Hi guys, signed up today after reading both of MJ's books.
MJ's principle are amazing and i wish i found out about the fast lane right at the beginning.
I am on my 9th business idea since 2003 and still learning. Feels like maximum effort, minimal results so far. I have a first class degree in software engineering but instead of getting a job like my class mates i have worked small passive adventures to pay the bills so i have time to work on business ideas. Sacrificed missing out on having a family and a social life in the name of a better future...which as yet to show itself. If you want to learn from failure then just ask me. Hopefully i can share my learnings to speed up your journey. As i have no like minded friends from working all the time so it would be great to meet others on the same path.
List of my business attempts - perhaps most failed due to lack of resourcefulness.
1 - Adult dvd site - turned out it is illegal to put in UK post system
2 - 360 Panoramic tours of property - I had no idea what i was doing and was selling time for money. There was not enough interest , too early for the market? (2004)
3 - Sheffield Property newspaper - lasted 3 editions until the main property paper told our advertisers they would not be able to advertise with them if they stayed with us.
4 - Selling information DVDs on ebay - limited profit but paid the bills
5 - Developed software to automate drop shipping stock for shopping carts - latest 10 years and just paid the bills. Was a joint venture with a warehouse that sold the ecommerce sites..
6 - Energy certificate business for the UK. Google slapped us off position 1 forcing us to use PPC which destroyed margins as competition grew fierce - 2 year venture.
7 - A social app that allows companies to exchange social likes / posts for beers, pizza or whatever they want to give in return. Failed because i couldn't sell it on the phone. Also it turned out that the staff in the shops didn't like to ask customers to install the app (which was our main marketing plan)
8 - Drop shipping business- selling turn key ecommerce solutions based on my previously build stock control software. Paused 95% towards the end to do shiny object #8...
8 - Lead generation software - shows you which companies have visited your site so you can call them back as a warm lead. Failed after 1 year as ended up needing over £1,000,000 and 2 years to gather the same database of IP addresses which the market leader had built over previous 5 years. Could have kept going with this one - perhaps found investors or just worked on one industry at a time. It still tickles my interest...was then talked in to a new shiny object for someone who needed custom software for an accountancy business #9...
9 - Booksfix - SAAS based accountancy software for finding and fixing errors for bookkeepers. Took 10 months of painful nights coding the beta version which is now being used by over 30 companies. Cold calling and getting more clients on board before hitting road shows and marketing - it has all of MJ's commandments apart from some control being lost to the accountancy packages it works with, but it's not a big threat. The grind continues....
I hope to learn a lot on this forum and not die trying.
trustTheProcess
MJ's principle are amazing and i wish i found out about the fast lane right at the beginning.
I am on my 9th business idea since 2003 and still learning. Feels like maximum effort, minimal results so far. I have a first class degree in software engineering but instead of getting a job like my class mates i have worked small passive adventures to pay the bills so i have time to work on business ideas. Sacrificed missing out on having a family and a social life in the name of a better future...which as yet to show itself. If you want to learn from failure then just ask me. Hopefully i can share my learnings to speed up your journey. As i have no like minded friends from working all the time so it would be great to meet others on the same path.
List of my business attempts - perhaps most failed due to lack of resourcefulness.
1 - Adult dvd site - turned out it is illegal to put in UK post system
2 - 360 Panoramic tours of property - I had no idea what i was doing and was selling time for money. There was not enough interest , too early for the market? (2004)
3 - Sheffield Property newspaper - lasted 3 editions until the main property paper told our advertisers they would not be able to advertise with them if they stayed with us.
4 - Selling information DVDs on ebay - limited profit but paid the bills
5 - Developed software to automate drop shipping stock for shopping carts - latest 10 years and just paid the bills. Was a joint venture with a warehouse that sold the ecommerce sites..
6 - Energy certificate business for the UK. Google slapped us off position 1 forcing us to use PPC which destroyed margins as competition grew fierce - 2 year venture.
7 - A social app that allows companies to exchange social likes / posts for beers, pizza or whatever they want to give in return. Failed because i couldn't sell it on the phone. Also it turned out that the staff in the shops didn't like to ask customers to install the app (which was our main marketing plan)
8 - Drop shipping business- selling turn key ecommerce solutions based on my previously build stock control software. Paused 95% towards the end to do shiny object #8...
8 - Lead generation software - shows you which companies have visited your site so you can call them back as a warm lead. Failed after 1 year as ended up needing over £1,000,000 and 2 years to gather the same database of IP addresses which the market leader had built over previous 5 years. Could have kept going with this one - perhaps found investors or just worked on one industry at a time. It still tickles my interest...was then talked in to a new shiny object for someone who needed custom software for an accountancy business #9...
9 - Booksfix - SAAS based accountancy software for finding and fixing errors for bookkeepers. Took 10 months of painful nights coding the beta version which is now being used by over 30 companies. Cold calling and getting more clients on board before hitting road shows and marketing - it has all of MJ's commandments apart from some control being lost to the accountancy packages it works with, but it's not a big threat. The grind continues....
I hope to learn a lot on this forum and not die trying.
trustTheProcess
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