What to do next...

[GettinFishy]

Hello everyone,

I've worked as a software programmer for about 4 years, and I recently quit my job to become something more then some no name tucked away in a cubicle. So its been five months since I quit my job and i'm not doing so good. I've made around 2k making websites from craigslist and $75 through google adsense by posting slideshows on social media websites, but its just not cutting it. I don't really have any other ideas on what to do to start making some decent money ($100 a day). Anyone maybe have some words of encouragement or advice for me? Anything will be appreciated. The fastlane book helped me understand whats needed for success, but not really the steps that need taken in starting your own successful business. Maybe I need to reread it.

 

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[Davo]

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[Fastek]

Since you were a programer already. Look into writing some ipone apps. I am not a programer but I was able to write a couple apps the nice thing is once you write the app and get it in the app store it continues to sell without any further intervention. Look for something that people are searching for but not a ton of completion. You get to choose your keywords in the app store. I dont make a ton off the apps I wrote but I wrote them a couple years ago and they still bring in $300-$400 a month residual after a couple years. If you multiply those efforts and have 20 apps it would start to pay the bills and you may come up with a hit on the way.
Cheers
Rick

 

[Even Steven]

GettinFishy, re-reading is probably good, but any one book can't give you all the answers/ideas you need. Do you have anything else you're reading? Continual acquisition of knowledge is part of the process.

 

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[GettinFishy]

My advice is to try and get another job preferably in a place that's doing project type work rather than BAU/maintenance stuff. Then start planning a fastlane business as well. I quit my last job with the same thoughts as you but after 2 months achieved nothing and ended up not really learning much on my own and got pretty down. So I got another job (BA) and that has opened up some really exciting opportunities for me to learn some new skills and also meet entrepreneurs at work.

Basically the new place I work at has a bunch of Devs and BAs with side projects/businesses. A few of them have now gone from full time hours to 2-3days a week. One guy has a Bitcoin exchange, another has something related to the energy industry, another has an eBay business and another sold a small marina software company previously. These are people I'm learning from every day.

By the way, what experience do you have? Just front-end/web dev stuff?
I'm learning Ruby at the moment so I can prototype my ideas rather than paying someone every time I think of something. We could brainstorm/work together on some ideas.

I'm a C# developer all around, I do web, windows apps, and windows services. I do mostly web tho, for front-end I use jquery, bootstrap, and angular.js.

 

[GettinFishy]

Since you were a programer already. Look into writing some ipone apps. I am not a programer but I was able to write a couple apps the nice thing is once you write the app and get it in the app store it continues to sell without any further intervention. Look for something that people are searching for but not a ton of completion. You get to choose your keywords in the app store. I dont make a ton off the apps I wrote but I wrote them a couple years ago and they still bring in $300-$400 a month residual after a couple years. If you multiply those efforts and have 20 apps it would start to pay the bills and you may come up with a hit on the way.
Cheers
Rick

I have considered it and made a few prototype apps, but never got them into the app store. I've made a few web apps also that work just like an app and can be added to the iOS homescreen. I guess I could look into that.

 

[GettinFishy]

GettinFishy, re-reading is probably good, but any one book can't give you all the answers/ideas you need. Do you have anything else you're reading? Continual acquisition of knowledge is part of the process.

Um as far as other books I have two, Secrets of the Millionaire Mind and The Millionaire Next Door. Haven't got around to reading them yet tho, after reading the fastlane I kinda jumped and quit my job with no idea what to do.

 

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[Circles]

GettinFishy,

I'm kinda in the same field as you, software engineer on the telecom side. I have a wife and 2 little monkeys ages 5 and 2, and I want to start a business!!!

My average day before reading the fastlane was:
go to work 9-6, eat dinner 6:30-7:30, play with kids 7:30 to 9, put them to sleep, play video games until I get sleepy.

My average day after reading the fastlane is:
go to work 9-6, eat dinner 6:30-7:30, play with kids 7:30 to 9, put them to sleep, work on my business from 9 to 3 in the morning.

It's really a lot of hard work trying to do both and I'm sooo tired all the time now; but I'm happy knowing that I'm trying.

I think as long as you're thinking about how to start your business, your on the right track.

 

[GettinFishy]

Thanks for everyone's replies! I've replied to them all.

GettinFishy,

I'm kinda in the same field as you, software engineer on the telecom side. I have a wife and 2 little monkeys ages 5 and 2, and I want to start a business!!!

My average day before reading the fastlane was:
go to work 9-6, eat dinner 6:30-7:30, play with kids 7:30 to 9, put them to sleep, play video games until I get sleepy.

My average day after reading the fastlane is:
go to work 9-6, eat dinner 6:30-7:30, play with kids 7:30 to 9, put them to sleep, work on my business from 9 to 3 in the morning.

It's really a lot of hard work trying to do both and I'm sooo tired all the time now; but I'm happy knowing that I'm trying.

I think as long as you're thinking about how to start your business, your on the right track.

Thank you for this, since quitting my 9-6 I have really strange hours now. Usually i'm up at nine till about two and then I take a nap till five. Sometimes ill take an adderal if I need to get things done in a rush. As far as business goes I have made a few websites by word of mouth and craigslist and when I got paid it was a great feeling (hard getting that check sometimes tho). Also I host there sites for them so any changes have to come through me. I would like to have enough work to were I could pay another developer $15 an hour to help out, not so easy to find tho (gotta be still in school or outsourced).

 

[tafy]

You in the perfect place here to find a co-founder and create a SaaS application, I would have liked to have a cofounder but couldnt find one, now I am outsourcing the app. But Im sure theres plenty here with a good idea that needs developing

 

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[Even Steven]

Well, you obviously have a bias for action, and you've come here searching for knowledge and help. I think those traits will serve you well if you keep at it. It sounds like you just need the knowledge and guidance of someone more experienced. I wish I could offer that to you, but I'm sure if you keep digging, you'll find someone who can help you.

 

[Yasai]

You could try working as a freelancer on elance.com or something similar.
Once you've got enough customers (and even repeat customers), you can pay someone else to do some of your work.
Get more and more customers, then use can your earnings to hire more and more employees.

That's just one approach.

The one thing you really have to focus on, is to find out what your Market needs and then give it to them. No way around that ;-)

 

[Deon]

Read all the Gold threads in this forum... I'm sure it will steer you in the right direction BIG TIME

 

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[johnp]

I I've made around 2k making websites from craigslist

That could be your first problem. I tried getting clients from CL and I quickly realized that it's rare to find anybody who will pay a decent amount on CL.

For what it's worth. I was in the same situation as you, except for the fact that I'm not good at programming. I changed my situation by putting myself out there and selling.

There are probably so many things that you can do still..

- Raise your prices. I won't do a website for less than 4k unless I really need the money. I hate making websites for people.

- Go door to door. If you don't want to go door to door then make flyers and go door to door at night when the owners aren't in. Put the flyers in their mailboxes.

- Create a targeted list of prospects and send direct mail.

- Focus on a niche industry. For web development I started with civil engineering firms. I did a site cheap and used it as a case study.

It's hard to make it in web design. There's so much competition. I actually switched to app development for B2B companies in specific niches because there is more opportunity and I have no intention of doing this for the rest of my life. This has become my day job, while I work on my fastlane plans early in the morning.

The key thing to realize here is that you have so much opportunity infront of you right now. You just aren't executing the right way. Try new things, get out of your comfort zone. If something doesn't work then try again another way and you'll see that your situation will improve.

If you can't do it then go back to work. Nothing wrong with that.

Good luck

 

[Damedius]

If you are making websites then Local business consulting might be something to consider.

Depending on your budget I can recommend a few sources. Super Fast Business forum is pretty good. The Fast Web Formula series talks about local business consulting among many other things. It is a monthly fee so you could always pay for one month and download all the resources.

Kyle Tully is another option. He specializes in local business consulting but is a bit more expensive.(consulting tycoon) I think I have actually seem some of his posts on this forum.

 

[GettinFishy]

Well, you obviously have a bias for action, and you've come here searching for knowledge and help. I think those traits will serve you well if you keep at it. It sounds like you just need the knowledge and guidance of someone more experienced. I wish I could offer that to you, but I'm sure if you keep digging, you'll find someone who can help you.

I guess after reading the book I was really excited, but didn't have a business plan or idea.

 

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[local182]

I'll share a story with you as it seems to apply to your situation:

My brother was employed as a territory sales rep. selling physical product in the construction industry. He would spend some of his free time building websites for some of the businesses he called on during his 9 to 5 job. A year and half ago he quit that job to pursue web design / digital marketing full time.

Fast forward to present day, he has recently signed a lease for office space so he can hire employees and scale his business.

I don't know where you live so can't comment on the business community in your area however web design is definitely an industry that is location independent. I would suggest and recommend rather than waiting for opportunities to come to you (Craigslist) that you bring the opportunities to people or businesses in your community that need the services you can provide:

• search the local businesses in your area, find those that have poor or non-existent online presences and show up at their door offering your services. As a side note to this, I'm currently a sales rep. for a transportation company and just in the course of my job, I've run into companies that have told me they were interested in improving or developing an online presence but have no idea where to start.
• search online for request for quotes by governments, municipalities, charities, businesses etc... looking for websites or any other software applications that you can provide (this was how my brother was able to "take the plunge" and quit his day job).

I have no doubt in my mind if you treat soliciting businesses for your services as a full time job, you will be able to generate far more than 2k over 6 months. Most people building websites for a living wait until a customer makes a decision that they need a website and calls on them. If you're the guy that finds the customers that need a website and shows them what you can do for them, you'll be the guy that gets the job.

Also note, in addition to setting up a website for a company, there are countless other opportunities to generate sustained semi-passive income (ie: managing their Google Adwords accounts, proving hosting /domain name registration services etc...). Build up enough clients utilizing those services and you'll provide yourself a guaranteed monthly income exclusive of building any websites that month.

Anyways, hopefully you don't live in the same place as my brother, if so, forget everything I told you above! If you had any questions about my brothers experience I'd be happy to provide, just pm me.