricing). This would effectively make me a 6 figure business owner.
• Once I get to $1K, $10K and etc I'll shoot for $100K and beyond. That would make a 7 figure business owner. Possibly a few years from now.

If you're thinking "This guy is way over his head" then you're not alone, I frequently doubt myself the same way.

But here's the thing. I sold $1200 worth of sites in my first month of business.

However, I'd wager selling ads is easier as you get statistical data and results daily and you can start out slowly and with low budgets, while a website is usually considered a riskier payment. Which makes it seem like a very realistic goal for me.

Gotta call a few more numbers today, will report back if there's anything interesting!

Also, going strong with the Udemy course @Phikey sent me. This dude is changing my life and I'm going to buy him a beer or a batmobile one day.

 

[Paul David]

Great results so far well done. However in order to scale and grow you really need to consider choosing one niche.

You can run the same ads, use the same website templates etc

 

[Simon Angel]

Great results so far well done. However in order to scale and grow you really need to consider choosing one niche.

You can run the same ads, use the same website templates etc

You're right.

Ecommerce would probably be a good one as I have 4 years of experience in it. I know the pains and the gains, the factors needed to make a store a success and the scaling potential.

Found some ecommerce Facebook groups for my country last night. Will network and offer free audits there. Most of them have 0 idea what they're even doing. It's kind of like what you'd see in US ecommerce groups in 2016.

I'll probably offer these audits to not complete beginners, but people who are stuck at $1000-$10 000 in sales per month. I've personally scaled a store to $30K per month which is nothing to rave about, but know what scaling strategies people with 7 figures stores (per month) use.

I'm also pretty decent at copywriting and creating interesting videos for products.

Thanks for the perspective!

How's your business going? I read your thread about a month ago when I was starting out. Debt is the scariest thing.