Archive for My Life:

An Update on Borrowing Money

My last post questioned what you would do if you had to borrow money to boost a marketing campaign. After listening to some advice I held off on radio promotion and opted to promote Edinburgh Taxi offline. Face to face marketing gets peoples attention, especially when you’re standing in a bright yellow t-shirt handing out plastic business cards. Yes, plastic – they don’t tear or bend, but they’re bloody expensive!

At this point I should mention I shelled out a lot to buy a card printer and consumables but people have been snapping the cards up so it has been a worthwhile task. The credit card was used but I know I can pay it back. No risk = no reward.

I’ve avoided posting about the success of my taxi partnerships as I’ve been focusing on making them work, but I’m happy to announce things are going well. If I could sum it up without getting into specifics, the money earned on a monthly basis from Edinburgh alone is in the low four figure range. This is a great achievement on a geo domain name and some offline marketing but it hasn’t been easy. Whatever I earn, and more, goes back into the business to generate more custom.

People often think that I sit behind a desk and the money rolls in; try saying that to me at 5am after standing all night in the cold with a couple of pr staff! I work day and night on my projects and radio advertising is still on the “to do” list but I’ll need to hammer the telephone number into people’s heads and get a few more thousand calls before I ask for that invoice!

Good luck with your pursuits,

Khalid.

Taking Risks and Borrowing Money

“The deal isn’t a deal until the money is in the bank” – a saying my good friend Rob goes by. And it’s true…the money isn’t yours to spend until it belongs to you, even if all the T’s have been crossed and the I’s have been dotted.

But, what if the money in the bank isn’t enough? Do you save then spend, or do you take the risk and borrow money? For many startups the latter is often the case, but that’s not without its difficulties. I recently asked Santander for a £1,000 overdraft to help with cash flow in the event more money came out that went in, and I was refused. Yet, Barclays were more than happy to give a £6,500 credit card with all the bells, whistles and offers without even asking what the money was being used for. You can do some serious damage with £6,500 – you just need to remember the money isn’t yours and needs to be paid back!

Right now I’m promoting Edinburgh Taxi mainly, and things are going well, but every penny that comes in goes back out into marketing…and whatever else I have in my accounts! The money isn’t wasted, call volumes are rising month on month, but there’s only so much “cheap marketing” you can do. By that I mean low volume offline work and now I’ve come to a crossroads…

Do I…

a) patiently wait and save and stop marketing for a few months then do something big like a radio campaign?

or

b) pay for the big radio campaign on credit and pay it back over a few months?

Different people will have different views, and ultimately the decision is mine, but like any business decision there’s risk involved and it’s a choice. There’s alternatives sure, but with the increasing competition and rising costs of variables such as printing, man power, fuel etc, it needs to be done properly or not done at all and the costs come out the same.

The radio is simply an example of a big campaign I could do, there are others, but you need to alter your marketing to capture different markets and that’s where the difficulty lies.

So my question to you is; would you charge your credit card or would you play it safe and save?

What has happened to blogging?

Where has everyone gone? No posts from me or other internet types with blogs for a while now…have we all got sick of publicising our lives?

Personally I love to write when I have a clear head and something substantial to jot down. I’ve never been one to blog for the sake of it, because “I must do 5 new posts a week”. I quickly realised I’m no John Chow and the idea of talking about how much money I make from my WordPress site simply doesn’t appeal. For me, blogging is a way of recording where I’m at and where I’ve been; almost like my online memoirs.

I’ve spoken to a couple of friends who mention that people who are intent on blogging and posting on forums daily would get somewhere by actually doing instead of talking. I think they’re completely right and I’ve put it into practice recently by putting my head down and moving forward with my plans. I’m really proud of the progress I have made and it has given me a much needed boost to keep going.

I’ve also been dedicating some of my time, both in my employment and personal time, to aiding charities with website help and financial donations. The work is really rewarding and makes me feel like my time is not only spent on me but lending a hand to others.

Hopefully I’ll have some exciting updates soon!

Good luck with your pursuits,

Khalid.

How NOT To Apply for a Job

I regularly use Gumtree.com to find temporary workers, such as promotional staff. Occassionally, I also use it to find full time employees for my workplace, however this post relates to the former.

Recently, I placed an advert for leaflet distribution staff, which is a minimum wage job in my opinion. I asked simply for some personal details, their availability and any previous experience. Here’s the worst yet funniest reply I’ve had…

hi there my name is luciano and i would like to help u on that my number is 07********7 and i live in edinburgh and would u be able to pay abit more per hour like maybe max £10 for hour if thats possible coz im really needing money i skint so wb asap please thanks..

This is 100% genuine, I’ve only edited the telephone number. Now I appreciate it is a minimum wage job but I didn’t realise that translated into discarding grammar, punctuation and manners!

The Recent Student Protests Over Education Fees

For a number of reasons I commend the students who are demonstrating peacefully against the increase in tuition fees. Having completed a degree and completed numerous job applications and interviews, I’m only too aware of the need for a degree in today’s competative job market.

The UK is becoming a services industry; we grow/manufacture less, we export less and we’re not exactly a major holiday destination.

In my opinion our income from our services will become the backbone of our economy and for those reasons we should be concentrating on education and training as many young hopefuls as possible. What the UK government are doing is making further education less attractive, forcing successful graduates to pay back enourmous amounts of money and advertising our country as a bloody expensive place to live where people just accept change.

Never have I seen any country so happy to sit back and watch petrol prices rise, tax on everything to become a norm and our education system to become a means to repaying the trillions of debt we’re drowning in. Everyone says how terrible it is, yet when protests become a little hot under the collar they’re quick to insult those actively campaigning against it.

I don’t agree with violence, afterall the police officer you’re probably fighting against has student debt too or is sick of how at least a third of his salary goes out the window. But, something needs to be done.

In an effort to avoid getting into confrontations with people on either side of the fence, here’s my suggestions as to what the government could be doing to better our country…

1. Run the country like a business -  We’re wasting billions on absolute crap, as highlighted by the likes of Mr Green, Mr Taylor and FOE.

2. Stop giving out money to people who don’t want to work – If you’re disabled or require any sort of assistance then fine, but otherwise get off your arse and get a job. Despite there being a recession companies like my employer are still recruiting because we’re pro-active.

“Welfare now costs £192 billion a year, a “staggering” increase of 45 per cent in a decade, Mr Osborne said. “We are wasting the talents of millions and spending billions on it,” – Telegraph.

3. Stop the UK being treated as a “Free” country – If you want access to the like of the NHS then at least 12 months of paying National Insurance (unless you’re part of point 2) is required.

4. Stop letting people off - If you get arrested for e.g. drunk & disorderly, no more “warnings”! You pay a fine equivalent to the cost of arresting, transporting and detaining you.

5. Chain gangs - If you’re in jail then there’s tonnes of snow that need clearing, plenty of streets that could do with a clean and much more we’re paying for we could be getting as a payback for your stay.

6. Bye bye Royals – Pay them off! They’re good for tourism I agree, but bloody hell they’re already rich why should we keep paying them! £37.4 million saved.

7. If you’re obese through laziness, flat chested due to being unlucky, an alcoholic because you a few too many beers or unfortunate that you can’t have kids then help is going to cost you! -  Hospitals are an emergency care service, not a place for free gastric bands, new boobs, a transplant because you want to drink more or IVF because you cannot conceive naturally. Sorry, but there’s hard working, good people who need emergency treatment, the NHS isn’t a system that we can abuse.

8. Insert more here - I’m sure after publishing this post I’ll think of hundreds of other ways the UK could save money!

Marketing a taxi company

It has been a while since my last post, and that’s really been for two reason; 1. I’ve not had much to report and 2. I don’t want to report what I’ve been doing. As some of your may know from the pages of Ethan Hardy Ltd, I own Edinburgh Taxi and Glasgow Taxi (.co.uk and .org.uk).

I have agreements setup with companies in both cities to accept and complete work that come through the telephone numbers on the sites in return for a referall fee, a new kind of affiliate marketing. I am fortunate enough to have Mark Boyd working as an affiliate for me and promoting a companies on his Aberdeen Taxi site.

Things are progessing well with us racking up in excess of 1,000 calls per month. Mark and I are constantly competing between Edinburgh and Aberdeen, however he has a sub-affiliate promoting his number so qudos to him!

I’ve been trialling new marketing methods, including pairing up with local companies to co-promote each other’s services. I’ve also paid for adverts on student radio and Spotify, which I hope will spread the word about the number. I’ll let you know how that goes at the end of the month!

Like Rob, who is pushing some promotional items for his Claims site, I’ve got a giveaway in the pipeline that my friend Frank and a few others voted as a great idea.

I’m cautious about publishing every step I am taking as the taxi trade is particularly competative and it is difficult to comment on what worked and what didn’t as promoting a taxi number does not guarantee instant results – people may not use one for months to come and there’s no cookies tracking the booking!

Expansion online is one thing I’m focusing on as I’m fortunate enough to benefit from good positions within the SERPs and I’ve built up a small yet growing fan base on Facebook and Twitter.

Things are going well so my head is down and I’m working this idea until those 1,000 calls turn into 10,000!

Good luck with your pursuits,

Khalid.

Honestly Stick To What You’re Good At

A while ago I posted about sticking to what you’re good at and since then I’ve tried hard to stick to my guns. It is difficult focusing on one thing until it is actually making a fair amount of cash or you’ve got no money left to do something else. It’s like ADD for entrepreneurs, do you suffer that?

With domain registrations costing £5 odds, it is incredibly easy to think “oh I’ve got another great idea I’ll go buy the name” or “I’ll reg that name because it has xxx exact searches and will generate loads” . That domain registration soon becomes a site and the next thing you’re ordering content and building backlinks. Then, surprise surprise you don’t generate the “loads” you thought about or you’re bored and off onto the next idea.

At the time of writing this I have about 200 domain names in my account, yet only a handful actually generate any revenue. I’m not saying those 195 domains are useless and will never make any money, but the fact of the matter is they mostly sit there un-used and those registration / renewal fees add up. If I took the £xxx saved and put it into my profitable ventures I’d probably end up better off.

As I type away I am thinking that I’m typing what I should be telling myself, and often that sums up my blog posts. It is really easy to preach, but actions are harder. So, I took my domains, un-used websites and began selling them off.

So far I’ve raised £2,100 in revenue from the sale of a network and one mobility name. This revenue will be used to boost the cool stuff I’m doing that is actually bringing in revenue, and the hope is that the low three figures I’m earning will end up in the mid region.

As I plug away finding the cheapest ways to make this happen, I cannot help feel sorry for my friend in Greece who, in the time it has taken me to start and run Ethan Hardy Ltd (my company), has built and sold a petrol station, purchased (and now trying to sell) a holiday home in Bulgaria, was taken for a ride on a newsagents partnership in the same country, bought land in Brazil and is chasing the developer and now lost about 12,000 Euro’s on the stock market.

It breaks my heart to see him try different things and suffer the consequences of rushing into the unknown. We all want to be successful and I genuinely admire those that have, but I realise it cannot be rushed and my friend has proved more than enough evidence of that.

So once again I’d like to remind you to stick to what you’re good at until such times as you can try something new and break any potential fall without placing yourself in a position that you cannot get out of.

Good luck with your pursuits,

Khalid.

A Week Off in Pictures

So Sunday brings the end to a week off – well, a week from driving to and from work but that’s about it! Having two puppies means you’re still up in the morning, and Christy started her university course so I was up when she was anyways.

It was good to sit back and take time away from the rat race. Watching my new ventures take shape whilst sitting with my French doors wide open and soaking up the sun reminded me of how much I want to become self employed; slowly but surely I’m getting there.

So, here’s a few snaps from the week…

The View From My Flat

Chinese Takeaway!

Walking The Dogs in Glasgow Green

BBQ King Chef at Christy's Parents

Christy's Parents, the Dogs and Me!

Christy and I

I hope your week was as good as mine.

Good luck with your pursuits,

Khalid.

Glug Glug – WhiteWine.co.uk

My good friend Fraser, one of the nicest web folk I’ve met, recently sent me over two lovely bottles of wine, one for his white wine site, the other for his red. They arrived late, due to Royal Mail’s terrible service, but hey who was I to complain it’s free booze!

Fraser’s got two cracking domain names with a lot of potential (note to wine sellers / wholesalers / business owners get on the sites!) and I thought his cool advertising was effective.

I passed the red bottle over to the girlfriend’s parents as I’m not refined enough to enjoy warm liquid.

However, last night the mrs and my mate’s partner enjoyed the bottle of chilled white and didn’t have a bad word to say.

The labelled wine was certainly a talking point and the people I told were certainly intrigued. It is a cool way to market your brand, especially if you’re in the domain industry where half the folk love a good bevvy.

If Fraser can continue churning out quality articles his twitter following will certainly go up and I’m pretty sure that’ll convert into a nice trickle of wine buyers through any affiliate programmes he hooks up with.

I wish Fraser the best of luck with his sites and if you’re cheeky enough to ask on Twitter he’ll probably send you a bottle!

A Social Gathering in Edinburgh

Fraser Edwards, a well known affiliate organised another cracking event in Edinburgh recently, attracting Elaine and Dave from All Kids, The Hodge (a man who loves legal letters), Clarke (who has recently joined the HBOS blowjob club), Jonathon, Geoff, Mark (the hashtag addict), Fiona (the alcoholic) and Chris (the shark man) from Big Mouth Media (who I like to call “Gobshite Solutions” as it sounds better).

We started at the Voodoo Rooms, with Paid on Results buying a few beers for everyone (must be all those sex toys they sell). We then headed to Grand Cru and had a good munch and plenty of banter. The most notable story of the evening was how Clarke acquired his first employee, although I won’t go there – they have lists for people like him.

The Hodge wouldn’t give anyone discounted tickets to Think Visibility without a Burger King as he wanted a free toy, so he got a bit of a pasting which he didn’t mind as he revealed he regularly comes into contact with legal bullies through the opinion he airs online – good on ya!

Big Mouth certainly sent their best employees; Fiona dropped drinks on two people and Chris took the conversation in a whole new direction talking about sharks!

As a responsible individual I didn’t dilute my sanity with alcohol and played driver, which I was quite happy about as it gave me automatic rights to write this blog post without the worry of being able to defend it.

Much love,

Ethan

p.s. (this post is a complete joke, the people who attended the evening will understand!)

p.p.s photo courtest of Mark, showing how crap the camera on the iPhone 4 is.