Tomorrow

[Solais]

Date: 11/27/2018

After a shit ton of hand wringing and a major flop that set me back about $10K (which I know is "nothing" to most people who have already made it), I have committed to ALL the necessary preparations and am ready to sell. It took me a bit longer than I expected to recover due to Slowlane job that I no longer have, so I am devoting ALL resources to this.

My plan for the next 6 months is as follows:

Get up at 7 AM - do morning routine - blah blah

1. Drive to a commercial building.
2. Politely introduce myself and explain what I am selling. Ask for the purchasing manager or whomever is in charge.
3. If the manager isn't there, I have a business card + advertising letter (sealed) ready.

Rinse and repeat for 8 hours, with quick lunch break. (8 AM to 4:30 or so)

Until I achieve at least $10K/monthly revenue, I don't plan on hiring anyone. Night time is 3-4 hours of the physical work; I am also allocating weekend (day)time to do the actual work (not the sales).

The funny thing about this business is, I've heard of people who "work part time" but make 6 figures.

I don't want to stop at 6 figures, I need to prove my worth and earn 7 figures via a chain strategy in different major cities in neighboring states.

(Goal: $100,000 monthly net profit in 5 years).

Will update sporadically, 2-3 times per week.

 

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[Solais]

What are you selling?

Commercial/office cleaning.

Value proposition = if you're not fully satisfied, we'll redo the parts needed within 24 hours at no cost. Also we don't hire illegals

Edit:

MJ said you need a "purpose" to continue even when you feel like quitting. Without a strong purpose, you will stagnate.

So here is my purpose:

I am tired of hanging my head low whenever I go back to my home state (CA) and visit friends. I am NOT inferior to them in any way, shape, or form, yet they are making high 5/low 6 figures working their "cushy" jobs. Ever since my early college days (when SAT scores/high school GPA no longer mattered), I have felt like a nobody. Low self esteem is a real mood killer.

I want to blow their minds and expectations. Not in an assholish way where I "brag" about how much I make (God knows what happens to those kinds of people), but I will elevate myself to the point where I have nothing to fear.

A sort of "elegant pride," if you will.

Of course, the FREEDOM is also critical, but at this point, I know what I am after. Not a Lamborghini, a 3000 sq ft. house, a year long vacation (though those will all come eventually), but NOT FEELING INFERIOR.

Value contribution via entrepreneurship = Higher self esteem + Greater wealth + Freedom

I am finally ready to sacrifice an arm and a leg to make it happen. I fully comprehend the lack of "nobility" in my motives, but really, there is nothing I care about more ATM.

Edit 2: Jason Scott, you used to live in CA huh? Good choice to move...

 

[Solais]

Date: 11/28/2018

Mistakes:

Stayed up until 1 AM and then got up at 9 AM, thus delaying my start. I only did sales for ~5 hours instead of the ~8 I planned.

Asked a few retail stores (I knew they already had their own cleaners, so there was no reason for me to ask. Wishful thinking)

Dismissing the idea of cold calling + emailing right off the bat.

Tomorrow I am splitting my time like this:

1 hour writing down a call list (YellowPages/Yelp/TripAdvisor/Angie's List/some commercial directory)
1 hour curating an email list (Using a public directory)
4 hours cold calling
1 hour of emailing (Does anyone here suggest a mass email software? Or should I try to personalize it as much as possible and do it manually?)
3 hours of in-person visits (Even though this is the "least efficient" method, this is the strongest form of market engagement available, and allowed me to procure valuable information.)
1 hour of record keeping (updating an Excel sheet to keep track of who I have/haven't contacted)
30 minutes of tinkering with my website
30 minutes of reading

1 hour of recreation/winding down

I will make time for ~1 hour of gym every other day so my physical condition doesn't deteriorate.

As someone in an INSIDERS thread noted:

Email + Cold Calling (Virtually no cost) -> Use profits from initial customers for Direct Mail -> Use profits from Direct Mail to conduct networking/in-person visits

Good News:

A couple of managers said they were "looking to switch cleaners" in the coming month. I will keep contact with them (or at the corporate level), and based on my limited sample size, I know which types of offices to avoid.

Excel Sheet

Red = No go (They explicitly say NO)
Yellow = Follow up
Green = Got the contract AKA GOLD GUMBALL

 

[Solais]

In case anyone's wondering, the red/yellow/green is to signify ACTION.

All yellow cells eventually turn to green or red eventually. Not following up = disaster.

Edit (Almost midnight):

After thinking about what another INSIDERS said, I've decided to use the following progression:

1) Email (Goal: 300 per day for 15 days). Expected conversion rate: 0.1-0.3%

2) Phone (Goal: 80 per day for 45 days). Expected conversion rate: 1-3%

3) Direct Mail Advertising (Prerequisite: Some profits from #1-#2 to cover the cost.) Expected conversion rate: 3-5%.

4) In-Person Visits (Prerequisite: Profits from #1-#3 to cover the cost) Expected conversion rate: 5-7%. This could take several months. (Assuming 30 visits/day, 3000 visits is 100 days, not including weekends. 20 weeks = almost half a year)

Instead of diluting my attention, what I will do is knock out #1, then #2, etc. instead of "doing 2 things at once."

Saturdays/Sundays reserved for networking per usual.

I can already feel the pain starting after I wake up tomorrow...god speed.

 

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[Solais]

Writing this entry during my quick 10 min break + eating downtime.

Date: 11/29/2018 (Day 2 of Action)

I've noticed my emails sent per hour rate fluctuates between 20 and 40, depending on how difficult YellowPages makes it for me...let's say 30 emails/hour is the average.

My Process For Sending Mass Emails:

1) Type in a category of firms I want to do business with over at YellowPages' website, e.g. plumbers, florists, whatever.

2) Right click the business -> Open in New Tab

3) If Email Exists -> Right Click, Copy Email -> Paste Over to My Excel Sheet. Add in a first name if it's easily accessible/obvious. If the first name is NOT obvious, (something like info@domain.com), I don't bother looking for it. I tried using tools like Hunter.io today and it took F*cking forever!

4) If Email DOES NOT EXIST, I copy and paste the name of the company onto another Excel column. I will transpose this column

5) Repeat 2-4 until I've exhausted all the results (or until each following page just duplicates the previous ones...the directories are not always well klept)

6) Use mass email plugin combined with my GSuites account + Email Template and hit send.

Is it tedious? Yes, but so is every job I've ever had, so at this point IDGAF. I am sending out all the emails to prospective buyers, and will follow up with calls for those who do not explicitly say they are not interested (i.e. if they ignore my email/email bounced/etc.) once I get to the phone call phase of my marketing execution.

Adjustments:

250 emails per day instead of 300 (300 is a tad bit too much, scraping and sending 250 emails is easily 8-9 hours, and I plan on doing other productive tasks like reading so I don't lose my mind on scraping/sending emails)

I originally planned on sending 4500 emails total - we'll see how many potential clients there are. It might be 10-20% less if market size warrants less time on blasting emails, or it might even be more. I expect minimum to be 4000 and maximum to be 5000.

Roadblocks

- Businesses w/ no email on YP makes my life harder/this task longer than it ought to be.
- Businesses w/ email but generic email address make it difficult to address a particular individual
- Business executives that are "on vacation" (According to their auto-reply)

 

[Fastlane Liam]

Did you do this yet:

1. Drive to a commercial building.
2. Politely introduce myself and explain what I am selling. Ask for the purchasing manager or whomever is in charge.
3. If the manager isn't there, I have a business card + advertising letter (sealed) ready.

I see alot of planning and email sending instead

 

[Solais]

Did you do this yet:

1. Drive to a commercial building.
2. Politely introduce myself and explain what I am selling. Ask for the purchasing manager or whomever is in charge.
3. If the manager isn't there, I have a business card + advertising letter (sealed) ready.

I see alot of planning and email sending instead

I did that yesterday. It's not very efficient when half the buildings are owned by a property management company that's off-site and you realized you just wasted 30 min walking around.

Email -> Phone Call -> Direct Mail -> In-Person is the most efficient "pipeline." In-Person is the final "net" that catches those who fell through the other 3. I haven't seen a good argument against this process.

 

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[Fastlane Liam]

I did that yesterday. It's not very efficient when half the buildings are owned by a property management company that's off-site and you realized you just wasted 30 min walking around.

Email -> Phone Call -> Direct Mail -> In-Person is the most efficient "pipeline." In-Person is the final "net" that catches those who fell through the other 3. I haven't seen a good argument against this process.

Good point dude, hope it works out for you!