JENNIFER CONNER — I Had No Choice But to Make it Happen

I owned a small house-cleaning business that brought in about $70k annual profit. The pandemic knocked that down to about $20k, and when I finally started to build that back up again in 2022 — in comes Hurricane Ian.

A lot of people in the area didn’t even have a house anymore, so my house-cleaning business wasn’t necessary … again.

I came back to Connecticut with my two-year-old son to move in with my mom. I picked up a job, but it had been 15 years since I’d had someone telling me my schedule, and I hated it.

It’s painful going back to a 9-5 once you’ve tasted the freedom of working for yourself.

I knew I needed to find a business that I could run from my home, and that couldn’t be shut down by weather and pandemics.

I researched things like drop-shipping or starting an e-commerce store, but it all just seemed like a lot of work for not-enough profit.

I saw an ad for a program that shows you how to run your own online business by getting small businesses more customers.

I joined in May 2023, I got my first client in June, and—seven months later—I’m about to celebrate $10k / month.

I never thought I’d be this successful this quickly. Once I found an online business I felt good about — I just hit the ground running.

Step-by-Step Strategy

1. Choose an industry you’re interested in

2. Learn how to do a basic digital marketing service like lead generation for that industry

3. Create a profile on Upwork, and search for businesses looking for that service

4. Download the AIPRM Chrome extension (free), and use it to write your job proposals

5. Offer to solve their problem for them, get them some good results, then offer to provide them more services

Think about what you’d love to get paid to do. Now, ask yourself, “Would this still be in-demand through pandemics and hurricanes?”
If the answer is yes — you’re on the right track.

Whether or not a business will “work” for you comes down to two things:
1. Does it provide value to people? (ie: will people pay for this?)
2. Will you enjoy it enough to stick with it, and get really f-ing good at it?

Can you use the thing you’re good at to improve other people’s lives?

I had no digital marketing experience, but I’m a determined learner. When I need to figure something out, I’ll sit at my computer all night until it’s done. That’s what I’m good at.

If I’m going to pour my soul into anything — why not my own wealth?

This business made sense to me because business owners want to focus on running their business and doing a good job for their customers. If you send customers to them, that makes their life a lot easier!

And by using platforms like Upwork, you’re putting yourself in front of people who are looking for what you offer.

Isn’t Everyone + Their Mom Doing Digital Marketing Today?

No — because people quit things before they even get good at them.

A lot of business owners will give you a chance if you seem like you actually care.

How do you show them that? You have to paint them a picture of exactly what you’re going to do for their business. Don’t ever assume that a business owner knows how you’ll help them.

Explain in that first conversation what you do for your clients, and how much money it puts back in their pocket.

If you take the thinking out of it for them — they won’t have to think about whether or not to hire you.

And keep doing this once you’ve got them as a client. Plan a monthly meeting where you go over the results of your work, how much money it earned their business, and then introduce options for how you can do more for them.

If you don’t feel confident that you can get a business more customers (or you don’t want to spend the time figuring it out on your own) that’s where investing in a course or program makes sense.

How to Price Yourself

When I was starting out, my goal wasn’t to charge as much as I could — it was to just get some clients.
Build that trust first, so I’d be able to charge more later.

Example: One of my first clients had posted a job on Upwork, saying that his messages to his customers weren’t sending properly. I used my Upwork hack (explained below) to offer to fix it for him. I charged him like $150 for that, then I offered to set him up some digital ads.

He’s now a $1,500 per month client — and we’re about to add on two more services too.

Small business owners don’t have a “budget” for marketing — they’ll spend what they think is worth it. So, if you can show them your service is worth it, you can charge high prices.

Once you’ve got that foot in the door, you can have more fun with your pricing. But the first priority should be proving that you can get customers.

Prove it to them — and prove it to yourself.

Tools + Costs to Run the Biz

Upwork can be free — but if you’re serious about finding solid clients on there, I’d pay for the $14 monthly plan, so you can get your proposals seen on any job you apply to.

The AIPRM extension is also free, so you don’t even have to spend time writing your proposals.

Once you have a few clients and start getting into things like running ads, I use Agency Toolbox (GHL), so I can track all my clients and campaigns from one software.

How to Get Clients

I’ve gotten 75% of my clients using this Upwork technique.

I have a Chrome extension called AIPRM that connects to ChatGPT — both are free.
You can copy a posted job description, paste it into AIPRM, then select the prompt for writing a proposal on Upwork.

This thing will spit out a customized proposal for that job posting, which you can then just copy, paste, and submit.

I don’t even know how I found it, but I tested it one day and applied for like 10 jobs, and six of them answered my proposal.

Now, I’m not even finding my clients — they’re finding me through referrals.

Productivity Hack for Mompreneurs

I can get a lot done in 3-4 hours of no distractions. I often put those hours in once my son goes to bed at 8pm.

I’ll do as many of the smaller tasks as I can during the day, but I also got into online business because I want to be around for my son. So if I have to work until midnight sometimes, that’s what I’ll do.

I also write everything down in a physical notebook. I write down any tasks I need to get done this week, and make note of which ones are higher priority.

Lastly, I put everything in my calendar. Meetings, reminders to check certain things — it all goes in my calendar so I don’t have to depend on my memory.

One Weird Wealth Habit

If you’re like me, trying to start a business that’s very new to you, one of the best ways you can invest in your success is by finding a community.

Once I found the online business I was excited about, I knew I wanted guidance. Watching YouTube videos is a good start, but you’re going to get conflicting instructions from different people and will probably end up overwhelming yourself.

If you keep worrying that you won’t be able to do this, you’ll lose your courage to keep trying.

Find a program or group where people are achieving your goal, and surround yourself with those connections.

I honestly wish I’d done this years ago.

For Aspiring Entrepreneurs

1. Don’t quit before you get your first client. That first one will feel stressful because you’ll so badly want to do good for them. But the only way to get past that imposter syndrome phase is to actually see your service work for someone.

2. Effort > experience. I had NO experience at this when I started, I just believed that I could learn how to make it work. You just have to want to learn.

3. Money is not stopping you — you are. I lost my home twice in one year. I had no money. But once I knew this program was going to help me build my business faster, I scraped up $3k to join. I made it happen.

   
   

Find Jen’s BONUS advice in our end-of-month issue, where we’ll compare it to two others to give YOU the top takeaways!