If you haven’t noticed from the lack of blog updates, but the past few months have been really busy for me. In October of 2008 I decided that I will focus 100% of my energy in www.developerhut.com. Well about five months later I have coded a working backend that tracks EVERYTHING, added 4 new products, redesigned the website, improved the quality of all the products, and even hired a part time support lady.
I am just now finally getting caught up on my work. I just barley fixed all of my ipns and api for Paypal and Google checkout. I hired michael boutros to look over my code and fix the problems (since I’m still learning php). He did a great job and I recommend him for your php jobs. I was having some problems with customers not getting there confirmation emails and he fixed that, along with the problem of paypal cutting off long descriptions on customers orders.
Last week I finished editing and testing my 10 crons that run daily. The cron tasks I have set range from emailing my daily stats, update customers on their orders, let customers know if we need more information from them, get feedback from customers, check for missing variables in customers orders, etc. All of those crons probably save me about two hours of work every day. Those crons are a very valuable part of the automated process, I highly suggest that if you want to become an internet marketer then you should learn php, trust me it helps me so much. With those crons done my order process/bookkeeping for that site is pretty much 100% automated for me.
Now this week is a whole different story. I hired a professional sales writers to re-write my 5 sales letters on developerhut.com. Each sales letter costs $150 for only 750 words, pretty crazy huh? I am also having 2 other sale letters written for other projects of mine this week so that means I will be spending $1050 on sales letters this week 
They better convert better thats all I have to say about that hehe.
This week we are also hiring 3-5 new writers for our blog comments, increase blog comments, and yahoo answers packages. Last week I worked on automating my hiring process as much as possible. I had my instructions re-written with better graphic images, my payment tracking pages updated, and I am teaching my support lady to manage my writers.
Another thing I got done just last week is our awesome quality management system we implemented. We are the only seo service company that offers this. Customers can watch the progress of there order using there online account. Once logged in customers can ask customer support and the writers questions by posting a “support note”. After an order is marked completed the customer has 5 days to look over his or her order, during that time you can check the quality and success rate, if customers have any problems they can easily post a support note. I have a system in place so that any order that has a open support note will not get marked as “done”. This process ensures that the customer is happy with there order. I will test this process more, but so far I think it will work great in making sure the customer is happy.
I also hired my first support person this month. It has turned out to be a huge success so far, she only works about 10 hours a week but she manages all of my customer support stuff and is slowly taking over the writers. After the business grows she will be working more and more for me.
So that is a typical week for me. Work work and more work. But I am started to get excited because after the sales letters get done and I finish hiring more writers I am pretty much done with the building of the company, all that is left would be improving my products and marketing. But it has come at a price… stress… I haven’t been really stressed out in a long time, and my god it sucks! My stomach has been hurting for the past week, its not like a flu sick its the old famous stressful sick. But this is what I live for, stress is part of the success (I think). Nothing makes me more happy then taking a handful of nothing and turning it into a profitable business 
But like I said, I have another week of hard work and then I should be almost done, maybe just some small tasks.
So how do you all handle stress?
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I read your article really its very experienced and helpful for all youths and new generation.
Thanks dude for your all information.You have Written well in your post.
Really you have choose good topic like “Running My First Real Business = Stressful”
Jon – the best way for me to handle stress, is hitting that weight bench like the one you got sitting in your basement. Do a few sets, some flyes, and dumbell presses – you’ll feel 100% better bro.
Also – Will you share who your getting your sales letters written by? I can’t find a decent sales copy writer anywhere. Please E-mail me if you don’t want to disclose:
wtf have you done to your rss feed – i’ve got all your old posts clogging up my reader, jon!
I ran an aquatics facility – and we added a waterslide (2) to the complex. It was late. Instead of arriving a month prior, it showed up on opening day. It took that full next month to install it.
$250,000 – and the loan payments were already starting.
I lost a great girlfriend, almost lost my partner in the business (since I was lead on the project and they were silent) and lost about 20 lbs.
I grind my teeth too – and the next year I had two root canals – and it is likely to the stress incurred the year before.
However – I can stand underneath that waterslide and KNOW that I BUILT IT! It is still running today, still bringing in customers, still covering the loan payments.
I also know that next time, I will hire the appropriate construction crew and get it built with their stress (which would likely be less anyway) and pay the money, keep the teeth, the partner, and the girl.
$1050 on sales letters :O, hope they convert mate!
Keep up the good work
Damn Tom, seems like a hell of alot just for a waterslide! Although, the waterslides we have down here in Fla are huge.
It does seem like a lot – but that is the going rate – and the increased attendance and revenue justified the install. We aren’t wildly profitable, but we do grow each year.
We are just a small ‘municipal’ waterpark. I still love hitting the big waterparks.
Nice job man. Seems pricey for sales letters. Thanks for sharing as I’m also working on creating my own company too.
Dang Jon, you throw money like a crazy man!
-Mike
Outsourcing smaller jobs in your company will give you great results. It’s little harder in the beginning, and it is normal that you are putting a lot of time in this period, but don’t worry, results will come for sure. Just be patience. It looks like you are on good track. Good luck!