Ok, this isn’t any “writerly” stuff or “sales big balls” stuff that I favor. This is me, putting my head down to get caught up. This week was a good one for me. I probably doubled my capacity to do work, if not more so.
How?
Well, partnering? Partly, sure.
Outsourcing? That too.
I had a problem: selling created some work I hated. I love blogging. I love helping people. I love the premise of self publishing. I built a business on it, and I connected with friends because of it. I believe. I love. I lead by example.
That said, it’s still tedious as hell to do a blog setup. Fantastico, wait. Plugin, wait. Analytics. Wait. Lather, rinse, repeat. Feeds, details. Crap I’m not good at. Server issues. I want to talk to people dammit, not be a pale geek working on DNS issues at 4am.
So, selling was creating a problem for me: namely this: I had to do stuff I didn’t like on a regular basis. Every sale came with $750 (good) and then massive issues: having to do a chore that I couldn’t stand. I like selling. I like causing blogs to get delievered, but like a petulant child, I couldn’t bring myself to eat my lima beans.
And my customers, with high hopes, they suffered. My customers got harmed because I was not doing my job right. Work piled up, choking out my bandwidth. And I couldn’t do the fun things because I always had doom and dread surrounding me. I can sell people–left and right. I couldn’t sell with confidence because I was unable to deliver. I knew it, it eroded my confidence, my ability to wake up with enthusiasm to sell. It got me off kilter on my projects large and small, and burnout came in. I was testy about this stuff, and I didn’t build the rest of my business.
Plus, every blog was reinventing the wheel. I took in a bunch of blogs about 3 weeks ago. I got jammed up, refunded yet more money. I got behind on fun little projects. I got behind and surly on delivering my freelancer battleplan.
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So I fixed it. First, I took control of my GTD. Did a good job with it. Second, I decided that I needed to start doing things correctly. That I needed to start making this thing a business, and that I was in too many loops. So, Johnny B. Truant, erstwhile devil that he is, said, “Hey, WordPress? Johnson, WTF are you hemming and hawing on that. Pay me a few bones and it’s out of your hair.”
OKAYfine. I say, “but we gotta define what it means to “install wordpress”
We did that. In true, analyical fashion, we have the plugins winnowed down, what the “Hard parts” are.
Now, I can sell & host blogs without dread. I have a worldbeater behind me. I can now focus on making them all the best. I have the ball, and I want the ball. Selling now doesn’t have extra tedium, and I can afford to offer more to my customers because my “headache” is gone.
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So, that means: http://smallbizblogfacts.com will have nothing but how to blog for a LOCAL business wanting REAL LIVE CUSTOMERS that swipe their AMEXES. That’s project #1, and I’ll focus on it, cause it’s where I get new people to help.
The next one is getting “GenuineChris.Com” upgraded. It will be my portal, my main site, a “jump in” point for people to get on my lists, and get what I do. Not that anyone “gets” what I do. I’m going for the big time, before I run outta time. I’ve got eyez on me.
I can more or less define my “core” services: sales pages, Social Media Setups, Search Engine Tune Ups, bulk blog writing, auto-responder writing, blog strategy, setups of DAP. I can create then a menu and a coherent sales process that gives people access, explains what it is, and then get good people to handle fulfillment. This is what I want. I am–at heart–a salesperson. I love to help people. It’s what I excel at. I can create a strategy, and I can have really good people (that don’t dig the sales stuff) do the rest. My customers are the biggest winners here. Why didn’t I do this before?
I’ll name out my services that I want to sell, and automate where possible.
And, there’s no fixed overhead. It’s piecemeal. That’s the beauty. I have good people–REALLY good people–backing me up. (Like, world class, you would not-believe-it-if-I-told-you people). I can now be free to sell, at velocity.
After that project will be the finalization of http://freelancerbattleplan.com. I’m 2 weeks late. But this time, I mean it. I’m gooood to go with it. Pumped, stoked, and ready. I’m just learning too much from Teaching Sells to mess with it.
So, this week was a life changer. Light on new sales, I got 3 big projects 100% done, leaving me with 4 more to finish. This project, though, that I did with Johnny B Truant is going to pay major dividends, soon. I am now free to do what I’m good at.
You will indeed here more of me this week.
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It always makes me smile to see someone so happy with what they’ve created with their own blood, sweat, and tears.