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Action Takers - What Are You Up To (Again)

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- Found out love in business is infectious and unstoppable kinda like herpes, so am trying to refrain from hugging everyone
- Saw a corgy (weird dog with nubs for legs) out the window, managed to not run outside and chase it
- Helped an elderly lady cross the street and swiped 5 dollars from her purse when she wasn't looking (bad, but better than pushing her over)
- Grabbed a drink at the water cooler where the hot girl works, made a frown when she didn't look at me
- Got a soda from the vending machine, gave it to the homeless guy outside and asked for a bit of his bread he had as a trade

The above is just a joke of course but my attitude has been really dynamic, where I see everything as a business opportunity. I have become incurably curious about the strangest things. For example... I walked past a ferris wheel and I stopped and started counting the people, I then observed the cafe beside it and thought about asking when their peak hours were and when they were quiet to make an estimation on their numbers. (why? I have NO idea)

- Developed graphs and notes on market segments, product traits (and their ratios of dominance compared to others) tried to identify a larger trend/reasoning behind why those numbers were coming up
- Reassessed the current biz plan and created a simple and funny infographic that represents the businesses goal and how we get there
- Reorganised the company messages/branding, to fit into more scenarios, and reinvented the angle inwhich we attack product development so that it only requires ONE input from the customers (instead of asking over and over again) this allows all products to be developed from profiles we can harvest directly from traffic (allowing me to create a fully automated marketting plan that can drive product creation and enable me to hire workers as the demand picks up)
- Decided to simplify the company aim so that it was more irrefuteable, more catchy, and was simple to grasp the purpose of
- Solidified the company's "authority" and created a series of measures to ensure we are ALWAYS meeting customer needs, rain, hail, or shine
- Paved the way to get designers, web dev, and a film guy to come into the fold, whilst monetising those expenses through newer traffic

(two thumbs up)
Its been a fun week, I can't remember back more than a week though... Too much vodka

 
lets hear it... March goals, and February accomplishments :)
 
For the online art school:
January:
finished intro/outro stingers for my youtube videos
uploaded a couple video sets

February:
uploaded an extenstive video interview
reworked the website for mobile compatibility
hit 66 subscribers on YT channel and over 4000 views total

March goals:
shoot and begin editing the intro video for the site
rework the home page of the site
set up A/B testing for the home page

Personal/General Art:
January:
got out of debt
developed a new process for doing works on paper

February:
made 8 new works on paper
got it in my head to redesign my website to not be a traditional portfolio site

March goals:
film a time lapse video of the creation of a painting and do a voice-over
redesign the website
contact at least 2 galleries
 
Hey @Mead McLean ... FYI...I signed up for your newsletter. I'm an artist by hobby. Nice site by the way. Hope you make $$$ with this !
 
Ah yes, I am redesigning my art site currently. http://www.meadmclean.com I had to scrap my old one completely, reinstall my CMS (concrete5), and start over. It's getting there. I'm restructuring the site itself to work well on phones, and I'm restructuring the content to be the opposite of my old site (and most artists' sites). Instead of featuring the paintings, I'm featuring the process. The finished pieces will be there, but given less real estate than the process photos.

Tomorrow or Tuesday, I'll be starting the time lapse recording, which ought to be interesting.

I contacted one gallery about a show, and I'm waiting on a response.

As far as the art school goes, I'm a little behind on this one. After I get the time lapse done, I'll be moving on to those goals.
 
The system I've been working on was launched early this morning and thanks to some last minute help provided by @healthstatus , I'm happy to report here that I'm at a 10% conversion rate and it's only been live for less than 10 hours. I do believe that I'm definitely on to something here, hopefully I'll have some good news to report in the next few weeks.
 
I didn't write down my goals for March but here's what I've done so far.

-Made postcards and placed in B & M stores at POS
-Created accounts with Pinterest, Instagram. Daily action here and learning.
-Website bugs fixed by developer.
-Contacted sites I think would be mutually beneficial to hook up with.
-Changes to landing page.
-First FB ad for mobile complete and ready to go. Waiting to get paid to pull the trigger. Tried using 4 different codes but FB said they were for 1st time users...that would be me ! So...I sent a message in an area they want feedback on site problems I think..you can't just email or call FB. I don't expect a response.
-Learned about SEO. There's a LOT to know.
-Got a part time job...working on a project where I work at home. Got this through one of many friends I called asking if they see or hear of anything I could do for $. ( besides prostituting myself out of course )
-Sold something on Ebay. 1st time ever ! Of course there was a problem..LOL. Paid shipping on Ebay, printed label, took item to Post Office and told the worker this was my 1st time doing this. She grabbed a box and off it went...then it came back 2 days later with a "you owe postage"...went right down to the Post Office and got it out. Worker got the wrong box for me.
-Added/modified website content.
 
  • Currently validating a new product for my current business because the original stuff seems to be slowing down. Not sure if it's just the weather, time of the year, or what. That particular product has been around for decades so I don't see it ever completely disappearing from my offering.
  • New product seems quite promising based on the orders I've received so far, but the jury is still out. I feel like a jackass for offering a product then telling customers, "we're out of stock right now, but will have more in a few weeks". I'll probably give them a neat discount for the inconvenience. It's kinda fun acting like the mad scientist constantly testing and validating ideas though.
  • Reached the obsession point with my business to the point where it was unhealthy. Had a talk with AroundTheWorld about how my ladybird has been here visiting since Wednesday and I haven't even reached out because I've been so focused with the business. Just so all of you know, Sonya is my entrepreneurial therapist and she's amazing at helping me see things with clarity after we talk. Holy shnykies she is so cool. She convinced me to reach out to Ms. Lovely so I did. We had a late lunch because I had to go to a birthday outing later in the evening for a friend.
  • At the birthday outing, the friends and I ended up going to a couple different bars. I proceeded to talk to as many different girls as I could. It wasn't for the purpose of getting numbers or anything, it was solely an experiment for facing my fear of approaching a female that I've never met and talking to them. I could cold call all day, but when it comes to talking to a female that I've never met before I get paralyzed...typical nice guy problems LOL. As each day passes, I slowly better myself and get one step closer to giving zero f*cks. Thank you zend***phin and JasonR for such an exciting notion.
  • I will say this: having a business that brings home a few scoops of ice cream definitely boosts the confidence. I don't know how it is in other areas of the country, but in the bay area it's quite standard for people to ask, "so what do you do?" and it's one hell of an icebreaker to have a neat story of sacrifice, toiling, and struggle.
  • Still working out the shipping and packaging details with Mexico. Bro, I'm running into so many tiny obstacles with it that I never thought I'd run into haha. Thank God Mr. Cracker has a "never give up" attitude. We keep pushing forward. Mindset is everything.
    tumblr_mgu1jlo4yk1qe0ntoo1_500.gif
 
Been spamming - managed to rank 5 keywords in top 10.

Did not make any money - because
1) the site was in a language I don't speak.
2) My customers live in one of the BRIC countries, but I guess they are not spending money online yet.
3) I was doing straight out Pay Per Sale (not pay per lead / CPA).

Link

I've stopped building links to that site so the ranking has started to go down. I'm going to start spamming a new site before the weekend.

Cheers
 
Joining in.

March
  • Finally decided on 3 domain names and bought it for my idea.
  • Learning SEO
  • Learning free forum software
  • Creating a transition plan for my JOB before quitting in 2-3 months
 
Launched a consumer oriented tangible product line last week.
- Setup to sell on Amazon
- Listed first several products
- Found US private label/dropshipper
- Purchased first set of UPCs
- In the process of setting up brand at Amazon
- Researched a variety of cheaper sources but I don't currently trust the quality of the source materials :(

I've tweaked the prices as much as I can for individual drop shipping and the margins are way too slim, but I'll take a small loss initially if I have to for testing purposes. The plan is to order in bulk as soon as possible and ship them to Amazon for fulfillment. This will let me dramatically improve profit margins while still decreasing prices.

The market is an area I've successfully sold in for years as an affiliate so unless I'm screwing something up horribly it should do well as long as I can float the costs until profits start coming in. Nervous though...
 
This thread is perfect for those that do not have a dedicated progress thread.

February (Complete):
  • Manufactured larger quantities of product
  • Purchased product packaging
  • Developed company story/manifesto
  • Created social accounts at Instagram, Pinterest and Facebook and started following relevant accounts
  • Just received shipment of materials to make variation(s)
February (Still in progress):
  • Start creating and testing new variation(s)
  • Finalize product label
  • Package product
  • Have professional photos taken of product
  • Continue engaging others on social accounts
March:
  • List product for sale on Etsy and Amazon
  • Launch website
  • Build social proof
  • Start PPC advertising
  • Continue manufacturing more product
  • Continue making industry contacts
Special shout out to @Vigilante @Kak @JAJT @Mrs. BRKb @IceCreamKid and @MJ DeMarco for the invaluable input, suggestions, advice, help and guidance.

Just remembered this thread this morning.

Update on progress:
  • Got my first sale when picking up my labels from my local printer. Lady loved the product and the story behind it. Paid me cash on the spot. I had to drive home, apply the label and deliver.
  • Launched product on amazon
  • Implemented an amazon launch formula for initial sales and reviews
  • Sold out initial first batch quantity
  • I have more units ready to go
  • Rising in amazon rankings
  • On pages 1 thru 4 of search results for main keywords
  • Working to enhance product description
  • Lander for paid ads will be finished soon
  • Will be starting facebook ads shortly after that
 

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