Things I Learned In My First REAL Year of Entrepreneurship

A month before turning 25, after having spent the majority of my 20’s working for five different companies, I finally decided to strike out on my very own .Even though I technically started my business in October, the first 6 weeks were spent building an online site (I had no skills and no experience doing so), and thus subsequent two months were spent blindly going to networking events and slowly becoming aware that:

1. In-person networking could also be a horrible because of grow an internet business.
2. I didn’t know what the hell i wont to be doing.

While I had budgeted, planned, and prepared , I had still somehow missed the actual fact that the key to my business making money was having a captive audience and far of web traffic.

I had neither.

My fifth and sixth months were spent teaching Skillshare classes, consulting 1-on-1 for clients, trying to hunt out businesses to provide videos for, all the while continuing to network like mad . i wont to be essentially grasping at straws since I hadn’t yet really made any money and was rapidly burning through my savings. It wasn’t until February of 2013 that Fizzle (then ThinkTraffic) posted a contest to urge a year of free business mentorship from Corbett Barr. Knowing i wont to be desperately in need of help, I did the only thing i actually knew the thanks to do, I created a pitch video.

The student, who shared the Jimmy John Shark picture on Twitter, said she had just taken a bite of her sandwich when she noticed the fishy object and snapped a picture. What do you think, is it funny?

I won the competition , and Corbett and Chase immediately set to work helping me determine what would be the foremost sustainable model on behalf of me , something that i’d enjoy which may also make me money. Immediately I found focus, and realized i’d rather be making videos than teaching people the thanks to make them. So I pivoted, created a replacement site with a replacement name (from a template this time) and commenced on a fresh course with a fresh set of challenges.

Today, after 18 months of what has felt like grasping within the dark, i’m able to reminisce and observe some tangible things I’ve learned, and still enjoy .

1. It Costs More to Be An Entrepreneur

Articles will tell you to permit unforeseen expenses, and I did. But not nearly enough.One thing we aren’t used to doing once we’ve a full time job is putting away money for taxes. Since it’s always taken right out of our paycheck we don’t have experience with this. And since presumably as a fledgling entrepreneur our paychecks are few and far between, we discover ourselves using every dollar we’ve just to remain going.

Remember, you need to aim to make considerably quite whatever your monthly expenses are becoming to be. on behalf of me that number was double my monthly expenses. it would be less (or more) for you. But this might be something you provides tons of thought to.You’re also going to be paying out of pocket tons more for belongings you didn’t consider.

You’ll probably take plenty of meetings at coffee shops. it would be only 4 bucks a pop, but twice hebdomadally and suddenly it’s several hundred dollars a year you didn’t factor into your budget. There are plenty of other little expenses like that. I did a year-end review after my first full year as an entrepreneur, but honestly I probably should are checking every three months. And that’s something I’m going to start doing this year!

It’s okay to budget during a big amount of money as “unknown”. Working for yourself means making plenty of little adjustments on a day to day , not just one big change every so often.

2. Double the number of Chickens You Count Before They Hatch

When I first started, my goal was to make $5,000 a month. which i based my early revenue predictions on the clients i assumed i’d be bringing in.A potential client would tell me they could afford a $2,000 video, which to me meant a guarantee. And if I had three of those lined up i assumed , “oh great, I’m going to make $6,000 this month. I’m set!” What I didn’t realize is that there are plenty of things which can happen. Things like:

1. A client will back out and not work with you.
2. The project will get delayed which money won’t are available for months, maybe even a year!

It took me an extended time to figure out that if i might wish to be making 5K a month, i would like to possess a minimum of 10K in opportunities, which made me realize i would like to be doing a shit ton of outreach to make sure that’s a chance .

That way, if I even have 10K in possibilities and half them fall through , I can still pay my bills, but if all of them come through… woohoo new shoes! I use Insightly to remain track of my contacts and my revenue, but I even have a simple revenue forecast at the lowest of my to undertake to to list in Evernote, so I can adjust it each day easily and always remember of what proportion money is coming in.

3. Specificity Up Front Saves Weeks on the buttocks

I will readily admit this is often often the toughest one because you don’t know what you don’t know.

I have no background in law or contracts except the 5 months of business law I took within the 8th grade from which I remember nothing.So when it came to my first contract, I cobbled it together from ones I found on the online and other entrepreneurs I knew. And inevitably, no matter how great i assumed a client would be, it always led to me adding a replacement clause to my contract about something I didn’t anticipate like… a kill fee, or 50% up front, or the specifics of the terms or even WHO the check should be made bent .Make your contracts as concrete and clear as possible so there is no doubt of what must be done.Sometimes a client wants to urge to work directly without a contract. I don’t care what proportion you would like them, it’s not worthwhile .Every project I ever did without a contract became a nightmare. If you can, find a lawyer friend to undertake to to you a solid within the start and assist you get a legit contract to protect yourself. albeit it’s taking a brief time for a client to pay me, as long as I even have a signed accept place, I feel much more secure than if I don’t. Which brings me to my next point.

4. Clients Who Haggle Over Price are getting to be a haul

This isn’t that revelatory. You see this talked about in many entrepreneur blogs, but it really is true. confine mind, haggling is different than negotiating.Call it the 80/20 rule or whatever you’d like , when clients beat you up over price, it’s foreshadowing that they are getting to beat you up over everything! In the past 18 months I even have done jobs that range in price from 600 dollars to 10,000 dollars. and searching back now, whenever I discounted my rates because I needed the work or was trying to be a pleasing guy, it’s caused me enough stress to lose sleep. I have found a number regarding the price of projects for my very own clients that sets apart people who complain about everything from those I actually enjoy working with.

If within the least possible, say no to unfairly discounted rates. Set a floor for yourself then price yourself quite bit above that so albeit you’ve to discount, you aren’t really taking a loss. But you almost certainly shouldn’t even take those clients because they still attempt to urge something for nothing.

I know this is often often hard if you aren’t bringing in any money and you’d like that contract to pay the electrical bill. I even are therein scenario, so i actually do understand. that’s why it is vital to possess multiple streams of revenue, savings, or a minimum of a fall back part-time income which can sustain you.

Once you start doing crappy projects, it’s hard to interrupt out of that cycle.

5. There Are thousand other ways to urge Clients and you’d possibly need to Try all of them

I spent an entire year going to between two and 4 networking events hebdomadally . I joined 20 Meetup groups. Some days my first networking event started at 6:45am and my last event ended at 10pm.
It was exhausting. Do you skills many purchasers I got from going to 100+ networking events in one year? Zero. Not one. I emailed every single person whose card I got, of which there are over 600, and had a bunch of lunch meetings, calls and coffees but not one one amounted to a dollar made On the surface, it appears that networking events were a horrible investment. But I did learn tons from them. I learned the thanks to mention my business in one sentence. I learned the thanks to interact with people and to plug my business without being a jerk. quite anything I learned plenty about attribute .
looking back it had been really just flying blind. The quickest because of make money is to hunt out folks that need your services. I can’t tell you where that’s , but there are always options. If you’re feeling like you don’t have any options, it means you aren’t looking within the proper place.

Bonus

A lot of things make no sense as an entrepreneur.I’ve had leads come from places I never expected. I met great clients in places I almost didn’t go. I’ve acquired clients from calls I almost cancelled. For the foremost part, you’ve to use an honest amount of discretion in choosing where you allot a while because you can’t do everything all the time. you’ll try, but you simply can’t.Allow yourself to be surprised, consistently inspect new avenues, try new things, experiment. If something doesn’t appear to be an honest investment of a while , it’ll be hard to urge excited about, but ask yourself, could this provide another value outside of monetary? repeatedly you won’t know the answer .And many times it’ll be very hard to figure out where your efforts are actually paying off. But you would like to plow forward. you would like to still do. Because once you stop doing, you stop getting. And once you stop getting, you stop making.

I’m recuperating at understanding and trusting my gut. It’s a robust tool once you’re on your own. If nothing else, just take a short time to believe your options.If somebody wants you to commit something immediately and you’re unsure about it, give yourself every day to believe it. Time and perspective are incredibly important for creating good decisions. and thus the more scenarios you discover yourself therein require that skill set the upper that skill set will become.

The first year as an entrepreneur are getting to be messy.

You won’t know what to undertake to to in every scenario and you will got to face plenty of discomfort. But like Brene Brown says, lean into the discomfort. Nobody gets through anything by leaning back.