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A detailed account of a Fastlane process...

Einfamilienhaus

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The Thirsty Guy in The Desert Who Eats Sand, Daily

It is about the third month of being self-employed and Im about to lose this game. I understood that the income of an employee is not the same like of a self-employed person. At the beginning of every month, the employee has a stable income which he can use to calculate the month.

My income is coming at different times in a month. The Problem: The expenses for surviving like paying the rent, insurance, energy cost, and public transportation don't wait for you to get payed. You own nothing in this world and that is the reason why all the companies can take money automatically from your bank account. Pay now, survive later.

To be on the safe side you should earn twice as much as you have expenses. Luckily my clients are trustable and they pay regular without any trouble and I can hold the line in some parts. But I still lose money monthly. It was and is still hard for me to renounce on many things. No expensive restaurants like paying 30€ for Ramen Soup or Kobe Beef for 100€. Less smoking and less partying.

In the last months, I just do two main things: Sleep and work. Of course, I meet family and friends at the weekend but most of the time Im alone with myself and my work.

Even when I lose money and Im most of the time alone and I feel like eating sand in the desert daily, I still can't imagine going to a regular job. If I don't have to. Let me work 80 hours and earn less, instead of working 40 hours for somebody else and earn more.

To make a clear view of my monthly expenses and the incomes I work with an Excel Sheet. The second biggest expense I have right now next to the rent is the insurance. I pay more for this insurance than for my food in a whole month.

I was seriously thinking not to take an insurance at all. I mean the last time I was in a hospital was more than 25 years ago. It was a crazy idea and I don't want to make my parents pay for me if something could happen. So I found a better solution.

In Germany we have a special Insurance for creative-work (Künstlersozialkasse). This insurance is not only for actors, musicians or painters. Also for Web Designer. It means if I can get accepted by this insurance my Insurance expenses can be reduced by 50%! It is going to take months till I get approved and I don't know if my savings can hold so long.

Instead of focusing on numbers I try to focus more on productivity and try to get the power back into my hands. My first Sales Letter is finished and since yesterday I sent live videos to the customers with the record screen program from dubb. I explain to them how they can optimize their website or in some cases why a website is necessary these days. Under the short video, they have the opportunity to get to the Landing Page.

The good thing with dubb is that this program shows me who has opened the mailed? Have they seen the whole video and have they clicked on CTA? These are of course great insights to separate the interested from uninterested customers. The Landing Page is connected with Hotjar so I can see via Live record how the Users moved through my Page and where most of them stopped to read further. Also here great insights on how to optimize this Page more customer-friendly.

Let's see if it works.
 
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MaxKhalus

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I thought you gave up. Glad to see you are still moving! Keep solving problems and will find a solution. Business cannot be that complicated
 

Einfamilienhaus

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I thought you gave up. Glad to see you are still moving! Keep solving problems and will find a solution. Business cannot be that complicated

I really appreciate that you was worrying!:peace: You are right, Business is not that complicated but I learned that the most of the time I'm my own enemy.

There are situations you know that you can make money right now but you are too shy, lazy or you lie to yourself to wait for the right moment. It is like a good looking girl is flirting with you all the time but you tell yourself she is not your type. Afterwards you think d*mned!
 

Einfamilienhaus

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I Learn To Love The Progress Inside The Process

I think after 12 hours of working straight I have my own Momentum and I feel Like King Kong. I can smash like the biggest Monkey in the Town with my fists on my breast and scream into the night. Or climb on the highest building in Berlin and fight against some red airplanes.

Im seriously surprised how fast I learned many things even if I still don't know much about how to manage a business like a rock star. But still, there is progress. If you want to keep your Business successful as Web Designer while you use Social Media to get the attention you need you to have to manage several things at the same. There are many methods which sound simple but in reality, you have seriously to study them. Just reading a book about how to find 100x more customers with Google Adwords and put the book to the site and read the next one doesn't make you an expert. I mean why reading books if the only reason you do this is that you want to finish it but not to learn from it. Especially practical books should be implemented in reality.

How to use Google Adwords efficiently will take years
How to use Google Analytics and understand in the right way will take a long time to manage
How to learn Web Design via Code or CMS will take a long time to manage it
How to use correctly SEO for your Website will take a long time to manage it
How to use Photoshop and Premiere Pro will take you a long time
And so on...

It even took me a whole day to understand how to put several WP Sites on the same Domain. During my learning progress, I have crushed my Website two times. Now I can manage this task in just a few minutes. My first blog post took me 2 hours! to write it and it wasn't even good. Now just 30 minutes and there is more content inside than before. To make my first youtube video took also 2 hours because I didn't know what to say, how to say and then I had to learn how to use Premiere Pro. Now I speak much more fluently and I even cute my videos better and faster.

At the first steps of my journey, I felt like being dropped into the Jungle. There where so many things to do and to manage at the same time which was huge pressure for me. But with every task, I gain more muscles which allow me to cute faster through all the difficulties in front of me. I will see one day the bright light at the end of the jungle!

Tomorrow I will meet a potential Customer who has his own Bar and he would like to optimize his website to attract more customers. He is also looking for someone who can help him to build a Landing Page, an Email List and also someone who can create a concept for his events.

Tomorrow is going to be a great day too.

Now.

Proud Monkey goes sleep. Proud Monkey is tired.
 
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Einfamilienhaus

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A New Website For An Exclusive Event

This week I met my new customer who has his Bar in Berlins most expensive street: Kurfürstendamm. It is a small bar where only 50 people can fit in. This is great because you will have pretty much fast the feeling of being befriended with everybody and it is easier for everybody to learn new people.

The owner of this Bar told me that his customers are the people who live around this place. Lawyers, doctors, business owners and so on. In Berlin to ask 30€ for a drink is expensive but in this place, people don't ask for the price. They just pay.

My work would be to create a new website connected with the idea to make his events more exclusive. So my idea was to create a simple letter. Not a sales letter, it is an Old school letter like back in the days. With a black cover and golden font color. When the people open the envelope the first thing they see is the Golden Logo of the club. When the open the cover they will see a code and the time when the party starts. The footer shows the website. Nothing more. Only invited people know how to handle this information.
They have to use this code on the website which gives members-only access to it. After validating the code, people can buy the tickets and only guests with tickets can go to the event. We don't sell tickets at the door and the tickets are of course online limited.

This is a marketing strategy that makes an average club/bar more exclusive and you avoid outsiders who can't or don't want to pay 30€ for a drink.

Of course, we will have a bouncer at the door which makes the bar more exclusive and as a special guest, we will invite a well-known singer from Berlin. She is a Drag Queen and the people are going to love her. We also need a barkeeper and waitress who can handle the crowd with the focus on selling more drinks. If they sell more, they will have more tips at the end of the night.

The goal is to create an atmosphere of INSIDERS with the same attitude and income where people can feel free and have a great time.

But how to reach out to the right customers?

The reason why I got this job is that I work with two great promoters together who are well connected in this area. They will go with these specials invitations to every potential customer they know personally. This kind of marketing takes, of course, more time but it will have a bigger impact.

The bar owner doesn't care about the expenses he has which is great but there is one big thing which bothers me. He is reluctant to stay in his bar. This is a bad sign for me. The owners who I have met, even back in the days when I worked as a dishwasher, are people who even didn't want to go on vacation because they were afraid that if they come back the whole business is from one day to another not working anymore. The customers are not coming. The employees have stolen all the money or are sleeping drunken in the cellar and the whole kitchen is burned down.

This is something I learned over time. If the owner doesn't want to stay at his own business, his business is usually not running well. But at the same time, I see it as a huge opportunity to learn many important business owners in one place. Instead of sending thousands of cold mails, I can invite them to one party and make my small company more present.

Let's see how it works. In the next week, I will get the answer if the second partner of the bar gives us green lights for the event or not.
 

BizyDad

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I Learn To Love The Progress Inside The Process

I think after 12 hours of working straight I have my own Momentum and I feel Like King Kong. I can smash like the biggest Monkey in the Town with my fists on my breast and scream into the night. Or climb on the highest building in Berlin and fight against some red airplanes.

Im seriously surprised how fast I learned many things even if I still don't know much about how to manage a business like a rock star. But still, there is progress. If you want to keep your Business successful as Web Designer while you use Social Media to get the attention you need you to have to manage several things at the same. There are many methods which sound simple but in reality, you have seriously to study them. Just reading a book about how to find 100x more customers with Google Adwords and put the book to the site and read the next one doesn't make you an expert. I mean why reading books if the only reason you do this is that you want to finish it but not to learn from it. Especially practical books should be implemented in reality.

How to use Google Adwords efficiently will take years
How to use Google Analytics and understand in the right way will take a long time to manage
How to learn Web Design via Code or CMS will take a long time to manage it
How to use correctly SEO for your Website will take a long time to manage it
How to use Photoshop and Premiere Pro will take you a long time
And so on...

It even took me a whole day to understand how to put several WP Sites on the same Domain. During my learning progress, I have crushed my Website two times. Now I can manage this task in just a few minutes. My first blog post took me 2 hours! to write it and it wasn't even good. Now just 30 minutes and there is more content inside than before. To make my first youtube video took also 2 hours because I didn't know what to say, how to say and then I had to learn how to use Premiere Pro. Now I speak much more fluently and I even cute my videos better and faster.

At the first steps of my journey, I felt like being dropped into the Jungle. There where so many things to do and to manage at the same time which was huge pressure for me. But with every task, I gain more muscles which allow me to cute faster through all the difficulties in front of me. I will see one day the bright light at the end of the jungle!

Tomorrow I will meet a potential Customer who has his own Bar and he would like to optimize his website to attract more customers. He is also looking for someone who can help him to build a Landing Page, an Email List and also someone who can create a concept for his events.

Tomorrow is going to be a great day too.

Now.

Proud Monkey goes sleep. Proud Monkey is tired.

Proud Monkey, this was awesome. Bravo. :clap:: :clap:::clap::
 
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Joe Jackson

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Apr 19, 2019
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A New Website For An Exclusive Event

This week I met my new customer who has his Bar in Berlins most expensive street: Kurfürstendamm.

Les Brown said, "Leap and the net will appear."

But when you're standing at the top of the cliff looking down into the chasm and don't see the net already spread below you it's very hard to believe how it will be there in time to save you.

I find your journey inspiring and look forward to your future progress. Yours is a journey budding entrepreneurs will find interesting and educational.
 

Einfamilienhaus

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Out Of The Frying Pan And Into The Fire

On Wednesday I was negotiating the new contract with the Bar owner. Instead of the usual monthly payment, I will share in the profit of the event. This includes a 50% share of the entrance fee and a percentage share of the total profit of the drinks sold.

The personnel and advertising costs are shared.

Otherwise, there are no costs for me. I don't have to leave any guarantees either.

The event will take place in late March. So usually I would finish the website in a few days so that the promoters can start contacting the guests with personal invitations. But as long as the signed contract is not in my hands, the work will not start for the time being.

So during the negotiation, I was actually only concerned with my headache.

I met a client of mine beforehand and then had to find out that the contract was being canceled. There was a change in the concept and they decided against my work. I got the order six months ago to take care of the social media concept for the boutique. At that time I found the conditions under which the contract was negotiated miserable.

My work was set at € 200 a month. As a condition, it was additionally expected that a photographer would come to the boutique once a week and take photos of the products on site. The photographer was of course paid for by me!

Another condition was that the photos were uploaded to Instagram every day. Back then I thought it would be better to have a contract than nothing. In the long run, this contract only caused problems. But I wanted to accept the challenge, especially since I saw the opportunity to learn what it was like to deal with an employee properly.

As a beginner, I was naive and was lured with the following promises: The owner was about to open a second boutique in the center of Berlin and I would get the chance to get this contract as well. That's why the price was so low. Especially since the owner knows many entrepreneurs from the area and it would be to my advantage to work with him.

Basically, I believed that promise. Now I know that if there is money on the table, the deal is real and money in your pocket speaks the truth.

What exactly happened?

Business and politics always go hand in hand.

The new contract partner in the second boutique with which she runs the business has hired a full-time web designer at his own expense. So I'm out and the new Web Designer got the deal.

It is quite bitter. Especially since I know the customer personally, it is a harder blow for me than if I lost a customer through an online sale. My client assured me that it wasn't because of our collaboration or the quality of my work. But the fact that she wanted to make the new business partner happy.

Whether it is true or not is not important. The fact is, the contract is lost.

I learned something from this story. I will not offer social media marketing in the future. My customers don't understand how social media works and everyone thinks they are doing social media marketing right. Especially since the expectations of the clients are very high. The Instagram profile has not been used for more than 4 years with 9 subscribers and suddenly it is expected that people will buy the shop empty with one post. On the other hand, the payment is miserable because thousands of others apply for your position and sadly there are many who like to do it for free.

It is the second time that I have lost a customer because of my social media service. Fortunately, the customer came back the first time because the cooperation with the new service provider did not work as expected.

The entry into the social media industry is very small and the market is therefore oversaturated, which is why the quality of the service suffers enormously.

In my experience, smaller companies hiring social media employees full-time mostly only lose money.
A team of graduated social media assistants works there, each with a salary cost of 1,500€ a month, plus 21% in direct and indirect personnel costs, create 6 Instagram posts, a YouTube video, and 2 blog posts. But they are busy developing a new flyer for a week.

I hired a photographer for € 200 a month and also a VA. The production chain went great. The photographer came to the boutique weekly as requested, made a new appointment with the owner for the upcoming shoot and sent the pictures to the VA. The VA then wrote created content in a target group-oriented manner and interacted with the very small community. I was the contact person for my client when something did not go as hoped.

We had a monthly increase in the reachability from the initial 50 views per post to more than 500-1000 views per post. If we look at the total number, we reached 15,000 - 30,000 people with our profile per month. Ascending trend!

Our subscriber number was increasing and people started to interact with our stories
and slowly comment on posts, save posts and go straight to our site.

The dead account has slowly started to live again after 4 years.

I know that there are better results and you may read frustration and arrogance from this text. But what really gave me a headache is that I didn't lose the contract because of the quality of my work. But because I lacked approval in the decision-making process.

The good thing about this story is that the customer is not dissatisfied. A bad word of mouth is mentioned more often than a good one.

What I also realized in the coming days is that my super small business is not profitable. I paid a few hundred euros a month to finance the cost of living and leisure time. Now the negative-sum has grown.
I'm torn inside and feel like I'm dancing at two different parties. On the one hand, I am very grateful for my daily freedom with my super small business. But on the other hand, I think what all the stress is necessary for. I could be hired at any time and would have fewer problems for the time being. But for that, I get dehumanized in the company. As I write this, I realize what is important to me and there are too many counter arguments for a permanent job in my head.

I will not give up my independence in web design, but I have to be more realistic with my business.
I have been confronted with these thoughts from Wednesday to today Saturday because I am afraid to decide how it will go on this month. I will consider until Sunday what is really important to me and whether I am really trying to make others indirectly happy with my decision. Maybe I'm just too lazy or unproductive, or I'm not doing the things I should be doing to avoid financial difficulties. Maybe I have to work out a completely new concept. Maybe I lost focus and would have to recalibrate.

When I can't make a decision, I usually sit in front of my notebook and let my pen speaks my emotions and thoughts. Without an assessment of the correctness of the content, grammar or spelling. Just start writing and see what really moves me.

I will take time for myself until Sunday and see what is important for me and how it will go on.
 

Einfamilienhaus

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Today Not Later

March was the first month I have reached finally the miracle number of 1000€ next to my Main Business of Web Design on several freelance platforms. I know this is not a lot compared to other people here in this forum but it gives a huge confidence to find possibilities while others sit at home and wait till everything is going to be normal again. During this crisis, I met different people who deal differently with the current crisis. Most of them do nothing. Others are clever and deal with stocks and try to make a profit. I'm more of a conservative person and I believe in the things that I can control and I have the best control if I can use my skills profitably. Now I will invest the time to learn more about Python. I see great possibilities to open new markets . Especially Python can open many doors in the world of programming. My goal for the coming months is to work with larger companies on an international level and I hope that my new skills will help me to open the door to the world.

It's surprising to see how many entrepreneurs spend their time complaining about the Coronavirus, instead of asking yourself how you can adapt your business to the new circumstances. The world will spin before and after the Coronavirus. Either the world will continue to spin with you or without you. Our humanity has produced personalities that have had an impact on millions, even billions, of people and have inspired even future generations to achieve great things, and even after these people have died, the world has continued to turn. Even if we should wake up one day and we should not exist, the world will turn. Even if our planet, all known galaxies, the entire universe, and even all possible dimensions should no longer exist, time will not cease to exist. Because in the world of numbers even the 0 has a value. A value as small as it is means existence and existence is life.

All the people who spend their time complaining about the coronavirus, while they are sitting armed with a gun in a room full of toilet paper and waiting for the end of the world, are the same people who do not accept the success of others, who emerged as winners despite and thanks to the crisis. I would like that after 5 years, when no one remembers the effects of the crisis, someone asks me when my business started to function slowly, I will say it was March 2020. If this person then says that it was really easy to be entrepreneurially successful at that time, I will shake hands with this person and look into the eyes and say Thank You. Because in the business world, a big Thank You can also mean F*ck You at the same time.

Don't spend your time complaining. Don't get distracted and do business. Don't worry about things you can't control and focus on things that can be controlled. This is how life was, this how life is and this is how life always will be.
 
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Tossek

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Jut jemacht, mei Jung!

What direction of cooperation do you want to program with? API? AI? Database?

Python is indeed a good choice. Personally, I disliked it for a while but I had to use it in my regular work since December and I start to see some benefits, especially for the prototyping style of machinery implementation, I am working with.
 

Einfamilienhaus

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Jut jemacht, mei Jung!

What direction of cooperation do you want to program with? API? AI? Database?

Python is indeed a good choice. Personally, I disliked it for a while but I had to use it in my regular work since December and I start to see some benefits, especially for the prototyping style of machinery implementation, I am working with.

I think starting with Database would bring more benefits since most of my customers ask for an Online Shop. If I have later the possibility to create my own AI this would be amazing!

I'm pretty much new to this topic and I can say I like Python. Correct me if I'm wrong, but it seems to be that you work with a lot of variables which you can declare as you like. Which is in comparison to HTML and CSS pretty handy and flexible. Let's see what the future in Python will bring
 

Are EM

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since most of my customers ask for an Online Shop

Ha ha. I was asked for it too, many times. To give a better value for the people requires more technologies. Fox's thread was a good starting point for me. I made one free website for my friend and some local paid works. Now I get many questions from folks if I can make some advanced stuff like e-commerce and etc. It requires much more than HTML & CSS. I'm on JavaScript path, learning Node for now.
 
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Einfamilienhaus

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Ha ha. I was asked for it too, many times. To give a better value for the people requires more technologies. Fox's thread was a good starting point for me. I made one free website for my friend and some local paid works. Now I get many questions from folks if I can make some advanced stuff like e-commerce and etc. It requires much more than HTML & CSS. I'm on JavaScript path, learning Node for now.

That is exactly the point! You have to bring your business to the next level. I have always asked myself what makes a 2000$ Website worth? As a newbie, I couldn't see any difference between a 50$ Fiverr Website and a 2000$ Website. Now I understand that the customers are willing to pay 40x times more if the magic behind the frontend works. If you have clients who are more interested in the backend these are, from my experience, people who not only pay more. You also talk with them on a different level and they value your time more.

The more you learn, the more confident you get about your product, the better clients you will have. For me personally, I don't want to compete with people who are willing to create a whole website for 10 Bucks and I also don't want to work with clients who only want to pay these 10 Bucks. It is the dirty pit fight of the inexperienced and people who don't appreciate their own time. The earlier you can leave this place through self-education the better.
 

Ing

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In one year you have built a business, which works and will ! Gratulations! Still in Berlin?
 

Einfamilienhaus

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Old School Business is The New Business

Last year I had at the end of October my first FTE and I had to make a hard decision to quit the job or stay. I can remember it was pretty late in the night but my head was rushing through several ideas and decisions. I couldn't sleep anyways. I knew it was too early to quit the job and to live from my income as a Web Designer but I was inspired by all the possibilities and stories other people have experienced that I wanted to give myself an opportunity to follow my own path. So I signed up with myself an agreement to give myself till the end of April a chance. With the promise to be at the end of April honest with myself how well the business was and if this is something I can imagine to do in the future. This self-agreement was a huge confidence boost and I could overcome most of the fears I had at that time. So I wrote on the same night my notice of termination and brought it the next morning to my workspace. It was an amazing feeling to be free but I knew I had a lot of o things to do. So the first thing I have done was to work on my own Business.

The first months went terribly. I did a huge mistake to spend my time getting better as a Web Designer on a skill-level than to focus on new clients. I think I had one or two new clients but I couldn't fix the living cost I had to pay every month. So this was the first big lesson I learned: Focus on clients first and improve your skills later.

It was hard for me to find new clients as a Web Designer. Having financial pressure sitting next to you all the time. Tipping with his fingers on the watch is something I had to learn to deal with. But unfortunately, I did a second mistake: I got distracted by other opportunities which brought me fast money. I did everything from Content writing, Social Media Marketing, Copywriting and so on... And here I learned also my third lesson: I have changed my time for my money. Not on a corporate level but instead of a freelance level. Yes, I could make a living from this income but it wasn't the time worth. I lost my focus on what I really wanted to do and these jobs had nothing to do with the first goal having more clients as Web Designer.

I have questioned myself and I found out that being a Web Designer isn't something I want to reach. It is just a nice hobby with a nice side income. I don't see myself having a Web Design company. Even being known as the "World's Best Web Designer" isn't something I am looking for. I learned a lot about myself and what is important to me. I like to do agreements via handshake and if I have the chance to meet potential clients via face to face. I take that chance. I understood that I want to find a real solution for real demand. For me, it is not important to create a new fancy product for which you have to create brand awareness and talk about the benefits. There is a real demand where people are only interested in the feature of your product. Maybe finding solutions in a "real-world" is old school business. Not fancy enough or not the new e-revolution the world needs. I have the feeling that many people around me who start their own business have their own IT-Company or are Web Designer, Social Media Manager, Copywriter, Content Creator or whatever... The more people do the same stuff around me, the less I should do it. Maybe this market is right now "hot" because you also have great opportunities to work worldwide. But in the long-term, this market could suffer from an overdemand.

So to prove my thoughts I asked myself. Can an employee build his own, let's say, a 7-figure company? The answer is: Yes, he can. And why he can do it?

1. He has several years of experience in his occupation. Other people would call him an expert. He is a real expert and not just a 5$ Social Media Expert on Upwork who gives himself this credibility.
2. He is working on a daily basis with existing clients and he finds on a daily basis real solutions for a real demand. He understands his working field better than every survey, paid market research or expensive PPC campaigns can do.
3. He has INSIDERS access and he understands the dynamics of his market better than every "outsider" who gets his information about this market from blogs, Facebook groups, Reddit threads or market-related websites.
4. He is well connected in his industry. He has his own Network and he has easier access to proved ideas, methods and information for which an outsider has to pay a lot of time and money to get the same results.
5. Based on Point 4. Every old school Business will face new legal changes one day which are great opportunities to specialize in existing demand. When you read a one-year-old blog post about the "New Revolution" in your market segment. Maybe it could be too late.
6. He knows where the clients are and he understands how the clients express their problems. He knows what is for the clients the most important feature for their solution and he knows what the clients are ready to pay for the solution.
7. From his own experience he understands which working processes are maybe not effective and if he finds a solution for it or just tries to do it in a different way, his company could have easily a huge advantage towards his competitors.

And the most important questions I asked myself was: What would happen if this employee would change his perspective and put the sunglasses of an entrepreneurial view? What would happen if this guy takes all his knowledge he has about his occupation and takes the risk to open his own company?

A.) Based on the existing demand would his company be much faster successful than a new Company of a Web Designer or Social Media Manager? Maybe in a more Fastlane Way?
B) What if the same employee uses the same methods and technics other Fulltime Copywriter, Social and PPC Manager use to promote his service for an existing demand? How easily could he increase his product value?

Most of the business people I worked with came from a generation where the internet was somewhat abstract. They know everybody is doing "Internet Marketing". So they have too but they don't understand the possibilities they have. What would happen if the "Younger Generation" take their knowledge from the "New World Business" and build up an "Old School Business" with an existing demand? You don't have to educate and to convince the people about your great product. Since the real demand is existing. To prove my idea for the possibilities an employee has I used the CENTS Method and found out very interesting results which I will write in the next time.
 
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Einfamilienhaus

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Life is A Challenge - Accept It Or Lose Miserably

During the last months, I invested my time to strengthen my relationship with the few long-term customers I have. All of them have their own fashion in Berlin and the crisis hit them pretty much hard. Luckily no one of them had to close their shop and the economy seems to be normalized again. Instead of asking myself how I can make more money to secure, I gave a lot of free value. All the knowledge and time I had I invested to improve their business in some parts. This work has not only paid me back twice but also gave me confidence in myself. Even though I was aware that we cannot make quick sales. It was important for me to support my clients morally and to give them the necessary self-confidence with their work. For the duration of the collaboration, I have even waived payment for all of my clients for 2 months.

I have created Free full-functioning Online Shops for them. Uploaded all the product pictures on Google Shopping which have created some traction to their website. The Instagram Pages have been connected with Facebook Business Manager which will give also some traction to the website. There were more than 500+ pictures that had to be uploaded plus a description and other details such as price, size, shipping costs, etc. And the same process had to be done again on Facebook Business Manager. It took several tiresome days to finish this task which was very time-consuming. Fortunately, the work was worth it. Some of their pictures have gained thousands of new views and they receive daily new visitors. Their Google Business Profile has been improved. One of them has at least placed on the first page in Google Business. The goal was to mobilize all the friends and families to write some positive reviews. If possible to use profile pictures and not only to write a positive review like "Amazing Shop" or something like that. Instead also to write how the shop could help them to find a solution. These reviews have been directly connected in their new Online Shop to increase sales and create Social proof.

For one of my Blogger Client, I gave some advice on how to improve the SEO and gather some organic traffic. With the better quality of her content now she is ranking higher and in combination with a better marketing on her Instagram profile, she is still receiving paid clients requests for cooperation. Not all of them are useful but some of them are great. Most recently, she had received a request from a hotel chain to stay in for a few days and write about her experiences and also publish them on Instagram. What can be described as a small success.

In my lonely nights, I always motivate myself to work towards the following situation. I always wanted to be called to someone I don't know but who knows my name and is convinced of the quality of my work and asks me for help. I don't believe in visualizations, but alluding to this situation in my head over and over again and had helped to keep working even when I was about to give up. And then suddenly this little dream had come true.

Thanks to these small successes and the support, the relationship with my clients was not only strengthened. I have gained another client. A customer of mine recommended me to a company that sells camping cars and had some problems with their website. It was an unbelievable feeling to get a phone call asking me if I had time to deal with the problem. He manages his company from home. So we met right at his place. I knew from the start that the collaboration would be great. But I just didn't know what extent his company was already working.

When I arrived in the "better area" of Berlin, I knew that such an area existed in Berlin, but I never had the intention to go there. The houses were not only luxurious but also built as one imagines the apartments from the USA. Large fence grille with two entrance options, where the entrance led from two sides in a semicircle to the main door. Sometimes the houses did not even have walls but were surrounded on all sides by large windows. For me personally, it wouldn't be anything because I would feel constantly being watched. But they probably don't have any neighbors who stand by the window with binoculars and want to watch you. If you live in the high-rise estate like me, it often happens that some pensioner out of boredom wants to know how other lives and what they are up to. Sometimes the apartments looked huge, so you have to walk a marathon from the living room to the kitchen alone. I embarrassedly caught myself staring at other people's windows too often for too long and then tried to appear relatively normal or at least less like a poor hungry man who was constantly staring.

The Cooperation with the entrepreneur was very positive. I not only got to know his business model and learned that he has already sold 30k caravans, but has also invested the money inland. The others can rent for their camping. When asked how the lockdown harmed him, he reacted loosely and said that his properties are not affected by the lockdown. Most of his customers rent their places and use their own campers as temporary living spaces. This means that during the lockdown, simple campers were not allowed to rent a place with a tent. But if you arrive with a camper, you are not affected by the regulation. As far as I understand.

When I spoke to him, I knew the meeting was worth more than any money paid for my work. When I went home, I decided to go one step higher with my own business and make bigger investments.

As much as web design has supported me financially, I also developed the urge to build a "tangible business". I want to get away from the whole Web Design 5 Bucks Upwork Freelancer business, although luckily I have never been in the position to do this job. I want to have my own key with which I can proudly open my business in the morning. Own a real business. To make scales on a bigger level.

Thanks to the government support of small business owners, which made up about half the total, my different income streams, and my frugal lifestyle, I have already been able to save 10,000€. Now I am faced with the decision to open a new line of business because I know that this money is dead money in the bank account.

The next step will be to find a solution that is urgently needed. I would like to work more with "bigger" companies because I hope that through the new challenges, pressure, and competition I will discover something in myself that I am looking for. Life is a struggle and I accept the challenge.

I learned very important life lessons during the uncertain times of lockdown.

When the going gets tough, it's better to work together than to focus on your own advantages. If you support people in tough times, they'll stay loyal and give you something back. I think if I tried to sell my service to my clients during the lockdown, I might not have just lost them. Rather, I would probably never have had this positive encounter that encouraged me in my urge to work higher. Especially at the time when many are beginning to cover themselves out of panic and fear, I wanted at least to spend my time speaking a good word to someone, supporting them, or even foregoing money.

Just like light is born out of the darkness. The greatest profits are made in the most difficult times. These experiences have shaped me and will determine my further actions.
 

Tossek

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May 5, 2019
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Hi, very well done so far. Indeed, take some of the money and invest it. Do you want to put it into stocks or bonds? If you consider 6k with a dividend of 5% you can get sth like 25 Euros a month dividend.
Otherwise, I advise you to think of investing into better tools for future work. An extra display improves the productivity for example of around 40%.
 

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