Entrepreneur's Diary to $10k per month and beyond

[TheOne]

Hey everybody! I decided to start a personal business diary. I’m entrepreneur, based in NY City. COMPLETE, UNCUT, NO BS story. I will post at least twice every single week. To keep you updated, and to keep myself accountable as well. Every 2 weeks I will put out income reports, with how and how many clients I closed and what I built.

The MOST I’ve made per month was $6k (once). The least I’ve made was 300$. Still, gotta pay the rent. NYC is NYC.

POINT B (WHERE I’M HEADING): GOAL

1) to get to $10k per month net income in my business(/es), preferably recurring. BY AUGUST 31st, 2015. (minimal)
2) Have at least $10k-15k in my savings account by AUGUST 31st, 2015.
3) Create systems, processes and assets so that my business would be worth something and actually will be sellable

POINT A (WHERE I’M AT):

I currently have 3 projects, i’m working on. I don’t have a job, my income comes from my projects

1st: Internet Marketing consulting, for Russian Market - bringing in anywhere from $400 to $1.5k per month . Trying to get off it, because Russian economy is not the best. And frankly, i’m more attracted to english speaking market.

2nd: Legal Consulting: On and Off, very seasonal and inconsistent. when it is season, I usually make 2 to 6k per month. Now working on a big launch in the space, with average check of $2000. Will describe it in details. Btw this is a niche where I made 6k in one month.

3rd: Internet Marketing Consulting in English Speaking Market - 0$ per month. (Just starting). It’s good market to work with, so I’m building it up from ground zero. Now building a website and shooting videos. I will post it as soon as it will be ready.

My main problem currently is lack of discipline and inconsistency. What I tend to do is I close 1500$ client, then don’t anything for a month. Spend all the money and start all over again. No way in hell I’ll be millionaire by 26 doing that.

I will post updates on every single project. Every week I will post my goals for upcoming week and what had been achieved and what not.

HERE WE GO!

 

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[TheOne]

Alright, so far most of my projects were consulting, services based off my expertise. As I mentioned before, I have consulting in Internet Marketing space (where I build systems for businesses with paid traffic and optimizing landing pages), and legal consulting (small particular niche)

It's a great way to start since you can command good prices. Big minus is that it is generally vary hard to scale up. So one of my primary goals in 2015 will be to develop assets and products, that can be scaled. And where I can have great leverage in terms of my time.

Assets that I started building, and will continue in 2015:

for building my following and audience

1) Youtube channel and videos
2) Podcast
3) Blog and set of high converting landing pages for my services


4) Leverage big platforms

Amazon (0 progress)
Etsy (0 progress)
Fiverr etc (currently making around 300$ from it, spending 10 min a day, will see where it leads me )
Paid campaigns (facebook, adwords, etc)

5) Relationships with people (It definitely has to be treated as an asset). Partly that is my reason of registering here as well.

6) Cash and savings

 

[TheOne]

Since I make my living in consulting, I will share my funnel and framework of how I get my sales and clients. Later on I will describe my progress within this framework

LEADS

1 step - I get leads. Sh^t ton of them preferably. By lead I mean a person that called me, or left their contact information in the form.

I use PAID TRAFFIC to get leads. NO SEO. This way I get leads following or same day. Sh^t ton of them.

I like Facebook ads, sometimes Adwords (rarely, still works great in NON-English markets though). I drive traffic to a landing page. Not a blog, not a website. Quality landing page converts 3-4 times better than anything else usually, therefore paid traffic can be justified.

As a general rule: 1 landing page - 1 action. Action should be VERY LOW-RISK. You can't F*ck^n sell something right off the bet. It's like coming to a bar and saying "Hey girl I am healthy and I have a car. Let's make babies".

In internet marketing consulting I usually close for free website and funnel analysis, plus I send them freebie pdf with cases and testimonials.
In legal consulting - free phone consultation on all aspects of their case. And then sell over the phone.

CONVERSION

Landing page should look very professional and trustworthy. I have my designers and programmers, who do mine. Sometimes I use platforms like LeadPages or OptimizePress.

Advertising and Landing Page should match the message. Another words, you can't advertise "cheap website" via ad, and sell websites for 10 thousand on the landing page. Messages should match.

With that being said, all the conversions mostly happen ON THE PHONE. People often forget that traffic is people. That's why I have SALES SCRIPTS FOR ALL MY BUSINESSES. I know what to say, when, and how. Constantly tweaking it to improve conversion. So far I close approximately 1 out of 3 or 4 leads coming my way. Sales script is one of the most important things. IF YOU HAVE GOOD SALES SCRIPTS, you can meet random person on the street, and easily close the sale.

DELIVERY

This is where I deliver promised services. It's always good to UNDERPROMISE AND OVERDELIVER.

I made this mistake multiple times in the past. I would OVERPROMISE AND UNDERDELIVER. However when it's other way around you have repeat customers and refferals. I learned my lesson.

 

[TheOne]

2ND PROJECT UPDATE.

Alright, so here is my roadmap for upcoming launch in legal space. My timeline, prices, actions etc.
GOALS: Like a Boss - $15k/ in a month. Good - $10k/ in a month. Ok - $4-5k/ in a month.

Launch and start talking with prospects from 20th of January.
Also I will count personal time spent on launch. To keep things going.

It is not the final launch sequence yet. It will be more clear after USP is done. However you will get good idea of the upcoming work.

Will update on my progress throughout January. Im not going to reveal niche, websites etc. I will post statistics, conversion, stuff like that.

========

- Refine and make KILLER USP. Flexibility of paying options, deadlines, benefits outweighing payment and effort by a WIDE margin. Prepare it for different audiences I have. Write out all the pain points, all the struggles and desires of the audiences, and refine USP towards those. Make it very sexy and actionable. Time to act NOW!
Resources needed: Time and effort, look through old messages and email with clients.
Deadline: December 27-28

- SCRIPTS for messaging, talking on the phone, etc. Look through old messages, create customer avatars for different audiences, write out their objections, hopes and dreams, etc. Create Scripts. Refine them As I go, especially tweak it after 1st test launch (with a little traffic)

Deadline: 15th of January
Resources needed: time and effort.


- Testimonials written, with stories (case studies, with photos preferably). Get 3-5 of those at LEAST from previous clients.

Official PDF brochure with testimonials (Marketing Kit). Already have a template. Also use these in autoreponder sequences.
- PHOTOS OF HAPPY CLIENTS AND BENEFITS.
Deadline - 30th of December.
Resources needed - time and effort, no money


- Video Testimonials from previous clients. 3-5 at least. Talk about possibility of my previous clients answering questions from new potential clients. (provide a service for free?).

Deadline: 15th of January
Resources needed: time and effort. No money. Might take some time.


- AUTORESPONDER SEQUENCE LOADED UP IN GETRESPONSE OR MailCheat(Chimp). 10 letters loaded up minimum with deadline, scarcity and all those good things.

Deadline: 15th of January
Resources needed: time and effort.


- PROFILES TO SPEAK DIRECTLY TO ME

Deadline: 15th of January
Resources needed: time and effort.


- PRICING DOCUMENT (professionally designed). Figure out payment options.
- LEGAL DOCUMENTS, CONTRACTS

Deadline: 10th of January
Resources needed: time and effort. + designer fee?

CONVERTERS OF TRAFFIC
- Pages in Social Networks with Relevant information and track record. (2 full days of work)
- Long From Landing Page with Prices and Testimonials. Good Looking professional website. (around 1 day of work)
- OPTIN PAGES (use LeadPages.net and try out optimize press). Split test and write out results.

Deadline: 15th of January
Resources needed: time and effort. LeadPages monthly fee 37$. And money for the designer.

GETTING LEADS
ADVERTISING
test launch - $200 targeted ads, $100 Adwords coupon (have to spend 25$ to use it), 50$ free coupon for Fb ads. (around 300$ in total). Track sales, adjust prices, and scale it to massive launch.
RUN TEST LAUNCH UNTIL 30th of JAN


HERE WE GO!

 

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[Steven Palmer]

So what happened? Were you successful in completing your goals by the 15th and will you be ready for the test launch on the 30th? Or is this thread destined to die leaving all in suspense? lol