I picked up TMF just over a week ago and devoured it in a few days. As I read it I was comparing my existing business which has been operational for the last 5 years to the Fastlane. I was cringing as I read it - this business I built had the potential of being a Fastlane business; it could have made me rich if only I had done it right and not wasted the opportunity...
I've been self employed most of my life but with periods of employment in between. I am not a good employee. At the end of 2007 I quit my job as a software developer so go self employed for the 3rd time. I had no plan for what I was going to do but I had a bunch of learning resources.
I fumbled for a year or so, made a bit of money and then started a venture, which failed, but which highlighted a glaring need. It was an online software problem that had some very bad existing solutions. With my background in development I knew I could do better. So I did.
In July 2009 I launched a free version of my software service for Internet Marketers. It was extremely well received but I was shy to ask for money. It took a few more months before I opened up a paid version. A few months later I released a new version and it sold out in 4.5 hours. My first real success.
At this point I had a potential fastlane business in the works:
Need - the need was very high for this particular product at this time
Entry - It could only be solved by software and not many people had the skills. My solution was much better than anything out there at the time
Control - I wrote and owned the software myself, I ran my own VPS and I didn't do any marketing as people just talked about it and I got floods of new signups out of nowhere.
Scale - I had a few issues with scale but I solved them (but took too long about it) and certainly now, it can scale easily. The software can service 100 members or 10,000 members just the same. I might need a few more servers is all.
Time - Back then I did not have the element of time as I was developing the software full time, but over the next year or two I would eventually build out more features and streamline and automate most of the grunt work. It now needs very little time to maintain.
The problem was, I totally screwed up the next few years. The scale problem I mentioned took me six whole months to solve. Not because it was that hard (okay yes it was hard) but because the difficulty of it put me off and made me procrastinate. I'd sit looking at my code thinking "I don't know how to do this", write one line of code and give up for the day. I did this day after day and those days turned into weeks and into months.
I eventually got past it then I had another technical problem I needed to solve. Again it was hard, I procrastinated and it took too long. I had members screaming at me for features and it took me a year to implement them. I had people begging me to open up an affiliate program so they could sell it but I wasn't ready and now, 5 years later, I know I never will be.
Basically, I dragged my feet for 5 years and now, the need is gone. The market has moved on, the software is obsolete and whilst I still have a few die hard members, most new members that come on board leave quickly as the software is simply no longer effective in today's technical climate.
It still earns me a living - JUST, and thankfully, I have automated enough of the systems that I only need work on it for around 10 hours a week which puts me in a brilliant position.
I have my idea for my new venture. I have the time to implement it, I have more learning resources than ever before, I have the motivation from the TMF book and I have 5 years of experience and wasted opportunity behind me.
So, this is a new beginning for me. I'm not young and I'm getting a few grey hairs now but hey, you gotta just start where you are right?
I've been self employed most of my life but with periods of employment in between. I am not a good employee. At the end of 2007 I quit my job as a software developer so go self employed for the 3rd time. I had no plan for what I was going to do but I had a bunch of learning resources.
I fumbled for a year or so, made a bit of money and then started a venture, which failed, but which highlighted a glaring need. It was an online software problem that had some very bad existing solutions. With my background in development I knew I could do better. So I did.
In July 2009 I launched a free version of my software service for Internet Marketers. It was extremely well received but I was shy to ask for money. It took a few more months before I opened up a paid version. A few months later I released a new version and it sold out in 4.5 hours. My first real success.
At this point I had a potential fastlane business in the works:
Need - the need was very high for this particular product at this time
Entry - It could only be solved by software and not many people had the skills. My solution was much better than anything out there at the time
Control - I wrote and owned the software myself, I ran my own VPS and I didn't do any marketing as people just talked about it and I got floods of new signups out of nowhere.
Scale - I had a few issues with scale but I solved them (but took too long about it) and certainly now, it can scale easily. The software can service 100 members or 10,000 members just the same. I might need a few more servers is all.
Time - Back then I did not have the element of time as I was developing the software full time, but over the next year or two I would eventually build out more features and streamline and automate most of the grunt work. It now needs very little time to maintain.
The problem was, I totally screwed up the next few years. The scale problem I mentioned took me six whole months to solve. Not because it was that hard (okay yes it was hard) but because the difficulty of it put me off and made me procrastinate. I'd sit looking at my code thinking "I don't know how to do this", write one line of code and give up for the day. I did this day after day and those days turned into weeks and into months.
I eventually got past it then I had another technical problem I needed to solve. Again it was hard, I procrastinated and it took too long. I had members screaming at me for features and it took me a year to implement them. I had people begging me to open up an affiliate program so they could sell it but I wasn't ready and now, 5 years later, I know I never will be.
Basically, I dragged my feet for 5 years and now, the need is gone. The market has moved on, the software is obsolete and whilst I still have a few die hard members, most new members that come on board leave quickly as the software is simply no longer effective in today's technical climate.
It still earns me a living - JUST, and thankfully, I have automated enough of the systems that I only need work on it for around 10 hours a week which puts me in a brilliant position.
I have my idea for my new venture. I have the time to implement it, I have more learning resources than ever before, I have the motivation from the TMF book and I have 5 years of experience and wasted opportunity behind me.
So, this is a new beginning for me. I'm not young and I'm getting a few grey hairs now but hey, you gotta just start where you are right?
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