Ask Lemmy

I used to be a financial advisor. I cold called 1,000 numbers. I got 1 to a meeting (0.1%), never became a client. Idk how many doors I knocked on, I got 2 meetings, neither of them clients. Every client I got was someone I already knew. Just kinda what going off on your own is like.

Was there any skill you actually enjoyed doing? Is there a way to get a job somewhere to build experience as like a trainee before going off on your own?? I'm kind of in a similar situation, except I'm eyeing up bookkeeping. I'm good at math, it's potentially fully remote, no degree required, no regulatory board/exams to pass/ low regulation. The downside is that it can be hard to break into because of the low barriers to entry and anybody can just call themselves a bookkeeper so it's a little oversaturated. .

I'm going to self study, learn bookkeeping software, then start applying for jobs like "junior bookkeeper", "accounts payable clerk", "assistant bookkeeper" etc just to try and get my foot in the door and see where it goes.

What do you mean learned those skills? Did you watch couple YouTube videos? Did you read 2-books on the topic? Did you attend a school? A weekend seminar?
And when people say learn a skill - they don't mean learn a visual art.

Being an artist who is good is one thing, you will need a really hard skill: selling yourself and your product - and that skill is really hard to get.

When people tell you learn a skill is: skill as: ac repair, plumbing, cleaning, wood working, electrician, exterminator. These skills need 1-2 year active learning and training. And they don't need a skill to sell yourself. Peope will need you no matter what.

People don't need logos, or social media presence - but when they lock themselves out of their car they will need a locksmith.

What do you mean by "tried" and "skills"?
Those "skills" you listed are full careers.
If you didn't spend half a decade learning, studying, and practicing each one, you haven't "tried" anything.

1% reply rate on cold outreach is totally normal. You are basically spamming people. Do you reply to spam?

3 problems:

1. I dont see you say anywhere that you have a portfolio. You need a portfolio to show off to potential employers what you can actually do in these fields.
2. You say you quit in the boring middle part. Well... don't. People who go to school for graphic design go to school for years - even if the schooling isnt perfect, it is better than kind of aimlessly tooling around for a few weeks.
3. You don't have any connections. Like you noticed, your cold outreach response rate is abysmal. Of course it is. If a random stranger walked up to you on the street and asked if you want to be friends, you would probably be quite hesitant. But if you meet through a mutual friend, at a party, or in a hobby club, you will be much more interested in meeting them. 80% of jobs are never posted on online job boards, because they are filled via informal social connections.

I'm an SEO Specialist/Content Manager and I would never hire someone for SEO, copywriting or social media who doesn't have a portfolio of work to show demonstrated experience for other brands. Plus most big companies outsource to agencies for contract type work, so I'm assuming you were reaching out to smaller businesses, but they would just get their marketing person to do it to save money.

2 things, do you actually care about any of these skills you listed? Or is it like how I feel about accounting or wood carving?

Second thing is, have you tried slipping in the side? Get a job where you can move your career towards doing that?

quitting before the "boring middle part" even ends.

What is your plan?

You are talking about "a skill" as if it were some kind of magic key and then suddenly the world is saved. But nobody knows how you want to save the world once you got your magic key. How do you want to proceed with that skill? What is your plan?

I have a feeling that there is so much more where you possibly have made mistakes, and possibly could ask for advice, but you are asking just about that one oddly specific thing "a skill".

I don't get it.

A magic fix for what exactly?

Responses to cold calling are a poor indicator of success. That's just not how businesses obtain services.

How did you learn these skills? If someone told me they had learned logo design my first thought would be is that they have no idea about design because that's not how people talk about it.

Networking. You need to find poeple who are doing the career that you want. Forums Facebook groups, Discord chats, LinkedIn, wherever your poeple are that's where you go. Join a group and see how other poeple are making this work.

I succeeded in my freelancing career by finding and working under some very good mentors. They gave me advice and when my skills developed enough, started tossing me some work and clients. It's possible, but it's work and requires a lot of soft skills.

If you are sending things via email 99% of it is going to hit the spam folder. If I register a domain name I get no less than 6 emails selling my web site designs, logos, seo, hosting and other stuff I neither want nor need. Figure out of the rest you will get less than 10 percent interaction.

Build a website, create 20 mock logos, write some articles, then head to local businesses to give them a chance to take a look. When you get a few locals that you can get on board and have some links on your site that show you have real customers with real locations.

Use your SEO skills and people will make it to your site and inquire about your services.

Without all of that if I received an email randomly in my spam I wouldn't even look. Some rando sending me an email for a service is no different than the ShinyHunters hacking group junk I get saying I've been hacked and send them 2000 in crypto, the German guy sending me a notice that I have money they are holding for me, or the junk saying thank you for your Microsoft 365 purchase that I didn't make.

I know it sounds harsh but pulling punches isn't going to help you here. Also randomly starting something then quitting because you are not successful then doing it again on something else and wondering what the problem is.... well they say the perfect definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again expecting different results. It sounds like you are changing the wrong variables. If you really want this to work you need to put in more effort than watching a few videos, making minimal effort, sending random emails, then moving on when it didn't work. When you can walk in to an established business in your preferred field and get a job doing what you are trying to randomly sell then you can start a real business and be successful.

I was always a sport and hobby hopper growing up and rarely stuck with the same thing long enough to get good, just competent. The two exceptions are biking and dancing.

In dancing there's a common story about getting good: When you are new, you know you are bad at it, and go to beginner classes. When you get better you start overestimating yourself and going to classes well above your skill level. When you get good... you know you suck and you go to your friend's beginner classes.

The people I dance with tend to appreciate solid basics and good etiquette over perfect flashy moves. Never lose sight of the basics because the 1% that makes you stand out at something relies of the 99% foundation of becoming competent that you build by being a well rounded human being and putting in the time to get some experience.

Good luck!

I did lots of lead climbing (rock climbing up big walls with a rope). I never thought bouldering (rock climbing super short routes with pads under you and no rope) to be worth trying. I supplemented my lead climbing with bouldering just for the heck of it. I stuck with it for a few months which is what it took me to adapt my skills and learn new techniques required for bouldering. I messed around and had fun while bouldering until I started to feel what the new techniques were, then started watching videos on how to boulder and pieced it together now that it made sense. Bouldering has made me much more proficient at lead climbing and I'm glad I stuck with it. Now I find it enjoyable as something fun and challenging but ultimately still like lead climbing more.

@sandhu — 1% reply rate feels low because it is. But when we A/B’d cold emails for dev tools, the real bottleneck was price anchoring: ‘I’ll do X for $0’ vs ‘I’ll audit this page for free.’ The latter got replies from tire-kickers, the former from buyers. Try leading with a micro-scope (e.g. ‘SEO audit for your homepage in 24h’) and price it at $0 only if they commit to a call afterward. We saw a 3x reply→conversion lift when we did this https://cxgo.ai/l/KGWrFFz . Painful truth: rejection often means you were solving the wrong problem first.

Find something that somewhat suits your innate abilities first, rather than a completely random thing. Then look for that and stick with it to you gain the skills to move up and around.

I.e. I took art math and drafting in highschool, I found a placr looking for junior guys to move into engineering but first you had to do hands on shoo work to understand the business. It was 2 years on the shop floor and then 2 years nightlchool for relevent courses and 8000 hour apprenticeship for engineering. Nothing is instant.