Thanks for trying Mike. I suspect that this is mostly a crowd looking for strategy. It seems that there are the mind set people and the strategy people. It's rare that both mesh. But I certainly appreciate the share.

I hear ya, and I know what you mean. I got your email as well. I'll hit you back after the weekend. Not completely back at the desk yet. Hang in there and you'll get where you need to be. Only a couple of factors to really consider...

1. Is there really a market out there that wants what you are offering?

2. Assuming there is and your offer is converting, then is the process dialed in and are you converting enough.

3. Assuming you are converting well, if you're not making enough money then you simply need more traffic.

The rest is just the 80% of the stuff that accounts for 20% of your results (referencing the 80/20 principle).

Hey Michael,

You know, the thing that has always worked for me is to just help as many people as possible and rest confident in the fact that the money will come. If I were in your shoes I would get a decent grasp on who i wanted to help and then start reaching out offering free consultations. You could do this by telling potential clients that you are a start up consulting firm and in an effort to get a better handle on what the market needs you'd like to take on a few beta clients for free, no strings attached. You could help a few customers get their sites up to scratch and then lay out a blueprint for what they would need to do maintenance wise (SEO, content creation, paid advertising, etc). You could of course offer your services at that point if they wanted to have someone do it for them and slowly accrue a client list of high end monthly clients. The idea being that because you will have worked with them there will be enough trust, and results in advance, that you won't even have to sell yourself. This is assuming you are looking into the web consulting space.

This process would help you to really understand what the market needed and to figure out a checklist for your process. Once you have clients coming in you could scale down your free consulting commitment so that it was much less time consuming and maybe just offer 30 minute consulting sessions to effectively accomplish the same thing. Or you could always stick with making personal appearances to introduce yourself and pitch your services.

Bottom line is that I have found that if you just think about the help you can offer first, and make sure that you do take action to get those services in front of people, it's hard to fail. Pretty soon you will be turning down work. There is always a shortage of people who are good at what they do and honest and fair to boot.

Awesome to have you back Greg. Missed having you in here on a regular bases. Glad you're back in the swing of things.

Let me know if you guys get this going. Don't know how much free time I have at the moment but would love to try and stop by when time permits. Happy to see you guys organizing like this.

Mike Ippersiel said

John Oszajca said
Hey Michael,

You know, the thing that has always worked for me is to just help as many people as possible and rest confident in the fact that the money will come. If I were in your shoes I would get a decent grasp on who i wanted to help and then start reaching out offering free consultations. You could do this by telling potential clients that you are a start up consulting firm and in an effort to get a better handle on what the market needs you'd like to take on a few beta clients for free, no strings attached. You could help a few customers get their sites up to scratch and then lay out a blueprint for what they would need to do maintenance wise (SEO, content creation, paid advertising, etc). You could of course offer your services at that point if they wanted to have someone do it for them and slowly accrue a client list of high end monthly clients. The idea being that because you will have worked with them there will be enough trust, and results in advance, that you won't even have to sell yourself. This is assuming you are looking into the web consulting space.

This process would help you to really understand what the market needed and to figure out a checklist for your process. Once you have clients coming in you could scale down your free consulting commitment so that it was much less time consuming and maybe just offer 30 minute consulting sessions to effectively accomplish the same thing. Or you could always stick with making personal appearances to introduce yourself and pitch your services.

Bottom line is that I have found that if you just think about the help you can offer first, and make sure that you do take action to get those services in front of people, it's hard to fail. Pretty soon you will be turning down work. There is always a shortage of people who are good at what they do and honest and fair to boot.

This is excellent advice John - I think I may have told you this "offline" rather then here on the forum.

The whole approach of giving first and letting the details come together after the fact is proven time and again. I just heard about a book from a man by the name of James Alturcher called "Choose Yourself" and saw a bit of a talk he did about how he managed to make millions of dollars. He basically put others before himself and helped them before worrying about what it was he wanted to get out of the transaction. This is a great way to build up trust and side-step the whole 'credentials' and track record issues that most people (myself included) tend to use as obstacles for why they can't do something.

The great thing about the situation I'm going through right now is I'm learning/solidifying what I know about myself. What my likes/dislikes and strengths are. As I understand myself better and focus on my strengths, my ability to help others will increase and I'll be able to make a greater impact and turn things around while helping others more effectively at the same time. Everybody wins.

I really appreciate the sounding board John, as it's nice to get some perspective from a knowledgeable source that isn't buried in the reality - who can still see the forest for the trees.

Thanks again!

Yeah, I remember Robert Kiosaki (Rich Dad Poor Dad Author) saying something like "the best way to get rich is to offer people something that is a better deal for them as the receiver than it is for you as the giver". I think that's true and that it happens to the beauty in the potential of "Ayn Randian" capitalism. If we all do that the world becomes a better place and we all get rewarded for it along the way. In simpler terms, if you focus on just creating value you inevitably have more customers than you can handle, as by definition, if you are creating value people will want it. The money becomes the easy part at that stage. That sort of sounds like one of those BS things that people just say, but I really do think it's been a key factor in all of my successes in life.