They laughed when I told them I will become a millionare

[Pat]

The Ltd Liab is set up. It cost more money than I had expected. I am around 2k in the red, but I'm basically set up now and there shouldn't be significant expenses in the future (apart from taxes I hope).

The website is almost done. I have a web design client who I will use for a test run of my process and will give me some feedback. I'm a bit out of time at the moment because of two upcoming tournaments but I'll try to get this done asap.

I started working on a web application as well. After dabbling with ruby on rails, cakephp and writing my own framework I have decided to go with codeigniter. After spending a little time getting familiar with the framework I started coding and made a lot of progress.

Coding is so much faster with a framework, I kinda regret all the time I spent not even bothering to look into OOP.

Short term goals:
- Finish core functions of web app until 25.9.11
- Finish web app + design + payment system until 9.10.11
- Run through the web design process with client until 9.10.11

After those goals are achieved I'll have 3 weeks off in Bali, then back to work.

Cheers
Pat

 

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[rexxkai]

you seem very motivated!!!

what is your secret?

 

[Pat]

you seem very motivated!!!

what is your secret?

Quite easy, I run out of money in a few months.

But now that I think about it, I have put myself into that situation myself. My original goal was to just travel until I run out of money and then go back and look for a job.

Now I invested half of my travel money into my business and got no other choice than to get it running. Kinda like burning the ships.

Of course rationally I know that I can always go back to the "normal" world. IT engineers are scarce at the moment and I could always just pull the money out of the business if needed. But emotionally it makes me feel like I have no other options and that makes me work.

But then, I only work maybe 4 hours a day. I also train 4 hours a day and sleep a lot. Kinda what I would choose my life to be if I could. Well it seems I can... All I have to do now is keep it up.

Thanks for asking, made me reflect and now I'm really motivated to get some work done. Even though I have a tournament tomorrow but it's good, will take my mind of that

Cheers
Pat

 

[chudnovsky]

hey there! I'm from Switzerland as well

How's your progress going ??

 

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[Rique]

Hows it going now would love to hear more

 

[Pat]

Before I went to Bali I put the web app on hold as I realized I need to do it as a joint venture with an expert in the area for it to be successful.

I started another project, a video membership website like mginaction.com. I am doing this for someone else obviously and will only get a relatively small cut of the income. But then I am not the one doing the ongoing work as well, I only do the coding. This has good potential to provide me with enough passive income so I won't have to worry about freelancing in the future while working on bigger things.

I am about 80% done. I have to finish the member area, fix some things in the admin interface and add the vimeo API. Everything else is basically done (simple design, payment system etc).

I am also working on another projects, a blackhat seo software that I will launch with some well known guys who have a really big list. While just coding the software would be relatively easy, it is a requirement from them that I make money with it first. They won't sell anything that isn't proven. So I am getting high quality seo training for free in the meantime and another possible source of income.

I hope that the video site will provide my living costs and the product launch should make enough so I can invest that money into my beekeeping product.

It's a little frustrating to work on things where I know that they won't make me millions, but hey, one step at a time.

I also got myself a nice new macbook pro. This increased my productivity by at least 200% compared to working on my netbook. I started doing a few things in ruby and now it almost hurts to code in php....

I will give RoR probably a try for my next webapp. I'm definitely sold on ruby.

 

[Pat]

The video website is making slow progress now. I need some videos and other content before it makes sense to continue. My JV partner is really busy at the moment so it's hard to find time. I hope we can shoot a bunch before the end of the week. I aim to launch around NYE, but maybe that is unrealistic. Time will tell.

On the other hand I made a lot of progress on the blackhat project. Looks very promising and I can't see any possible roadblocks at the moment. Just a lot of work like coding, documentation and creating marketing material...

I had some realizations about the beekeeping software and I think I found a workaround so that I can bootstrap it instead of requiring money for hardware upfront. I will look into this when I am back over in New Zealand beginning of next year.

I realized that I will run out of money sooner than expected. This is now all or nothing. If I can't generate at least one income source I will have to get a job when I get back to Switzerland. Now that wouldn't be the end of the world obviously and I could still work on my projects in my spare time, but it's definitely good motivation.

 

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[Pat]

We managed to shoot a few videos. We got about 30 minutes worth of video in 45 minutes which is great.

Some days I catch myself avoiding doing the work. Procrastination get's easier to overcome the more momentum I get, but it still creeps up from time to time. Yesterday was really bad, I only got 2 hours of work done. I'm writing this down so I can get back into work mode today.

The biggest problem is that I see new ideas/opportunities everywhere. But I have to focus and finish what I have started before I can start something new. I won't be able to handle more than 2 projects at the same time.

 

[Pat]

Video Website is ready for launch... Now all we need is a lot of videos, not much I can do there. This frees me up for the SEO project.

I had a few new ideas that are going into the pipeline. I would like to have a successful business in a crash proof industry like agriculture. I have some ideas but they will require much more research.

I am back in New Zealand now and have a little room with a bed and a desk, all I need. Let's see what I can produce in the coming weeks...

 

[GlobalWealth]

It's a bit difficult to set up the Ltd liab Corp from outside the country. I will have to call a lawyer next week to see what's the best way of doing it.

Not true, I set up US domestic and various offshore companies for clients from around the world. I do this all from my virtual office. What is important is to set them up correctly in the proper jurisdiction for the right purpose.

 

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[Pat]

Not true, I set up US domestic and various offshore companies for clients from around the world. I do this all from my virtual office. What is important is to set them up correctly in the proper jurisdiction for the right purpose.

I am from Switzerland, it is probably different in the US. I talked to a few lawyers and there was a way, but it would have been complicated and set me back a few thousand more...

But anyway, it is now set up in the name of someone else and I will transfer it as soon as I am back in the country.

 

[GlobalWealth]

I am from Switzerland, it is probably different in the US. I talked to a few lawyers and there was a way, but it would have been complicated and set me back a few thousand more...

But anyway, it is now set up in the name of someone else and I will transfer it as soon as I am back in the country.

I am assuming you are talking about difficulty in setting up a Swiss company. I don't do those, nor would I recommend them to clients for various reasons.

I primarily deal with US LLC's and various offshore corporations like Seychelles, Belize, BVI, Nevis, etc. All of these are easy to set up remotely.

 

[dubaismartmoney]

Pat ,

This Thread is amazing, please keep posting

I love the fact that you are going for your dreams, travelling and training. Managing the money and the time to pursuit all, its not easy but well worth it.

Im starting up a company right now also, and managing time and money, between the job, the mba and my projects its not easy so I can relate to that.

keep it coming

 

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[theag]

Ha! Never saw this before because I havent fully read your thread (just the beginning), but youre doing something pretty similar to my business. Good to see that you have other things going on at the same time so we shouldnt clash too much

 

[Pat]

Got the first successful test run of the basic feature (a remote installation) of the blackhat software while running on a server and not local. Incredible how much things run different between two operating systems even if both use Apache. I will develop the rest live on the server to prevent those problems from coming up again.

Thanks to everyone writing in my thread by the way. Good to know I am not just talking to myself

 

[theag]

Just shoot me a note I you need alpha/beta testers for the software, sounds really interesting. If I remember right you said you would have to proof it with a few of your own projects to see if it works, right? Will you prepare those while finishing the software or will the software be your only means of SEO effort? Dont know much about blackhat stuff, thats why I ask. Speed+ btw for this thread.

 

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[Pat]

Had a few days off, catching up with family and traveling to Wellington to get my Thai visa (felt uncomfortable with sending my passport away because my NZ visa is in my passport...).

This morning I finished the core functionality of the program and then managed to delete everything while trying to back up. Of course the server doesn't backup itself and my last manual backup was 2 weeks old...

Luckily I was able to recover a few things from the local cache where my ftp program saves files when I edit them and then spent the rest of the day restoring everything to where it was...

Time to be more professional, I should have known better. And time to stop dabbling and go back into productive mode...

I want the software + documentation to be ready in 2 weeks, not including marketing material. Hold me accountable.

 

[theag]

I want the software + documentation to be ready in 2 weeks, not including marketing material. Hold me accountable.

done

 

[Pat]

The software is running as intended. I will still have to add a few features though.

Busy writing eBooks now and will also record a bunch of tutorial videos when it is quiet in the next few days. I want to give as much value as possible. And I am sure good documentation will also reduce the time spent on customer support in the future.

 

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[Pat]

First tutorial finished (35 pages).

28/02/12 - 12pm: Software Deadline

01/05/12 - 12pm: Launch

I pushed the software deadline another week back because I pulled in a big freelancing job that will take a few days.

 

[Pat]

The software is pretty much ready. All I need is some more documentation/videos now.

Thinking about inviting beta testers or just launch for early adopters and start the advertising later. I will have to sleep over that, feel free to comment if you have any suggestions.

I have a few things that I can/will add in the future depending on how the launch goes. I don't think it makes sense to add more features now without having data.

Having beta testers would give me more feedback while selling to early adopters would tell me instantly if people are willing to pay for it.

Hmm...

 

[Pat]

Long time no update...

I pivoted and have launched another software recently. Got my first few paying customers.

We are remaking everything professionally for a proper relaunch after we learned from our mistakes from the first one.

LongTail Wizard |

Things to do:
- Change to a payment processor that allows affiliates (Plimus or Clickbank, not sure yet)
- Get in touch with people who have related mailing lists
- Get a better audio for the video from fiverr
- Rewrite the text on the page (Many people don't understand how it works)
- Add value to the product (social bookmarks or wiki articles, not sure yet)

This is more a lifestyle business than a fastlane business. But I have something bigger lined up already for when my time is freed up a little. Stay tuned.

 

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[theag]

Long time no update...

I pivoted and have launched another software recently. Got my first few paying customers.

We are remaking everything professionally for a proper relaunch after we learned from our mistakes from the first one.

LongTail Wizard |

Things to do:
- Change to a payment processor that allows affiliates (Plimus or Clickbank, not sure yet)
- Get in touch with people who have related mailing lists
- Get a better audio for the video from fiverr
- Rewrite the text on the page (Many people don't understand how it works)
- Add value to the product (social bookmarks or wiki articles, not sure yet)

This is more a lifestyle business than a fastlane business. But I have something bigger lined up already for when my time is freed up a little. Stay tuned.

sounds good. why do you have only 1 packet (1000 daily for 99/month)? maybe you could offer smaller packages to attract more customers. are you already selling on wf/bhw etc?

 

[Pat]

sounds good. why do you have only 1 packet (1000 daily for 99/month)? maybe you could offer smaller packages to attract more customers. are you already selling on wf/bhw etc?

Thinking about that. Wanted to launch as fast as possible to see if there is real interest, aka buyers. Also the old backend system did not allow smaller runs than 1000, but I changed everything on the backend since and now it would be no problem. Any suggestions?

Had a quick thread on WaFo where we got the customers from. But most people did not get the advertising (We overestimated the SEO knowledge of WaFo members)

We will relaunch soon on some industry forums, probably this week.

 

[theag]

yea dont sell a solid service on WF, those guys are only good customers if you sell them rehashed bullshit in the form of a 7 page ebook try a BHW BST.

I would suggest starting much lower than 1k daily. many people will be scared by that high number after penguin.

what about case studies? can you get one or a few from your customers after a few days/weeks?

maybe even offer a free trial if you can do that with your resources?

 

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[Pat]

Yeah we are thinking about selling an ebook in which we upsell the SaaS...

We have some screenshots from the beta results that we used on version 1 (long sales letter style). I guess there is no reason to leave them out.

I guess I could do a free trial, but if I do link building it will take server resources and if I add social bookmarks also the captcha cost which is not insignificant. I know there are people out there just waiting for opportunities to abuse such things (bhw...).

Some more stuff to think through... Thanks

 

[Steve W]

I will have my first MMA fight this year. My back ground is kyokushin karate and bjj. Training twice a day at the moment

Just saw this thread - just started my 6 year-old at the local Kyokushin dojo & got my arm twisted into joining as well. Thought I was reasonably fit but soon got that notion proved wrong!

 

[jdiggidy]

I will have to release them together. The hardware is just a barcode reader with a twist. It's part of the program -> they will be sold as one package

Not sure if this is a solution to the problem, but perhaps the problem could be solved with a mobile device (smart phone or tablet) and a bar code scanning app?

 

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[AcquireCurrency]

What experience did yo have in Internet Marketing before you wrote the software?

Is it completely automated?

 

[BBarakti]

I've enjoyed reading your thread...

But, it doesn't seem to me that you've proven or disprove the viability of your beekeeping product and it looked like you 've jumped around alot (on different ventures) during the time you've allocated to work on it.

MJ and others have stated that entrepreneurial "monogamy" tends to work better than does entrepreneurial "polygamy". If you've researched and "dissected" your market (Need), start up investment (barriers to entry), and your resources in relation to that you should be able to either a) proceed full speed ahead or b) drop the idea. What has your analysis of these aspects shown you? How did you go about gathering the information and the sources of the information? Is there good research done in the front end? Earlier you said that it was viable but not as viable as you originally thought. We were given the impression that this decision was based off of one person's opinion. Was this person a recognized field expert? It seems a bit flighty to make a business decision (especially one you've invested in already) on one person's opinion, unless there is a darn good reason to trust their opinion.

I'm not attacking or being critical (in a negative way) of you or your progress, like I said, I've enjoyed reading your progress and hope nothing but the best for you. Just some observations and questions that came to me as I read through the thread.

I don't know what you knew about SEO when you started, but you certainly surpassed my knowledge. That's not saying much, but still good job on seemingly grasping it relatively well.

The things you've learned about time management and coding also seem to have been invaluable. I'm impressed that basically you've taught yourself at least one new way of coding (if not more than) since you've started all this....

Again, awesome work.

keep us posted--- subscribed.
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