September started off looking for new clients. Mainly through networking, I reached out to everyone I thought could point me in a direct that would land a contract.

I also kept going on a project I had started. With the addition of the project manager, more work seems to be getting done. I started looking for another developer to help with the work load. I am working on the WIG sessions and setting commitments, but I need to get other things going as well. Even though I am focused on getting more clients, I also need to lay the foundation for other things.

Shift to My Own Projects

With the project manager and new developer, I am hoping to get other sites up and running along with some sites sold. I have more domains expiring that need to be renewed. Constantly renewing them, but never selling any of them is starting to add to up in expenses.

About halfway through the month, the project manager and QA person started fighting. Not sure I have the best team, but part of the reason why I want a team to work on my projects is so that I can build a strong team early on without any consequences. Then, I start finding client work that the team can handle. At that point, I should have 100% confidence in my team since we got through my projects first.

New Marketing Strategy

Getting sites sold and getting a few sites I run would help with revenue. That’s going to be main focus going forward, which I mentioned in the WIG sessions. I also want to focus more on content-based marketing. Similar to this terrible blog, adding hundreds of pages of content is too hard all at once, but slowly over time, I end up with enough content that I get traffic to.

If I could do more content related to the clients, even if I just post once every couple weeks, I am thinking I can get up to enough content to help drive traffic and leads. Posting more on Facebook was a commitment for a week, and I think I need to start utilizing Facebook more to drive traffic and promote my other projects, including trying to get clients.

At least, that’s my theory. I tried to do some more networking, both in person and with LinkedIn, as well to generate clients and leads. Expanding to Facebook seems like the next logical step. LinkedIn has definitely been the best approach for the larger companies. However, Facebook seems to be the easier approach to reach small business owners to get the project-type work.

Mid-Month Drama

I was making progress towards getting sites ready to sell, but towards the end of the month, I had to let the project manager go. I am thinking about not replacing him. He didn’t seem to provide much value, but it will depend on how much work I have to do and how much time I have available. I would still like to have enough sites ready to launch the marketing campaign by the first of October.

Change in Terms

The only other thing that happened this month was the latest client wants to renew their contract for a more long term contract, but that would effectively lower my rate. However, the 6-month contract would become a 2-year contract. With the loss of the previous client, locking in this one and having it become my anchor isn’t a terrible idea, even if I have to sacrifice some income.

As far as finding a new client, that has pretty much stalled out. I have done a few second and third round discussions, but have stopped reaching out to potential companies. Really wanting to focus on my own projects at this point.

Investment Strategy

As far as the investments, I haven’t really heard back from either of them. One is still in the works, but just moving slowly. I now fear the other has stalled out entirely. I have sent a few emails, but haven’t heard back in a few days. If the deal is dead, it does free up cash, making the rush to save less important. It’s not a real good sign that I haven’t heard back. Typically, I got a response the same day when I sent messages before.

I did finally hear back right at the end of the month. The deal may be dead, but it the goal is to do something together to start a relationship. If this deal is dead, then there is another one that would be available. However, none of this sounds like it’s close to being ready. The plan at this point is to continue with the money saving strategy.

I may change it around the first of the year, though, to split the money from strictly saving to 60% saving and 40% debt reduction.