The Entrepreneur Forum | Financial Freedom | Starting a Business | Motivation | Money | Success

Welcome to the only entrepreneur forum dedicated to building life-changing wealth.

Build a Fastlane business. Earn real financial freedom. Join free.

Join over 80,000 entrepreneurs who have rejected the paradigm of mediocrity and said "NO!" to underpaid jobs, ascetic frugality, and suffocating savings rituals— learn how to build a Fastlane business that pays both freedom and lifestyle affluence.

Free registration at the forum removes this block.

Set Sail: Quitting My Job to Build an Agency

A detailed account of a Fastlane process...

Afternoons

Contributor
Read Fastlane!
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
563%
Dec 11, 2019
8
45
New York City
Hello everybody!

My name is Kevin. I’m 25 and I live in NYC.

I’ve just started a web design and SEO agency, and wanted to track and share my progress, as I got my initial inspiration from this forum and the Millionaire Fastlane book.

Here’s the story:
I joined a software company as a User Experience Designer last year. What started off as a positive experience turned sour when we were bought by a foreign company a month after I joined.

Suddenly, my day-to-day became a constant struggle against bureaucracy and middle-management. I figured that since this was my first full time job, I should suck it up and grind it out. My parents told me the same thing.

In this time I became depressed. I gained weight from binging on junk food (I’d buy a pack of Milano cookies every day and eat them in 10 minutes). I went from playing video games on occasion to playing 4-5 hours every day. At my sibling’s recommendation I started to see a psychiatrist, who prescribed me depression medication.

"F*ck This"
In June of this year, I prepared some final designs to present to the Chairman of the Board of our parent company.

When he saw the designs he snapped. He said that the most important line of copy was incorrect, and started to berate my team for not being able to follow directions. Everybody was silent as he heaped abuse on us.

I racked my mind. The line of copy in my design was exactly the line he asked for. We couldn’t have missed that. After all, I had run through the whole thing with my team just before.

I checked my notes.

The copy was correct.

I don’t think I’ve felt anything as ugly as what I felt when I sat there and swallowed his tirade while knowing that he was wrong. I would’ve spoke up but I was afraid. Afraid of repercussion. Afraid of being fired. Afraid of being shamed.

In retrospect, this man is so dogmatically sure of himself, that even if I had shown him proof that he was wrong he would not have listened.

Shawshank
After the meeting I took a walk outside with my teammate. We walked through a plaza as I vented to him about the stupidity of it all.

Something had changed inside of me though.

I had to leave.

I was okay with working a different job.

I was not okay with being forced to work with, or under somebody I didn’t respect.

At home I started to Google things like “making money with side business” and “how to be self-employed”.

Everybody kept on recommending two books: MJ DeMarco’s The Millionaire Fastlane and Napolean Hill’s Think and Grow Rich. I bought the Millionaire Fastlane and read it in one sitting. I spent the entire next day browsing the Fastlane Forum. I read stories like that of @GuitarManDan’s and was so excited I had trouble sleeping.

Baby Steps
At this time I was still quite depressed. I knew I couldn’t quit my job immediately. I needed my insurance to continue seeing my psychiatrist. I was also afraid that without the routine that office life provided, I would become even more depressed.

I started to think about the steps I could take to feel better, and then the steps I could take to quit my job.

The first part was the hardest. Over the next few months, I sorted out many internal issues with my psychiatrist. Painfully, I started to exercise, eat better, work on my relationships and think about the source of my own insecurities. I made an accountability group with my best friend and started with the smallest weekly tasks. I also started to do art again (my biggest hobby when I was younger).

The second part came serendipitously. I was contacted out of the blue by people I had worked with in the past to do freelance design/illustration jobs. I started working on evenings and weekends, making $2K on the side in September and October. This gave me a boost of confidence: if I ever quit my job or was fired I could always do freelance design.

Preparedness meets Opportunity (kind of)
One day in mid October, I went to finally take my Road Test (I'd procrastinated it for years). My driving was rusty so I took a 1-hour class at a local driving school right before.

After I passed my test, I was casually chatting to the owner of the driving school. She mentioned that her business was suffering, and I immediately thought about the people doing Web Design on the Fastlane Forum. I told her that I could redo her website to bring her more customers. I didn't know how to price the site at all, but I nervously blurted out $1K and she agreed. She paid the full sum in cash, upfront, and right then and there I knew she was someone I wanted to do business with.

Over the next 2 weeks I learned to use Wordpress, and set up payments with PayPal and Stripe. The website already had decent traffic coming from Yelp, so I figured the site would be able to make a few conversions.

The site made $2K the first 20 days it was live. I was ecstatic.

Crossing the Rubicon
I told my psychiatrist that I wanted to taper off the medication, and I did. Doing the freelance work (knowing that there were other options out there) and working on connecting with the people around me boosted my energy and optimism enormously.

In January, I will be transitioning from being a full-time employee at my current company to a one day/week remote contractor. The one day of remote work will cover my fairly spartan living expenses, and there is a clause in our contract that says either party must give the other 30 days notice before terminating our relationship.

I did a good job on the website, and pitched the Driving School owner on digital marking services. She agreed and has begun to pay me $650/month to run Google Ads and do SEO.

I have a one strong lead in my pipeline. I’m struggling with this part the most, but have ideas on what I need to do to get more clients.

=============

Since I started freelancing on September 21st, 2019:
Total Revenue: $2950
Monthly Recurring Revenue: $650/mo

============

A Big Whopping Thank You

I have you all to thank for the excitement and joy I feel every day, especially @GuitarManDan @Sean Marshall @GoodluckChuck @Fox and @MJ DeMarco

Of course it’s not all sunshine and roses right now. But this is interesting:

A year ago I couldn’t get out of bed because I thought I was destined to live the Groundhog Day that was my job.

This week I’ve been waking up around 5 every day to exercise and learn SEO before going to work.

I’ll update this post whenever I can, or whenever I hit a snag in the road and need to ask for advice.

I love you all for wanting so badly to create value for the world, and for aspiring to live exceptional lives.

Cheers,
Kevin
 
Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.
Last edited:

PizzaOnTheRoof

Moving Forward
Read Rat-Race Escape!
Read Fastlane!
Read Unscripted!
Speedway Pass
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
220%
Jul 30, 2018
1,218
2,682
Texas
Hey man love your story and congrats on the success you’ve had so far!

A journey of 1,000 miles starts with one step.

PS: If you ever plan on offering PPC I’d whitelabel for you :hilarious:
 

JohnBuffet

Contributor
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
59%
Feb 9, 2017
124
73
NJ
Hello everybody!

My name is Kevin. I’m 25 and I live in NYC.

I’ve just started a web design and SEO agency, and wanted to track and share my progress, as I got my initial inspiration from this forum and the Millionaire Fastlane book.

Here’s the story:
I joined a software company as a User Experience Designer last year. What started off as a positive experience turned sour when we were bought by a foreign company a month after I joined.

Suddenly, my day-to-day became a constant struggle against bureaucracy and middle-management. I figured that since this was my first full time job, I should suck it up and grind it out. My parents told me the same thing.

In this time I became depressed. I gained weight from binging on junk food (I’d buy a pack of Milano cookies every day and eat them in 10 minutes). I went from playing video games on occasion to playing 4-5 hours every day. At my sibling’s recommendation I started to see a psychiatrist, who prescribed me depression medication.

"F*ck This"
In June of this year, I prepared some final designs to present to the investor of our parent company.

When he saw the designs he snapped. He said that the most important line of copy was incorrect, and started to berate my team for not being able to follow directions. Everybody was silent as he heaped abuse on us.

I racked my mind. The line of copy in my design was exactly the line he asked for. We couldn’t have missed that. After all, I had run through the whole thing with my team just before.

I checked my notes.

The copy was correct.

I don’t think I’ve felt anything as ugly as what I felt when I sat there and swallowed his tirade while knowing that he was wrong. I would’ve spoke up but I was afraid. Afraid of repercussion. Afraid of being fired. Afraid of being shamed.

In retrospect, this man is so dogmatically sure of himself, that even if I had shown him proof that he was wrong he would not have listened.

Shawshank
After the meeting I took a walk outside with my teammate. We walked through a plaza as I vented to him about the stupidity of it all.

Something had changed inside of me though.

I had to leave.

I was okay with working a different job.

I was not okay with being forced to work with, or under somebody I didn’t respect.

At home I started to Google things like “making money with side business” and “how to be self-employed”.

Everybody kept on recommending two books: MJ DeMarco’s The Millionaire Fastlane and Napolean Hill’s Think and Grow Rich. I bought the Millionaire Fastlane and read it in one sitting. I spent the entire next day browsing the Fastlane Forum. I read stories like that of @GuitarManDan’s and was so excited I had trouble sleeping.

Baby Steps
At this time I was still quite depressed. I knew I couldn’t quit my job immediately. I needed my insurance to continue seeing my psychiatrist. I was also afraid that without the routine that office life provided, I would become even more depressed.

I started to think about the steps I could take to feel better, and then the steps I could take to quit my job.

The first part was the hardest. I’ll write about it in more detail if anybody wants to know. Over the next few months, I sorted out many internal issues with my psychiatrist. Painfully, I started to exercise, eat better, work on my relationships and think about the source of my own insecurities. I made an accountability group with my best friend and started with the smallest weekly tasks. I also started to do art again (my biggest hobby when I was younger).

The second part came serendipitously. I was contacted out of the blue by people I had worked with in the past to do freelance design/illustration jobs. I started working on evenings and weekends, making $2K combined in September and October. This gave me a boost of confidence: if I ever quit my job or was fired I could always do freelance design.

Preparedness meets Opportunity (kind of)
One day in mid October, I went to finally take my Road Test (I'd procrastinated it for years). My driving was rusty so I took a 1-hour class at a local driving school right before.

After I passed my test, I was casually chatting to the owner of the driving school. She mentioned that her business was suffering, and I immediately thought about the people doing Web Design on the Fastlane Forum. I told her that I could redo her website to bring her more customers. I didn't know how to price the site at all, but I nervously blurted out $1K and she agreed. She paid the full sum in cash, upfront, and right then and there I knew she was someone I wanted to do business with.

Over the next 2 weeks I learned to use Wordpress, and set up payments with PayPal and Stripe. The website already had decent traffic coming from Yelp, so I figured the site would be able to make a few conversions.

The site made $2K the first 20 days it was live. I was ecstatic.

Crossing the Rubicon
I told my psychiatrist that I wanted to taper off the medication, and I did. Doing the freelance work (knowing that there were other options out there) and working on connecting with the people around me boosted my energy and optimism enormously.

In January, I will be transitioning from being a full-time employee at my current company to a one day/week remote contractor. The one day of remote work will cover my spartan living expenses, and I put a clause in the contract that says the company must give me two months notice before terminating our relationship.

I did a good job on the website, and pitched the Driving School owner on digital marking packages. She agreed and has begun to pay me $650/month to run Google Ads and do SEO.

I have a one strong lead in my pipeline. I’m struggling with this part the most, but have ideas on what I need to do to get more clients.

=============

Since I started freelancing on September 21st, 2019:
Total Revenue: $2950
Monthly Recurring Revenue: $650/mo

============

A Big Whopping Thank You

I have you all to thank for the excitement and joy I feel every day, especially @GuitarManDan @Sean Marshall @GoodluckChuck @Fox and @MJ DeMarco

Of course it’s not all sunshine and roses right now. But this is interesting:

A year ago I couldn’t get out of bed because I thought I was destined to live the Groundhog Day that was my job.

This week I’ve been waking up around 5 every day to exercise and learn SEO before going to work.

I’ll update this post whenever I can, or whenever I hit a snag in the road and need to ask for advice.

I love you all for wanting so badly to create value for the world, and for aspiring to live exceptional lives.

Cheers,
Kevin

I'm in NY also- good luck brother!!! I'm sure you're going to kill it!
 
Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

Gar1od1

Contributor
FASTLANE INSIDER
Read Fastlane!
Read Unscripted!
Speedway Pass
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
270%
Aug 29, 2017
23
62
33
Dublin
Best of luck and great work so far, keep us posted!
 

scott wisniewsk

Bronze Contributor
Read Fastlane!
Speedway Pass
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
263%
Aug 23, 2007
72
189
wisconsin
Great story keep on keeping on man you have got this .Remember there will be some set backs so don't let those temporary events slow you down , keep moving forward you made it happen.
 

aum

Contributor
Read Fastlane!
Read Unscripted!
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
44%
Oct 30, 2019
64
28
Hello everybody!

My name is Kevin. I’m 25 and I live in NYC.

I’ve just started a web design and SEO agency, and wanted to track and share my progress, as I got my initial inspiration from this forum and the Millionaire Fastlane book.

Here’s the story:
I joined a software company as a User Experience Designer last year. What started off as a positive experience turned sour when we were bought by a foreign company a month after I joined.

Suddenly, my day-to-day became a constant struggle against bureaucracy and middle-management. I figured that since this was my first full time job, I should suck it up and grind it out. My parents told me the same thing.

In this time I became depressed. I gained weight from binging on junk food (I’d buy a pack of Milano cookies every day and eat them in 10 minutes). I went from playing video games on occasion to playing 4-5 hours every day. At my sibling’s recommendation I started to see a psychiatrist, who prescribed me depression medication.

"F*ck This"
In June of this year, I prepared some final designs to present to the investor of our parent company.

When he saw the designs he snapped. He said that the most important line of copy was incorrect, and started to berate my team for not being able to follow directions. Everybody was silent as he heaped abuse on us.

I racked my mind. The line of copy in my design was exactly the line he asked for. We couldn’t have missed that. After all, I had run through the whole thing with my team just before.

I checked my notes.

The copy was correct.

I don’t think I’ve felt anything as ugly as what I felt when I sat there and swallowed his tirade while knowing that he was wrong. I would’ve spoke up but I was afraid. Afraid of repercussion. Afraid of being fired. Afraid of being shamed.

In retrospect, this man is so dogmatically sure of himself, that even if I had shown him proof that he was wrong he would not have listened.

Shawshank
After the meeting I took a walk outside with my teammate. We walked through a plaza as I vented to him about the stupidity of it all.

Something had changed inside of me though.

I had to leave.

I was okay with working a different job.

I was not okay with being forced to work with, or under somebody I didn’t respect.

At home I started to Google things like “making money with side business” and “how to be self-employed”.

Everybody kept on recommending two books: MJ DeMarco’s The Millionaire Fastlane and Napolean Hill’s Think and Grow Rich. I bought the Millionaire Fastlane and read it in one sitting. I spent the entire next day browsing the Fastlane Forum. I read stories like that of @GuitarManDan’s and was so excited I had trouble sleeping.

Baby Steps
At this time I was still quite depressed. I knew I couldn’t quit my job immediately. I needed my insurance to continue seeing my psychiatrist. I was also afraid that without the routine that office life provided, I would become even more depressed.

I started to think about the steps I could take to feel better, and then the steps I could take to quit my job.

The first part was the hardest. I’ll write about it in more detail if anybody wants to know. Over the next few months, I sorted out many internal issues with my psychiatrist. Painfully, I started to exercise, eat better, work on my relationships and think about the source of my own insecurities. I made an accountability group with my best friend and started with the smallest weekly tasks. I also started to do art again (my biggest hobby when I was younger).

The second part came serendipitously. I was contacted out of the blue by people I had worked with in the past to do freelance design/illustration jobs. I started working on evenings and weekends, making $2K combined in September and October. This gave me a boost of confidence: if I ever quit my job or was fired I could always do freelance design.

Preparedness meets Opportunity (kind of)
One day in mid October, I went to finally take my Road Test (I'd procrastinated it for years). My driving was rusty so I took a 1-hour class at a local driving school right before.

After I passed my test, I was casually chatting to the owner of the driving school. She mentioned that her business was suffering, and I immediately thought about the people doing Web Design on the Fastlane Forum. I told her that I could redo her website to bring her more customers. I didn't know how to price the site at all, but I nervously blurted out $1K and she agreed. She paid the full sum in cash, upfront, and right then and there I knew she was someone I wanted to do business with.

Over the next 2 weeks I learned to use Wordpress, and set up payments with PayPal and Stripe. The website already had decent traffic coming from Yelp, so I figured the site would be able to make a few conversions.

The site made $2K the first 20 days it was live. I was ecstatic.

Crossing the Rubicon
I told my psychiatrist that I wanted to taper off the medication, and I did. Doing the freelance work (knowing that there were other options out there) and working on connecting with the people around me boosted my energy and optimism enormously.

In January, I will be transitioning from being a full-time employee at my current company to a one day/week remote contractor. The one day of remote work will cover my spartan living expenses, and I put a clause in the contract that says the company must give me two months notice before terminating our relationship.

I did a good job on the website, and pitched the Driving School owner on digital marking packages. She agreed and has begun to pay me $650/month to run Google Ads and do SEO.

I have a one strong lead in my pipeline. I’m struggling with this part the most, but have ideas on what I need to do to get more clients.

=============

Since I started freelancing on September 21st, 2019:
Total Revenue: $2950
Monthly Recurring Revenue: $650/mo

============

A Big Whopping Thank You

I have you all to thank for the excitement and joy I feel every day, especially @GuitarManDan @Sean Marshall @GoodluckChuck @Fox and @MJ DeMarco

Of course it’s not all sunshine and roses right now. But this is interesting:

A year ago I couldn’t get out of bed because I thought I was destined to live the Groundhog Day that was my job.

This week I’ve been waking up around 5 every day to exercise and learn SEO before going to work.

I’ll update this post whenever I can, or whenever I hit a snag in the road and need to ask for advice.

I love you all for wanting so badly to create value for the world, and for aspiring to live exceptional lives.

Cheers,
Kevin
Kevin, great start. Wish you the best.
 

vitoralbsport

New Contributor
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
33%
Jan 14, 2019
3
1
Very good, i am also striving to live only freelance, among other forms of income, your post motivated me a lot to fight more and more, can I call you on dm to know more about how you are getting this done?
 
Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

ALEX-P

Contributor
Read Fastlane!
Read Unscripted!
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
200%
Jun 14, 2016
24
48
34
Queensland
Since I started freelancing on September 21st, 2019:

Hey Kevin,

Merry Xmas!

Nice progress thread. I left the 9-5job in August 2019 and now I am freelancing as well!

I am from Australia, now at A$4,800/month!

Let's keep in touch through the forum :cool:
 

Afternoons

Contributor
Read Fastlane!
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
563%
Dec 11, 2019
8
45
New York City
Hey Kevin,

Merry Xmas!

Nice progress thread. I left the 9-5job in August 2019 and now I am freelancing as well!

I am from Australia, now at A$4,800/month!

Let's keep in touch through the forum :cool:

Alex,
Just saw your message. That's awesome! : ) I'm excited to see your progress from here on out.
 
Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

Post New Topic

Please SEARCH before posting.
Please select the BEST category.

Post new topic

Guest post submissions offered HERE.

New Topics

Fastlane Insiders

View the forum AD FREE.
Private, unindexed content
Detailed process/execution threads
Ideas needing execution, more!

Join Fastlane Insiders.

Top