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Conclusions and crossroads after some years trying to build a business.

Anything considered a "hustle" and not necessarily a CENTS-based Fastlane

Pasha

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Feb 19, 2018
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Some years ago I started to take great interest in entrepreneurship, reading books, podcasts etc.

This of course got me to develop dreams and hopes of great fortune along with satisfaction and convenient life style.
Through the years, I developed more ideas and slowly started to back away from my IT job and executing on the ideas I had.
First I dropped to 4 days workweek with one day in which I worked on my own business, then I started freelancing and dropped to 3 days of freelance with 2 days of working on my business.

Through time (some years..) I was able to set up a blog, get 1k subscribers, record a course (which provides fantastic value), build a funnel, and launch the course.
I also developed my freelance work and now have a great job that is both interesting, developing and providing me with a nice income.

I'm thinking of what would be best perusing, considering my goals are (in the long run) to:
  • Work on something that genuinely helps people, with people I love working with (so it doesn't really matter if I'm the CEO or the chef for that matter).
  • Have control of my time, freedom, priorities (freelancing works great for me in that respect).
  • Semi-retiring at 50 (which oddly enough, if I stop working on my own business, I'm almost there.. Working 3 days a week, making a fine living)
  • Have high quality of life in terms of- live where I want to live, provide safety and quality education for my children etc. (This requires significant amount of money.)

Now, the dilemma.
  1. Keep on working on my business, developing more courses, more content and start thinking really big.something that requires years of investment in a field (internet content marketing) that all in all, I am a beginner at.
    And honestly, I'm not even so sure anymore how far and how big can it get.
    Being even more honest, it took me years to get to this point just to realize that this is not the smartest way to build a business (working alone, learning every step of the way through my own hands. Learn how to write, copy-write, record, edit, build a course, launch, emails, funnels, wordpress, graphics etc.)
    I guess I refereed to it as a PoC until now.

    I now realize I need advisers, consultants, freelancers, employees, money investments, etc.
    Which, along with the thought of- "I'm not sure how big can it get",
    makes me think it might not be worth it when I think of the alternative:
  2. I currently have the option to extend my 3 days workweek to a full 5 days freelancing in a steady place.
    These 5 days will generate me around 180k/ year. (I'm not US based, so this is slightly less than it sounds).
    Like I said, the job is good, it allows me to develop, and in the longer term, open doors to join a start-ups with stock options etc.
    This kind of money will also allow me to invest in different channels and possibly making some more income.
My obvious preference is to continue with my own business, but I'm afraid it will take me 7 years just to get to where I am today income wise. Why not stack up on what I already have (professional career) and build upon that, trying to join a startup and work it from there.

Would love to hear what you guys think.
I would also love to consult with someone to try to get a forecast on the numbers of my business venture.
So if anyone has some experience with online courses and blogs that would be great.
 
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JimK

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I have no track record so what I say probably isn't much.

It sounds like both require your time for income (one-man show). But the opportunity to separate income from time is the business. I would probably write a book/course on freelancing (passion is infectious) and use that income to hire employees for the business. Have the business generate income without your involvement and start up another project.

Also, the business has the potential to have exponential growth (copywriting) while freelancing is linear growth (converting time for cash). For your business, what's your doubling rate? How many years does it take to double?
 

mikodigital

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option 1 : if you start making big changes in your actual business, you could make it fastlane? or you could keep your freelancing and switch to another business on the 2 days/week if years of work have failed to bring you wealth? option 1 is hard, but if we want to apply the book, you should go with option 1.

option 2 is slowlane and steals away your freedom? wealth = family + fitness + freedom. (unless you are ready to work 100 hours per week with employment + business?).

option 3 - keep the freelance and drop the business now? enjoy your free time why not? :cool:
 

Pasha

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Thanks guys for your feedback!
So, the things is, I don't really believe that extending my 3 days to 5 freelancing is a slow lane.
It opens many doors for me.
I work for a relatively small startup which wants me to join the team, I could ask for shares, make amazing connections, learn how start up works and eventually open my own and create a business with potentially large income.
Ideas are so very cheat now days, I actually have 2-3 good ones a day. But executing them. Well.. you know :)

When thinking on how I can grow with my course and website now, I'm thinking B2B, asking myself various questions of how can I build upon it and scale it up and even more importantly: What business am I in?
In my personal example it's the IT Courses business. Which is kinda overflowing B2B wise.

So I thought I am in the revolutionary content marketing business when in fact I was playing in the little kids table missing the big picture of what business I was really in.
That's why I am thinking of fresh directions. gathering a strong team and give it a go in the startup big boys table, while leveraging my contacts, skills experience and knowledge in the industry, with the eventual goal of selling it for some big bucks.

@mikodigital , Option 3 sounds fantastic, but I've read too many books, filling my small head with big ideas which eventually became values and beliefs, so now I have an itch and I want to work on something meaningful.

Probably should have read more books about fishing. My life would be all set now :rofl:
The problem with start ups is that they are high pressure and stressing environments.
Which can conflict with my values and goals of: Have control of my time, freedom, priorities
 
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mikodigital

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@Pasha i had the same happen to me. I told myself that i would move to south of France and buy a cheap house in cash and that would free the afternoons to do whatever i want and just work in the mornings... but now that i have the choice, i keep working because i want more fulfiment. Tony Robbins says happiness is progress. (ps: i didn't buy ultra expensive audios from him).
 

Rawseed

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@Pasha Have you thought about:

Productizing your freelance business, then outsourcing it?
Systemizing your course creation, then outsourcing it?
Systemizing your course marketing, then outsourcing it?
Systemizing your content creation, then outsourcing it?
 

Pasha

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Feb 19, 2018
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@Pasha Have you thought about:

Productizing your freelance business, then outsourcing it?
Systemizing your course creation, then outsourcing it?
Systemizing your course marketing, then outsourcing it?
Systemizing your content creation, then outsourcing it?
Yes, I definitely thought about it.
Started to systemize the content creation and outsourced it to 3 FL.
It was horrible :) I felt that it drained all possible value from the content.
But of course, I understand where you are going with this, and I do believe I will find someone eventually.
It's all a process and a path.
One that excites me, and also one that will take years and might fail.
As are my other options.

What I'm saying is, it might take me years to get even close to the level of income I currently am.
Years in which I'm going to keep on working hard to build a business that will generate this income and doing my best to systemize it in order to separate my time from my income.
Being realistic, this might or might not happen, and even if it will, it won't be absolute.
I will probably have to pitch in for a couple of days a week.
It's also quite possible that I will have to do it again and again to succeed.
Doesn't sound like much of a Fastlane to me :)
But since I love to work, do and create why not just keep on working 3-4 days a week and get good money for it that will allow me a fine way of life? Or work 5 days with equity that can actually provide me with an exit strategy.
 

Pasha

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I am in that process right now, outsourcing to another freelance :)
@mikodigital @Rawseed That sounds interesting, I want to make sure I understand what you guys are talking about.
Let's say I'm providing IT services, by productizing it you mean, make it a company and hire other people to do it with me/ instead of me?
If so, I've tried that. It gave me a huge headache, I was making very good money but I didn't like the work, I didn't like the customers, and it required my constant attention.
Instead, I found one client that pays the most and I have a constant job and some piece of mind.

That said, due to my bad experience, I feel I'm being a bit closed-minded here.
Can you elaborate on ideas and how would you do it?
 

mikodigital

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@mikodigital @Rawseed That sounds interesting, I want to make sure I understand what you guys are talking about.
Let's say I'm providing IT services, by productizing it you mean, make it a company and hire other people to do it with me/ instead of me?
If so, I've tried that. It gave me a huge headache, I was making very good money but I didn't like the work, I didn't like the customers, and it required my constant attention.
Instead, I found one client that pays the most and I have a constant job and some piece of mind.

That said, due to my bad experience, I feel I'm being a bit closed-minded here.
Can you elaborate on ideas and how would you do it?

I will share my personal experience and maybe it can help you.

Subcontracting is a painful process for me. I am used to controlling every details of my work and i like to deliver very high quality work... but i read some insight about the book poor dad/rich dad and it was saying that a lot of freelances just can t let go of their perfectionism... so i have to. i also need to learn to be a leader and understand a lot of people are waiting for instructions and not ambitious or willing to command themselves.

i have been subcontracting my work for 2-3 years with variables amount of success and failure but not being able to find a match. now i have my first serious employee 2 days per week and soon extending it to 3,4,5 days a week i hope. this free time for marketing (SEO, emailing...) and developing my new startup idea. you have no choice if you want to grow you need time from other people.

so my strategy is:
1. subcontract my freelance work to an employee
2. invest time in marketing to make sure my business keeps being strong but also in one startup idea
3. make the startup work and use the cashflow to invest in real estate

In the process, i experience some kind of pain but also i am happy because i learn new skills and i have new challenges otherwise i would get bored :)
 
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