How I Grew My Music Company to Six figures in Six months for $40.

I think the biggest set back I see in people when starting a business and pursuing an idea is this unrealistic view of what resources they need to begin. You don’t need to spend thousands on a website, you don’t need to pay crazy amounts for ad space and you sure as hell don’t need to wait for anyone or anything. Infact all I needed was $30. That is what I love about growth hacking, you literally start from nothing and find a way to build something cool.

Now I’m not saying you can build a multi million dollar empire for absolutely nothing, however what I am saying is that there is no excuse not to get started. Like my dad would tell me when approaching a huge assignment in high school “how do you eat an elephant? — piece by piece” …actually that's kind of a F*cked up saying now I think about it. Anyway here is my process.

Phase 1: The Website

So I had little to no money. I was running my first indie record label which was amazing in theory, however the scalability and revenue coming in made it seem more like a passion project than anything.

That being said, I didn't have fancy funds for a web developer, so this was going to be from complete scratch. I had my idea and that was really it.

So here is the process:

• I bought $12 hosting with Godaddy. If you type ’$1 Godaddy hosting’ into Google, you’ll get your first month free. This came with a free domain too, so how’s that for a bargain?
• I installed Wordpress and then installed a theme which cost me roughly $10 from Themeforest (this has since been upgraded).
• The theme had visually composer, so I was able to knock this out in about one afternoon at home.
• My website had 3 things: Submit, About and an email to contact.

Phase 2: Competitor Analysis

• I opened up my notepad and started drotting down anyone that I knew in my niche that was personally killing it (money wise). Some of these guys had terrible websites yet I knew they were bringing in the bucks.
• I signed up for a 30 day free trial of Semrush. This tool is not necessary essential but it’s worth every penny.
• I typed in each competitor, analysed exactly where their traffic was coming from. In this niche, almost every competitor was getting 60% of their traffic from organic search (Google), so I knew this is what I needed.
• I examined every keyword they were getting traffic from, then organised the terms based on highest to lowest traffic.
• After about 5 web audits, it became clear to me what the golden terms were, so I wrote these down and begun phase 3.

Phase 3: Search Engine Optimization

Assuming most of you are familar with this, so i’ll keep going ahead.

• I installed Yoast (free SEO plugin) and inserting my key words as many times as I could (while still sounding like a human).
• After this I created a ‘web silo’. For those who don’t know, a web silo is the hierarchy structure of your website. It’s so that link juice is evenly passed through the website, ranking all pages.
• Installed Site map, got indexed etc.

Now the fun part:

• I went back to my competir research and made a chart of how many times and how many referring domains each anchor text had. This was narrowed down into ‘naked URL’,’Branded’,Partial match KW and exact match keyword.
• This gave me an exact estimate on how many links I needed to beat my competitor.
• I looked at every forum I could find and eventually found some decent links for just under $20.

The Power Links

A few $20 links would help however they wouldn't give me enough power. I needed something really solid. Something like a reputable website.

• I got out the ole notepad and started researching websites in my niche and what their overall Domain Rating was
• I created a press pack with pictures (not great ones), logo (also not great), website (shit) and finally my pitch/bio (surprisingly not bad).
• This was sent out to multiple blogs, however I didn't just flat out ask for the feature. Here was my secret little hack:

Adam’s Secret Little Hack to get Press:

1. Hop on to Linkedin and find the person in charge that you want to speak to
2. Head over to the website and find their phone number (that’s right — your doing a cold call)
3. Call the front desk. Now this part is crucial. Call up and ask to speak to (person you found on Linkedin) and when she was next available. The receptionist will then tell you ‘they arent available, can I take a message and ask why you are calling’.
4. Charmingly ask her (OR HIM!) what the best email is for that person, so that you aren't spamming the website.
5. Get the email and construct your feeler email ‘just reaching out bla bla bla’ then fire it off.
6. IF you get a response, it will have their signature with a 9/10 chance of their number
7. Send them a TEXT saying you are out and thought it would be easier to message directly. Set up a call
8. Pitch your project as a premiere or debut. Blogs like to be the first ones. Luckily for me not a great deal of people were doing what I was doing, so I managed to lock down a slot.

Okay, back to business. Once I got my premiere, I asked if they could just add my site link..for obvious reasons. Major blog outlets won't add your direct keyword in as it’s against their terms of service. Worth an ask..but good luck.

Total budget spend:

$12 hosting

$8 theme

$20 links

FREE authority post ;)

The plan was working great, the article came out and I literally shared the sh*t out of it. Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Reddit etc.

Fast track a few months. My rankings were started to come in and low and behold, so was my traffic.

We started receiving about 3 consultations per day which wasn't bad at all. However here is the hardest part of all.

Phase 4: ADD VALUE then Sell

These next 2–3 months actually sucked. We were on roughly 50 inquiries per week and I took EVERY SINGLE MEETING. Not only did I take the meeting, I did it with a smile and in these meetings I provided value.

• I gave them free advice
• I let them talk as much as they wanted
• Most meetings actually turned into strategy sessions which I was virtually doing for free BEFORE I even mentioned the service.

The reason why I did this, was that I knew they would tell their friends, I knew they would tell their friends friends and so forth.

I did this for 3 solid months. Virtually no sleep, late nights however it was so important to get the right first impression.

Fast track the 3 months. Some labels started coming in. Big ones too.

My team started jumping in and we started allocating the meetings. I adjusted how our site was ran and implemented an automated emailing system and Calendly scheduling.

Fast track to now.

Company makes roughly six figures per month

We do around 60 consultations per week

Staff of 4 sales team

I now work one day a week :)

Total cost: just under $50

Growing a business doesn't have to be hard. As we progressed I started investing in paid advertising and bought out media outlets which literally tripled our business, however the initial start to make actual GOOD MONEY just took some strategy and $30.

Take away: Don’t let anything stop you from starting your business. All you need is an idea and well.. at least $20-$30 bucks?

Shameless plug: I live and breathe this sh*t and I love to growth hack companies to exponential growth. If your someone who doesn't know how to get started or you are a business that is already killing it but not sure how to progress. Hit up my Growth Hacking Agency at www.sixinsix.co