Failing Business and

In March of this year I started a business as a content writer for tech startups. During my best month, I made $10K. Averaged around 5k most months.

I started my business by cold messaging 3,000 people on LinkedIn with a personal message. Got a 2% response rate.

Earlier in the year, i fucked up. I traveled too much. I grew poor as fuck so I definitely had what Danny Brown would refer to as some Income Tax swag. Didn’t save enough.

Fortunately, I still have enough to cover my taxes and bills for the next 2 months. For the last two months, I’ve been in the “keep expenses low” mode. But maybe it came too late.

This month, I’ve lost my contracts and per-project work. Some of them were 3 months, some were one month, some were by project. Regardless, they didn’t get renewed. Not one.

I haven’t made anything in about 2 weeks. All of the work is service based so I don’t have any products to sell.

Here’s another, much larger layer to my problem:

Something that stops me from getting even more work, I think, is that a school-issued press release explaining a misdemeanor theft charge from 9 years ago comes up during the first page of google when people google my name. However, the charge was revoked and I was found not guilty.

To be honest, if a potential freelancer that I would hire had this come up in google, one I never met in person before, I’d run in the opposite direction and probably wouldn’t say anything.

It’s even harder because I am the only one in the world with my name.

Bear in mind I was never charged with this crime, and any and all mention of it was expunged, except one, the one that is on google on page one.

Being charged with it and have it showing up so highly on google is almost just as bad as pleading guilty. But again, for the record, it is not on my record and it was revoked after I was charged with it.

I can explain to someone or show them that my record is clean, even offer to pay for a background check, but it throws some people off before they even decide to hire me, I’m sure.

I google everyone.

I’ve contracted the university PD who it happened through. I contacted the webmaster of the page, etc. and the webmaster said they’d take it down if police department agreed, but PD won’t respond to me Despite a dozen attempts.

Now, I’m living on my savings, no new work coming in. This recession is scaring the fuck out of me. I’m just not sure where to go from here.

I’m not opposed to getting a job at a marketing agency, but I’ve applied to 30+ jobs or more and no one is responding.

I want to work for myself, but my savings is dwindling and I’m coming upon my first tax season so I should really just bite my tongue and get a job, if a decent paying job takes me.

Should I keep pitching myself via LinkedIn?

My dream is to keep doing this business. But I have to be able to pay my bills, taxes, and student loans. Savings is running thin.

Part of me wants to learn python, which I’ve been teaching myself little by little everyday. But it’s the first language I’m teaching myself.

Again, what I really want is to keep selling myself as a freelance content writer and eventually start a content marketing agency in early 2019.

I’m going to be 28 next week so I need to start saving more. I had a little taste of 6+ figures and have almost nothing to show for it.

Any advice will help, thank you reddit.

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