The Entrepreneur Forum | Financial Freedom | Starting a Business | Motivation | Money | Success

Welcome to the only entrepreneur forum dedicated to building life-changing wealth.

Build a Fastlane business. Earn real financial freedom. Join free.

Join over 80,000 entrepreneurs who have rejected the paradigm of mediocrity and said "NO!" to underpaid jobs, ascetic frugality, and suffocating savings rituals— learn how to build a Fastlane business that pays both freedom and lifestyle affluence.

Free registration at the forum removes this block.

Desert of Desertion

Tuvo Apps

Contributor
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
200%
Sep 6, 2015
25
50
$15,000 in 3 years is $400 a month. That's not a lot. I think at least a few things are going on:

1) Your clients are taking advantage of you. Start charging $50/hr for every hour you work for a client. Let them know that that is starting immediately. You will lose some clients. That's a good thing. You also need to make yourself worth $50/hr to a client. Honestly, you need to be charging $100 for every hour you work for a client, but $50 is a good start.

2) You have waaaay too much free time on your hands. Not sure what you should do about that? Maybe get a full time job, move out, and work on the business on the side?

3) Are you depressed? Pursuing entrepreneurship for 8 years with the results you've gotten would lead me to think you're depressed. If you have insurance, go get yourself checked out for depression. If not, at least take an online test to see what's up: Self tests

Thank you!
1) I do not charge per hour. I do web design and other marketing servies, and charge a flat fee (between $1K and 2K per project).
2) This is very true. I will definitely have to get a job, I'm already researching sales jobs in my area.
3) I don't think I have depression - most of the time I feel happy and grateful. I knew entrepreneurship would be a long journey, and didn't ever expect to make money fast. I do need to talk to a professional for other reasons though (for example my anxiety, which has prevented me from getting a job throughout those 8 years).

I vote for charging $50/hr and then figuring out how to deliver that value.
I get your point, but don't understand how a change in pricing would show in the real world. I have noone to tell my prices to. I find a client (on Facebook, not on freelancing sites), get on a call, find out his problems and then tell them the price. Since I charge a flat fee, I could simply increase my prices, but the projects I do are so few and far between, that it wouldn't really make a difference. I need to tap into a steady flow of new work, "official" freelancing might be a good way to achieve that.

Basically note your thinking. Its different from journal b/c journal is log of things you did.
And notes are what you think.
That sounds great, thank you. I will start doing that, maybe I will notice a pattern in my thinking. Also, I will be able to look at my thoughts 20 years from now, and see if I think any differently :D

2. Live in the NOW and don´t put off everything you want to do for later.
You can work out now. You can have friends now. You can have fun now. Just don´t go overboard(I think 80/20 is pretty good here, google counterbalance work-life)
Thank you! You are very right. I've been putting things off for so many years, it's crazy. I need to change my way of life, because I'm clearly not getting results the current way. It's so scary for me to actually start living, and not live the "entrepreneur in a basement" life, waiting for my big break, though! But the regrets I would have would definitely be way worse.
 
Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

Fergus-tunef

New Contributor
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
50%
Oct 6, 2020
2
1
What's that technique for problem solving where you write constantly at a extremely fast pace. You write about what ever comes to mind while thinking about your problem and you dont stop writing for at least 10mins (time yourself). If your mind goes blank you write that you mind has gone blank etc, the point is you dont stop writing. It can help to have all of your thoughts down on paper and then go back and analyze what you wrote and work out what's going on and decide the actions you need to take to correct and get deeper insight. I have done this when I'm procrastinating and have a block with what to do next and it has helped me. Not sure what it's called and where I heard about it though.
This my first post of this forum too btw, so hi to all! Probably not the right place for an introduction but hey ho! Ha. Look after yourself bro
 

Tuvo Apps

Contributor
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
200%
Sep 6, 2015
25
50
Show me your marketing/advertising/sales strategy and I'm 90% sure that's why you are sucking.

Bro, I paid for some craigslist ads, learned basic wordpress and got to $4,000 a month while vacationing in Thailand last winter. (It turned out to be very difficult to actually get the work done since I was on vacation but that's a different story).

Don't mistake the "desert of desertion" with just wasting your time not taking efficient action.

1. Get a real sales strategy. If your strategy is "word of mouth" and "family and friends" then go join a pyramid scheme. Pay for ads, call 100 businesses a day, etc. Just do something better than whatever you're doing now.

2. Stop charging hourly. You can charge $3,000 for a website that takes you a week to do working a couple hours a day. Hourly wages are for hourly slaves. The company my best friend works for paid $20,000+ for a wordpress site. I could've built their site but I just didn't know the decision maker that works there that was looking for a web design agency.

Not changing your strategies is not "persistence", it's laziness. You burned up many years of your life not because you are focused, but because you didn't change or use your goddamn brain.

Don't waste the next few years. Change your shit this weekend!

Thank you! It's awesome that you took one strategy, and built everything off that.

1. I have tried a lot of strategies - I did a lot of cold calling, ran ads on my country's Craigslist, sent cold emails, went door to door... with no significant results.
Then Fox recommended a great strategy that involved posting in industry-specific FB groups - that worked very well. I made most of the $15K solely from Facebook groups.
2. I don't charge hourly, I charge per project - usually $1-2K per basic Wordpress website.

My biggest problem is definitely prospecting - I'm good at selling, I just need lots of people daily to talk to.


Can you define the ‘big money dream’ you have? I’m confused. Is one client going to pay you $1,000,000 to build them a website one day?

Also, go to the gym. You said you have so much free time on your hands. Take an hour and blow off some steam already.

Thank you, this is what I needed to hear. My "Big money dream" is finding a proper need in the market, that I can fill, and build a business off of that. Or, having the mental clarity to finally go and start a bigger project than Web design. It's true that I'm absolutely not putting myself in the position to reach my big goal though.

The great thing about web design is that you get to talk to business owners about their problems - I try to make friends rather than customers. I have been talking to some clients from the industry that I have the most clients in, and got a few good ideas for bigger problems that I could solve. I just need to solve my cashflow issue, and then I can go and solve these bigger problems, and reach more people.
 

Johnny boy

Legendary Contributor
EPIC CONTRIBUTOR
Speedway Pass
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
621%
May 9, 2017
2,929
18,176
27
Washington State
Thank you! It's awesome that you took one strategy, and built everything off that.

1. I have tried a lot of strategies - I did a lot of cold calling, ran ads on my country's Craigslist, sent cold emails, went door to door... with no significant results.
Then Fox recommended a great strategy that involved posting in industry-specific FB groups - that worked very well. I made most of the $15K solely from Facebook groups.
2. I don't charge hourly, I charge per project - usually $1-2K per basic Wordpress website.

My biggest problem is definitely prospecting - I'm good at selling, I just need lots of people daily to talk to.




Thank you, this is what I needed to hear. My "Big money dream" is finding a proper need in the market, that I can fill, and build a business off of that. Or, having the mental clarity to finally go and start a bigger project than Web design. It's true that I'm absolutely not putting myself in the position to reach my big goal though.

The great thing about web design is that you get to talk to business owners about their problems - I try to make friends rather than customers. I have been talking to some clients from the industry that I have the most clients in, and got a few good ideas for bigger problems that I could solve. I just need to solve my cashflow issue, and then I can go and solve these bigger problems, and reach more people.
My biggest advice is sell to Americans then. Not posting in your country. I have no idea about the foreign web design markets
 
Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

Jon L

Platinum Contributor
Read Fastlane!
Speedway Pass
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
272%
Aug 22, 2015
1,649
4,489
Bellevue, WA
I was on this weightlifting forum years ago. There was this complete asshat of a guy that thought he knew everything. The problem was that he did know a fair amount. One of the things that he said was, 'you all will figure out at some point that the only thing we have in life is a limited amount of time.' His point as it applied to weightlifting was that 'time will go by. In ten years, ten years will have elapsed. Do you want to have spent that time working out regularly, or do you want to just sit around here talking about working out?'

This is a wake-up call for you. In ten years, you will have ten years less life to live before you die. What do you want to have done in those ten years? These ten years are YOUR ten years, not anyone else's. Not your mom's, your clients', not your friends', the government's, not your anxiety's ten years or anything else. They're yours. So, now what?
 

Fergus-tunef

New Contributor
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
50%
Oct 6, 2020
2
1
Also, doesnt your current path/ buisiness model violate the ability to scale? Maybe you are learning skills which will be used in a scalable buisiness but at the moment building websites for a cash payment is a trading time for money
 

Tuvo Apps

Contributor
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
200%
Sep 6, 2015
25
50
I was on this weightlifting forum years ago. There was this complete asshat of a guy that thought he knew everything. The problem was that he did know a fair amount. One of the things that he said was, 'you all will figure out at some point that the only thing we have in life is a limited amount of time.' His point as it applied to weightlifting was that 'time will go by. In ten years, ten years will have elapsed. Do you want to have spent that time working out regularly, or do you want to just sit around here talking about working out?'

This is a wake-up call for you. In ten years, you will have ten years less life to live before you die. What do you want to have done in those ten years? These ten years are YOUR ten years, not anyone else's. Not your mom's, your clients', not your friends', the government's, not your anxiety's ten years or anything else. They're yours. So, now what?

Man, this evoked some serious anxiety. Thank you for posting this. I want to do so much in my life! I'm so scared of losing another 8 years being stuck!! This thought haunts me everyday, don't think otherwise. It's the biggest reason for my stress. I want to start living NOW.. But what do I actually want for myself, and not because of others? What if I choose the wrong job, and it changes me in a significant way? At least with this web design thing, I know what the proccess looks like, and have nothing to worry about, other than getting more clients.

Living in the now... I don't even know what that looks like anymore. I have an idea of how I want my life to look like, but it's strongly tied to having a lot of money... not necessarily having a lot of possesions, but having the confidence that comes with money. That I can go anywhere and feel worthy, feel 'complete'. The things and experiences that money can buy are nice of course, but it's the feeling that I am something that attracts me. The feeling that I am on the same level as others my age (23). When I look at them, they aren't scared of anything. They need money, they get a job. Everyone, even on this forum, has so much certainity... Meanwhile I'm still stuck in my comfort zone, trying to make myself think that I'm progressing. And thinking that I would like myself even less, had I given up my entrepreneurial jouney and got a job (what if I'll get a job, and suddenly won't feel the urge to make millions anymore?). I like having the identity of an entrepreneur - it's like a solid base that I can build my personality on.. The plan was so simple... live a few years like others wouldn't, so I could live the rest of my life like others can't. But something went wrong, and I apparently started negliecting myself in the proccess.

So entrepreneurship is the only "quality" I have left... without it, who am I? God, I hate these thoughts. I want to become someone who has such a strong image of himself, that even a major change in his enviroment won't shake that.

Anyway, I guess I'm sidetracking here. Sometimes I just feel I have to get these thoughts off my mind, since I have noone I could talk awith about this. And the stress was the main reason I started this thread. It's clear that need a major change in my life, so my updated plan is to get a job, and meanwhile work on projects that will actually excite me, and make me feel like living, and not merely preparing for the life I want to live. I'll have to figure out what that is.
 
Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

Jon L

Platinum Contributor
Read Fastlane!
Speedway Pass
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
272%
Aug 22, 2015
1,649
4,489
Bellevue, WA
Man, this evoked some serious anxiety. Thank you for posting this. I want to do so much in my life! I'm so scared of losing another 8 years being stuck!! This thought haunts me everyday, don't think otherwise. It's the biggest reason for my stress. I want to start living NOW.. But what do I actually want for myself, and not because of others? What if I choose the wrong job, and it changes me in a significant way? At least with this web design thing, I know what the proccess looks like, and have nothing to worry about, other than getting more clients.

Living in the now... I don't even know what that looks like anymore. I have an idea of how I want my life to look like, but it's strongly tied to having a lot of money... not necessarily having a lot of possesions, but having the confidence that comes with money. That I can go anywhere and feel worthy, feel 'complete'. The things and experiences that money can buy are nice of course, but it's the feeling that I am something that attracts me. The feeling that I am on the same level as others my age (23). When I look at them, they aren't scared of anything. They need money, they get a job. Everyone, even on this forum, has so much certainity... Meanwhile I'm still stuck in my comfort zone, trying to make myself think that I'm progressing. And thinking that I would like myself even less, had I given up my entrepreneurial jouney and got a job (what if I'll get a job, and suddenly won't feel the urge to make millions anymore?). I like having the identity of an entrepreneur - it's like a solid base that I can build my personality on.. The plan was so simple... live a few years like others wouldn't, so I could live the rest of my life like others can't. But something went wrong, and I apparently started negliecting myself in the proccess.

So entrepreneurship is the only "quality" I have left... without it, who am I? God, I hate these thoughts. I want to become someone who has such a strong image of himself, that even a major change in his enviroment won't shake that.

Anyway, I guess I'm sidetracking here. Sometimes I just feel I have to get these thoughts off my mind, since I have noone I could talk awith about this. And the stress was the main reason I started this thread. It's clear that need a major change in my life, so my updated plan is to get a job, and meanwhile work on projects that will actually excite me, and make me feel like living, and not merely preparing for the life I want to live. I'll have to figure out what that is.
I'm writing this from the comfort of my dining room/office, not knowing who you are, what you've been through, what led you to this point, so what I say has to be taken with a grain of salt. Here's what I think and what I base it on.

It sounds like you struggle a lot with anxiety. It also sounds like you have a lot of beliefs about yourself and about life that are getting in your way.

I have had my own version of that. Its taken a lot of counseling, work on myself, reading books and then trying out new beliefs and actions in order to make progress. I'm not 'there' yet, but I'm better than I was.

While its true that 'your problem is all in your head' and that 'you can start living a better life immediately after changing your mind about things,' doing that is a different story. Its hard. And, without a really good counselor to guide you, will likely not happen.

You said a few things that I wanted to challenge:

"What if I choose the wrong job, and it changes me in a significant way? "

You will choose the wrong job, and it will change you in a significant way. Do it anyway. as soon as you realize that you've changed, think about the change, and decide what you want to do next. Life is messy. You'll make mistakes. You'll fail. You'll be more resistant to change the more in-tune you are with yourself and who you are as a person. Counseling helps with that.

"I have an idea of how I want my life to look like, but it's strongly tied to having a lot of money"

Money is the *result* of arranging your life to look a certain way. Its not the 'way' itself. Focus on the process, not the result.

"So entrepreneurship is the only "quality" I have left... "

No, its not. You've talked yourself into a corner. The way out of that corner is with good counseling.

"Sometimes I just feel I have to get these thoughts off my mind"

That doesn't work. Find a good counselor.

" It's clear that need a major change in my life, so my updated plan is to get a job, and meanwhile work on projects that will actually excite me, and make me feel like living, and not merely preparing for the life I want to live. I'll have to figure out what that is."

Bravo. This is really good. But, your best thoughts have led you to the point you're at now. Find a good counselor. You will probably have to go through a few of them until you find someone good. Most of them out there, suck.
 

SkyLake

Bronze Contributor
Speedway Pass
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
134%
Nov 29, 2016
107
143
Anxiety and insecurity in business will do that to you.

Especially in an industry where you need to talk to people like web design, where sales are at least 50% of the job.

Make 100 cold sales call today, make a list and just do it, you'll suck but that's good - get the mistakes and suckness out of the way ASAP. If you can't, then business is not for you - not everyone has to be an entrepreneur. Find a job then.
 

Post New Topic

Please SEARCH before posting.
Please select the BEST category.

Post new topic

Guest post submissions offered HERE.

Latest Posts

New Topics

Fastlane Insiders

View the forum AD FREE.
Private, unindexed content
Detailed process/execution threads
Ideas needing execution, more!

Join Fastlane Insiders.

Top