July Income

[stacyfox]

Hi Folks,

I started up my offline business in April, 2010. I have done online marketing for three years now (affiliate marketing, adsense sites, and written and sold my own ebook). But I was never able to support myself through these efforts.

I'm "semi-full time" at Offline Marketing. I have a unique situation in that my husband has a law practice and I answer his phones and do minor things around his office. If I'm not available, his phones go to voice mail, but all things being equal, he prefers to have a live person answer them. But, they don't ring off the hook.

When I started in April, I sent out postcards and emails. Then in May, I started a letter campaign to local dentists and chiropractors. In June, I bought 350 "robo-calls". In July, I hired a VA from the Philippines to send out emails advertising google places. In April-June, I brought in $375 - not enough to cover expenses.

When I started up in April, I purchased a psychic reading at Fivrr.com. I'm not really sure why I did it and I don't really believe in psychic readings - especially ones you buy for $5 over the internet, but my psychic said I would have good months in July and October.

July was a breakthrough month.

So, here's a break out of my clients and how I got them.

Client #1 - Local dentist - method obtained May Letter - the work had already been done, this was the second half of the payment for $375.

Client #2 - Local dentist - method obtained May Letter - the dentist gave me the verbal go ahead the first of June but failed to sign the contract or send the first half of the check for the website before leaving on a month long vacation to India. When he got back, he sent me a check for $400 to cover half the payment for a simple wordpress website. I should get the other half in August when the work is completed.

Client #3 - Local chiropractor - method obtained May Letter - again, I got the verbal go ahead in June but it took a while to get the contract and the check from the client. This time it is 1/2 the money ($400) upfront for modifications to the website, building a facebook page, and updating and building citations to the Google Places listing (he's already in the 7 pack, he just wants to stay there). I should get the other $400 in August or September.

Client #4 - Banker - method obtained robo-call - this is where a mass dialing service is calling businesses and doing a 30 second ad for you. If they are interested, the business owner presses "1" to be connected to you. You get billed $3 or so for every transfer. Most (8/10) transfers are people yelling at you for calling them or people asking to be taken off the list (even though they can take themselves off by pressing "2") and you still pay for those. But 2 out of 10 are still at least interested in hearing about what you have to say. I find that most fit the profile of needing Google Places. But not all. This banker, for instance, wanted an adwords campaign set up. He paid a $500 set up fee in July and has agreed to a $200 maintenance and reporting fee.

Client #6 - Financial Planner - method obtained robo-call - most robo-calls require that I make initial contact and then follow up several times before the deal closes. But this one closed immediately. $795 in my pocket just like that through credit card payment. Interestingly, both the Financial Planner and the Banker have inquired with my robo-call broker into how they could set up the service for themselves. They may have been impressed with the technology I was using.

Note: While I only have 2 robo-call success stories here for July, there are several more that could close in August off of July leads.

Client #7 - ??? - method obtained VA email - I'm being a little mysterious about this client only because I don't want to reveal the niche I'm in with the VA I'm using but he has two office locations and I'm doing Google Places for both for a fee of $1000 - half of which $500 I got up front. I'll get the other half as soon as both offices appear in the 7 pack.He's currently spending heavily on adwords and sees this as a good alternative.

Note: I have several leads outstanding on VA emails that should close in August

I did some rounding above, but my total intake was $2970. My advertising expenses are as follows:

postcards (no sales) $85
letters (3 sales) $125
Robo-calls (2 sales) $1035 (I still have 160 transfers left on my account which should take me through late September at the rate I'm going)
Virtual Assistant working approx. 60 hours per week at $1.67 per hour(1 sale): $500

When I was figuring this out for myself at the beginning of the month, I was surprised to see that the highest value activity was actually the letters. Because they took so long to pan out, I had moved on to costlier forms of advertising that had quicker turn around times. I'm just at the break even point at the robo-calls and VA, but I expect to turn a profit on them soon given the outstanding leads. Plus, I have tons of robocalls left. (I'm slow to use them because I don't enjoy getting yelled at. In some ways, it's worse than cold calling. I probably won't buy them again.)

I hope this breakdown of someone just starting out was helpful to other people just starting out. So much of this is trial and error that I thought if we pooled our experiences we could learn from one another.

The only thing I paid for in July was the VA. The other things were paid for before July. So, I've got a plus balance in my business bank account. July was a good month.

And I'm really looking forward to October

Stacy

[Bonnie]

Thanks for sharng that helpful analysis of your prospecting activities, Stacy -- and the interesting revelation about which strategy was most effective! Just goes to show, tracking and testing are always better than assuming, right? Nicely done, and congratulations on your clients!

[Sully]

Congratulations Stacy! I really hope this is just the tip of the iceberg for you. Keep us posted!

[Dexx]

Way to go Stacy!

Hopefully you can share your experiences and advice as you work with each client and discover bits of information that could help others from getting stuck (or improving on) similar things you did =)

Keep it up!

~Dexx

PS - Gonna move this to the Success Stories section to make it easier for people in the future to find this thread and be inspired to take action just as you have

[jlmkt]

Stacy,

Congrats on such a good beginning and Thank You for sharing so much.
It will definitely help those of us getting started -- actually everyone will
gain more insight.

You're doing great. More than on your way!

What has been your most challenging aspect, if you'd care to share?

Lee

[phoenixmarketingdr]

congads great job
When I started in April, I sent out postcards and emails. Then in May, I started a letter campaign to local dentists and chiropractors. In June, I bought 350 "robo-calls". In July, I hired a VA from the Philippines to send out emails advertising google places. In April-June, I brought in $375 - not enough to cover expenses.

what kind of postcards and what type of list you may be able to be sharper in what these say and who you have on your list