Posts Tagged ‘ wednesday ’

Hump Day – June 23rd

About 5 minutes after I posted on my blog last night I got a text message from my investor saying that they could give me the loan no problem and they would have it for me on the 1st of July.  Again this is all talk at this point so I’m not getting my hopes up, but if it happens it would be my saving grace.

There are still a couple of issues that need to be addressed though:

  1. Having the money does me no good if I have no idea how I’m going to spend it.  I still haven’t tested these platform leads and have no idea how they are going to convert, so until I’m able to do that, I can’t place a refill order on those.
  2. I have another guy that offers a similar quality lead, but again I haven’t tried them before and can’t really afford to “test” leads with borrowed money, not to mention his are more expensive.
  3. Lastly, I have a guy that produces a decent quality lead that I’ve done well with in the past, but they are also more expensive.  The reason why I stopped taking them in the first place was that the actual lead amounts were fucking tiny.  So even though I closed them well, I wasn’t making any damn money.  I think it was because they were giving me a deal on the cost so they figured they would just send me the leftovers.  When you are a small shop like I am, you don’t have much bargaining or negotiating power so I had to take what they gave me.

So basically what I think I’m going to do is wait and see how this platform thing works out.  If it turns out to be the real deal I need to see how much of an issue it would be to increase the daily volume.  If the platform thing doesn’t work, then I’m forced to jump to option 3, which I’m not as confident about because the leads are more expensive and the loan won’t go nearly as far.  Even on the low end of the conversion scale, which I know I can hit without a problem because I’ve taken these in the past; it’s going to come down to the wire.

I’m not saying shit to my lead provider about this until after I start taking these platform leads because it might not even concern him.  If the leads suck, I rather him think I can’t afford to refill so he hooks me up with free leads when he can and I’ll order from someone else.  Don’t get me wrong, I’d order from him if he had a product that converted but if he doesn’t, there is no point.  Also I’m not going to just throw money at his ass with the hopes that some other lead type falls from the sky.

To be honest, despite how shitty this platform thing has gone, I do still think these leads are going to be the real deal.  It’s just a matter of getting it working efficiently and effectively.  Once its going it should be on autopilot, but getting it setup properly takes time.

I start those semi-exclusives today which I’m sure will be garbage but it will give me something to do.  Those are supposed to start flowing in by early afternoon.

As for my own marketing efforts, I hired a company yesterday to create a custom landing page and filled out the necessary paperwork.  Once they get everything they said it will take 2-3 business days for it to be complete.  Then I review it, tell them to make any changes I need and that’s done.  So that should be up by the end of next week the latest and I can work on marketing efforts to drive traffic to that site.

So there are several things in the works right now which is good.  Even though I’m not bringing in business, I’m seeing things happening and shit getting done.  It’s much better then sitting around wondering what caliber bullet I plan on blowing my head off with.  I was thinking for awhile that a .45 cal hydroshock would probably do the job.

On a completely different topic I just wanted to say that this blog has been a fucking life saver for me.  I cannot tell you all how good it is to be able to vent my feelings and emotions.  It also has helped me solve some problems in regards to my business.  A lot of times I would write something bitching and complaining about a particular issue, and then a couple of days later I’d come back and reread what I wrote and would be able to look at things from an entirely different perspective.  By doing that I was able to find answers to my problems, or I was able to create an outline and plan for how to go about correcting the issue.

Just look at the posts I’ve made over the past several months!  Imagine if I kept all of those thoughts and emotions bottled inside?  I’d be a walking fucking train wreck!

Oh and I can’t wait to drop like 15-20 deals out of nowhere if I end up getting this loan.  I’m sure my business partner is going to be like “what the fuck?”  I can’t wait to prove them wrong; can’t fucking wait!

And again, thanks to everyone who has left comments.  It’s very much appreciated.

2010
06/23
CATEGORY
Random Thoughts
TAGS









Leave a comment

Party was a good time!

I don’t know if I’d call it a “party” per say, more like a gathering of all of the employees from the office.  It was very relaxed and chill.  We snacked, had some drinks, and cooked up some BBQ.

My business partner’s house is absolutely beautiful.  It’s in a gated community of nothing but million dollar homes and it’s in this secluded area that’s very quiet and relaxing.  I could go on and on about how nice his place was but I’ll end up typing 10 pages.  Basically, it’s what you would imagine out of a luxury home.  3 car garage, one of those pools with the “invisible edge” that just sort of falls off, hot tub, a master bed and bath that is bigger then my entire fucking apartment.  It just goes on and on.

And I’ll tell you something.  You want to talk about a swift kick in the nuts in terms of motivation?  That is exactly what I needed.  He is definitely living the good life and that’s how I want to be living, not to mention it’s his second house.  Who knows what his other main home is like?

Last night we didn’t talk about work at all which was a nice change.  He mentioned how he needed me to help him pick up something for his place today around 10am, so it looks like I’ll get a break from work to go do that.

The leads were supposed to start yesterday but I didn’t get anything.  My lead guy said that he thinks they got everything setup and didn’t start pumping the marketing up until later in the afternoon so today should be better.

And if you are wondering, yes I bought my business partner a nice house warming gift, but to be honest I’m not even sure he noticed.  LOL.

Ah well, it doesn’t fucking matter.  It was a thank you for everything he’s done for me.

I’ll be able to gauge my entire situation a lot better once I start taking these leads, so until that point I really don’t have much else to report.

By the way, thats not an actual picture of his home – it just gives you an idea of the level of luxury I’m talking about.

Happy hump day everyone.

2010
06/09
CATEGORY
Random Thoughts
TAGS









1 comment

And all the signs point to…?

There has been some weird shit going on these past couple of days and I can’t help but think that it is more then merely a coincidence.

Earlier in the week I was sitting at my computer in my bedroom and I glanced up at my dry erase board I have on my wall.  Typically I use it to write down my goals every month but over the past several months the goals have barely changed because I have not hit any of them.  So the only thing that changes on the board is the actual month written at the top.  Finally I decided that enough is enough and I erased the whole damn thing and just left it blank.  I also had some goals printed on paper that were pinned to my wall next to the board and I tore all those down as well.  I was sick and fucking tired of looking at that shit everyday with little to no change.

Then on Wednesday, a coworker in my office gave me an invitation for a party my business partner is having at his new house next week.  This set off alarms in my head almost immediately because I’ve been doing nothing but thinking about how the fuck I’m going to stay afloat the next couple of months, and I’ve been contemplating contacting my business partner for some assistance.  He is in town only a couple of times a year and the last time he was here we didn’t even have a chance to talk because he was busy buying his house.

So after weeks and weeks of wondering what I’m going to do, I get handed this invitation to his house for a party and to me; a blind man could see that this is a definite sign that something needs to be done.  I have absolutely no idea how I’m going to go about it, what I’m going to say, or what I’m going to do, but the good news is that the party isn’t until next Tuesday so I have time.  I’m also contemplating bringing a house warming gift over, but I’m so fucking broke I don’t know if I can afford one.

After I get the invitation and head home from work, my computer at home goes to complete hell.  I got some sort of wicked virus on there that basically forced me to reinstall windows, the drivers, and all of my programs.  It took me all night, but now my computer actually runs much better and it feels like I have a whole new PC!

Can the symbolism of wiping the slate clean on my computer along with erasing my dry erase board and receiving this party invitation be ignored?  I really don’t think so.  All of these things happened within a couple of days of one another.

I read recently that when things aren’t going well with your business, sometimes it’s good to start over from scratch.  Meaning, forget everything you’ve done in the past and start like it was your first day you opened the business.  I spoke to my lead provider in detail several times yesterday and made a payment for my first batch of leads.  They will start next Wednesday.

So here’s the summary of my current situation.  

May was a complete disaster.  I did not bring in one deal all month and am not sure if I’m going to.  This weekend is Memorial Day weekend and we will be closed on Monday, then Tuesday is the party at my business partner’s house.  I don’t know if I should bring a gift, if I should talk to him about everything, or if I should just go and have a good time and bring up business at a later date.  Since May was such a disaster, it really doesn’t look good for me going into this situation asking for help because my production can’t really instill much confidence in a potential investor.  Not to mention, I still don’t really know what I’m going to do with leads just yet.  The inbound calls were way to expensive and not closing well enough; so asking my business partner to help fund my operation, while buying those leads would be ludicrous.

I have a feeling these new internet leads are going to be the real deal though, and they are priced quite reasonably compared to everything else.  So if they convert the way I need them too, then I may be able to approach him for assistance.

Like I mentioned earlier, sometimes all you have to go by is your gut, and my gut is telling me these internet leads are going to be my savior.  The last ones were a disaster, but I don’t think that’s going to be the case with these.

Or perhaps all of these signs are telling me to pack it in and just move onto something else???

Nah…

2010
05/27
CATEGORY
Random Thoughts
TAGS

















Leave a comment

Wednesday – hump day bullshit

I was seriously dragging ass this morning.  I don’t know what the fuckin deal was but I just couldn’t wake up.  Drank a cup of coffee and an energy drink and was still tired, so I said, “alright, enough of this bullshit,” and picked up a couple of these big guns.

After 1 of those I’m sure I’ll be tweaking.

Leads started up again on Tuesday and nothing new to report.  I’m still ramping up with the calls, but I’m hoping to get in at least 2 deals this week.  They are going to have to be 1 call closes or just fast converting deals because I don’t really have much in my pipeline that I’m working right now.

No worries; just got to keep at it.

Today is unusually chilly for this time of year in AZ.  It’s not even supposed to get over 70 today and it’s overcast and windy.  I guess we are going to get hit with some rain later too.  I’m not complaining because I love this shit.  It’s a nice breakup from the constant heat and it’s probably the last break we’ll get before it starts to get obnoxiously hot so I’m enjoying it while it lasts.

I’m not sure if I mentioned earlier but one of my business partners hired her first employee last week and the lady’s first day of work was Monday.  She seemed nice and things seemed to be going well with training.  She was positive and upbeat and showed no signs of being unhappy.

Well I guess the economy isn’t that bad because on Tuesday the bitch just straight walked out of the office in the middle of the day and never came back.  Never gave my business partner a call to say she was quitting, nothing.  Fucked up situation, but laughable nonetheless.  One thing I’ve noticed out here in AZ is that this type of thing seems to be much more common then back east, but who knows.

So now my business partner has to start the interview process all over again and she isn’t too thrilled about that.

I just can’t believe that with how bad things are with the economy right now and the unemployment rate that someone would just walk out like that.  Fucking blows my mind.  I guess work ethic is not something you teach; either you have it or you don’t.  It’s never been and issue for me because I saw how hard my parents worked so I just considered it normal to bust your ass.

This is one of the reasons why I’ve put off hiring my first employee.  There is no point bringing someone on board if I don’t have enough work to keep them busy.  They will just quit like this person did.  And with this job being commission only sales, a good salesman needs to start closing deals relatively quickly so that they can see there is potential to earn good money.  Otherwise what reason do they have to stay?

Alright, hopefully today turns out to be better then Monday and Tuesday.  Enjoy the rest of your week’s people.

2010
04/21
CATEGORY
Random Thoughts
TAGS







Leave a comment