Figured it is time introduce myself and give a bit of backstory along with the direction I will head moving forward.
30 years old, "great job" by society's standards- stability, good pay, upward mobility and an aggressive 128 hours of paid time off yearly. Laughable I know.. Without even realizing it, my previous ambitions of being self-employed, traveling the world, and controlling my own destiny have been slowly taking the back-burner. How did this happen?
After finishing college, I moved abroad and lived in Asia for four years. Started out teaching English to get out because I knew going to law school or grad school was not what I wanted to do deep down. So I got out. And it was the best choice I ever made. I moved into a management position with a small chain of English schools about a year in. Life was pretty good; working a few days a week, making okay money, and seeing places of the world most never have the opportunity to. Then things went south, we had to close two of the branches, my stress was rising and I decided I only live once so am going to go meet up with some buddies in Australia, and move with my girlfriend to do a working holiday for a year. I wound up coming back home first for a few months, but then got restless and decided to get a part time job until moving back overseas. I got into the mortgage industry with ambitions of making 100k, brought my then girlfriend over from Japan, and we decided to give up on the idea of Australia in pursuit of stability in America.
Bounced around a few different companies until the volatility of the industry became too much to bare and had a baby, so it was time to go for something much more stable. I moved into the logistics industry, climbed the ladder quickly and am now a manager. Long hours, I hate waking up on Sundays now because my whole day is obsessed about the dread of Monday through Friday coming. Five for two is never a good trade.. More on that later.
I had been dabbling in numerous business ventures that I started up over the years. Most had some success, but I gave up too quickly. I went for the quick buck, maxed it out for a couple months, and then moved onto the next big idea.. Couple of the businesses below:
I opened a house cleaning company but told myself there was no way I was going to clean houses. Hindsight, I should've dove in and learned it inside and out, but hey, rich people don't clean houses so I wont either. It was too below me. So I solicited cleaning companies on Craigslist, stated I had an excess of houses to be cleaned and wondered if they would be interested. I then hired them out as independent contractors, paid them 70% of the cleaning cost, and I netted 30% for doing very little. I had a handful of cleaners going, but wasn't really pushing to market that hard- just kept putting craigslist postings online and directing them to my website where they could chat with me and then I would get them setup. Had some fallout with back solicitation with my cleaners, them not following through with appointments, missing cleanings, doing a sub par cleaning, etc. Then I just closed shop. Onto the next idea:
Did the same thing with lawn care. I liked the idea of just taking a percentage and focusing on networking and attracting more customers. Did a few yards, winter came, and I never pursued it again. Next idea:
Doing Amazon FBA. I bought a few pallets of textbooks, sent them to the Amazon warehouse, sold them all and made a few hundred in profit, but then thought it was too much work. Next idea:
Create my own product, get it manufactured through Alibaba and then sell through various channels. Spent probably 100 hours researching everything, only to not follow through. You get the point and are probably starting to see a trend, right?
I moved onto websites finally after reading a Reddit post where a guy was clearing 80k in net rev by slapping together Wix websites and selling them to low barrier to entry companies like restaurants, lawncare, etc. Hot damn! There it is. I will sell a bunch of $500 websites that I can make in a weekend since I've already done it myself for my 5+ different companies. It doesn't matter what the website does, just as long as it looks clean. That is all customers want anyways is a clean looking website. Boy was I wrong. Got my first client after sending a big BCC email to all the members of a local Chamber of Commerce. I overpromised, under-delivered and wound up not being able to finish it. So it was almost onto the next idea.
Thankfully I was stumbling through r/Entrepeneur and bumped into @Fox's infamous post. We all have read it so no need to link it. But thank you so much! It has led me down the rabbit hole and is going to forever change my way of thinking. That was a couple months ago now, maybe less.
I then found his Youtube channel, found his post on this forum and his Facebook group. I consumed everything I could. Since then, I finally got onto this forum, and picked up both books by @MJ DeMarco and finished those within a couple days. My jaw hit the floor and saw the light. All the books I read previously was putting me in the Slowlane. Put 10-15% away month over month, get frugal, set strict budgets, eliminate all debt, mutual funds, rinse and repeat for 45 years and bam, I am a millionaire next door finally. Screwwwww that. Thanks for opening my eyes MJ!
I then read through all the posts by @Fox, @AllenCrawley, @Andy Black, @G_Alexander, @IceCreamKid, @LexDeVille, @RHL, @SteveO and all gold threads. Jesus, there are some smart people in this community. And everyone is so helpful with problem solving. Why on earth would they all give up this information? Maybe they are onto something. By solving problems, adding value, and being a descent human, the money will come to you?
Down to the brass tacks. Since following Fox's advice, I have built three websites. One for free, one for $500, and now one I am working on to the tune of $4000. Cha-ching! And guess what? The customer is getting a great deal. I don't feel sleazy about it because I understand and he understands the value he will be receiving in return.
As of now, I am still working my Slowlane job. Goal is to make enough money through web design to make this full-time and focus completely on growing this business into something that I can scale out pretty big, hire on a small sales team, and a web designer so I can focus exclusively on client acquisition and networking brand awareness. But the big takeaway is that I am going to focus exclusively on web design and not jump to another idea the second the grass looks greener somewhere else. I need to be around 10k month over month to meet the lifestyle I have now. When I hit 5k three months in a row, I will quit my job. If I can make 5k while working 50 hours a week, then there will be no problem hitting 10k without the slowlane job distracting me. Still a bit of a risk, but it is one I am going to take.
As I continue to grow, I will keep this thread updated, show you what is and isn't working for me, and hopefully can shed some light that will help new people succeed as well. A couple months ago, I would be hoarding my secrets, fearing that there is not enough ice to go around, but I see things differently now. Thanks to all for reading and good luck in your endeavors. Again, huge thanks to Fox and others mentioned above for all that you have done in pushing me to get started.
Godspeed,
Lorus
30 years old, "great job" by society's standards- stability, good pay, upward mobility and an aggressive 128 hours of paid time off yearly. Laughable I know.. Without even realizing it, my previous ambitions of being self-employed, traveling the world, and controlling my own destiny have been slowly taking the back-burner. How did this happen?
After finishing college, I moved abroad and lived in Asia for four years. Started out teaching English to get out because I knew going to law school or grad school was not what I wanted to do deep down. So I got out. And it was the best choice I ever made. I moved into a management position with a small chain of English schools about a year in. Life was pretty good; working a few days a week, making okay money, and seeing places of the world most never have the opportunity to. Then things went south, we had to close two of the branches, my stress was rising and I decided I only live once so am going to go meet up with some buddies in Australia, and move with my girlfriend to do a working holiday for a year. I wound up coming back home first for a few months, but then got restless and decided to get a part time job until moving back overseas. I got into the mortgage industry with ambitions of making 100k, brought my then girlfriend over from Japan, and we decided to give up on the idea of Australia in pursuit of stability in America.
Bounced around a few different companies until the volatility of the industry became too much to bare and had a baby, so it was time to go for something much more stable. I moved into the logistics industry, climbed the ladder quickly and am now a manager. Long hours, I hate waking up on Sundays now because my whole day is obsessed about the dread of Monday through Friday coming. Five for two is never a good trade.. More on that later.
I had been dabbling in numerous business ventures that I started up over the years. Most had some success, but I gave up too quickly. I went for the quick buck, maxed it out for a couple months, and then moved onto the next big idea.. Couple of the businesses below:
I opened a house cleaning company but told myself there was no way I was going to clean houses. Hindsight, I should've dove in and learned it inside and out, but hey, rich people don't clean houses so I wont either. It was too below me. So I solicited cleaning companies on Craigslist, stated I had an excess of houses to be cleaned and wondered if they would be interested. I then hired them out as independent contractors, paid them 70% of the cleaning cost, and I netted 30% for doing very little. I had a handful of cleaners going, but wasn't really pushing to market that hard- just kept putting craigslist postings online and directing them to my website where they could chat with me and then I would get them setup. Had some fallout with back solicitation with my cleaners, them not following through with appointments, missing cleanings, doing a sub par cleaning, etc. Then I just closed shop. Onto the next idea:
Did the same thing with lawn care. I liked the idea of just taking a percentage and focusing on networking and attracting more customers. Did a few yards, winter came, and I never pursued it again. Next idea:
Doing Amazon FBA. I bought a few pallets of textbooks, sent them to the Amazon warehouse, sold them all and made a few hundred in profit, but then thought it was too much work. Next idea:
Create my own product, get it manufactured through Alibaba and then sell through various channels. Spent probably 100 hours researching everything, only to not follow through. You get the point and are probably starting to see a trend, right?
I moved onto websites finally after reading a Reddit post where a guy was clearing 80k in net rev by slapping together Wix websites and selling them to low barrier to entry companies like restaurants, lawncare, etc. Hot damn! There it is. I will sell a bunch of $500 websites that I can make in a weekend since I've already done it myself for my 5+ different companies. It doesn't matter what the website does, just as long as it looks clean. That is all customers want anyways is a clean looking website. Boy was I wrong. Got my first client after sending a big BCC email to all the members of a local Chamber of Commerce. I overpromised, under-delivered and wound up not being able to finish it. So it was almost onto the next idea.
Thankfully I was stumbling through r/Entrepeneur and bumped into @Fox's infamous post. We all have read it so no need to link it. But thank you so much! It has led me down the rabbit hole and is going to forever change my way of thinking. That was a couple months ago now, maybe less.
I then found his Youtube channel, found his post on this forum and his Facebook group. I consumed everything I could. Since then, I finally got onto this forum, and picked up both books by @MJ DeMarco and finished those within a couple days. My jaw hit the floor and saw the light. All the books I read previously was putting me in the Slowlane. Put 10-15% away month over month, get frugal, set strict budgets, eliminate all debt, mutual funds, rinse and repeat for 45 years and bam, I am a millionaire next door finally. Screwwwww that. Thanks for opening my eyes MJ!
I then read through all the posts by @Fox, @AllenCrawley, @Andy Black, @G_Alexander, @IceCreamKid, @LexDeVille, @RHL, @SteveO and all gold threads. Jesus, there are some smart people in this community. And everyone is so helpful with problem solving. Why on earth would they all give up this information? Maybe they are onto something. By solving problems, adding value, and being a descent human, the money will come to you?
Down to the brass tacks. Since following Fox's advice, I have built three websites. One for free, one for $500, and now one I am working on to the tune of $4000. Cha-ching! And guess what? The customer is getting a great deal. I don't feel sleazy about it because I understand and he understands the value he will be receiving in return.
As of now, I am still working my Slowlane job. Goal is to make enough money through web design to make this full-time and focus completely on growing this business into something that I can scale out pretty big, hire on a small sales team, and a web designer so I can focus exclusively on client acquisition and networking brand awareness. But the big takeaway is that I am going to focus exclusively on web design and not jump to another idea the second the grass looks greener somewhere else. I need to be around 10k month over month to meet the lifestyle I have now. When I hit 5k three months in a row, I will quit my job. If I can make 5k while working 50 hours a week, then there will be no problem hitting 10k without the slowlane job distracting me. Still a bit of a risk, but it is one I am going to take.
As I continue to grow, I will keep this thread updated, show you what is and isn't working for me, and hopefully can shed some light that will help new people succeed as well. A couple months ago, I would be hoarding my secrets, fearing that there is not enough ice to go around, but I see things differently now. Thanks to all for reading and good luck in your endeavors. Again, huge thanks to Fox and others mentioned above for all that you have done in pushing me to get started.
Godspeed,
Lorus
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