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Hello my name is unathi bhebhe, this is my introduction to the fastlane forum.
Throughout my younger years, i always felt a little out of place, not necessarily a feeling of great importance or self-aggrandizement, but rather just always a liitle lost.
I was never really sure what mould i was meant to fit into, usually this led to a life philosophy of conformity. "Do what the other kids do, and don't think too much about it".
It worked into my high school years, when I unfortunately became a victim of my philosophy. Being conformist had left me spineless and easy to sway, which made me an easy target for things like bullying. A lack of a strong identity is one of a man's worst fates. It persisted, I endured, and soon enough, I isolated myself from others. This time was full of turmoils that would later come back to haunt me, but it was also a time of self-reflection. That time spent alone had helped build resiliency in my character, and one of the most important lessons I learnt during that time was the importance of autonomy and independence.
My father used to typically work overseas in far-off countries, and despite that coming with its challenges, god bless, we were almost always financially stable, lights were on, food was on the table. However, during COVID, he was laid off, and it was the first time our household ever faced genuine financial struggle. Budget cuts were frequent and a lot of the luxuries I had before were only cut down to what I needed. This was a period of great uncertainty, and reflecting deeply on it, I thought to myself, "if this could happen to my father, someone who'd been in his respective industry for decades, then what of me? Do I want to leave my fate in someone else's hands?". That pivotal thought and the time i spent alone both jump-started my hunger for entrepreneurial success.
I bided my time reading books, watching videos, and podcasts. Like every naive teen, I dove headfirst into hustle culture, my Instagram feed full of fast cars and far-off destinations (it still is lol), Iman Gadzhi, monk mode videos, and Andrew Tate edits as far as you could scroll. The business model i ended up choosing was a short-form content (SFC) agency. It was trendy, had a lower barrier of entry, and could serve as a gateway into the world of business. So I spent my days toiling away on my agency, watching tutorials, looking for inspiration, seeing what the more successful agencies were doing, and copying them. I learnt about consumer psychology, marketing and outreach strategies. Within a month of this, I had acquired my first handful of clients and was nearing hiring my first employee. Unfortunately, there were a variety of underlying problems that ultimately sabotaged the business.
Firstly - I had chosen a trendy niche, which tends to get saturated quickly. Generally, both the quality of results/ product and the amount you can charge decrease greatly when this happens.
Secondly - I had made poor choices in clients. I chose self-improvement pages/channels as my niche, typically people selling courses, while this by itself poses no problem, I'd often choose smaller, unestablished pages. Oftentimes, these people could not afford what I was selling, and because they didn't have a very well-established track record, people were often hesitant to buy a course from someone with only a thousand or so followers. Thus, it was more difficult to produce tangible results for them.
Thirdly - Because I was spread thin, I hadn't given adequate time to things like market research and outreach, meaning that the business effectively stopped expanding as soon as i got my first three clients.
These three things, combined with a few external factors, led to the business effectively dying before it could produce any profit. It's been a little over a year since then, and I've gone through a lot and studied more on business since. At this point, I'm no longer looking for something trendy; I want to focus on a robust and sustainable business model that can thrive even in uncertain times such as these. I came to the Fastlane forum to gain inspiration, ideas, and wisdom from others walking the same path as me.
I've read The Millionaire Fastlane and Unscripted .
Throughout my younger years, i always felt a little out of place, not necessarily a feeling of great importance or self-aggrandizement, but rather just always a liitle lost.
I was never really sure what mould i was meant to fit into, usually this led to a life philosophy of conformity. "Do what the other kids do, and don't think too much about it".
It worked into my high school years, when I unfortunately became a victim of my philosophy. Being conformist had left me spineless and easy to sway, which made me an easy target for things like bullying. A lack of a strong identity is one of a man's worst fates. It persisted, I endured, and soon enough, I isolated myself from others. This time was full of turmoils that would later come back to haunt me, but it was also a time of self-reflection. That time spent alone had helped build resiliency in my character, and one of the most important lessons I learnt during that time was the importance of autonomy and independence.
My father used to typically work overseas in far-off countries, and despite that coming with its challenges, god bless, we were almost always financially stable, lights were on, food was on the table. However, during COVID, he was laid off, and it was the first time our household ever faced genuine financial struggle. Budget cuts were frequent and a lot of the luxuries I had before were only cut down to what I needed. This was a period of great uncertainty, and reflecting deeply on it, I thought to myself, "if this could happen to my father, someone who'd been in his respective industry for decades, then what of me? Do I want to leave my fate in someone else's hands?". That pivotal thought and the time i spent alone both jump-started my hunger for entrepreneurial success.
I bided my time reading books, watching videos, and podcasts. Like every naive teen, I dove headfirst into hustle culture, my Instagram feed full of fast cars and far-off destinations (it still is lol), Iman Gadzhi, monk mode videos, and Andrew Tate edits as far as you could scroll. The business model i ended up choosing was a short-form content (SFC) agency. It was trendy, had a lower barrier of entry, and could serve as a gateway into the world of business. So I spent my days toiling away on my agency, watching tutorials, looking for inspiration, seeing what the more successful agencies were doing, and copying them. I learnt about consumer psychology, marketing and outreach strategies. Within a month of this, I had acquired my first handful of clients and was nearing hiring my first employee. Unfortunately, there were a variety of underlying problems that ultimately sabotaged the business.
Firstly - I had chosen a trendy niche, which tends to get saturated quickly. Generally, both the quality of results/ product and the amount you can charge decrease greatly when this happens.
Secondly - I had made poor choices in clients. I chose self-improvement pages/channels as my niche, typically people selling courses, while this by itself poses no problem, I'd often choose smaller, unestablished pages. Oftentimes, these people could not afford what I was selling, and because they didn't have a very well-established track record, people were often hesitant to buy a course from someone with only a thousand or so followers. Thus, it was more difficult to produce tangible results for them.
Thirdly - Because I was spread thin, I hadn't given adequate time to things like market research and outreach, meaning that the business effectively stopped expanding as soon as i got my first three clients.
These three things, combined with a few external factors, led to the business effectively dying before it could produce any profit. It's been a little over a year since then, and I've gone through a lot and studied more on business since. At this point, I'm no longer looking for something trendy; I want to focus on a robust and sustainable business model that can thrive even in uncertain times such as these. I came to the Fastlane forum to gain inspiration, ideas, and wisdom from others walking the same path as me.
I've read The Millionaire Fastlane and Unscripted .
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