Hey,
Been a member here for a few years and have some great connections with friends here from Facebook. Ditched the FB account and actively trying to spend my time being socially active in a. community like this rather than wasting it on Facebook. (See my previous post). I'll split the post up into sections to try explain the journey / story.
Anyway, I've been making websites for around 20 years now (Yes I'm feeling old). And late last year decided to launch a 2nd agency designed to launch lower price websites for clients who just didn't fit the main agency through budget.
1) The 2nd Agency - www.blast.ie
Our main agency is eCommerce focused. So it made sense to split the brochure sites separately, and niche the main business. We built a WAAS model based on WordPress, Beaver Builder and GridPane and have gotten a few referrals. The idea is once I get the system running, it becomes self sufficient through a VA doing my documented work, and builds money through monthly subscriptions (€100 a month is the base price). I'm happy with the limited success so far as I've done little to push it, other then refer the non qualifying leads from the main business.
2) The Workbook - www.websitecontentworkbook.com
Lower price websites tend to be smaller business with less resources, they don't have large marketing departments. The biggest bottleneck we have is content. They don't know what to give us. Late last year I started a workbook to try hold the hand of a small business in getting content / focus for a small website that can make an impact in their business. I've around 2 chapters done, it all be more of a DIY workbook for clients to fill in. Will Charge sub $50 for an electronic version for a client. And come up with a more complex offer for other web designers involving video training so that they can repurpose the content for their own clients.
3) The Project Management - www.shortium.com
While writing the book to get the content I realised I was not happy with the tools I'm using to run my own business. Over the past 6 months I've personally took some deep dives into making Shopify Apps, and custom plugins for WordPress etc and re utilised my PHP / MYSQL skills. I've been using Teamwork for Project Management, as well as their suite for Desk (Support Tickets), CRM and they've become a chore to commit to using.
I've had sticky notes, and draft emails full of todo lists all over the place. My life and my head have become a scatter of things to get done, and I just look aimlessly at them and achieve nothing. Over the New Year stuck in lockdown in Ireland I decided there must be a better method to organise the thoughts, goals and side projects of my own business, along with the projects for my clients.
I'm decided to try expand what I'm building to be very specific to how I ideally want to operate my business. I wasn't to be able plan content related to "#2 The Workbook" and visually see what's needed to get a website finished. Have all my tasks together, organised by priority along with internal goals and side hustles.
@GuitarManDan referred a solid lead to me, but due to me being all over the place in my own head, they'd already choose a new provider before I finally got in touch a few days later. I'm building my own CRM into the software to make sure I don't missing anything in the future.
Shortium ideally is a Project Management for Solopreneurs, possibly in time I'll expand it into Teams. I've had a bit of interest from others in the industry so rewrote it to be multi tenancy and given from free accounts out for others to try. If its something I feel I need, I can bet there are others out there who need it too. I'm interested in launching it as a SASS model, and possibly offer out some LTD via AppSumo down the road.
Anyway, these are the 3 side hustles I'm committing to for the next 2 months. All related to each other, but I need to actually finish them, rather than starting the next project.
Cheers,
Plan to keep the thread updated about these project and a few others I'm working on.
2021 is the year I want to shift from Clients work to my own projects.
Stephen
Been a member here for a few years and have some great connections with friends here from Facebook. Ditched the FB account and actively trying to spend my time being socially active in a. community like this rather than wasting it on Facebook. (See my previous post). I'll split the post up into sections to try explain the journey / story.
Anyway, I've been making websites for around 20 years now (Yes I'm feeling old). And late last year decided to launch a 2nd agency designed to launch lower price websites for clients who just didn't fit the main agency through budget.
1) The 2nd Agency - www.blast.ie
Our main agency is eCommerce focused. So it made sense to split the brochure sites separately, and niche the main business. We built a WAAS model based on WordPress, Beaver Builder and GridPane and have gotten a few referrals. The idea is once I get the system running, it becomes self sufficient through a VA doing my documented work, and builds money through monthly subscriptions (€100 a month is the base price). I'm happy with the limited success so far as I've done little to push it, other then refer the non qualifying leads from the main business.
2) The Workbook - www.websitecontentworkbook.com
Lower price websites tend to be smaller business with less resources, they don't have large marketing departments. The biggest bottleneck we have is content. They don't know what to give us. Late last year I started a workbook to try hold the hand of a small business in getting content / focus for a small website that can make an impact in their business. I've around 2 chapters done, it all be more of a DIY workbook for clients to fill in. Will Charge sub $50 for an electronic version for a client. And come up with a more complex offer for other web designers involving video training so that they can repurpose the content for their own clients.
3) The Project Management - www.shortium.com
While writing the book to get the content I realised I was not happy with the tools I'm using to run my own business. Over the past 6 months I've personally took some deep dives into making Shopify Apps, and custom plugins for WordPress etc and re utilised my PHP / MYSQL skills. I've been using Teamwork for Project Management, as well as their suite for Desk (Support Tickets), CRM and they've become a chore to commit to using.
I've had sticky notes, and draft emails full of todo lists all over the place. My life and my head have become a scatter of things to get done, and I just look aimlessly at them and achieve nothing. Over the New Year stuck in lockdown in Ireland I decided there must be a better method to organise the thoughts, goals and side projects of my own business, along with the projects for my clients.
I'm decided to try expand what I'm building to be very specific to how I ideally want to operate my business. I wasn't to be able plan content related to "#2 The Workbook" and visually see what's needed to get a website finished. Have all my tasks together, organised by priority along with internal goals and side hustles.
@GuitarManDan referred a solid lead to me, but due to me being all over the place in my own head, they'd already choose a new provider before I finally got in touch a few days later. I'm building my own CRM into the software to make sure I don't missing anything in the future.
Shortium ideally is a Project Management for Solopreneurs, possibly in time I'll expand it into Teams. I've had a bit of interest from others in the industry so rewrote it to be multi tenancy and given from free accounts out for others to try. If its something I feel I need, I can bet there are others out there who need it too. I'm interested in launching it as a SASS model, and possibly offer out some LTD via AppSumo down the road.
Anyway, these are the 3 side hustles I'm committing to for the next 2 months. All related to each other, but I need to actually finish them, rather than starting the next project.
Cheers,
Plan to keep the thread updated about these project and a few others I'm working on.
2021 is the year I want to shift from Clients work to my own projects.
Stephen
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