How Being Fired Was The Best Thing Ever: A Story of Reading Web Agency
Ferhan's story began with a painful day.
An HR representative read a canned script over Zoom about how Ferhan Janjua, a former data analyst, was fired. Her grating voice droned on as she used a bunch of corporate buzzwords to say that he was being let go.
This was the best thing that ever happened to Ferhan.
As she coldly gave him the news, he thought about all the pointless meetings he attended at the company. All the corporate team building events that felt like a Kindergarten activity. The constant boundary pushing from the organization trying to squeeze as many billable hours as possible from him. The sixteen interviews in order to get the job. He thought about the dark circles that formed under his eyes and all the times he sacrificed his health in order to hit an arbitrary deadline. For this. What a waste. His company laptop turned off, and he stared at the blank screen.
This was the push that spurred him to start his own business. He then realized that this whole system is bullshit. He had “thought about it” for several years. He even read a few entrepreneurial books before this. But this event catapulted the idea forward as something he needed to do now in order to make rent. Still, he bummed around for a year. Then he finally had the motivation to buy a First-Class ticket out of Loserville.
In less than five hours, he had his first customer. He cold called forty landscapers and gave them the winning proposition that he’d like to make them some money. Thirty eight said no. Two said yes to making more money. And so he had a business.
He sent the invoice for five hundred dollars. The money went into his bank account. And he was hooked.
His customers were also thrilled. For every one dollar they spent, they got ten dollars in return. And so Ferhan’s phone started ringing with referrals.
Still, cold calling for revenue was a low batting average. So he started networking and threw up a basic website.
Face-to-face networking gave him an edge as he could actually talk to people in real life. It is a dying art. And he stood above all the Nigerian Prince level offers. It turns out that business owners will part with their cash if they can make more money and trust that the job will be done right.
He views trust as the essential ingredient in his business. Anyone in the world can put together an online profile, but he’s the one that the customers enjoy working with. And so he gets their business.
In addition, his in person outreach gave him an active source of revenue generation. As Ferhan expands his social circle, his revenue streams also increase. It really is as simple as talking to more people and making a good impression. Like, really. Just go outside and talk to people and you will make more money. I pinky promise.
If he starts to have a slow month, he’ll pick up the phone and start calling for work. However, the quality of his service plus the value it delivers creates a larger and larger customer base. It turns out that business owners like having their bank account balance steadily climb.
Despite his growing customer base, he did make some mistakes in the beginning. The main one was spending large amounts of time trying to hard sell his solution. Now, he doesn’t waste much time on prospects that don’t have an interest in his solution.
He also rapidly improves his skillset each month so that he can command higher rates and deliver better work for clients. Basic SEO was a beginning. But he views SEO work as fast cash and a superficial skill rather than a durable form of income. Anyone can learn the fundamentals from a few courses so he has no moat on his service. In other words, he has the constant threat of basement dwelling mouth breathers who’ll work for OnlyFans money cutting into his bottom line. So he increases his leverage.
As an example of his increased leverage, he saw that a client had a logo that looked like it was drawn in MS paint. The logo itself sucked. The mobile readability sucked. So he just read a book on logo design, drew a sketch on a notepad, and replaced the terrible logo at no charge. The customer was thrilled that they got a digital asset that would help them make more money. Ferhan also leveled up his skill set through hustle.
This commitment to service also differentiates himself from all the other providers in his niche. Many won’t answer a phone call or a text message from their clients. This is dumb. Like really dumb. If you’re in the services industry where you talk to people on Zoom and send Microsoft Office documents over email, clients can probably choose from literally anyone in the world. Service makes you special.
Also, people will 100% send referrals to people that they like working with. Ferhan rode a referral chain that 10xed his income after his successful customer service. The insta responds to text messages printed dollar bills for his operation.
Ferhan now gets questions from friends and family about how they can start their own business. Usually the questions are really dumb and are mostly asking for shortcuts about how they can do better.
His advice is to ensure that you have sufficient financial runway and just start. The ability to generate his own revenue has been one of the most powerful skills in his life and has greatly improved both his outlook on life as well as his health. Although he has the very real stress of making ends meet at the end of each month, he can set his own schedule. He can actually go to the gym and eat good food rather than spend his day chained to a desk in an office somewhere reading TPS reports.
You can follow Ferhan's journey at: https://readingwebagency.com/
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