From 0 to Freedom in 3 Months

[maikooo]

Thanks for the support buddy!

I actually think the bigger you grow and the more you excel at your skills, then the more commission based pay actually makes sense. Right now I do not want to experiment with it because I do not have the cashflow to do it. The variance can be to big. Would be scared to not know if I will make 500 USD or 5000 USD next month.

I remember when I worked in telemarketing (sales). Our company had 3 payment structures:

1. You could work on a base salary
2. You could work on 50 % base salary and 50 % commission.
3. You could work solely on commission

It was funny to see how those working only on the base salary sold MUCH LESS than those working on solely on commission. Those working solely on commission were by far more motivated and were by far better salesmen than the ones working without commission.

I never understood the fact that they gave the option for people to work without commission. How are you supposed to motivate yourself as a sales person if you do not get commission of what you sell.

Long story short. What I ment to say that I also believe that commission based pay can be really effective. You just have to be at a point in your life where you are willing to take higher risks and be 120 % confident that you can hit certain numbers month after month

Agreed, it's about the confidence in your own skills which comes with experience!

BTW, funny you mention telemarketing. My first ever part-time job during the University was partially in telemarketing, but I sucked at it without proper coaching Then my first full-time job after University was in a Direct Marketing Agency which had a huuuuge Telemarketing department. They had a very skilled boss who coached them (sth. like Wolf of Wall Street but on a smaller scale) Those people were "monsters", working on min. base salary + commission ... selling for clients like their life depended on it! I should have put myself through that boot camp. Wish I was smarter then )

 

[maikooo]

Day 33 - How To Make It In America

Anybody ever seen this show? About two young designers/entrepreneurs hustling their way through the fashion scene of New York City. Cannot believe they shut down that show after just 2 seasons! Gutted!

Got carried away. This thread is not supposed to be about tv-shows. Just got a little nostalgic when I thought of the headline. This thread is about some updates on some exciting US news I have to share. First some small updates:

- My first campaign has slowed down a little, but it is still getting sign ups. I have analyzed the data and plan to change the ad sets tomorrow, so we can get even more effective with it.

- My campaign for my Coach client is ending tomorrow. Not one single ticket sale for her event. But what to expect when we launch the campaign 2,5 days before the event and so far only spent around 13 dollars (when a ticket for the event cost 38). This campaigned was doomed to fail from the beginning due to the slow response from the trial client. I was ready to launch it in the beginning of January, and then I believe we could actually have seen some results. Well, it happens!

- I have changed around the campaign for my 3rd trial client. Again we have a time limit here, as we are offering a free training session for Wednesday the 23th of January. Our goal is to get 6 signups. Not easy, but not impossible. Will keep you updated about this one!

- Was supposed to have a call today with a prospect. We called each other twice without getting hold of each other, so we agreed a time for tomorrow and will have the meeting then.

- Another potential lead wrote me if I could get on a call with her this week. Also a PT. Hopefully I can get her on a call tomorrow or Friday.

- 75 % finished with my campaign for my 4th trial client. Pretty positive that we will launch in the upcoming days as well.

- Aaaaaand now for the MOST IMPORTANT NEWS OF THE DAY! I started my US Cold Email campaign yesterday. Sent out 10 emails yesterday and 10 today. Tonight I got an email from an owner of a Fitness Studio in New Jersey: "When can we have a meeting?". SO excited that my cold email campaign is also working in the US. We have set up a meeting for Friday. So excited and also a bit nervous. English is not my main language and havent spoken it for a while. But who needs the comfort zone anyways!

I will soon need to read up and watch some videos about sales and closing clients. I feel that the time is coming soon where I will have to start closing. Very exciting times ahead. Will keep you guys updated!

Sweet, congrats on the results. Your English is absolutely fine! Americans find accents exotic

 

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[maikooo]

Day 35 - God Bless America

It seems like every day keeps getting more and more exciting. Completely have forgotten how amazing you Americans actually are. Spent my sophomore year in High School in Michigan, and havent been back since. Think I need to start making plans to make a little trip over the Atlantic! Some small interesting updates:

- My first trial clients campaign is still going well. We had 20 sign-ups for 50 dollars ad spend. Which is really great! However, 19 of these were women, so I have changed up the ad set to focus solely on women. Looking forward to finding out how it will perform in the next 3-4 days.

- Closed down the campaign for my coach client. 0 signups. That campained were doomed to fail from the beginning. So actually happy it is over.

- Still trying to work magic with the campaign of my 3rd trial client - for her 6 person bootcamp. Still no signups, but I can see the campaign is performing better now than with the initial 5 % discount offer (what a horrible offer btw).

- Finished up the campaign for my 4th trial client. Launching it tomorrow!

- Was supposed to have a call with another PT prospect today. We had to re-schedule for Sunday though. Will 100 % close her there.

And now for the more interesting news:

- Had a talk with a potential PT client yesterday. She was interested, and actually ALREADY wanted to refer me to someone after just a 15 minutes talk. Apparently her best friend owns a big gym, and needs help with Facebook Ads. She gave him my number and he should could me next week. Tomorrow I will create some small ideas for his campaign though, so he already gets a feeling of what I can bring to the table even before we talk on the phone. This could be a HUGE client for me!

- Had my first US call today! It was soooo great to hear the American accent again! Sincerely missed it. This lady has her own gym in New Jersey. I loved her! She is the type that says things straight from her heart and is transparent as water. We spoke for 55 minutes. We even spoke about marijuana, alcohol and animal rescue. Did not even feel like a client, but like a friend I havent spoken to for a long long time haha. Basically she loved my personality and the approach I had towards her business, and even said "she would love to work with me". We agreed to do a screenshare on Tuesday where she will show me how she runs her campaigns now, and then I will get the chance of running her campaigns for 2-3 days - if successful, she will hire me.

GOD BLESS AMERICA! You guys are amazing!

Totally agree with you, Americans are great to make business with - it's either clear yes or no. No BS, just business! Wish you success!!

 

[Jonathan Hoch]

- Had my first US call today! It was soooo great to hear the American accent again! Sincerely missed it. This lady has her own gym in New Jersey. I loved her! She is the type that says things straight from her heart and is transparent as water. We spoke for 55 minutes. We even spoke about marijuana, alcohol and animal rescue. Did not even feel like a client, but like a friend I havent spoken to for a long long time haha. Basically she loved my personality and the approach I had towards her business, and even said "she would love to work with me". We agreed to do a screenshare on Tuesday where she will show me how she runs her campaigns now, and then I will get the chance of running her campaigns for 2-3 days - if successful, she will hire me.

That is not an American accent. If she's FROM Joisey, she speaks her own language.

Congrats on this momentum! It's always exciting when the snowflake of an idea turns into a snowball... Soon you'll have yourself an avalanche of clients!

 

[Chapas]

Agreed, it's about the confidence in your own skills which comes with experience!

BTW, funny you mention telemarketing. My first ever part-time job during the University was partially in telemarketing, but I sucked at it without proper coaching Then my first full-time job after University was in a Direct Marketing Agency which had a huuuuge Telemarketing department. They had a very skilled boss who coached them (sth. like Wolf of Wall Street but on a smaller scale) Those people were "monsters", working on min. base salary + commission ... selling for clients like their life depended on it! I should have put myself through that boot camp. Wish I was smarter then )

Haha. I totally agree. The word MONSTERS is perfect! Those people really are monsters - in a good way. Also wish I stayed there longer. But I decided to move to Barcelona to play poker and do sportsbetting instead. They actually offered me a free drivers licence and a leased car if I stayed with them. But you gotta follow your dreams!

I was never the best sales guy over the phone. I think it also depended on the products I sold. However, I remember once I was selling a health magazine. I sold to 10 customers in a row. That was absolutely insane. 10 dials - 10 sales! Think we had like an hourly wage of 15 USD and around 4 USD in commission for every magazine we sold. So that was a good day for me haha.

Sweet, congrats on the results. Your English is absolutely fine! Americans find accents exotic

Thanks man :-D

A lot of foreigners I meet keeps asking me if I am from the UK or Australia. I have no idea how I have developed a UK or Australian accent. But I guess it is not that bad after all!

Totally agree with you, Americans are great to make business with - it's either clear yes or no. No BS, just business! Wish you success!!

Love Americans! Straight to the point! Thanks buddy! All the best for you as well!

 

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[tbe2018]

How much your package cost to sign up a client?

 

[Chapas]

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.

Thanks for the advice. I totally agree with you. I have shortened my cold emails a lot. They used to be very loooong. Now I have like 2 personal lines, and 2 value proposition lines. That is it.

Will let you know the exact formula if it turns out to be a success!

 

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[Vinchedda]

Congrats on your first sale! Enjoying the progress! and again, very inspiring information.

 

[Chapas]

Congrats on your first sale! Enjoying the progress! and again, very inspiring information.

Thank you for the warm words buddy. Glad you are getting something out of my thread. Will keep going. Still a loooooong way to freedom, yet I can see the light at the end of the tunnel!

 

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[Danczyk]

That sounds very encouraging. I am in web design/sales funnel business and I am going to give a shot in western hemisphere as well. Keep up the hustle

 

[Chapas]

That sounds very encouraging. I am in web design/sales funnel business and I am going to give a shot in western hemisphere as well. Keep up the hustle

Thank you! It might sound a little intimidating going after markets where they do not speak your main language. But people are generally really nice and so far they do not seem to care about the accent and the fact that I am from abroad. I think you should just go for it. Check out @EarlOfChina thread about LinkedIn Strategy. Think that will be a good approach for what you are offering!

 

[Isaac Oh]

@Chapas Thanks for the inspirations! I'm going to start a progress thread of my own and I'll see you on the other side

 

[Chapas]

@Chapas Thanks for the inspirations! I'm going to start a progress thread of my own and I'll see you on the other side

It is my pleasure! Looking forward to your progress thread. Let me know when you have started it (maybe you already have?). I will definately make sure to check it out

 

[Isaac Oh]

It is my pleasure! Looking forward to your progress thread. Let me know when you have started it (maybe you already have?). I will definately make sure to check it out

Started one up here:
EXECUTION - 100 Days of Action Challenge

It's very, very detailed so it might be overwhelming but I'll be updating with more big picture stuff in the future.

Thanks for inspiring me!

 

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[Lee H]

@Chapas thanks for this discussion. It's been really inspiring.

I hope you don't find me rude if I make a few observations/suggestions?

1. Your target niche is generally limited in the number of clients they can handle as they sell their time for money - only a small percentage of PTs have a productocracy.

2. Most PTs have customers already and typically get new ones via word of mouth referrals.

3. Here in the UK PTs typically charge £25-40/hour (yes I know there are exceptions!). If your basic offer is going to cost around $800 that needs to bring in 20 hours of business (@ $40/hr) just to break even.

I think your proposition needs:

A. A lower price initial offering - to demonstrate the value you can add whilst lowering the risk for your clients.

B. Something that helps your niche break the time for money cycle.

C. Target a more scalable, high growth niche.

I'm not saying there isn't lots of business to be won in your niche. There probably is. I just worry that your chosen niche could limit your Fastlane potential.

I for one would be interested in your services when my product offering is ready.

 

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[Lee H]

I totally agree with you that especially PT´s sell their time for money. Lately I have not been targetting PT´s at all - but solely CrossFit gyms and regular gyms.

What I like about PT´s though is the fact that you do not go to a PT once and then never go back. You actually need to train with the PT for a while to get some value out of it. Here in Denmark PT´s usually do not go for less than 80 euros, and most are probably around 100 euros. At least the ones I have been in touch with and know of. The competition is huge though, and there are so many new PT´s coming to the market each year. It is starting to get really oversaturated.

I have actually lowered my prices so I charge around 400 USD for a PT per month. So with an ad spend of around 300 USD on top of that - they actually only need 1 new client to break-even (if this client buys at least 10 hours). That I believe is pretty realistic.

I do plan to look into other more profitable niches later on, however, in the next 6 months I will definately go all out on this niche and try to get to at least 5000 USD in revenue. I think that should be possible.

Really appreciate your feedback!

What kind of product are you creating? Will always be happy to help a fellow fastlaner

I'm an experienced Cyber Security Consultant but I'm in the process of developing a series of products designed to improve Cyber Security Habits in business owners and their employees.

After reading this thread I'm looking at taking some of your approach and adapting it for my own market with a view to engaging with potential clients even before I've fully developed my products.

 

[Chapas]

I'm an experienced Cyber Security Consultant but I'm in the process of developing a series of products designed to improve Cyber Security Habits in business owners and their employees.

After reading this thread I'm looking at taking some of your approach and adapting it for my own market with a view to engaging with potential clients even before I've fully developed my products.

Sounds great buddy! Keep me updated. I used to work in Cyber Security for 2 years as well some years ago. This was on the B2C market though, so probably way different from you are doing now. But really interesting industry!

 

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[Kid]

Congratulations on progress

 

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[Chapas]

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.

Thank you for the kind words Christian. Really means a lot that it motivates you and other people!

Sorry for the late reply. How is your Google Ads journey coming along? I hope you already have gotten your first clients in the last months time! That would be amazing :-D

I am slowly staying on track, though there have been so many more things to focus on the last month. However, we do not want lifelong regret. That is the worst pain we can ever imagine. Thanks for the encouragement. I will try to do an update later today!

 

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[Danczyk]

I promised myself earlier this year that I will never work for free again.

I better work for free then for peanuts because when people pay, they think they own you and demand everything. In my case if I do something for free people just shut up and take what I give.

 

[dawp]

How is it going for you @Chapas ?

 

[diogoatmelo]

Just read through the whole thread. I'm rooting for you.
It's very easy to relate to your struggle.

I do have one question though. You mention:

- Also a lot of the contracts I got offered had clauses about you could not work for yourself or any other companies that theirs. So I realized I could not mention anything about my own business while looking for jobs.

This is a clause in my contract. Mine goes even further and states that I can't have any other remunerated activities!
How did you deal with this? Did you set up your company anyway even with this clause in your contract?

Good luck and keep going!

 

[Chapas]

Just read through the whole thread. I'm rooting for you.
It's very easy to relate to your struggle.

I do have one question though. You mention:



This is a clause in my contract. Mine goes even further and states that I can't have any other remunerated activities!
How did you deal with this? Did you set up your company anyway even with this clause in your contract?

Good luck and keep going!

Hi Diogo. Thank you so much for the support, and apologise for the late reply!

My boss and company are pretty flexible, and before I signed the contract I let them know that I do have my own company, but that it will not jeopardise my work for their company. My argument was that I would rather help some acquaintances with some FB Ads and earn a little extra in my spare time, than to sit and watch Netflix on the couch. He was totally fine with that, and said as long as it was not something that demanded me to be in some other office 3-4 times late at night, then I could basically do what I want.

It is a terrible clause though, and I am not even sure what to advice you. All depends on how much you need that job. I think you can always start up your own company, and I seriously doubt that they will check up on it. I would just make sure to stay low in the beginning and not speak to loudly about it.

I honestly believe that it is an unfair clause, as every employee should be able to own their own free-time. It is understandable that an employer does not want his employees to work themselves to death with a full-time job and own company, but if I want to do FB Ads in my free-time and somebody wants to pay me for it? Then I am definitely going to do that instead of watching some random Netflix on the couch.

 

[BarKogan$]

When creating my introduction thread on this forum, I promised myself that I would start a progress thread within a couple of days. Now I finally got to it. I cannot express enough how much motivation you guys in here give me. Even though I have an accountability partner that pushes me hard, I believe having a progress threads in here with all you bright minds, will make me push even harder to reach my goal.

Short about me for those who did not read my intro thread: 29 years old. Newly married. Born in Russia, raised in Denmark. Masters Degree in International Marketing. Lived in a various of countries due to studies and work. Number of failed businesses due to lack of determination, discipline and action-taking. Dissappointed in myself when thinking about what I could have achieved with my life already if I had not been this lazy.

Fortunately I believe that I have woken up now. I can see my path, and I will pursue it in every way that I can. My wife and I left what could have been a comfortable slowlane life in Denmark - to travel to a little beautiful place called Montenegro, in order for me to launch a business in the following 3 months. Friends think I am crazy. Family thinks I am insane. I do not care. This is my shot at a good future!

From 0 to Freedom in 3 Months. What is freedom though? It is very relative. Freedom is different for everyone. For me freedom is to do something I enjoy, can be proud of and bring something valuable to the people around me and my business. To be able to control my own life, build my future and to live anywhere I want.

If I decided to stay in Denmark and work within my profession I would have a salary of approximately 5.000 dollars a month (3.000 dollars after our crazy taxes). So I decided that the amount to buy me freedom and continue for me to evolve is 5.000 dollars a month. This is the minimum amount I want to earn per month by providing a valueable service to my clients. Easier said than done of course!

Even though my friends would say that we went ALL IN by buying a one-way ticket to Montenegro, I will not totally agree with them. Yes, I am under pressure to perform well, however, the cost of living is cheap, so we have enough covered to live 3 months here, and we will not be homeless in case it does not work out and we need to go back.

Now to the important stuff. THE BUSINESS.

The variety and broad range of my skills have never done any good for me - so this time I have decided to specialize on one skill and try to niche it down as much as possible. I have always had an addiction to keep watching courses and videos, reading to much information and books - and always postponing my actions. This is not the case this time.

I have chosen to offer ONE SERVICE to ONE NICHE on ONE PARTICULAR MARKET.

To break it down, as there is no points of keeping secrets; FB Advertising for the Health/Wellness Industry on the Danish market. (so mainstream, sorry!)

I sincerely apologize to especially @MJ DeMarco as this business does not comply with the CENTS, however, this is something I NEED to create to gain the freedom to create even more valuable and interesting business models in the future.

I am by no means a FB Advertising expert, and I do not plan to learn every information of this field before I jump in to this. I have been studying it closely for the last month, and I believe that I can offer something of value to my future clients. Otherwise I would not do it.

Today I took the first action.

Knowing that I am not in a urgent money need and that I have no portfolio at all - there was only one correct way that popped up in my brain to day to land my first potential client or two. To PROVIDE VALUE and GET RESULTS for the client - and then ask for the sale. My plan was to basically create and run the clients ads for free for a short period of time - while the client would pay for the adspend. Worst case scenario for the client if I do not perform well: he loses 100 dollars (should be affordable for every ambitious business) Worst case scenario for me: I lose the time I have spent on his campaign, HOWEVER, I will LEARN from my mistakes and do better with the same or the next client. I always think in worst case scenarios - maybe I need to focus my thinking more towards best case scenarios.

I decided to create a post on my personal Facebook profile to reach people within my network. Basically I let people know that I have finished my Masters Degree in International Marketing and were now focusing on a more digital approach to this field - especially targetted at Facebook Advertising. And before I could make an earnest living of this I would need to experiment with the things I have learned and master my skills with FB Ads. Therefore, if they knew someone who had a business that needed more and better customers - they should not hesitate to contact me. I also included that my primary focus had been on the health niche, however, if our ideas and vision matched, I would still be interested in a collaboration.

40 MINUTES. 2 LIKES. 1 COMMENT. 0 MESSAGES.

Well I guess I should find another way to reach people I though. And then it kind of blew up all of a sudden. In the next 3 hours I received: 20 LIKES. 4 COMMENTS. 10 MESSAGES.

This is where I instantly knew. This is it. I can provide VALUE here. Market is oversaturated with marketing agencies - but still people NEED help! I will be their SUPERMAN here!

It surprised me though that ALL of them were from total different industries:
- A real estate agent in Spain
- A guy running an Escape Rooms location in the centre of the capital city
- A guy owning 2 sales businesses
- A guy owning 3 SAAS companies
- A guy owning a painting company (not sure if the right word)
- A girl doing NLP coaching
- And last but not least a message from a FB Agency company about a possible job offer

There are some interesting ones around here. I will post the same post on some other channel tomorrow, and get one in my network to post it on her Facebook aswell (more contacts within my niche) and see how it plans out. Even though I am a sucker for SAAS (my heart says DO IT, but my brain says YOU ARE NOT READY YET) - I think I will focus on the businesses I can help quicker and easier and where I can provide the most value.

Sooooorry, for the long post. Got carried away again! Tomorrow I will of course TAKE ACTION again and create a much more detailed plan for the next week. Today I am just proud of myself that I took action. Even though it was not a big step - it was still a step in the right direction.

Thank you again for this amazing forum, the advice and the motivation you create for guys like me. Cheers friends!

Congrats! Im happy for you , Wish you all the best and good luck !

 

[Martin.G]

I started to reading you since the beginning, so it's nice to see you again on track.

 

[Chapas]

Hi @Chapas
I have read this entire thread and have a few questions for you
1. I can infer your life got better as you got a decent paying job is it so?
2. what would happen if you had implemented on this advice by @PizzaOnTheRoof

3. what one thing you will do differently this time?

I believe you should think for yourself first, then you can think of the client.

Thanks for your comment. Cool you took the time to read the whole thread as it is huge, haha!

1. You are totally right - my life got much better. First of all I needed a job in order for my wife and I to live in the EU (there are certain requirements you need to follow when your better half is from a country outside of EU). So it is actually not so much about the salary (even though it is decent) - it is more about the security factor. Had I been by myself I would probably have maxed out my credit cards, jumped on the first plane to Asia and worked on my business. It is crazy how priorities change when you grow up and start a 'family'.

2. Just re-read the advice of @PizzaOnTheRoof and it makes totally sense to me now. This is actually what I am experiencing in my job. I am in control of marketing and lead generation and I am being measured on the process - especially long term focused.

I fortunately never went against his advice as I never did any only-commission based marketing. And I would probably don't do any only-commission work right now (even though there is another thread in the forum where someone has great success with it)

3. The one thing that is different now is that I do not need to stress things and I have room for errors. Back then I was in a huge mess financially and had only 3-4 months to make it work. It was a great motivation, but also very stressful. Now I have bread on the table, a secure job and can work towards one day become self-employed.

Another key factor is that most of the stuff I do and learn in my job, I can copy/paste to my own business. Honestly, I love my job and my boss and the freedom I have to learn and apply a lot of different skill-sets that will come in handy for me in the future.

 

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[Chapas]

I started to reading you since the beginning, so it's nice to see you again on track.

Gracias Martin. Hopefully this part will be just as (or even more) interesting as my first part of the thread

 

[Joxsten]

Just stumpled upon this threat. First time to see a fellow man from Denmark on this forum!

Exciting journey you’ve been on. I’m actually kinda in the same boat. Recently started ny own web design/SEO business.

Can’t wait to follow your progress. No doubt you’ll make it this time. It’s just a part of the journey!

 

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[Chapas]

Btw, any idea for a follow-up strategy with cold emails? I wrote my prospects Saturday. Is it to early to write a follow-up email already today to those that did not reply? And how to write a follow-up email that does not sound to pushy?

 

[Chapas]

Why don't you call them to follow up after 5-6 days?

I would usually call them. But I know that the decision makers are really busy here uptill Christmas. This is actually really bad timing. Nevertheless, things are moving forward with the leads. I will proceed with the interested ones so far, and then follow-up my mail and calls to the others right after NYE when they get back to work.