Off we go

[James007Hill]

Hi, just an update on my situation and to use as a progress and execution thread.

As you’ll see from my original introduction, I screwed up my life big time a few years ago and hit rock-bottom in 2015. The years since then have been about recovering and rebuilding. From 2016 – to early 2021 I worked a good job, saved hard, did some side hustles, and with this managed to pay off £70,000 of debt, and build some capital again.

I also created some free online courses on Udemy in the happiness/mental health space, the most successful of which has been “Know Yourself” which has a 4.75 rating. What was pleasing about this was the fact that it was my most recent course and my highest rating, showing that I’d learned and improved and taken on feedback from previous courses. What’s bad though is that it was I think about 2018/19 when I produced this course and I haven’t done any more courses since.

I also wrote a book with the rather cheesy title of “From Crappiness to Happiness”. I was going to use it purely as a marketing tool, a free giveaway etc. for my “personal brand”, but in the end I gave up that pathway and have barely used the book at all for anything, rather embarrassingly. Other than sharing it with a few friends and family. It’s fair to say marketing it not my strong point but I know I need to improve it MASSIVELY if I’m ever to have any chance of significant entrepreneurial success.

From about May 2021 to just very recently, I lost my way completely, becoming unproductive and not as happy or fulfilled as I was. I think I just let certain things get to me, was too hard on myself and forgot some of the principles that had served me so well in the past.

I have used most of the capital I have saved up to buy a rental property with my brother however, so I do now jointly own a property with no mortgage, which brings in about £280 ($350sih) per month after costs/taxes. Whether this was the best use of my capital is probably debatable, but nevertheless it felt like the right thing to me, even just psychologically and how it makes me feel.

I’ve recently got back on track with my mentality, productivity, happiness and fulfilment, and as of today have half a house, but now only about £10k in capital due to putting most of my money into the house.

As far as a business aimed at being more than a side-hustle is concerned, I’m at the idea/early execution stage. I will be starting out teaching foraging. Is it “Fastlane”!? Definitely not at this stage, but I’ve read enough on this forum to know that it’s better for me to do something and fail miserably than to keep doing nothing in the wait for that “perfect” Fastlane idea!

Oh, and I’ve just quit my job too – not in a rose-tinted glasses “yippee I’m gonna quit my job and become a millionaire” way, but simply because I was tired of it (I enjoyed it for many years but it ran its course and the company wasn’t the same after the pandemic) and I felt like having a career break to focus on getting back to who I was and getting something started. I have no concerns about being able to get another job so that’s what gave me the confidence to do that, and so based on my financial situation I will look to get another job in the autumn to support myself while I build something to a big enough size to be able to forget about a job altogether – I understand of course that this in itself will likely take years, but I’d love it if the next job I get is the last one I ever have.

Priorities for the next couple of months while I have the luxury of time:

• Find customers for an offline course I aim to run in the local area.
• Start posting some videos to my new YouTube channel to support the brand.
• Continue to learn and develop my videography and editing skills.
• Start creating an online version of the offline course(s) I’m hoping to run.

Thanks for reading and thanks to everyone for making this forum the incredible place it is.

 

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[iivalky]

Hi, just an update on my situation and to use as a progress and execution thread.

As you’ll see from my original introduction, I screwed up my life big time a few years ago and hit rock-bottom in 2015. The years since then have been about recovering and rebuilding. From 2016 – to early 2021 I worked a good job, saved hard, did some side hustles, and with this managed to pay off £70,000 of debt, and build some capital again.

I also created some free online courses on Udemy in the happiness/mental health space, the most successful of which has been “Know Yourself” which has a 4.75 rating. What was pleasing about this was the fact that it was my most recent course and my highest rating, showing that I’d learned and improved and taken on feedback from previous courses. What’s bad though is that it was I think about 2018/19 when I produced this course and I haven’t done any more courses since.

I also wrote a book with the rather cheesy title of “From Crappiness to Happiness”. I was going to use it purely as a marketing tool, a free giveaway etc. for my “personal brand”, but in the end I gave up that pathway and have barely used the book at all for anything, rather embarrassingly. Other than sharing it with a few friends and family. It’s fair to say marketing it not my strong point but I know I need to improve it MASSIVELY if I’m ever to have any chance of significant entrepreneurial success.

From about May 2021 to just very recently, I lost my way completely, becoming unproductive and not as happy or fulfilled as I was. I think I just let certain things get to me, was too hard on myself and forgot some of the principles that had served me so well in the past.

I have used most of the capital I have saved up to buy a rental property with my brother however, so I do now jointly own a property with no mortgage, which brings in about £280 ($350sih) per month after costs/taxes. Whether this was the best use of my capital is probably debatable, but nevertheless it felt like the right thing to me, even just psychologically and how it makes me feel.

I’ve recently got back on track with my mentality, productivity, happiness and fulfilment, and as of today have half a house, but now only about £10k in capital due to putting most of my money into the house.

As far as a business aimed at being more than a side-hustle is concerned, I’m at the idea/early execution stage. I will be starting out teaching foraging. Is it “Fastlane”!? Definitely not at this stage, but I’ve read enough on this forum to know that it’s better for me to do something and fail miserably than to keep doing nothing in the wait for that “perfect” Fastlane idea!

Oh, and I’ve just quit my job too – not in a rose-tinted glasses “yippee I’m gonna quit my job and become a millionaire” way, but simply because I was tired of it (I enjoyed it for many years but it ran its course and the company wasn’t the same after the pandemic) and I felt like having a career break to focus on getting back to who I was and getting something started. I have no concerns about being able to get another job so that’s what gave me the confidence to do that, and so based on my financial situation I will look to get another job in the autumn to support myself while I build something to a big enough size to be able to forget about a job altogether – I understand of course that this in itself will likely take years, but I’d love it if the next job I get is the last one I ever have.

Priorities for the next couple of months while I have the luxury of time:

• Find customers for an offline course I aim to run in the local area.
• Start posting some videos to my new YouTube channel to support the brand.
• Continue to learn and develop my videography and editing skills.
• Start creating an online version of the offline course(s) I’m hoping to run.

Thanks for reading and thanks to everyone for making this forum the incredible place it is.

I wish you the best!

 

[James007Hill]

I wish you the best!

Thank you!

 

[James007Hill]

Doing my first courses this weekend in the local area. Only 4 people on Saturday but 6 on Sunday too. Most customers came from leafleting, 2 came from organic web search which surprised me as my website is fairly new and not exactly optimised yet.

Got my first "negative" market echo in the form of a customer booking my course directly online suddenly phoning me up thinking it was a scam due to not getting an email acknowledgement straight away, so need to sort that system out going forward!

Focus for next few days, other than a bit more leafleting, is preparing for the course so I can actually deliver and hopefully over deliver on expected value.

 

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[James007Hill]

First two foraging courses went well overall, except on the first one when I effectively set off without two customers as I didn't even know about them - long story involving an Eventbrite f**k up but suffice to say, it worked out ok in the end, they still enjoyed the course despite missing the first 20 minutes and I sent them a book on foraging after as an apology. The woman who had booked it for them (as a gift) was also understanding and even said she would book onto a course when she is further north as her sister and partner had raved about it, so that was nice.

Focus now is the course this weekend, and then another marketing push for my final "summer" course later in August, before I roll out some Autumn mushroom foraging courses.

It does play on my mind that this is not a "fastlane" business and not even the type of business I could exit from in the future in its current form, but a few things keep me going:

• At least I am actually BEING an entrepreneur instead of a side-lined wantrapreneur, which feels good and is helping solidify how I see myself (my identity).
• The alternative is doing nothing and therefore learning nothing.
• I do like the challenge of trying to figure out how I could potentially pivot the business into a more scalable venture in the future.
• Worst-case scenario is that it doesn't work out and I turn my attention to something completely different but unlike the doing nothing option, it will not have been a complete waste of time due to the sheer learnings and take-aways I am getting from doing this.

 

[parabolic]

Good work getting started and closing some sales. A few scaling ideas come to mind when I read your posts.

You could make a YouTube channel with educational videos that show your foraging adventures. This could bring in new clients for your courses or eventually become a bigger business in itself.

You could write a book that explains your foraging techniques.

You could create an online community such as a forum to discuss foraging and promote sales for your other foraging ventures.

You could hire other people to teach the courses when you get enough clients. Then you could branch out to other areas and have multiple courses.

 

[James007Hill]

Good work getting started and closing some sales. A few scaling ideas come to mind when I read your posts.

You could make a YouTube channel with educational videos that show your foraging adventures. This could bring in new clients for your courses or eventually become a bigger business in itself.

You could write a book that explains your foraging techniques.

You could create an online community such as a forum to discuss foraging and promote sales for your other foraging ventures.

You could hire other people to teach the courses when you get enough clients. Then you could branch out to other areas and have multiple courses.

Thank you so much for the response and advice, massively appreciated and sorry for relatively late response, for some reason I missed it and not checked my thread for a week or so!

I have recently just started a YouTube channel so that’s in motion…trying to focus on shorts as that seems to be the only way to get any kind of organic reach these days on YouTube.

Love the book and forum ideas, definitely noted and possibilities for the future.

The multiple location and courses strategy is also part of the plan. I’m going to offer the course in 3 other locations next year as a start, within an economical distance for me but still different enough geographical locations to warrant it. If that’s successful, hiring other instructors to cover the rest of the country will be on the cards.

Other ideas I’ve had myself - kids foraging courses and books (schools, homeschooling etc.). Corporate foraging courses, hen/stag do events.

Thanks again for the feedback and ideas!

 

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[James007Hill]

Advertised on Airbnb as a private "experience" and got my first booking for a course that I completed on Tuesday for three Australians over here on holiday. It went well and got my first review (5 stars too which was nice).

Had an organic enquiry for a course in October by some people relocating back to the UK from the US too, just waiting for confirmed numbers.

Next public course is Monday but only got three people for it - was hoping for more but not had the chance to market it as much as I'd have liked. Lots going on - training and prepping for Kilimanjaro and just recently moved house and the house turned out to be riddled with fleas so that's been fun, and a new bed delayed so sleeping on the floor - I'm looking at this as all good mental training!

 

[James007Hill]

Not posted in a while, so just a quick update to keep myself accountable more than anything.

My foraging courses have gone well but due to the nature of foraging (not so much to forage for once you get into November) I have just wrapped up my final course for this year. I have managed to get a couple of reviews on each of Google and Airbnb, all 5-star which was pleasing to know I am providing a good quality experience.

Continuing to post on SM, posts have gone down to once per week now but went through a phase of a few weeks when I was posting almost daily. Nothing special to report on most SM platforms except to say I secured a couple of customers through YouTube shorts and had some success on TikTok. Went from under 1000 followers to almost 18,000 now thanks to a viral video (by my historical standards at least given I’ve never had more than a few hundred views on any of my videos before!) which currently has 706K views, and a knock-on effect on the views on all my other videos too.

In line with my plan outlined in my first post, I have secured a new job – this will now mean less time but of course a stable financial platform so I can continue to work on and grow my business in my spare time. As I said, my plan is for this to be the last job I ever have (though not by virtue of me just staying in it for the next 25 years lol), and I have a three-year plan to be able to quit and focus on my business full time without the need to ever get another job.

Over winter I will be working on a couple of other products and services to launch next year alongside my regular foraging courses.

 

[James007Hill]

Over a year on since my last post, WOW! While the world hasn’t changed dramatically in that year and I haven’t done everything I wanted to, I’m pleased to say it HAS been a year of progress and action.

My full-time job has been mentally taxing and draining at times, I’ve not enjoyed it and still don’t, but I have found my feet with it at least and it has certainly proved a good financial base to build my business on and become debt free.

Almost every weekend (some exceptions but not many!) between March and early November of last year, I have been running foraging courses across my county in three different locations. Through word-of-mouth, and lots of good videos posted across social media, the business has gone from me desperately leafleting door to door just to get a customer, to people finding me easily online through their own searches and booking without me having to “push” the business.

Courses have gone really well this year both in terms of the numbers of people I’ve had on them (many have been sold out), the number I’ve done, and the quality of the courses I’ve done and the multiple 5-star reviews I’ve received. So much so that, I’m now in a financial position and the business is performing well enough for me to quit my job soon and go “all in”. Even based on 2023, the business would have provided enough for me to “live on” in terms of the basics. Not enough for luxuries etc, but enough to live on.

I’m proud of how hard I worked last year.

My mum found out in early September that she had late-stage pancreatic cancer however, and she went rapidly downhill and died last month, and this has been another mental challenge to deal with over the last few months. It’s been stressful and certainly around Christmas I did feel stressed and maybe even a little burnt-out, but nothing more that a few days off and some reflection didn’t sort out. Right now I feel much better and a bit more refreshed, and ready to go again!

Here’s to a good 2024.

 

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