"Why Am I So Busy and Still Broke?" — Transcript

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1. 0:00I'm going to tell you how to get your
2. 0:01first 10 customers. I use these when I
3. 0:02was starting my first business and they
4. 0:04still work for our portfolio companies
5. 0:05today across many industries. And so
6. 0:07[music] today, on Hermosa Hotline, I
7. 0:08spoke to a small business owner making
8. 0:10about 3,500 bucks a month and
9. 0:11struggling. [music] So, I showed him how
10. 0:13to get more customers without ads,
11. 0:14without funnels, and without
12. 0:15overthinking. Let's dive in. Tell me
13. 0:16about the business. What's the problem?
14. 0:18>> So, I own a
15. 0:19digital marketing business and honestly,
16. 0:22I don't know where to spend the most
17. 0:23time to get people in. I've been running
18. 0:26about 3,500 or so a month.
19. 0:29I also have a full-time job with three
20. 0:31kids, so
21. 0:32>> Got it. So, you're making 3,500 a month
22. 0:33right now?
23. 0:34>> Yes.
24. 0:35>> Okay. How many hours are you are you
25. 0:36spending on it?
26. 0:37>> Roughly 20 to 30 hours a week.
27. 0:39>> Got it. Can you handle more business
28. 0:40right now?
29. 0:42>> Yes, I can. I actually had to bring on a
30. 0:43team.
31. 0:44>> Okay. If you had to bring a team on and
32. 0:46you're at $3,500 a month, you're
33. 0:47underpriced.
34. 0:48>> Okay.
35. 0:48>> How many clients do you have at 3,500?
36. 0:51>> Uh 20. 25.
37. 0:53>> Wait, you who who are you Are you
38. 0:54running an ads? Are you like what or
39. 0:56just like managing the pages?
40. 0:58>> ads. We're just basically managing it
41. 1:00for them.
42. 1:00>> So, why do you need a team if it's
43. 1:03so passive?
44. 1:04>> Um mostly because I don't want to handle
45. 1:06the website design anymore.
46. 1:08>> Okay. So, when you said team, do you
47. 1:09mean you have one guy who's doing this?
48. 1:11>> I have three.
49. 1:13>> So, three guys making like
50. 1:15nothing.
51. 1:17>> No,
52. 1:18honestly, I have no idea what they're
53. 1:19making. It's um
54. 1:20>> Well, I'm we're splitting $3,500 and
55. 1:22you're running you're running 80% gross
56. 1:25margins on it. So, there's only $700
57. 1:28left. You said there's three guys.
58. 1:30>> Yeah. Uh
59. 1:31>> So, they're not making anything. My
60. 1:32point.
61. 1:34>> Yeah.
62. 1:35>> Okay.
63. 1:35>> [laughter]
64. 1:37>> Okay. There's a whole bunch of things
65. 1:38that need to get fixed, but we'll we'll
66. 1:40get to that in a second. So, how are you
67. 1:42getting customers right now?
68. 1:43>> Word of mouth.
69. 1:44Uh Facebook sometimes.
70. 1:46>> When you say Facebook sometimes, what
71. 1:47does that mean?
72. 1:47>> Facebook groups, going in answering
73. 1:49questions, helping out.
74. 1:50>> Okay. Cool. So, if you're not the one
75. 1:53doing the actual website stuff, what is
76. 1:56the 20 to 30 hours a week you're
77. 1:57spending on this business?
78. 2:00>> Trying to grow our social networking.
79. 2:02>> Okay, and that means like in-person like
80. 2:04So, I mean, that's that's 4 hours a day,
81. 2:06right? I mean, that's that's real time.
82. 2:08So, what So, what are you doing every
83. 2:09day?
84. 2:10>> To be honest, I I don't know. That's why
85. 2:12That's honestly why I need a
86. 2:14>> Okay.
87. 2:15>> somebody who knows what to do.
88. 2:16I feel like I'm spinning my wheels, man.
89. 2:18>> No, you're good, man. You're good.
90. 2:19You're good. Okay, I'm going to help.
91. 2:20All right, so we have to pick one of the
92. 2:22four promotion methods, okay? So, you
93. 2:24can reach out to friends one-on-one. So,
94. 2:26think text, DM, email, phone call, any
95. 2:30of those. When I say friends, I mean
96. 2:31anybody who's in your contact list,
97. 2:32anybody who's a subscriber to yours on
98. 2:34any platform, anybody who's
99. 2:37uh who's ever emailed you in your entire
100. 2:38life that's in your Google or whatever
101. 2:40Gmail, you know, whatever your email
102. 2:41provider is that's ever emailed you.
103. 2:44That is That is the first list you make.
104. 2:46And then you message all of them with an
105. 2:48option to um well, if you want, you
106. 2:50could work for free for a period. And
107. 2:52then if they're happy with it, they can
108. 2:53start paying. The next thing is that you
109. 2:54need to raise the price by a ton. So, I
110. 2:57mean, for what you're doing, I would say
111. 2:58like minimum I charge 500 bucks a month.
112. 3:01And right now, you might be talking to
113. 3:03business owners who are just not that
114. 3:05big, either, which means you just have
115. 3:06to go after people who are a little bit
116. 3:07bigger.
117. 3:08>> Got it.
118. 3:08>> But I mean, if you just do that, if you
119. 3:09did nothing else, like if you're
120. 3:10spending 20 hours a week and you just
121. 3:12spent 4 hours every day just messaging
122. 3:15the people saying, "Hey, can I work for
123. 3:16free? And then if I do a good job, pay
124. 3:17me afterwards at this rate." I think
125. 3:19you'll probably do more than you are
126. 3:21now.
127. 3:22That's thing one. And so, thing two is
128. 3:24that I want you I want you to make the
129. 3:25same like make some content, but make
130. 3:27the content in those communities, all
131. 3:29right? And ideally, I think if you're
132. 3:31like you can go after local cuz there'll
133. 3:33be a little bit more trust if you're
134. 3:34down the road, etc. So, look at the
135. 3:36local small business groups on Meta and
136. 3:37whatnot. And I would just basically put
137. 3:39valuable posts. I would put teardowns in
138. 3:41there, like look at this website that we
139. 3:42redesigned for free, look at this
140. 3:43website that we did. And I think people
141. 3:44will just solicit you. Um and then
142. 3:46anybody who interacts with it, you can
143. 3:47reach out and offer them free stuff.
144. 3:49>> Yeah, sounds good.
145. 3:50>> And then when they get on the phone, of
146. 3:52course, you can say, "Hey, that's what
147. 3:53I'll do for free. I do more stuff for
148. 3:54money if you want." And then, you can
149. 3:55obviously upsell from there.
150. 3:56>> Okay.
151. 3:57>> So, that's it. That's all you got like
152. 3:58that's where all your attention should
153. 3:59be going. One is we got to change the
154. 4:00price from 150 to 500. And number two,
155. 4:03you can give away a free thing up front
156. 4:04into the 500. And number three, uh spend
157. 4:07the 20 hours a week uh doing outbound
158. 4:10one-on-one.
159. 4:10>> Got it. Will do.
160. 4:11>> All right. Appreciate you, man. No, you
161. 4:13bet. Congrats on the business. Thanks
162. 4:14for taking a leap.