Humble Hustle & Scaling My Agency - Progress Thread

[BlackMagician]

G'day All,

I forgot to tell all of you one good news about my life.

I Married.
1st week of June was wedding ceremony. TFF is my another family so it's obvious that I share the good news with my fellow entrepreneurs. Kindly give your blessings

Marriage life is going good. It's just that its little difficult to balance after marriage life and my work. Well, everyone goes from this phase. Just that I am hustling right now that's why its little difficult.

But! I am actually quite enjoying the thrill. Now I have someone I think about whenever I procrastinate. The fire inside me has become bigger!!!

haha. ok, small talk over.

If you haven't done so already, follow up to their message with a question after every time they reply. Get them talking. For example, "What are you hoping to accomplish with the rebrand?" Or "are you looking to continue running Facebook ads during the rebrand process?" Or "What are your main traffic sources for leads at the moment?"

As long as you keep asking questions, and they keep answering, they are engaged and building trust with you. If they start ignoring your questions, that's different....but see if you can get them talking.

You've got this!

Yup. I am following up with everyone of them. Until I hear NO from them, I will follow up. As i said, it seem i use to close the conversation myself. Thanks for the pointers. Never learned that. I am now using questions to keep the conversation going.

@BlackMagician get them on the phone and work to provide them value (not just land them as a customer). find something you can do for them. ask them what they would pay for 'x' and then just get started.

nice job. 1/5 = 20% response. that is great.

You asked to get them on phone? heh. Here it is!



So this brand has a crappy website. I recorded a video as per the script I shared above and showed them 4-5 points which will drastically improve there customer acquisition. I followed up with them 3rd time today and they responded.
This shows the follow-up power.

Tip: Follow up on different channels. I msg them on FB, no reply. Chat, no reply. Instagram msg, got reply.

now make 95 more pitches and close 10 deals!!

I will.
95 videos.
5 Videos Per Day
20*5 = 100.
20days to send 95 videos, or less than that.

You won't believe, but I have been feeling down today thinking that this video approach takes too much time and is not producing results, but got the above response and felt thrilled. I know this is not something big to be thrilled but i needed some kind of market echo at this stage.

"That's great to hear! Let's talk about your project then... how is Tuesday at 1pm?" Then when you get them on the phone, have a package deal, offer, idea, etc ready to sign them up for

I am still thinking on how should i present my offer but lets see. I will present and learn, then optimize accordingly.

---------
I will schedule a call with the prospect i got a reply from tomorrow and lets see where it goes.

Apart from that, I have been creating my online presence on Instagram, FB, LinkedIn.

I took advice of @Andy Black and joined few groups of my market. I am trying to help people there with my expertise. Goal is to help at-least 5 people per day.

I am also following @EarlOfChina steps on LinkedIn(started today) and building connection and sending videos to founders.
So as now, my daily work looks like this:

• Record 5 videos and give massive value to the brands. Send it.
• Build Connections on LinkedIn. Engage with them and help them with small talks.
• Help 5 people in groups using my expertise of Advertising and scaling business.
• Follow ups with prospects.

I have been trying to follow 80/20 rules and primarily focusing on activities which generate sales.

Let me know anything else I should be doing at this stage.

Goals Update:
Clients: 0
Revenue: 0
June Goal: 80k

 

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[Andy Black]

Need help guys in making decision.

you guys remember FOUNDER of BM Agency whom I worked with for past 1 year as a contractor with percentage?

So the guy (he is good person) called me today suddenly after I left his agency past 2 months.
He talked about how things are going good in his agency and how great he has become as a leader.
He mentioned that he has become a sort of CEO maker and has this idea of helping early start-ups.
He knows that I started my own agency.

He said, many start-ups don't know many things. How to get clients, hiring, training etc. They get stuck or don't know where to go.
He said he has process and systems + expertise which will help start-ups in their early stages as well as growth stage.

He is thinking to start with 5 early business like mine and help them grow.
Like 3x.
He will guide, do coaching every week and all 5 business will share their insights and learning openly.

It will be a sort of community for start-ups where nothing is held back and people share.

And other points similar to these.

I asked him what is in for him, he mentioned his team will take stakes.
I asked how much, he said he doesn't have any numbers but how 20% sounds?

Now, I don't have much revenue so what does he sees in me that he wants stake?
Is 20% a lot? I feel my journey will be very different compare to most of agencies because I have figured many things because of tff forums and you all guys. Like Millions INR in 2 years?

Should i even think of joining?
He mentioned that he and his team will figure many things and help us in many process and we just need to execute. But I feel I have already figured out many things from getting clients to giving results and scaling.

This may or may not add much value to me.

What do you guys think? Asi don't have much knowledge regarding stakes n all. I thought to ask you guys.

I don't want to miss any opportunities or get stuck with something unnecessary which I might regret later.

Tagging you guys who helped me last time in making the decision.
@Rabby @MHP368 @Roz @ZCP @Andy Black @MJ DeMarco @LightHouse @Kyle T @Madame Peccato @Bekit

Edit: he said the most valuable part from his would be Coaching/sessions he will take and responsibility while working. His team will make sure I implement what I learn.
Added chats.

He says it’s a no-brainer, but it’s not a no-brainer to you right?


“this should be a quick decision.”

It feels like he’s pressuring you.


My litmus test is Derek Sivers line of “Hell yeah, or no.”

Just my personal take.

 

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[BizyDad]

G'day All,

I am back with lots of battle scars, tons of failures and going back to square one after my last post.

The journey has been hellish, mentally, physically and emotionally.

In Sept 22, I posted about my agency progress, doing okiesh with everything in life.

Then I fell ill in Sept 22. Got admitted in hospital for a 15 days and found that i had Tuberculosis (T.B).
After few days, and couple of more test, doctors found, i also have HIV.

From there everything crashed. I never had intimate relationship with anyone before my marriage and my wife is HIV negative but i got HIV positive. I don't know how. Well that sucks.

Every damn thing just crashed hard.

I was not prepared for anything like this. Anyhow, because of strong mental capacity, the HIV thing, didn't have much impact on my mind and emotions, but physically, i was destroyed, due to both T.B and HIV.

So a long hustle of medication started to cure T.B asap, which dramatically reduced my ability to function properly.

I always had high fever
I was not able to sleep long
Constant body ache, weakness, dizziness
Only 3-4 hours of mental energy to function

Hence i took the decision on pausing the agency altogether, telling my clients goodbye becoz it became difficult to function in my day to day activities.

Also, due to no preparation and zero savings, I also had to earn food for my big family (8).

Hence i started looking for job in agencies and found 1 after a month.

Due to health, i had to take this and started working in the agency, remotely, with minimal input from my end.
The agency owner was a friend connection so he helped me initially with work load.

i scraped by someone how in those 9 months, financially.

Simultaneously, due to no savings, I was constantly in pressure to earn my bread, which also made my family very restless (parents) because its only me in my family that earns. My family was very supportive and worry constantly about my health and my work.

At the same time, my family and my wife started having issues between them and the relationship started getting sour.

I somehow managed (we live in joint family here in India)

4 months back, i had a cute and lovely baby boy. My first child.

Almost everything was going wrong. I also stopped doing any spiritual work i used to do.

It's been 11 months now since then.

I have recovered my health. T.B is cured. HIV medication is going (there is NO cure).

2 months back, i again took decision of leaving the job and start working on my agency again.

Right now i have 2 clients in hand that pays the bill.

Relationship between my family and wife is still sour but i am handling things somehow.

Mentally and physically i am ok but still fog/stress/depress and weak body.

I will give a detailed update on my status on BIZ and what i am doing/going to do to grow again in next post.

Right now, i just wanted to say HI to all of you once again that i am back

Posting here about all of these to unload my mind a little and start using the forum for positive feedback loop and accountability from you guys.

You guys have been a morale support for me and I am thankful for that. Kindly be responsive on this thread that i will revive and again strive to achieve my goals/dreams.

Just wish me luck and give your blessings.
@Kak @Andy Black @MJ DeMarco @BizyDad @Rabby @Bekit @ZCP @MattL
Tagging all of you who were following this thread so that you can share your inputs on this.
It could be possible that my current mindset is wrong so you can point me. I am open to all feedbacks, criticism and support.


Until next time
Thanks
Sayonara
BM

Your update was a punch to the gut. This is some of the hardest challenges in life we can face.

You are displaying remarkable and remarketable perseverance. I am amazed.

I believe you are going to find a way to take this burden and show people what overcoming obstacles really looks like.

I look forward to your further progress reports.

 

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[BlackMagician]

Thanks for this.

I have been active on the forum, just didn't updated the thread because I want to update when substantial things have been done.

FAMILY:
I boldly took action and told my family that I will take decisions regarding my wife/son. That dramatically decreased my stress.
Also mended the relationship between wife and family substantially.

After discussing with other elders in my contacts, i understood few points about handling situations like these.

Health:
I started having Unani herbs/meds to improve my health. Can feel clear mind, increasing energy. I will start workout after a week or so.

Agency:
Cracked 1 deal today. Remember I was doing trial work for them? They liked my work. 2 clients in hand now. For next month, I will be earning around ₹80k so the financial crisis will be solved.

1 more deal in the pipeline, doing the same trial run for them, I am confident to crack this too in next 15 days.

Another major update is about an old connection. So this guy runs 8 figure babycare brand, and I have worked for his brand in 2020 while working in the agency ( you might need to go back 3-4 pages of this thread to find that out).

As I started creating my own personal brand on LinkedIn, this guy approached me. We communicated in call, relished those 2020 growth days and how i scaled their brand 3x in those times.

He told me that he is looking for someone who can scale his Personal care segment. His babycare segment is already doing ₹3CR+ per month on website and ₹10CR+ on marketplaces.

He wanted me to do an audit on his current Business performance from DTC.

Today I presented that. Showed exactly where they can improve the results in babycare ads.

The guy is convinced and I might get this brand to scale his personal care segment.

If I crack this deal, I will be doing 10x of what I was doing last year before I fall sick.

Let's see. In touch with them and adding values everyday in his business already.

Showed him 3 critical problems in ads, WhatsApp marketing and website conversion.

Remember this thread title? "Adding value".

Personal Brand Building:
I have been consistently posting on LinkedIn, sharing valueable content and making myself an authority in Personal care niche here in India.
Multiple founders now know me and they are interacting with my content on daily basis. Getting queries from few of them, to whom I am saying NO if they are not my ICP.

Trying to make this personal brand a successful organic lead-gen machine.
In the meantime, creating team to execute on client tasks.

Already approached couple of ads designers media buyers. Just trying to find 1 media buyer who can perform well then I can grow this fast.

If I crack 1 more deal this month ( I am confident) next month, I will start saving cash so that I can hire good talent and grow this fast.

That's all from my end. Thanks for following up and watching my performance from side. To all of you who are struggling, just keep going. Ask for help and advice and relentlessly execute.

Until next time
Sayonara
BM

G'day all,

It's been more then a month since my last update.

Business:
I got paid from 3 clients (₹1.5lakhs) all profit. This stabilized my financial thing. I saved some cash for future. At the speed I am growing the agency, the chances of reaching ₹3lacs in 2-3 months would be possible, which is very very good money in my current scenario. Ofcourse the goal is 100x bigger and so the mindset.

hired 2 media buyers and 1 ads designer.

Personal Brand Building:
The reason of my fast growth is personal branding. I consistently added so huge values to others in the last month that 5 of my post went viral.



Already people started mentioning me as one of the top performance marketing value provider in India.

7 brands whom I have almost closed, they are just on the final stretch of decision making.

More than 20 leads are in pipeline.

50+ ecom brand founders, 50+ agency owners, 200+ marketers read and appreciate the value I provide. These people will be my future target.

I am not onboarding couple of brands because I don't have bandwidth to serve them, hence working on internal efficiency and building team for next 2 months and simultaneously taking clients.


Family:
I have sorted the issues with my wife and family at some level and they both are living okish now. I took advices from you all and many of my elders and made many personal and external decisions.

Health:
Taking my medicine properly for HIV. Looking for that miracle cure that just doesn't exist but in my religion, we learned that Allah creates the cure first, then the disease. So just hopeful.


Few learnings and insights to add value to you all:

1) Your mindset IS the ultimate thing that is going to make or break. I use to be jumbled up and emotionally down because of my family and health and hence was stuck in my dreading life past 1.5 yrs.

I am very emotional guy, so even I tiny skirmish put my emotions off.

So I made a decision to separate my emotions with the issue and handle the issues.
Work should never be impacted due to these.

This dramatically improved my productivity, efficiency and speed of execution.

2) Consistency on and action plan: As MJ preaches, action plan or execution plan is very very important. Mental masturbating or doing busy work won't cut. You should have an action plan that map out everything you NEED to do to achieve your goals...
...and then be CONSISTENT on executing on them.

3) Market echo feedback is real:
In 2021, when I just started my agency, I use to provide valueable content on Facebook.
I use to get some traction but nothing substantial. After like 8 months, no growth was there. Market was giving my echo that this is wrong platform, I didn't took that feedback.

Just 2 months ago, I started providing similar value on LINKEDIN, and my growth exploded.
I took market feedback on what's working and gave that exact value and got 5-6 viral posts in just 2 months.

Listen to the Market echo.


That's all for now friends.
Thanks for being there and reading my posts from somewhere far from you.

Next goal is to scale the agency asap to ₹3lacs -₹4lacs PROFIT and then pivot it into creating my own OFFER and serving a bigger market that fits CENTS model.

Until next time,
Sayonara,
BM

@Black_Dragon43 @Antifragile @Andy Black @BizyDad @Rabby @Bekit @ZCP @MattL

 

[Akeem]

I've skim-read all your posts and had a quick listen to your phone call. All I can say is confidence, confidence, confidence.

There's much more to learn than just confidence but when it comes to cold calling, confidence is key. I remember my first cold call, it sucked but I got somewhere all because I had confidence and kept throwing it back at the client. He eventually ran out of questions and realised he'd been convinced and agreed to a deal.

A few pointers:

• Confidence is essential. Nobody gives a sh*t about you or your product/service if you don't have confidence, sulk it up and talk loud, clear and confident.
• Know every aspect of your product/service and adjust your 'script' accordingly when calling different clients. If you're calling a restaurant about a new website, include benefits which will actually impact the client's business. Selling websites, graphics and everything else is easy, actually designing them to attract users is hard. Focus on your product/service and know it inside and out.
• Know the answer before they even ask. All this means is be prepared. Write a ton of questions down and assume they'll ask every single one. My personal advice to you is to implement basic answers into your initial introduction.

There's so much more than these pointers but it's a good starting point.

Good luck

 

[BlackMagician]

G'day All,

Quick update:
Tried to fix a meeting with a catering service lady, but she was busy so missed that yesterday.

Instead, I met with 500k likes fb page lady. What a meeting... She scheduled the meet in one of the top Business magazine event she was attending in a 5-star hotel! I don't know how others will think, but for me, a guy who lives in slums, it's something grand! The lady has some crazy connections in women empowerment & business communities across India. She had been Asia's marketing head of a company I don't know.

Never imagined would be able to make connections with such high level people. Really...

They say, you need connections to succeed. Hell, if we are here on this forum, we can learn whatever is needed to get that CONNECTION!
I am thrilled. The coincidence was, one of the Bollywood Top actress was the Guest of Honor. My 'Luck'.

he he.. Sorry I wasted your time... Back to business...

As she is not earning anything as of now from her page, we fixed our deal for 10k/month to do SMM for her. On top of that, I really felt her sincerity in the social cause and offered her to design her website for free.

Lets see where this hustle will take me.

Thanks for reading this.

Edit: I think this deal will start from next month, april.

 

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[BlackMagician]

Another update is, the lady of save the girl child Foundation approached me last saturday for live fb interview with her friend who runs another women business group. She wanted to spread awareness in her group on how hackers can hack and how to protect ourselves online.
I have some cyber security experience so i met her and we did a live session on fb. Around 2k people watched and asked various questions to me which i gave responce to.
The session was very good but shocking thing is so many people doing business don't know how to protect and be safe online.

At the start of the session, me and my business was introduced. I am hoping to get Web design and digital marketing business from there.

It was very good experience as i never did public speaking. I learned a lot and experienced much. Was little nervous initially but gain track as we continued.

I swear, if i haven't changed my mindset with the help of forum people and specially, Sir @MustImprove gold thread, I would never have able to do it.
Thank you everyone.

Irony is, I am the only guy in that women business group
They has asked to do some kind of workshop where i teach them.
Hope to get more business from there.

 

[ZCP]

@BlackMagician you don't need me to tell you if it is correct or if you should do them.

do them and report back.

make your massive actions more defined and clearer. like how many calls will you make? how many deals will you close? what time frame will you complete them?

name that person. @BlackMagician The Super Closer. The Funnel Builder. The Warrior. .... get in that mindset each day and get this done!

 

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[Vigilante]

Life is becoming awesome. There is no travel of 2 hrs to a dead job. There is no Monday to Friday. No Sat & Sun. I work all 7 days. I work in the morning. In the nights. Staying home, spending so much quality time with family. Getting emails from clients about good results and appreciations makes all the work paid off.

Life has become so much better that I can't even describe.
Feeling a little emotional. From being in mediocre and depressed to the current myself is a difference between heaven and earth.

Thanks, TFF. Thanks, TMF , UnScripted . Thanks, @MJ DeMarco @ZCP @Rabby and all the GOLD/Notable Threads.

This. This is life. You are the reason I am here.

 

[Bekit]

G'day All!

Got 1 reply from 5 businesses i sent value filled videos.
View attachment 38454

Let's see where it goes. Any feedback on how i take this ahead? It feels to me that I am not a good conversation starter as of yet and need to improve that skill.

Today I wasted time being distracted. But at-least pulled through some tasks.

I am sharing my goals also:
View attachment 38456

I only have 14 days to land 2 clients. BTW those numbers are in Indian Rupees, not $.

Goals Update:
Clients: 0
Revenue: 0
June Goal: 80k

I have to be more disciplined to achieve my goals now.

Feedbacks/ Advices are welcome. @Rabby @Roz @ZCP @Kyle T @Bekit
@LightHouse you asked for the update few months back I was not able to update. Sorry for that. I hope you continue to follow my progress as now its getting more exciting...

Thanks for reading.
Sayonara,
BM

One reply out of 5 is great! It shows you're doing a lot of things right.

If you haven't done so already, follow up to their message with a question after every time they reply. Get them talking. For example, "What are you hoping to accomplish with the rebrand?" Or "are you looking to continue running Facebook ads during the rebrand process?" Or "What are your main traffic sources for leads at the moment?"

As long as you keep asking questions, and they keep answering, they are engaged and building trust with you. If they start ignoring your questions, that's different....but see if you can get them talking.

You've got this!

Rooting for you!

 

[BlackMagician]

G'day All!
How are you all? kicking asses?

I stopped prospecting after onboarding the 3rd client because I want to give them delightful results.
So the plan is to give them the desired results by myself and onside i hire someone to do the advertising part in my place.

So 1st or 2nd month, it will be me who will do the actual work, record the steps, create checklists and systems. then in the meantime hire someone to replace my work of advertising without dropping the value to clients.

This is so that new people in team can perform with the system and process in place.

Right now though, its very very hectic, hard work and draining. I am not complaining. I am actually enjoying it (reason mentioned below).
Just that to scale the agencies, you need people smarter than you while you focus on building the business.

Client side:
All 3 clients ads has been started.

They wanted us to start the ads on offers because we have multiple festivals in this month.

Client 1st:
We rebuild the whole website from scratch while focus on high converting elements.
Just launched the sale yesterday so nothing to show. I have high expectation though.

Client 2nd:
This client ACTUALLY has productocracy! I just love this brand. I am sure i can take this brand to 6-7 figures in coming year.
This client has prepared a long sale from 15th Aug to 23rd Aug. They get lots of organic sales starting 2-3 days of sales so we can run the ads after that. I said ok.

I created a full fledged plan from changes on website, email marketing, content and ads. Main focused was to increase conversion on website and increase order value.

I guided their developer on major changes to be done on website to improve conversion. Their checkout process was lengthy. Shortened them to 1 step.

On the night of 14th, before the launch of the sales, i hop on a call with the founder to setup order bump. Their developer was on leave.
I guided them to integrate order bump on checkout. Basically an upsell of small price product before payment. They didn't even knew about doing upsell. They never upsell anything before.

They were delighted that i came on call and helped them so late in night. Anyhow...

Next day, we saw that 15% of the revenue is coming from order bump! Whoops!
Organically, they got 4 lakhs of revenue and in that 15% was of order bump.

Same thing happened on next 2 days. Voila...
Then I launched ads on 18th Aug as scheduled with all the marketing wizardry i knew

Here are the results:

COLD Audience: 6.5x ROAS
Warm: 12x ROAS
HOT: 19x ROAS

Holy moly!
Even i didn't expected.

I know this results will drop on big budget but this is HUGE!
now you know why i am enjoying doing the work myself.

Client 3:
Same thing as client 2. Huge website changes to increase the conversion. I actually FORGOT to add upsell on this client before the launch. Damn! there goes 15% of the revenue.

Launched the ads. Here is the result:

Damn facebook didn't track properly. You know how its going there right?
So I checked the website and compared the data and found that we got 62k INR revenue.
That's double on whats showing on FB.
After calculating, we got 4.5x ROAS on this.
That's 400%.
Whoosh!

------------------------------------------------
Now i am focusing on building the brand awareness through video marketing and actually create a name for all 3 brands. Whole lot is going behind this process from guiding the client to create best of best videos to marketing them.
Though haven't actually started running ads for building brand repo and creating long lasting relationship with customers, but that's the plan i am working on.

After the offer sales for all 3 clients are over, I will focus on building relationship with audiences and build authority.

On side note, i am searching for someone to work on running ads and good with copy so that i can delegate the main work. Looking for an Indian for clear and better communication. Already posted on different groups and places. No response yet. I guess no one is interested? I am giving WFH! Top level coaching! Why the heck i can't find decent guy? (grinning evilly)
Also searching for Email marketing person to handle the backend.
I have created templates for email marketing funnel. This I learned from Chase Dimond and I hope they will work. As soon as i get someone good with email, will coach him/her and start working on email marketing funnel.

P.S- I have yet to create my business bank account!

Thanks for reading. Feedbacks are welcome.

Sayonara,
BM

 

[BlackMagician]

G'day all,

August has been a month of decision-making for me.
First of all, my wife is pregnant! I am so excited about this. I am sharing it here in TFF only.

I also fired 1 client who was soul-sucking.
Also onboarded 1 more client this month. I will rock this.

I am also looking to hire a good Ads designer.

After working in the ecommerce space, the major problem with brands is that they don't have a process to get good ads made or get great shots for ads. They either get makeshift content that doesn't work or hire another graphics design agency that actually doesn't know how to create high-performing ads.

Fulfilling this problem will not only serve the client well but will indirectly help run successful ads.
So i might set up the team around designers and media buyers in the next 2 months.


August Profit:
₹100k (1 lakh)

Sept Goal:

₹80k from current clients
₹70k from new clients
Total: ₹160k in profit(Because I alone am working on these, there is no expense as of now.)

I am also thinking of pivoting into the coaching business, teaching freelancers and agency startups how to get client results.
But that's just an idea. I don't want to get distracted until this one is settled properly.
This is due to the fact that the agency business has many moving parts. In my ads model, almost everything is customised per client, making it difficult to achieve a productized model. It's until and unless I combine my learnings into assets and sell them.
Then that also becomes a type of coaching biz.

Anyhow, that's just long-term thinking. I will continue doing what's working.

That's all for now. Thanks for reading.

Until next time,
Sayonara
BM

P.S. : I'm hoping to join a small, 4–7 person accountability and sharing group, people who are ahead of me in the game. Do let me know if you are in a group like that and can add me.

 

[Antifragile]

G'day All,

Here is the update on biz:

After i left the temporary job 2 months ago, I took 1 client to pay the bills.

Started building my LinkedIn personal brand (i had done similar on Facebook last year, so I knew what to do.
In the first month of creating content, building network and giving out tons of value on LinkedIn, I got 4 brands who wants to work with me in the pipeline.

Right now, i am doing 15 days trial for 2 of the brands, and if I gave good results, they will onboard with me. I know i shouldn't have done the free thing, but these brands i know personally and they are doing good. They are spending close to ₹1 M/ month on ads so if i cracked these 2 clients, i will get my revenue from ₹40k (right now) to ₹150k instantly, hence doing upfront work for them.

I have already built a great repo with them so they are already in bag, just need to prove with results.

Apart from them, 3 more brands are in pipeline, to who i can crack the deals with proper case studies. Possibly end of this month.

The reason i got 6 brands in pipeline in just 1 month of content on Linkedin is because:
1) My offer is good. I am focusing on 1 NICHE only with great case studies
2) I am adding tons of value upfront on my profile (literally giving the exact ads/videos/copy/strategies working for similar brands for free)

Current Challenges as asked by @Antifragile :
1) Discipline and Consistency: Due to huge gap in execution, I need to rebuild myself for discipline and consistent execution. Thats why restarted the thread to stay disciplined as you guys makes me accountable.

2) Creating Ads: As i am not from Design background and dont have team, i am not able to make high performing ads (I know what to make, but no skill in making). Most of the current clients/future clients will need my agency to create ads.
Due to no funds/cash, couldn't hire someone to do this. Also very low pool to get great designer. Difficult to find who can follow the market needs. I don't know what to do. Right now, i am managing this through mobile apps that are easy to design ads. Any suggestions or feedback is welcomed here.

3) Fear: Right now, I have zero savings. Whatever i get from this 1 client, i am putting food on the table. Its 2nd month now and i need to get 2 more clients atleast to stabilize my mind, energy and remove fear.
I can resolve this problem. Not a big thing. Just need to be consistent with what I am doing. Please pitch in if you think I am being overconfident here and can give another perspective of yours.

4) Health: I am still on medication. Will visit the final test thing tomorrow and see if I am cured of T.B. If that is removed, than I will start building my immunity and physical fitness. Been 1 year i did any sort of workout.

5) Relationship with Wife and family: As i mentioned in previous post, my wife and family relation is little sour. Not too bad but still has an impact on my emotions. I got in touch with my elder (a great person) yesterday, and summarized him all the family issues. he gave great wisdom to tackle them and making the relationship great again. I have started executing on that and already seeing positive outcome today.

That's all on problems and challenges.

Future plans:
1) Need to reach 3 clients and ₹100k (1 lakhs rupees) revenue asap (next month max)
2) Will keep posting and creating content on linkedin and fill the pipeline with 10 leads atleast.
3) As i get some cash at hand, hire someone to create ads so that i can focus on building the agency.
4) FOCUS is were i HAVE to put my all. Do help me here. Don't want to consume any content now. I have been consuming great contents from great people since 3 years now. I just want to execute now.


Thanks for everyone above who encouraged me and is supporting my journey. I will be sure to meet all of you one day as soon as i build my biz and thank you directly.

Special thanks to @Black_Dragon43 who gave me resources worth $1000 dollars for free in DM. I will give back in some way brother. You are great.

@Antifragile @Bekit Here is the update. Do add your feedback on my improvement.
I want you guys to help me the way you did to Eric of Cheesecake. I promise, i will achieve what he missed in that thread.

Thanks again.
Sayonara
BM

Your health issues, combined with supporting a large family - the pressure on you must be insane. That's where I'd like to start.

Somewhere you mentioned that you were the only earning person in your family. Why is that? I sounds like you are supporting parents, siblings, your wife and kid? Did I get that right?

All the while you are trying to set up an agency, as a business. And your health being what it is, I can't even imagine what it feels like to be you. It looks like the world is on your shoulders. That's too much.

Other than the agency, do you have any other ways to earn a living?

What would happen to the people who depend on your earnings if you weren't there? I know, a morbid thought but it prompts a real discussion. You are in India, life is different than for us in North America. But the solutions to problems are often similar. What do I mean by that is that the quality of questions you ask yourself, will determine the qualify of answers. Ask better questions and you get better answers.

1. Who else in your family is capable of earning money?
2. How someone else in your family help lighted your load?
3. How can you make money other than what you are currently doing?
4. What is the highest paid lowest hours work opportunity for someone like you where you live? List 5 ideas. Discuss which one is best and why. Imagine you were advising a friend, what would you tell him?
5. If you are not there, how does your family (that currently depends on you) live on?

BTW, you don't have to answer these personal questions here. It's just meant to prompt you to think differently. Best outcome is you find a better way.

 

[ZCP]

@BlackMagician
reread full thread. SUMMARY

sep 5, 2018 .. started

apr 10, 2019 zp ... get business, hire, scale

may 22, 2019 ... dig mkt thread
fox's web design school?

nov 11, 2019 ... stopped, he sucks, apologizes
zp ... what 3 things? ... do those things. create the persona. review the why

jun 17, 2020 ... FB ads freelance / mentor, make money, ditch job!

jul 6, 2020 ... zp, richest man in babylon, wealth system, help others

jul 18, 2020 ... possible partnership. accepted

aug 30, 2020 ... lost key client

may 4, 2021 ... update, left agency in april, got covid

jun 14, 2021 ... recovered. web design for ecomm

jun 17, 2021 ... zp, get them on the phone and provide value. close 10 deals

jun 30, 2021 ... got married!

jul 25, 2021 ... partner came and offered to coach for 20%. said no

aug 20, 2021 ... three clients, need to hire and setup banking

aug 31, 2021 ... hired, started creating systems, working on a forum thread to give back

sept 11, 2021 ... the 'why' helps you strive in difficult times

feb 25, 2022 ... working the biz, created a 1/5/10 vision

jun 28, 2022 ... 5 clients, working on a brand item, hiring contractors

jul 23, 2022 ... 1 yr anniv in business!

sep 3, 2022 ... kid on the way! working the biz. might do coaching. looking for accountability group

aug 1, 2023 ... from last sep: TB / HIV, got a job, ditched agency, had a boy! left job, restarted agency, getting brand going on linkedin, got some brands, no money, is the patriarch for the entire family, relationships strained

aug 5, 2023 ... antifragile brought the truth

aug 16, 2023 ... talked to family, landing client, building brand

oct 21, 2023 ... 3 clients, got some money in, family calmed, sickness managed.... lessons = mindset, consistency, product / market fit ... using linkedin to pull clients

oct 28, 2023 ... 4 clients. getting there

 

[BlackMagician]

G'Day All,

Small Update:
I am currently working on Fish business client. Expecting to start the FB ads next week. I didn't knew that to advertise on FB for app installation we need to add FB API stuffs.

Explained this to client and right now his developer is integrating that. Lets see when it is ready.

Power of over-deliver is really awesome. The Fish client now also wants me develop a website for the business which will be Informational type site.

Apart from that, my previous client for whom i created flyers, he has requested more graphic design work and i will be providing that this week.

*****************
To communicate and understand the market of Digital Solutions, I am going to meet local business owners and observe the problems they have currently with there online activities.

Started creating the list of businesses and will schedule the meetings(i know some of them personally and don't have issue to ask for a meeting).

For that, i have taken 2 weeks of holiday from my Job which starts on 19th Nov. I am excited to work full time on this.

Will try to complete the tasks at hand before that and dive into the Abyss of unknown marketmind to research, learn and solve.

I will try to give updates daily from 19th on what i did.

Until next time.

 

[Andy Black]

Good stuff. It looks like things are starting to snowball.

I use Basecamp to communicate with clients and team members. It’s good to move that communication outside of email. It’s ok for lightweight project management.

 

[Rabby]

Awesome! Exciting progress.

This is off topic, not related to my progress.

I was thinking of why many website design business in my city try to get clients abroad(US, UK etc). So many business have crappy websites and little online presence and they have loads of money to pay.

People say that business here don't pay much. Abroad clients pay way better. But i Second this.

After little observation i come to this theory. Please point it out if i am wrong somewhere.

An average US family of four need $4,045(source). An Average Indian family of four need ₹40,000.
A ten times.

An average website design studio in US charge for website around 1k-5k (source: fox group)
An average website design studio in my city charge for website around 20k-50k(source: me)

So what's the difference here? why do other try to get the clients abroad? Why not just help businesses here?

Is it because of currency difference? Well according to the expense of living, that's the same amount of earning.

Instead of spamming(i know we got a bad rep there) business/people there, why not try to help people here? we can get the almost same amount of money if we do business here.

Recently i checked an Oil rig business who's turnover is above ₹1000cr, but have a crappy website. So many elevator companies doing google adverts with crappy website and loosing money. So many 4 star-5star hotels have no online presence and no direct booking to increase there sales almost 30%.

I just feel that the same opportunity is available here. Before spamming other countries, why not help people here?

Sorry if my analyse is wrong or my words seems naive.
Do point out my mistake and your own thoughts.

Helping the people around you seems reasonable to me. They might want to pay less, but there's also less competition for their business. You can probably make sales faster and spend more time helping your customers. Plus, you end up with local friends who will buy more things from you in the future. I can't see how you lose by doing this. People trying to get business from far away because "it pays more" are often just chasing shiny objects.

 

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[Rabby]

One more recurring account and you're richer outside your job than in. Nice! Now I dare you to make twice as much in your business... bahahahaha.

 

[BlackMagician]

One more recurring account and you're richer outside your job than in. Nice! Now I dare you to make twice as much in your business... bahahahaha.

10mins ago, I got a call from the lady of Daughters Foundation(previously mentioned in thread), and she told me that she has referred me to 6(six) of her contacts who are looking for website design.

I don't know how many will connect, or close, but it feels good that helping and adding values in others life feels great. @Andy Black your thread resonates here very much.

 

[ZCP]

What 3 major things (that will get you on track) will you get done this week?

 

[LightHouse]

I do remember you, I am glad to hear you've lifted yourself out of the hole and are on a better path. keep up the momentum, we all see and recognize you and your progress

 

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[BlackMagician]

G'day All,

Things are going very well. All 4 clients I am handling are getting consistent results from Facebook ads.

In June, all of my clients combine, we spent ₹53 lakhs (₹5M) on Facebook ads.
1 client(Online Education) got 1.7 ROAS
1 client(Health) got 8 ROAS
1 client(Public Speaking courses) got 2 ROAS
1 client(Baby products) got 2.5 ROAS

Overall revenue comes to around ₹1.4 cr (₹14M). Damn!!! Even i am having difficulties in believing this big amount.

The company which i am partnering with, also got good amount of revenue and the Founder is very happy with me. (It's weird to call them in different ways all the time, shall i give a name so that its better to differentiate whom i am talking about in future posts? So let's call the Performance marketing company as BM Marketing. BM marketing will be the name of the partner.)

I also earned ₹1.5 lakhs as my share. Here is the spreadsheet screenshot of the invoice:



Just wanted to know your opinions. Is it ok to share this much of details? like how much i earned, clients ad spent and client business niche?
I don't know. Let me know if it is appropriate or not to share on Public Forum.

Anyways, the journey is just awesome. I am learning so many things on a daily basis. Though i haven't mastered Facebook ads and nowhere near any expert.

The baby product client is a very big client. I mean, they have the potential to invest 10times of what they are spending on online marketing. They also have other big brands under their parent company. So if I am able to provide massive results to them in the coming 2 months and they are happy with it, they will do the marketing of other brands from us. The BM Marketing founder said that if they sign another brand from them, he will also give that account to me to handle.

So ya, things are good.

umm... shall I share what I am learning? what difficulties I am facing in handling accounts and clients?
I know this thread started from me swimming in the website design business in to a completely different direction.

So is it appropriate to discuss the current journey of Facebook ads I am having?


Side note:
Apart from all this, last week, I was thinking about some opportunities we INDIANS are getting.
Many of you might already know that India Gov has banned many Chinese Apps. Like a complete ban.

There is also a trend going on about homegrown startups for those apps so many entrepreneurs are jumping to these apps.

I found the need for the CamScanner app in the market and saw that not many people are doing this. Though app stores have so many good apps for Doc Scanners.

Anyways, even I am not clear about doing this. Because I don't know the difficulties, things required, etc. I am not a developer so don't know how to push those awesome features in the app to compete with others.

What do you guys say? shall I give a try?

Thanks for reading
BM

 

[Andy Black]

Life is becoming awesome. There is no travel of 2 hrs to a dead job. There is no Monday to Friday. No Sat & Sun. I work all 7 days. I work in the morning. In the nights. Staying home, spending so much quality time with family. Getting emails from clients about good results and appreciations makes all the work paid off.

Life has become so much better that I can't even describe.
Feeling a little emotional. From being in mediocre and depressed to the current myself is a difference between heaven and earth.

Thanks, TFF. Thanks, TMF , UnScripted . Thanks, @MJ DeMarco @ZCP @Rabby and all the GOLD/Notable Threads.

This is amazing. Thank you for documenting your journey, including your ups and downs and sitting on a plank in the ocean (is that the most humorous way of describing the desert of desolation?).

Thank you for sharing how you feel now so we can share in your win and so you can inspire others to do the same.

Thanks @Roz for tagging us. Yes, this deserves GOLD (update). This is exactly why @MJ DeMarco wrote his books and created the forum. It’s exactly why @Vigilante @AllenCrawley @Fox and @ZCP and many many other forum members spend so much time in here helping out. (I'll tag a few other people you've tagged before just to ensure they read your update... @Rabby @LightHouse @MustImprove @Roli @Madame Peccato @PizzaOnTheRoof @Jeff Noel @Kyle T)

Seeing someone get to their freedom date and escape their 9-5 is beautiful. Then going on to each 8x their salary?!? Well done

What’s your main goal for the next 12 months @BlackMagician?

What is your main threat?

What is your main opportunity?

 

[Simon Angel]

Well done! I'm in the process of building up monthly recurring revenue as well.

Bulgaria's a pretty poor country, but I know India is even worse since I have a friend who does ecommerce and is from India. So what you've done is no small feat by any means.

Have you considered learning Google Ads as well? I've got years of experience with Facebook Ads but had never ran a Google Ad in my life until a few weeks ago, yet it's a super powerful platform obviously.

The amount you're already earning should make you very proud - you only have to keep adding in more clients, charging more and you're on your way to good things!

So far my driving schools & plumber clients have not been the most valuable of referrers or appropriate clients to offer monthly ads, so I'm at $0 MRR. I've got a meeting scheduled for this Wednesday with the biggest RE agency in town though, who need a new website and advertising, so hoping for a breakthrough!

The best thing about all this however is that you've achieved happiness by taking action, which is a far, far bigger achievement than making all the money in the world.

 

[ZCP]

@BlackMagician proud of you!

next steps?

some suggestions:
- keep it going and begin to improve the process so it can scale
- read 'richest man in babylon' book to setup your future and create your wealth plan to take advantage of this opportunity
- begin to help and teach others to keep the chain going!

 

[BlackMagician]

Thankyou @Bekit

Somehow I never saw it until now, but I just read the whole thing. I'm stoked to learn of your progress. CONGRATS on the gold thread. You deserve it!

Shall I leak a little secret?
I have been following your posts and threads from the day you posted your introduction. Because you and I joined this forum around similar time. I joined in July 2018, you in August 2018. So I felt a closeness with you.
Your mindset and way of writing made me interested.
But later, I felt envious. In very little time, you got so many recognition here. You received praise. So read most of your posts. All of them are full of value, emotions, and selfless giving mindset. I loved it. I thought to be like you, progressing massively just like you.

The day you were honored with INSIDERS from members, I decided 2 things. To improve & progress myself so much that my Progress thread receives GOLD.
And to give value on this forum and get bestowed by INSIDERS. Just like you. I remember the post which got you an INSIDERS. We both can buy INSIDERS but getting bestowed is a whole another level of feeling.

So you commenting on my thread, recognizing my efforts and congratulating me.... IS VERY AWESOME TO ME.

Thank you for encouraging me with your own efforts and growth throughout these 2 years we were part of this forum.

Even back at the beginning there, where you were beating yourself up because you weren't making progress as fast as you wanted to, you were still landing pretty significant clients and hustling.

You can find similarities. I was pretty much holding myself by reading the progress thread of a bunch of people who joined at the same time with me. Though many has stopped updating their progress thread.

Keep up the good work, and keep us posted! I would say just keep updating this thread, even though it started out discussing web development. It's normal for entrepreneurs to pivot into what works better.

Yes i will continue to post what i am doing as frequently as possible. I am learning so many things that i am not able to keep them sorted in my brain. Will try to share what i am learning as much as possible in this thread.
Apart from these, as i have mentioned previously, i am striving toward a Fastlane business which i have in my mind. So taking the current progress as a foundation i will start working on that in next 4-5 months and keep updating here on this thread.

 

[Andy Black]

Oh boy. Sounds super stressful. And I understand how our feeling of self worth can go up and down depending on how well our campaigns are going. Your client was right to stay calm. I’m sorry you lost them.

I try not to make big sweeping changes to accounts, and I try to always have a fallback position so if new campaigns don’t work then I can pause them and enable the old campaigns (this is for Google Ads, I don’t know if this can be done similarly for Facebook).

Lick your wounds, learn from it, and get back on the horse. Think about your successes when you’re feeling down. You got this.

 

[BlackMagician]

He liked this post!! @BlackMagician how are you doing man?

Stuck somewhere. Will post by tomorrow and will continue to post next few days about what happen in between.

Thanks for asking man.

@LightHouse thanks for the love. Will update the progress

 

[Andy Black]

G'day All!

How are you all? I am back with all the pending updates.

I have recovered from COVID now and back to good health.

My Agency:
This month, I started my agency from scratch, registered name, build LP.
But as we all know, no sales means no business.
I have few web design projects and 6 months cash of survival.

What am I doing:
My target niche is Ecommerce clients where I help them get more traffic, leads and sales through Performance Marketing leading to good revenue.

To acquire clients, i am taking multi modular outreach, which is to record loom videos and giving massive values to ecommerce brands that improves results.

I have collected 20 leads today and recorded my first video and sent to the client. I am sure it will help the prospect get value from the video.

That single video took 3 hours of mine just to write and record the video. Though I will optimize the process and do it faster.

I am going to record 5 videos and send it every day + follow ups.

This is the script I used:
----------------------------
Hey [First name],
[Your name] here from [X company] and I’ve just taken the liberty of putting together this short video for you.

I was taking a look at your [Website / Social Media Program / Google Adwords etc.] and while I noticed that [say something nice that they’re doing right], I also noticed that you were [diagnose problem #1] which is hurting your business because [explain why it’s hurting their business].

All you need to do in order to fix this and [achieve desired outcome, e.g. increase conversions by X%] is simply [insert solution].
Some other things I noticed are that you’re [diagnose problem #2] and [diagnose problem #3], which you can easily remedy by doing [insert easy solutions].

Now what I do is I specialize in [their specific niche] and I’ve worked with clients ranging from [name-drop a few clients they might know] to achieve massive results.

I’ve gone ahead and put together a [free offer, e.g. a comprehensive 23-point checklist / audit / blueprint] for you to improve your profitability, and I’d love to schedule 15-20 minutes of your time to walk you through it, free of charge.

So go ahead just shoot me a reply and I look forward to chatting with you soon. Thanks

---------------------------------

I know its a value and number game. So I am going to put all my expertise and skills and efforts into getting clients and fulfilling their goals because I have a fire burning behind me in the form of money.


Expect a frequent update from me. I will share most of the resources and steps i am using here so that it help others.

Thanks for reading.
Feedbacks welcome!


Sayonara,
BM

I’ve not done cold emails or videos like this so take my thoughts with a pinch of salt.

My preference is to get people to raise their hand first, and then thank them for something. I’ve literally sent off a couple of 60 second videos within the last hour - to someone who signed up to my email newsletter, and to someone who followed me on Twitter.

Both did something first to indicate they’re interested in learning more from me, and I sent a 60 second thank you note to let them know I appreciated them.

I also gave a wee bit advice about their Twitter profile to show I checked it out, and to help them.

I finished with a simple question of “I’m super curious how you found me on Twitter. I’d love to know. Nice to meet you.”

It’s very simple for them to reply, and if they don’t I’ve spent 60 seconds of my time.

Because it’s a Loom video (recorded on my phone) I can tell if they’ve opened the video.

Asking someone to watch a video is quite an ask. In this case they are likely astonished I took the time to send them an email.

 

[Black_Dragon43]

No bro. I haven't haid any sex with anyone ever. Only with wife and she is negative.i
might have received a dirty injection. That's the best guess I can do. I tested 4 times as of now and it's positive unfortunately.

Wow, I’m really sorry to hear that. It’s a very tough thing to handle especially since you know you didn’t do anything wrong on your end.

HIV is no longer the death sentence it used to be, now with the right drugs you can live a long, fulfilled life. Try to look on the bright side — you have your family, you have your skills and you still have you. There’s a lot going for you.

I think you have the potential to inspire a lot of us — and you’re already doing it — through your bravery and how you handle this situation. So thank you for that!