For those who haven't made a sale yet...

[Andy Black]

How viable is it to choose a common problem among niches and “copy-paste” and change the neccesary information compared to aiming for those niches and focusing on one problem?

You can start with a similar setup and test how it goes? Once you find something that works then it's probably best to dig deeper into that niche/problem.

 

[rdan]

You can start with a similar setup and test how it goes? Once you find something that works then it's probably best to dig deeper into that niche/problem.

I will do that.
Testing ideas out seems to be much more effective than trying to come up with potential ideas.

Thanks!

 

[ali.lari2x]

Let's help those who haven't made a sale yet.

For those who haven't made a sale yet, reply below with what you're struggling with.


In the meantime, here's some questions for you to ponder:

1) What currently keeps a roof over your head?

2) What do people already come to you for help with?

3) If someone had a gun to your head and said you need to make a sale this week then what would you do?

4) If money was no object what work would you be doing?

I’m struggling with convincing prospects (micro gym owners) through cold emails/DMs/calls that my pay-per-lead offer (and I empathize in my outreach that they are highly qualified through my lead nurturing follow-up system) is good enough. I used to think it was because of how young I am and how jaded those targeted niches have become due to lots of teenagers (I am one of them but I’m persevering through) hopping on the SMMA bandwagon thanks to Iman Gadzhi. However, it probably has to do with the offer of a lack of trust somewhere in the equation, or the tonality of my voice during the calls (I get slightly nervous, so much so that I actually avoided cold calls until literally 2 days ago).

As for your other questions:
1) I’m a university student, have a scholarship with a decent stipend so no debt but I don’t have much cash flow. Going into the workforce very soon.
2) My mom and relatives always come to me for tech-related things but in reality I look up half of the problems they come to me with on the spot and improvise a solution. I also get asked a lot about the gym and how to get fit as I’ve developed a quite muscular physique through 2.5 years of consistent lifting and 1 year of boxing.
3) A sh*t ton of cold calls, cold emails, and cold DMs non-stop. I would ruthlessly follow-up with each client on a regular basis. But they say desperation is a dealbreaker in sales and dating so I don’t know how well that would work.
4) Honestly? I would probably be training all day to become a professional boxer and with whatever spare time I have record basic YouTube videos to talk about life and improving oneself.

 

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[Andy Black]

My mom and relatives always come to me for tech-related things but in reality I look up half of the problems they come to me with on the spot and improvise a solution.

Let me fix that for you:

My mom and relatives always come to me for tech-related things AND in reality I look up half of the problems they come to me with on the spot and improvise a solution.

Awesome! I was in IT for 15 years. My job was to look up half of the problems on the spot and improvise a solution.

After IT, I've been doing Google Ads for clients for 15 years. My job is to look up half of the problems on the spot and improvise a solution.

People want to hire problem solvers.

Enterpreneurs are problem solvers.

I’m struggling with convincing prospects (micro gym owners) through cold emails/DMs/calls that my pay-per-lead offer (and I empathize in my outreach that they are highly qualified through my lead nurturing follow-up system) is good enough.

Why start with pay-per-lead? Why not just find businesses that will pay you a flat monthly fee to do their marketing (maybe with any ad spend on top of that?).

I met a window repair guy years ago who wanted me to help with SEO (he meant Google Ads but had his terminology all over the place).

He liked the sound of what I'd setup and wanted to know how he'd pay.

I said he could pay per lead.

He asked "What's a lead?".

I smoothly said "Or you could pay a flat monthly fee to me and then the ad spend to Google. With Google you only pay when your ad shows and someone clicks on it. So if there's a riot in Dublin and a lot of shop owners search for "window repairs dublin" then you'll have a higher spend, but that should result in more jobs."

"Done." he said.

 

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[Andy Black]

I initially started offering monthly flat fees, then switched to free trials, and now I'm on pay-per-lead (all have monthly ad spends of course) and I thought of it as a way of reducing the risk and making it easier to buy the service without risking a loss in money in case I don't get them the results. I would consider monthly fees but I highly suspect that will make it harder to land my first client and get a proper case study to showcase.

It's fine if you're still getting it off the ground and charging little or no fee for the first case studies. Just remember, they're not a client till they've paid.

Mr Prospect pays me first if he wants to become Mr Client.

 

[Nesqic]

Let's help those who haven't made a sale yet.

For those who haven't made a sale yet, reply below with what you're struggling with.


In the meantime, here's some questions for you to ponder:

1) What currently keeps a roof over your head?

2) What do people already come to you for help with?

3) If someone had a gun to your head and said you need to make a sale this week then what would you do?

4) If money was no object what work would you be doing?

So I'm 15 years old and I don't wanna be all day long in an office working for someone else. I wanna help people and make money from it but I'm kinda lost and don't know how to start and what to do. I don't have any special skills I guess, except for my math skills and maybe drawing, but I'm not that good at it

1) My parents
2) It's not that they come to me cause they need help, it's more like I'm just talking with someone and if they kinda complain about something, I'm gonna try to help them as much as I can. Sometimes I'll teach them a couple of things and sometimes I just encourage them to try something new, have a new perspective and it often actually works
3) Teach math to someone who has problem with it
4) I would open a restaurant, not a typical one, but for gymrats. There would be 2 menus, one for bulking and one for cutting and there would be some small gym to get a pump whilst waiting for the meal

 

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[Nesqic]

Can you teach someone Maths this week? Would you do it in person or online?

Yes, I think I can. I know some people from the human class (Here in Poland we call the classes with extra polish, history and social class, human classes) and they kinda have some problem with it and I guess I can teach them this week in person

 

[Andreas Thiel]

There's a lot going on here.
My first thought is to consider professional help if you're feeling as low as it sounds.

Not convinced there is such a thing as "professional help" ... what could they fix? My experience with this is that there is a person facing you that can't relate in the least and tells you that you should not actually want the things you want and that you should take pills that don't help at all.

 

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[Isaac Odongo]

Not convinced there is such a thing as "professional help" ... what could they fix? My experience with this is that there is a person facing you that can't relate in the least and tells you that you should not actually want the things you want and that you should take pills that don't help at all.

What about this below

My second is to focus on the things you *can* do, and the things you're grateful for.

What's The ONE Thing you can do that would make everything else unnecessary or easier to do?

How's your response to it?

 

[Guest931Xfjyx]

You need a better job at the very least. My neighborhood pays our security guards 60k plus benefits. Not much, but better than minimum wage.

Yeah I'd love that. I used to do construction but I oftentimes found myself too tired after work to actually train and so I wouldn't grow in bodybuilding. I quit doing framing + drywall + flooring installation and got the most sedentary job I could think of. So now I'm a Security Guard and I just eat my meals for bodybuilding + get as much overtime as I can get + read/research/watch videos on bodybuilding all day.

All this said. Your “two year plan” is an absolute procrastination and I think you should admit it for your own good.

I genuinely don't see it as this. If you have an idea of what could be a better use of my time considering my ambitions I'm more than open to your input.

Body building, as in building your body, is a hobby, not a business. It’s not about you.

It's essentially personal training and sponsorships. That's the business. Many have made great money in both fields. They're definitely competitive and overcrowded, but still feasible to achieve. I'm willing to bet on me.

Sometimes hearing something isn’t enough. Experience will teach him better than any word you or I put down here.

Sadly this might be my only option since I'm so hardheaded. I do want to make a better living, but not at the expense of foregoing this "hobby" of mine. I believe in a future in it.

 

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[Artiom O]

Figure out a way that works for you.

The goal is to do the work that matters, not to be "busy".


Other ways of looking at it are:

Does it serve my clients or customers?

Can I invoice someone for it?

About doing the work, it sometimes gets a bit more complicated. Like when I figure out a solution, adjust, take action again, and only realize that it doesn't work.

The action only starts to fade when hours yurn into days, thinking about a solution. This pushes me into Stuck Mode.

Last time you helped me with finding problems (thank you). I now spot problems pretty often.

What is truly difficult is hooking them to respond and even into a conversation. And it only gets harder from there because I then have to ask him about the problems he has, listen and understand the situation.

I'm thinking about them, and my goal right now is just to fully help someone and solve his problem for free (Then we'll see about turning it into money and scaling. I'll also have the occasion to get some data and find out what the market wants.)

But for aome reason they seem to care less.

 

[Guest931Xfjyx]

From an outsider's perspective, here's what I read. Your entire life revolves around bodybuilding. Everything you're doing is 100% in support of that. That's fine, you have a passion. I think we've all been so obsessed at one point or another.

But that is all you're doing. You're stuck in a pattern, work/gym/sleep, and nowhere in there is anything that moves you forward in your goal to make a living from your bodybuilding passion. You say give it two years (God, you must be young! Two years feels like forever to us over-40s!) and you'll be out, but how if you're just doing the same routine?

I think what people are suggesting to you is that you have no reason to wait two years to start making moves. My guess is, you're probably already ripped. You could start picking up personal training clients today. You have an off day, use it. You're tired; man, so am I. Everyone is. Power through, it'll hurt for a bit but the rewards are worth it. Just like working out, right?

Hi @Skroob,

Anything I say opposing the idea of starting now is going to be disagreed with. I do have a reason for not doing so, but it wont be seen as valid. It essentially is so that I can take myself to being a greater bodybuilder than I currently am. I also am not extremely young. I'm 25, nearly 26, and would be close to 28 before I got started on this were I to wait, but still a part of me wants to wait. It's not necessarily 2 years, that's not the metric I'm basing this on, it's just easier to say "2 years from now" as that's a metric everyone else can understand.

Also, I work every day. The only day I have off from the gym is used towards meal prep and a date with my wife every week. I do that after a full day of work. So technically I could train a single person after work, meal prep for a week, and a date with my wife, but it seems sort of ridiculous at that point.

I have a plan in place but it takes time. It really falls on me to figure out what I should be doing in the meantime. I completely agree that these two years could be better spent doing something, but I'm not sure what.

Anyhow, I've clouded up Andy's thread far too much with my self-imposed limitations. Gonna respond a bit less. Thank you all for your comments.

 

[Guest931Xfjyx]

In the spirit of bringing this back to Andy's original thread topic: What would you do if you had to make a sale today? I'd recommend that you get that first client.

I actually do have one client from this forum. Been helping him go from underweight to gaining muscle slowly for the past month and a half.

Answering your question though, I'd take pictures of myself working out and use paid ads to a landing page with a clear CTA. I bet it'd work too. It's not that I don't believe in myself. It's not that I don't think it would work. It's that I'm not my version of ready, as foolish as that sounds. I care so much about being my version of ready on something I'm convinced would work that I'm willing to wait 2 years for it.

I am probably in an emotional state where I should not write such a comment, but the whole JLE vs the world discussion is really getting to me.

We're complete opposites. Your defeatist attitude is completely juxtaposed to what I am. If anything, I want all of these rich entrepreneurs to tell me why I suck. Not only is it motivating, but it gives me perspective I didn't have.

I don't know that I would say anybody was "vs" JLE in that discussion. From my standpoint anyway, he appears to be someone with the tools he needs to really take off, but is missing something: whatever it is that gets him to take that first step.

I completely think I could succeed, reasonably well, at online fitness coaching were I to start now. Problem is, I'm holding myself back as I do not wish to start yet. Simple as that. I don't wish to wait 2 more years, but I'd prefer it over starting now. Seems as if everyone else has a bigger problem with me waiting to start than I do.

Do you have an Instagram account? Show people your workouts, your diet, and your mindset. You can coach people online to get a healthy body.

This is exactly what I intend on doing. This is actually how most bodybuilders advertise themselves and make their living. It would only take me 11 online clients charged at $200USD per month to entirely replace my full-time 7-day-a-week job.

I will do Instagram... Just 2 years from now...

Two to three years seems reasonable as at near 30 years old you are not too old for business/entrepreneurship but too old for competitive body building I guess, if you are aiming for world level titles.

As kindly as possible: you have no clue what you're talking about.

Nearly all bodybuilders peak in their 30's. I can list practically any reference for this.

 

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[Kevin88660]

As kindly as possible: you have no clue what you're talking about.

Nearly all bodybuilders peak in their 30's. I can list practically any reference for this.

I was saying it makes sense to pursue bodybuilding now as you don’t much time left.

 

[Xeon]

2.) I would want that guy to pull the trigger, my life sucks
3.) I am mostly a ghost, at work I am tolerated as a cog in the software development machine

2) Tomorrow needs you.

3)

 

[Xeon]

I will do Instagram... Just 2 years from now...

Have you taken into the fact that Instagram's reach is getting worse each day, and that the fitness niche there is already overloaded and oversaturated with all kinds of fitness sub-niches you can think of?

What if something happens to Meta, seeing as their company is increasingly in deep **** nowadays and their golden days are over?

 

[Andy Black]

I'm struggling with getting web design clients

What have you tried and how has it worked out?

 

[Cojo]

What have you tried and how has it worked out?

I have tried reaching out to people I know, cold calling, cold emailing and LinkedIn.

I got 1 project from reaching out and nothing came after.

I had no success with cold calling.

I got some response from cold emailing but was never able to get on the call. One painful moment was when someone gave me his number to call him the next day but I was going to travel by then.

Someone reached out to me on LinkedIn asking me for works I have done and how much it will cost. I told him $1000 then later on he told me that he is concerned that my price was too low compared to others so he is worried that I won't do a good job. Lesson learnt.

 

[Andy Black]

I have tried reaching out to people I know, cold calling, cold emailing and LinkedIn.

I got 1 project from reaching out and nothing came after.

I had no success with cold calling.

I got some response from cold emailing but was never able to get on the call. One painful moment was when someone gave me his number to call him the next day but I was going to travel by then.

Someone reached out to me on LinkedIn asking me for works I have done and how much it will cost. I told him $1000 then later on he told me that he is concerned that my price was too low compared to others so he is worried that I won't do a good job. Lesson learnt.

Have you asked any friends if they know anyone who may need a website?

When I tried doing web design for a bit I asked my friends if they knew anyone who needed a website. Surprisingly one of my friends' parents needed a website and they ended up being my first clients.

 

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[Cojo]

I have asked them. It's part of the reaching out I did

 

[Guest931Xfjyx]

Is there any other business/revenue stream you could create in the meantime?

Hi Andy,

I'm 100% willing to start anything online. I have practically all day at my Security Guard job to be doing something in the meantime. I could be working at my 9-to-5 whilst I'm working on an online business or producing some sort of additional income, but again, I'm not sure what.


I'm happy to try e-com, cold-email for copywriting services, anything really. Don't know where to begin with this.

 

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[Andreas Thiel]

Have you read Tiny Habits by BJ Fogg?
If you implement the advice correctly (which isn't too hard since it's literally step-by-step) you can easily build good habits and make bad habits harder or remove them completely.

It's that kind of book that gets people out of a rut since it doesn't rely on extraordinary willpower or motivation.

Have not heard of it and would have to see the specifics, but I am trying GoalSumo.com for habits and the issue is that there is always just complete chaos in my mind and no clarity emerges. Don't feel like I am able to get any closer to a launch, almost as if I am stuck in the mud.

I can numb my feelings for a while and stick to a plan, but after a while I can reliably expect the next breakdown.

Based on the ChatGPT summary I am doing a lot of it. Habits don't seem to be a problem, but I have clocked a lot of hours and I can't figure out reasonable steps towards the launch of a product. I am completely lost there.

 

[FAREED]

N

I would learn all python in a week and make an app and whip my a$$ to sell to just one person.

Or

I would write another book. But this doesn't add up because publishing as yet isn't mostly in my power.
There's a publisher now taking forever with my manuscript. It sucks. The waiting.

I need to think of other things maybe. It is a wall.

Its not a wall that your publisher is taking forever with your manuscript. That was a choice you made to go with that publisher. Solution is very simple. Find another publisher. You are wasting precious time by allowing someone else to steer your life. Take charge and drive your own car to success. If the publishers are the problem...why not just become a publisher yourself.. Stop consuming and start producing. Fastlane 101 dah!!

 

[UK_Mike]

1. Savings and investment returns.
2. Infrequent metal bits for old cars, infrequent software mods to systems I've been involved with for 20+ years which are unfortunately declining in numbers now.
3. Sell something I already have, but it's easy to sell one thing and I suspect you meant something I'd create to sell.
4. Hmm.

To expand:

I finished "proper" work in 2011, made redundant so that gave me a bit of a lump sum, but I have been paranoid about being suddenly out of work since about 1991 and have been saving bits of money up since then. I haven't been sitting in an empty room staring at the wall for all that time, but I haven't been off buying expensive things and experiences so the pile has built up. At my age I sometimes look back and wish I'd done more stuff, had more experiences to look back on, but didn't miss it at the time and can't change the past.

I'd love to not be worrying about money, but even if I had loads of it, I'm still not sure I'd be off eating out every day, taking expensive holidays, buying expensive cars. I don't think I have the ability to just spend money without thinking about it. I'd love to find out. Compared to some people, I _do_ have loads of it, and certainly while it's annoying that everything is going up in price, I'm not choosing between eating or heating like some are, I won't be visiting the food bank, though I haven't really been donating to it either. But I'm also not tempted to buy a Bentley GT anytime soon, because I'd be forever worrying about something expensive going wrong. I'd be worried about that even if I had £x000 coming in every week, it's just the way my mind works.

I've often thought that puts me at a disadvantage here, because I'm not hungry enough to need to get on with creating something that will pay. I've been in similar situations a couple of times at my last job - we started two sidelines which never really went anywhere, and I wonder if the competitors were more successful because it was literally all they did, where our business had another more profitable side and it wasn't the end of the world when we just shut the sidelines down - no-one was homeless or jobless, we just went back to the main job.

 

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[Cojo]

At this point, think I will just create a saas.

 

[Andy Black]

At this point, think I will just create a saas.

Cool.

How will you make your first sale?

 

[Cojo]

Cool.

How will you make your first sale?

The saas idea I got came from my web design journey so I understand the pain. These are the things I could try out:

1. I can message freelancers on LinkedIn and ask them if they are interested in the software.
2. Join groups, provide value and generate awareness about what I'm building and possibly build an email list off it.
3. Join betalist and producthunt ship
4. Share my progress in indiehackers

Problem right now is that I haven't code in a long time (I used WordPress to create sites).

So I'm thinking of using Bubble.io first then coding it later.

 

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[Andy Black]

The saas idea I got came from my web design journey so I understand the pain. These are the things I could try out:

1. I can message freelancers on LinkedIn and ask them if they are interested in the software.
2. Join groups, provide value and generate awareness about what I'm building and possibly build an email list off it.
3. Join betalist and producthunt ship
4. Share my progress in indiehackers

Problem right now is that I haven't code in a long time (I used WordPress to create sites).

So I'm thinking of using Bubble.io first then coding it later.

Can you start today? Can you get interest and/or a sale this coming week?

 

[Cojo]

Can you start today? Can you get interest and/or a sale this coming week?

I would need to learn bubble and dm people on LinkedIn to see.

 

[BizyDad]

My suggestion would be to determine interest first, then figure out the rest after.

@JLE that's what I've been saying to you too...

 

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