Hey Steppers! Here’s an update on the $1000 profit, part time in one month from scratch CHALLENGE…

Okay, gang: the SS101 Bizness that my son Pierce and I started May 9 is now up to $739 gross receipts, with expenses of $248.54. Rounded down to the nearest dollar that’s $490 profit, about halfway to the $1,000 mark. Gotta problem tho…

Because now, the calls have completely dried up from the six signs that Pierce and I put out. We drove through the neighborhood looking for them and they are all gone. I dunno why but it doesn’t matter. We need more signs.

“WHY?” you might ask. “Free is free. You’re not paying anything for the ads that are coming in for free. Why add to your expense?”

The calls from our ‘free’ advertising (craigslist, FB, Fixr) are still coming in, but converting at a low rate. We’ve gotten seven calls from free sources, but have only gotten three actual paying customers from those calls. On the other hand, we got only six calls from the signs, and from those signs have FIVE paying customers.

Free ads are converting at 42.9% (three of seven calls) , while paid ads are converting at 83.3% (five of six calls). Besides taking into consideration the dollars paid for ads, ya gotta figure in time and hidden expenses: We’ve wasted our time talkin to four lookee-loos, and the paying customers we HAVE gotten have been far away; craigslist and Google searches within Colorado Springs seem to send us all over, while signs are contained within a smaller geographical area.

Boy, does it pay to keep track of these things! This is the value of Shoestring Step FOUR: Measure Everything You Can.

That’s a long way of saying that now we need to buy more signs, and why. But here’s the happy part: we don’t need to do a design for our signs anymore. We have one that’s working. Plus when we buy in bulk, we get a bit of a discount. So instead of the $62.66 we paid originally for six signs from Bandit Signs, now I’m paying $209.40 for FIFTY (or as we say in Texas, FITTY) signs with the same design!

That’s just a little over four bucks a sign.  With six signs we pulled in five paying jobs, just over half of our business so far. Those signs stayed up for about a week before the wind took ’em, competitors snatched ’em, or whatever happened. Since we are at a profit mark of $490, it’s a bit risky… but I think it’s justifiable to put just under half that back into our most effective form of advertising.

SO! $490 profit so far, minus $210 for the new signs takes us backwards to $280 profit. Yikes… and we’ve got to make $1000 by June 9 for my challenge to succeed.

Whaddya think, Steppers? Pierce’s last day of school was yesterday. Our signs don’t come in til next Wednesday, May 30. We’re at a profit margin of $280 after the expense of the new signs. Do ya think we’ll make it to the magic Thousand Bucks in just the ten days from May 30 to June 9?

Sound off below! Looking forward to hearing your comments.

Keep Stepping,

Kurt