What we covered in our fourth conversation with my mentor Todor Madzharov and what we will cover today:

1. Report on daily duties and work with clients (at that time)

2. Review of the goals set within the mentoring program - Mentor the Young

3. Breaking big goals into smaller achievable ones is the key to success

4. On that note - by April 15th the goal was to complete three "Instant Web Solutions" and have my personal brand - gurbov.design optimized for sales

1. Since then there are unfinished projects and tasks because of unserious clients. This is okay in some ways, except for the fact that on the pay side, we agreed 50% upfront before the project starts and 50% after the project ends.

Okay, clearly, the project is "NOT READY YET" because the client isn't ready yet, but on the other hand, the obligations on my part are fulfilled. So this is something I struggle with today and this is why Digital New Era's business model is in the form of online trading and not negotiation.

Cons:

- There's a big opportunity lurking - me as a contractor getting screwed because the price is fixed, but sometimes the client wants a lot of changes, and there's no way in the middle of the project to tell them they can't (at least at this stage, after 6 months we won't be "splitting anyone's bass") 🙂

- Not always all the specifications and benefits of the project are clearly spelled out (I know them, but I'm not sure about the client, which is entirely my responsibility and I can only be mad at myself)

Pros:

- We take 100% of the amount before work starts

- This will definitely hinder successful sales, but I'm prepared for that too. I hope that due to the low prices, purely psychologically the client won't think twice about paying 100% upfront, simply because it's not an unheard of and unheard-of amount, especially for a business

- I'm also counting on the generous policy if the client is not happy (more like not) and with some peculiarities on a project, they get 100% of their money back if they are not happy. We'll talk about that another time.

2. Honestly, I don't remember what the exact goals were on the day in question, but looking at the last point of my notes, I believe we were well behind on "Instant Web Solutions", and they were the crux of the business. Let me clarify why:

- The first and most significant reason is that I wanted to close/complete the project in order to enter it into the "Site of the Year" contest, which would begin to generate eventual traffic to it.

- The second reason is that I needed to start working and testing the branding and business model to see what would go where and what would work best so I could focus 100% on it.

(I do want to throw something in, even though it hasn't been many months since then - 3/4, my business model has changed at least 5 times and will probably change that much more by the end of 2023, and on that point I want to give you a piece of advice - if something isn't working or isn't working well enough, as much as you like it and believe in it - just change it while you can and never compromise on success) 🙂

3. This point starts at the perfect time. As I said, we shouldn't compromise success based on successfully completed goals. In order for them to be met, we must first assess how achievable they are, in what time frame we can accomplish them, and most importantly break them down into smaller and measurable tasks. The 'least is' that you will never be desperate because, with each small task, we release dopamine which keeps us 'motivated'.

4. What can I say about "Gurbov Design", the brand remains, but my focus on it, is not quite. Don't get me wrong, it's just that in order to be successful we need to be focused on one thing and one thing only, push, push, don't give up, mash, dance, etc. That in my case is New Era.