[SMMA Journey] I gave up my 50k salary to earn 50k online by the end of 2019 and beyond...

Hello everyone, finally, I decided to start my journey thread.

Goals

Plan: Successful London Based SMMA
Financial Goal: 50 000£ by Dec '19
Services: 1st Instagram, 2nd Landing Pages 3rd Web Design, 4th Facebook Ads then everything else...

3-6 months to make 1000£ profit (cover my personal expenses) and grow from there. If I fail to reach 1000£ after 6 months, I will seriously consider if its worth proceeding or should I get a part-time job or consider an alternative.

The motivation for this thread

1. Keep myself accountable
2. Share mistakes/lessons, what I have learned
3. Get advice from those who have "been there" and "done that"
4. Support, as I do feel like I'm on my own sometimes

Honestly, having worked in a team for 7+ years and having someone to hold myself accountable (albeit I was a manager) and going to working from my living room alone is more of a hit than I thought.

Introduction

First, let me introduce quickly here. 2018, I just discovered BHW. It's been about 3 years since I stopped taking drugs every day and partying day and night. 100+ Self-development books later, 3 failed business ventures later, I decided to start a Social Media Management agency. Instagram was the platform of my choice.

I grew my own account, walked in and out of local businesses here in London and got my first client around January/Feb (before BHW registration). Charged 50£ per month, trough referrals grew to 10 clients by September 2018. But then, I ended it.

Why?

Well, while I was doing that, I ended up getting promoted to a Bar Manager and opened a restaurant in central London. Which seemed like a big deal (it was..) I thought I could run the SMMA on the side - I couldn't.

Long story short, I quit my management job (various reasons, won't go into detail) and decided to make 2019 my venture year.

Why SMMA?

I see a huge potential to grow businesses accounts using Jarvee + proper engagement (F/UF) + good proxies + right methods (thanks @IGKing for the amazing book) = massive growth.

Combining that with a white hat - 1. Professional photography 2. Awesome captions 3. Landing pages 4. Strategies 5. Personal touch 6. Website creation 7. Some facebook ads 8. Twitter growth

I've got myself a decent SMMA plan.

January 2019

I enrolled on 1 paid course to learn the best strategies to grow the accounts - again, thanks to Viral Ascend community)

Downloaded 10+ courses on SMMA.

1. Joe Soto Local Marketing Agency (Incredibly good, full of amazing resources)
2. Iman Gadzhi - SMMA (Finished, ok, some good knowledge but not amazing)
3. GC University
4. Bunch of others which I haven't got into yet...

Ok, so how's the progress so far?

• 4 old clients recovered at 50£ p/m.
• 1 new client at 100£ p/m.
• 1 positive meeting, negotiating pricing will land around 300£ if successful.
• 500+ targetted emails sent, 500+ cold calls made

Total monthly revenue currently: 300£
Total monthly expenses currently: 218.73£

Total profit before tax currently monthly: 81.24£

Main activities during January & until now

1. 20% learning (Courses, Coaching, Settings)
2. 60% cold calling / cold emailing (LinkedIn outreach)
3. 10% clients management & onboarding, meetings

Not impressed with cold email/call results. Very few responses and many many rejections.

Most answers coming from my powerbase (friends and connections)

I left out a lot of details as this is already becoming a long thread, so I might as well finish up here...

What's next for this thread?

I am going away to the mountains from 14th of February to 25th of February. As soon as I am back - I will continue to update this thread at least once a week with:

1. Lessons learned
2. Mistakes made
3. What worked
4. What didn't work
5. Time management tricks
6. Best strategies for selling
7. And many more..

Next Journey update will be on the 26th of February

I will do my best to answer all the questions, so feel free to ask. But please, be understanding - I won't disclose my proxies service (took me 6+ months to find one which works without mad shit blocks).

Good luck. Coming from an owner of an agency... keep your head up. The more you cold call and close deals the easier it will get. Just don't give up. There will be months where you get no new clients but don't let it bring you down. Just focus on your goal.

Andre Youkhna said:

Good luck. Coming from an owner of an agency... keep your head up. The more you cold call and close deals the easier it will get. Just don't give up. There will be months where you get no new clients but don't let it bring you down. Just focus on your goal.

Click to expand...

Thanks, man, I really appreciate it! Some days felt really bad as the only response I would get is to piss off... But I improved my sales funnel a lot. Now I warm them up a bit:

I am targetting restaurants niche as I worked in it for 7+ years

So before I reach out, I use google maps to identify local businesses. Then use Companies House / LinkedIn / Snov.io to figure out who's the owner and get their personal email address. When that's done, I go ahead with:

1. Introduction email (CTA is to a related article of interest)
2. 1-2 days later, Audit email (I use hypeditor to make a sleek IG report) - a lot of value
3. Call and ask to speak with the owner (by name), this bypasses gatekeepers every time
4. If the owner is there, I ask about the audit and pitch a meeting
5. If the owner is not there, I try to call later/next day (most often the case )
6. Then secure a meeting and learn about the business/value offering pitch, tailored service. (most difficult part as catching the owner is very difficult)
7. I contact them 12 times before letting go, always sending a value - article, audit, suggestion etc. So the rejection rate is much lower.

The downside of this method is that it takes a lot of time to reach the people, labour intensive before ever sending the first email... Yet still, I find it much better than just blasting out canned emails and hundreds of scripted 1 size fit all calls

shiva990 said:

Good Luck, What tool you use for Linkedin outreach?

Click to expand...

I do it manually, followed the course from Joe Soto and its basically using search to identify company owners and reach out to them. I use Snov.io and leadleaper to extract emails from linkedin which works really well currently.

Been planning to automate my new connections invites, DM's and viewing profiles using Jarvee but haven't got a lot of time to play with that. I must say, the results were mediocre at best so far doing this. Much easier to go through referrals and powerbase. Cold outreach seems to be very hard to get any sort of attention even if giving away free meetings and audits. Still need to practise more to find a working formula. Will post an update soon.

Bruce Silduk said:

I do it manually, followed the course from Joe Soto and its basically using search to identify company owners and reach out to them. I use Snov.io and leadleaper to extract emails from linkedin which works really well currently.

Been planning to automate my new connections invites, DM's and viewing profiles using Jarvee but haven't got a lot of time to play with that. I must say, the results were mediocre at best so far doing this. Much easier to go through referrals and powerbase. Cold outreach seems to be very hard to get any sort of attention even if giving away free meetings and audits. Still need to practise more to find a working formula. Will post an update soon.

Click to expand...

You can extract emails from LinkedIn? How

socialdaddy said:

You can extract emails from LinkedIn? How

Click to expand...

Hey, as mentioned above briefly - install chrome extensions like snov.io or lead leaper, hunter.io all of these allow 100 free extractions per month. Snov.io and hunter.io also work on any business website which is super cool also there's another extension which I forgot, insanely powerful - extracts mobile ph numbers, personal and business emails. Actually scary how much info it delivers without even having the person as a connection forgot the name now, but it's like 100$ per month and only allows 10 extractions. I use it as a secret gun when all three above fail. Very useful if you're doing some cold email strategy

Amazing plan! The only thing why I hate this type of business (been there done that) is dealing with people...

Bruce Silduk said:

It's been about 3 years since I stopped taking drugs every day and partying day and night. 100+ Self-development books later, 3 failed business ventures later, I decided to start a Social Media Management agency. Instagram was the platform of my choice.

Click to expand...

Man good story! I'd be happy to give you a few free months of Vurku if you think it would help you on your journey. I'm always willing to help people who are working hard and could use it - this seems to fit. Let me know.

All the best on your journey btw how do I get hold of the different courses that you downloaded?

The Soto, Ghazdi etc. ones...

TheVigilante said:

All the best on your journey btw how do I get hold of the different courses that you downloaded?

The Soto, Ghazdi etc. ones...

Click to expand...

Same question???

Good luck for the journey.

Update #1

Posting 2 days later to what I promised in my initial post. I was really not looking forward to doing it this time and postponing as much as possible. Why? Some ups, but mostly downs...

Part 1 - Big problem #1 (skip if you couldn't care less about my personal issues)

So this is going to be mostly about admitting my failures in public (this is one of the main reasons why I started this thread in the first place...). But I will keep it updated even if everything goes to shit and there's no one else to blame but myself.

In short, from 13th of Feb to 23rd of February I went snowboarding to Italy (so much fun!). And in down time I started playing my old mobile moba game... And since I've got back on 23rd, 80% of my time has been spent on no-lifing this moba game. Embarrassing, zero cold outreach, just some basic clients account management with BAD results (will explain below). It's unbelievable how addictive it became. I knew its bad but still kept playing, in fact literally just put down my phone and decided to write this as a 'kick to myself'.

Solution to the problem

Writing out and admitting a problem is the first step, the next step is to act on it. So, OFFTIME app enabled (prevents certain app use). It will forbid me to open youtube/moba game during 12am - 9pm. I will allow myself to decide whether to play between 9pm-12am. This method worked in January, hopefully, it will now too.

Fingers crossed - I can get my focus back in place.

Part 2 - Short overview good vs bad

Big Problem #2 - IPV4 proxies + too many actions - blocks.

I was doing 400 likes / 400 follows / 400-600 unfollows on all clients accounts for 2 weeks. When IG had its issue - followers went up and down around 13-14 Feb. I got like/follow blocks as pushed the limit to 600 on likes.

Before the blocks, I was growing 30+ followers daily (amazing results!). Then had to pause all the actions for 2 days and change proxies, warm up again.

Now nearly back at 300 likes/300 follows / 500 unfollows and working fine. Will avoid crossing 400/400/600 line with clients accounts until experimented enough with test accounts.

Seen some people doing 1500+ actions per day but I consider this unsafe for the time being.

Big problem #3 - Instagram instantly deletes posts using some IPV4 proxies.

After changing my proxies, the blocks have lifted but some content gets instantly deleted. 2/5 client accounts are not posting. Will buy 2 mobile proxies to see if it helps.

Did anything good happened...?

Yes! Got 1 confirmed client through friend referral - a cafe in London. 300£ per month but I included Daily posting + professional photography (I will have to pay her 100£ which leaves me with 200£ for myself). Plus, I will have to write captions and schedule posts, do the growth bit. << Before you start saying how bad of the deal this is - consider the fact I spent 2+ weeks on cold outreach with zero tangible results. So I consider this my 'first' real client in the restaurant industry and will use it as a main case study to build my authority. I may lose out short term but will gain experience.

Got 1 new company referral - will help an interior designer to establish a brand from 0. Meaning > logo, website, domain, idea, branding - the full thing. I have no idea what to charge so will probably low ball it too (suggestions welcome!!). It will be my second full branding deal and again I'm focusing on experience and building portfolio instead of profiting. Will try to cover my costs and that's all. (I would really appreciate some guidance here.).

About to start on my second full branding deal with the designer. Clueless about the pricing part but very excited.

Summary

Lot's of meetings and work to be done. It's essential to get a grip on my time and start being productive again. Holiday is over.

5 clients monthly account growth (1.5 week of no f/uf due to proxy issues)

1 Client - 981 followers
2 client - 972 followers
3 client - 815
4 client - 487
5 client - 538

Lessons learned

1. Gaming can be extremely addictive and suck my time out of the day (just one more match is never true)
2. Referrals are the best way so far to get the business
3. Need to double down on planning and time management
4. Proxies can really make a difference.
5. A friend got a client through FB ads, need to test

I am less than proud of this update as it's all over the place. I will focus on reclaiming my time and results for the rest of the week. I will post a short update with a better plan of action for the next week.

Next update - 3rd of February.

Amazing journey, very inspirational as I want to do what you're doing right now and you're doing it!

Please keep it up i'll follow along!

I am curious though, I keep holding myself back from starting the agency because of fears of failure one of them being an account getting banned or even shadowbanned because of automation.

How do you deal with this or what are your thoughts? Keep up the great work! Thanks!

It's really easy being distracted from your focus. But, you came back on your track....Keep going and good luck for your journey.

Update #2

Things are starting to look good again. I keep wasting time playing moba but less this week. I find that networking with people (friends and not) help me spark my passion and enthusiasm more. I feel more motivated and do better work.

Client onboarding

Professional photoshoot for 30 pictures

Tomorrow I am doing my first strategy & photoshoot for a client. Scary. I made a great impression but really have no idea how it will go. Luckily, I've got my friend - photographer who has a lot of experience already. Also, I've got her my company email and she 'looks like she works for me'. Will update how that goes.

Then I will write 30 captions myself for each post. I plan to outsource this in the long run (If you do or know someone who would be up for a task - hit me up). I have created and Excel document and will write text - leave "fill in the blanks" for the client to describe the product.

I created a super sick client portal. I used Trello for that, I spent weeks trying to find the best way to create a client portal. I chose trello as it is very flexible and can be automated to maximum effort. Automatic notifications, email communication synced to the card etc. I will test with 1 client and see if they like it - use it. If they do, I will use it for all.



One of the hardest things for me this week was to decide if I should use a CRM like Dubsado or InvoiceNinja. Or whether I should use my own Eco system.

My priorities are like this:

1. Simplicity First
2. Ease of use for client
3. Automate as much as possible
4. Looking as professional as possible

Most CRM's like the ones I mentioned above were limited to what I wanted. So ended up going a unique route which may not seem obvious or easiest for you.

But these are the tools I have used for years and I find it super easy to integrate.

Tools I will use:

1. Google drive to share files and edits, posts.
2. Trello for client portal and automatic reminders etc.
3. WooCommerce for subscription payments.
4. Wordpress - Elementor & OceanWP for Website design.
5. And.co for contract and scope signing.
6. Evernote for complex notes and guides
7. Gsuite for communication & Calendar
8. Calendly for scheduling meetings

I connected all of these using Wordpress plugins / Zappier / Gmail. Everything works like clockwork (almost - takes me 10-15min to set up a new client). Which is not bad. I currently write all emails manually but my goal in the next 30 days is to automate this entire process. So onboarding is as smooth as possible.

Why I went with this system?

If you are a client, here is how the onboarding process works:

1. Meeting - agree for the price and services, start date (NO packages)
2. You Receive an Email for your contract signing and agreeing the service details.
   
3. Receive an email to submit your account details (when done, automatically sending next email)
4. Receive an email with a purchase link. You pay on the day when the service starts. Stripe or PayPal (auto recurring)
5. You must register when you pay.
6. You receive an email with the order confirmation and just paid. Invoice attached.
7. You receive an email with your client portal. Open it, watch "Getting Started Video" on the client portal. It explains how the site works and you can find EVERYTHING in one place.

Boom, you're in.

Easy.

All I have to do is to set up an account using Wordpress and create a client portal duplicate. And.co Contract email and follow-ups. When automated, this should take 5 minutes. At the moment it takes me maybe 20min altogether.

I'm obsessed to keep it simple, so less clicks, less thinking, less doing on clients end.

Summary

Goals for this week

1. Get 1 new client or hot lead
2. 50% on ensuring the clients are happy
3. 30% on networking with people
4. 20% on cold emailing/calling.

1 Big problem I had this week

My clients posts were getting instantly deleted when posted using Jarvee. After a ton of research, I concluded it was the proxy. Interestingly, 1 provider - I bought 10 proxies. 8 worked great, no like or follow blocks. 2 failed at posting. I was using my mobile device to post for 3 days and then... one day my device got instant deletes. I freaked out. Luckily, I found a great mobile proxy seller and his proxy lifted the instant deletes.

So if any of you have issues posting/reposting - make sure your hashtags are rotating, captions are unique, images are altered. If those are all done and it still happens - change your proxy.

I wanted to share more but this turned out to be long again so I'll wrap it up here.

After I've put some effort to replace bad proxies and sourced mobile ones. No more issues with blocks and posting. YAY!!!

Next Update: 10 March

Replies! Sorry for lagging behind. I've been procrastinating and then working loads. Will improve with my replies, I promise

Andre Youkhna said:

Good luck. Coming from an owner of an agency... keep your head up. The more you cold call and close deals the easier it will get. Just don't give up. There will be months where you get no new clients but don't let it bring you down. Just focus on your goal.

Click to expand...

Thanks man, I really appreciate it. I was thinking about setting up a slack / discord channel for agency owners to stay motivated/share knowledge as I feel like this could be beneficial. Have you tried that? Is it worth it?

KraftyKyle said:

Man good story! I'd be happy to give you a few free months of Vurku if you think it would help you on your journey. I'm always willing to help people who are working hard and could use it - this seems to fit. Let me know.

Click to expand...

Thanks mate! I will keep it in mind if I find I could use it!

TheVigilante said:

All the best on your journey btw how do I get hold of the different courses that you downloaded?

The Soto, Ghazdi etc. ones...

Click to expand...

There are a couple of websites where you pay 10-20$ and get access. I know one website where they share it for free too, but you get download restrictions or need to buy premium. Hit me up in the PM and I will send the links over to you. Also, most of those are shared in the downloads section of this forum too.

ViU said:

Same question???

Good luck for the journey.

Click to expand...

Hit me up in PM, I'll share the links

Ludacash said:

Amazing journey, very inspirational as I want to do what you're doing right now and you're doing it!

Please keep it up i'll follow along!

I am curious though, I keep holding myself back from starting the agency because of fears of failure one of them being an account getting banned or even shadowbanned because of automation.

How do you deal with this or what are your thoughts? Keep up the great work! Thanks!

Click to expand...

Don't worry about the bans mate. I haven't gotten any accounts banned. Only PV's (Phone verifications). If you warm up the account properly and have a good proxy on it, you won't have any issues. If the account gets shadowbanned, your clients will never know.

To safely bot, do this:

1. Good proxy provider (IPV4 is ok if you find the right provider, residential and mobile is best if you can afford it)
2. Safe warm up settings. Tons of tutorials on this forum so I won't go into detail
3. If reposting, be sure to modify pictures
4. Unique captions
5. Good hashtag research
6. Do not go over 1200 actions per day. I find staying below 1000 is perfectly safe at the moment

Just start! You can figure out the rest along the way

share4win said:

It's really easy being distracted from your focus. But, you came back on your track....Keep going and good luck for your journey.

Click to expand...

Appreciate your support! Distraction is my main problem but overcoming it now. Will hopefully completely solve it by the end of the next week as I have tons of work lol.

I wish you the best. Will follow this thread !

UNKUT said:

I wish you the best. Will follow this thread !

Click to expand...

Appreciate the support!

Great updates. Keep at it, you're doing well.

Cheers =)

That is a very interesting Story! Will be following and learning

Update #3 March week 1

This week has been good but far from great. I actually got 3 leads that turned into meetings. I would almost say it's one of the more successful weeks in terms of actual potential client acquisition, but my head is not in the right place yet. Still failing to force myself to sit down and work, wasted a lot of time on gaming and youtube. Monday to Tuesday, I had a client photoshoot meeting which went really smooth. Very happy I've got a photographer to do the heavy lifting, I was mostly hanging around. 65 pictures shared, 30 selected for the client.

On Friday noon, I sat down and wrote all the 30 captions myself (3k+ words). Added icons, shared with the client. Some adjustments but generally pretty happy.

Thursday evening, I realised I was addicted to this bloody moba game and downloaded an app called App Block. Blocked youtube and the game from 00:05 to 21:00. So I allowed myself to play for 3 hours and the rest of the time I am not able to. I also did it in such a way, that it prevents me from rolling back the block. There's only one way which would be factory reset.

Met a friend, who runs a whitehat Instagram agency. It's our 4-5th meeting already. I have not realised until now, but he is a perfect client for me. I will charge him 50-100£ per month to grow his client's accounts. If he brings 15-20 clients to me, this will be a potential 1.5k-2k per month revenue to me. VERY good. Although he's a stingy Turkish guy (not being racist) and I think he will haggle the price to less than 50£ per client. In all honesty, if he brings ALL of them, I will probably go for it. All restaurants in London, meaning I can set up 1 acc and just copy settings. Meaning same sources, same hashtags, same everything. This seems very exciting, meeting him on Monday.

Kick off date is the 15th, he already paid me 300£. Wohoo!

Financial stuff

Current monthly expenses: -190.38£
Current client monthly income: 599.97£
Total monthly profit before tax: 409.59£

6 paying clients. Yay.

Highlights of the week

1. Client photoshoot went great - super easy for me
2. Client captions were written and approved
3. Got paid 300£ from the first serious client
4. Some client's accounts growth is 100+ per day which is amazing.
5. Got client's repost post ranked. 4.7k likes, 100k+ reach, 100+ comments. He's super happy. Finally my hashtag research paid off.
6. The potential white label deal with another agency landing me 15-20 clients
7. 2 New client meetings scheduled - not just social media management, but also full branding meaning website, logo etc.
8. Got an App Block. Finally putting an end to my gaming addiction.
9. Figured out a way to sort through bad proxies and got all my acc's with 1 exception to repost successfully and do 1000-1200 actions daily.

Mistakes / Problems / Downsides of the week

1. Wasted a good part of productive time playing a game (so fking addictive...)
2. All my *good* practises went out of the window. No proper morning routine/evening routine. Starting to damage my ability to wake up on time.
3. Reposted 6 identical captions + tags on newly created client's account. Which damaged the proxy and the account. Can't repost on new proxies now... Just waiting to see if it will become ok. Got instant blocks on like/follow/unfollow. Stupid.
4. 2 client accounts are doing 100-150 follows only on some days. Seen 1 being blocked, but sources are refilled, so not sure what's up. It reaches 400 p/day but is a lot slower compared to others. Weird.
5. 2 clients accounts are growing slowly 400-500 monthly follow backs. 1 is posting daily. Can't find a way to grow faster, weird.

Time Management Tricks

1. App Block, this is the only recommendation. If you are like me and have a will power of a chipmunk. Then its a life saver. The app is called "Block" and is a grey padlock in the green square. Pm me if interested. It's free.

Lessons learned

1. KISS - Keep it simple stupid. Complexity sucks. My client portal works wonders, my client is using it and love it.
2. This is more of a 1.1. in the sense that I should apply this method to everything. Simple methods work.

Summary

I don't know if you can get any value of this update unfortunately. I honestly feel like I've spent 70% of the time not doing anything (gaming...) and just reacting to things coming up. I am working hard to make my next week productive and with my app block preventing gaming, expect a much stronger update with strategies you could take away.

I am at 409£ profit currently before tax of my 1000£ goal for 6 months. It's been 70 days since I officially started. Not bad. But I feel I could do so much more if I could force myself to work more. I used to spend 60h, sometimes 70-80h at my restaurant job, oh I wish I could work this much.

Goals Wishlist

1. Need to start making youtube videos
2. Start blog post writing
3. Learn public speaking

Goals for next week

1. 100 emails to send
2. 100 phone calls to make
3. 5 power base reach outs (to my old connections)
4. 1 New client
5. Figure out a way to manage clients (pretty much done) and automate the shit out of it

Next Update: 17th of March
P.s. Let me know what you like to read, what you don't like and what I should expand on more. Also, if you have experience and feel like giving feedback or even constructive feedback is very welcome.