When I started my first online hustle back in 2010, I knew little about dealing with people. What would a 21 year old kid know anyway?

Prospecting different ways of making money online, I eventually decide upon tutoring - helping students with their projects. It was not the typical passive income people usually seek - this was laborious. I had to put in the work 7 days a week. But, the pay was accordingly...

A couple of months in and I could already see some major guidelines for sustainability. I had drawn a set of good practices for evergreen workflow, for continuous customer flow, and most importantly, continuous cashflow. Here they are:

1. I made customer satisfaction a top priority

Since I was just starting out, I could not afford to lose my few clients, whom I got by hunting them on different online forums. So I had to outdo myself on all the projects they sent my way.

Often, I took projects that I had no idea what to do about. But it paid off; because I struggled digesting information from different online libraries so that I can use that in the projects. My English was not very good back then. I had to fight on multiple grounds at the same time. It was stressful, but, with time, it became easier.

Seeing that I put in effort and that I delivered on time, my initial few clients became loyal. They turned to me every week. Then they referred me to their friends. And, in a matter of months, I had so much work that I had to refuse new clients. I was in front of the screen for 14-16 hours on some days. I miss that grit...

2. Quality was fundamental for prolonged business

I did not invest a single dollar in advertising or promotion. My focus on quality and timely delivery (often, over-delivery) resulted in a stable clientele.

I did not have to invest my time and money in search engine optimization or paid marketing. This gave me more time to put in actual hours.

The entire strategy was simple:

1. Receive project. Send offer (how much they would pay)
2. Clients almost always accepted the offer => work
3. Deliver => get paid immediately.

Serious, it was that simple! You don't need to be on a freelance platform or any kind of platform at all. Here's how it can go:

1. Do you have an email?
2. Are you good at something? (should I ask this question?)
3. Can you receive online payments?

Find a few clients. Offer high-quality work. Get paid. Repeat.

3. Be professional - but don't forget to be human

I had a few students whom I worked with until their graduation - often for 2-3 years at length. That was stable income. I always tried to maintain a professional relationship with them, but unpurposefully I befriended some of them. I sought to maintain a clear line between work and friendship.

I'd recommend not becoming friends with your clients, unless you're very confident you can delineate between the professional and the personal.

Some times I lost transactions. It was either my fault or a lack of understanding between me and the client. A few clients complained about the work that I delivered.

I did not fight back. I refunded their payments immediately. Some of them recognized good will in my actions, so they decided giving me a second chance by requiring me for other projects. As I once wrote:

"When the clients see that you are not that person who only wants to get their money and give less or nothing in change, they have a different view on you."

4. Make yourself available

People like to talk to people, not with chat bots. They like engaging in human interaction.

When I learned this, I added a nice feature to my website: a live chat window.

So, whenever one of my clients or a potential client had something to ask me about, I was there, behind the screen. They would only had to start typing in the chat window and I was there to respond:

"There are clients who reach your website and they are confused about something. If they don’t have a representative to talk to, they mostly likely leave your website. But if they have the option to have their questions answered quickly, you can transform them into loyal customers."

It didn't matter where I was. I could respond from my laptop, or from my tablet, or even from my smartphone if I was on the move. This increased my conversion rate.

5. Always improve your hustle

No matter what your goals is, if you work your way toward it, you'll make mistakes at some point. That's okay...

Mistakes are good as long as you can drive lessons from them and as long as you avoid them in the future. Here's how I applied this:

1. Seeing that customers engage and give me more projects when they can reach me immediately => I made myself more available (live chat).
2. Seeing that potential clients used the 'live chat' feature to ask the same questions => I added a FAQ section on the website. It reduced my time spent on dealing with the same questions.
3. When customers were satisfied, I asked for feedback => I adapted my strategy based on when they told me.
4. When unsatisfied customers provided their feedback => I adapted my future strategy accordingly.
5. When looking into my Google Analytics and Webmaster platforms => I modified/adapted the 'meta-data' so that I can reach more customers.
6. Get feedback as much as you can => analyze => adapt and improve.

Bottom line

Reiterating from the top - what I learned from my first business hustle:

1. Customer first (it works wonders most of the time)
2. Listen, show that you care
3. Put tremendous quality in what you do
4. Be professional, but don't forget to be human
5. Allow people to easily get in touch with you (this can also be a double edged sword)
6. Feedback. Analyze. Improve.

I'll leave you with a paragraph from Napoleon Hill's Think and Grow Rich:

“It should be encouraging to know that practically all the great fortunes began in the form of compensation for personal services, or from the sale of IDEAS. What else, except ideas and personal services, would one, not possessed of property, have to give in return for riches?”

Image Credit #entrepreneur #hustle #business

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Cristi Vlad, Self-Experimenter and Author