self-employment update ...

[Guest]

Greetings to all ... I just got a notice from my website hosting company - telling me that it’s time to renew my service for another year ... that got me to thinking: yes, it HAS already been a year since I went into business for myself ... for those of you who have considered doing something along the same lines, I’ve decided to do a little update on how things have been going ... basically, very well ... I’m making almost exactly the same amount of money as I did while working for other people – which is quite enough for my needs ... and philosophically I’ve always considered that there are only TWO financial situations ... either: (1) you’ve got enough for everything you need ... or (2) you don’t have enough for everything you need ... blessedly I’m still in the first category ... and personally I haven’t worried about “enough for everything you WANT” for many years ... there's no way to win that particular game ... as I fully suspected from the beginning, “marketing” has been the biggest hurdle ... my old steady customers (most of them local) have kept me busy all year – and made the kettle simmer ... and quite a few new ones have come along – which is very encouraging ... I’m still trying to find the “magic fish bait” that will land one or two “big sized” customers to make the kettle boil ... so far I’ve had contact with three or four who would do nicely – but each time the story has been the same: “Wish we had known about you earlier – but we’ve just blown our entire training budget with [Vendor X].” ... I’ve heard that same sad story so often that I’ve added a new “sympathy button” to my website ... basic idea: “go ahead and send me one student for free – just to prove the point” ... it seems that most of my competitors (at least the big ones) have a team of salesmen out there constantly beating the bushes for them ... being a one-man show, I’m forced to “market” awhile – then “teach” awhile ... that’s fine – but now that I’m 61 years old (and counting), I’d really like to do a lot more teaching and a lot less marketing ... I’ve been telling my chief financial advisor (wife Wanda Faye) that I’m not looking for 50 new customers each year ... instead I’m looking for ONE “big” customer who has 50 students to send ... of course I’m still PERFECTLY happy whenever one or two students come along (they’re paying the bills) ... but it sure would be nice to land a “big fish” at least once in awhile ... the biggest issue is getting a chance to prove that not all PLC training is the same ... proving it's not the problem - it's just hard to get my foot into the right door ... everything always works out fine if I get to do one of my 10 minute demonstration lessons ... the problem is always gaining an audience with “the powers that be” ... making “cold calls” over the telephone and asking for “the PLC maintenance boss” doesn’t often turn into new business ... over the past year I’ve learned more about do-it-yourself website design than I really wanted to know ... I’ve finally got everything on mine that I can imagine would be even remotely impressive to someone looking for PLC training ... nothing fancy – but at least I can make changes myself without having to wait for – and pay - a web designer ... I’ve even set up a free little “StatCounter” program (thanks to a recommendation from our friend Geniusintraining) ... it tells me how many people click on each webpage, and how long they stay there, etc. ... and if the visitor uses a “company owned” server, I can usually spot the company’s name when they click in ... I’m encouraged that MANY very LARGE companies have come calling – but disappointed that (so far) none of those “big company” clicks have translated into new business ... oh, well ... maybe next year ... the problem is that I can’t tell exactly WHO at the big company is doing the clicking ... maybe (joy of joys) it’s the “plant maintenance manager” – who is PRECISELY the person I’d like to talk to ... on the other hand, it might be one of the plant’s maintenance technicians using the company’s internet connection ... in that case, I’d STILL like to talk to him ... a lot of my customers have come by way of “Technician Tom” asking his boss to send him off to one of my classes ... that’s one reason that I’ve gone to the extra trouble of putting a “Printable PDF” file on almost every webpage ... one of these days, Tom is going to hand one of those printouts to “Bossman Bob” - and then I won’t have to fish anymore for a good little while ... I know it’s going to happen – I can just feel it in my bones ... realistically, I’ve just about given up on “Bossman Bob” ever finding my website all on his own ... I reckon that those big dogs don’t surf around on the internet Googling for PLC training guys like me ... let’s face it, there’s no end to the salesmen that are constantly knocking on their doors offering training ... on the plus side, one large company that I’ve done a lot of training for over the last two or three years recommended me to one of their sister plants out in the Midwest ... I made two trips out there to do “onsite” training ... I just can’t bring myself to trust all of my lab equipment to a motor-freight company - so I got to play “truck driver” for awhile ... 14 hours (each way) in a Penske truck ... the last trip was during “ice and snow” season – and living in sunny Charleston, SC all my life hasn’t prepared me for an “ice and snow” environment ... the driving wasn’t too bad ... but hand-trucking 45 crates of lab equipment up and down an icy truck ramp is NOT my idea of fun ... still, they paid for the expenses – and I cleared enough money to make it all worthwhile ... some of their technicians were among the most appreciative students that I’ve worked with in years ... so ... summing up the “bad” things – there are only a few that I can think of ... (1) not as many BIG customers as I had hoped for (at least so far – but plenty of smaller ones to keep things going) ... (2) I don’t like keeping the books and running a business (but at least I know how to do it) ... (3) I don’t get as much time to hang around and answer questions on the forums (but I still read them every day) ... and now – to sum up the most important of the “good” things ... blessedly there are a lot more of these ... (1) Wanda Faye is extremely supportive ... (2) we’re both still healthy enough to do anything we want to do ... (3) a steady stream of students from loyal customers keeps me busy ... (4) enough new customers coming in means that I’m on the right track ... (5) my income has been perfectly adequate ... (6) so far every customer has paid me cheerfully and promptly ... (7) I was led to EXACTLY the classroom/office that I had in mind ... 12-foot high ceilings ... and one wall is completely windows all the way from floor to ceiling – with a nice landscaped view outside ... (I love a classroom with windows) ... there’s a bank right across the lobby – so sometimes my students get distracted when the pretty tellers pass by – but that’s the only downside I can think of ... (8) and best of all, I’m still doing a job that I really enjoy - helping motivated students understand PLCs ... life is good ... finally ... in the “advice” department for anyone else who’s considering starting off on their own: make sure (or as sure as you can) that your family is supportive ... they need to understand that there will be lean times – as well as times of plenty ... there’s a LOT to be said for that “steady paycheck” thing – when it comes to family relationships ... I can see how hard it would be to keep going “at work” if you didn’t have adequate teamwork support “at home” ... there is no realistic way to keep the two areas completely separate ... you don’t want to be successful at work – if it costs you the family that you’re working for ... basically I’m passing along here what I’ve heard from other peoples’ experiences ... thankfully everything is still fine on my personal home front ... try to get a handle on the “marketing” thing BEFORE you take the leap ... that’s probably going to be the most difficult part ... keep an accurate list of EVERYBODY who might be even remotely helpful in lining up new business contacts ... in fact, I’ll go further and recommend keeping a list of EVERYBODY – period ... it’s amazing how often reaching “Joe’s-second-cousin-twice-removed” suddenly becomes the most pressing issue on my list of things to do today ... phone numbers and email addresses are extremely important ... constantly try to use “old business” as a stepping stone to “new business” ... word of mouth is absolutely the best advertisement ... without a referral you’re “just another salesman” on the phone ... it’s much better when you’re “the guy that Fred told me about” ... and remember to thank Fred – sincerely - and soon ... my local customers have been very good about helping me where they can - it’s just that Charleston isn’t exactly a hub of industrial activity ... but it’s HOME - and I don't want to move ... remember that if your spouse doesn’t have a steady job then you’re probably not going to have any of the traditional “benefits” once you become self-employed ... health insurance is the BIG ticket issue ... retirement is another ... somehow those expenses need to be rolled into “the cost of doing business” – so adjust your prices accordingly ... now back to the “being self-employed” topic: the biggest challenge of all is trying to strike a balance between “working” and “living” ... personally I’m having a slight problem with that issue ... for example: every time I think of something that should be done “around the house” – I think of something more important that needs to be done “for the business” ... it’s disturbing, in a way, to realize that there’s no “boss” back at the office who’s worrying over where the next customer is going to come from – or writing out the check for the insurance – and all of those other useful things that bosses do – but seldom get credit for ... being the “boss” yourself for a while sort of puts things into perspective ... if you’ve got a good one – be thankful ... Edited 21 May 2008 by Ron Beaufort

[Chris Elston 78]

Sounds like your in the same boat as Tim and Me. We both hate marketing as well. Then I found this website: http://www.ducttapemarketing.com/ I read what this guy has to say. I've NEVER bought anything from his website because he has alot of good information just in his BLOGS alone. At least plugin an RSS read and maybe you'll like the website blogs too. I've taken advice to a couple of ideas he has. Most are very practical. Some are referral ideas. Referral marketing tactics might work for you too. I dunno.... Welcome to the club. PLC guys that hate to market themselves.

[Steve Bailey 118]

I feel that participating forums like this is a form of marketing. I've picked up a few gigs as a direct result of my participation. I've also mentioned the forums I participate in to new clients as a reference. Ron, congratulations on your anniversary. An awful lot of startups don't survive their first year. Of course, in your case, its no surprise you're doing well. The combination of talent, hard work and realistic expectations is a winner.

[Ken Moore 23]

Congrats Ron, I wish you continued success. Remember: "Just hang in there, like an old rusty fish hook"

[OkiePC 14]

Ron, the site looks and feels great. I wish you continued good luck too. Now, just for the sake of experimentation, I googled "PLC training", wondering how far down the list your site would appear. After all, Google is the yellow pages of this millenium, and the search terms I used are probably what a lot of bosses might do. Ron's site shows up on page 27. I am not sure what could be done to push it higher up on the list, but that, if possible, would certainly help out with attracting people who otherwise are unlikely to discover his talent. I know when I google something and chase links all over the world, If I don't find what I want on the first 3 or 4 pages, I rarely go further. Just a thought. Paul Edited 22 May 2008 by OkiePC

[TimWilborne 108]

First of all...No, my site isn't any better because just like Ron, I can be out in the field, market, work on websites, etc...but I can only do one of them at a time. But while Ron's site looks good, it needs a little help to assist Google in reading it and understanding it. Plug your site into this grading tool Ron. Don't let the grade upset you too much. A few formatting changes can raise your grade tremendously. You should be able to get it into the 80s without much work. After that it takes time and popularity. http://www.websitegrader.com I have played with this on Ron Doran's Patchn and it has increased the Google rank of many of his articles to the front page. Judging by the emails that Patchn gets, I would say that the majority of the visitors are students and technicians, so the target audience is similar.

[geniusintraining 2]

Here is the one that I use http://www.iwebtool.com/tools/ You can spend days looking at worthless data The key is spend money... SEO and all the other ways to market your site are great but you have to have time (no one here has that anymore) so you need to pay for it... find a balance, the more you spend the more traffic you will get, then you have to figure out how to get the traffic you need and want, not the trash that you are just throwing money at. I spend a few hundred a month on advertising, I get very little business from the places I hang out (here and plctalk) the majority of my customers come from google or another search engine.... and also feeBay The only thing that I look at (anymore) are how people are finding my site... then I know what to give my advertising money to (or not) Someday I will slow down the advertising funds, but not in the near future, a few months ago I put my advertisers on hold... then my traffic slowed and sales dropped, so back up it went... For you word of mouth is your best advertiser, if I tell someone that you are the best teacher (and the believe me) then they will do there best to go to your school.... and it did not cost you a dime Great job on the anniversary...

[Peter Nachtwey 15]

Congratulations Ron. I can't put myself in the same category as the other one man companies that have posted here. I doubt I would have the energy or will to do what you have done but hopefully I will not have to find out. Having a supportive 'financial advisor' is a big help. When you are that small any help is a big help. The big challenge now is to plan ahead to maintain business in this slow down. I would think training budgets would get cut first and that could hurt. I would push the fact that there is more time to train when things get slow and it things will not be slow forever. About the marketing thing. Delta had customers lined up before it started. Delta did little if any marketing at all the first 10 years but that is also why it stayed small. For me the forums are not a very efficient marketing tool if I go by goods sold/hour spent on the forums. It would be interesting to do a poll about how many bought our controllers because of the forum. For Ron this may be different but Ron must be geographically limited by where he goes or where how far the students must go. Ron, we are doing more and more training over the internet. This involves having controllers connected to the internet or or PCs connected the internet and the students access the PCs or controller using PC anywhere or gotomeeting. Internet training my extend your reach. Now I can relate to that. I hate writing checks. I hate watching the money go. I cringe when see the total. Fortunately for me I have a business partner that takes care of that stuff most of the time so I can be a geek except for when I am writing magazine articles ( marketing ), training ( marketing paid for by customers ) or at trade shows ( more marketing ).

[Sleepy Wombat 27]

Congrats Ron, hope the business keeps rolling in along with years to come...

[Guest]

Greetings to all ... things have been busy around here ... several new customers have called – I’ll write more about that later as things progress ... I really wanted to say thanks to everyone for the well-wishes and for your suggestions ... all are appreciated ... to chakorules: thanks for the “ducttapemarketing” website link ... as soon as things settle down a little I’ll definitely work through it ... to Steve Bailey: participating in the forums does get me a lot of exposure that I wouldn’t otherwise have ... and yes, I've picked up a handful of students this way ... it’s just that to meet my goals, I need quite a bit more “contact” than the forums alone are going to provide ... one of the best things about the forums is having like-minded people to bounce ideas off of ... thanks for being one of those ... to Ken Moore: “hanging in there” is definitely high on my list of things to do ... once I signed the lease for the office space, I passed the “point of no return” ... to OkiePC: thanks for the feedback on the site ... I decided early on not to include too much fancy stuff ... I’ve been warned that people with slow dial-up connections don’t often wait around to see those “detailed” web pages download ... at first I figured “who cares about the little guys with dial-up connections?” ... I’m going after bigger game – managers who are sure to have high-speed internet ... but then I realized that over the years a LOT of my business has come from Technician Tom “stumbling upon” my name – and then begging his boss to send him off to one of my classes ... I decided to keep the website as accessible as possible to guys like Tom ... yes, you’re right of course that I need to raise my site up in the Google search list ... I’ll be working on that over the next month or so ... and thanks for that “stumble” thing ... it brought in a lot of extra traffic ... hopefully some of those hits will turn into something down the road ... it sure can’t hurt ... to TWControls: it’s nice to know that I’m not the only person left in the world that “can only be one place at a time” ... I especially want to thank you for that website “grading tool” link ... I’d never tried anything like that before ... glad you warned me about not expecting too much from the first grade ... just 19 out of a possible 100 ... I’ll start working on the improvements in the next week or so ... I’ll let you know when I start making progress ... to geniusintraining: hopefully I’ll get a chance to look at the “iwebtool” link you posted in the next week or so ... remember that I don’t have an internet connection at home (yes, I know that’s weird – but I need SOME SORT of life away from work) ... regarding your statement: “The key is spend money” ... that obviously works OK for you – but keep in mind that I have to justify any “expenditures” with my business manager, Wanda Faye ... my biggest reluctance on spending money for advertising is the realization that it’s probably not going to reach the specific customer that I’m interested in ... my “end of the rainbow” customer is a “big plant” maintenance manager who supervises at least 50 technicians that work on PLC-controlled systems ... if I can land just one or two customers like that, I won’t have to market again for at least a year or two ... now in the meantime, I’m EXCEPTIONALLY grateful for the smaller customers who can only send me one or two students at a time ... those guys have been paying my way for years ... the biggest problem with landing only “small fish” is that you have to keep fishing ALL OF THE TIME ... I’m 61 years old now – if I were 10 years younger, then things might look different ... to get where I need to be in three or four years, I need to land a “big fish” once in awhile ... I’ve got several irons in the fire – and things are looking very encouraging lately ... let’s see what turns up in the next few months ... as you said: “word of mouth is your best advertiser” - and I truly appreciate everyone who passes the word along ... to Peter Nachtwey: ah, Peter, my respected friend ... here’s where we run into a conceptual parting of the ways ... one of the two biggest things that I’ve got “going” for me is that my training methods are DIFFERENT from those of my competitors ... specifically, I don’t just talk TO the students – I talk WITH them ... more specifically, I’m constantly – continuously - incessantly - asking them questions ... questions about WHAT they think – and about HOW they understand what we’re covering in the classroom ... Peter, I have the utmost respect for your mental abilities ... but stop and consider for a moment of just how “challenging” learning new concepts can be for someone who is NOT as intellectually blessed as you are ... I know that you’ll be able to picture this next example – because I know that you’ve run into the concepts occasionally while doing training yourself ... suppose that there are six students in a classroom ... suppose that the instructor gives a lecture ... now suppose that we immediately separate the students and question them – independently - about WHAT they just heard in that lecture ... you’ll invariably get a WIDE range of answers – and often the answers will be CONFLICTING – if not completely CONTRADICTORY ... let the instructor sit in on these “tell us what you heard” sessions and he’ll shake his head in confusion ... “How on Earth could they have - each and every one of them – so completely misunderstood what I so plainly taught them?” ... the answer, of course, is that each and every student brings into the classroom a different background of existing knowledge ... when each student listens to the lecture, he (either consciously or unconsciously) relates the NEW information into his mental framework of EXISTING information ... and so ... even though each student in the classroom LISTENED to exactly the same new information – they (each and every one of them) HEARD something quite different ... now let’s suppose (for the sake of discussion) that “listening is learning” ... if that’s true, then each one of our six sample students has just “learned” DIFFERENT and CONFLICTING and CONTRADICTORY “facts” by listening to precisely the SAME lecture ... now suppose that the training session is over – and the students each go their own separate ways ... the question now becomes: just how SUCCESSFUL was the training? ... how well did it meet its objectives? ... now let’s do it another way ... my way ... we’ll skip the lecture ... instead, let’s put the students right to work on a hands-on project ... now the instructor (that’s me) doesn’t just “take a break” while the students work ... instead I constantly circle the room and watch what they’re doing – and HOW they’re doing it ... and I ask them questions ... LOTS and LOTS of questions ... “Why did you click that particular icon, Bob?” ... Beginner Bob’s answer reveals (as I suspected) that he has confused the concepts of “instructions” in the ladder logic with the “bits” in the processor’s data table ... I’ll straighten that out – and I’ll remember to check again later to make SURE that now he’s got the ideas correct ... then I move on to the next student ... wow! ... look at Experienced Ed go ... he’s way ahead of the rest ... think of how bored Ed would have been listening to that lecture ... obviously he didn’t need it in the first place ... but maybe I can still show Ed a thing or two ... if so, I teach ... if not, I come back later when he’s finally hit the inevitable snag ... (and incidentally, at the end of the project, we’ll have a classroom discussion to make certain that all of the specific issues got covered) ... teaching this way lets me focus on PRECISELY what each student NEEDS to learn ... rather than using a “shotgun” approach in a one-size-fits-all lecture, I can specifically target Beginner Bob’s needs – and Experienced Ed’s needs – INDEPENDENTLY ... and best of all, I can stay very “in tune” with WHAT each student is learning – and with HOW he interprets each new concept ... and now to my point, Peter ... for anyone who’s ever seen one of my classes in action, it’s obvious that a “distance learning” approach just wouldn’t be ME ... I’m more of a “down-in-the-trenches” sort of instructor ... this next experience is sort of along the same line of discussion ... I’ll offer it for what it’s worth ... once upon a time, I was teaching a full class (six students) and one of their “supervisors” was sitting in to watch ... I’ll call him “Joe” ... keep in mind that some of the students were completely “green” – others had several years of PLC experience ... one day, during a lunch break, Joe came over and mentioned something to me – as sort of a “helpful hint” ... “I notice that you must be getting tired, Ron, because you started out writing very neatly – but lately you’ve been just scrawling things on the board. I can’t even make out what you’re writing – so I know that the students can’t read it either.” “Ah, but there’s a reason for that, Joe” I said. “I’m testing them.” ... “At this point in the class they don’t NEED to see those notes written out ... they’ve come far enough along to SEE things like that in their heads ... after lunch is over, sit up here near the front of the classroom ... I’ll completely erase the board, and then I’ll talk the students through an explanation of a program rung ... I’ll keep my hands in my pockets the whole time – no pictures - no gesturing at all ... you just sit up here and watch the students’ eyes” ... “I’ll talk them through the input device in the field – and then the input module – and then the bit on the input data table – and then the XIC on the ladder logic rung – and then the OTE – then the output bit – then the output module – then the output device in the field ... you watch their faces ... you’ll see their eyes move from left to right across the board step-by-step through the explanation – exactly as if I’m drawing it out as I go ... they’ve seen me do it enough now that they’ll SEE it – even if I don’t DRAW it” ... sure enough, it went just as I said ... I looked over at Joe and he was totally amazed ... “Man, I had NO IDEA how deep you were going with this stuff,” he told me later ... “It’s like you’ve got them hypnotized or something.” ... “No, they’re not hypnotized – but they’re actually SEEING the material in their heads ... and you can tell just by watching their faces whether they really understand the material – or whether they’re still confused about some of it.” ... and so the point is that the only way that I can cover as MUCH as I cover, as DEEP as I cover it, and make sure that the students really UNDERSTAND it, is to be able to SEE the students and WATCH their reactions as I teach ... I can’t do that any other way than face-to-face in the lab ... again, thanks to everyone ... Edited 28 May 2008 by Ron Beaufort