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So, you've been mulling over the idea of starting a lead generation business. If you want answers, well, you're in the right spot.
You want out of your boring 9 - 5 desk job. You want to start a B2B lead generation business that makes a difference. And you want it to be successful on the first go. I get it, I’ve been there too.
Your lead generation business can help companies drive conversions by attracting quality leads. But before you start one, do you want some insider knowledge?
Wanna learn how to choose the perfect client and scale your company? What about pitfalls that break most lead gen businesses?
Wait, wait, hold on. I know what you’re thinking. “You’re making some tall claims, why should I trust you?”
I have worked with 30+ lead generation agencies and run a successful lead generation agency and SaaS myself. Rest assured, everything I’m about to share with you comes from the experience of an industry pro.
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Buckle up because this blog is your roadmap to a 6 figure lead generation business.
Getting late for an office meeting? Running out of network data? Being held hostage until you learn how to start a lead generation business ASAP?
Don’t worry, here’s a TL;DR:
💥 Starting a lead generation business isn't always an uphill battle. But you must have a little cash in the beginning to buy essential tools and a website domain.
💥 Start by researching the market and figuring out which industry wants what you’ve got.
💥 Decide on a premium business model before approaching clients.
💥 Choose a lead generation channel where users are super active.
💥 Find your first 5 clients in your existing network.
💥 Look for an inexpensive lead automation tool. The perfect tool can help you gather and nurture leads on autopilot till they are ready to purchase.
💥 And don’t forget, deliver on your company’s promises!
Whew, that was the quick version.
But if you really want to understand how to choose your niche, get your first clients and avoid pitfalls, read on!
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Short answer? A lead generation business helps other companies find potential customers.
Without going through a bunch of marketing jargon, you can imagine your work to be like a detective. You gather information on potential customers and provide it to businesses.
It's a win-win.
Companies get leads who are ready to buy, and people find the best solutions for their pain points.
Your lead generation business helps businesses find better sales-ready leads, boosting conversions.
Your lead generation service helps clients focus on improving their core offerings instead. Better products, better market opportunities, more leads, more revenue!
You made it this far, you want to learn how to start a lead generation business ASAP. I get it.
We’ll get into the 6-step process for insane profits soon. But there are a couple of things you should know before starting a lead generation business:
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Like any business venture, you must invest a little bit of money in the beginning. This investment ensures your lead generation agency is good to go as soon as it’s launched.
The good news? The cost barrier is relatively lower compared to other business models.
All you really need is a website and access to the essential tools. Arrange that, and you’re ready to talk with clients, understand their goals, and deliver on them.
Want numbers?
Business owners can spend $13,128 on average when looking to start a lead generation business. Costsinclude equipment, software expenses, business formation fees, etc.
But as a startup or small business, that number seems downright ridiculous, and it is!.
What if you could start a lead generation business in less than $100? Here’s how.
Let’s say you want to start a LinkedIn lead generation business. You can pick a LinkedIn automation tool like Salesrobot.
What's cool about Salesrobot is that it helps you generate warm leads on autopilot for just $99/month.
Salesrobot helps you make meaningful connections with potential customers through LinkedIn and email. And that holds true for every solopreneur to large-sized business out there.
Consider us a massive level-up to your lead generation business.
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Salesrobot isn’t just generating leads from your LinkedIn account. Our goal is to set up your business to scale higher as you get more clients.
Automated messages that sound human? Check. Drip campaigns across several channels that can achieve a 32%+ response rate? Check. Ability to send 200+ LinkedIn connections weekly without risking your account? Check.
Is that all we do? Not even close.
Humble-brag over! For now, let’s keep talking about money. More specifically, the profits you stand to gain.
“So you’re telling me that if I learn how to start a lead generation business, I can make insane revenue just by handing qualified leads to my clients every month?”
The answer is a resounding YES. But there's a twist. It's not a walk in the park. Profitability doesn't come knocking at your door without some elbow grease.
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Finding a balance in your lead generation business model is the key to sky-high profits. Here are the 3 biggest factors you must consider when you’re starting to increase your revenue:
Lead generation services like Belkins, CIENCE, and WebFX earn millions in revenue yearly.
And it's not only these big names. There are thousands of small-medium businesses lead generation making $100,000+/year.
Here's how they do it...
If running a B2B business that hands leads to a business every month sounds a little too simple, well, it is.
But how do the biggest names in the industry do it?
From finding the perfect clients to delivering up your first batch of leads. Let’s go through every major step of the way.
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Going after clients in various industries might sound tempting. But trust me, it's not a sustainable game plan.
Picking the wrong industry can land you in a tough spot where you cannot stand out. This gets worse when you’re in a competitive market.
You need to focus on 1 niche. Successful lead generation businesses conduct thorough market research. That's what you need to do and come up with an ICP (Ideal Customer Profile).
Focusing on a particular group of clients can be a game-changer. It's like finding a sweet spot in the market. Plus, you'll attract customers who really want exactly what you're offering.
One more thing. When you choose your industry or niche, remember that not every industry pays the same. Generally, an industry with little competition will have a higher cost per lead (CPL).
Less competition + High demand + Bigger commissions = Profit 💰💰💰
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Let’s talk money. More specifically, the lead generation business model you’ll go with.
Believe it or not, how you choose to earn revenue impacts just how much profit you will make in a major way.
There are three pricing models to choose from:
In this model, your clients pay for your lead generation services upfront.
You must talk to your clients about the quantity and the quality of leads you can provide. Charge for every lead you generate or a commission fee from every sale, it’s your call.
One more amazing thing about the front-end model is that it's future-proof. You can increase your fees as you keep generating more quality leads over time.
Sounds like the perfect dream if you want to scale your lead generation business and make six to seven figures.
And why do you need to trust them? It's because here you aren’t paid upfront. Instead, your clients pay a fixed amount after you generate a set number of leads.
As a result, the rate for a back-end model is higher. You see, not taking any money upfront is a bit of a gamble for your lead generation business.
Better yet, you can negotiate a commission for every deal successfully closed. You were the one to provide those quality leads after all!
The risks? If you fail to present leads that convert, your revenue stream could take a big hit. That's because you’re paying for lead generation costs (advertising, marketing etc) from your own pocket!
Your clients decide on a budget for advertising and personalized lead generation campaigns. And they pay you that amount upfront, helping you cover these expenses from the get-go.
So your initial spending is covered while you keep earning fees for every lead you generate at a fixed rate. That's not even including the commission you earn for all the closed deals!
While it sounds lucrative, the commission rates for the hybrid model are lower. If you want revenue, you gotta plan ahead to maintain a good profit margin!
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Let’s talk about the “lead generation” part of your lead generation business. Deciding the marketing channels before you move forward with your company is crucial.
Why? It’s because the competition in the lead generation industry is downright fierce.
Several entrepreneurs and established businesses target the same audience. As a result, your brand could get lost in the crowd.
Seems scary, but it’s not going to be a problem for us.
I have listed the best outbound and inbound lead generation strategies. Nail those client expectations every time!
Oh, did I mention you can use these to get introduced to quality clients too?:
LinkedIn is arguably the biggest social media platform for professionals and business users.
Start by sprucing up your LinkedIn profile, it’s pretty much like your company’s website or landing page. Prospects who want to dig deeper to learn about your company will want to know about its management first after all.
You can send connection requests, InMail messages, and interact on posts to familiarize your brand.
You can also cast a wide net to search for users that fit your ICP. Don’t just stop at messaging 1st degree contacts on your LinkedIn network. All you have to do is configure search filters to include 2nd and 3rd-degree connections.
It's like every element is crafted to help you find quality leads faster. And don’t even get me started on how much LinkedIn Sales Navigator helps your sales efforts with detailed lead data.
However, people don’t like being sold to.
You cannot brute force a sales pitch on LinkedIn users. They’ll either tune it out or ignore your connection requests.
Or they'll probably tell you off (trust me, major emotional damage).
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Personalizing each LinkedIn message can be a real pain in the a**. I get it. And that’s not adding the limit of 100 requests per week.
Chances are, you’re handling the entire prospecting and outreach process by yourself. Not sustainable at all, and it’s keeping you up at night.
The odds are stacked against you, but Salesrobot is your golden ticket to smashing lead generation goals.
What do we bring to the table? AI automation, smart reply detection, advanced message personalization options using GIFs and images, customizable workflows, and more!
You can target LinkedIn users from Searches, Groups, Events, Hashtags, comments on LinkedIn posts, etc. Enough reasons for you to say farewell to manual prospecting forever!
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Writer’s block? Creating LinkedIn campaigns getting too difficult? Relying on manual follow-ups?
Click here to see the magic we pull off with SalesGPT, helping you create automated Linkedin outreach campaigns just by talking to our chatbot in plain English.
Cold emailing requires several rounds of optimization. And every change is based on open and click-through rates (CTR).
With careful planning, your email strategy can turn into a lead generation powerhouse. All while running on auto-pilot.
You get to automate campaigns to find potential customers who are more likely to close deals.
Did someone say automated email sequences? Because that could be your business’s bread and butter with Salesrobot.
Salesrobot supports multi-channel outreach for both LinkedIn and email. Use our platform to start an email campaign, write your cold emails and follow-ups, and set up your automated email sequences.
And you’ll be done before you can even finish your morning coffee. No seriously, check out this tutorial video and see what I’m talking about.
Sales reps talking to qualified leads must always understand the recipient’s pain points. Doing so lets you find avenues where your service can be placed as the best solution.
Writing a killer script can also help your reps stay on track and personalize your pitch.
Be patient with your cold calls. You must make at least 8 cold call attempts to reach prospects. Can it get exhausting? Maybe. Is it worth your time when done correctly? Absolutely!
Wouldn't you like more brand visibility over a long period of time? That's what you stand to gain when you're ranking on Google. A higher rank means prospects come to you first when they're looking for solutions in the market.
Tools like SEMrush, Ahrefs, SurferSEO, etc., can help increase your SERP ranking.
On-page SEO can bring in potential customers like a magnet and make sure they stick around for longer.
Focus on elements like reducing load times, optimizing page titles, and many others for the best end-user experience.
And since you’ve come this far, why not go all in on content marketing? Blogs are the best fit when you’re looking to go all-in with SEO.
Blogs are evergreen, educates your reader, gives you a platform to place your solution as the best in the market, constant updates keeps your articles at the top of Google searches, and…
Wait, you're still here? What’s stopping you from using SEO to start your lead generation money-machine?
Consumers worldwide rely on social media to search for solutions from trusted sources. And if you don’t have any presence on social media platforms, you’re just leaving revenue on the table.
Twitter lead generation cards, Facebook Ads, posts, etc., work wonders in gathering more prospects.
You can also go take it up a notch and engage with leads directly to personalize your outreach.
Remember how you had to focus your lead generation methods on gathering leads that fit your client’s ICP? The same applies to your lead generation business when you’re looking for clients, too!
Researching potential clients and key decision-makers in target companies is a crucial task. The more effort you put into research, the closer you get to forming a targeted lead list that generates revenue.
But of course, that is yet another tall order. You first need to carefully choose your search filters to target your niche.
After that, you need a way to find accurate contact information. Names, phone numbers, emails, job titles, etc., are just the beginning. You need to ensure information about targeted clients is always updated.
You really don’t want to waste time searching for the contact number of a company’s CFO, only to reach someone’s grandmother instead.
Wouldn’t it save you a migraine if you had the entire outreach process automated?
Salesrobot leverages AI to create LinkedIn campaigns automatically. The cold outreaches we generate are based on your lead generation company’s solutions, target audience, and pain points.
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Don’t like the generated message? Go back in and change it up however you want!
Remember our little problem with finding accurate contact data?
Salesrobot automatically reaches out to prospects on the correct channels when you copy and paste the search URL for LinkedIn or Sales Navigator after you configure the search filters.
Ease of use and personalization are the name of the game at Salesrobot. Of course, apart from assisting you with sales engagement.
Based on the type of services you provide to your clients, simply gathering leads might not be enough. Any veteran lead generation business understands that it’s crucial to offer leads that actually convert.
You can cause significant damage to your client relationships if you aren’t nurturing your leads before delivering them. After all, what is the point of more leads if none of them convert into paying customers?
Before you even deliver your leads, take a moment to engage with them and find the level of purchase intent. Ones with high-purchase intent or starting out their buyer’s journey are just perfect!
And can Salesrobot help you out here? You bet.
Salesrobot automatically sends follow-up messages to prospects on multiple channels. You can configure delays between each follow-up till your recipient responds.
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Want even more personalization? How about automated birthday and congratulatory messages to humanize your brand further?
We also host native integrations to popular tools and CRMs like Zapier, Hyperise, Salesforce, and HubSpot.
Don’t rely on guesswork. Automate your follow-ups to warm up theleads before delivering them to your client!
You have generated the leads to surpass client expectations. Now, it’s time to hand them off.
A lead distribution software is a lifesaver when your lead generation business scales higher.
Delivering quality leads fast guarantees satisfied clients. Satisfied clients will probably put in a good word about your service to their network. And you can acquire even more clients who trust your service.
Now you’re not just surviving the market, you’re thriving.
Congratulations! You’ve learned how to start a lead generation business.
But I’m sure you don’t plan on keeping your income at the same place as you once started.
The next step of your journey is to learn how to scale your lead generation business to make 6 - 7 figures on auto-pilot.
You’ve already done the tough part, you’ve built a solid base for your business. After that, scaling your company will only take a few steps in the right direction.
Your goal now? See where you’re falling short, find ways to offer more with fewer hassles, and improve your service!
Implement these 3 practices to ensure you’re heading a company that is aimed at growing and earning more revenue:
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Automating workflows is a central pillar for any successful lead generation business. Instead of working on tasks manually, you can set up processes that trigger the following action to help your clients close deals faster.
Imagine if a prospect finds a targeted landing page where they leave contact information and show high purchase intent. A lead distribution software can automatically notify your client’s CRM and add them as leads.
Here, your process is completely automated and hands-free. The only exception to the rule is when you’re optimizing your marketing and advertising campaigns.
And why would you want to do that manually? It’s because a little manual intervention now and then can help you reduce costs further and maintain a healthy profit margin.
Believe it or not, you can take it up a notch with automation. Here are 2 more places you should REALLY consider automating:
So where can you go first when you’re trying out an automated inbound marketing campaign? Well, you can never go wrong with email automation.
Have a warm lead that’s a subscriber and visits your website multiple times? You can set up an automation software to send emails with content based on where they are in your sales funnel.
In the above example, the recipient has shown interest in your business but hasn’t taken the next step to make a purchase. Providing a demo or a free trial of your service gives them more reasons to trust you and finally convert (besides, who doesn’t like freebies?).
All this and we are only talking about email marketing. There’s a whole world of inbound marketing strategies to explore and automate.
Wait, you’re seriously considering reaching out to them individually? By hand?!
Unless you want to go insane crafting messages for every lead you generate, you should be using an automated outreach and follow-up tool.
Automated lead outreach tools help you write hyper-personalized messages and templates that can be sent to a large number of recipients in bulk.
Several tools allow you to track your campaigns to view the status and results of your outreach efforts.
Seems like your recipient has ignored or missed your message? Don’t worry, that’s where the follow-up automation part of these tools come in.
You can create a follow-up message with ease and choose when to send them out after your leads haven’t replied for a specific amount of time.
The perfect automated lead outreach tool lets you create and launch campaigns in a matter of minutes. Speaking of important tools…
I have mentioned multiple tools and platforms in this blog.
And by now, it should be evident that any lead generation business worth its salt must know the ins and outs of the industry-standard tools.
The sky's the limit (and your budget) for the amount of tools you want to employ.
But there are a few tools that are irreplaceable because of their utility in lead generation:
✅ Domain Name - A registered domain is crucial for any legit lead generation business. Clients will probably think twice before trusting an agency without a dedicated website and just a LinkedIn page.
Don’t want to get fancy with your website? No problem. As long as you ensure you convey your brand offerings in an easy-to-navigate platform, you’re good to go.
✅ Email Provider - If you rely on emails as your primary outreach and lead generation method, this one is non-negotiable.
An email service provider is crucial for the proper functioning of your workflows. Email providers help you send out emails in bulk.
Did you think that was it? Not by a long shot.
You can go crazy with unique features such as insightful analytics and automation for the best results.
Now before you dive headfirst into sending emails, take a minute to make sure you have the perfect email address for your outreach.
Using a professional email address makes all the difference. Trust me, emailing prospects from an account you created in highschool will not help your case as a professional lead generation service.
Instead of using a generic “@gmail.com” or any other email service provider, take the time to create a custom email using your registered domain name. You can even do it on Gmail!
A professional email address that looks like “firstname.lastname@yourdomain.com” helps your outreach stand out in the recipient’s inbox. Plus, they’ll open your emails knowing they are talking to an actual company that means business.
✅ B2B Contact Database - A B2B contact database is essential for any growing lead generation business. Your company can harness contact information for potential clients in bulk hassle-free.
Furthermore, a B2B contact database can also provide demographic and firmographic data in one place.
You need to know everything about your future business collaborators before you sign on any dotted line, don't you?
Quick recommendation, if you’re seriously considering LinkedIn outreach, don’t skip out on Sales Navigator. And you already know the best tool that leverages their contact database (Hint: it starts with “Sales” and ends with “robot”).
✅ Automated Outreach Tools - As we learned in the earlier section, automated outreach tools saves you hours of work by creating personalized messages in bulk.
And if you’ve been paying attention, you can tell that LinkedIn and email outreaches are going to be your best bet when you’re trying to generate quality leads.
So you need an outreach tool that is perfect for both. Sounds great, but with so many fish in the sea, it can be difficult to find the right one for you.
Salesrobot is your new go-to outreach tool to run multi-channel campaigns on LinkedIn or email (or even both!).
In addition to personalizing your outreach message for better response rates, our Smart Reply Detection feature automatically stops sending your leads follow-up messages after they reply to you. You can take over the conversation right when it matters!
As a beginner, you can start your very first campaign with SalesGPT.
When you use our AI tool, you can create Linkedin outreach campaigns just by talking to our chatbot in plain English.
If you’re an advanced user, you can also choose to start a LinkedIn lead generation campaign from scratch on our platform.
It is vital to secure multiple lead buyers to make the most out of your lead generation business.
Investing heavily into a single client can bottleneck your growth. Worse yet, it can put your revenue at risk if they decide to pull out from your services.
So don’t rely on a single client for your revenue. But should you follow the same rule when it comes to the leads you gather? Not at all!
Believe it or not, you can upsell your leads by just talking to them more. Find out what else they’re looking for in the market and services that could benefit them.
And if one of your client’s solutions matches their demand, then you have successfully found a new way to generate more revenue from the same lead.
Everyone says, 'Diversify the portfolio, build a big client base.' Sounds like a cakewalk, but reality check—it's a bit of a hustle.
You know your company has what it takes to satisfy client demands and stand out from the competition. But how do you convey that?
Crafting outreach messages is like juggling, man. You need a killer hook, a sweet proposal, a personal touch, addressing pain points, and tossing in your unique value... Phew!
And even if you nail all that, there's no guarantee that you’ll gather loyal customers.
Breaking into a new industry as a lead generation business can be a nightmare. But hey, I’ve helped you out this far, haven’t I?
You use Linkedin, right? Linkedin is a gold mine of leads and you need to mine those leads on autopilot.
We’ve talked about using Salesrobot to get more leads for your clients, why not use it to get more leads for yourself?
Now I know what you must be thinking, “This just sounds like a sales pitch. This isn’t the ride I signed up for.”
That’s why I won't bore you with a long list of our features. Instead, I’ll show you how Salesrobot will get you warm leads each week in just 10 minutes.
Trust me, all it takes is a few clicks:
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You can take your LinkedIn campaign a step further and add follow-ups to your campaigns. Our Readability Score lets you know how likely your prospects are to send you a reply.
Targeting premium LinkedIn members? We let you send them InMails instead of connection requests too.
Got an ultra-specific LinkedIn outreach plan where you need to pull leads from particular places? Be it LinkedIn Groups, Events, or even Sales Navigator searches, we support it all.
So there you have it.
Your LinkedIn lead generation campaign to find the perfect client, your way.
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Knowing how to start a lead generation business and scaling your brand is the ideal dream when trying to make your big break in the lead generation industry.
Only if everything goes according to plan. And as a certain Founding Father once said,
“Failing to prepare is preparing to fail.”
What exactly are you supposed to prepare for? Evading the pitfalls that ruin most lead generation businesses.
The real killer is not being able to scale your agency and keep growing your business (Aren’t you glad we learned about this already?).
But there are more killers to look out for:
🗡️ The lead generation industry is growing more competitive with each passing day. That’s why digging down till you find your niche is important.
Otherwise you cannot offer any unique value to your prospects. Without value, your business suffers as you are unable to gather leads or clients.
🗡️ We learned about choosing the lead generation channel. But what about choosing a future-proof channel? For example, LinkedIn is a growing channel to reach more prospects. Of course, that’s only if you know what you’re doing.
🗡️ Another thing we learned is how to scale your lead generation business. But what if you were to miss a step? What if you failed to automate your business correctly?
When your business grows, it gets extremely difficult to manage everything on your own. And that doubles if you choose to keep doing it manually.
Without automation, you cannot keep up with the rising demands of your clients. Multiply that with if you were to manage more than a couple of clients, you have a recipe for disaster in your hands.
Not choosing the correct automation tools can also land you in the same spot.
Let’s take LinkedIn outreach as an example. Do you really want to be stuck writing and personalizing hundreds of messages to prospects? Can you tell if you’re creating messages that actually convert?
That’s why using automation tools like Salesrobot is infinitely better. Your outreach campaigns will thank you when you can send messages in bulk to multiple prospects that fit your ICP.
🗡️ Building customer trust is often overlooked. Without trust, your company is bound to tank sooner or later. After all, if they can’t trust you with your brand solutions, why would they share their contact information?
You also have to be actively present for your customers. Without a support team that’s timely and helpful, you could soon have a flood of angry users who will leave negative reviews online. A real PR disaster.
Stuff of nightmares, to say the least. But this is where Salesrobot shines.
Standing out to your recipient? How about personalized messages with engaging GIFs? A future-proof lead generation channel? LinkedIn and email outreach can never get old.
And what about building customer trust? Interact with your leads further and understand their pain points so you can engage them with your brand solutions.
Speaking of trust, expert customer service can go a long, long way. And we at Salesrobot know that better than anyone.
Our team is always ready to provide the warmest and most helpful customer support experience. Besides, you can find demos and tutorials on our website for every step of the way to ensure you never feel lost in the first place!
But don’t take my word for it, here’s what our customers have to say:
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You name it, we at Salesrobot have got it.
Congratulations! You have learned how to start a lead generation business, and I have given you the secret sauce to take your business venture to the next level.
Targeting your niche, building client relationships, gathering high-value leads, and delivering them consistently.
Nail these, and you can grow your brand to the multi-million dollar cash cow you have always dreamed of running.
Since automation and outreach play a big part in your lead generation business, you must perfect those aspects first.
So, if Salesrobot caught your attention, you can check out our website.
Salesrobot helps you message 100s of people on LinkedIn automatically. It’s the safest LinkedIn automation tool available to get you 100s of leads each month on autopilot. (The best part? You can even bypass LinkedIn connection limits!)
If you’re interested, we offer a 14-day trial to try our features risk-free. No credit card or phone number needed — just your email, and you're good to go!
Until next time,
Good luck!
Thoughts, Notes & Tutorials
