You may call me crazy

[Gareth]

So i thought Id start documenting my journey.

Right now I have good business which earns a decent income which takes up to 25 hours a week.

4 months ago I launched a number of local businesses online using my knowledge of Local SEO techniques

- The first is a Jumping Castle Business, this is primarily a weekend business. I'm doing it to help my stepson.

- The second is in the area of wedding photography (a specific weak keyword)

- A resume writing service

My wife wants to be the wedding photographer and she is great at photography

They are all climbing the rankings. The jumping castle business is in the 3 pack already and we get calls and bookings.

I have an app up on Google play that is broken and has been for the last 6 months. Im back in contact with the developer and we are going to turn it into a subscription model. It wont ever make a fortune but it could bring in some play money . It has 800 downloads a month.

I have a developer working on a SAAS project. Im thinking it will probably take another 3 months to finish and probably another 3 to test and refine. It is subscription based.

I have completed a first draft of my book. It still needs a lot of work and I estimate it could take another 6 - 12 months before I have it complete. What I learn from my TMF journey will play a part in the books content.

Now it sounds like a lot, but really it isn't much work for me at all.

Lets see what happens...

 

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[GeoffP]

So i thought Id start documenting my journey.

Right now I have good business which earns a decent income which takes up to 25 hours a week.

4 months ago I launched a number of local businesses online using my knowledge of Local SEO techniques

- The first is a Jumping Castle Business, this is primarily a weekend business. I'm doing it to help my stepson.

- The second is in the area of wedding photography (a specific weak keyword)

- A resume writing service

My wife wants to be the wedding photographer and she is great at photography

They are all climbing the rankings. The jumping castle business is in the 3 pack already and we get calls and bookings.

I have an app up on Google play that is broken and has been for the last 6 months. Im back in contact with the developer and we are going to turn it into a subscription model. It wont ever make a fortune but it could bring in some play money . It has 800 downloads a month.

I have a developer working on a SAAS project. Im thinking it will probably take another 3 months to finish and probably another 3 to test and refine. It is subscription based.

Now it sounds like a lot, but really it isn't much work for me at all.

Lets see what happens...

You aren't crazy. Here's what's on my agenda for the next two or so months

• Split main business into three separate businesses
• Open a fourth (professional publishing co.) and fifth business (subscription based online business)
• Help launch 3 food related businesses, a consulting business, and clean up a convenience store

Good luck!

 

[SparksCW]

Sounds like you're very busy!

I have plenty of ideas but just keep digging deeper in my existing niches. Making the sites better, stronger and more stabile whilst increasing sales.

Might write a short e-book to help others with what I've learnt, if I started my e-commerce journey with the knowledge I have now it'd have been a whole lot easier and more successful! Never written a book before though, for now I'm just collating it as notes for my own purposes and will look to compile it into a book in the future.

 

[jazb]

Not crazy, but if you find something special then scale the crap out of it

 

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[Gareth]

- 3 Bookings for the Jumping Castle business this Sunday.

- Meeting with the SAAS developer. We now have core functionality, time to build the app out further.

- Made some updates to chapter one of the book, but more needs to be done.

 

[Gareth]

Well I seem to have struck it lucky with the developer for the SAAS. He works like a man possessed. We hit phase 2 testing and as soon as I find a bug or issue he smashes out a fix. It looks like we will have a MVP (minimal viable product) in less than 4 days from now.

It probably helps that I have an IT background and am able to test and fix any of the issues on the Bluemix platform.

Started to listen to "Pitch Anything". So far so good. Soon I will be putting together a pitch for my SAAS. I explained to the concept to a sales guy who I am working with. His sales have tripled since coming to see me. I told him the concept and he mentioned that the issue that my app solves was discussed in the Monday morning sales meeting!

I spent my Sunday out delivering castles. Whilst physical work, I enjoyed every second. Kids and families having fun. Got tipped and today a referral called. Once I have it up and running Ill hand it over to my stepson.

In my regular business I got a call from the largest dental center in the country. They need someone to help clients who suffer from stress induced bruxism (teeth grinding). This could be a lucrative source of clients. After talking to the lead dentist there Im sending over my cards and business info for him to recommend me.

Time to get onto the other businesses, they need some more fertilizer to get them to burst through the soil.

Now....I'm probably 5 times as productive as I used to be, but I cant help think that Im still wasting time. Weird.

Ramble over.....

 

[jpanarra]

I see that a lot of people on here are saying you aren't crazy. I respectfully disagree, now

Here's the definition of crazy

cra·zy
ˈkrāzē/
informal
adjective

1. 1.
   mentally deranged, especially as manifested in a wild or aggressive way.
   "Stella went crazy and assaulted a visitor"
   synonyms:mad, insane, out of one's mind, deranged, demented, not in one's right mind, crazed,lunatic, non compos mentis, unhinged, mad as a hatter, mad as a March hare;
   

Now, here's the way I see it. For one to be labeled mentally deranged, they have to be different from society. Therefore, if everyone was doing this, they wouldn't be looked at as crazy. Here's the truth, not a lot of people are doing what we are doing here on this forum. So to anyone who is "normal" looking into this forum and seeing what all these people are doing, they will without a doubt call all of us "crazy". So I take it as a good thing, i also consider myself crazy too! So stay crazy and keep growing!

 

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[Gareth]

Today was a mad day of bug fixing on the app mixed with seeing clients.

My developer wanted to sort things out before he took his holiday. So as he fixed bugs I found new ones, screen recorded the issue and sent them back.

By the end of the day (now) the SAAS has 75% of the features and all the core functionality is there. After researching the competition, they have many good features but their on-boarding and interfaces are horrendous.

I've been around software a long time and their offerings are overpriced and really difficult to navigate.

Reading "The Membership Economy" has really helped my mindset.

A few more castle bookings to keep me busy, hell I need to finance this SAAS development!

Got some new business cards so I headed down to the dentist who was asking for them so he can refer clients.

Managed to squeeze a couple of hours of watching a photography business bootcamp video. I always run audio and video at 1.5 speed!

Wonder what ill do tomorrow???

 

[Gareth]

The SAAS app needed a Google sheets setup with some coding..so I put on my 'boilerplate' coding skills and sorted that out.

The SAAS also needed some email templates. Found this VERY cool service http://beefree.io , it allows you to create responsive email templates. Saved me a lot of time. Did that this morning. Highly recommended.

On the way to deliver a castle for hire listened to some more of "Fanatical Prospecting" on 1.5 speed.

Time for a break so Ill watch a bit of UFC.

 

[MakeItHappen]

On the way to deliver a castle for hire

How many jumping castles do you own?
I like the business idea because it seems like all you need is better marketing than the competition.
I also like the fact that it's mainly a weekend biz.

How much do you think can this business make you max in your local market?

I took a look at the local competition in my area and with great (online) marketing it seems like it shouldn't be to hard to make this work.

 

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[Gareth]

I have 4 castles, I picked them up second hand from a guy in another area. You can always pick up good castles second hand. People buy them thinking easy weekend money, but then don't know how to market them.

New Ninja jump Castles are 2k+ for Medium.

If you are a smart marketer and the weather is good then its a way to trade 2 for 5. 2 days work for 5 days off.

I'm not sure that you will be able to build it's intrinsic value as a business (we call it goodwill).

It can be a cash business.

Oh, its physical work. Be ready for a good workout. Castles are quite heavy.

Your maximum castles rental per day with a car and a big trailer would be 4 medium size. We charge $200 rental. So in peak time max 1600 over 2 days.

I only set things up 3 or so months ago. I found an expired domain from an old jumping castle business that had 40 backlinks. So with the additional backlinks I added it has quite strong SEO. Its still needs more time but is in the local 3 pack.

I set the website up first and waited before I bought the castles. People tend to buy the castles first and think about the marketing afterwards.

 

[MakeItHappen]

@Gareth Thanks for your feedback.
Do you plan to mainly stick to organic (local) Seo or are you also considering Adwords and Facebook ads?

 

[Gareth]

I messed around with adwords when setting up the website and rental software. That was before I actually had castles. I got a massive CTR. Something like 20%. Of course i was outbidding everyone to get that.

I was mostly testing the website using hotjar and seeing what the market was like.

We are in our summer months now so it's the party season.

I'll kick the Adwords back on after Christmas.

 

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[MJ DeMarco]

Sorry but I don't see anything crazy in here ... just a lot of hustle and action.

 

[Gareth]

M. Freesia wrote via Audible...

"Don't waste a credit here."
One of the very few books I've found unlistenable on Audible. Positive reviews for this title are baffling to the point of being suspicious. I couldn't even make it to the halfway mark.

What it is: a testosterone-laden adolescent worldview with very little actionable advice.

If someone like this dude can become a millionaire in record time, you can too. You're welcome!

My view that is that I wish Id had access to and read this book decades ago. It's essential reading. Many people want "the universe loves you" kinda stuff but the straight talking angle works best for me.

Oh and the intention of my thread is to show process rather than events and hopefully motivate others to take action.

Ramble ended

 

[Gareth]

Not a lot of progress today...

Created a brochure the Castles in Canva. After pricing investigation it's going to cost $100 for 500 brochures. Then I have to deliver them or get them out in some way. It may just be better to pop that $100 into Facebook and target parents with kids in the Castle age group. FB shows 80,000 Mothers around my city who have kids in the right age bracket. Its worth testing I think. Given that those mother may either have party coming up or have a friend who does.

Recorded a screen video for my SAAS developer so that when he gets back to work he knows the first things to work on.

A couple of businesses that I launched are in the organic rankings but they aren't showing up on maps. They are published with no errors or warnings from the Big G. I've done a tweak or two and will have to see if that makes a difference.

App developer came back with a quote for $1500 USD to completely rewrite the app as a subscription version. That may have to take a back seat for a while. The maths arent that good.

Popped in MFL again while driving just to get another dose.

Any advice is welcome.

 

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[Gareth]

Not feeling very productive today. Lots of looping (a slight OCD thing)

Created a slideshow jumping castle ads campaign for FB targeting parents with young kids.

Got the T=shirt design back from Fiverr to promote the SAAS.

Created a business card design for the SAAS.

This SAAS is something that can promote 1 on 1 to any business person who has an online presence. I will be doing online B2B sales, but when the app is done I want to hot the ground promoting.

Its probably a good time of year to get back to editing my book.

 

[Gareth]

So i ran the Adwords campaign and FB Video Carousel ADS side by side. Maths is pointing to the FB adverts. The adwords CPC is around $3 which means I need to convert high as a castle is only $200 to rent. FB ad is much cheaper but of course not showing to targeted searchers (but mums with small kids), But on the basis of what i tested I could get 500 clicks to the site (over time) for about $100.

Ran a leads advert for my core business and picked up a lead for $12 so far. That service costs $347. Ill call the lead today and see what happens.

Still managed to binge watch 6 eps of Helsing on Netflix last night

Its still morning here. I need to figure out what to work on.

 

[Kujo.show]

So i ran the Adwords campaign and FB Video Carousel ADS side by side. Maths is pointing to the FB adverts. The adwords CPC is around $3 which means I need to convert high as a castle is only $200 to rent. FB ad is much cheaper but of course not showing to targeted searchers (but mums with small kids), But on the basis of what i tested I could get 500 clicks to the site (over time) for about $100.

Ran a leads advert for my core business and picked up a lead for $12 so far. That service costs $347. Ill call the lead today and see what happens.

Still managed to binge watch 6 eps of Helsing on Netflix last night

Its still morning here. I need to figure out what to work on.

Just read the thread and the uniqueness of your ventures seems very cool. BTW I'm looking for a new show, how good is Hellsing?

 

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[Gareth]

Wishing you all a great Christmas and holiday season.

I haven't been very productive over the last few days, but I have been reflective.

The Not So Good This Year:
A 15 year friendship ended this year

The Good This Year:
- I increased income from my core business by 75%
- Read (listened to) over 30 books this year. Some amazing, some average.
- Built the foundations for 4 other businesses
- Began the creation of a SAAS that will help other business owners
- Reconnected with a friend who I had lost touch with
- Improved communication in my marriage
- Finally on a path of health and vitality
- Improved my relationship with my youngest daughter.

Looking forward to 2017 - My Goals:

- Help 300 Smokers to Quit The Habit
- Help 1000 business owners to grow their business
- Get my body fat down to 19%
- Squat 10 x 100kg
- Create more meaningful friendships and relationships

I think Ill add to my goal list but that's a start

 

[Gareth]

Normally I take this week off but instead I decided to see clients.

Many leads came in so I have followed them up and booked them.

Even though I haven't worked much this week its turned out to be quite profitable.

Following on from my last post I can't say that I've been that productive. But I have been thinking a lot...lol

- Have given TMF another listen this week just for good measure.

2017 will start with a very different success mindset than 2016.

A quote by Jim Rohn stuck with me early in 2016. He said something like "its not the economy, it's your philosophy"

I realized then that while I was doing ok, I did not truly have the success mindset. Thanks to MJ and a few others I think I have something that is much closer to that.

I'm sure there is more for me to learn. Im damn excited to do it.

 

[Gareth]

Brief update.

Christmas was a busy time. My revenue was up 75% in December compared to last year. The first week of January is up 25% on last year.

The negative side effect of having social anxiety for so long was that I never developed the skill of networking. It's something that i want to learn. So what better place to start than with a book. I started listening to "How to be a Power Connector". The funny thing is that in my work I help a LOT of senior management and CEO's yet I've never leveraged that.

The developer has contacted me to let me know he is ready to begin coding again.

 

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[Gareth]

- Just about to finish reading my second book of the year. Another one about Business Networking. An Ok read/listen.

- I'm conservative with my SEO techniques but I implemented a new one a couple of days ago on my Photography site and it already appears to have had a beneficial effect. If it continues well ill roll it out to my other sites. already another lead has come in for that.

- Bookings on my core business this week is again up 25% on last year.

- I have a dilemma, I set up a website for stop smoking sessions in another City. For a while leads were far and few in between. Now I have steady stream. The airport is 20 minutes from my house and I can fly in and out in one day. Its 3 hours home to an office in that city. I only need 3 sessions to be highly profitable. I just need to commit to getting an office. Its a risk that the leads dry up.

- Waiting on the developer for the next round of updates for the SAAS.

- Caught up with a friend who I used to work in IT with. He wants out but his business idea is a cafe. Sounds scary to me.

 

[MidwestLandlord]

- I have a dilemma, I set up a website for stop smoking sessions in another City. For a while leads were far and few in between. Now I have steady stream. The airport is 20 minutes from my house and I can fly in and out in one day. Its 3 hours home to an office in that city. I only need 3 sessions to be highly profitable. I just need to commit to getting an office. Its a risk that the leads dry up.

Putting this and your avatar together, you do the "stop smoking via hypnosis" thing?

Does it work? (sorry if off topic)

 

[Gareth]

Hypnosis isn't 100% effective but of course neither is any other method.

I follow up my clients during the program so I know to a degree how successful I am.

70% quit in the first session (20% of those relapse in the first 6 months). Approx 20% quit in the following sessions.

I have a "1 fee covers all approach". So clients pay one $ amount regardless of sessions and how many times they relapse.

The quality of hypnotists varies as does other industries

 

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[Gareth]

I've been a bit quiet on the forum as business had been keeping me busy.

- Got thru two books so far this year. Im going back an listening to some of the books I have already read.

- For my core business it looks like I will be up 25% on last years revenue for this month

- I think the other city office is a go. I'm hoping that will offer a potential 20% increase in profit.

- My SAAS is still chugging along slowly. Still excited about it!

- Just signed up for a wedding photo business SAAS. Killer solution. I;m just in the process of setting up. Once the business workflow and pricing is complete I will start running ADWORDs to get more leads.

 

[Gareth]

- Business is up 30% again this month on last year

- Opened office in another city. Have $1200 worth of bookings set for next week. Hopefully more bookings to come

- Updated layout and graphics on 1 website. Looks a lot better.

- Developer is dragging heels with SAAS. It's falling behind time wise.

- Committing more time to set up of Photography Business.

Not much else

 

[Gareth]

Everything is just chugging along at the moment.

This month looks like it will be the most profitable so far.

Gotta be relentless~!

 

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[Gareth]

So the numbers are in and this month has been the most profitable ever. In fact my gross was up a huge 50% on the same time last year.

Interesting thing is that on my whiteboard of goals late last year I wrote 3.5k t/o per week. Lets see if I can consistently hit above that

I have to admit I've let other projects suffer a little because of this.

.....I have a steady stream of wedding photo leads coming and I haven't been doing anything with.

The great thing about the wedding photo biz is that clients book months and months ahead a provide a 50% deposit on services. There's also a great opportunity to upsell.

On a personal level my body is at the lowest is has been for the last 15 years. Not too far away from my goal of 18%.

 

[Gareth]

Been off site for a while now. But the vision has not died. Have been consistently above my target income so it's time to set the bar higher.

The Bouncy Castles were a little too successful and Im always getting calls to rent them. I just don't have time. Its a nice little business that someone could be very happy with. Not going to make a million from it...but profitable.

Helped the wife do a few wedding photography gigs, but I can see that her passion is more in photographing babies!

Overall I have decided to focus my attention on my skills as a Quit Smoking Specialist. Its lucrative and I love helping people save their health and money.

The kick along happened when a national TV show asked me to hypnotize a guy to stop smoking for their show. Which of course I did. Posting this video on my website has naturally increased conversions.

Ive also found a way to pull a lot of leads from social media so I potentially have a massive supply of smokers wanting to quit.