Dear Offline Bizzers... Can you provide rough figures on how much revenue you generate per year?

Thanks Claude.

So to clarify, you have generated 200K in billings (most of which will be profit?) doing this part time? That is very impressive!

When you mention you speak to large groups, are you referring to holding monthly small business owner seminars?

Also do you mind sharing what the one package is that you sell (to give me ideas)?

Finally, thanks for your advice re not quitting my full time job to do this.

I've simply lost the passion with my current job, I don't really enjoy the work environment nor am I a fan of working hard to make somebody else rich.

I would much rather build my own business and know all of the hard work is ultimately going to reward my own back pocket. Some people will call me crazy for wanting to leave a 5-6 figure income (fluctuates based on commission) to do this but it just feels like the right thing to do.

I am also aligning this so I have a years worth of funds to carry me for 12 months. That way I can give this a proper shot and know it will kill off any "I am desperate" to make a sale vibe as a result. I completely understand what you mean though about being desperate and not making sales as a result. I've been there early in my career.

Thankfully I have worked as a BDM for the last 6 years, and needed to cold call businesses and do meetings etc. It almost seems like a perfect set of skills for this business model!

I will be putting myself into a little bit of debt to support myself for a year without a salary/commissions - about 30K worth to be precise, but hearing figures like yours, it's really encouraging to know that if I make the calls and it should all work out.

Prior to leaving my job, I will be mapping out a prospects list comprising of a few hundred different clients in different niches. That way there will be no down time on day 1, and I will be able to hit the phones straight away and book meetings.

It's a big decision for me and I haven't been able to sleep properly the last week or so feeling mixed emotions.

Ultimately though, my gut feeling is telling me it is the right thing to do and I believe it will all work out.

Hey Sebski,

Thanks for your comments. Our situations indeed sound familiar!

Is there a way I can contact you outside of here, perhaps through facebook so we can have a longer conversation/

Thanks,

This is a really cool post.

I would have 2 suggestions that may or may not be helpful:

# 1: Charge more. Often if you have a reasonable number of
clients and you're not making good money it's because you're simply
not charging enough.

# 2: Seriously consider finding some joint venture partners who sell
services that you don't offer.

Things like Facebook marketing, or Google Maps, marketing with
online video or any kind of valuable add on service you might offer
to your clients and prospects.

Find joint venture partners who understand the cost of getting new
clients and are willing to pay a good percentage of their fee to you
for bringing them clients who are ready to go (think 50%+).

If you're good at selling something for a third party you should be
able to make some great profits going back to all the contacts you
already have and sell them services provided by the joint venture
partners you trust.

Kindest regards,
Andrew Cavanagh

It's always great to hear stories like this as it presents you with the "other side". The grim reality for some people.

In response to yourself - having my own business is not my primary motivator in doing this as I have built other businesses in the past and have popped that cherry.

What I am looking for, is the freedom that having my own business grants me (similarly to Seb), and knowing that the hard work I am putting in, will ultimately contribute to building something that is my asset. The best part is in knowing that the harder I work, the bigger my asset will grow.

What I really like about this model is that it fits very well with my career background and "strengths" if you will. I've worked in B2B sales for 6 years and have utilized cold calling as the primary way to generate meetings and have closed off the back of the meetings. Using cold calling seems to be one the key ways people use to succeed with this business model.

It's also comforting to know that a lot of the local business owners are not managers or owners of larger sized businesses. I just know it will be a much easier sell than what I am use to.

Knowing that I need to be cold calling from 9-5 is precisely one of the reasons why I think it may be wise to make the switch. So I can give this a serious shot full time. But to be safe, I will start off doing it on Saturdays first and seeing how I go from there.

Thanks for sharing your feedback.

Hire a commision sales rep, improve marketing efforts (systems) and increase prices, and endeavor to hire someone to do the customer service so you can do the parts you like.

Dan

Thanks all.

With the mention of systems needing to be put into place, can you guys offer your thoughts on the below (hopefully this can help any other guys thinking of starting their offline biz):

My plan specifically is to have all of the JV relationships already organised by the time I launch the business.

Prior to launching, I will know exactly who I will be outsourcing certain tasks to (I will find and review different article/newsletter service provider, a separate web development/design company, a separate SEO company etc and decide on who I will be using);

OR

I will go down the road of utilising two separate friends and their existing companies who specialise in doing all of the web development/design/seo work etc and splitting a 50/50 fee with them.

The client will be mine and I will earn all of the residual income from the email marketing/newsletter/article writing services I will provide through a separate provider.

By being able to hand over the jobs to my friends companies or the separate outsourcing service providers, I will be able to take a project manager stance with the project work and focus the majority of my time making cold calls, utilising email marketing, CL/gumtree and other forms of advertising to contact additional prospects for meetings to drum up new business.

My focus is to put on the sales & marketing hat for the business and generate clients with the focus of building monthly residual cash flow from the additional services that will be offered.

I am currently in the process of mapping out prospective clients through the yellow pages on an excel spreadsheet, and will conduct basic research on every business I am going to call/email market to so my emails or my cold calls can be very tailored to each client.

PS. Before launching into this full time, I will be making a few calls on Saturdays and send out a few emails to prospective clients to "feel out" the market.

Building the business prospect list will take up quite a few hours, but my experience in sales dictates that it's worth the time investment. The goal is to have a minimum of 300 companies mapped out so I will be kept very busy for the first two weeks in business making calls/email marketing and spend the next week doing a considerable amount of client meetings.

After I have taken on a few clients through cold calling/email marketing I will then be contacting my extended network of friends and offer my services as I want an existing portfolio prior to selling sell to them (just the way I would prefer it).

I will then expand the marketing side of things by delving into CL/Gumtree and look into other forms of advertising depending on the niches I am focusing on.

Having no prior experience running a web development/design/IM consulting company, I want to make sure I don't have any major blind spots before entering.

Can the guys who have been doing this offer any obvious blind spots or suggestions with the above plan please?

Thanks

Thanks Eddie. I'm only 36 but have many hard won scars and grey hairs (on my chin, not my head).

Business is all about leverage. You can't win just by working harder. You have to leverage advertising media. You have to leverage the work of other people. You have to leverage marketplaces which support what you do.

Working harder leads to death. Using leverage brings a whole different outlook.