[Journey] from zero to something

Why here: I'm a bit too blunt for most other people. You guys can take it. And also call me out when I mess up. So, yeah, fits well.

TL;DR is I'm a cynical active duty military service member with four years left on my contract. Meaning, I have four years to create enough of an income to allow myself to leave. Been in for six and some change. Really don't like it enough to ride out another 14. However, the retirement for 20 years is pretty bitchin', so hey.

I'm also a highly functional alcoholic who hates working. So, I have that going for me.

BLUF: Using Facebook marketing, local SEO, and ORM services, start a digital agency. Additionally, leverage the veteran community by creating a blog/vlog that interviews veteran and active duty business leaders and entrepreneurs.

30APR18: 2 solid realtors for whom I am generating buyer and seller leads for. Severely undercharging at $750/mo, and they are paying their adspend. This is split with my partner, who is a disabled vet. However, all profit is going into our Facebook funnel for our agency. We are currently targeting eCommerce store owners, trying to get one to scale up.

He has his Linkedin profile written as a sales letter for gym owners. Mine is optimized towards realtors. More to follow on that.

Utilizing a lumpy mail technique tomorrow that I dug up from an ancient ass post here on BHW. This will offer ORM services. Two clients at the pricepoint I plan on charging will be profitable. One will barely break even. Will do research and probably mailing tomorrow.

Domain name purchased for my interview based blog. Secured an interview with a CEO of a regional telecom company, who is a retired former enlisted officer.

Two other tentative yes responses from two other friends who started businesses after they got out of the military.

A bet with a very prominent PF blogger for a solid backlink from his site if I can grow my side income to $10K. We were drunk, but I have the recording, so progress?

Keyword research will be taking place as I secure more interviews.

At 15-20 interviews, I will launch the blog.

Current profit: -$30 mo/, probably more, can't be fucked to do all the math right now. Depends on the Facebook adspend we are averaging.

*edited for clarity*

Good luck. Will be following. Lots of money to be made in ORM and Local SEO.

Good luck OP

good luck mate, interesting to see what happens. 10k is achievable but give it time

Good luck buddy

Holzr said:

Good luck. Will be following. Lots of money to be made in ORM and Local SEO.

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Thanks brother. Yeah, plenty indeed. My current market is a little competitive, but that is just the nature of the beast.

SEO FOX said:

Good luck OP

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Thanks SEO FOX.

jamie3000 said:

good luck mate, interesting to see what happens. 10k is achievable but give it time

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Indeed. 10k is possible, with the right mindset. And drive. And alcohol to numb the defeats lol

danko6 said:

Good luck buddy

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Thanks my man.

The plan is to utilize a white labeled variant of Grade.us for the ORM shit. I'm going to focus on small businesses at first, with low competition in the niche.

All alcoholics on board, welcome mate.

INCC said:

All alcoholics on board, welcome mate.

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Currently drinking some Grand Marnier right now. Wife left it out.

01MAY18 - Progress today: Sent 10 Linkedin connection requests to brokers in my local area. Took two calls from inbound leads from my funnel. One didn't pickup, put him on the list for followup. The other was a dropshipper who is impossible to scale.

Found a dentist without a pixel on her website. I'll be driving over tomorrow and seeing if I can't get a feel for the place and shoot the shit. Send her an email after I have put a face to a name with a video explaining how she is losing out on an opportunity.

Identified 9 local businesses that have shit or no reviews online. They are now prospects for lumpy mail ORM outreach. Will be printing that shit out and mailing tomorrow.

Ran out of Guiness, which is sad.

Currently fucking about ManyChat to set up something for my agency FB Page and site.

Put some feelers out for a good graphic designer for my logo for my blog project. Will be utilizing thrive themes for the site. Secured the domain name and hosting.

Still not making any profit yet honestly.

Question for you guys. Do you prefer detailed monetary stats, or just general updates? Let me know and I can tailor it accordingly for more interesting reading.

22MAY18 Current status - No response from the lumpy mail ORM outreach campaign yet.

Lost one client, because she couldn't follow the fuck up with leads. However, I was successful in increasing my other realtor client to 1500/mo with him paying 500/mo in dedicated adspend. On the plus side, he attributes 60K in deals down his pipeline to our ads so far.

I've pitched about 26 leads so far coming into my FB ads funnel, but have failed to convert any. I definitely need to work on my sales skills. I've been doing some reading on that lately, but I would definitely appreciate any community suggestions.

Drambuie is great. I highly recommend it if you feel like a solid nightcap.

I succeeded in getting Manychat to work. However, I have yet to practically apply it to any real lead generation endeavor. More to follow on that.

Plans: Finish out the content for my new blog. Write some content for my "agency" site. Start running more, because I am getting terribly fat. Prospect 20 leads per week on LinkedIn

Post another update soon.


Expenses all total including tools/advertising/hosting - 1246

Revenue so far = 1500/mo

Profit = 254/mo

You don't need college but you do need education. Congrats on your revenue. Now what you're doing that working is networking. Actually talking to others and creating that content is powerful. Good luck OP.

Larry Mattison said:

You don't need college but you do need education. Congrats on your revenue. Now what you're doing that working is networking. Actually talking to others and creating that content is powerful. Good luck OP.

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Thanks brother. I have quite a bit of education, both traditional and otherwise. I'm fortunate to have been able to learn how to speak another language fluently, as well as spent some time working with some incredibly talented people in places most would only dream of. Also, the military has some interesting lessons of its own to teach.

24 AUG 18 UPDATE - Still plugging away networking with people in my local area. I'm also working on ranking my own agency website in the local SERPs. Additionally, I am experimenting with a local rank and rent site, working on that as well. To be honest, not much has changed. Still at the same revenue. My apologies for the lack of updates, just not much has changed.

However, my realtor client loves me, and I have generated over 60K of revenue for him in the past 5 months according to his last call, so that's cool.

Onward ever, backwards never.

Expenses all total including tools/advertising/hosting - 1246

Revenue so far = 1500/mo

Profit = 254/mo

Update:

After realizing that I'm not good at sales, I've decided to stop beating my head against the wall. I've had tons of calls, and can generate leads no problem, but I'm just not converting any.

Therefore, I've come to the conclusion that the agency model may just not be right for me.

I'm going to take a month off, collect my thoughts, and formulate a new strategy. But for now, this journey is complete.

Can you outsource the sales to someone? Pay them on commission only basis?

easyvacation said:

Can you outsource the sales to someone? Pay them on commission only basis?

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In theory, yes, this is possible. However, I have yet to find a commission only salesperson. If you know of a native, US-based person to talk to, please, feel free to let me know.

Goodluck mate!