- Joined
- Dec 12, 2016
- Messages
- 32
Hello everyone,
It's hard to figure out where to start. There's so much to tell before I can continue with the path I'm on now... (But iff you want you can skip down to the next title)
I'm from Belgium, mid-thirties and work from home as a production designer of steel structures for offices, manufacturing buildings, etc... Cad drawings, production files, cutting and welding instructions. It's with a decent pay, I choose my own hours, I have a nice apartment even though it's not finished yet... I'm still saving to get the last things done, but it's better than average. It's a good investment for when I sell it in some 20 years+.
For about a decade or so I know I need to make money in a different way than by the hour. Trading money for time is not the way to live. I knew it then and I still know it today. It's a crappy feeling every time I need to get behind my computer. I'm good at my job, but I hate the fact I don't earn anything when I turn away from my computer. I've come to hate my job since I can't sit in the couch anymore and watch tv without thinking I could be earning more, I feel guilty when I'm not doing anything at that moment. It's a nagging feeling every time I'm sitting somewhere, drinking with friends, spending an evening with family at the table,... We all need time off to unwind, and yet...
The first time I read TFLM I couldn't sleep for days. My brain went totally haywire. MJ confirmed a lot I already knew. I've had even less free time since then. Especially since I've been convinced for a very long time already that there's a ton of money to be earned online. Either by selling something in great numbers... Or trying to drill into a big market.
However, I've always doubted whether I could earn enough with the small online market Belgium and The Netherlands has to offer (approx. 16 million Dutch inhabitants). I was always envious of Americans (the most obvious big market online). Yes, I live in Europe, but the borders still exist and the language barriers make it even harder. Europeans seldom search for something across the border. Nearly everyone can communicate in English, but when we shop online, we return to our own language most of the time. Warranty is also a difficult issue when buying something abroad so we just try to avoid it or don't think about it when we do order something abroad.
I've tried a lot online as soon as I was past 20 and started discovering what possibilities there were online. I launched different websites, blogs, sold on second hand websites, tried a one-product one-click Webshop with Facebook ads, day trading, buying and selling from Alibaba... The list is long, the results are none. I've always played safe however. I never invested more than I felt (very) comfortable with. The biggest loss I ever encountered were Japanese knives I imported. About 550€ on purchase and shipping cost. There are still a few in my closet. Every time however I knew what I did wrong, I lost interest and couldn't persist long enough. Some of them weren't even the right fit (couldn't reach decent volume overtime), I just wanted to sell things to make money. The nagging feeling kept me going, trying new things, investing time in searching for the next big thing I should try.
To prove to myself (and everyone else) I will eventually make it I did something completely different. November 2016 I took on a bet with the wife of a friend of mine. We both wouldn't drink any alcohol for a full year. There were (and still are) some difficult moments, but after 9.5 months I can tell with certainty I will reach my goal. And if I can reach that goal I can reach any goal I will set for myself.
I also tried to adopt a new lifestyle. I've always been quite sportive, but because of my sedentary lifestyle I've always been on the heavy side. 25 years of playing handball has taken its toll on my body and a tear in a tendon in my shoulder is slowly ending that career. However, power training gave my amateur career another boost. Following a strict training schedule has increased my strength, created a mass of tight muscles around my shoulder decreasing the tension on the tendon and made it possible to add a few more years.
Together with the power training I had to adapt to a different style of eating too. Protein rich to create muscle, but also to diminish hunger. After a year of training and eating I feel better than ever. I look better than ever.
There's so much that I've achieved personally the last year... So much positive vibes that I can build upon... It's quite intoxicating. The nagging feeling is still there, but I want to go forward. I need to go forward. I need another goal in a few months.
My next goal will be the biggest one yet. I want to live in New York for at least a year. It's only been set 3 weeks ago. It won't be for the coming year, but sometime in the future it will happen. I don't know why. I just feel like it's something that I have to do. How I'm going to achieve this is quite related with the path I'm working on now. My next business attempt.
Introduction to my current path.
As a steel structure designer I'm technically well educated. Give me a drawing of a building and I won't have much difficulty explaining what's on it. My practical knowledge is something completely different. There's little time to visit buildingsites, because time is money. A lot of my knowledge about a buildingsite is from hearsay. When in meetings, before, during or after the construction, I get feedback from the sitemanager, architect or even the workers and I keep a note of these things. Mental or written. Big or small. But I've always had a feeling I didn't know enough.
About 3 years ago I started educating myself. Fabrication of building materials, the processes of prefabrication, administrative quirks of the building process, detailed transport, handling and installation of all kinds of materials... There's so much to learn and every time I search for some info I get interested in more.
From day one I've put everything online. It was primarily a library for myself, but since I had to look for it all over the internet I wanted it to be accessible to everyone. It was a simple Wordpress website. Easy to navigate, clear pictures, responsive template.
Over the past years the articles kept growing and the traffic started increasing. I used a lot of the knowledge I gathered the past decade about building websites and generating traffic. I researched possible traffic of topics I wanted to write about and added those with the highest possible traffic first.
Slowly my focus started shifting from 'me' to 'others' since several possible high traffic articles were about topics I already knew a lot about. The articles started to be more about educating others in need of information that wasn't easily available online. At times it felt like a rut, just trying to write the best possible articles. And even though sometimes there was a lot of time between new articles, at different times I crunched out several in a short time period. Luckily, I kept going and the website kept growing.
I had a contact page online for visitors to ask questions or give suggestions for new articles. And once in a while I received an email, but it wasn't a regular thing. Most of the time it weren't suggestions, but questions about their personal problem. Something related to their own building or house... I tried to help them as good as I could.
About a year ago I got my first 'aha!' moment. Someone contacted me and asked a quote of a product I had written an article about. It's not something you can go buy around the corner at the local home depot. I informed them the website was purely informative, nothing more. Several more inquiries followed after that. There was a market out there and my website was channelling it.
So, 3 months ago I decided I needed to do something with that market. I contacted manufacturers and got to an agreement. I'm adding a (similar to dropshipping) Webshop to the website.
However, we're talking about highly customizable building products. It's not just a simple 'add to basket' Webshop. It's so highly customizable, and the weight and size makes calculating transport fees quite complicated. It's to difficult for me to program, so I contacted Woocommerce developers to write a fully custom Webshop with extended possibilities to expand in the future.
If there's one thing different with my previous endeavours, it's that I'm going all in now. It's a massive investment (to me) to get the Webshop built. However, knowing there's a market already gives me some comfort. I also researched the competition. None of them are as flexible as my Webshop will be. The few that there are offer extremely basic options and require written inquiries which result in a personal quote several days later. Mine will instantly generate the right quote.
The path I'm on now.
I met with the developers yesterday.
If all goes well the Webshop will go live the 1st of January. Both January and February are slow months for the manufacturers since it's mid-winter. The ideal moment to sort out the last bugs if there are any.
When spring is in the air all should be fully operational.
When the Webshop generates a consistent basic income I hope to quit my job and write articles full time, simultaneously adding related products to the shop. Eventually, if all goes well I hope to achieve my latest goal, I should have the possibility and freedom to move to New York and run the shop from there.
So, fingers crossed for the next 4 months and thanks for reading.
It's hard to figure out where to start. There's so much to tell before I can continue with the path I'm on now... (But iff you want you can skip down to the next title)
I'm from Belgium, mid-thirties and work from home as a production designer of steel structures for offices, manufacturing buildings, etc... Cad drawings, production files, cutting and welding instructions. It's with a decent pay, I choose my own hours, I have a nice apartment even though it's not finished yet... I'm still saving to get the last things done, but it's better than average. It's a good investment for when I sell it in some 20 years+.
For about a decade or so I know I need to make money in a different way than by the hour. Trading money for time is not the way to live. I knew it then and I still know it today. It's a crappy feeling every time I need to get behind my computer. I'm good at my job, but I hate the fact I don't earn anything when I turn away from my computer. I've come to hate my job since I can't sit in the couch anymore and watch tv without thinking I could be earning more, I feel guilty when I'm not doing anything at that moment. It's a nagging feeling every time I'm sitting somewhere, drinking with friends, spending an evening with family at the table,... We all need time off to unwind, and yet...
The first time I read TFLM I couldn't sleep for days. My brain went totally haywire. MJ confirmed a lot I already knew. I've had even less free time since then. Especially since I've been convinced for a very long time already that there's a ton of money to be earned online. Either by selling something in great numbers... Or trying to drill into a big market.
However, I've always doubted whether I could earn enough with the small online market Belgium and The Netherlands has to offer (approx. 16 million Dutch inhabitants). I was always envious of Americans (the most obvious big market online). Yes, I live in Europe, but the borders still exist and the language barriers make it even harder. Europeans seldom search for something across the border. Nearly everyone can communicate in English, but when we shop online, we return to our own language most of the time. Warranty is also a difficult issue when buying something abroad so we just try to avoid it or don't think about it when we do order something abroad.
I've tried a lot online as soon as I was past 20 and started discovering what possibilities there were online. I launched different websites, blogs, sold on second hand websites, tried a one-product one-click Webshop with Facebook ads, day trading, buying and selling from Alibaba... The list is long, the results are none. I've always played safe however. I never invested more than I felt (very) comfortable with. The biggest loss I ever encountered were Japanese knives I imported. About 550€ on purchase and shipping cost. There are still a few in my closet. Every time however I knew what I did wrong, I lost interest and couldn't persist long enough. Some of them weren't even the right fit (couldn't reach decent volume overtime), I just wanted to sell things to make money. The nagging feeling kept me going, trying new things, investing time in searching for the next big thing I should try.
To prove to myself (and everyone else) I will eventually make it I did something completely different. November 2016 I took on a bet with the wife of a friend of mine. We both wouldn't drink any alcohol for a full year. There were (and still are) some difficult moments, but after 9.5 months I can tell with certainty I will reach my goal. And if I can reach that goal I can reach any goal I will set for myself.
I also tried to adopt a new lifestyle. I've always been quite sportive, but because of my sedentary lifestyle I've always been on the heavy side. 25 years of playing handball has taken its toll on my body and a tear in a tendon in my shoulder is slowly ending that career. However, power training gave my amateur career another boost. Following a strict training schedule has increased my strength, created a mass of tight muscles around my shoulder decreasing the tension on the tendon and made it possible to add a few more years.
Together with the power training I had to adapt to a different style of eating too. Protein rich to create muscle, but also to diminish hunger. After a year of training and eating I feel better than ever. I look better than ever.
There's so much that I've achieved personally the last year... So much positive vibes that I can build upon... It's quite intoxicating. The nagging feeling is still there, but I want to go forward. I need to go forward. I need another goal in a few months.
My next goal will be the biggest one yet. I want to live in New York for at least a year. It's only been set 3 weeks ago. It won't be for the coming year, but sometime in the future it will happen. I don't know why. I just feel like it's something that I have to do. How I'm going to achieve this is quite related with the path I'm working on now. My next business attempt.
Introduction to my current path.
As a steel structure designer I'm technically well educated. Give me a drawing of a building and I won't have much difficulty explaining what's on it. My practical knowledge is something completely different. There's little time to visit buildingsites, because time is money. A lot of my knowledge about a buildingsite is from hearsay. When in meetings, before, during or after the construction, I get feedback from the sitemanager, architect or even the workers and I keep a note of these things. Mental or written. Big or small. But I've always had a feeling I didn't know enough.
About 3 years ago I started educating myself. Fabrication of building materials, the processes of prefabrication, administrative quirks of the building process, detailed transport, handling and installation of all kinds of materials... There's so much to learn and every time I search for some info I get interested in more.
From day one I've put everything online. It was primarily a library for myself, but since I had to look for it all over the internet I wanted it to be accessible to everyone. It was a simple Wordpress website. Easy to navigate, clear pictures, responsive template.
Over the past years the articles kept growing and the traffic started increasing. I used a lot of the knowledge I gathered the past decade about building websites and generating traffic. I researched possible traffic of topics I wanted to write about and added those with the highest possible traffic first.
Slowly my focus started shifting from 'me' to 'others' since several possible high traffic articles were about topics I already knew a lot about. The articles started to be more about educating others in need of information that wasn't easily available online. At times it felt like a rut, just trying to write the best possible articles. And even though sometimes there was a lot of time between new articles, at different times I crunched out several in a short time period. Luckily, I kept going and the website kept growing.
I had a contact page online for visitors to ask questions or give suggestions for new articles. And once in a while I received an email, but it wasn't a regular thing. Most of the time it weren't suggestions, but questions about their personal problem. Something related to their own building or house... I tried to help them as good as I could.
About a year ago I got my first 'aha!' moment. Someone contacted me and asked a quote of a product I had written an article about. It's not something you can go buy around the corner at the local home depot. I informed them the website was purely informative, nothing more. Several more inquiries followed after that. There was a market out there and my website was channelling it.
So, 3 months ago I decided I needed to do something with that market. I contacted manufacturers and got to an agreement. I'm adding a (similar to dropshipping) Webshop to the website.
However, we're talking about highly customizable building products. It's not just a simple 'add to basket' Webshop. It's so highly customizable, and the weight and size makes calculating transport fees quite complicated. It's to difficult for me to program, so I contacted Woocommerce developers to write a fully custom Webshop with extended possibilities to expand in the future.
If there's one thing different with my previous endeavours, it's that I'm going all in now. It's a massive investment (to me) to get the Webshop built. However, knowing there's a market already gives me some comfort. I also researched the competition. None of them are as flexible as my Webshop will be. The few that there are offer extremely basic options and require written inquiries which result in a personal quote several days later. Mine will instantly generate the right quote.
The path I'm on now.
I met with the developers yesterday.
- In September they'll be doing the groundwork, digging through all the information, determining all the variations, setting parameters per category, etc...
- In October they'll do the actual coding.
- November I'll be adding all the data, products, prices, variables per product etc...
- Somewhere in December we'll be doing a lot of testing to make sure quotes are coming out right.
If all goes well the Webshop will go live the 1st of January. Both January and February are slow months for the manufacturers since it's mid-winter. The ideal moment to sort out the last bugs if there are any.
When spring is in the air all should be fully operational.
When the Webshop generates a consistent basic income I hope to quit my job and write articles full time, simultaneously adding related products to the shop. Eventually, if all goes well I hope to achieve my latest goal, I should have the possibility and freedom to move to New York and run the shop from there.
So, fingers crossed for the next 4 months and thanks for reading.
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