I think it is time to stop goofing off and step up.

This business is starting to become serious for me.

I will write a second success story soon and you will understand why this is no longer a joke to me...

So when I started this blog, my intention genuinely was to document all the steps I am taking so I could keep track of what I did giving a clear indication of what I had to do next.

It was so difficult to start and this blog was the number one thing that allowed me to start.

But somewhere down the line it just became a filler of information and a way to unwind and be a bit comical.

I want to go back to this blog being helpful and functional and this is what this post is all about.

I am going back to  making a recipe for "success" I hope.

So let me try to steer you all back to where I am now and where things stand.

So first the update on what I have been doing the past month.

Last month was all about closing the second deal I signed. I will not go in details on this as this is definitely a story for the "success story" board, but for reasons you would never expect.

So other than focusing on closing the deal all I did was experiment and develop custom strategies to get my sites ranked. I have been very successful here, with help from Adrien, Andre and Jake from Investor Carrot.

Combining what they are teaching, their sites (which is basically my motivated seller sites "We Buy Houses In Connecticut" and my House Buyers site, and my own research and spin on things, I have now created a super effective way to rank your sites in record time.

Do not confuse this with being "easy". A big reason I am ranking now is because I am doing things what no one in the right mind would even consider doing because it is a ridiculous amount of work!

No this is not a secret. I have started 2 blogs where I explain all the details of this system to rank. I will not divulge all the gorey details all at once. It is a lot of writing and explaining and as you can tell I have a LOT of work to do as it is. But when I have time I will definitely contribute to sharing the successes I have.

If you want to know these details go to my The Learning REI Investor blog and keep an eye out for my entries there.

The other blog I have is just a simple documentation on the business side of my We Buy Houses In Connecticut Business. The motivated seller website.

So that is what I have been doing the last 2 months.

So here is what I should be doing now!

So before I start listing what I should do next, I should first figure out where I am right now exactly. 

After my first deal I started to receive more calls from the residual effect of my previous marketing campaigns and the opt-ins I have been getting on my ranking sites.

I completely stopped marketing as I just couldn't handle doing all the things I was doing on my own. I became obsessed with my ranking strategies so I couldn't just stop doing that, and I had no drive to follow up with old leads. All I was doing is focusing on this second contract I signed and working on ranking my websites.

I just stopped and waled away from marketing and my marketing was left in complete disarray. After my first mailing campaign I received a bunch of returned mailers. 

Because of the delay between sending the mailers and getting return phone calls, I had already sent my second mailing campaign while getting phone calls from the first mailing campaign. 

What does that mean? All the wrong and undeliverable addresses from my first mailing campaign were sent out with my second feeling campaign as well. This caused a chain reaction of an avalanche of returned mailers, angry callers, callers from motivated sellers and calls form people just wanting to know how much I would offer.

I just walked away from all that and didn't organize anything. Now that I have to pick up where I left it is just overwhelming the amount I have to do to just pick up the pieces and put it all together again so that I can start my 3rd mailing campaign.

At the time I didn't care that much because my first contract signed and that was all I could think of. My big mistake was thinking that since I'm closing on a deal I can stop marketing for a while since I'm already getting motivated seller calls from my first and second marketing campaigns months ago.

The mistake here is that getting calls from sellers does not mean you are getting the deal. You really need to have a continuous flow of leads coming in because who knows how many if any will convert to a signed contract. 

This second deal took three months to complete! It took one month to sign and almost two months to actually close. All this time was spent only on closing that contract while I was testing new methods and techniques to boost my online presence for my websites.

Although I'm convinced that my online presence methods are extremely successful I cannot deny I became obsessed with it and it was taking all my time. I was putting of marketing because I was happy enough I didn't have to spend the money.

But eventually I have to deal with it and now that I realize that I have no more properties in the pipeline I'm starting to get nervous. I have still a bunch of properties I can follow up on, but that is not the answer. Yes I need to follow up with these properties but I have to start mailing again. 

So now you know in what situation I'm in. 

So here are the steps I have to do right now. And finally again I feel like I am doing my blog the way I intended it to be. Just and simply a way to document the steps I am taking to become successful. 

So here are the steps: 

Task 1

First I need to get a new list. The list I have I got in March. I need to update that list and find more niches to send mailers to other than preforeclosure (which never got me anywhere) and absentee owners. The absentee owner list is a very good list and  it's very responsive but everybody's using it there's just too much competition.

Task 2. 

I need to develop a system that can handle return mailers. As of right now the way I find these addresses is just by Googling the name of the person the mail is addressed to, in hopes to find a complete address. This however is a complete Shot in the Dark. It takes forever to find anything and often without good results. There must be a better way. So that would be a task to complete, to find a better way to do a search on addresses. 

Task 3 

would be to design a marketing piece. I have now done several marketing pieces and the best ones so far are yellow postcards. But even in the category of yellow alone there's a lot you can do. We have sent two pieces out that are different, and we experienced the ugliest to be more successful. We have put a lot more design work into the yellow postcard that we used. 

My suspicion is that because of the more professional-looking the car just look too professional to insincere.

I am ending this entry abruptly like this. The reason is because I have not thought any of these steps through. I just know this, or something along these lines is what I have to do next.

In a next entry I will think it through a bit more and translate it into an action plan.

I will then write it down so I can see it and get a better sense of direction on what to do next.

I am also starting on thinking about how to scale my business.

By next month I will hire my first employee to take care of phone calls.

Scary, but I think my success is growing faster than my business. I have to keep up with "my success" otherwise I will not last. It is just too much work for me to do all this alone.