Congratulations on progress
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Free registration at the forum removes this block.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.
Hello. Interesting thread. But You still selling time though buddy. Because your new business has replaced your previous job. I would focus on creating a social media following by giving away good content online for free. I would do this for 3-6 months. Build a healthy following. THEN use my posts to target these customers. Also I would arrange more face to face meetings - show them the paid client and the your rep online. Personally I prefer selling products versus services. Good luck!
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 promised myself earlier this year that I will never work for free again.
How is it going for you @Chapas ?
- 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.
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.
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.
3. what one thing you will do differently this time?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:
- 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.
- What’s stopping the client from walking away after they see success?
- What if the client simply lies about the number of sales generated?
- 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.
Congrats! Im happy for you , Wish you all the best and good luck !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!
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.
Thank you so much buddy. And the same to you - may we both end up in the Fastlane sooner or later.Congrats! Im happy for you , Wish you all the best and good luck !
Gracias Martin. Hopefully this part will be just as (or even more) interesting as my first part of the threadI started to reading you since the beginning, so it's nice to see you again on track.
Ah how cool! Fedt med en landsmand her! I know we are a few Danes around - at least I have talked to some before.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!
Great Story man wish you all the bestDAY 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!
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