jlj
Newbie
- Jan 12, 2022
- 10
- 2
So to give a small background I currently am a software developer with almost 3 years experience. I have experience with frontend but am doing mostly backend and embedded systems programming at my job for most of my career now. I also started learning about how to use more AI in the projects I developed for the past couple of months.
I am a 25 yo, I tried my hand at entrepreneurship early on in life, a couple of times, the last time was just before I started with software development. It didn't work before, but no matter how many times I fail, I will keep trying, working for other people is just not for me.
Why now?
I started doing a computer science degree at one of the best (and free) universities here in Brazil, however I started it not for the knowledge I will get there, but seeking an possible entrepreneurship partner, however all I see are small boys with no growth mindset.
I also got a job at the most technological company in my city (around 600k people here), they are doing a bunch of high tech things, AI, embedded systems, software engineering, and many more. I got the job because I saw it as an opportunity to learn better tech, but especially as a possibility to meet an entrepreneurship partner. But everything I am learning is by my own, they tell me to build something I learn and build. Although it's a company open minded for new projects and investing on your ideas, those people are never around me, because they are the owners and CEOs who are elsewhere in the holding/companies… The people I spent my time with (engineers, developers, and so on…) are too busy having a great job, a guaranteed pay at the end of the month and work life balance. So many smart people who have the power to build an empire but all they care about is anime, games, netflix and a guaranteed paid by the end of the month while their bosses drive mercedes and porsche... I want much more from life.
Also, as I am working for a Brazilian company and doing such high tech work, I am really underpaid to do such a complex job, which for entrepreneurship is actually a great thing, because I don't need too much money from a side project to make as much as I make at my current job.
About the niche
As I have tried to escape the rat race before, I can tell that building a profitable product is no easy task, it's a high risk approach. Considering that and that my goal is to stop working for other people as soon as I can, I think that selling services is the easiest, legal and quickest way. It's also scalable too if you do the job correctly. Since I have IT knowledge and know plenty of good professionals in this niche I will give my shot on IT consultancy services. I also know a lot of people and have a lot of friends from various part of tech, AI, software development and so on… a lot of great people who can help me and are willing to do side jobs.
How
About the strategy, I will need some tips, so if you have any experience on that and are willing to help, please comment down below.
I am leaving uni so I will have more spare time to focus on achieving my goal. The strategy that I'm thinking currently will be based on the following:
Youtube
I do already have a youtube channel (in english) where I posted a couple of programming videos (focused on market technologies), it's a small channel because with uni + work I don't have time at all.
The goal with youtube will be to post 1 video every week about programming videos, I am sure that I don't need a huge audience to have orders for this type of service. However I don't intend to post only programming videos because I'm afraid only developers / people who want to learn development will watch, I want to target people who are willing to pay for software / programming services, so I will also make videos about how to cut costs with technologies, how to make scalable systems, how x tech can cut costs, gain performance compared to y tech (always telling great things about the x tech, which will be the techs I know I can build or hire someone else to do, which are in fact great technologies to be honest).
Right now the channel photo and name is related to me personally, I am planning to change for the company logo and name, so I can scale as a company and can later on outsource this work for somebody else ( I wonder if I should really do that, let me know in the comments ).
For every video I will have a small banner that will pass a couple of seconds like twice in each video to advertise the company IT services, website and contact info (socials).
I am not an expert on youtube, specially about targeting services and I am structuring a better strategy to grow there, so if you know more about that and can give me some hints about the process please comment down below.
Linkedin
I have seen plenty of people making great companies or selling services only with linkedin constantly posting, so for me and for this niche linkedin regular posts seems to be a must.
Initially, the plan is to post daily on the company page and share it on my personal profile (which doesn't have many people, around 200).
The goal is to be concise and valuable, address a specific pain point or trend in IT consultancy (eg “3 signs your software project needs expert intervention”, “The #1 mistake in AI project planning”) and include a strong call-to-action to the company website (which will be on profile too).
I will also be aware of industry trends and market changes like in techcrunch (source of tech news), which I read daily and post the relevant stuff there.
About the strategies to grow a linkedin profile, I am not by any means an expert by that, so if you have better ideas or strategies please let me know in the comments section, anything is appreciated.
Website and blog
I already have created a website for the company and a blog inside it. As for every video I will create a script to help me I will already have an article produced, so I just have to publish it.
The website already lists the possible services (AI, software development, and so on…) and I have a call to action to get the leads from possible customers (a simple and free typeform that will get what the possible customer wants to build and their contact email).
There's so much to improve on this, I haven't even set google analytics on the blog, and I will build the lead forms later on and deploy it elsewhere, for now the free typeform version will fit.
I am not an expert on that, so if you know more about this please let me know…
Target audience
People from the US and Europe who wants software / AI development, where this type of services are more valuable. I have no idea how I will charge, how I should make the proposals for possible customers. I have seen people do a small pitch deck to present the service, but maybe people who are willing to pay more don't have time for that, but maybe it is great to start? What do you think?
I also have no idea how I will get the payment from, I know that it's better for me to charge for the whole project than hourly rates. However I'm not sure if I should charge x percentage first or in the half of the service and the rest when I finish it. Also not sure how I will receive their money, any platform or what, the legal (tax) aspects of it too… But well, I think I will take a look at that when I get a customer first, but if you have any idea on that let me know please.
I haven't planned to do any instagram, as I am seeing people getting massive results with linkedin only. Although I know instagram is great for targeting services, specially with ads, I know nothing about instagram (4 years without any social media now, apart from linkedin). But as I will have the content already done for linkedin, maybe I should post there too and later target some ads?… However I am alone now, and maybe it's too much work and diversification, what do you think?
Total deadline is 5 months starting 23/11 (still have one more week at uni before semester ends) till 25/04 my goals are to:
1. Post 20 youtube videos
2. 150 linkedin posts
3. Get at least a customer and generate 1k USD in revenue.
The goal is 1k USD because I don't need much to leave, and to start with it's not bad, I know I can scale with time, especially if I can focus on my thing.
I will update this thread weekly so stay tuned.
I am a 25 yo, I tried my hand at entrepreneurship early on in life, a couple of times, the last time was just before I started with software development. It didn't work before, but no matter how many times I fail, I will keep trying, working for other people is just not for me.
Why now?
I started doing a computer science degree at one of the best (and free) universities here in Brazil, however I started it not for the knowledge I will get there, but seeking an possible entrepreneurship partner, however all I see are small boys with no growth mindset.
I also got a job at the most technological company in my city (around 600k people here), they are doing a bunch of high tech things, AI, embedded systems, software engineering, and many more. I got the job because I saw it as an opportunity to learn better tech, but especially as a possibility to meet an entrepreneurship partner. But everything I am learning is by my own, they tell me to build something I learn and build. Although it's a company open minded for new projects and investing on your ideas, those people are never around me, because they are the owners and CEOs who are elsewhere in the holding/companies… The people I spent my time with (engineers, developers, and so on…) are too busy having a great job, a guaranteed pay at the end of the month and work life balance. So many smart people who have the power to build an empire but all they care about is anime, games, netflix and a guaranteed paid by the end of the month while their bosses drive mercedes and porsche... I want much more from life.
Also, as I am working for a Brazilian company and doing such high tech work, I am really underpaid to do such a complex job, which for entrepreneurship is actually a great thing, because I don't need too much money from a side project to make as much as I make at my current job.
About the niche
As I have tried to escape the rat race before, I can tell that building a profitable product is no easy task, it's a high risk approach. Considering that and that my goal is to stop working for other people as soon as I can, I think that selling services is the easiest, legal and quickest way. It's also scalable too if you do the job correctly. Since I have IT knowledge and know plenty of good professionals in this niche I will give my shot on IT consultancy services. I also know a lot of people and have a lot of friends from various part of tech, AI, software development and so on… a lot of great people who can help me and are willing to do side jobs.
How
About the strategy, I will need some tips, so if you have any experience on that and are willing to help, please comment down below.
I am leaving uni so I will have more spare time to focus on achieving my goal. The strategy that I'm thinking currently will be based on the following:
Youtube
I do already have a youtube channel (in english) where I posted a couple of programming videos (focused on market technologies), it's a small channel because with uni + work I don't have time at all.
The goal with youtube will be to post 1 video every week about programming videos, I am sure that I don't need a huge audience to have orders for this type of service. However I don't intend to post only programming videos because I'm afraid only developers / people who want to learn development will watch, I want to target people who are willing to pay for software / programming services, so I will also make videos about how to cut costs with technologies, how to make scalable systems, how x tech can cut costs, gain performance compared to y tech (always telling great things about the x tech, which will be the techs I know I can build or hire someone else to do, which are in fact great technologies to be honest).
Right now the channel photo and name is related to me personally, I am planning to change for the company logo and name, so I can scale as a company and can later on outsource this work for somebody else ( I wonder if I should really do that, let me know in the comments ).
For every video I will have a small banner that will pass a couple of seconds like twice in each video to advertise the company IT services, website and contact info (socials).
I am not an expert on youtube, specially about targeting services and I am structuring a better strategy to grow there, so if you know more about that and can give me some hints about the process please comment down below.
I have seen plenty of people making great companies or selling services only with linkedin constantly posting, so for me and for this niche linkedin regular posts seems to be a must.
Initially, the plan is to post daily on the company page and share it on my personal profile (which doesn't have many people, around 200).
The goal is to be concise and valuable, address a specific pain point or trend in IT consultancy (eg “3 signs your software project needs expert intervention”, “The #1 mistake in AI project planning”) and include a strong call-to-action to the company website (which will be on profile too).
I will also be aware of industry trends and market changes like in techcrunch (source of tech news), which I read daily and post the relevant stuff there.
About the strategies to grow a linkedin profile, I am not by any means an expert by that, so if you have better ideas or strategies please let me know in the comments section, anything is appreciated.
Website and blog
I already have created a website for the company and a blog inside it. As for every video I will create a script to help me I will already have an article produced, so I just have to publish it.
The website already lists the possible services (AI, software development, and so on…) and I have a call to action to get the leads from possible customers (a simple and free typeform that will get what the possible customer wants to build and their contact email).
There's so much to improve on this, I haven't even set google analytics on the blog, and I will build the lead forms later on and deploy it elsewhere, for now the free typeform version will fit.
I am not an expert on that, so if you know more about this please let me know…
Target audience
People from the US and Europe who wants software / AI development, where this type of services are more valuable. I have no idea how I will charge, how I should make the proposals for possible customers. I have seen people do a small pitch deck to present the service, but maybe people who are willing to pay more don't have time for that, but maybe it is great to start? What do you think?
I also have no idea how I will get the payment from, I know that it's better for me to charge for the whole project than hourly rates. However I'm not sure if I should charge x percentage first or in the half of the service and the rest when I finish it. Also not sure how I will receive their money, any platform or what, the legal (tax) aspects of it too… But well, I think I will take a look at that when I get a customer first, but if you have any idea on that let me know please.
I haven't planned to do any instagram, as I am seeing people getting massive results with linkedin only. Although I know instagram is great for targeting services, specially with ads, I know nothing about instagram (4 years without any social media now, apart from linkedin). But as I will have the content already done for linkedin, maybe I should post there too and later target some ads?… However I am alone now, and maybe it's too much work and diversification, what do you think?
Deadline and goals
Total deadline is 5 months starting 23/11 (still have one more week at uni before semester ends) till 25/04 my goals are to:
1. Post 20 youtube videos
2. 150 linkedin posts
3. Get at least a customer and generate 1k USD in revenue.
The goal is 1k USD because I don't need much to leave, and to start with it's not bad, I know I can scale with time, especially if I can focus on my thing.
I will update this thread weekly so stay tuned.
