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How I made $5K in a week, and my present challenges

A detailed account of a Fastlane process...

Tuvo Apps

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Sep 6, 2015
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Hello everyone,

so it has been around 7 years since I discovered this forum, and a lot has changed since then. There has been a lot of ups and downs, and a few times I really wanted to quit. Last year I closed my first $5K deal, which was a big milestone for me. So I decided to let you guys know what I've been up to, and share my story so far.

I'm 22 now, and I started with entrepreneurship when I was around 14. You can read about my beginnings at my introduction thread, but this is a quick summary:

- I always wanted to be successful, always looking for different ways to make money. I read Rich dad poor dad at 14, and soon after discovered this forum
- At 15 I decided to make logos. I got my first client from local Craigslist, made around $20
- The same year I got another logo design client from cold email marketing
- At 16 a guy approached me at the bookstore. I joined an mlm and spent 1 year trying to be successful there. Learnt a lot about sales
- After leaving the mlm I started a lot of "wantrepreneur" projects - Tried to make a revolutionary fitness band, started a few Instagram fanpages, started an automotive YouTube channel, and tried to build an app for teenagers.


Web design

My real story begins at 19, when I read Fox's thread about webdesign. It seemed intriguing, and I had some experience with creating websites. So I decided to stick with it for a while.

I had no contacts, but I needed money fast. So I started cold calling businesses. I did this for a year, called around 100 businesses. Not exactly massive action, but I got 2 clients from that. In total my first year I made $700. I needed a change.

I needed to put myself in a situation where successs is inevitable. So the next year I decided to burn bridges, take all my money ($500) and move from Prague to London. The money was burining through very quickly, so I had no other choice than to take massive action.

I went to business networking events and trade shows, but being the introvert I used to be, I never made any sale. I didn't even talk to anyone at those events. But I was almost completely out of money already, so I had to do something.

So I went door to door, knocking on businesses and trying to sell my marketing package. I did this for a few days, nothing. Then I discovered the Facebook method.

I posted in several Facebook groups, introducing myself as a web designer that is starting about, and friendly offering my services. A few of these posts "exploded", and I got my first 5 real webdesign deals. This literally saved me.

So I was making websites, and by the time I was leaving London, I closed a deal for $700 - a big deal for me at the time!


Found a real need

The next year I got a few referrals, but my main source of leads were still Facebook groups. I picked a niche, and decided to make websites only in that niche. I made around 12 websites by this time. Also I started to meet my clients face to face.

During one client meeting, the guy told me about a problem he has that is costing him a lot of time. He told me his vision - the problem could be solved with a simple software. I agreed to figure it out, and that was my first $3500 deal.

I found a solution, and since I was so excited that I found a real need, I immediately wanted to scale it. I had no idea how, so I went back to cold calling. I called 5 business owners the first day, and set an appointment for the next day with one of them. He was very interested, and 7 days later my first deposit arrived. That was my first $5K deal.


So that was my story so far. It has been a crazy ride, but I don't regret any of the decisions I've made. I learnt a lot during these 8 years, and I still have a long way to go.

I would never be able to achieve any of this without this amazing forum and community! Thanks guys.

Next post will be about the future and the challenges I am facing right now.
 
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JordanK

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Nice work! You persisted longer than many others have and are finally beginning to see results from consistent action over a large period of time. I'm really looking forward to your next post on the future and what goals you will now set yourself.

The confidence you will get from completing this deal will really help you with pitching to future clients too.

@Fox
 

Fox

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Hello everyone,

so it has been around 7 years since I discovered this forum, and a lot has changed since then. There has been a lot of ups and downs, and a few times I really wanted to quit. Last year I closed my first $5K deal, which was a big milestone for me. So I decided to let you guys know what I've been up to, and share my story so far.

I'm 22 now, and I started with entrepreneurship when I was around 14. You can read about my beginnings at my introduction thread, but this is a quick summary:

- I always wanted to be successful, always looking for different ways to make money. I read Rich dad poor dad at 14, and soon after discovered this forum
- At 15 I decided to make logos. I got my first client from local Craigslist, made around $20
- The same year I got another logo design client from cold email marketing
- At 16 a guy approached me at the bookstore. I joined an mlm and spent 1 year trying to be successful there. Learnt a lot about sales
- After leaving the mlm I started a lot of "wantrepreneur" projects - Tried to make a revolutionary fitness band, started a few Instagram fanpages, started an automotive YouTube channel, and tried to build an app for teenagers.


Web design

My real story begins at 19, when I read Fox's thread about webdesign. It seemed intriguing, and I had some experience with creating websites. So I decided to stick with it for a while.

I had no contacts, but I needed money fast. So I started cold calling businesses. I did this for a year, called around 100 businesses. Not exactly massive action, but I got 2 clients from that. In total my first year I made $700. I needed a change.

I needed to put myself in a situation where successs is inevitable. So the next year I decided to burn bridges, take all my money ($500) and move from Prague to London. The money was burining through very quickly, so I had no other choice than to take massive action.

I went to business networking events and trade shows, but being the introvert I used to be, I never made any sale. I didn't even talk to anyone at those events. But I was almost completely out of money already, so I had to do something.

So I went door to door, knocking on businesses and trying to sell my marketing package. I did this for a few days, nothing. Then I discovered the Facebook method.

I posted in several Facebook groups, introducing myself as a web designer that is starting about, and friendly offering my services. A few of these posts "exploded", and I got my first 5 real webdesign deals. This literally saved me.

So I was making websites, and by the time I was leaving London, I closed a deal for $700 - a big deal for me at the time!


Found a real need

The next year I got a few referrals, but my main source of leads were still Facebook groups. I picked a niche, and decided to make websites only in that niche. I made around 12 websites by this time. Also I started to meet my clients face to face.

During one client meeting, the guy told me about a problem he has that is costing him a lot of time. He told me his vision - the problem could be solved with a simple software. I agreed to figure it out, and that was my first $3500 deal.

I found a solution, and since I was so excited that I found a real need, I immediately wanted to scale it. I had no idea how, so I went back to cold calling. I called 5 business owners the first day, and set an appointment for the next day with one of them. He was very interested, and 7 days later my first deposit arrived. That was my first $5K deal.


So that was my story so far. It has been a crazy ride, but I don't regret any of the decisions I've made. I learnt a lot during these 8 years, and I still have a long way to go.

I would never be able to achieve any of this without this amazing forum and community! Thanks guys.

Next post will be about the future and the challenges I am facing right now.

Great work. From no sales, to $700 to $5,000 - that is solid progress.

During one client meeting, the guy told me about a problem he has that is costing him a lot of time. He told me his vision - the problem could be solved with a simple software. I agreed to figure it out, and that was my first $3500 deal.

^ Nice. That is when it goes from a basic website to something super valuable and appealing for a business owner. Nice to see you could repeat and grow it also.

What is next with this and how can I help?
 

Akeem

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I absolutely love reading posts like this and congratulations on your progress so far!

I do have one question, if you don't mind me asking, the deals that you have struck so far - are they one-time payments for the product/service or do you have a subscription model in place?
 
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D

Deleted74396

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That's an incredible story, good job finding a need!! Hope you're enjoying life in the UK :)
 

Tuvo Apps

Contributor
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
200%
Sep 6, 2015
25
50
@JordanK Thanks man! Looking forward to sharing my journey here.

@Fox Thanks. The next step is to scale the web design business to support me financially while I discover more needs for the software to solve. I have no idea how to do any of this :smile: but I have a plan (below)
Also thank you so much for everything you're doing! You've literally changed my life, I can't thank you enough.

@Akeem Thanks! If you mean the software deals, these were only one-time payments. The solution is a software that already exists, and the one-off payment is for adding advanced custom functions and teaching them how to use it. Then they pay monthly fees straight to the creators of the software.

@elusive97 Thank you! I'm actually not in the UK anymore, since all of the clients I got were from my home country and and I wanted to visit each new client personally. That, and I also couldn't afford to continue living in London with the few webdesign deals I got. It was amazing though! I miss London, although I don't miss being in London :smile:


The present

So the last software sale was a year ago. Fast forward to today, I'm still building the solution. It's complicated, because the need can be solved with a software that already exists, but it has a lot of limitations that I am trying to overcome. It can definitely be done with coding, so I've been thinking about outsourcing it to someone.

The challenge I am facing right now is getting more clients to support me financially. Yes, I have been in the game for so long and still struggle with this basic problem.


For the "software", I really want to make this huge.

I have 2 clients so far. The 3.5K one ran out of money after the first deposit, so I am working on the 5K one.

The software for them is pretty much finished, and I got the last payment 2 months ago. However they found out some more functions they would like to have, so I am creating that right now. The owner agreed to pay additional 1.5K when it's finished.

I would really like to scale this, But I have to admit I am scared of it, for 2 reasons:

Firstly, I have no idea how to scale it, since I don't own anything - I only present the existing solution to the business owner, teach them how to use it, and customize it according to their needs.

I have tried cold calling, cold emails and the Facebook group thing from the last post. I got all of my new leads (10) from one Facebook post, but didn't close any of them due to different expectations. People mostly expected a real software that would have a lot more functionality than the one I am offering.

Secondly, I hate saying 'yes' to problems that the software probably cannot do - I only have 2 software clients so far, and it's giving me real headaches.
There are many limitations with the software, the clients are always running out of capacity...
It's seriously stressing me out. I can only imagine how will it look when I have 20 customers.
More about this in my thread "Am I scamming my clients?".

It's just so unstable, sometimes I wish I had started a normal business, where it's as simple as Google ads - great product - sale. I feel like creating some sort of software is a detour from this simple scenario.


For web design, I am still using the Facebook group method or cold outreach to get more leads. After 2 years from staring! I'm so tired of it, I've been using it 2 years ago, and it's like I haven't moved forward at all. I always start at zero.

So I decided to think big. A change in thinking could lead me in a better direction. I have no leads right now, so the plan is to use Google ads for the first time, and finally scale this thing.

I feel like that means making this web design endeavor 'real' - I never had my own business website or anything online, but it's definitely time to make it official.


For other possible needs, next week I plan to visit all of my webdesign clients from one niche, and talk with them about their biggest problems they are facing, and try to help them. I should discover something.

So the plan for this week is:
- Finish my webdesign website and run first google ads.
- Figure out a way for the software to do the things the 5K client wants.
- Contact a coder I found online. He should know how to make the solution possible, if he does, I will outsource it to him.
 
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