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When the End is Just the Beginning

In 2004, I was decided to close down my web design business. It had been a failure, and at the time, it really felt like the end. The end of my business career and the end of my self-respect.
You see, I thought I was pretty darn smart. After graduating valedictorian of my small high school, going to an Ivy League school and graduating cum laude, I went on to work at a couple of different firms. Regularly, I seemed to get in over my head in new areas of marketing and always figured things out and got great results. So, I thought I could take on anything in business.
When my wife and I moved to San Diego in 2002 for her to do a post doctoral fellowship, I could not find a job that seemed like the right type of challenge. So, I started looking more broadly and decided to buy a web design franchise. I would find the clients and manage the projects, and the “production houses” would create the sites.
I invested a lot of time and money testing ways to find clients. And, it did not work very well for reasons I came to understand later.
In 2004, I woke up one morning to find that my bank account was drained, we were deep in debt, and I was exhausted. And the really depressing part was that when I started looking at best case scenarios, the number of new clients I needed to sign up each month to dig us out of debt was not realistic.
So I went out and found a job.
Over the next four years, I worked for a couple of different companies. During that time, I mastered Google Adwords, got good at landing pages and sales funnels, and spent a lot of time helping these companies figure out how to stand out from their competition.
In 2008, I went out on my own as a marketing consultant. It was a new beginning for me. This time my business model is different and I bring a passion to my business that was missing before. I want to make sure other businesses never have to go through what I did with a failing business. Business owners should be able to focus on what they do best, knowing they will have a consistent flow of qualified prospects who want to work with them.
So if I can help you or anyone you know start developing a consistent flow of leads, I would love to help. It’s my passion, because I understand all too well what the consequences can be if you do not have new leads coming in regularly.
This is message #15 in 21 Days of Authenticity. If that would like to receive the rest of the 21 Days of Authenticity via email, please click here to sign up