Breakthroughs And Breakouts - Shifting The Paradigms!

Time flies, and sometimes it escapes. Nearly two months' time elapsed. The ebb and momentum flow of action and reaction to what's happening and what we're trying to make happen, completing the everyday tasks and raising the excitement levels, making money from five clients and figuring out how to invest the revenues to keep the potential calls and client prospects rolling.

The unexpected always happens when you aren't looking. Can we make excuses for what we didn't see coming but should have? We can but you don't want to hear them. Suffice it to say we haven't matched the cash growth curve I predicted on July 1. Reasons? Read the previous posts and you'll see a lot of them! But I still think we have a chance to make our original dream a reality - even though we're swinging into the dog days of picking up paying clients, because it's always hard to compete with school clothes, Halloween costumes, turkeys and Santa Claus! Still, we can tap into the plans and dreams of those who are looking ahead to 2007 and 2008. There's an election in two months, another one four months after that, and the big one in 2008.

We're at day 59 and about $1,500.00 toward our goal of $1 million net cash by December 31! You can read all the stories of people starting with $500.00 and making $5 million and know that it's possible, but the devil is in the doing. I figured out that we need 1,000 clients averaging $1,500 each for a net of $1 million cash. 100 clients averaging $15,000 each gives us the same number but the carrying costs and expenses are radically different for a $1,500 sale than a $15,000 sale. Can we sell 10,000 of an item at $150 per item? If we could we'd reach the same $1,500,000. The marketing and promotional plans we crafted in July are still on the table now and I know we can execute those plans more efficiently. We're still in the first half; we'll make our adjustments at half-time.

Day 46 - The Word Is Spreading!

I'm getting a fresh burst of energy! Everyone likes my work and all five of my clients are paying me and recommending me to others. My profit picture is improving: so far I've grossed $1,000 in fees off the original $100 investment. I haven't shared all of the thinking I've been doing about how to drive the project forward because truthfully I'm still figuring a great many of the steps out myself, but two truths that are obvious to me (but not always to everyone else) which were reiterated in an article a friend of mine read to me - you can't make a million dollars working for someone else and you have to pay yourself first before you pay any bills or any other expenses.

All things seem urgent when they aren't - and all things seem important when they aren't. Think about it1 When some money comes your way -whether it's one dollar or ten thousand dollars - what are the first thoughts that come to mind? Be truthful - aren't you immediately thinking, "What can I buy? How can I spend this money?" Those thoughts are the ones that immediately invade your mind - "I've got some money now, how can I spend it?" There are always temptatioons that creep into your conscious and subconscious thoughts that seem to compel you to spend your money on whatever needs or wants appear to be tugging at your mind in the moments right after you get your money.

We're all victims of the subconscious programming that directs us to spend instead of save, to expend instead of conserve. Americans are the world's biggest consumers and not coincidentally the world's worst savers. We save about 4% of our income versus an average 10% for the rest of the world and 20% for the Japanese.

I'm learning how to save and manage my cash flow and reinvest it - in marketing and promotional strategies and tools - to generate a consistently growing long term cash stream.

Day 42 - Expanding Our Client Base!

42 days gone, 142 days left and counting. Am I having fun? Am I enjoying this trip to the place I said I wanted to go when we started this six-month journey - wealth and independence? My motto always is "If it ain't fun why are you doing it?"

So far, not traveling as fast as I planned, but as Robert Schuller says, "Inch by inch, anything's a cinch." Since our last post, we completed our presentations to all five of the client prospects we acquired through our first mailing. All five prospects are now clients who agreed to hire us to perform our grantwriting/technology/consulting services. We finished a grants proposal for our first client, who paid us our writing fee, which put our business "in the black". Retainer fees from our four additional clients should be in our hands next week. Five clients are great but we need many more to have any chance of making this project work. And we need to bring some fun into the game.

The bottom line of business - make a profit. The real deal in business - make money and have fun.

We're not far enough along where I can say what I want to do for fun to celebrate, but I decided that the journey is important enough to me that we need some milestones to mark so here they are:

10% - $100,000.00
25% - $250,000.00
50% - $500,000.00
75% - $750,000.00
100% - 1,000,000.00

I'm gonna post this bit; I'll be back in a few hours.

Client Number One - Signed, Sealed, Delivered!

The "One Million Dollars In 184 Days" Project produced its first paid client Friday. On an initial investment of $100.00, we acquired five (5) client prospects; our first paid client, an Executive Director of one of Chicago's most well known non-profit agencies, hired us to write a proposal design a website, and handle some technology services for her agency. In addition to the retainer she paid us, we may, before the end of the year, receive additional fees that may total as much as five figures, depending on how well we perform our grantwriting services. I hoisted a silent toast to our breakthrough; there's a lot of work to do, but we've taken an important first step.

Here's something very important about what we've accomplished: our venture is now profitably "in the black". I've always believed that no business ever went under that made a profit, even if that profit is only 1% after all taxes and expenses have been paid.

Like many would-be entrepreneurs, I've started new businesses and invested thousands or tens of thousands of dollars into equipment purchases, space rental, advertising and promotion, even staff hires - before I ever even had ONE PAID CLIENT to support my new business. I believe that 80% of all new businesses fail to survive their first three years of operation for one reason - they don't attract enough revenue from paying clients to cover expenses and generate a consistent profit.

The most important document you'll ever create in managing your new business enterprise is something accountants call a "P & L" statement. It's a month-by-month account of your expenses and income. Each month you spend more than you earn, you're in "the red", as accountants describe a business operating at a deficit. Each month your business generates more income than you spend in expenses, you're in "the black", or operating at a profit.

We started in July 2006. So our current P & L would look something like:

July 2006: Startup capital: $100.00
Expenses: $94.00
Income for July: $0.00
Net after expenses: $6.00

August 2006: Cash position at start of month: $6.00
Income from 1st client: $500.00
Expenses: $0.00 so far (no rent, phone, or other overhead expenses)
Net after expenses: $500.00 + $6.00 = $506.00

Today is August 5, so we're 36 days into the "One Million Dollars In 184 Days" project. Our cash position is $506.00. Our business is operating "in the black". Our challenge now: to invest our cash in ways that will grow the business and keep us operating at a profit.

That's Phase 1, Plan B.

Our First Paid Client! It's On Now!

Now we can have some fun! We got our first paid client - an Executive Director of a not-for-profit agency hired me to develop funding proposals for some new programs she wants to launch! Our presentations with the other four clients we recruited through our mailing and calls seemed to be very well-received! One of them, a pastor brought in to revitalize a small church in a low-income community, wants to hire me for technology services and program development!

The plan: close both deals on Friday, and see what we collect. Then launch Phase 1, Part B our project - earn $1,000,000 cash in 184 days. You're wondering what Part B is? You'll find out Saturday! I'm taking Friday off - it's my son's 3rd birthday!

Day 34: Startup capital: $100.00
Spent: $94.00
Current Balance: $6.00
Potential Income: TBA Saturday!

30 Days Into The Project - Five Prospects, Zero Dollars

I can believe this is the 30th day of our project - this month's been full of drama and angst; it's felt more like two months than 30 days.

Haven't made much progress in generating new clients and revenues; three calls from the mailing and two prospects gleaned from some Friday followup calls equals a yield of five client prospects and zero revenue dollars for our project's first thirty days.

We launched our new business project with $100.00, whuich forced us to focus on guerilla grind-it-out marketing techniques like a 100-letter mailing, e-mails and phone calls. My criteria for declaring the initial marketing effort success: acquire one paying client from the initial snail mailing, calls and e-mails;. With five prospects identified and scheduled for appointment, we do have a shot at snaring that first paid client.

Looking back on the first 30 days, how can we improve our marketing efforts?

Make sure the snail mailings go out on time.
Create a larger prospect list.
Call more prospects.
Develop a larger targeted e-mail list.
Design paper and electronic newsletters (*.pdf format) for distribution to the e-mail list.
Acquire more startup capital.

Our total results for July 2006:

Day 30: Startup capital: $100.00
Invested: $94.00
Balance: $6.00
Income: $0.00
Calls from mailing: 3
Prospects recruited from phone calls: 2
Total prospects: 5
Presentation appointments: 5

A Broken Bone - An Unbroken Spirit!

I promised you a follow-up on the results of my July 24th appointments. Well, a broken bone got in the way of those appointments. Not mine, my nearly three year old son's, who suffered a hairline fracture in his upper left leg after his older, three-times-his size brother stepped on his leg during some ill-advised roughhousing.

So I had to take my 35-month old son to the emergency room on Monday after listening to him howl in pain all of late Sunday night and early Monday morning. When the incident happened, the first thing he said to me as he crawled from his room to ours was, "Daddy, my leg is broken." I told him, "No, Xavier, it's not broken." But an emergency room visit and three x-rays confirmed that he had a fracture in his upper left leg. They fitted him with a plaster cast Monday afternoon; from my observation, he's a bit pissed at losing a lot of his mobility but otherwise seems to be taking, rather better than I would have, the prospect of having a cast on his leg through his birthday August 4 and for the next four (4) to six (6) weeks.

So I had to reschedule those appointments for next Monday. Fortunately, my client prospects understood and had no problem with the rescheduling. And we got another call from our mailing, and I was able to arrange an appointment for next Monday for this third prospect.

I've decided to spend Friday and the weekend making some follow-up calls to the propsects we targeted with our mailing. Perhaps our followup efforts will generate some new appointments. Tomorrow and Friday, I'll share some other blogging resources I've found. Monday, we'll keep our appointments and let you know what happened.