For anyone who has posted in the previous thread, here it is. It's also a good reference point for people to see how I have progressed and learned from past mistakes.
http://www.sosuave.net/forum/threads/starting-you-own-business-the-journal.190037/
I've tried many businesses and ideas. Oh boy, have I tried to do many things and failed. Especially the billion/million dollar ideas. Will make this a quick 3 sentence summary of what I learned so I can start logging my journal.
Big ideas are usually a waste of time as they involve too many people just to make the business work and when you put your faith in others to make your dream a reality and have no influence over them, it is highly likely you will fail. You want to find a simple business idea that YOU alone can make work. First, start with 1 client and find a way to make that a successful relationship then pursue others.
So i'm finally making money. Not making the big bucks, but i got my first client in December 2016. I tried selling him back early 2016 and was a friend of my brothers. He did not buy back then and did not want to talk about this.
My business is online advertising. I provide online advertising services for small to medium sized businesses. I worked for a global agency as their head of sales previously, and then moved to the largest newspaper company selling online advertising with them last year. Now I sell the a large newspaper company in a major metro area for their online news site. The online news site doesn't provide any other services outside of online banner ads on it's news site. This was where the opportunity was and how I started my business, but I didn't see the opportunity until it smacked me in the face.
My brothers friend, an auto repair shop needed help with social media advertising on facebook. I've sold it in the past but didn't really know much about it (how to set it up, run it, manage it, payment, etc.). He had asked my brother about it and my brother told me to take the opportunity to man up and do it. I called up a few friends and one of my good friends was currently the account manager of facebook for a large pharmaceutical company's campaign (he did not know how to manage either, just conveyed results). I built a presentation and sold my brother's friend on facebook advertising and my friend said he'd figure out how to run it.
Friend ghosted me since he didn't want to spend time learning how to run the campaign, I didn't want to lose face so I spent hours watching videos on how to setup a campaign and run it. After a few days, I set it up, and after a few weeks I learned how to do it on a decent level and was getting results. By months end, I was getting him leads and private messages about work. I called back up my friend and sent him the positive results and he got on board if i promised to train him.
I've used the opportunity at my current online ad sales job to identify openings for my existing clients that wanted to advertise in social media and turned them into my personal clients. My first client has also referred me two new clients, and my employee (who I've given the opportunity to become partner if he brought on x revenue), has also brought on a small client.
I'm currently on track to be making $500 a month profit ontop of my existing job and have roughly 6-9 clients. I have good relationships with all my clients as they are either all referrals, or existing clients from my current job. I also turned my barber into a client this past monday.
Sometimes, you gotta try, try, and try again until you find something that works. Also, slow and steady often wins the race. I'm not rich, but im slowly working my way up to making money that matters.
http://www.sosuave.net/forum/threads/starting-you-own-business-the-journal.190037/
I've tried many businesses and ideas. Oh boy, have I tried to do many things and failed. Especially the billion/million dollar ideas. Will make this a quick 3 sentence summary of what I learned so I can start logging my journal.
Big ideas are usually a waste of time as they involve too many people just to make the business work and when you put your faith in others to make your dream a reality and have no influence over them, it is highly likely you will fail. You want to find a simple business idea that YOU alone can make work. First, start with 1 client and find a way to make that a successful relationship then pursue others.
So i'm finally making money. Not making the big bucks, but i got my first client in December 2016. I tried selling him back early 2016 and was a friend of my brothers. He did not buy back then and did not want to talk about this.
My business is online advertising. I provide online advertising services for small to medium sized businesses. I worked for a global agency as their head of sales previously, and then moved to the largest newspaper company selling online advertising with them last year. Now I sell the a large newspaper company in a major metro area for their online news site. The online news site doesn't provide any other services outside of online banner ads on it's news site. This was where the opportunity was and how I started my business, but I didn't see the opportunity until it smacked me in the face.
My brothers friend, an auto repair shop needed help with social media advertising on facebook. I've sold it in the past but didn't really know much about it (how to set it up, run it, manage it, payment, etc.). He had asked my brother about it and my brother told me to take the opportunity to man up and do it. I called up a few friends and one of my good friends was currently the account manager of facebook for a large pharmaceutical company's campaign (he did not know how to manage either, just conveyed results). I built a presentation and sold my brother's friend on facebook advertising and my friend said he'd figure out how to run it.
Friend ghosted me since he didn't want to spend time learning how to run the campaign, I didn't want to lose face so I spent hours watching videos on how to setup a campaign and run it. After a few days, I set it up, and after a few weeks I learned how to do it on a decent level and was getting results. By months end, I was getting him leads and private messages about work. I called back up my friend and sent him the positive results and he got on board if i promised to train him.
I've used the opportunity at my current online ad sales job to identify openings for my existing clients that wanted to advertise in social media and turned them into my personal clients. My first client has also referred me two new clients, and my employee (who I've given the opportunity to become partner if he brought on x revenue), has also brought on a small client.
I'm currently on track to be making $500 a month profit ontop of my existing job and have roughly 6-9 clients. I have good relationships with all my clients as they are either all referrals, or existing clients from my current job. I also turned my barber into a client this past monday.
Sometimes, you gotta try, try, and try again until you find something that works. Also, slow and steady often wins the race. I'm not rich, but im slowly working my way up to making money that matters.