From 0 to Freedom in 3 Months

[Chapas]

Day 19 - Happy New Year

Happy New Year fellow fastlaners! May your dreams come true in 2019 and may you absolutely crush your goals!

Been partly hungover most of the day. The last 3 weeks I have not been able to think about anything else than business - so it was actually nice to actually just lay and watch a movie and some football for a change. Harry Potter and Arsenal - what a day haha!

Updates:

- Tomorrow I have 2 calls. Both with Personal Trainers. They both seem really interested, so I believe that I will at least close one of them as a trial client. Wish me luck!

- Almost done with building everything for my campaign with my first trial client. She needs to film 2 videos this week, and hopefully we can launch her campaign 7/8 of January.

- Another dentist was interested. But AGAIN, she told me that it is against the law to run discounted offers. What is up with this country.... If you guys have any ideas of campaigns/funnels to run for dentists without giving a discount to the customers, please let me know!

Will have to make a small trip to Albania or Croatia this weekend, so will have to get as much work as possible done in the next 2 days. I love the fact that Christmas and NYE are over and that people will start returning to work! Will try to make a post about my goals for 2019 later today!

 

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[Chapas]

Plans for 2019

These milestones seems very very optimistic. However, I like to set big goals as it motivates me more. This year really have the potential for being life changing for me and my family. And I will do my best to make this happen!

Before 1st of February

- Have at least 10 trial clients
- Close at least 50 % of these trial clients on retainers
- Make 2000 USD in monthly revenue

Before 1st of March

- Close at least 5 more clients at higher prices
- Make an additional 3000 USD in revenue from new clients
- Have a combined revenue of 4000-5000 USD every month

Before 1st of June

- Close at least 10 more clients on retainers at higher prices
- Have around 20 clients in total
- Hire a VA to run my campaigns for my US clients
- Have a combined revenue of at least 10.000 USD every month

Before 31st of December

- Hit a 20.000 USD month
- Have at least 30 clients
- Have 2 VA´s working with my US clients
- Move my business to a country where I pay less in tax

 

[Chapas]

Day 28 - The Mother Nature Factor

Another day that did not go as planned. This is a reminder to all of us that we are just all small players in this game, and that mother nature will always be above us.

It has now been over 24 hours since the electricity broke down in not only just our city, but also the neighboring cities. And it is still down. From what I hear they have never had this kind of power outage here in Montenegro. Really good timing for one of my busiest days haha.

Fortunately all of my trial clients are really understanding of the situation. So as soon as the power comes on today (hopefully) I will have to launch 2 or 3 campaigns. Let's hope for the best!

I still managed to have 2 calls with potential prospects. The first call was a personal trainer and she agreed to be my trial client. I will start creating her campaigns next week. The second one was a chiropractor. He needed more clients and sounded really interested. So I am 90 percent sure that I will get him on as a trial client as well.

So at least something good happened yesterday! Honestly, it was kind of relaxing not to have any power. Just to be disconnected for a whole day from the real world. I think this is what you need sometimes. Even though the streets looked like something from The Purge with no lights anywhere haha.

Let's cheers to success, action taking and no power outage anymore though!

 

[Conor506]

Day 29 - Finally Online Again

So I am finally online again. More than 24 hours without power ended last night. I will never underestimate the privilige of a hot meal and a hot shower again.

Most important, we are finally online with my first trial clients Facebook campaign!

Her company runs outdoor fitness bootcamps. Our offer is 2 weeks of free training. So far our numbers look like this:

Campaign running: 20 hours
Budget spent: Approx 5 USD
Reach: Approx 400 people
Landing Page Views: 35
Sign Ups: 5

So far i am pretty satisfied as it is the first campaign I have ever ran. Like FIRST EVER.

The sample is still small and I am still split testing two variations of the ad.

Today I am launching campaigns for two other trial clients as well. One NLP Coach who has a workshop on Thursday (very little time) and one Personal Trainer who needs clients for a 10 week Bootcamp.

Exciting times. Think I am getting addicted to this entrepreneurship thing!

Awesome! Very inspiring to hear your story and now your first results!

I'm about to embark on a similar path myself. I've designed a few wesbsites for people and about to take the last and second test for Google Ads certification.

Was always nervous about Facebook ads but now you've inspired me to maybe try that next depending on how things go with Google Ads.

BTW, 24 hours without power is rough. I've lived in Thailand for ten years now and never gone more than six hours without electricity here.

 

[Chapas]

Awesome! Very inspiring to hear your story and now your first results!

I'm about to embark on a similar path myself. I've designed a few wesbsites for people and about to take the last and second test for Google Ads certification.

Was always nervous about Facebook ads but now you've inspired me to maybe try that next depending on how things go with Google Ads.

BTW, 24 hours without power is rough. I've lived in Thailand for ten years now and never gone more than six hours without electricity here.

Thanks buddy!

I think you should focus on Google Ads first and excel in that. I wanted to do Google Ads myself aswell, but decided to put 100 % of my energy into learning Facebook Ads first. But you should definately give Facebook Ads a go at some point. It seems to work!

It was really unlucky with the power haha. There is 2 main electricity-routes that keep this whole region powered on. And BOTH of them got damaged that day. What are the odds haha.

Where do you live in Thailand? We are actually thinking of going to Thailand for 2-3 months from April or May (if the business will thrive). Would be great to network with you about Thailand and Google Ads/Facebook Ads. I will shoot you a PM one of these days

 

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[Chapas]

Optimizing My Processes And Time

I really feel that I lack structure in my life. Because of that I do not get as much done as I want. Yesterday I spent 2 hours trying to get a client to give me access to her Ad Account so we could run the campaigns. Furthermore, I am doing 2 or 3 things at a time and it ruins my focus so much. So today I have tried to come up with a plan for how to better structure my processes and time. If you have any feedback I would love to hear it!

Processes:

So far I have 4 major processes.

- Onboarding clients
- Creating campaign
- Creating the ad
- Marketing (so far only Cold Emails)

I have outlined the process that I need to do for each one of them in order to save time. I think if it works properly I can save up to 3 hours a day on this. Will let you know and share with you if it works!

Structure:

I really lack structure. I have created a schedule for the next 2 months. It might seem crazy for someone, but I live and breathe this business 24/7 these days, so I am sure I will not burn out. I will also take a couple of days off and travel a bit, but most of my days will look like this broke down into 1 hour blocks:

9:00-10:00
Coffee on the balcony and email/social media replies.
10:00-11:00
Find and add 20 new LinkedIn connections.
11:00-12:00
Eat breakfast and check up on campaigns.
12:00-13:00
Fix/Set Up campaigns and miscellaneous stuff.
13:00-14:00
Send out 10 US cold emails.
14:00-15:00
1 hour of business development (website, content, new marketing strategies etc).
15:00-16:00
Approach LinkedIn connections and reply emails.
16:00-17:00
1 hour of business development (website, content, new marketing strategies etc).
17:00-18:00
1 hour of learning new stuff about FB Ads and Digital Marketing in general.
18:00-19:00
Send 10 more US cold emails.
19:00-20:00
Fix/Set Up campaigns and miscellaneous stuff.
20:00-
Work the rest of the night on what I did not finish.

I have a lot of phone calls in between and I am also helping my wife with her drawing "business" so I might not be able to follow the plans 100 %. But this structure will help me be more efficient with my time!

Oh shit. I totally forgot lunch and dinner haha. Guess I will find time for that someway or another!

 

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[Kid]

Someone wrote on FLF that doing long emails looks spammy.

Their suggestion was to write short (like very short) email as starter
and write long email only to those that have shown interest.

 

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[ChristianS]

Loved to read your thread as I started to reach out for my first Google Ads local lead gen costumers too. As other said, it's very motivating.

I really hope you manage to stay on track. You will be able to live from your business within a few months for sure.

When it's difficult and motivation starts to fade always remember, there are two kinds of pain. One is through discipline and getting things done when it starts getting hard. Happiness will follow after. The other one is lifelong regret! You have to choose.

 

[Chapas]

DAY 1 - Let's restart the journey

Thought I continue in this thread instead of creating a new one. A little recap for the ones that did not read this thread: I created it in December 2018 when I launched my own FB Ads Agency and this thread really helped me to execute and getting stuff done. The FB Ads Agency 'died' off in July 2019 due to a lot of different reasons (moving to a new country, new job, 4 hours commute a day and just a lot of mental stress all in all).

Do I regret it? Maybe a little, but I trust that luck was on my side. My niche was totally 'wiped' out by the Covid restrictions (and still suffers), so if I had continued with my FB Ads Agency, then my monthly income would probably have gone from $$$$ to 0 just as soon as the Covid restrictions in my country was introduced. So in hindsight the 'failure' of my FB Ads Agency maybe was for the best of it.

So what's up right now?

Covid is still with us and will probably be with us for a while. While I wish that this disease could disappear once and for all, it actually has given me one little benefit: TIME. Before Covid I was commuting 4 hours a day (3 different transports) and truth be told, I had no energy to do anything after coming home at 7 and eating dinner - as well as I couldn't do anything before work as I had to get up at 6.

Now I feel like a total different person. I wake up at 7, go for a 30-45 minutes run/walk by the beach and feel ready to start the day from my home office. Not only am I more efficient and get more stuff done at my real job - I also have the whole evening in front of me to work on my own projects. Now it is time for me to actually take advantage of all this free-time. This is an extraordinary situation, and I might as well get the best out of it.

So what's the new business?

My new business venture is nothing ground-breaking and fancy. I have been inspired by many of you in here and will start a web design business (surprise, huh?) that later can be transitioned to a marketing business.

By almost accident I stumbled upon a niche/industry in a specific geographic area that really lacks quality websites that can convert. This niche in my home-country all have amazing websites that are made to convert - therefore, I was a little shocked when I stumbled upon the low quality in another geographic area.

I quickly started to research further and the more I researched, the more I was convinced that I had to give it ago.

I have researched around 1600-2000 companies in this niche, and gathered 400 'leads' with everything from bad to absolutely horrible websites. If every 4th or 5th company in this niche has a site that can be improved, then I have a potential of 10.000 - 12.500 'prospects' - and this is just in one single geographical area. Maybe I should not call it a niche, but an industry instead.

The Goals

I have a little dream of moving to Portugal sometime next year - and therefore, I would need to have my own business or be able to work remote for remote company. My plan/wish is to do both.

Therefore, by September 2021 the goal is to make $4000 USD a month from my web design business.

Without spending ages on commuting now I will be able to allocate 20-30 hours each week to work on my venture (more is also possible if I pick up momentum)

I will create a plan for each single week and post it in here - and try to follow it as good as possible.

Hopefully I will succeed this time and not 'restart' the thread again in a years time with a completely new business venture!

 

[Chapas]

Congratulations on taking action. Moving out of your comfort zone and betting everything on a 3 month window is a great way to gain focus when that has been your downfall in the past.

There are lots of opportunities in the FB marketing niche. You can build a nice profitable business while learning the ropes then apply what you have learnt to your own product in the future. Or of course you might get bit by the bug and end up building and running a large FB agency. There is plenty of scope. I see a lot of successful FB marketeers switch to their own products eventually as they see all the money they are making for others for relatively little reward so get disillusioned and want in on the action.

Obviously you need to learn quickly as you have to provide value to any new clients (you obviously can't just continue to burn their money seeing what works).

I'm kind of in the same boat as you getting back into FB marketing (had a spell doing it years ago but a lot has changed since) but I have a product to launch in Janauary.

Looking forward to your progress reports.

-

Thank you buddy!

It always helps to get out of the comfort zone. A lot of things can be done in a 3 month window if you really work on it. I actually have a feeling that I will get more done in these 3 months than I have in the past 29 years!

That is actually also my future plan. To one day not only help other people with their FB marketing, but also launch a product myself and apply my knowledge to market that product. However, like you say, this path can end up taking me in many different directions - like running a larger FB agency.

I keep learning every day. That is also why I want to help clients within the niche I have researched and focused on, as I feel confident of that I can provide them value here. I do not want to start out with clients I do not feel comfortable with. So I will not take a client on just for the sake of taking a client on. As much as I hate burning my own money, it will hurt me more by burning a clients money. Therefore, I will start with what I feel comfortable with and slowly take on more complex projects when I become wiser and more experienced in FB ads.

Thank you for the great feedback. I guess you have done FB marketing for other clients back in the days, and now you want to apply it on your own project? Best of luck with your launch. You seem to know your way around FB marketing, so I am sure it will work out for you!

I will try to keep this thread updated with a progress report every other day or so

 

[Required]

Watching the thread!

Congratulations on breaking your comfort and taking on the new journey.

I doubt you won’t get there if you take action consistently!

 

[Kyle T]

Super Impressed with the cold email results. Any chance you'd be willing to share what your copy looked like?

I have cold emailed quite a bit without getting any replies, so I have taken some time to study up on the different strategies.

Keep up the great work!

 

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[Chapas]

Day 7 update - Things Are Moving Forward

Today was actually an interesting day. I had gathered 20 leads for chiros and 20 leads for personal trainers. I mailed the 20 chiros at noon, and waited a little with the personal trainers. Here is the status of my cold emails:

Dentists: Saturday I sent out 30 emails to dentists. 3 was interested. 1 was not interested. 26 has not replied yet. Sent my further thoughts and a small document out to the 3 interested. Still waiting for reply. People are very busy right before Christmas, but I expect that at least 1 of them will move forward with it. Friday I will send them a mail wishing them Merry Christmas and telling them that I cannot wait to work with them in the new year (I love assuming that they have taken the offer haha).

Chiros: Today at noon I sent out 20 emails to chiros. So far I have received one reply from a really nice chiro who has been in business for 43 years, and he just wanted to tell me that he already has all the business that his practice can possibly handle and wish me good luck with my journey. So so far 1 not interested. 19 did not reply.

Personal Trainers: I had 20 emails to send out to personal trainers today. I sent out 5 and went to have a little break and get some food with my wife. Within that short 2 hour break, I was completely amazed to see that I had already received 2 responses! Both of them really really interested! I quickly replied them both that I would send them some more information today, and if they could get on a call tomorrow. With so many potential leads and my initial plan to not take to many clients on board to begin with, I decided just to send out 5 more emails today. An hour later I had ONE MORE interested. 3 interested people from 10 emails within 5 hours. That is a rate I would not expect in my wildest dreams. Looks like I have found my new favorite niche!

I did something different when writing the personal trainers. A slightly different approach and a more personalized introduction to catch their attention. Not sure if that is what worked in this case, but I believe so!

I created another really great document for one of the trainers that I will send him tomorrow. It is suggestions of possible campaign ideas I have for him and it kind of explains what I expect from him and what he should expect from me. I want him to read that document before I get him on a call tomorrow, as he would have a better clue about the whole thing and it would be easier for me to explain things to him. I am pretty confident that he might become my first trial client! (happy dance)

Of other news:

- Did not have that much time to study today. I almost believed that I need to take a break from that. I will learn so much more when I actually start to run the campaigns. Cannot wait to start my first campaign and bring results to my clients!

- My IG friend in the fitness niche replied and told me he would contact some people in his network who he thought could use my help. Maybe this is the specific niche I am destined to conquer?

Tomorrow I promised to take my wife to the beach, shop and grab some food somewhere. So the main goal tomorrow is to get these potential clients on the phone and get them in. And check my phone every 2 minutes to see if I get new leads haha.

Oh, and I almost forgot the most important thing. This is for you buddy! @Longinus . 4 big bureks and 2 yoghurts for 4,60 euros. A deal of a lifetime. That bakery is creating so much value for me!

 

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[Chapas]

Day 21 - Yet Another Trial Client

Was supposed to have 2 calls yesterday with 2 potential trial clients. My first call went well and I closed another Personal Trainer as a trial client. My second call did not reply me - wrote her an email and hopefully she will get back to me. So right now the status after 21 days: 3 trial clients.

Updates:

- I have created a Facebook Business Manager (now I just need to learn how to use it haha)

- I have created the campaign and targeting for my new trial client. She likes it so far! Plan to launch her campaign when I am back from Croatia next Tuesday/Wednesday.

- Still waiting for videos from my first trial client. Will hopefully get them this weekend so we can launch her campaign Tuesday/Wednesday next week.

- Finishing up the campaign for my Coach client who has a workshop/seminar coming up in 2 weeks. Hopefully we can launch her campaign tomorrow before I go to Croatia.

- Found 10 more US leads and 10 more DK leads that I will send out to tomorrow.

- Planned my year with the help of Sam Ovens War Map Calendar. Really nice and simple Google Sheets calender that I believe will help keep me more structured. Try to google it!

What Are My Next Steps?

I have 3 things scheduled out for January. While I will still focus on cold emailing Danish clients with this "trial client" offer - I will also start to focus on the US market.

1. US cold email campaign
Start: Tuesday 8th of January
Budget: 25 euros
Reach: 125 people
Time: 40ish emails x 3 days (completed by Friday 11th of January)
Conversion goal: 1-2 PAID clients

It takes a lot of time to find a decent lead for me. I might spend around 5-10 minutes to find a decent lead. If I had to find 100 leads I would spend a minimum of 8-10 hours. I believe I can spend my time more wisely, so I have been researching Fiverr to find a person for my lead generation. Have found one I really think can do a good job. He offers 125 leads for around 20 euros, and so far has really great reviews. I wrote him today with my requirements and still waiting for reply. Hopefully he can find me 125 leads before Tuesday.

I will send out 40 emails a day. I do not expect the same success rates as with my Danish clients, but if I can get at least 5 leads out of this campaign, I believe that I can make 1 or 2 sales. Also depends on the quality of the leads of course, but for such a small price I am willing to try it out.

2. US FB Ad campaign
Start: Saturday 12th of January
Budget: 40 euros
Reach: 1000 people (this number may be way off)
Time: 3 days creating campaign. 6 days running campaign (minimum)
Conversion goal: 4-5 leads (1-2 sales)

I will run FB Ads for myself in order to get some clients. I am working on 2 video scripts now, and probably need one more aswell. This is way out of my comfort zone, especially as English is not my native language + I hate being on video haha. I will try with a small budget of 7 euros a day and see where it brings me. Will run this campaign for a minimum of 6 days, and hopefully I can get some quality leads from this.

3. US LinkedIn strategy
Start: Monday 21st of January
Budget: Unknown
Reach: 275 people
Time: 25 people x 11 days
Conversion goal: 1-2 sales

All credit goes to @EarlOfChina for this strategy. Check it out in his thread: Crushing B2B Sales with LinkedIn

Will try to connect with at least 25 Personal Trainers in the US market a day for 11 days, and use the strategy to create a relationship with them. Hopefully I will be able to convert 1 or 2 of them into PAID clients. I will use this strategy for the Danish market in February aswell.

A lot of action taking needed in January! Will be interesting to see which results I will get from this. My target has been to get 5 paying clients by 1st of February - hopefully these 3 strategies will help me towards that goal!

 

[23Infinity]

Ah drat, I can't send you a PM, I think it's because I just registered. Anyways, I'm a long time lurker here, but your thread is so similar to the path I'm taking I was inspired to finally sign up here and reach out. Also graduated with a degree in business/marketing and have similar freedom goals.

I'm focusing on local clients here in the large Canadian city I live in. Send me a PM or an email address man, it would be awesome to chat, share resources and learnings.

 

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[23Infinity]

Day 19 - Happy New Year

Happy New Year fellow fastlaners! May your dreams come true in 2019 and may you absolutely crush your goals!

Been partly hungover most of the day. The last 3 weeks I have not been able to think about anything else than business - so it was actually nice to actually just lay and watch a movie and some football for a change. Harry Potter and Arsenal - what a day haha!

Updates:

- Tomorrow I have 2 calls. Both with Personal Trainers. They both seem really interested, so I believe that I will at least close one of them as a trial client. Wish me luck!

- Almost done with building everything for my campaign with my first trial client. She needs to film 2 videos this week, and hopefully we can launch her campaign 7/8 of January.

- Another dentist was interested. But AGAIN, she told me that it is against the law to run discounted offers. What is up with this country.... If you guys have any ideas of campaigns/funnels to run for dentists without giving a discount to the customers, please let me know!

Will have to make a small trip to Albania or Croatia this weekend, so will have to get as much work as possible done in the next 2 days. I love the fact that Christmas and NYE are over and that people will start returning to work! Will try to make a post about my goals for 2019 later today!

You could do a "Free Consultation" type of offer, which is what I've seen most American dentists, using established FB Ads agencies to do their ads, do. But I've only seen these ads for high priced services such as dental implants and Invisalign. I was watching a video the other day on the agency's results, I'll have to find and link it but if I remember correctly they spent about $2100 on the ad for that one service and got 69 leads / 12 phone calls. Quite profitable even if they managed to only get 1 customer, given the cost of those services are around $4-6K.

 

[MashaN]

I feel like I am spamming to much with my constant updates. But I feel like it motivates me and keeps me structured to update this progress thread.

Not spamming at all. I love reading your progress posts. Keep them coming!

 

[Strm]

This is amazing! You are a true inspiration and this thread provides so much value.
If you are moving business to pay less tax some time this year- maybe you should consider Estonia. A lot of foreigners are doing this. If you need info, feel free to pm me!

Wish you all the success!

 

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[Chapas]

Loving these updates! Keep hustling and you will succeed!

Thanks buddy. Appreciate the motivational words!

Ah drat, I can't send you a PM, I think it's because I just registered. Anyways, I'm a long time lurker here, but your thread is so similar to the path I'm taking I was inspired to finally sign up here and reach out. Also graduated with a degree in business/marketing and have similar freedom goals.

I'm focusing on local clients here in the large Canadian city I live in. Send me a PM or an email address man, it would be awesome to chat, share resources and learnings.

Seems like we are in the same situation. I will definately send you a PM. Always great to chat with someone doing similar things as you!

Not spamming at all. I love reading your progress posts. Keep them coming!

Thanks mate! I will keep updating as much as possible then!

This is amazing! You are a true inspiration and this thread provides so much value.
If you are moving business to pay less tax some time this year- maybe you should consider Estonia. A lot of foreigners are doing this. If you need info, feel free to pm me!

Wish you all the success!

Thanks buddy. Glad I can inspire someone. Especially after so many people on this forum have inspired me!

Estonian has actually been on my mind. I actually have family living there as well. I have been googling this e-residency thing, but cannot seem to figure out if I should live permantly in Estonia to pay Estonian tax or if you can live there 6 months and travel for 6 months. Will definately be interested in learning more about that!

 

[Vinchedda]

Props on hustling and getting things done!

Reading through every post is very motivating!!

I'm in the process of launching a local service business with an interest in lead generation for other service businesses, specifically with google ads. I plan on learning the process of getting leads through my own service business to be able to provide quality leads for others.

Question: I haven't done any extensive browsing on Fiverr, but If you are able to get 125 leads for 20 euro on Fiverr won't your potential clients have the ability to do the same? Considering leads are what they are ultimately interested in. Just a potential objection I see happening in the future.

Congrats on the progress!

 

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[Chapas]

I knew what you meant! Lol I should've clarified the question a little better. I was more so trying to figure out why a business wouldn't go on fiverr to get a lot of leads for a small amount of money. They can, but the quality of leads and probability of actually closing those leads won't be as good as the leads that you're providing. I like that. Just prepping myself for when a client asks me in the future!

Keep going!!

I get what you mean But our clients want warm leads. Imagine if we got our dentist client 125 leads on random people from their city. No way they would call them and try to sell them something. When we run campaigns for them their are getting highly targeted leads, that already have opted-in and are interested in some sort of way. More expensive leads, but much more likely to convert. But you already know this stuff of course

Btw, just received the 125 leads this morning. Have not checked them yet, but cannot wait to try them out!

 

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[maikooo]

S

Plans for 2019

These milestones seems very very optimistic. However, I like to set big goals as it motivates me more. This year really have the potential for being life changing for me and my family. And I will do my best to make this happen!

Before 1st of February

- Have at least 10 trial clients
- Close at least 50 % of these trial clients on retainers
- Make 2000 USD in monthly revenue

Before 1st of March

- Close at least 5 more clients at higher prices
- Make an additional 3000 USD in revenue from new clients
- Have a combined revenue of 4000-5000 USD every month

Before 1st of June

- Close at least 10 more clients on retainers at higher prices
- Have around 20 clients in total
- Hire a VA to run my campaigns for my US clients
- Have a combined revenue of at least 10.000 USD every month

Before 31st of December

- Hit a 20.000 USD month
- Have at least 30 clients
- Have 2 VA´s working with my US clients
- Move my business to a country where I pay less in tax

"Shoot for Mars, end up on the Moon" Good enough ... wish you success

 

[maikooo]

This is amazing! You are a true inspiration and this thread provides so much value.
If you are moving business to pay less tax some time this year- maybe you should consider Estonia. A lot of foreigners are doing this. If you need info, feel free to pm me!

Wish you all the success!

Interested to hear more about Estonia. Will send you a PM

 

[Chapas]

Sure, so instead of let's say selling filling procedure with 20-30% discount, let them make a special offer where the filling stays the same price, but you package it with dental hygiene (sanding the teeth, etc.) or whatever package makes sense. That might go OK with the law.

Aaah yes. I have seen Chiropractors also using this tactic. I will definately think about this one. It seems to be within the law

 

[Chapas]

They’re not buying the results, they’re buying the process. The results keep them coming back...

...because we can’t guarantee them good results.

You should run from any marketer that guarantees you a certain result.

I have a few issues with performance-based pricing:

1. The PPC manager assumes 100% if the risk. No results? Oh well, the client carries on and the manager can never get that time back. At least with a flat-rate, they can still break even for their time.
2. What’s stopping the client from walking away after they see success?
3. What if the client simply lies about the number of sales generated?
4. If sales dollars are the KPI here, then you better hope your client can close those leads. This is out of your control yet could cost you your income.

*If you're advertising for an e-commerce store, you can disregard #3 and #4.
​

Performance or commission based pricing assumes the marketer 100% of the risk yet relies on having a competent businesses owner/sales team to make something of if work.

Marketers are an integral part of any business. We're not salesmen.

This is a very valuable post, and I agree with you.

I noticed there are a lot of companies in Denmark doing compensation based marketing. I am definately not going to follow that strategy.
Especially the control part here is an important point. There is absolutely no way that I can control how many clients my clients will close. Even though I do not expect my clients to lie to me - it is still out of my control.

I like to point out to my clients that for this to work we need 2 things: I need to perform my best to bring them leads, and they need to perform their best to bring value to the new prospects and close them later on. This is one of the first things I point out, because otherwise it will not work. I can bring 1000 leads a month for a client, but if he or she cannot close them it does not matter. In the end they will fire me, even though it is their fault for not closing.

Fully agree with everything that you wrote here!

 

[Chapas]

Great job Chapas!
Your journey is so inspirational.

Thank you buddy! So happy that my little story can inspire someone. Just like I have been inspired countless times by the various progress and execution threads in here!

 

[Chapas]

Day 38 - Never Put All Your Eggs In One Basket

I have always had this issue. Once I feel things are looking good, I slow down a little. Last time I had this was when I was looking for a job 3-4 months ago. I was so focused for 2 weeks for my third interview with this well-paying job, that I completely stopped the process of looking for other jobs as well. I feel that I can see some of the same mindset problems here.

I have many trial clients now, many good prospects and good leads as well - but I have to move forward continuously. I cannot afford the assumption that I will land these trial clients/prospects/leads as paying clients. And there is no guarantee they will stay as retaining clients month after month. Therefore, I have to keep hustling every SINGLE day and keep finding new leads and prospects.

Also I need to optimize my processes as I keep spending to much time on stuff that I should not have to do. I will write a couple of more detailed posts about how I plan to optimize my processes and how I will optimize my time every single day, to make sure I will work in the most efficient way.

Some small updates:

- Campaign for 1st trial client is looking good still. Changed the campaign objectives and target group. Got 25 sign ups in 10 days. Need to find out how to transition her from being a trial client to a paid client. Only issue here is that I did not set any deadline. So I need to figure out how to tell her that I soon cannot do it for free anymore and then close her as a paid client. If anyone has any advice on this, please let me know! Fortunately, I do not have the same issues with my other trial clients as we discussed length of the trial and the possible future opportunities.

- Killed the campaign for my PT client for her bootcamp as she had to go on vacation. We did not get any signups. However, she is still happy with my work and we decided to give it ago again in March when she needs to find 36 clients for her outdoor bootcamp. I actually think I will do this one commission based. I cannot justify to charge her a standard fee each month now - but commission based I think will be good.

- Finally launched the campaign for another PT trial client. Excited to see how it goes!

- Had a call with another PT prospect yesterday. Landed her as a trial client. Agreed that I will run her campaigns for 1 week, and then we will talk about further opportunities.

- A dentist lead replied me. Not just a dentist. But the same dentist clinic that I used to go to when I was 10 years old haha. It has been a month since I sent the email to them. I might give them a shot, even though I have no idea how to get around these legal issues in Denmark and the fact that I have chosen to focus on the fitness niche now. Will reply them tomorrow!

- Tomorrow is the BIG DAY! I have the second meeting with my first US client. She already mentioned for me that she has a lot of friends with their own business who also needs help with Facebook Ads. So landing this client could be so HUGE for me! Wish me luck guys!

 

[Chapas]

Day 47 - Some Things You Cannot Control

I had absolutely no progress in the last 5 days. I have not been sick for maybe 15 years (I am the type that used to walk around without a winter hat in minus 25 degrees celsius in Moscow and feel perfectly fine). So I always thought that people complained to much when they got sick, because how bad could that be?

Oh, I was wrong. We went to the capital city Podgorica this Saturday for a night, and returned home to our little coastal town Bar Sunday to watch my lovely Denmark win the World Cup in Handball (insane performance). I felt totally fine untill I woke up Monday and I was totally smashed. Like I had been partying and fighting for 4 weeks straight with Mike Tyson. I ended up sleeping the whole day (slept more than 36 hours in a row I think!). Still feeling like shit, but much better than Monday and Yesterday though. Have to make a visa run to Croatia again tomorrow, so hopefully Friday is the day I will start going my 120 % again (if I dont get more sick from the visa run).

Small updates:

- My trial clients campaign is still going well. 42 sign ups in 3 weeks. Will evaluate everything with her in 10 days time, and if she doesnt agree to be a paid client, that must be one of the worst decisions she will make business wise. Hopefully, that will be my first paid client in 10 days time.

- My US prospect said she was looking forward to working with me and asked me to send a proposal. I sent that last Wednesday to which she replied that she would review it and get back to me. Still havent heard anything from her, so I wrote her a follow up email today. Really strange that she dissappeared like this. Hopefully she is not bailing out and has a valid reason for not replying for more than a week.

- Facebook is apparently strict when it comes to ads. As some of you might know from my other thread in here, my wife creates handmade portraits of people and animals. So I just wanted to run some small traffic to Fiverr through Facebook Ads. As soon as I clicked "publicate this campaign" Facebook decided to deactive my account instantly. Like WTF Zuckerberg. Took me almost a week and 3 long emails before their support admitted that it was a mistake and re-activated my account again. Their reason for deactivating my account was that it was not allowed to post adult products or sexual related services. How in the world did they view portraits of people or animals on Fiverr as prostitution is a good question. This just reminds me how important MJ´s CENTS are. There is no control here. Facebook can basically close you down from one day to another.

Basically, we have around 1 month left in Montenegro as I have to be back home in Denmark in the beginning of March. So this month I will hustle the hardest! Plan is to stay one month and Denmark and then have enough capital to move somewhere warmer again. We are thinking about 2-3 months in Thailand as we have some really good friends living in Bangkok. Only issue there is the time difference. Will be tough to have 12 hours time difference with my American clients.

Now I finally feel like a human being again, and I promise that I will update more often, like I did in the beginning. Thank you guys for following my journey so far. I am halfway now from 0 to Freedom in 3 months. So I need to step it up a bit if I want to achieve my goal. I still think it is possible though!

 

[Madame Peccato]

I was worried when I didn't see any update for 10 days. Good to see you back. And good to see you are still out there hustling as if it was day 0.

Keep going strong!

 

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[NMdad]

Well done!

So, 50 emails and 1 who's interested--that's a 2% response rate, which is pretty good for cold emailing. What can you do to:

• increase that response rate,
• increase the number of responses, and
• close those responses/prospects on an initial engagement?

Something else you might try: Join & post to Facebook & LinkedIn groups whose members are your target client. Offer value (i.e., post a few tips/tricks) first, not just a pitch.