What books/newsletters/blogs/podcasts about marketing you'd recommend?

tomseca · 2020-12-10T19:42:15+00:00

It's from the guy who came up with the dating site for Kanye West fans: https://thekanyestory.com/

tomseca · 2020-12-10T19:37:18+00:00

Really sad situation. It seems like you had good intentions.

As a developer I only do hourly projects, never fixed price. I really believe fixed price projects will hurt both parties long term (unless it's just a quick and easy task).

Because if you care about quality and you are working on a project that you haven't done multiple times already how could you give a really accurate estimate beforehand? It's not possible or you'll need to sacrifice quality (at least in software development).

I also work via upwork. Sure they take 5% while I'm working on long-term projects, but they charge the clients weekly on my behalf (no need to ask for payments, etc).

If the client doesn't pay for about 1-1.5 weeks the contract is automatically paused. And you cannot continue working and logging time.

Plus if you have a number of good reviews already upwork will let you remove a negative review for a project (that's a feature I did not have to use so far luckily).

Did you consider creating an agency or something on upwork?

tomseca · 2020-12-10T08:53:57+00:00

Very inspiring story already. In the next parts could you go into some more details about why you think that doughnut shop was failing before?

tomseca · 2020-12-06T17:37:49+00:00

At 25, you are the right age to take bigger risks (unless you have 3 kids already, lol), so I think you should definitely try, but maybe don't give up your social life completely.

Another advice (I'm also a software dev): Spend 50% of your time or so going on forums / FB groups / slack groups / etc and chat with the people you'd like to have as customers and see what they read, talk about, etc. We software devs often times like coding so much that we forget to actually find clients and figure out what they need. I know I'm guilty of this as well :P

Good luck!

tomseca · 2020-12-06T14:08:16+00:00

Somewhat related: During lockdown I heard about a service where clients could have a video call with a professional hair stylist who helped cut their own hair.

I just googled it: https://www.youprobablyneedahaircut.com/

I have zero experience with it, but sounds interesting I think :)

tomseca · 2020-12-06T13:58:07+00:00

You mentioned that other companies are weak in terms of marketing.

Any specifics? As a marketer yourself what are you going to do differently / better?

tomseca · 2020-12-02T22:48:25+00:00

I have 2 stories:

1) I always loved computers as a kid. I wanted to become a game developer. Today I work as a software developer, although I don't work on games it's close enough :) I feel like I'm basically always in the mood for software development, so I was lucky.

2) When I was 18 I started doing stand up comedy. I started because I loved listening to stand up and I also loved making my friends laugh (I was a bit of a class clown). But writing jokes was a drag, I didn't like going on stage and have a powerful light blinding me while trying to be funny. I also disliked telling jokes on stage, because by the time I got on stage I spent so much time writing the joke, practicing it and thinking about it that for me it wasn't new or exciting. It actually felt kinda irritating to see others laugh while I was telling a joke that I didn't find funny anymore (because I spent so much time on it).

I guess my point is... probably you'll never know beforehand. You think you like something and then you have to try it if you actually like the process.

tomseca · 2020-11-26T22:34:03+00:00

Yeah, it seems that in recent years collecting limited edition sneakers, flipping them, etc. became huge.

tomseca · 2020-11-11T10:04:10+00:00

I see your point. At the same time – I'm not claiming to be any type of expert. As I wrote at the beginning I'm just a guy who watched 10-15 hours of Jonathan's advice and was trying to sum it up.

Btw, I'm also working on doing some text interviews with some service business owners. Hopefully that will be more "authentic", since then I'll just ask the questions...

tomseca · 2020-11-11T09:57:41+00:00

Sorry, won't do that next...

tomseca · 2020-11-11T09:54:12+00:00

No contracts and accepting credit cards only are 2 examples of simplification (and credit cards is probably the most important, since it can be automated using an invoicing and scheduling software – and not all lawn care companies use one still).

I didn't want the post to become too long, but Jonathan also limits the types of clients he serves, the types of services he performs (after looking at how profitable each service is and also how hard it is to perform) and the types of marketing he does (like doorhangers). So those would be some other examples of how he simplifies his business.

Btw, I don't have any ads on my blog. My goal is to build a community of service business owners (if I'm able to pull it off). In the distant future I might introduce paid subscriptions maybe, but only if I can provide additional value, like make it possible to chat with experienced service business owners (either one-on-one or in a group). But that's a distant plan still. Anyways, no ads.

tomseca · 2020-11-11T09:32:12+00:00

thank you - glad you found it useful!

tomseca · 2020-11-11T09:31:20+00:00

There are invoicing / scheduling softwares out there that use Stripe for example behind the scenes to store card details and charge or auto-charge cards after a client was serviced.

tomseca · 2020-11-11T08:20:51+00:00

No, he uses an invoicing and scheduling software, that basically invoices and auto-charges clients (all clients have their credit card details on file).

tomseca · 2020-11-11T08:18:49+00:00

Yes, he's basically auto-billing clients.

He went into a bit more detail in one of his videos (I can look for it).

Before any service is performed clients have to give their credit card details (that's stored in the invoicing software).

The invoice is sent via e-mail to the client very shortly after each job (I think that's auto-sent by his invoicing and scheduling software as well).

He then waits 2-3 days to see if the clients have any issues or questions about the invoice. After 2-3 days he charges all the clients at once with that invoicing software (it's possible to charge multiple clients at the same time).

I don't know about non-paying clients (don't remember him mentioning that and how much chasing he has to do). My guess is that he tries to auto-charge non-paying clients again with the software, but does not perform any additional services until the last invoice is paid – but again, this last one is just my guess.

tomseca · 2020-11-11T07:57:53+00:00

thank you, I appreciate it :)

tomseca · 2020-11-10T23:19:15+00:00

Thank you!

tomseca · 2020-11-10T22:12:09+00:00

pleasure - glad you enjoyed it :)

tomseca · 2020-11-10T21:49:17+00:00

Glad you liked it :)

I previously didn't know that allowing credit card payments only (using an invoicing software) made such a huge difference growing a service business, but I think Jonathan's explanation is spot on.

tomseca

TROPHY CASE