Log 2 - The Aftermath

Tomorrow is the day I venture out into Lagos to meet my first professional client and I am really optimistic about meeting him. I just got back from playing the piano at church and now, eating while working on this. I am not sure I will have much to say today.

You know that situation when someone you seemed to know suddenly becomes a stranger, I have been getting that a lot. Strangers almost suddenly become best friends and best friends sudenly become strangers. I should just give up on meeting new people

I am back!! And, it was AWESOME!

Okay, apart from the hassle of waiting outside at the security post and navigating my way around the estate, I had a great time. I would like to keep the client's name and address private for personal reasons. He seemed pretty intimidating with his macbook, iPhone and impressive house, but he was really down to earth and smart

He obviously did his homework and asked great questions. He wants me to use WordPress. That isn't my style, but I am willing to adapt. The meeting lasted for about an hour, after which, he handed me 10k for 'transport'. This is intriguing because I made it clear that I wasn't going to charge him. You may be wondering why. At this stage of my life money isn't important. Do get me wrong, it is essential, but it shouldn't be all about money. It is necessary to create and deliver value and I believe having a great mentor now will prove useful in the long term

It was an impressive meetup to say the least

I should quit this time-jumping, but nothing much really happened. Just travelling back home.

I am back home now, and I will put this blog online in a few moments, but, it occurred to me that I would probably get very few readers (actually, none) at this stage.I will, however, choose not to advertise for two major reasons

Firstly, this blog might appear uninteresting, and that is why I opted to refer to it as a journal. People don't generally blog about their lives; except of course the occasional celebrity. People like to talk about topics; Fashion, Food, Entertainment, Sports, or really pressing issues like Global Warming. And, celebrities can talk about their lives because it is fun. Simply put, I'm still figuring it all out.

Secondly, this blog isn't monetized. I won't gain much from having lots of readers. I wouldn't be providing space for comments or email subscription simply because I see no reason to

Now that I really think about it, the second reason isn't actually a reason.

I am not yet as successful as I hope to be, but I have realized one truth: Things generally fall in place after you START

In the semi-immortal words of Luisa Santos;

You'll never get it perfect the first time, but starting somewhere will force you into an iterative cycle of improvement

The key, as I believe, is starting with what you have. Don't wait before you get to a particular time in life or get a particular thing. Now is the best time to start. The future is NOW. Don't wait for tomorrow. Tomorrow never dies. Make conscious steps to achieving what you need to do.

Visualize where you see yourself in five years time. Let the thought soak you. Imagine where you are, how you look or what you've accomplished. But don't stop there. That is the difference between people who don't and people who do: THEY DO. After dreaming up your ideal future, think and write down practicable steps that'll ensure that you will achieve your goals. Now, follow them.

Five years will pass you by whether you like it or not. It is up to you to decide who you want to be then. If you don't like how your life is now, change it. It's your life either way. You only have one shot. Why not make it count?

I am no motivational speaker, but I do consume a lot of contents; from Brian Tracy to Gary Vee, and I have experienced this first hand. I could develop and design for sometime now, but it wasn't until I developed my website and put it up, that I started getting clients. It wasn't that simple though: I had to hunt. I would spot businesses without a website, analyse them, and send them an email. This really suited me, because, I believe I am more impressive in my writings than in my speeches. I sent about 50 of these over the last two or three months. My conversion rate has been poor at about 6%, so I decided to change my strategy.

I am not sure who invented the term "Jab, Jab, Hook", but that's what you need to do. See, the fact is that nobody cares about you. It doesn't get simpler than that. Everybody has their own problems as well as wishes. The trick is to create value for others. Think of it this way: Find a way your product or service helps people or solves their problems and sell yourself. Selling yourself is not literal. I mean, be enthusiastic enough about your product/service to rub it off on others. It has been said that if you solve a problem that affects a billion people, but you only get a dollar out of each, you're already a billionaire.

Billionaire entrepreneur, Naveen Jain puts it this way.

...you know how to make a billion dollars? You solve a ten billion dollar problem

Then you need to get the word out. Marketing is key. I literally met strategic people, said I would like to show them something on their phone, loaded my landing page and watched them interact with it. About 65% were fascinated enough to get my number.

Now, I won't pretend to have it all figured out, but this seems to be working. I have now had a total of about 9 requests.

The last thing I would mention today is feedback. While watching people interact with my website , I noticed something. There was a particular third-party API which I implemented that they were finding it difficult to use. When they click on the button , they wouldn't know how to navigate it and will invariably press the home button on their phone. I noticed this on three separate occasions. I knew that this will affect conversion rates and that I had to alter it. Get as much honest opinion as you can about your business. If you only, love the pleasing comments, but detest the scornful, you will only get so far. It is said that behind every lie is a truth. I would want to put it this way: Behind every negative review is a fact. Neglecting this can prove dangerous. Now, I know you can't please everybody, but make it a point of duty to put quality (or whatever value you believe in) as a non-negotiable constant.

Having said this all, I feel this piece of advice is more to myself than any other. This has been my longest entry and considering I am solely clicking on the on-screen keyboard with an external mouse, this should be as tedious as it gets

The time is 10:44am and the blog is finally up.

Not exactly a milestone, but I guess it's a start

Yesterday, I noticed that the fonts looked strange on mobile devices, so today I had to look through varoius Google fonts before making up my mind

I would soon commit changes with Github and review it.