Need Advice On Next Move: Sales, Agency or Freelancing?

[ryanbransby]

Hi Guys, next some advice on my next move. Feeling a bit stuck with this decision. 22yrs old from Aus.

Last year I got into B2B Sales, in the Energy Sector. Ended up doing that until above 2 months ago, for context. My monthly quota was 15k, ended up doing that for 8 months generated 180k for their business. Decided I wanted to go out on my own and try my own business. With all the free time I had, I wasn't as disciplined as possible and ended up "action-faking" a bit too much.

I did well in sales (I think always hit Quota and overachieved in quite a few months), people said I was good but hated being in that 9-5 and struggled to manage my time and work on a business on the side (I often was drained after the long days, wasn't creative).

They ended up reaching back out to me, worked as a freelancer for them doing sales. Also now work for a marketing company as a freelancer but making F*CK all, like $150 a week.

Because I'm making nothing I ended up picking up some bar work to make a bit extra cash.

Now I'm planning my next move.

My current skills: Pretty good a sales, good copywriter, experience w/ email marketing (got my own freelance client for 2 months doing flow design and structure), experience with e-commerce (understand basics).

Currently living with my parents (have a shed out the back where I can work). Low on money right now so I think I need to make a move quickly decide on something and commit.

--

Next moves? Options I'm thinking are:

1. Get another sales job (the problem was I didn't focus on biz last time, maybe try better plan days and work on time management). Work on biz on the side
2. Go all in on an Agency (use sales skills to close + hire people for product fulfillment or do it myself).
3. Try to get a few freelance clients by cold calling or cold email (pretty good at email marketing).
4. Go back to Uni and get a degree (parents are pushing for this but really would rather not).

Would be curious what move you would make. or what potential biz models you think might suite my personality.

Cheers.

 

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[Andy Black]

They ended up reaching back out to me, worked as a freelancer for them doing sales. Also now work for a marketing company as a freelancer but making F*CK all, like $150 a week.

You're a freelancer for the company where you used to be an employee? That seems like a good result.

How are you only making $150/week if you're freelancing for two companies?

 

[ryanbransby]

You're a freelancer for the company where you used to be an employee? That seems like a good result.

How are you only making $150/week if you're freelancing for two companies?

I was let go as a freelancer at my old sales company, recently. Now just doing 4-6 hours at a marketing company of a family friend doing small copy jobs etc. Work is inconsistent and hours aren't great.

 

[Andy Black]

I was let go as a freelancer at my old sales company, recently. Now just doing 4-6 hours at a marketing company of a family friend doing small copy jobs etc. Work is inconsistent and hours aren't great.

What would you study at college, and how much would it cost?

Can you get a job asap and learn while you earn?

You can always build up revenue on the side.

I wouldn't recommend getting clients and then building a team to fulfil until you've had more skin in the game. Get the skills to deliver it yourself first?

 

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[Jobless]

Please don't say things like 'Try to get a few freelance clients by cold calling or cold email (pretty good at email marketing).' Watch carefully how you think, speak, and write about: yourself, your plans and your abilities. High self-esteem is important to succeed, and accepting low-paying jobs MAY be an indicator of low self-esteem. Do not sell yourself short and always believe in your own abilities.

If you're a serious individual, get very specific about a single problem you've encountered in your sales experience. A problem you know you can solve (It must be a real solution, not BS) for clients in a specific market/niche, ON A CONTINUAL BASIS -- No, one-time projects. Long-term Problems with Short-term Solutions. Long-term clients. Long-term thinking. Do NOT limit yourself to a single client, you must have several at once.

Set goals, set deadlines. Keep track of how you spend your time. Hold yourself accountable. Create systems in your business and work on improving them every day. Your business will consist of your skills and the daily problem-solving systems you build. In addition, you will convince/inspire people to help you / give advice when required. You will have to be relentless with your focus, and work every day of the week towards the goals you have in mind. This process is complex, because you will also have to work on yourself -- learning and becoming more efficient in this process (sharpening the axe, learning new tools, yada yada.)

This will last a few years, and you will have to push yourself get through it. You will have to sacrifice prestige, pride, ego etc. and you will change as an individual, probably for the better. You also have to accept the possibility of failure/defeat. That is why you need to set deadlines for yourself. It has to be crystal clear what it is you want to accomplish within one year. If you do not accomplish it, serious reflections and adjustments are required.

If you're non-serious and you wanna party -- Go to college instead. It's more fun in the short-term and you can just go with the flow. Maybe make some good connections, for the future. This is the right decision for most people.

 

[Kevin88660]

Hi Guys, next some advice on my next move. Feeling a bit stuck with this decision. 22yrs old from Aus.

Last year I got into B2B Sales, in the Energy Sector. Ended up doing that until above 2 months ago, for context. My monthly quota was 15k, ended up doing that for 8 months generated 180k for their business. Decided I wanted to go out on my own and try my own business. With all the free time I had, I wasn't as disciplined as possible and ended up "action-faking" a bit too much.

I did well in sales (I think always hit Quota and overachieved in quite a few months), people said I was good but hated being in that 9-5 and struggled to manage my time and work on a business on the side (I often was drained after the long days, wasn't creative).

They ended up reaching back out to me, worked as a freelancer for them doing sales. Also now work for a marketing company as a freelancer but making F*CK all, like $150 a week.

Because I'm making nothing I ended up picking up some bar work to make a bit extra cash.

Now I'm planning my next move.

My current skills: Pretty good a sales, good copywriter, experience w/ email marketing (got my own freelance client for 2 months doing flow design and structure), experience with e-commerce (understand basics).

Currently living with my parents (have a shed out the back where I can work). Low on money right now so I think I need to make a move quickly decide on something and commit.

--

Next moves? Options I'm thinking are:

1. Get another sales job (the problem was I didn't focus on biz last time, maybe try better plan days and work on time management). Work on biz on the side
2. Go all in on an Agency (use sales skills to close + hire people for product fulfillment or do it myself).
3. Try to get a few freelance clients by cold calling or cold email (pretty good at email marketing).
4. Go back to Uni and get a degree (parents are pushing for this but really would rather not).

Would be curious what move you would make. or what potential biz models you think might suite my personality.

Cheers.

What could your contacts in the energy business help you to do something in that sector?

 

[ryanbransby]

What would you study at college, and how much would it cost?

Can you get a job asap and learn while you earn?

You can always build up revenue on the side.

I wouldn't recommend getting clients and then building a team to fulfil until you've had more skin in the game. Get the skills to deliver it yourself first?

Not really sure, I was going to study biomedicine at Uni - but probably a lot and I don't really see myself going into Uni (it's more pressure from parents). I was originally going to study medicine (I did have a passion for this but my passion for business is more).

I technically have a job but it's bar work so not learning - I did make a few good connections though.

Thanks for the recommendation, don't have too much skin in the game but think I could wing a client or two and get results. I had a sales call today for a $1.5k monthly retainer. They didn't close there and but the deals on the table.

 

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[ryanbransby]

Please don't say things like 'Try to get a few freelance clients by cold calling or cold email (pretty good at email marketing).' Watch carefully how you think, speak, and write about: yourself, your plans and your abilities. High self-esteem is important to succeed, and accepting low-paying jobs MAY be an indicator of low self-esteem. Do not sell yourself short and always believe in your own abilities.

If you're a serious individual, get very specific about a single problem you've encountered in your sales experience. A problem you know you can solve (It must be a real solution, not BS) for clients in a specific market/niche, ON A CONTINUAL BASIS -- No, one-time projects. Long-term Problems with Short-term Solutions. Long-term clients. Long-term thinking. Do NOT limit yourself to a single client, you must have several at once.

Set goals, set deadlines. Keep track of how you spend your time. Hold yourself accountable. Create systems in your business and work on improving them every day. Your business will consist of your skills and the daily problem-solving systems you build. In addition, you will convince/inspire people to help you / give advice when required. You will have to be relentless with your focus, and work every day of the week towards the goals you have in mind. This process is complex, because you will also have to work on yourself -- learning and becoming more efficient in this process (sharpening the axe, learning new tools, yada yada.)

This will last a few years, and you will have to push yourself get through it. You will have to sacrifice prestige, pride, ego etc. and you will change as an individual, probably for the better. You also have to accept the possibility of failure/defeat. That is why you need to set deadlines for yourself. It has to be crystal clear what it is you want to accomplish within one year. If you do not accomplish it, serious reflections and adjustments are required.

If you're non-serious and you wanna party -- Go to college instead. It's more fun in the short-term and you can just go with the flow. Maybe make some good connections, for the future. This is the right decision for most people.

Great advice thank you. I did notice one problem with my past sales organization, they manually filled out audit sheets when reviewing clients' energy usage. This took me hours each day. While working the sales job (I actually tried to find a solution).

The problem was different energy bills had different layouts so to solve that problem(which would have cost the organisation 150 hours/week with sales rep manually doing this). So I would need to code a software which takes usage, price per kW and then add that into an audit nicely.

I pitched the idea to my old boss and he was interested but I had no idea how to create this and thought I'd need a shit ton of capital.

I'm serious in the aspect that I don't really party etc

 

[ryanbransby]

What could your contacts in the energy business help you to do something in that sector?

Potentially, wasn't super passionate about the industry tbh. I did see a huge amount of problems in my last organization's business.