New Member — Coming out of the Lurking Shadows

[Robert R]

Hey,

So, since I’ve joined I’ve just been urging around reading most of the gold threads and other threads and I’ve been absorbing all of knowledge within them. It also prompted me to finally make my first real post (my first one saying I’ve read TMF doesn’t count).

So, I want to start by introducing myself, what I’ve done and learned, and where I currently am.

My name is Robert. I’m 18, turning 19 next month. Currently, I live in Lakeland, FL because I’m attending a private college here. When I’m not at school I reside in Charlotte, NC, and I’m originally from the Bronx, NY.

I’m a freshman in college, this is my second semester here. I’m a International Business and Computer Science double major. In the fall I’ll be changing to a self-designed “Business Technology” major, in which I can pick and choose which courses I want to take (that interest me) and can give me a basic understanding of everything such as advertising/marketing, programming, software and web design.

In 2012 I decided I didn’t want to work for someone else anymore because I gated the long hours for minimum wage, rude customers, and not having any time to enjoy myself (I worked at a movie theatre). So, my best friend and I decided we wanted to open up our own recording studio, since we both loved writing and recording music.

Little did I know was everything that running a business consisted of and how hard it actually is. The start-up cost was not nearly what I expected it to be (as a 17 year old I just expected everything to be cheap). I didn’t realize how much work would have to be put in before ever getting the first customer, and I took a marketing class in high school and hated it, yet had no idea how to market the studio to make it appealing to people.

The space we rented cost $310 a month. We only lasted for about 7 months. Equipment was about $6k. Building the booth and soundproofing the booth and the entire room was roughly $3-$4k.

Then after spending everything we still didn’t have any customers (being 17 and not understanding the way things worked, I just expected customers to flood in and felt I was entitled to having them without having to put in work for them). I soon learned that the reality in my head wasn’t the reality of the world (I’ll explain my lesson learned in the end).

Anyway, neither of us had any real marketing experience so we figured business cards were the way to go, since that’s what everyone in schools and everywhere else preaches. We got the business cards, printed them on computer paper (being cheap lol) and hand cut them out. Then we went out to various places just standing outside asking people if they knew anyone who recorded music or was a musician. Pretty much everyone said no, but we handed them cards anyway.

Out of that whole process, we actually got 3 people. They came in recorded, liked the pricing (we were implementing the cost advantage over other studios) and the quality, but never came back except for one. He called a few months after we shut down and asked when he could come in and asked for a discount since it would be his second time with us. We just told him we weren’t in business anymore.

Thinking back on this has made me realized how clueless I was back then (although it was just two years ago). I’m not an expert by any means now, but from being on here reading the posts and reflecting on this failure I’ve learned to at least test the market first and to find a need in the market.

I’ve learned to do research first and not rush in to things just because. Don’t jump in head first without a plan/course of action.

We jumped out of a plane and into the Atlantic ocean trying to find land. We should have just waited looked at a map and then we would’ve realized land was a long way off.

I’ve learned to not “follow your dreams” and instead to “follow customer needs and solve their pains and problems.”

I’m still working on transitioning my mindset from being all about myself and asking how I can make money to how can I help you with your problems, being patient and understanding people.

As of today I have a few ideas of things that should help people, but I need to do some testing first and see if they are even plausible or needed. So far I’m teaching myself copywriting and reading up on marketing before I dive into another venture.


Side note:

I’ve read TMF last year in January and it got me motivated to start something, my issue was I didn’t know what to start nor how to find something to start that wasn’t my own selfish desire. So I ended up learning a little bit of HTML and CSS then lost the flame of ambition. Now here I am a year and a few months later and I have the burning desire to change my life, by adding value and changing other people’s lives.

I’m remaining in college for the time being because I’m still changing my mindset and it’s an easy way to socialize with a few thousand people and get opinions since for one of my ideas, my target market is college students specifically incoming freshmen. Plus, my advisor/professor may become a great mentor for me. So that’s a plus.

I’ve wanted to introduce myself and now that I have I’ll be posting more often and learning more from everyone here as well.


So I’ll end on this note (another thing I’ve learned).


“Take ACTIVE action daily. Get the Ice Cream.” — @IceCreamKid



Any questions, comments, or concerns: you guys know what to do.

 

Dislike ads? Become a Fastlane member: Subscribe today and surround yourself with winners and millionaire mentors, not those broke friends who only want to drink beer and play video games. :-)

[Elizabeth Shi]

Jimmu,

Ximduni vu vji gusan!