Journey To $100 Million

Today, Daniel Hill, Instagram Stories flash briefing host, talks about something he’s been doing for a long time that is starting to pay off. He has recently been spending time on Twitter looking speaking opportunities. He has a formula that you can adapt whether you’re looking for speaking opportunities as well or if you’re looking to find a new way to grow your business. In the Twitter search box, he puts “call for speakers” and eliminates the words ‘Trump’ and ‘Pelosi’ because he doesn’t want any political stuff. Once you type that in, you can save your search on Twitter.com and then when you go to search things again in the future, Twitter will show searches you’ve made in the past and saved. He checks in for conferences looking for speakers once or twice a week. You can try some variations to narrow down exactly what criteria you’re looking to find. Be sure to find Daniel online: @DanielHillMedia on Instagram and Twitter or at DanielHillMedia.com — Erik J. Olson is an award-winning digital market

There are two main types of legal entities one can become when opening a business. One is an LLC, which stands for limited liability company. The other is S Corp which stands for S Corporation. There are other variations but these are the two main types. There is also a Sole Proprietor, which is when a business is owned by one person and that business and the person are seen as one in the same. Erik typically doesn't recommend someone become a Sole Proprietor because if the business is ever sued the business owner can also personally be sued. Erik has typically always formed his businesses as an LLC. There are many advantages to being an LLC. The biggest advantage is that it separates the business owner from the business itself so if the business is ever sued it doesn’t mean the business owner will personally be sued. They can take every last dime of the company’s but it doesn't mean they will be able to go after the business owner’s personal home, car, or assets. The other advantage is that with an LLC the

Erik is pretty active on Twitter. He often gets questions about entrepreneurialism there. One of the questions he gets asked often by new business owners, or people who are thinking about starting their own business, is whether they need an accountant in the beginning. The short answer is no, not in the beginning. When Erik first started as a freelancer years ago he was a one-man show. He was working from his dining room table for just a couple of clients. His expenses were minimal and he was only getting paid about once a month from those few clients. It was pretty easy for him to keep the books himself at that point. Those jobs got rolled into his personal taxes so it was fairly simple for him to file his taxes himself in the beginning too. It wasn't until he hired his first employee that he decided to hire an accountant. He wanted to make sure he did things right with payroll and taxes. These days at Array Digital we use a CPA. a CPA is a highly trained accountant who specializes in handling complex

When Erik and Kevin first decided to add gym membership as an employee benefit they realized there were a couple of ways of handling it. One way was they could let their employees choose the gym they wanted to join and submit for reimbursement every month. Another way was employees could use the company's credit card number to sign up at the gym of their choosing. They figured out it would be too much administrative work and they wanted something simpler. In the end they decided to choose one gym - the OneLife gym near the office. It's the gym that Erik was a member of. He worked something out with the sales manager to let him know that employees could sign up at that gym and Array Digital would pay for it. They decided they would pay the signing fee for each employee who wanted to join and the monthly membership fee for each employee, which is about $30 a month. While the company pays for two-thirds of the monthly membership Erik still has the employee contribute $5 per paycheck towards their membership.

If you’re an entrepreneur, you’re not going to be able to change the world if you’re not healthy because it’ll derail your progress. It’s easy to say I’ll do it later, things naturally get pushed to the side when you’re working on stuff. This year, Kevin has been good and consistent about going to the gym every week, his wife has been cooking healthy meals, most of the food they have in the house are healthy foods. Little changes like this can truly make a big difference. He and his wife just ran a 5K and plan to do a race at least once a quarter. If you can’t work and show up because of your health, things are going to change in your absence. So, take care of yourself! — Erik J. Olson is an award-winning digital marketer & entrepreneur. The Founder & CEO of Array Digital, he is also the host of the Journey to $100 Million Flash Briefing and daily podcast, and the organizer of the Marketers Anonymous monthly meetups. — Kevin Daisey is an award-winning digital marketer & entrepreneur. He sta

In this episode Erik talks about a book that he is currently reading by Joe Sugarman. It's about ad copy writing. Erik considers himself a pretty good writer when it comes to storytelling but ad copy writing is different. We do a lot of writing here at Array Digital. We write articles and educational pieces on behalf of our clients and for ourselves. We have a talented team of great writers, but Erik is interested in learning about ad copy writing for himself. He wants to be great at it too. With ad copy writing you are trying to get the buyer to take a specific action. Erik says there is an art and science behind this and that's part of what he wants to learn. One of the points that really sticks out from the book for Erik is the benefit of the benefit. He uses the example of advertising for one of our photography clients who mentions using museum quality photo paper. Erik asked the team what is the benefit of using museum quality paper. The benefit is that picture will not discolor over time. Beyond

Today, Kevin is sharing an update on Array’s revenue. We had a sales slump between the 2nd and 3rd quarters but we’ve come out of that strong. We exceeded our annual goal of $1.8 million in annual revenue; at the time of this recording, we are at about $2.1 million in annual revenue with over a month left. Now, we’re looking at setting goals for next year. Why share this information? To show you what we’re doing and if the steps we’re taking are working. We celebrated reaching and surpassing our goal but then we’re back at it and back to work. Our sales manager, Glen, has brought a ton of those sales and revenue during the time he’s been here. We will continue to share our goals with you going into the new year. — Erik J. Olson is an award-winning digital marketer & entrepreneur. The Founder & CEO of Array Digital, he is also the host of the Journey to $100 Million Flash Briefing and daily podcast, and the organizer of the Marketers Anonymous monthly meetups. — Kevin Daisey is an award-winni

In this episode, Erik talks about his first project as a freelancer. Years ago when Erik's work on DoD projects was coming to an end, he knew he had to start building up his commercial portfolio.He went on a site called elance.com (which has since rebranded to become upwork.com). Upwork is a site where people can post different kinds of jobs they need done and freelancers can bid on those jobs or negotiate a price. Erik found his first client on this website. It sounded like a simple project until he got on the phone with the client for the first time. That's when he found out it was a legacy project, meaning it was work on an outdated website that used outdated technology. There was nothing really appealing to him about this project but he decided to take it on anyway. He finished that project and then the client called him for another small project, and another, and another. It was a great learning experience and it really helped Erik get his foot in the door. That original small project eventually turn

Have you ever failed? We definitely have. Within businesses, ideas, initiatives, we’ve all failed but the most important thing to learn is that failure is necessary to success. You’re going to fail, it’s not always going to work. Failure is what makes you who you are and defines you. Don’t be afraid to fail because it’s unavoidable. — Erik J. Olson is an award-winning digital marketer & entrepreneur. The Founder & CEO of Array Digital, he is also the host of the Journey to $100 Million Flash Briefing and daily podcast, and the organizer of the Marketers Anonymous monthly meetups. — Kevin Daisey is an award-winning digital marketer & entrepreneur. He started his first company when he was just 23, and is the Founder & CMO of Array Digital. Kevin is also the co-host of the Journey to $100 Million Flash Briefing and daily podcast, and the co-organizer of the Marketers Anonymous monthly meetups. — For more information on the show, and to check out past episodes, go to journeyto100million.

We have gone through a few different versions of our website over the last two-and-a-half to three years. The latest version is a blue and white theme, and we've had it for at least a year. We had previous versions that we made several tweaks to along the way. Erik and Kevin would put the tasks in for the team to make changes and they would make them, but no matter how many changes were made they were never really quite satisfied with the old sites. It got to the point where they knew they wanted something very different, but instead of waiting on tasks to get done by the team Kevin jumped in and started building some prototypes himself. Kevin got his start by building websites many years ago but these days as our CMO he focuses on sales and business development. However, he saw the need and he took the initiative doing it himself. This is a good example of a great leader and executive. Kevin started by creating the services page of our website and then redoing the homepage. These are the most important p

Always be learning. This sounds obvious and you’ve probably heard it from a lot of people but Kevin took it for granted for a while, not reading books or taking in new content. He changed that up this year taking the time to read books and gain new knowledge. He’s started using Audible to download books that he can listen to on his 30-minute commute to work. He’s also listened to hundreds of podcast episodes. And of course, he’s recorded these episodes that you’re listening to. Sharing what he’s learned on this podcast helps him to hold the information longer and makes it sink in for him more. The top CEOs read 60 books a year whereas the average American only reads 1 book a year looking for that million dollar tip that’ll transform their business. So learning the information is great but sharing the information you’ve learned is even greater. — Erik J. Olson is an award-winning digital marketer & entrepreneur. The Founder & CEO of Array Digital, he is also the host of the Journey to $100 Mil

Almost every day, we’re meeting with prospects that have websites that do not perform: they load slowly, aren’t optimized, aren’t producing leads. And these are big brands that we’re going after in our region. We always come in and say we can improve your website, increase brand awareness, etc. There are few that do it well and it’s rare to see a website that has nothing to fix or change. If you’re an entrepreneur looking to start a business, you need to create a website with these basic elements: loads fast, is mobile responsive, has a phone number that people can click to call, and is always up and operating. You don’t have to pay a lot of money for it but it’s essential to have these key features. The website should be secure, mobile-optimized, fast-loading, built for your buyer (is it easy to convert), your social icons should be in the footer, checked for broken links, and optimized for search results. — Erik J. Olson is an award-winning digital marketer & entrepreneur. The Founder & CEO of

About two years ago we read the book Profit First. In the book the author essentially tells you how you can gain control of your finances. Most people consider profit to be the money that's left over at the end of the month. But, the author of this book says profit is something that you need to pay yourself first and whatever is left for the rest of the month is what you get to spend. We put these ideas into practice right away and took a good look into our monthly expenses. What we found was that we had roughly the same expenses every month with one big exception - payroll. At the time we were paying employees every two weeks, as is fairly common with many businesses. The problem with that is that it meant a couple of months out of the year there were three payrolls instead of two. From an employee's perspective that's not really a bad thing because it's almost like getting extra money in the month. But, from the business side it made it difficult to budget and it really affected the books in the months th

Don’t be concerned with money when you’re first getting started. If you’ve started a business and you’re looking to grow rapidly, you’re probably thinking that money could help with all the issues you come across. Money is a concern no matter how big you get. You’re going to take financial hits whenever you’re starting a new business venture. Every initiative takes way more effort than you thought so you’re never really prepared. Holding back until you’re completely prepared, therefore, means you’ll never go through with it. The best entrepreneurs out there don’t focus on how much money they have but how much of an impact they can make. When Kevin first started his business, in the first 6 months, he didn’t have an income so he worked at a recruiting job and let him know up front that he was trying to start his own business. He stayed there for 6 months then was completely reliant upon his own business for his income. — Erik J. Olson is an award-winning digital marketer & entrepreneur. The Founder

A couple of years ago, in the time between Christmas and New Year's, (our typical slow season), Erik had some time to take a deep look into the company’s books. He wanted to see if he could predict how much money the business would make in the coming year based on the contracts we had in place. He looked at the sources of revenue for that year. At the time in 2017 we had four main service categories: - Software development - Digital marketing - Website design - Website support He found that out of the four services three of them were predicted to lose money in 2018. It was pretty shocking when he discovered that just to break even and have zero growth in software development he and Kevin would have to secure $700,000 in new software contracts and soon! At the time we still had a couple of software developers on the team and only about two months worth of contract revenue to cover their salaries. On the other hand, we had one full time employee working on digital marketing and numerous contracts for digita

We have an entry fee of $375 a month that we charge all new clients. This is the base fee for professional services upon which all other services get added to. This fee tends to disqualify smaller businesses and startups from working with us. It is not as much a concern for bigger companies that have more money to spend. Recently however, we were talking with a new client who said our entry fee was a deal-breaker for them. This potential new deal was going to be between $15 to $20,000 a month. They said they were already spending a lot of money with us didn't feel should have to pay the professional service fee. Glen, our sales guy, brought this to Erik and Kevin's attention. They all agreed it was not worth losing a potential big deal over $375 a month. The larger deal meant they would still be making a profit and they could afford to waive the fee if needed. We don't discount our services here at Array Digital, instead we like to add value. However, we are currently working on a process to decide when it'

One of the things that Erik has noticed when running a business is that he made a lot more money in the early days. Years ago, Erik was working on DoD contracts with one other partner. They were working 40 hours a week and charging big bucks for their work. It was a fun time financially. Erik and his partner were putting all the extra money aside for the business in hopes of one day growing it. But, it became apparent they had different visions for the business and frankly Erik hated the work. Over the course of the next 6 to 12 months they slowly started draining the money from the business and taking it for themselves. There wasn't a foreseeable future for their business together. After that, Erik started working on his own in the commercial world. It was just him and his laptop at the dining room table. He was making even more money than he did with his previous partner. It was a lot! About six months into it he hired his first employee. That ate away at some profit. Next he moved into a small co-wor

We recently ran into a problem with a new client about the activity that was happening within the first couple weeks of signing them. Erik and Kevin traveled out of town to meet with this client knowing there were some areas of confusion on the client’s end. When they met for coffee, the client just started to vent his concerns about being burned in the past by agencies. He was concerned about how he had paid for advertising and wasn’t really seeing the level of activity that he expected or proof that we’d been doing all this work. We do a ton of behind the scenes work so we realized that the client can’t always see that work so they may become anxious and concerned even for the clients that don’t bring this concern to our attention. It’s led to a small change in how we update the clients with constant communication telling them what we’ve done and where we are. It’s a small tweak but it was important. What small change can you make to make your clients more comfortable? — Erik J. Olson is an award-winni

For 2019, Erik tried something new when it came to his New Year’s resolutions; by actually setting resolutions he couldn’t just achieve with one event. They were resolutions they’d take all year to accomplish: some behavioral changes and others were big events that he couldn’t do all at once. He set 3 resolutions: 1. Run 1,000 miles by the end of the year. 2. Get the company’s annual recurring revenue to $1.8 million. 3. Always stop at stop signs and red lights He hit the first one by Halloween, 2 months early! The 2nd goal, we hit and surpassed and we’re currently up to $2.2 million. The stoplight one was no problem, just a bit awkward at first. Most people give up on New Year’s resolutions early in the year because that’s just kind of the thing to do. But it’s truly a missed opportunity because it’s the perfect time to reset your life and start changing your habits. So, it’s December 2019 right now. Start thinking of your New Year’s resolutions for 2020 and get them going come January 1st. Here are

Kevin has spent a lot of time networking, he built his business on networking, and it has served him very well. As an entrepreneur, you should never stop networking because it’s all about who you know no matter where you are or what you do. But in addition to growing your network, you should also maintain your existing network because they can be great to fall back on. — Erik J. Olson is an award-winning digital marketer & entrepreneur. The Founder & CEO of Array Digital, he is also the host of the Journey to $100 Million Flash Briefing and daily podcast, and the organizer of the Marketers Anonymous monthly meetups. — Kevin Daisey is an award-winning digital marketer & entrepreneur. He started his first company when he was just 23, and is the Founder & CMO of Array Digital. Kevin is also the co-host of the Journey to $100 Million Flash Briefing and daily podcast, and the co-organizer of the Marketers Anonymous monthly meetups. — For more information on the show, and to check out past ep