Alright guys I need some business related advice

[Darth]

^^Good advice; Brian Tracy discusses this in one of his books ("Time Power", maybe? I forget)

 

[Married Buried]

actually left the shrink.

the real problem that I have is that I don't seem to have the abilty to reengage like most people do. what I mean like, take tomorrow. I don't have anything to do tomorrow for anyone. so i'll go to the gym in the morning, get to work, and work all day long fine usually

what kills me are days like today where I had to go to the shrink. then when I get back to work, i can't re engage in work. it's like whatever i do, has to be done in a straight task i can't stop once i stop i can't restart back.

she thinks it's anxiety related and wants to put me on lexipro or zoloft which i'm not apposed to at this point but i told her to give it another week and let me see with the newfound changes if they help any. one more week won't kill me

You left the same shrink you have an appointment with on the 21st? Lexapro and zoloft. Can I give a LOL? That stuff does nothing. It's a placebo effect to trick the masses into believing they are feeling better. I honestly believe they sell a hundred dollar sugar pill and call them anti depressants.

Get something good or go home.

 

[Vantagepoint34]

I generally keep business stuff off this forum but I have a question that I need to be answered by people who are not as over analytical as I am. I can't think of a place that has a bigger group of different types of personalities than here.


Okay as you know i own a web development company. A lot of our work comes from freelance related sites, we've been using 2 in particular for the last 3-4 years and our reputation alone on those sites brings in money.


Here is my problem; If I can sit down and actually work, we make money. But how can I explain this.. What I end up doing is I keep refreshing the sites every 30 minutes or so literally all day long because I'm afraid that If I'm not one of the first people to respond to a project we will lose out on the project. There's been a few projects over the years that we were perfect for that we just did not get because I did not respond fast enough.


It's to the point that I will start working fine but then, I find **** to keep me doing other stuff. Basically ADD type ****. I decide I want to take the wife out ot lunch out of the blue, I volunteer to pick joe up from school, I **** around here lol, I'll play a game of NCAA football. It's like I look for reasons not to work.


I don't think it's that i'm so much burned out on work as much as I think i'm burned out on sitting in front of my pc all day checking for new projects. Talking to clients, dealing with my programmers, putting proposals together, I love all that ****. but I HATE sitting in front of the pc all day looking for new projects


Then I Got this great idea. Why don't you just not check them all day, and when you get up in the morning, go to starbucks or whatever, sat aside 2-3 hours and just respond to people. Just the thought of doing that makes me happier. I can do that. I know I can do that. My responses will probably be better as well overall because I know this is the only time I have to do this today.

But I'm afraid that if I do that we will lose money. So the question I am posing is, if you were looking to hire a developer would you automatically throw out anyone who didn't respond within an hour or 2?

I thought that was how people in Silicon valley go to work? Going to Starbucks with jeans haha
By the way when in the process of hiring you have to make sure personalities are compatible first and foremost. After that if their personality will contribute to the team when you are not supervising them. Or if they can work on their own. In short an extent of loyalty.
Also a 2 hour time frame is a very short window. Remember you are screening candidates not actors for movie.

 

[backbreaker]

You left the same shrink you have an appointment with on the 21st? Lexapro and zoloft. Can I give a LOL? That stuff does nothing. It's a placebo effect to trick the masses into believing they are feeling better. I honestly believe they sell a hundred dollar sugar pill and call them anti depressants.

Get something good or go home.

Apparantly I Had a meeting that I had forgot about I got a confirmation call Wednesday afternoon for my appointment on thursday that i had forgot 100% about. it's supposed to be every other thursday but i never remembered setting the meeting for the 7th, apparently she set it for me

anyway, i'm going to listen to my shrink i've been dealing with for 3 years now lol. I think she might know what she's talking about.

with that said, things are getting better.

 

[Bible_Belt]

My ex-wife was on Lexapro when she gained about eighty pounds.

 

[dangdang]

Can I be frank?

You're all pretty much looking at this through the wrong glasses. The problem is not with you, it's with your business model.

We're in the same industry, and I've been in this position many times. Chasing one off web dev clients is a never ending cycle of keeping your pipeline full. The initial revenue generated is greater than recurring services, but if you're not employing sales staff, it becomes dismal like the emyth. (At least this has been my experience)

One way I overcame this, is to get into greater supply and demand services. Get clients locked into something they cannot live without. Answer the question, "what's the one thing I can do for them where they would never want to leave"?

For me, the answer is exclusivity, scarcity, any + ROI service. You'd have to be a fvckin full retard business owner to turn that away. And if I'm making you money hand over fist compared to what I charge, you better believe you'd have a freak out if I went to one of your competitors.

This can be accomplished with a slight change in course of your business, mostly through developing long term relationships with your web dev clients, and becoming a trusted advisor that helps their business grow for years to come. I'm sure you already know this, and are doing some of it, but when you change your approach from "we design websites for companies" and source them on freelance sites as a commodity.... To "we work with smb's to utilize the internet to drive more customers to b&m services" the web dev becomes only one component of what you can offer.

What works for me? SEO, monthly upkeep for bloggers/authors/pubs that aren't tech savvy, hosting, and the most rock solid of all... Lead gen.

When you can deliver leads that a business IS NOT CURRENTLY GETTING, for free for the first month if you must, you've pretty much sold yourself.

Self talk of the smb:

I pay him $800/mo.
We normally book at least 10 jobs from that per month.
I net $200 per job.
I'm paying 800 to make 2k.
He could do this for my competitors.
No fvcking way I'm letting that happen.
Pays bill early every month.
Tells friends, but knows he has his territory locked down, and that He can trust us.

Ps- the other big one is get out from behind the god damn computer. Stop sourcing clients from freelance sites, and go talk to business owners. (I really have no idea if you're networking, face to face sales, etc... But this is VERY VERY important.)

Walk into places, if you're awkward with this, make something for free for them. Do a mobile mockup for free for an industry you want to work with, and go tell them you want to help them stop losing customers. Get some call tracking numbers with email notifications and call recording, and go spend some money sending potential clients some leads... For free! Put yourself out there and be fvcking relentless.

Pps- stay away from warrior forum... Cesspool of fvcktards that make a living selling picks to miners.

Ppps- watch out for the ****rolls on wickedfire