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Open letter to the forum

etrey

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I left my job about 8 months ago. I am 23, and have been a tech entrepreneur since I was 13. However, college convinced me to sign up to be a drone. Which I did, for a very miserable year and a half.

I am doing web design and custom app development work again, and needless to say I have only built a money twig. I know I have all the skills and talents to build anything online, however, I am struggling to "find my niche".

I currently work with churches doing massive overhauls of their websites, printed materials, and content creation (videos).

Any suggestion on what "niche" to focus on?

Belittlement expected, so please feel free. I appreciated the like mindedness of the book, and I am truly ready for the hard work!

All the best,

Eddie
 
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MJ DeMarco

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etrey

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None here, sounds like a great niche, why not hit that harder?
Thank you so much for the reply! I have been thinking about it definitely, and ways to make it passive or very little upfront input through a creation of a product.

I am going to be converting my revenue model to monthly recurring, over one-time consulting fees.

EDIT: Also just read https://www.thefastlaneforum.com/community/threads/is-this-fastlane-uh-no-it-isnt.58554/ . Not what I meant by my reply, really I am asking what the best way to continue to grow passivity in business.
 
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mikekob

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Seems like a good niche. I'd pay attention to current trends especially withing healthcare. I have healthcare tech type business and the overall feel of that particular space is, it's blowing up. Not sure if you have any ties to healthcare but that would be a great place in my opinion.

The fact that you're an engineer is already pretty valuable. Maybe partner with a healthcare professional of some sort and go from there. Check your local meetup for healthcare type events and start networking.
 
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VegasMan

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I agree with MJ. That niche has tons of opportunity. The backend tech of most church sites I've seen is pretty dated and difficult to use by today's standards. If you pursue this in some way let me know and I can possibly put you in touch with my church. Good luck!
 

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Agree with MJ... why not become the "church website guy"? Own it man.

Also, when the church has a swanky new website, who do you think members of the congregation will be going to when they want a new website for their own businesses?
 
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Andy Black

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Really nice niche actually. Very similar to sports club sites.

If you can get a template for them, you can build them for each city/location. Then you can do the other "sports" (denominations).

Once you have built a few in one city, or a few for one denomination across multiple cities, there will be natural word of mouth as other clubs/churches want the same.

Then you can build a directory to list them all, and get paid inclusion or provide it as an additional service as part of your paid package.

Once you have some listings in the directory, you can then use that as a tool to signup more clubs/churches/businesses to the directory, which is your lead into selling them a better website (quite naturally because they'll see the other sites listed there that you've built).

For a church or club, the look and feel of the website is really important, more so than for other local businesses where they should be focused on getting sales and customers rather than being a portal for members to get information about the next meetup, match, etc.

You can help the churches with their marketing (to get new members), and with how they keep in touch with their current members.

So lots of additional services you can do for each individual church, and many many churches you can do to scale BIG.



At the end of the day though, always remember who you're helping, and why.

Here's a post that might help: www.thefastlaneforum.com/community/threads/the-what-why-of-lead-gen.60665
 
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tafy

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Yeah man own the space! Make a wordpress template that other churches can use, sell it on themeforest

Good luck
 

scratchdisk

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Everyone has already said this, but ya, continue doing what your doing and keep your ears open for needs to help out with. I'm sure some will fall right in your lap. Work to productize your service(s) so you can stamp them out for lots of customers.
 

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I may be the only dissenting opinion here, simply because I've worked this exact niche, same exact business (just 10+ years before you). I found the clientele to want a dollar's worth of work for a dime. Then after the work was completed, they only wanted to pay a nickel. Then, they dragged their feet to pay that. It was one of a few reasons I closed the doors on that company years ago.

I do hope your experience has differed from mine, but I would never work in that industry for that clientele again. It could have been my naivety in business (or life) but please protect yourself with legally binding contracts that clearly outline the job specs, revisions & payments.
 
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etrey

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I do hope your experience has differed from mine, but I would never work in that industry for that clientele again. It could have been my naivety in business (or life) but please protect yourself with legally binding contracts that clearly outline the job specs, revisions & payments.

Understandable. I have been getting better about contracts, but thus far have had success and really been led in the right direction (word of mouth). I think that the industry is realizing the importance of having a great web presence.

If you pursue this in some way let me know and I can possibly put you in touch with my church. Good luck!
In this area now, I will PM you!

Work to productize your service(s) so you can stamp them out for lots of customers.
EXACTLY! Working on this now. Will update all when ready to share.

Then you can build a directory to list them all, and get paid inclusion or provide it as an additional service as part of your paid package.

Not sure if I follow, could you elaborate more?

At the end of the day though, always remember who you're helping, and why.
AMEN! I am thankful to be helping churches.


I love the ideas, please keep them coming! What an awesome forum!
 

etrey

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Well.... Here's an update to what's going on.

Spent a decent amount of time and invested some money is Church Software creation. The sales cycle and competition was too great and found ourselves constantly shut out to competition due to features and also the length of lead to close and too many people involved (i.e. Church Councils)

I have gone back to digital marketing consulting (it's the thing I know). I have tried to hire a sales person but that flamed out. However, I am only seeking working with for profit businesses now. The last six months the only new business I have gotten is in for profit. I have learned a TON, and produced results for my customers.

So basically... I am back to freelance web marketing. I have made more money still than I would in a cube and my other 25yo friends. But I know I'm not in the Fastlane.

I know I need to grow with employees and then invest in some kind of software creation. I spend virtually no money on marketing. What do I need to grow so I have cash flow to invest in Fastlane business? Facebook Ads, lumpy mail, interns? (Please don't hate me for this question, really seeking advice for my situation)
 

miked_d

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I would suggest looking at others on the forum who have done well in internet services. Check out @Andy Black @SinisterLex & @Fox 's threads, just to name a few.

Each started small and documented their growth. There is a lot to learn.
 
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Fox

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If that niche is working well then cool. If you want to switch there are a lot of options...

Juts one example, a student of mine found a company today with a 10 year old site and they have 5 million in machinery assets (says it right on the site) and a 10 million job insurance policy. Companies like this have MASSIVE cash flow and really see great ROI on a real website. Getting in the way of huge cashflow allows you to charge more for your services and also see better results for your work. I would argue that a church would not seem that same benefit (talking dollars, not souls). The benefit of a church site though would be the massive network it opens up.

If you are looking to get more into passive income though then you will have to pivot out of web design in some way or another. As much as I love it and the cash is great for a beginning entrepreneur it is not exactly a passive income business. Stick around the forum for a bit and I am sure you will pick up some inspiration.
 

etrey

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Juts one example, a student of mine found a company today with a 10 year old site and they have 5 million in machinery assets (says it right on the site) and a 10 million job insurance policy. Companies like this have MASSIVE cash flow and really see great ROI on a real website. Getting in the way of huge cashflow allows you to charge more for your services and also see better results for your work.

What is your recommendation for lead generation? I'm good with the meetings and selling, it's generating those meetings that's tough for me.

I'm fine with putting in the work now to create cash flow to invest in a passive income business. (At some level, we all spend our time working on something anyways. Even if it's a hobby.) I would love to grow a digital marketing agency to partially passive through employees.
 

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What is your recommendation for lead generation? I'm good with the meetings and selling, it's generating those meetings that's tough for me.

I'm fine with putting in the work now to create cash flow to invest in a passive income business. (At some level, we all spend our time working on something anyways. Even if it's a hobby.) I would love to grow a digital marketing agency to partially passive through employees.

I used to think outsourcing sales and focusing on managing design was the way to go. I thought this because I believe I am quite good at design and it was an area I didn't really trust others as much with. I am starting to reverse on that and focus more on the sales end myself. Just like you I am solid on sales once it gets past the initial stages. I have a very high % close rate with warm leads and referrals.

To answer your question you need to start learning the fine details of high ticket sales. It is different (but not necessarily more work) than 5k - 10k sales. Sales for higher ticket is more about selling a bridge to a solution than it is an fancy hype or slick sales man talk. it is about showing them you understand the real problem and describing both the real problem and solution so well that they know you are the person to work with. I very rarely talk about me or my approach during higher ticket sales, it is all about them, their goals and what is currently holding them back. I would look into "spin selling" which gets mentioned around this forum a bit.

As for actual strategy there is a lot of different approaches. Tapping into networks is the strongest approach. You only need 10-30 sales a year to make 200-300k with web design. A few decent networks can provide 90% of those sales. I added you to the FB group too just now, you will find a lot of people with similar goals to yourself. Stick around here and go through the gold threads. Once you have design down you can learn a lot from watching what others are doing in parallel niches and applying parts with growing a web design company.

The questions you are asking show you will do well with this, I hope you post up some more as you make future progress.
 
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etrey

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Now you see why there's competition ;)

I will dig through those threads, I agree with you a sale is a sale. The size of it really doesn't matter, it almost always the same process.

By the way, since I started asking and focusing on the marketing (about two weeks now) I have closed $13k in the last two days. I seem to focus on the marketing, and then dive into the work once I have it. I know that I need to just focus on the marketing and start contracting/hiring out the work.

I think my biggest FEAR right now is I have a wedding to pay for, and so I need that money...

Networking has been my crux, I just moved to Raleigh and none of the meetups have really jumped out at me. I just don't know where to start with it. I've heard of marketing agencies just creating their own networking events by bringing in a speaker. What's your thoughts around this, or other networking ideas?

I do think I am going to run some paid Facebook ads per this post on Reddit
 

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