Income / activity streams

**jmo21** · 12 November 2014, 16:15

Originally posted by Gravy Train View Post

I would consider charity work but would rather be paid for my time

I would consider giving you credit for considering charity work....but I won't.

**Gaz_M** · 13 November 2014, 09:57

Originally posted by Gravy Train View Post

So i have had the summer off and spent the last couple of months looking for my next contract. Still have a healthy warchest but wouldn't say no to extra cash coming in.

Have set up an online business which is at a crossroads - either sink in a load of cash to spend on advertising and stock or just let it tick over and make enough money for it to pay for itself. I'm not 100% convinced the online business merits large investment yet so don't really want to commit funds in that way.

Have cleaned the house, exercised, had minor health issues sorted with physios and done stuff i wouldn't necessarily have done had i been in contract.

I would consider charity work but would rather be paid for my time, plus it's difficult to commit to anything when i could get a call today, interview tomorrow and be in contract the day after

Just wondering what medium term benchers do for a bit of extra income during their time on the bench...??

Was in exactly the same position last year & I bottled it. There's no way of knowing whether it would have worked or not but I just didn't have the nerve to invest the necessary funds to find out. I do know one thing though, it's a decision I will take to the grave with me because it just keeps nagging at me "what if...."

**Lewis** · 13 November 2014, 10:18

Originally posted by Gravy Train View Post

Have set up an online business which is at a crossroads - either sink in a load of cash to spend on advertising and stock or just let it tick over and make enough money for it to pay for itself. I'm not 100% convinced the online business merits large investment yet so don't really want to commit funds in that way.

I've seen people literally ruin their lives by pouring time and (all their) money into no hope projects that only they believe in (and other people are too polite to tell them is not a good idea). On the flip side, I've seen people grow some quite successful business (some of which I must admit I didn't think were great ideas at the time) and they absolutely love it, it has completely changed their lives in a positive way.

Depending upon what your business is, it is possible to grow an internet business slowly with very little money (but usually a chunky time investment is required, e.g. development). But beware the copiers. If you have something good, that can be easily copied and not intellectually protected then you will get noticed and at some point someone will try to go bigger, better and faster.

But the fact you are not 100% convinced is a warning sign, it's good not to be blindly optimistic, but you need to believe in your product. I'd say try and get some independent, honest feedback on your site/product and take it from there. Sometimes you do need to take a risk (especially when you already have the time on your hands), but it needs to be a carefully considered one.

Good luck.

**Gravy Train** · 14 November 2014, 12:24

Originally posted by Lewis View Post

I've seen people literally ruin their lives by pouring time and (all their) money into no hope projects that only they believe in (and other people are too polite to tell them is not a good idea). On the flip side, I've seen people grow some quite successful business (some of which I must admit I didn't think were great ideas at the time) and they absolutely love it, it has completely changed their lives in a positive way.

Depending upon what your business is, it is possible to grow an internet business slowly with very little money (but usually a chunky time investment is required, e.g. development). But beware the copiers. If you have something good, that can be easily copied and not intellectually protected then you will get noticed and at some point someone will try to go bigger, better and faster.

But the fact you are not 100% convinced is a warning sign, it's good not to be blindly optimistic, but you need to believe in your product. I'd say try and get some independent, honest feedback on your site/product and take it from there. Sometimes you do need to take a risk (especially when you already have the time on your hands), but it needs to be a carefully considered one.

Good luck.

Great comment, thanks for that - it's an idea that would be fairly easy to copy and even come up with but it doesn't exist in the UK at the moment. My hook was that if we could find 10 random, unconnected people to sell to then the concept may work - we have spent bugger all (<£100 to date) on online advertising with google (our site doesn't rank in the top 100 for any of our key words) and have secured a few corporate sales and several private sales too but nothing really what you would call consistent which is what is making me reluctant to go all in.
I am currently thinking of spending all we have made so far on increasing our google campaign to see what would happen if we do put a few quid behind it

Anyways, returning to my original point(!), after doing everything that needs to be done what are benchers doing with their free time?!

**eek** · 14 November 2014, 12:43

Originally posted by Gravy Train View Post

Great comment, thanks for that - it's an idea that would be fairly easy to copy and even come up with but it doesn't exist in the UK at the moment. My hook was that if we could find 10 random, unconnected people to sell to then the concept may work - we have spent bugger all (<£100 to date) on online advertising with google (our site doesn't rank in the top 100 for any of our key words) and have secured a few corporate sales and several private sales too but nothing really what you would call consistent which is what is making me reluctant to go all in.
I am currently thinking of spending all we have made so far on increasing our google campaign to see what would happen if we do put a few quid behind it

Anyways, returning to my original point(!), after doing everything that needs to be done what are benchers doing with their free time?!

There is no point in this day and age doing a branding campaign for a small startup. Drip feed the profits back into an ad campaign and see if you can find something that consistently works... But don't throw money at marketing until you can see that you have marketing that works...

**Gravy Train** · 14 November 2014, 12:48

Originally posted by eek View Post

There is no point in this day and age doing a branding campaign for a small startup. Drip feed the profits back into an ad campaign and see if you can find something that consistently works... But don't throw money at marketing until you can see that you have marketing that works...

Yep - we were spending £5 per day max, mainly using up the promo codes provided by Google, and getting probably on average one query per day and maybe 7 or 8 website hits... now we've spent up on the free advertising i've reduced it to £1 per day and we're getting maybe one contact per week.

Like you say, i was just thinking of upping the campaign to a maximum of maybe £20 per day for a few weeks as an experiment.

**Gaz_M** · 14 November 2014, 13:07

Originally posted by Gravy Train View Post

Yep - we were spending £5 per day max, mainly using up the promo codes provided by Google, and getting probably on average one query per day and maybe 7 or 8 website hits... now we've spent up on the free advertising i've reduced it to £1 per day and we're getting maybe one contact per week.

Like you say, i was just thinking of upping the campaign to a maximum of maybe £20 per day for a few weeks as an experiment.

Obviously I don't know what your website is about but you should be able to guage the results of a Google Adword campaign if you're spending £1 a day or £100 a day - it's still all about conversion rate. Once you know that then surely you'll have a rough idea what to expect from £20 a day?

Adwords does seem the only way to go if you can't wait for the 'content' route which can take months/years. My new website will be ready to launch in the new year and I'll be going straight for the PPC.

Can I ask, do you put all your expenditure through your IT business, i.e. domain registration, hosting, software, Adwords?

**Gravy Train** · 14 November 2014, 13:24

Originally posted by Gaz_M View Post

Obviously I don't know what your website is about but you should be able to guage the results of a Google Adword campaign if you're spending £1 a day or £100 a day - it's still all about conversion rate. Once you know that then surely you'll have a rough idea what to expect from £20 a day?

Adwords does seem the only way to go if you can't wait for the 'content' route which can take months/years. My new website will be ready to launch in the new year and I'll be going straight for the PPC.

Can I ask, do you put all your expenditure through your IT business, i.e. domain registration, hosting, software, Adwords?

That's assuming that revenue is directly proportional to advertising spend, which i suppose, is what the test results would indicate hopefully - if it is then increasing investment would be the way forward without a doubt.

In terms of spend, i've set up a separate ltd company and used the website name as a trading name of the company which is probably the way it should be done as presumably your IT business is a consulting business whereas your new venture is maybe more of a retail business - also if you're on the flat rate scheme for VAT then this would be affected too

**Gaz_M** · 14 November 2014, 13:32

Originally posted by Gravy Train View Post

That's assuming that revenue is directly proportional to advertising spend, which i suppose, is what the test results would indicate hopefully - if it is then increasing investment would be the way forward without a doubt.

In terms of spend, i've set up a separate ltd company and used the website name as a trading name of the company which is probably the way it should be done as presumably your IT business is a consulting business whereas your new venture is maybe more of a retail business - also if you're on the flat rate scheme for VAT then this would be affected too

I agree that's the right way to go but don't you have to pay double for accountants etc? I'm keeping mine under my consultancy so far as I'm using the same web hosting as my IT company website and I'm sceptical of setting up a new company until I know I'm onto a winner.

Income / activity streams