Biz in a Box - moonlighting towards a location independent lifestyle business
I'm helping two friends of mine with this exact situation that you've laid out.
They are based in the US and New Zealand and have full time white collar office jobs. They want to slowly start moving towards a location independent business and life without having to sacrifice their current salary. Both of their timelines/goals are:
-Make $1-2K/month consistently 6 months from when they began
-Location independent business (eventually)
BUSINESS IN A BOX - CASE STUDY - NEW YORK
Step 1. Find 5-10 quick turnover gigs on fiverr.com
-logo/banner/flyer design
-powerpoint/keynote presentation design/editing
-resume/CV editing
-infographic creations
-article writing
-voiceovers
In this case, he's focusing on powerpoint/keynote presentations and infographic creation - since he comes from the corporate media and journalism world and intuitively understands this kind of work.
You don't want to be dealing with clients that'll be hassling you all hours of the day on long term projects. You want quick turnovers for things that might continuously get sent to you and things for which you can get word of mouth marketing.
Your ideal price point will be 47 - 297 USD, depending on what you are offering. You can always raise your prices later.
Ideally something you have experience in so you can do quality control. Your job is to outsource the bulk of the work of these gigs to fiverr and then scan it over to make sure that the work is reasonably well done.
Step 2. Build Website
You'll need a web presence to represent your brand. Wordpress is definitely good enough if it's done in a professional and clean fashion.
Something like this:
http://www.logomotive.net/
Step 3. Build credibility, testimonials, portfolio
Find five people in your personal network, or friends of friends, who would be willing to exchange a testimonial and willing to have their (logo/flyer/presentation/infographic) featured in your portfolio as an example of your work. You need to build credibility and testimonials quickly so pay for the labor out of your pocket to save time. For $25-50 dollars you can have an entire portfolio and range of testimonials up and on your new site.
Step 4. Get Social
Throw up a Facebook fan page and twitter account. Start adding contacts to both and start putting some of your existing portfolio items and content out there. Also post articles that are relevant to whatever service or products you are putting out there. Particularly important is getting the people you've worked with in your portfolio-building-phase to share and network the crap out of your stuff. This is the value they are giving in exchange for getting free services.
Step 5. Sales/Marketing - Client Acquisition
This is complex, needs trial and error, and different for every type of business. Social media is a given. Facebook ad campaigns are also a good strategy, although those are starting to become a bit more expensive as well. SEO should obviously not be overlooked also.
Facebook Ads and Linkedin Ads are all different prices in different markets - so you might hyperfocus your search on third tier US and Canadian cities to get a good return on your investment.
More than anything though, you are launching a bona fide business out of thin air and building a reputation as quickly as possible. How to market and sell to clients is an art, not a science, and everyone will have a different path towards getting clientele.
Don't be mistaken, you will always have to find your own path to client acquisition, marketing, and sales - there is no forum post anywhere that will teach you in one step how to accomplish the challenge of getting strangers to give you money.
You can get on HARO (help a reporter out) and look around for ways to get quoted in the media and get some publicity. This can send traffic to your website and get people interested in your specific vertical.
You are going to be firing on all cylinders and tweaking and testing to find out what works best for your specific situation. You are in for a marathon, not a sprint.
You'll find which avenues are attracting clients over others. Ideally the cheapest option, such as viral social media marketing or plain old word of mouth.
Step 6. Client Management, Outsourcing, Automation
In the first several months you are going to be handling everything yourself. This is inevitable.
Eventually you can begin automating much of this process.
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Ahhhh....I wanted to make this a lot longer and more detailed but I have to get on a call with an investor and then split for the day.
I'll come back with another case study at some point later this week. In the meantime, holler at me with any questions. PM me if you want some help/advice or just want to exchange ideas.
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