Looking to sell my time for experience

[LightHouse]

You biggest gap here, besides the title as MJ suggested, is you have no examples of what it is you can do and what you are good at... that fills a need for someone else.

You can't rely on your clients to do the thinking for you. Find out what you are really good at (possibly by figuring it out via a job board like upwork where people are telling you what they need in exchange for money) and then wrap that into an actual offer of something with a cost.

I am not going to buy your time if i have no idea what it is you do well, or even how much it costs. You can't even get a regular 9-5 job like this. Gain a skill, make and offer, and sell your time.

And before you ask, no i do not know where you should start looking or have any suggestions on what to look for, you gotta put in the work!

p.s. once you figure out what you are actually offering, a new title is pretty easy to formulate!

 

[Kak]

@LittleWolfie as I am reading this thread, I am seeing several extremely competent and high earning individuals encouraging you and trying to help, only to be met with but, but, but, however, I can’t.

Dude, entrepreneurship is about self starting and being self motivated. When you get to an impasse, you figure out the next step to moving forward.

You market yourself as this jack of all trades, but when someone has a specific idea it is always met with resistance. I’m not saying the following to be anything other than helpful to you... That would irritate the hell out of me.

When it comes to hiring someone to do something for you, you don’t want the employee that sounds like a broken record of excuses. It seriously comes down to this one sentence... Ok if you can’t do it, I’m not going to hire you.

Also this thread is your de facto resume. Do you think you put your best foot forward in the original post? Have you done it in follow up posts?

I thought most of them wanted more time, and well I am absolutely clueless as to what would make them say that.

If you are clueless about something, figure out how not to be. It is your choice and the information is out there.

I am having very slow progress son writing good copy that goes "wow"

Then learn to do it faster. You can. It is your choice.

phrasing is far from my strong suit.

So you recognize a place in your life that needs some improvement. Address it, don’t live with it.

however I have yet to find job openings that require reading large amounts of dry scientific literature.

Why have you pigeonholed yourself into that one thing? Why wouldn’t you expand your capabilities. It is your choice to do so. It is your choice to become valuable to a wider scope of people.

what I lack is sales skill.

Then you should probably work on that a bit. It is your choice and there are countless free resources out there to help you improve.

but I'm completly unable to compete with people in a low cost of living areas

How does everyone else do it? How are the richest people in the world also living in the highest cost of living cities in the world? They became more relevant than their competitors. You can outcompete anyone. Price is not the only factor. Skills are another.

but it requires me to find out what their problem actually might be, this is hard because I have to keep guessing as I have no network I can ask.

Just Ask... How can I help you? What are your needs? What would make you excited about working together? Questions like this go a long way. How hard is that?

This is where I struggle, it is really hard for me to put myself in someone else's shoes and working out what the reader actually wants.

Another instance of something you might want to improve upon. You have recognized a weakness, deal with it instead of letting it fester.

I'd explain how modern tech would make websites better, how I could build any feature they wanted for their website. No one cared.

Cast a wider net and I mprove your communication skills. Businesses spend millions on web work every hour of every day.

however this require money and make sit impossible to offer too cheaply/for free

If it is something that makes value sense... and you can lead... and accurately convey that value to the proper people you can find the money.

Nobody I know, wants what I have to offer

Than offer something better. You can. It is your choice to up your skill set and offer it to the market. Learning is basically free.

I will have to think on how I can phrase my skills as if they are solving a problem.

“As if they are solving a problem?” How about actually solving it? I know you have this giant mental block about how problems just continue to exist no matter how much you address them, but that is untrue. You can absolutely 100% learn your way out of this slump and I sincerely hope you do.

Try this for your response; do not use the words/phrases “but, however, I can’t or it’s hard” because you can if you figure out how.

I wish you success on Saturday, because it isn’t luck.

 

[Rabby]

Hi! The biggest problem with the copy is that it's about you. Even though you're a cool guy and fun to talk to, people who want to pay money to solve their problems right now are not looking for an introduction. They're looking for something about "them" and how their problem will be solved for them.

So, to the greatest extent possible, your copy should be all about the customer. Wolfie should be almost invisible. It's one of the paradoxes of marketing... you disappear into writing that is all about someone else, and then the reader gasps, looks up, and says "OMG, Wolfie understands me!" That's also the part where their wallet comes out.

Delete the personality profile. The customer doesn't work that hard. The only ideas they'll get about how to use your skills are the ones you give them directly. For example:

You need someone to research your competitors. How much more money could you make if you knew exactly what features your competitors were rolling out next? What if you knew which of their marketing promises were true or false, and which ones customers actually cared about? Could you outsell the competition with that kind of information? Well, now you can. And you don't have to do it yourself! Just contact Wolfie's Research Services...

I mean, keep it legal, but do you see how this is different? It almost exclusively talks about the customer, using the miraculous verbal pointer "you." You can also use stories that people will imagine themselves in:

Sally was falling behind in business. Her competitors seemed to know exactly what the customer wanted, before the customer even knew! Then she got the business intelligence she needed all along, and it changed everything...

It doesn't even have to be the best copy ever. Just frame it so it's about "them." The "you" who is reading it.

The second improvement would be over-broadness. Marketing is science. You form a hypothesis and test it. The hypothesis that someone might be interested in research, transcription services, unspecified consulting, and paid brainstorming, is just too broad to test, validate, or invalidate. You can narrow it down to one thing that seems to be what "they" want. See if you can find one thing that lots of "theys" will want and you'll have something that gets you plenty of customers.

Executive summary:

1. Write to the reader, for the reader, about the reader. The marketer draws attention to himself through his insights about the reader, not by describing himself.
2. Narrow down your offering to something discreet, bite-sized. One thing, or 2-3 very closely related things that the reader can imagine herself benefiting from. Something that solves her problem and makes her day/week/life easier or better.

Good luck!

 

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[JAJT]

however I have yet to find job openings that require reading large amounts of dry scientific literature.

Ever heard of technical writing?

It's basically EXACTLY this. You are provided with a heap of dry, dense scientific/industry literature and your job is to summarize and re-write this into layman's terms.

There are courses for this and some do it purely freelance but it's typically a very well paid skill (6 figures is not unheard of in this space) simply because it takes a very particular person who can sit down for hours to comprehend difficult industry jargon and then turn around and spend hours more re-writing it for casual comprehension. And then do it ACCURATELY.

You can also possibly consider sales engineering or technical sales support. It's basically playing expert for the sales people. You need to be able to talk to people and relay information to experts but you don't actually have to sell anything.

 

[Andy Black]

Sorry to disappoint all the advice-givers; LittleWolfie is clearly not serious, clueless, delusional, or all three. My advice for him would be to find a structured environment and learn to follow directions and do a simple job. Justification for my opinion follows.



Well, I have an idea. Market prediction is very hard to do. It is next to impossible to do for an individual, unless they are exceptional in some way, and then there are objective criteria (e.g. they have received a major prize in math or computer science) and/or they have worked at a top trading firm and know what they are talking about. In order to work at a top trading firm you need very strong communication skills; this guy will not last for ten minutes.

LittleWolfie's market prediction algorithm is just a fantasy, as is his SaaS. Again, do you seriously think someone with communication skills and awareness at 0/10 level will be able to deliver something of value? This SaaS will require 10 hours just to create an account, because you'd have to take a personality test first.

Whether the guy is not serious, or delusional, or has a cognitive impairment to which we have to be sympathetic; either way, the advice is wasted.
If you are not yet convinced, just read through this nonsense:

"Someone has already paid me. I am using this to fund in-person cold calls" — how is a call in-person?

"macro to save word document as vba script. " — what?! How would an arbitrary document become a VBA script, and why would it make any sense?

"Figuring out how to explain what is easily automated to a layman has if I recall correctly a million dollar prize from Google." — ?! Of course, there's no such million dollar prize. And okay, I am not a layman, nobody on this forum is; why can't we understand?

"Analysing large amounts of stock data to draw conclusions, using twitter to respond to specifc keywords, sentiment analysis(in this case for finding out emotion/postivity for stock market prediction" — this is not drudge work, lol.

If you were to be sympathetic then what would your advice to @LittleWolfie be?

 

[MJ DeMarco]

Looks like I have to rejoin the INSIDERS to edit the post

Not true, you would have to rebuy the ad because the ad is over a year old.

However, simply rewrite your post and post it as a new post in this thread. I will copy it and edit it into your original post up top. Make sure to tag me when you do this so I know to come in and copy it. That way you don't have to rebuy the ad.

 

[LittleWolfie]

Authentically Honest, hard-working guy looking to trade time/skills for money

Do you want more money or more time? If not, move on.

If you do well time is money, so the more time I can save you the more money you make right? I’m an authentically Honest, hard-working guy looking to trade time/skills for money.



I believe, I will be most effective at research, but I’m willing to consider anything that adds value and might be a good fit for both of us. I’ve included my personality profile in the hopes it might gel an idea in someone as to how I can add value.



I’ve already helped one forum member here (@rsynder312) find someone



I mainly do work that isn’t too online friendly or emotion-laden, hyperbole filled text, rather cold, logical and dispassionate objective assessments.



I’ve fiddled around with a few techs and I can probably automate some of your drudge work or if all else fails do it for you.



(I can do transcriptions too if you don’t mind the British spellings for colour)





My Personality via plum.io (



You are...

• Curious, analytical, reflective, imaginative and creative
  
  
• Likely to be introverted and reclusive
  
  
• Modest, humble, pleasant, considerate, generous and cooperative
  
  
• Self-assured, happy, optimistic, content, secure, and cheerful
  
  
• Blunt,direct and rather literal, avoid using emotional-laden words, dealing in facts and figures rather than emotions
  

Professionally, you are...

• Exceptionally well suited to positions that will demand continuous learning and imagining new and different ways of doing things.
  
  
• Well suited to organizations and positions that appreciate good listeners that don't waste time on simple chit-chat.
  
  
• Exceptionally well suited to positions with altruistic goals and tasks that make people happy.
  
  
• Best suited to positions that are unlikely to have many unexpected problems or changes in how the work gets done.
  
  
• Better suited to positions where social relationships are not important, and where there is frequently space to work alone.
  
  
• Exceptionally well suited to positions that require close collaboration, soliciting and accepting feedback and criticism, and dealing positively with obstacles and failures.
  

At work, you...

• Delight in thinking about abstract ideas and a variety of subjects.
  
  
• Appreciate working in small teams or alone.
  
  
• Greatly appreciate opportunities to collaborate and cooperate with others.
  
  
• Greatly prefer learning by repetition and accomplishing objectives that are well explained ahead of time.
  
  
• Greatly appreciates who you are as a person and see yourself in a positive light.
  

You would be happiest in positions where you will...

• Be continuously learning, and pushing for constant improvements.
  
  
• Have infrequent social interactions with many different people, colleagues, prospects or clients - seek small teams or opportunities to work alone.
  
  
• Often have altruistic goals, tasks and projects that make people happy.
  
  
• Be able to have problems anticipated before they happen.
  
  
• Be able to accomplish most objectives by working on your own, avoid most interpersonal conflict and disagreement, and waste little energy impressing management.
  
  
• Be confronted with constant obstacles and have to deal positively with regular feedback and criticism.
  

Talents





Cultural Awareness

Your Cultural Awareness is in the top 15% of the workforce. You have a strong proficiency for understanding the perspective of others, and dealing effectively with different types of people.



You have an extraordinary disposition for being curious, reflective and studying people and their values.



You have a disposition for adapting to a wide range of people, and being open to differences in attitudes, values and personalities.



You can be encouraging, sensitive, and make others feel comfortable and appreciated.



You have an extraordinary ability to communicate in a tactful and considerate manner in difficult situations, and help others settle interpersonal conflicts.





Adaptation

You have a proficiency for adjusting to changes in the workplace while maintaining a positive demeanor.



You can remain calm, level-headed and operate effectively in the midst of stressful situations and under multiple or conflicting demands.



You have an extraordinary ability to change your approach to best fit the situation, analyze problems and develop new solutions.



You can learn and apply new skills, adjust effectively to different and changing environments, and smoothly integrate changes into your work habits.



You have an extraordinary ability to deal positively with obstacles and failures, accept criticism and feedback, and use intuition and experience to complement data.





Conflict Resolution





You have a good ability to stay calm and collected in stressful situations or when confronted with criticism.



You are supportive and sensitive to the feelings of others, helping you find mutually agreeable solutions.



You have an extraordinary temperament for being polite and mannerly when interacting with others even when you disagree.



Happy to use escrow services. Can invoice in £ via UK agency or can consider €,$, crypto (Gulden,Eth,LTC,BTC,BAT and others.)

 

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[MJ DeMarco]

May I suggest a title change? Something that reflects an effort?

If your ad doesn't "wow", you might not get a lot of takers.

Your ad is over a year old, but maybe it still can pull some eyeballs with a bit of editing.

I don't see "Time for Sale" being something that would compel folks here to say "Wow, I need to hire this guy!!!"

 

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[JAJT]

Looking back through this thread, it appears that one of your biggest issues is that you are basically saying:

"I can do a lot of things, what do you want me to do? How can I add value to you?"

And everyone you ask is responding with:

"Great question, I don't know. Nothing for now, I guess"

You may think nobody cares or nobody needs what you have to offer but you need to realize that the reason you are getting this response is simple - you are being vague.

Very, very vague.

And the more vague you are, the less of an expert you appear and the less needed you become.

Let's say you were out looking for a copywriter. Would you hire:

Person A - "I have experience reviewing things, researching, I think I write well, I've helped others do some stuff, I can do a lot of things for you, how can I help?"

Person B - "I'm an expert product copywriter. I've written persuasive copy that has taken client conversion rates from 0.5% to 7% overnight"

The answer is obvious. You pick option B because that choice very closely matches up with the problem you are facing right now.

The more vague you are, the less likely you'll get picked simply because you don't closely match anyone's needs.

Here's a terrible (sorry) quote from your first post:

I believe, I will be most effective at research

Researching what? For who? For what purpose? What have you researched in the past? How did that turn out?

Are you doing keyword research for ad campaigns or are you doing market research for new product development or what? I have no idea what you are good at. And not only do I not know what you're good at - you don't seem to either. You also only "BELIEVE" you are good at it. I don't want someone who believes they are good at something. I want someone who KNOWS they are GREAT at something SPECIFIC.

If I'm looking for someone to make me a new logo for a new company I've come up with, am I going to hire a guy who "believes he's good at art", or am I going to hire someone who "is an expert graphical design professional, specializing in logo design? It's not even a choice.

I’ve fiddled around with a few techs and I can probably automate some of your drudge work or if all else fails do it for you.

Again - from your first post. I don't know what this means!

What drudge work SPECIFICALLY do you have experience automating? Maybe you can do something super cool that will save me a few hours a week. I'd totally pay for that. But I probably don't even know what's possible or how you can help me unless YOU TELL ME.

And if you KNOW you can automate but don't know HOW that can be useful - ASK! Start a thread that asks "what tasks or activities do you do again and again, day in and day out, that you wish you didn't have to manually fiddle with?"

Now you have the beginnings of a unique selling proposition. Maybe 3 or 4 people give you some order handling task and you figure you can totally automate that. Well now you come back and say "I can automate your order processing so you never have to touch it and it will save you 5 hours per week". Do you think people will jump on that? The ones with repetitive order handling issues will, anyway.

You need to understand that nobody goes out looking for ways to make use of people.

People who have specific problems seek out people with specific solutions.
People with specific solutions seek out people with specific problems.

Nobody ever, ever, ever spends time trying to figure out how to match a "generally useful person" with a problem.

 

[Fox]

Never seen this thread to the title was changed (muuch more clickable now) - wow there is some amazing advice in here.

From the original post...

"Authentically Honest, hard-working guy looking to trade time/skills for money"

@LittleWolfie - what are 3-5 things you specifically could offer right now today for people on here with a clear price and value.

Example - "I will take your YouTube videos and turn the content into a quick guide and actionable list you can get your subscribers to download in exchange for an email address. $37 per video or 4 for $99."

My problem with trying to hire you is from reading this thread I got zero idea what you would be good and what the rough cost or value would be.

I am sure other posters have already covering this too - I am still working through the previous posts since there is so much good advice.

 

[MJ DeMarco]

Good luck, hope it works out.

 

[Em7]

Funnily, just yesterday I was writing about this.

When I was new as a owner of a dev agency, my offer was just as confusing as this, I would tell people I can code just about anything, I'd tell them about my skills, I'd explain how modern tech would make websites better, how I could build any feature they wanted for their website. No one cared.

Turns out, Customers don't buy your time, they don't buy your skills, they don't care about your past, nor do they even care if you're working with ML, AI, WordPress or Wix.

They only care about one simple thing. That's Return on Investment, how are you gonna turn the money they give you into something that will give them more back?

When my client buys a website from me, they're not paying me to build a website, they are using their budget they give me to get more back, and quick.

If your boss would tell you Hey, we need to improve our website, you got a budget of $5000. What words do you want to hear from the seller? Their skills in React? Their ability to perform floating-point arithmetic? No of course not, you want to hear how they are gonna make your website sell more, how long it's going to take because if you take that $5000 and pay some agency to build your website you better show your boss how that 5000 is gonna turn into 15000 for the company or he's going to fire you.

If you can't demonstrate value in the forms of RoI then no sane business will buy your service.

 

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[Andy Black]

I’m curious @LittleWolfie:

• Can you create bots to “scrape” websites or Facebook pages and pull back data parsed into rows in a Google Sheet?
• Can you take rows in a Google Sheet as input and generate a web page per row?
• Can you take a description of up to 40 characters and split it into two Google Ads headlines of up to 30 characters, where the split isn’t partway through a word in the original 40 character description?
• Can you take the listings from a Shopify store and convert it into a Google Sheet to be uploaded to Google Merchant Center as a supplemental feed for Google Shopping campaigns?
• Can you setup and automate reports from Google Data Studio so that every Monday 30 clients get a weekly view of their last 10 weeks performance? Also adding in the Change Log and Comments from a Google Sheet setup for each client?
• Can you automatically pause the ad group for any keyword that has a quality score of 2 or less for charity clients so they can stay compliant with Google’s policies and remain eligible for their $10k/mth grant for ad spend.
• Can you bulk upload 30 Soundcloud recordings into iTunes and retain their creation dates?
• Can you bulk change the description and tags for over 100 YouTube videos that haven’t got any description or tags? Maybe from a Google Sheet so formulae can be used to generate the descriptions and tags?
• Can you set up Thrivecart and ActiveCampaign so that a paid email newsletter can be created that automatically unsubscribes people when they stop paying?
• Can you create a Zapier zap so that people who buy a Thinkific course get tagged or added to another MailCheat(Chimp) list or are otherwise separated from the people just taking the free trial?

PS: I’m expecting you to say “No”, or “Not yet”. These are just examples of real life automations that could help a real life business owner. Automations that likely help other business owners too.

Can you write similar examples of what you *have* done that can show people what you’re capable of, and to get their wheels turning?

 

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[G-Man]

Nobody I know, wants what I have to offer

Then find new people or offer something else.

Don't over-complicate it. Keep putting yourself out there an be earnest. Five years ago, in an interview for a mid-level accounting position, the Controller asked me a bunch of technical questions I couldn't answer, and just seemed agitated. The owner walked by the room on his way to lunch, walked in, and asked if I had ever used a full suite ERP. I looked him in the eye and said "No, I have no idea, but I'll figure it out." I got the job, left a year later to take a Controller job at another company, and got hired back 2 years later to be the VP of Sales at the company that originally hired me to be an accountant. The controller that was so disappointed in my technical skills is still a controller.

You can reinvent yourself if you stop nay saying yourself. If you don't offer the right thing, learn to offer something else, or offer the same thing in a different way. If nobody you know wants what you have, meet some new people

You can do it.

 

[broswoodwork]

Looks like I have to rejoin the INSIDERS to edit the post, but will use your advice tomorrow, on the Saturday Market place thread and anywhere else I can think of using it.



This requires me identifying what fills a need for someone else, I can share the code I have written (most people fail to understand it)or show what I have made that in theory fills a need (people have claimed to have) it has to be a need they will pay money to me for fulfilling though



Well, |I was tested as having excellent reading ability, and my verbal comprehension was in the gifted range, however I have yet to find job openings that require reading large amounts of dry scientific literature.

Taking a look at upwork all the web development , has some nice fixed price jobs (create wordpress site from backup) but the cost for regular work is simply too low.



Would you buy anybody's?



I have plenty of skills, what I lack is sales skill. A 9-5 job requires selling yourself as well as actually doing the job, I'm working on that too. Most suggest using freelancing as a way in, but I'm completly unable to compete with people in a low cost of living areas



I'm happy to put in the hard work, but I have to figure out how to direct it, hopefully once I crack what to offer this will help.



Awesome.



Thanks, I guess I was misled by the idea about business being about relationships,it followed from that supposition,that people might be interested in me personally.




I think I get that, but it requires me to find out what their problem actually might be, this is hard because I have to keep guessing as I have no network I can ask.




hmm, I will have to think on how I can phrase my skills as if they are solving a problem.



Yes, that is written in the second person, I can write in first person,second person or third person. I see no miraculous part, however I will take your word for it
Sally was falling behind in business. Her competitors seemed to know exactly what the customer wanted, before the customer even knew! Then she got the business intelligence she needed all along, and it changed everything...



Sure I can work on that, and keep trying various tests.
Executive summary:



This is where I struggle, it is really hard for me to put myself in someone else's shoes and working out what the reader actually wants.

Will Do.
Again this requires the reader or people like them telling me what the problem might actually entail.

I believe the theme of what the big guys are saying is pick a lane and take some action. (Note: not guaranteed to be saleable)

Research competitors (or whatever ONE THING you choose)
First point -How will it benefit your audience? (Make a big best case scenario promise here)

Then -What will the research include and how are some ways it'll be used? [Features] (Make a secondary smaller promise here that's more than worth the price of admission by its self)

Then - Explain BRIEFLY what the process will be like for them. (Hint painless and risk free)

Last - call to action. Have them message you and be ready to concisely prescribe your service to their needs

Just my $.02, but I'm a little guy.

Edit: Have you read Scientific Advertising and Breakthrough Advertising? Both can be found free out there in the wild, and they may be right up your alley as evidenced based approaches to grabbing attention for your solution to xyz problem.

 

[Andy Black]

@LittleWolfie

Would you be good at watching a video of someone going through a task and then creating a repeatable SOP from it?

 

[Em7]

Cool, can you give me a link.

Sadly I cannot, It's not public yet I'm working on a script for a video, I can send the video to you later if you're interested. (The thing I brought up is 1 part of the video)

Then it is kind of weird no one wanted to buy my stock market prediction algorithm, that explicitly says about return on investment.

Could say something like; Are you too busy with the minutiae to actually be getting sales? Let me take some of the admin work off your plate.

I have no idea why people don't buy your market prediction algorithm but I know that people will say no to you generally based for these 3 points:

1. Logical - I lost customers because I was not able to reason with them in a logical way (They weren't persuaded that my offer would be valuable)
2. Emotional - I lost customers because of personality mismatch, even though I've improved my sales ability a lot, certain people just don't click with me, sadly.
3. Political - I lost clients because they'd rather buy from a friend or someone inside the organization felt threatened to by us (Hey if my company learns they can outsource my work I might lose my job!)

Well yes, I would. I was asked for a better website rather than to make more money.



You see my problem, I will do what I am asked to do. I have no clue that he really meant he wanted more money, would have been easier if that was what he said in the first place.

It's not your customer's job to define your offering to them for you! Create 3 offers and pitch them.

You will logically think that you're limiting your options, but you're actually speaking to people in a way they're used to be spoken to.

When have you ever instructed a chef on how to cook for you? If I goto a restaurant I'm gonna leave if the cook asks me anything more than what I want.

If i have to guess what they really mean, I will probably get it wrong. Yet as I have said before, I have found publishers whom want an audience rather than money form a website, which seems strange.

I don't know if I understand what you're talking about, but an audience seems like money to me.

It seems to me that it would be impossible to demonstrate it until you have provided ROI at least once,so how did you persuade your first client?

Honestly? A combination of desperation and being ok with taking an extremely low price for what I was offering just to get something.

Client 1: Desperate for quick changes on website, I said I could do it they paid me very low for few hours work.
Client 2: Wanted an impressive website with all types of features (Event system, Project case studies) the website was more of a platform for them to show their work, partners and what work they've done. Since I did everything myself there was no loss except my time, and in the end, I used this to show off my work to others (including a testimonial from that client) that helped me get the next step. If I calculated my hourly salary for that job, it's less than 50 cent an hour guaranteed.

----------

But this is not the only way you can do it, I've done personal projects and showed them off that have resulted in leads. Do you know how to code? Go build something and show it off, as a teenager I sold my first website because some others saw the website I built for myself and they wanted something similar.

 

[ryanbleau]

One big thing is to find a single client to do work for free......probably someone you already know. Have them write a solid review paragraph. That will state the problem and your solution as well as the ease of using your service.
I find people as a hobby not so much a side business. I have friends that are authors, government agents and high end security for the wealthy. They often get doxed or threats online. I find those people. I locate peoples kids that their ex's have taken out of the country. I find people who have posted pictures of kids in settings no one is supposed to see them in. I hunt down identities of con men and do deep dives into peoples backgrounds.
I don't rely on copy or a web page. these people come to me.
If you have a skill, develop it.
If you have a skill, do it for free until it becomes something you can charge for
If you become the best or even just incrementally better than everyone else, you wont have to advertise.
Whatever you decide to do, let the work speak for you, instead of trying to force people to assume the value of the unknown.

 

[LittleWolfie]

Turns out, Customers don't buy your time, they don't buy your skills, they don't care about your past, nor do they even care if you're working with ML, AI, WordPress or Wix.



When my client buys a website from me, they're not paying me to build a website, they are using their budget they give me to get more back, and quick.

Oh. I was selling them their time. What would you do with an extra 3 hours a week?

There is also a ROI of an extra 1% of trunover for each 10ms of quuckwr loading website. Yet people want 3 second wordpress sites over fast static sites. Without knowing turnover,hard to give an exact $ figure. I think people fail to understand the percentages.

One big thing is to find a single client to do work for free......probably someone you already know. Have them write a solid review paragraph. That will state the problem and your solution as well as the ease of using your service.
I hunt down identities of con men and do deep dives into peoples backgrounds.
I don't rely on copy or a web page. these people come to me.
If you have a skill, develop it.
If you have a skill, do it for free until it becomes something you can charge for

Someone has already paid me. I am using this to fund in-person cold calls.

I have two leads to follow up on from this forum. It appears I sell better when I have never been seen.

All developing a skill for free has got me is people who want more free work.

Charging gives me a metric to tell if the market values what I am providing.

 

[LittleWolfie]

So you are basically a Virtual Assistant?

I'm basically building Virtual Assistants.

 

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[LittleWolfie]

So you are selling software(or SAAS?), Why didn't you mention that in your main copy ? Until then I thought you were offering some kind of freelance service.

Well I am awful at copy writing. I also thought SaaS might be too complicated a term.

What I am trying to do is a hybrid. Where I build and set up software for people then provide support. So it is kind of both. Freelance software building and support.

Your probably more confused now.

 

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[Mark Trade]

Sales for Dummies 101.

We all know Pork Ribs and Beef Ribs taste great, but it's not the meat that tastes good, it's the sauce. Your customers have heaps of Beef and Pork Ribs, they just want you to add a sauce, no-one has ever tasted before.

The old saying, "Sell The Sizzle, Not The Steak"

 

[Dan_Cardone]

Well I am awful at copy writing.

A lot of great copywriting books on Amazon. Lex also has a course on copywriting that is probably pretty good.

 

[broswoodwork]

@LittleWolfie

Would you be good at watching a video of someone going through a task and then creating a repeatable SOP from it?

Ooooh!

 

[Vairavan]

delusional, or has a cognitive impairment

That was harsh. Maybe, he is an over-enthusiastic kid.

 

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[Mark Trade]

I think @LittleWolfie has a mental image on what he wants, but is unsure how to bring it too fruition. Putting him down with negative comments isn't going to help the guy, nor is it helping anyone else on here. So hear the guy out and think first about what he said and is trying to achieve and come up with a workable solution of sorts.

There's an old saying, "Don't treat me like an idiot, I'm not one, just show me what I'm doing wrong, so I can then do it right".

I don't pretend to know anything about SaaS, because I don't, but I do get the gist of what it could achieve. Perhaps @LittleWolfie should not be at the beginning or the end, but rather in the middle. What do I mean.!!!

Currently on the forum, there is a member who is working on his 7th SaaS platform. He sounds like he knows what he is talking about, but that's my opinion. Remember, I don't know SaaS. So correct me If I'm wrong.

If @LittleWolfie was to "work with" this guy and use him to do what he requires, we then have a win - win. @LittleWolfie could then work on the sales and marketing side. From what I can work out, Google defines SaaS as Software as a service, it is a software licensing and delivery model in which software is licensed on a subscription basis and is centrally hosted. It is sometimes referred to as "on-demand software", and was formerly referred to as "software plus services" by Microdick.

Wouldn't it be beneficial, if @LittleWolfie worked with the Host and the Developer, but in a middleman capacity, this way he is exposed to both ends of the SaaS Software. He could then learn, the whole ropes from A - Z.

I can expand more, but would like to hear what @LittleWolfie feedback is.???

 

[Mark Trade]

If anyone is doubtful of my last quote, then read this and let it sink in.


During the world war, a Chicago newspaper published certain editorials in which, among other statements, Henry Ford was called "an ignorant pacifist." Mr. Ford objected to the statements, and brought suit against the paper for libeling him. When the suit was tried in the Courts, the attorneys for the paper pleaded justification, and placed Mr. Ford, himself, on the witness stand, for the purpose of proving to the jury that he was ignorant. The attorneys asked Mr. Ford a great variety of questions, all of them intended to prove, by his own evidence, that, while he might possess considerable specialised knowledge pertaining to the manufacture of automobiles, he was in the main, ignorant.

Mr. Ford was plied with such questions as the following:

"Who was Benedict Arnold?" and
"How many soldiers did the British send over to America to put down the Rebellion of 1776?"

In answer to the last question, Mr. Ford replied,
"I do not know the exact number of soldiers the British sent over, but I have heard that it was a considerably larger number than ever went back."

Finally, Mr. Ford became tired of this line of questioning, and in reply to a particularly offensive question, he leaned over, pointed his finger at the lawyer who had asked the question, and said, "If I should really “WANT” to answer that foolish question, you have just asked, or any of the other questions, you have been asking me, let me remind you, that I have a row of electric push-buttons on my desk, and by pushing the right button, I can summon to my aid, men, who can answer ANY question, I desire to ask, concerning the business, to which I am devoting most of my efforts. → example, this forum.

Now, will you kindly tell me, “WHY” I should clutter up my mind, with general knowledge, for the purpose of being able to answer questions, when I have men around me, who can supply any knowledge I require.?"

There certainly was good logic to that reply. That answer floored the lawyer. Every person in the courtroom realised it was the answer, not of an ignorant person, but of a person of EDUCATION.

 

[FierceRacoon]

If you were to be sympathetic then what would your advice to @LittleWolfie be?

My advice would be to
(1) not worry about entrepreneurship or fastlane for now.
(2) find a job with structure and human interaction, if possible, including guiding people, helping people, convincing people. From sales, being a store clerk at a busy retail location, being a waiter a barista at Starbucks to tutoring to being an Uber driver. If not possible, pick something structured with a learning curve. If not possible, anything that pays the bills and leaves enough time in the day.
(3) find a mentor who is good at whatever he is trying to master, pay him for the learning.
(4) start learning about money. Try saving. Try negotiating the price when buying minor items. Lend someone a little money. Then try making money in new ways. Any amount counts, even $1 for an hour of work. The goal should be quantity, to experience various ways of making money, short-term and long-term, and get a better intuition.
(5) start learning more about people. Go to every possible social occasion, from birthdays to beach parties, and talk to as many people as possible.
(6) cultivate ways to give value other than by paying people. For example, if you are fun to hang out with, once you meet someone knowledgeable about entrepreneurship, they will be more inclined to hang out with you and share knowledge.
(7) start writing personal goals into a notebook (on paper) and reviewing them on a regular basis.
etc.

It is most important to have humility to seek advice and then take it and follow it. Of course, think who you are taking advice from, but otherwise that is where many people fail.

 

[Primeperiwinkle]

Stravinsky violin making music in a subway isn’t easily recognized, either.

 

[Here]

littlewolfie, you sound brilliant but copywriting is obviously not where you shine. When you figure out what you want to do, perhaps you can hire a copywriter to write the ad for you?

 

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