I will start off with one of those cheesy introductions. My name is Danyer Paulino, and I am 21 yrs of age. I currently work full time at my slowlane job, and have been working part-time on my business. Before I start talking about the business, I would like to tell you a little bit about my past.
I graduated high school at the age of 16, not because I skipped grades due to being smart, but because I started school earlier. I started college right after graduating, and got my associates degree in Computer Networking at the age of 18. I immediately started working for a big corporation, and have been working there since. Being very young, and having huge dreams, I started to work my a$$ off for the corporation. After 3 months of working, I got selected for this "special" project, where I literally spent about 1 yr and a half years on, until I finally got promoted. While working on the project, I was doing a crazy amount of overtime (working about 80 hrs a week). No matter how much harder I worked, the money that I was getting in return simply did not feel like enough, and I was burning out.
At that point, I decided to launch an e-commerce site selling electronics (everyone was doing it, so I figured why not??) and of course that was my first mistake. Or was it? No, it wasn't. Even though I did fail, I learned things that I would of never had the chance to learn, had I not done it. It was a hell of an experience, as I started reading books, listening to audiobooks, learning leadership, going to local meet-ups, etc. It was literally what changed my life, and what helped me come across The Millionaire Fastlane .
After reading the book, I finally realized what I was doing wrong. I wasn't attempting to add value to anyone's life, I was doing everything for selfish reasons. Next, I started brainstorming of ways to add value to people's life. So I did something else that the book recommended, I started to write down problems that I face in my everyday life. One of the problems that I faced (and that I still face), is that I constantly have issues finding new barbers. I personally do not go to any random barber, I usually rely on my friends reviews to decide if I'm ok with getting a cut at a certain spot. Then I started asking random people if that's something they struggle with as well. Just as I imagined, I wasn't alone.
So I started researching to see if there were any sites or apps that were already serving that need (the fact that I had to research that was the first sign that the need was obvious, at least locally.) So I did find that there is definitely competition, but nothing that I couldn't personally compete with. So my next problem was that I did not know much about coding. I did know some basic HTML, but obviously that was not going to be enough.
Next thing I did was take classes on udemy.com. Classes on programming languages, which helped me a ton. The progress I was making was a little bit too slow however, so I started looking into finding a developer. After much research, and gathering many quotes, I realized that I needed to do something else as the prices I was being quoted were a bit out of reach. So I started networking, and telling more and more people about my idea. On a trip to my birth country (Dominican Republic), I was able to discuss the idea with a few developers. Out of the few, I chose one which quoted me an unbelievable price. He had the references, and the portfolio which definitely gave me confidence that he was experienced.
I've been working with the developer ever since, and we have both been working on the site. The site's link is www.haircutsnearby.com, and it was just published yesterday. I would appreciate all of your comments, and suggestions. I do not take any of this personally as I am just looking to grow, so please be very blunt
My next goals are:
Listen to what people have to say about it, and make adjustments as I go.
Get the first 10 paying clients.
One thing that I've been debating on is to whether allow google ads on the Blog? I will not do it on any other parts of the page, but I feel like it wouldn't hurt on the blog. Any suggestions?
I graduated high school at the age of 16, not because I skipped grades due to being smart, but because I started school earlier. I started college right after graduating, and got my associates degree in Computer Networking at the age of 18. I immediately started working for a big corporation, and have been working there since. Being very young, and having huge dreams, I started to work my a$$ off for the corporation. After 3 months of working, I got selected for this "special" project, where I literally spent about 1 yr and a half years on, until I finally got promoted. While working on the project, I was doing a crazy amount of overtime (working about 80 hrs a week). No matter how much harder I worked, the money that I was getting in return simply did not feel like enough, and I was burning out.
At that point, I decided to launch an e-commerce site selling electronics (everyone was doing it, so I figured why not??) and of course that was my first mistake. Or was it? No, it wasn't. Even though I did fail, I learned things that I would of never had the chance to learn, had I not done it. It was a hell of an experience, as I started reading books, listening to audiobooks, learning leadership, going to local meet-ups, etc. It was literally what changed my life, and what helped me come across The Millionaire Fastlane .
After reading the book, I finally realized what I was doing wrong. I wasn't attempting to add value to anyone's life, I was doing everything for selfish reasons. Next, I started brainstorming of ways to add value to people's life. So I did something else that the book recommended, I started to write down problems that I face in my everyday life. One of the problems that I faced (and that I still face), is that I constantly have issues finding new barbers. I personally do not go to any random barber, I usually rely on my friends reviews to decide if I'm ok with getting a cut at a certain spot. Then I started asking random people if that's something they struggle with as well. Just as I imagined, I wasn't alone.
So I started researching to see if there were any sites or apps that were already serving that need (the fact that I had to research that was the first sign that the need was obvious, at least locally.) So I did find that there is definitely competition, but nothing that I couldn't personally compete with. So my next problem was that I did not know much about coding. I did know some basic HTML, but obviously that was not going to be enough.
Next thing I did was take classes on udemy.com. Classes on programming languages, which helped me a ton. The progress I was making was a little bit too slow however, so I started looking into finding a developer. After much research, and gathering many quotes, I realized that I needed to do something else as the prices I was being quoted were a bit out of reach. So I started networking, and telling more and more people about my idea. On a trip to my birth country (Dominican Republic), I was able to discuss the idea with a few developers. Out of the few, I chose one which quoted me an unbelievable price. He had the references, and the portfolio which definitely gave me confidence that he was experienced.
I've been working with the developer ever since, and we have both been working on the site. The site's link is www.haircutsnearby.com, and it was just published yesterday. I would appreciate all of your comments, and suggestions. I do not take any of this personally as I am just looking to grow, so please be very blunt
My next goals are:
Listen to what people have to say about it, and make adjustments as I go.
Get the first 10 paying clients.
One thing that I've been debating on is to whether allow google ads on the Blog? I will not do it on any other parts of the page, but I feel like it wouldn't hurt on the blog. Any suggestions?
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