Another big week.

Marketing Progress

I am still developing the content for the course. I think its the best way to go about it. I have added a newsletter marketing sequence for the course and will start tracking the subscriptions in How I'm Doing section at the bottom. My newsletter isn't huge, but its starting to grow. Like I mentioned last week I have decided on using newsletter marketing as the first channel to drive sales.

Content Progress

I have another 10030 words written, but its a long slog. I'm not getting the hours into the work that I am hoping for. The main reason for this is I'm back on site and working hard to get this project finished

Saying no

Something that I am still bad at is saying no. This is relevant because the project I'm working at this week is something I should have said no to in February. This is before the current me/client issues (maybe I will get into this in the future), but I still felt (gut thing) that this wasn't going to be easy, and the client didn't have the background to actually get it all done. However I said yes anyway, and because I had so much work on the go with them I gave them a discount.

Never Give discounts

This is another rule I have broken too many times this year. In the past I NEVER gave discounts. I would set my rates for the year in the preceding November with three rate classes, A, B, and C; highest to lowest.

The A rate was for any risky projects, or new clients. Basically if you asked me on the street what my rate was, this is what I would tell you.

The B rate was what I used if it is an established client that has paid on time in the past, consistently, or the rate that I used to develop fixed fee projects.

The C rate is for partners, people or companies that I may be sub contracting with. Its typically ~30% less than the A rate and I expect them to charge me at the A rate to their client. I write this right in the contract. The reason for this is I want to give people that I'm working with the incentive to work with me in the future, especially if I like them, and my rate isn't a race to the bottom because a client may decide its cheaper to hire me through someone than direct; although I'd be fine with that too. Client management is a pain in the ass sometimes.

Now back to the reason these updates exist.

Technical Details

I have spent my first dollars. I have decided on using Wordpress WooCommerce, Sensei LMS and the paid courses extension to manage the backend of the course. I didn't spend too much time figuring this out, its only $129 a year and its from Wordpress and that's what I use for the website anyway.

The goal

The goal is to build a product or series of products that allows me to scale. The financial goal is to build a business that has a monthly revenue stream of $5k with less than 20hrs worked on average by the end of March 2020.

The Why

If this is your first time here, thanks for stopping by. I wrote my first post on this topic in November 2019. They all have a "special" tag, so you can find them all here: #noloafing. If you want to see where this all started, its with this post, Money and the Gig-Economy.

How I'm Doing

Hours worked: 4.4hrs
Revenue: $0
Expenses: $129
Newletter Subs: 205

Be sure to follow along and leave a comment below!

Cheers,
NL