I'm going to go from bankruptcy/£240,000 personal debt to a life of freedom using Facebook ads.

[Paul David]

I've always thought that I could get through anything and that I was strong-willed and confident.

However I've really struggled mentally with the situation and level of debt I have. I've felt like a complete failure. I've let my Wife down, my children, my parents and also myself. I've had massive sleep issues and ended up on sleeping tablets. I see other Fathers at the school when I collect my children and think to myself I wish I was them. In fact, I was I just wasn't me.

I'm also not ashamed to admit I've contemplated suicide on numerous occasions. I think the fact that I didn't was because I couldn't do it to my children. It's a selfish thing to do. Not so long ago I even googled whether it was possible to kill yourself but then have the Doctor tell your family it was a heart attack or something. Madness.

I have a loving Wife and Children and just by them being them I'm beginning to get through this. It's not nice having companies chasing you for debts every week. I get a horrible feeling inside when I hear the post coming through the letterbox, is this another debt letter. I could file for bankruptcy but I need to ensure we don't lose our house. It's jointly owned and there's not a great deal of equity compared to my debts and luckily my wife has a good job.

I may still have to file for bankruptcy but I'm going to give it everything I've got to get out of this. The thought that after all the work I've done over the years to end up bankrupt upsets me. Especially for someone with my traits, I'm the one who was always saying I'm going to earn this or do that but to put things bluntly without my wife or help from my parents I'd be homeless and living on the streets now.

I have recognized however though that negative thoughts aren't going to get me anywhere. I've been reading self-help books to reinforce some positivity into my mindset and I've certainly gone past my F*ck You moment. No more negativity and punishing myself for the mistakes I've made in the past.

I can't change anything that I've done, there are some expensive lessons there but I can control where I end up the future and that's where I begin.

If anyone feels like they can offer any help or advice feel free. I'll try and update whenever something meaningful happens but for now, if anyone wants me I'll be mastering facebook ads and growing my brand and I hope that this helps people to NOT make the same mistakes as me.

"If you try chasing two rabbits you won't catch any." This is what I would tell my 20 year old self.

 

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[RazorCut]

Wow Paul. When I encouraged you to start a thread I didn't realise how much you had to get off your chest. That is a whole world of lessons we all should learn from. Thank you for sharing.

In many ways to air it like this must feel like you have drawn a line in the sand and crossed over. Yes there is some baggage you will need to take care of from your past life, however firmly fix your gaze on the future and use the pressure from the outstanding debts as fuel for progress.

No matter how hard the journey don't give up the fight. Your family needs you. Stay strong, stay focused.

I'll PM you.

 

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[Vigilante]

Correct. I can't be a Director for 1 year. I can only be an "employee" of a Ltd company.

Paul.

I fell as hard and far as you did. While I never filed, I should have. I was $1,000,000 in consumer debt with no money, no job, and no income.

You can make it. I made it. You will be stronger next time around. You will be smarter next time around. You may make new mistakes, but not the old mistakes.

It took me a while, but I rebuilt bigger, stronger, better. And so will you.

Dave

 

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[AgainstAllOdds]

However If I can come out of lockdown (around July 4th for my clients) with 20-30 clients in total I'm confident that I'll have gone from bankruptcy to earning £20k a month within the space of a few weeks. The most I've ever been able to pay myself during the last 20 years is £3.5k a month so it's some turnaround.

In two months time, I'll be earning more than both of them combined and possibly 4 times as much. It will have taken me 2 months (excluding lockdown time) of planning and execution to earn that.

OPTION 2 £20,000 a month - 2 hours work a day (and only if I choose to) with an unlimited ceiling over the coming years after spending 3 months to get this point.

Your mindset is a trap. You're registering income before having the income. You need to have the income before getting into that frame of mind.

One of your posts is diminishing your wife's hard work to highlight how what she's doing is stupid, and what you're doing is far superior since it "[only took you] 3 months to get to this point"...

I don't want to be a dick and knock you down a peg, but your mindset is really shitty - especially for the person that's likely covering your bills and paying for the kids today. There's nothing wrong with having a job - some people don't want the entrepreneurial life, just stability. If they work hard for that life then it's admirable.

I wish you the best, but until you get an income coming in from those clients, your posts are just posts. There's no substance until you actually create that substance and there's money in your account.

I'd also caution against deluding yourself that in three months you'll be "working 2 hours a day for £20,000 a month"...

Right now your mindset is: This is the right choice because it's super easy and a lot higher payoff.

The correct mindset is: This shit is gonna be hard. I'm going to grind to make it and keep executing until I get that first pound. Then after that first pound, I'm going to keep grinding until I reach the point where I'm making £20,000 a month off of 2 hours of work per day. Need to keep pushing.

Best of luck, but keep your focus on the prize, not on the dream.

 

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[Paul David]

Ok, where do I start with this? This is long so i'll break it up into smaller more readable posts. Your time is valuable so I hope you can get something out of my story.

Yes you read it correctly, my name is Paul and at the time of writing this, I'm £240,000 in personal debt and on the verge of bankruptcy.

If my story prevents just one person from making the same mistakes I've done then this will be worth it. This will also help me document what I'm going to do to fix it.

I opened a computer repair shop in 2000 (aged 20), and at the time I used to buy and sell computers but didn't know how to repair them. So I taught myself. Business was good for the first few years but instead of thinking of ways to grow the company I decided at aged 22 to buy myself a brand new Mercedes (£34,000). I paid a £10,000 deposit and put the rest on finance. Mistake number 1. (Not the finance, buying the car!).

To be Continued.......

 

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[rpeck90]

Paul, the main thing I would say is that it seems your only mistake seemed to be not building equity in the business before exploring new channels. Everyone has done it to some degree, so your situation is somewhat academic... the problem is that since the numbers are comparatively large, you're feeling overwhelmed. Stay strong, "they can't eat you".

The way I'd fix it is to center what you're doing around the building of equity, which would allow you to balance growth against a shareholding within the business. Your present situation happened because you borrowed unsecured money against non-existent assets - money which was used to buy products over-which you held no IP (equity).

What I would do is consider very deeply what you're doing to build real equity in your new brand. What products are you selling? Can you create traffic streams away from FB ads? Can you talk to companies about creating affiliated offers? What's the barrier to entry on manufacturing the products yourself?

If you're not careful, FB ads are going to be your new eBay/website/stores/FBA.

--

PS one thing you absolutely must look at is to somehow get your personal debt to offset your tax obligations. I'm not an accountant, but this is what Donald Trump did in 1995 -- using losses as a means to write-off tax can, in some jurisdictions, give you a tax-free buffer when you do start earning again.

In the UK, this is what a profit/loss account is for in a business. You carry over losses and that offsets corp tax moving forward. If your business is in the hole, would be worth seeing if an account can offset the debt as a loss.

 

[Paul David]

Monthly Update:

It's been almost a month since my first 10 clients went live. It's been a massive learning curve and I'm so glad I didn't put all 28 clients I have live at once.

Apart from a couple of issues with my accounting software my automations are working extremely well. All appointments are accounted for and very little of time is taken up with the side of the business.

At the moment I had £8900 worth of appointments booked for the month. £6500 has already been paid to me and the rest of the clients are due in this week. Ad spend for the clients will be around £2700. And I've probably spent around £1000 on VA's and other business expenses.

So profit for the month before tax it's looking at around £5200. It would have been a lot more but we had around 40 appointment cancellations and 15 no shows which I don't get paid for (£3300). This did annoy me but as @RazorCut kindly pointed out, it's part of the business model and to be expected.

I was nearly driving a taxi a month or two ago and I'd probably have to work 80 hours a week to get anywhere near that amount, at the moment I can work 1 hour a day if I wanted (not that i do!) so I'm very pleased about that.

Over the next month, I'm going to put more clients live and I'm also introducing a messenger bot which will also improve our booking rates and save a lot of time and money.

After months of earning nothing and having eventually filed for bankruptcy I'm happy with the first month. Target is still £20k profit per month so I just need to gradually keep adding new clients now and also ensuring the current clients are getting regular booked appointments.

 

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[Paul David]

My new company couldn't afford to keep up repayments on the loans and they got called in.

Fast forward to now and I've just sold my power adapter eBay brand and put everything I've got into a new e-commerce brand. I love everything about it. I love the niche, I love the products, I love designing them, I love the types of customers that buy them. I launched 7 weeks ago primarily driving traffic from Facebook ads which I had some knowledge of but didn't get off to the best of starts.

Until reading a post from @RazorCut yesterday I got some advice from @biophase I was about to make the same mistake again of looking for something else. I spent over a year getting my new brand to launch and had to get over a lot of hurdles and here I was again only 7 weeks thinking about something else. Only this time it would have to probably involve getting a job which terrifies the life out of me.

My sole aim is to grow my new brand, if I have to bring in income from somewhere else to grow it I will. And in order to do this I'm going to become as proficient as possible in facebook ads as this is the fastest way to grow my brand (I have a competitor who spends $80k a month on facebook ads) so i know the concept works.

If I have to take on Facebook ad clients once i've learned enough about ads that i can provide enough value then I will. I'd rather do that than trade my time being somewhere at a set place for a certain amount of time each day.

So my journey begins. I will touch on some of the mental torment i've gone through in the last year or so as I believe having a positive mindset makes a massive difference.

 

[Guest12120]

I could file for bankruptcy but I need to ensure we don't lose our house. It's jointly owned and there's not a great deal of equity compared to my debts and luckily my wife has a good job.

Sometimes the bankruptcy could be the best way to start over. Consider the options you have and pick the one that makes the most sense for you. Try not to be too attached emotionally to the house, especially since like you said you don't have that much equity there. Talk to a lawyer about possible options.

If anyone feels like they can offer any help or advice feel free. I'll try and update whenever something meaningful happens but for now, if anyone wants me I'll be mastering facebook ads and growing my brand and I hope that this helps people to NOT make the same mistakes as me.

If you need any help while you're learning facebook ads, I'll be happy to help and jump on a call from time to time and answer your questions.

 

[Bobby_italy]

Your mindset is a trap. You're registering income before having the income. You need to have the income before getting into that frame of mind.

One of your posts is diminishing your wife's hard work to highlight how what she's doing is stupid, and what you're doing is far superior since it "[only took you] 3 months to get to this point"...

I don't want to be a dick and knock you down a peg, but your mindset is really shitty - especially for the person that's likely covering your bills and paying for the kids today. There's nothing wrong with having a job - some people don't want the entrepreneurial life, just stability. If they work hard for that life then it's admirable.

I wish you the best, but until you get an income coming in from those clients, your posts are just posts. There's no substance until you actually create that substance and there's money in your account.

I'd also caution against deluding yourself that in three months you'll be "working 2 hours a day for £20,000 a month"...

Right now your mindset is: This is the right choice because it's super easy and a lot higher payoff.

The correct mindset is: This shit is gonna be hard. I'm going to grind to make it and keep executing until I get that first pound. Then after that first pound, I'm going to keep grinding until I reach the point where I'm making £20,000 a month off of 2 hours of work per day. Need to keep pushing.

Best of luck, but keep your focus on the prize, not on the dream.

damn you stole those words from my mind, just kept reading after that post to see if someone else commented on it...

So basically she's been supporting you without judging (at least from what I could gather) and makes some GREAT money(nearly twice the normal salary per google in england), also she's been thinking about the expenses while you can sort everything out, yet she's the one who's making the "wrong" decision in life, to slave away at a job.

Let's reverse this and say she was an entrepeneur too, guess what maybe with 240k debt because it COULD happen, now what?
500 k combined debt and practically homeless?

I say this from the bottom of my heart, be more humble, appreciate your wife and be grateful she's making what you consider little money, I don't know your complete financial picture maybe your parents are rich etc.. and you have some safety net other than your wife.

I would stay away from stating such things in real life, even if you may be right, also before talking the talk you should be walking the walk, be glad you're in England because I know for damn sure if you did that in other countries you could be held accountable for that money no matter what and it would be slowly be detracted from any income you make in your whole life.

Good luck with your journey, looking forward to the actual 20k x month post, until then keep grinding and stay humble, don't act like you made it until you make it and then make your own conclusions, wheter it was easier/more effective than the safe job, which by the way removes a lot of stress from your life, someone else has to make the money so you can get your paycheck, if they fail you just get another job while they go bankrupt.

 

[AgainstAllOdds]

Honestly what are you doing?

You're focus is wishy washy to the max. Seriously you've listed about 10 things you want to focus on, eating healthy, going to the gym, becoming a taxi driver, Facebook ads, e-commerce brand etc etc etc

Mate just pick one thing and do that. If it's selling Facebook ads then do that. Go get clients like you were.

This.

Have you ever had a job long-term? If not, I'd start there.

Get a job. Take a salary. See if you like it. Negotiate down your debts. Get your mind right.

From the sounds of it, you're not in the right state of mind to take on the stress of starting a new business. No offense, but you also don't have the track record to "push through it".

Man up and take care of your family first. Run your business evenings and weekends once your mind's right. Grow from there.

 

[Paul David]

Good progress! Everytime I See fellow business people facing massive difficulty and not losing belief in themselves it resonates with what everyone of us went through.

I sincerely wish you all the best!

I think everyone I know has given up on me becoming a financial success........including my Wife.

However, I'll never give up on myself. There's been so many false dawns and broken promises over the last few years I can understand why. Now I'm using their doubts to fuel my fire making me more determined than ever to succeed.

My wife and one of my closest friend earn what (they call) great money, working for someone else. Their great money is around £4500 take home every month. I don't class that as great money at all. Earning £4500 a month for the next 30 years trading 5 days a week in exchange for 2 is my idea of hell. And I'm still saying that whilst having just filed for bankruptcy without any incoming coming in now.

My wife and friend have both worked their way up to £4500 by doing their jobs for nearly 20 years. 40 hours a week in my wife's case and my friend used to work weekends also just to get that amount. In two months time, I'll be earning more than both of them combined and possibly 4 times as much. It will have taken me 2 months (excluding lockdown time) of planning and execution to earn that.

OPTION 1: £4500 a month - 5 working days a week for the next 30 years after spending 20 years climbing the corporate ladder to get to this point

OR

OPTION 2 £20,000 a month - 2 hours work a day (and only if I choose to) with an unlimited ceiling over the coming years after spending 3 months to get this point.

I'll take my option 2 all day long. I've been through everything as an entrepreneur - anxiety, ridicule, physically assaulted (when i had a shop), insomnia, financial ruin, suicidal thoughts yet I still continue to push forward so when someone asks me how did I manage to earn so much money so quickly the answer will not be that it only took a few months planning, the answer will be the 20 years of shit I've gone through what people with these "great paying £4500 a month jobs" would never do.

 

[Paul David]

Paul.

I fell as hard and far as you did. While I never filed, I should have. I was $1,000,000 in consumer debt with no money, no job, and no income.

You can make it. I made it. You will be stronger next time around. You will be smarter next time around. You may make new mistakes, but not the old mistakes.

It took me a while, but I rebuilt bigger, stronger, better. And so will you.

Dave

Thanks Dave, over the years your threads on here and direct responses to some of my posts have massively helped me keep pushing forward. I don't know any other way now other than marching on.

There's no such thing as quitting.

 

[G. Wellthy]

Negotiating the debts makes sense to me. I would calculate the number of the total debt repaid at around 2X your director fees. Or about 2-3x your house equity. Somewhere in that range seems like the right trade for avoiding bankruptcy.

But it’s not a fair trade at 10x your equity. Don’t overvalue your pride.

I know it must feel like you have no pride left but ego is a funny thing. It still drives you even at your lowest points. That shame you feel. That’s a feeling YOUR EGO CREATES TO TRY TO PROTECT YOU. Ego is such a huge impediment to progress.

 

[RazorCut]

Learn facebook ads and sell other people's products/services using FB ads. Or just help people run their fb ads for a fee.

I totally disagree with that advice. That is going backwards in my opinion. If you spend any time with people who run their own successful FB ad agency you know that they all want their own product. They have seen how much success they have created for their clients and want the same for themselves. In fact many are running other peoples products as well because they don't have their own.

Going down the route of affiliate marketing (other peoples products) is a retrograde step for anyone who has a viable product. Why share the profit and not have overall control when you don't have to?

Focusing on finding out what makes people want to buy YOUR product is extremely powerful and can be extremely rewarding both financially and intellectually, (you can gain a lot of insights from that knowledge that can propel your business forward at lightening speed).

 

[Paul David]

So yesterday I eventually filed for bankruptcy with £329,000 worth of unsecured debts and today I've just received confirmation. I'm now officially bankrupt.

I never thought I'd say those words when I started out as an entrepreneur. 2/3 really bad years out of 18 and bang.

Anyway now that's all behind me it's time to concentrate on the future. All my Facebook Ads clients (3) have closed during lockdown but it's given me a chance to develop my partner program for them and set up a lot of automation to scale.

I've signed up 6 new clients in one week of launching my updated program. All ready to go once lockdown is over. In the UK this is looking at around July 4th. I think I should easily be able to sign up 20 new clients before lockdown. My partner program is fantastic for my clients and zero risk on their side.

On a worst-case scenario I estimate that 20 clients will bring me £6000 a month profit. However, this is more likely to be £18,000 a month profit.

With the automation I've set up, I think I could easily sign 50 clients and still work only 2/3 hours a day. The only new employees I would need would be freelancers from the Philippines to follow up with the extra leads I generate for the clients.

Here's to the future..........

 

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[100k]

I have my bankruptcy interview on Thursday, and it's something I'm looking forward to getting out of the way.

I've finished my automation and SOP's now and I'm ready to spend every day doing what increases the bottom line - signing up more clients. My profit target is £20k a month.

All my clients are still currently closed with lockdown and i've not earned a single dollar/penny since this began 3 months ago. However If I can come out of lockdown (around July 4th for my clients) with 20-30 clients in total I'm confident that I'll have gone from bankruptcy to earning £20k a month within the space of a few weeks. The most I've ever been able to pay myself during the last 20 years is £3.5k a month so it's some turnaround.

I will post an update on here when I've signed more clients.

Mate.... if you do pull it off, please don't pay yourself £20k/month. Continue to live on £3k/month and SAVE, SAVE, SAVE, SAVE, SAVE, SAVE....

You just never know. And I'm sure retirement age isn't too far off in the distant is it now?

Good job on pushing through the negativity - keep at it. Rooting for ya.

 

[Paul David]

Update.

I started running some paid ads to get more clients last week. The response has been unbelievable. Signed up two new clients and I've got 50 more leads to call. It's going to be a busy week.

I've also had a couple of people paying me to set up a similar pay per show marketing system for them in their niche. I've done 3 hours work at $250 per hour and 3 hours at $150 per hour.

Today I've got two more calls for a couple of hours and will earn $300 in total.

The aim is to sign up at least another 10 clients this week. Lockdown should be finally over around July 4th and my clients can open and then this referral program I've been working on for 5 months can finally start cranking and change my life.

 

[Paul David]

So the figures are in from the end of the first week.

£2460 in referrals from an ad spend of £450.00

2 more clients going live next week also.

It's nice to be able to put what I've developed into play and actually see some financial results from it.

One of my clients emailed me and said they'd upsold the first client I referred to a package of £520 !! They paid me £60 for the referral.

 

[Paul David]

It's been a while since I updated this thread but I'd just like to touch on something that I've struggled with for a while now. I'm always anxious or hiding/running away from business problems.

I didn't think everything I've been through over the last few years, in particular bankruptcy, had affected me this much but I've realised now that it has.

I run or shy away from business problems constantly.

I haven't checked my business bank account for 1 month as I know things aren't great and I don't want to see exactly what's in there (I done this before). I know that not checking the account is also making me anxious.

I don't want to look at how many appointments we've booked each day in case the number isn't high enough.

I panic when it's time to pay credit card bill I use for company ads.

I get a horrible feeling when I check my business messages in case a customer has cancelled their appointment (meaning I don't get paid), or a client payment has failed.

In my previous business, I used to get this feeling whenever I'd see a eBay or amazon message complaining about a failed delivery or faulty product. Or when a shipment of stock was late coming in.

The current state of lockdowns in the UK is not helping my mental health either.

I never used to have these feelings. I don't know whether I might need counselling to overcome this also, then again I probably can't afford to pay for that at the moment.

If I'm going to make 2021 better than any year I've had financially I need to overcome this asap. I know that dealing with and solving problems are part and parcel of being in business and I need to run towards these when they appear instead of going the opposite way.

 

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[Paul David]

Anyway, I then came across a company in Scotland who had 5 computer repair shops (they were actually buying laptop adapters from me). So I drove 4 hours to Scotland to see what sort of set up they had. I drove back a couple of hours later and I had decided I wanted to have more repair shops. (Mistake 6).

I rebranded the whole repair company, new company name, new logo, refitted the shop, increased the repair prices etc. Can't even remember now how long the idea lasted for but one night after having to get out of bed again as the shop alarm was going off at 4 am I thought, imagine this with 3-4 shops. Nope, not for me.

To be Continued.......

 

[StrikingViper69]

I've spoken to numerous people about my options. The three options I have are 1. file for bankruptcy (which is complicated somewhat by the fact I'm the Director of a company) and I'd have to step down. 2. Try and pay off the debts in full or 3. negotiate a settlement with the creditors.

At the moment I'm going down the option 3 route. I'm not going to lie it doesn't look great on paper. However, the one positive (if you can actually call it that)is that I have very little equity in my home so the creditors know what if I file for bankruptcy they won't get a penny back from any assets as I have.

I'm pretty confident that I could negotiate a settlement figure of around £8k-£10k with HSBC. The other main creditor which is a peer to peer lending group will be more difficult however I'm pretty sure if I make an offer of £20k-£30k or tell them I'm filing for bankruptcy they may (and should) accept. The lending company would go to the people who've loaned me the money and present the offer to them. If it was me and I had to take £20k-£30k or nothing I'd have to take the money.

So there are options to possibly get the debt down to £40K or something even though yes on paper the debt as it stands is significantly more than that.

In the UK you can file for an IVA. During an IVA:
- a third party company negotiates your debt with creditors
- a large chunk is usually written off by the creditors
- you can remain in control of a company

If you want to keep your company, an IVA may be the best solution. If you go for bankruptcy, you can't control a company (for so many years, can't remember how many)

 

[SparksCW]

Hope it helps you getting it out there. I’m in a similar situation and had to write down all my mistakes a few days ago just so I could stop a negative thought cycle in my head. It seems a bit easier once you own it.

Similar story but not quite as much £ as you. Have a relatively good e-commerce business in a nice niche but over the past year or so I’ve spent a lot migrating the website with a developer I didn’t trust, it’s a flop so we’re cutting our losses and doing it in house. I bought a car from company money when we had no company money I stupidly started another company and spent a whole lot of money and company time building an app that we haven’t actually had time to launch yet even though it’s really good. And also spent time creating other websites and ideas.

A month ago I deleted almost all websites except our main profitable three. Stopped all side projects.

Hope you hit your goals and sort your situation out whilst avoiding bankruptcy. Keep going. Keep fighting. In a year or two when you have loads of money and freedom you’ll look back and wonder what you were worrying about.

 

[100k]

Yes the pattern is clear.

My product is off different design and I’ve also added a matching accessory included in price.

I know the exact cost my competitor is paying for their products as I have spoken to their actual factory in China. They couldn’t provide me with the specifications I needed as they had exclusivity agreement with my competitor so I use a different factory.

I’ve been researching this market and products for the past year.

I'm not sure you're seeing the pattern mate.

You're selling the same thing, over and over and over and over and over and over and over again.

Let me start selling batteries because of XYZ reason.... fail.

Well, let me start another business selling batteries because of ABC reason.... fail.

Perhaps if I start another business selling batteries and I rebrand it .... fail.

Maybe if I start another battery accessory business and I import it from vietnam instead of China for BBC reason.... fail.

I don't think you're seeing the pattern. Get the hell out of that niche/industry. NOW.

The competition is fierce, those with resources have already consolidated the market through mergers and acquisitions. Then there are a few people that have managed to carve a nice little niche out of the market. But by and large, the marketer is already catered to. We don't need another battery reseller.

You've got no competitive advantage. Even with your branding... why would anyone buy from your little brand when they can buy from an established brand that has thousands of reviews and a lower price point?!

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

Stop buying products and getting into costly new ventures. Learn facebook ads and sell other people's products/services using FB ads. Or just help people run their fb ads for a fee.

 

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[Paul David]

That is promising. Now what was the reason? Where did these customers come from? Better FB targeting? Are they responding after taking a week or two to make up their mind? Are your Ads more on point? Is this a move towards profitability or just a blip?

Lots of questions to consider.

They've come from Facebook ads yes. The targeting is getting better now and I've managed to get some more audiences with higher purchase intent. Re-targeting and Lookalike audiences. I've spoken to a few people who are very experienced with Facebook ads and they told me that 2-3 years it was easier to become profitable from the gate but now it can take 2-3 months. My target is 5 product sales a day at £20 CPA minimum. This will bring in around £2500 a month.

One guy who has a sunglasses website told me that when he started his company in 2015 he knew a bit about Facebook ads but has become proficient by basically just running ads for his brand. He runs lots of A/B testing. His website now does about £6m sales a year and he gets paid to talk about Facebook ads. After his last seminar, he was approached by 7 companies to run their ads for them.

 

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[Paul David]

UPDATE:

A lot has changed since my last post so it's time for an update. Firstly i managed to get through to Christmas by getting a few new clients for Facebook ads.

I haven't had the funds to do anything with the e-commerce brand so i'm actively looking to sell it at the moment without much luck.

On December 30th 2019 and after 20 years of being in business for myself I finally ran out of money. No money in my personal account and no money in my business account. Time to get my ducks in a row and prepare for bankruptcy.

After speaking to another parent at my Children's school, I decided to register for training to become a taxi driver. This other parent has been doing it since he lost his job 3 years ago. He works only days, like 6am - 12pm and earns around £130-150 per day. I can work it around my children and also my business work. So i applied and have the one week course starting on the 27th January.

By making that decision i've felt a great weight lifted off my shoulders. I no longer worry about having to get a "full time" job and I know that i can at any time in future earn money as and when i want to. Don't get me wrong this isn't something i see myself doing long term, but it's a backup plan and means i can provide for my family.

My Father has also set up a new company and i will be an employee, it's a facebook ads agency. I cannot be a Director of a company for at least 12 months after i file for bankruptcy so this is the way forward for now.

The company isn't a Facebooks ads agency like most set up. I have developed a unique offering for clients in a particular niche. Most agencies contact clients and offer to ads for them for a monthly retainer. This is the model i was using last year and i did get a couple of clients this way. However in order to be different i have set up a model that essentialy means i can control the niche myself. I won't go into detail here but I'm very excited after testing it on a small scale at the moment.

By the end of the year i expect to have filed for banktruptcy at some point and grown the new company to at least £20k a month in profit. And have my taxi licence as a back up so that i can fall back on that if all else fails.

I decided on January 1st 2020 that whatever has happened before cannot be changed. It was time to forgive myself and move forward, no more anxiety, no more negative thinking. New habits, new mindset, new me.

Last week i was preparing to ask my Father if he would put £5k into the new business account. Firstly to set up a few things required and also to be able to pay myself a low wage just until we get more clients or I start my taxi work. I'm down as an employee so even if i did have money i couldn't put it in because it's my Fathers business, it has to come from him or sales. Like i said I had zero money in any bank. You can't really get lower than £0 money in any bank and £240,000 debts so i focused on the fact that the only way is up.

I got an email last Thursday from one of my old competitors from when I used to sell power adapters on ebay. He asked me would i be interested in selling him my old database of adapter models. I was going to say sure £500 but then i thought i've got nothing to lose here so i told him i wanted £5k. He replied 1 hour later saying yes that's a fair price and within 12 hours the money was in deposited into my Fathers new business account. I actually cried with happiness. No need to ask him to invest now to get started and it gives me some breathing space financially for the next few months. Positive thinking at it's best!

I will post some further updates as I go along but this year is going to be the complete opposite of the last, i'm so excited now as to the ride that awaits.

 

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[Simon Angel]

Update.

I started running some paid ads to get more clients last week. The response has been unbelievable. Signed up two new clients and I've got 50 more leads to call. It's going to be a busy week.

I've also had a couple of people paying me to set up a similar pay per show marketing system for them in their niche. I've done 3 hours work at $250 per hour and 3 hours at $150 per hour.

Today I've got two more calls for a couple of hours and will earn $300 in total.

The aim is to sign up at least another 10 clients this week. Lockdown should be finally over around July 4th and my clients can open and then this referral program I've been working on for 5 months can finally start cranking and change my life.

I noticed you often mention of pricing per hour, here's a book that could potentially lead to a lightbulb moment for you: https://www.freshbooks.com/fbstatic...te-assets/other/Breaking-the-Time-Barrier.pdf

If you've never read it before, I'd really recommend it. It's a really short read too.

 

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[Paul David]

Short Update:

Replaced the VA who quit with another one is absolutely great. Really impressed with her in the short time she's started.

I've put 8 clients live using the system, they began yesterday. So far we've booked 9 appointments.

Will update at the end of the month with P&L figures!

 

[Paul David]

Fast forward 18 months and my Mercedes wasn't suitable for carrying computers and laptops so I sold it at an £18,000 loss and bought an old van. When I was younger I always had the mindset that I was going to be rich, financially. I'd see big houses and think I'll have one of them one day. I never doubted my ability to become rich.

I've also always wanted more. When someone would say be grateful for you what you've got I'd think but yes there are people who've got a lot more than me. I'm not happy until I get that. This attitude can be a good thing but for me, it's been the biggest reason why I'm now in so much debt. After 5-6 years I decided I didn't want to be stuck in a shop fixing computers all day and came across people selling laptop chargers on eBay. I was hooked. So I started selling laptop chargers on eBay alongside running my shop.

From an early stage in my business, I was kindly offered an overdraft from HSBC bank to fund my growth. Instead of using any profits from my business to grow I spent that on my own personal things and used the bank's money instead.(mistake number 2).

To be Continued.......

 

[Paul David]

A few years later I was offered the opportunity to purchase a website that enabled people to put the specification of their laptop on and it would generate a price for me to purchase to re-sell on. This cost £6000. Funded by overdraft. (Mistake 4)

So now I was running a computer repair business (with staff), selling power adapters on eBay, and trying to grow 2 websites at once. (Mistake 5). It seems so ridiculous even writing this.

To be Continued.......

 

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