Today we’d like to introduce you to Dan Barad.
Dan, please share your story with us. How did you get to where you are today?
I started my first business in high school when I was 17. We were building longboards with LED lights in the decks out of a garage. We were purely selling off of Instagram, we had no website, no official business registration, no TIN, we really had no idea what we were doing. Unfortunately, due to my partner refused to take it seriously as anything more than a hobby and eventually wound up closing our joint bank account and disappearing with the profits. This was a lot of money to lose at 17 and understandably I became depressed and decided I needed more discipline in my life so I decided to join the Marine Corps.
Eventually, when I got back to San Diego, I wound up restarting the business the right way with partners I trusted and all the legal documents in place. We got a patent pending for the design and wound up selling the business at the end of 2015. The biggest take away that I had from this business is that I enjoy digital marketing and I’m damn good at it too. That’s when I decided to dive into the E-commerce and drop shipping world.
My first website was targeting the car community. I was selling shirts and accessories through drop shipping channels. This is where I began learning graphic design. I purchased all the Adobe products and spent hours upon hours every day teaching myself photoshop and illustrator. The end result was a website that was generating $2,000 in profit every month. Not bad for my first go at it.
After selling off this website I decide to try my luck in flipping websites. I would look through websites for sale and find one that has a market niche that I believe I could sell their products too. I would do a week’s worth of market research and If I liked what I found I would put in an offer. The websites that accepted my offer I would completely redesign and begin running ads. All the revenue generated from the website was dumped back into the ad spend in order to massively grow the analytics. Then I would just turn around and resell the website for 10x what I purchased it for.
This was entertaining for a few years but then I decided I wanted to expand my marketing skills and give business to business marketing a shot. Unfortunately, with no college degree on my resume it was impossible for me to find a job in a very over saturated market. For months I was applying to minimum wage marketing positions just to get beat by someone with a master’s degree who on paper is way overqualified for the position. After being denied to over 400 jobs I gave up. I decided I had to go back to school to have a career in marketing so I applied at a construction company as a technician to get me through school. This is where I got lucky. In my interview to be a technician, they clearly noticed my entire resume was full of digital marketing experience. They just recently started their marketing department and wound up hiring me on as a marketing assistant. Within six months I became the Director of Marketing for the company and I stayed with them for 2.5 years. I’m glad I had the opportunity to grow my marketing skill set to B2B but it wasn’t as exciting for me as B2C marketing.
This is when I finally decided to create my own marketing agency. I held off for years because it’s such an oversaturated market I knew there would be a slim chance of success. My idea to set myself apart was rather than niche down and focus on a certain market, I decided to whittle down my services and focus on what I’m the best at. Running Ads.
I started my company 2/20/2020 and today I have enough clients to begin hiring employees. My business plan is growing my company into a completely turn key business so eventually I can sell to anyone even if they have no marketing experience.
On the side my best friend and I started our own supercar rally. After attending Targa Trophy, we decided we could do it better for cheaper. It’s our way of giving back to the car community as we do it for as cheap as possible, not taking any profit. Our goal is just to host a great event and drive.
Has it been a smooth road?
-Losing all the profits from my first business from a shady business partner.
-Not being able to find a marketing job because I have no degree.
-Having the discipline to teach myself.
-Working 16-20-hour days seven days a week.
Barad Marketing Solutions – what should we know? What do you guys do best? What sets you apart from the competition?
We specialize in digital advertising management. What sets us apart is we are upfront with our pricing. Most marketing companies make you request a quote or pay for a consultation before starting. We have our prices listed on our website and people can get started the same day they find us.
How do you think the industry will change over the next decade?
Marketing isn’t leaving anytime soon. Although there will always be shifts as new social media platforms are released and we must learn how to market on the new platform, digital marketing as a whole isn’t going anywhere.
Pricing:
- Digital Advertising Management from $425/mo.
- Advertising Account Set Up $500
- Marketing Consultations from $150/hour
Contact Info:
- Address: 969 Market St
- Website: www.baradms.com
- Phone: 8584721389
- Email: dan@baradms.com
- Instagram: Dan_Barad
- Facebook: www.facebook.com/baradmarketingsolutions
- Other: www.velocerally.com
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