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Joined FL in late 2007 w/10K+ in CC Debt. Now biz averages 170K/month. AMAA

TropicalGuy

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Biz averages 170K/month, started in late '07 with 10K+ in CC Debt. AMAA

Hey all, I was re-reading MJ's book this morning because I'm trying to write one of my own (pro tip: don't re-read MJ's book if you want to write one of your own… it'll be tough to match it…) so in a fit of procrastination I came over the the forum and decided I'd see if I can help anyone here.

So, you might be wondering what my business does. We do a lot of stuff. Here's some examples:

Now we have 15 employees and I've been basically a full time digital nomad since 2009. (I have a 50/50 business partner, @AnythingIan… he thinks I'm working on a book right now :)

So a few things about my story:

  • I didn't go to a fancy school. (Almost failed out of high school, went to Clemson in South Carolina because it was warm and they let me in).
  • I didn't have any money. My dad works in a furniture shop and my mom is a secretary. We got student loans so I could go to college.
  • Nobody in my family has any money.
But I knew I wanted to be rich and have personal freedom. So some strategies that worked for me (and these are very broad and long term strategies), YMMV.

  • (this was an accident) Get a job working for a small business entrepreneur. Most people who hate their jobs work them and then come home and try to side hustle. This is a sub par strategy because most of your best energy is being spent in the slow lane trajectory. Better to find a job that teaches you fast lane skills and builds fast lane relationships. Many of the relationships I built in that small biz job I still have today, and my old boss became my first investor. Ever hear the adage your employer is your first client? It's true. Live it. Another thing to consider: if you can't evolve and build your job to give you more freedom, money, control etc, GET OUT and use it as a litmus test for your ability to change organizations. If you can't do it in the framework of somebody else's company, it could be even more difficult to do it on your own. Rambling now…
  • Get good at building relationships with people who are powerful. The art of seduction and the art of power are good books here. YOU CAN NEVER BE NEEDY. That's tough when you've got needs :) You must build a compelling expertise that inspires curiosity in powerful people. Have your own personal black box. Something that when rich powerful people meet you, they are like "that person is on to something." You must also believe that you are on to something, because when you meet those powerful people you'll be giving them stuff and not asking for anything.
  • Learn to lead. Leading means deciding what to do and asking others to join you. Do often. Rinse. Repeat.
  • Get ready for a total life transformation. I've never met a hyper successful entrepreneur who didn't spent the majority of their best energy thinking about biz-related projects and information. This isn't a side gig, this is the main event. If you aren't prepared for that, probably best to try to maximize your savings, get a fun hobby, and hang with your bros. Speaking of which…
  • Ditch your bros. Or whoever in your life is holding you back. MINDSET and RELATIONSHIPS are everything. They will evolve fast if you do, so be prepared to have a whole new set of friends when this transition is over. I'm sure you've heard-- you are the average of your 5 closest friends? If you find yourself in a situation where you are lecturing everyone in your life about the benefits of entrepreneurship, you are in the wrong room.
  • Work with what you have--expertise is everything. I own a manufacturing company because I spent my teenage years working in factories, then college years working in warehouses, which got me a job working with a small manufacturing company. I didn't decide to start some "web app" on the side, I went with what I knew because I couldn't afford (at the beginning) to do anything else.
  • Read more books than anyone you know. Simple strategies like this work well for me. I didn't have money. I didn't have a powerful family or any successful friends, so I READ THE SHIT out of some books. BOOKS are FASTLANE. Also podcasts helped me a lot too, that's why I started one.

Ok, I'll stop ranting. If you think I can help you ask a question and I'll give you my answers! Best of luck in your entrepreneurial journey.

Final message: 5 years ago I was broke, desperate for more freedom, and felt bad when I had to ask my boss to let me leave the office to get a dentist appointment. I said F*ck that, dedicated every moment in my life since then to fixing the situation and now I can be anywhere, make way more money than a freakin' dentist, and get to do what I want. Like hanging out in this forum trying to light a fire under your a$$. My life isn't perfect, but it sure is fun.

Ask me almost anything!
 
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Jake

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Awesome.

I don't know anything about you or TropicalMBA but what you guys are doing sounds pretty f'ing great. Anyways..

I've noticed that most of your products seem pretty large so I was wondering how you deal with logistics for your target market? Do you have enough product produced to fill a container and then have it shipped to the U.S? Do you have a warehouse and employees in the states to handle incoming products and outgoing orders?

I've half-assed attempted to import products to the U.S but doing it while working a hellacious schedule in Afghanistan was nothing but a logistical money wasting nightmare. I'm curious to know how you've set this all up.

Did you start with small items by air or did you go "all in" from the start?

Do you ever target the local economy that you're living in?

Thanks!
 

TropicalGuy

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I've noticed that most of your products seem pretty large so I was wondering how you deal with logistics for your target market? Do you have enough product produced to fill a container and then have it shipped to the U.S? Do you have a warehouse and employees in the states to handle incoming products and outgoing orders?

We have a sub-leased warehouse in Temecula, CA. We import 40' containers through LA then truck down to the warehouse. Right now we have 3 guys in the warehouse, but we started with 1 guy (for whom it was a part time job), a $500/mo space in somebody else's glorified garage, and putting our goods Less than Container (LCL) containers. So we basically did everything as cheap as humanly possible and asked for a lot of favors along the way. IF you have small products and want to use our space for a few months, my guys like to work overtime, so maybe there is something that can be worked out during your boostrap phase. No guarantees, but potentially could work. We work with some T-shirt guys that use our space in the evenings. My email is Dan@TropicalMBA.com

I've half-assed attempted to import products to the U.S but doing it while working a hellacious schedule in Afghanistan was nothing but a logistical money wasting nightmare. I'm curious to know how you've set this all up.

Did you start with small items by air or did you go "all in" from the start?

Do you ever target the local economy that you're living in?

Half-assed is tough man! Gotta find a way to get your time back if possible. I would start with Air if you can! We started with LCL, and my mantra (since I mostly live in Developing countries) is NEVER do local business :D Most of our customers are in the US, although we do ship our bars worldwide.


Thanks!
 

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TheTruth

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Great insight, thanks for sharing!


What was your first product?

How did you decide on that product?

What were the top 3 mistakes that you made on your journey, that you learned the most from?
 

DennisD

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What a fun way to procrastinate.

How do you find prospects for your portable bars?

Advice I hear everywhere is 'go where your customers hang out' or 'go to where they hand out ONLINE'. But it's not like potential customers all happened to join a 'we might need portable bars' mailing list or all attend the 'somebody please sell to us portable bar conference.'
 

TropicalGuy

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This was our first product.

It was also our first mistake: we thought this shit was a clever idea.

Clever ideas are for rich dudes with too much spare time. This product is funky and more importantly, DOES NOT SOLVE A PROBLEM.

Here's a product that is the same price that sells 3-4X as many units: Buy Modern Cat Litter Box Hiders at Modern Cat Designs

This product solve a problem that our target market was having, thus we can get more profit and more sales.

So first mistake is make products that solve problems.

Second is make sure your partnerships are "planned for success." So many small businesses get jacked up out of the gate due to bad partnerships. We get poor cues from watching the start-up scene-- like "i'll give my tech guy 20% and so on."

Small biz is going to war, so don't partner with somebody who's not your brother. At the beginning I have 33% of the co away for money. This was a terrible decision. I never considered what it might feel like to write 33% check for somebody who did nothing. So my friend calls this "failing to plan for success." A lot of ppl say stuff like... yeah I'll get this site running and make an extra 4K a month. Really? Pull together a spreadsheet and 'plan for success.' At 4K income, do you have an accountant? Do you have a CSR? What's your rent? What about insurance? inventory? And so on.... If you've got a 33% partner who has built you software or wrote a check 3 years ago while you are slogging away at the phones, you will either 1) hate that guy or 2) want to stop working. You'll want the opposite-- somebody who is 100% focused and continually motivating you the whole time.

FINAL MISTAKE: not getting into high quality and intimate mastermind settings ASAP. These groups are like rocket-fuel for small businesses.

Great insight, thanks for sharing!


What was your first product?

How did you decide on that product?

What were the top 3 mistakes that you made on your journey, that you learned the most from?
 
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Jake

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Thanks! I appreciate that. I'll need to put a solid plan together before I leave here. I've come to find out that when you don't have control over your own time you may end up somewhere in Northern Afghanistan closing down bases to include the internet cutting you off from what you've been working on lol.
 

MakeItHappen

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Nice thread!
What are the profit margins for you china made products? Do you try to compete on price or do you try to build premium products/brands which you sell at premium prices? If so how do you do it? :)

Thanks
 

TropicalGuy

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Yeah we use a lot more old school hustle techniques here. We've got huge prospect spreadsheets pulled from industry publications, trade show attendee lists, and online research carried out by contractors.

We didn't get into this industry b/c of customer demand (like many gurus suggest), instead we asked ourselves what we were good at ( in our case big metal B2B stuff), and then asked what would be a good market to bring those skills to. We saw a lot of people being successful with portable bars, and though we could bring something unique and sustainably different to the market, so we went!


What a fun way to procrastinate.

How do you find prospects for your portable bars?

Advice I hear everywhere is 'go where your customers hang out' or 'go to where they hand out ONLINE'. But it's not like potential customers all happened to join a 'we might need portable bars' mailing list or all attend the 'somebody please sell to us portable bar conference.'
 
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TropicalGuy

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Cheers! We try to compete to have the most expensive price in every market!! :D We are always really worried about margin pressure. We seek small niche markets and always want to be the premium supplier. We are too small to compete on price. We will not get into a market if our GROSS margins will not average 50% (EDIT: 50% would be the ABSOLUTE MINIMUM WE'D ACCEPT... I'd suggest aiming for your landed cost to be at least 25% of your retail price), especially for anything sub $300USD) Just a rule of thumb. Most of the times our margins are much better.

We have the best price by trying to have the best products-- we do that by talking to our customers more, having excellent customer service (and mining our leads for their needs) and building in solutions to their problems into our products. We love value adds that don't cost us a lot of money, like our custom signage and LED process for our portable bars brings a ton of value to our clients but doesn't cost us a ton to execute.

Nice thread!
What are the profit margins for you china made products? Do you try to compete on price or do you try to build premium products/brands which you sell at premium prices? If so how do you do it? :)

Thanks
 

MakeItHappen

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Also another question. If you are importing HIGH quality products how do you make sure that your products are really made out of high quality? Especially if you are not an expert at manufacturing. It seems like ether you need a lot of money and pay professionals in china to make sure everything is fine or you need to be an expert yourself.
As an example i do know how to import stuff from china so i could import cat products but only products that are already made. How could i go about creating a premium cat product brand like you did? Assumed you don't have any knowledge in product design and manufacturing overall. Can this be done, even without flying to china? Could you just tell a manufacturer to build a hole new product for you and making sure it's high quality without risking a lot of money?

Would be cool if you could give us some information about it. Because importing and selling cheap/unbranded stuff is easy but building a new brand with high quality products seems to be very hard without any education in the industry.
 

TropicalGuy

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Hmm... that's a tough one. IF you don't have expertise here, your best bet is to leverage somebody else's. In other words, you'll want to white label or re-position an already great product for a new market (or put a new logo on something sweet and sell it into a new market). For example I met a guy the other day swimming in new loot he made from taking a successful supplement product and putting it in spanish language packaging. (He doesn't even speak Spanish!).

Once you've got your product selected, the best bet is to have an agent in China doing Q/C for you. We pay our sourcing office 5% of total invoice for the services. The market rate is 5-15% of total FOB invoice.


Also another question. If you are importing HIGH quality products how do you make sure that your products are really made out of high quality? Especially if you are not an expert at manufacturing. It seems like ether you need a lot of money and pay professionals in china to make sure everything is fine or you need to be an expert yourself.
As an example i do know how to import stuff from china so i could import cat products but only products that are already made. How could i go about creating a premium cat product brand like you did? Assumed you don't have any knowledge in product design and manufacturing overall. Can this be done, even without flying to china? Could you just tell a manufacturer to build a hole new product for you and making sure it's high quality without risking a lot of money?

Would be cool if you could give us some information about it. Because importing and selling cheap/unbranded stuff is easy but building a new brand with high quality products seems to be very hard without any education in the industry.
 
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1PercentStreet

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Get ready for a total life transformation. I've never met a hyper successful entrepreneur who didn't spent the majority of their best energy thinking about biz-related projects and information. This isn't a side gig, this is the main event. If you aren't prepared for that, probably best to try to maximize your savings, get a fun hobby, and hang with your bros. Speaking of which…
Ditch your bros. Or whoever in your life is holding you back. MINDSET and RELATIONSHIPS are everything. They will evolve fast if you do, so be prepared to have a whole new set of friends when this transition is over. I'm sure you've heard-- you are the average of your 5 closest friends? If you find yourself in a situation where you are lecturing everyone in your life about the benefits of entrepreneurship, you are in the wrong room.

This is my favorite part of what you've said. So many people are not prepared for this and I feel that is where many will fail. Thanks for providing this, it's truly an inspiration!
 

easystreet

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Thank you for posting your story. Very awesome to read! Your life sounds like what I'm working for. You are spot on about books. Even a 1% profit increase gleamed from a book translates to big money as the scale grows. I think your amazon purchase history is definitely correlated to your success in life.

FINAL MISTAKE: not getting into high quality and intimate mastermind settings ASAP. These groups are like rocket-fuel for small businesses.

I've done my best to design my business for success. Do you have any recommendations for groups or clubs to join for this kind of mastermind setting or where do you find them? I've always believed in the value of surrounding yourself with people smarter than you are, but finding these people, with a fastlane mindset, is a challenge.
 

TropicalGuy

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Cheers I saw your last thread looks like you are on the right track.

Couple ideas-- this party doesn't exist. You need to throw it. A good structure is 3-7 people, with a clear game plan. e.g. weekly phone call, 1 hour, 1 person on hot seat every week, once a month invite a guest, must show up, must be honest, non-compete, etc.

You'll need to go out and hustle up your attendees. You are going to want people who have similar types of businesses and can compliment each other. You'll want to have people apply. A lot of people want this, and leaders are scarce, so I bet if you start one you'd get ppl. to apply.

I'd actually start right here in FL Forum.

"My Name is Easy "The Money" Street And I'm Starting a Private Mastermind Phone Call

I'd love if 3-4 FL forum members would meet with me every Wednesday night to talk business. Here's the requirements...

Please PM with your details.

Voila!

Thank you for posting your story. Very awesome to read! Your life sounds like what I'm working for. You are spot on about books. Even a 1% profit increase gleamed from a book translates to big money as the scale grows. I think your amazon purchase history is definitely correlated to your success in life.



I've done my best to design my business for success. Do you have any recommendations for groups or clubs to join for this kind of mastermind setting or where do you find them? I've always believed in the value of surrounding yourself with people smarter than you are, but finding these people, with a fastlane mindset, is a challenge.
 
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This is awesome I listen to you guys on the regular. My question is that... one of you guys are in Asia most of the time and the other is usually back home in United States. So my question is if you didn't have a partner back home, what big differences would that make on your business? Do you think you'd be just as successful?

btw the podcast where you exposed how Hong Kong corporations don't have to pay taxes for sales outside of Hong Kong blew my mind, I moved here recently !! :)
 

TropicalGuy

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This is awesome I listen to you guys on the regular. My question is that... one of you guys are in Asia most of the time and the other is usually back home in United States. So my question is if you didn't have a partner back home, what big differences would that make on your business? Do you think you'd be just as successful?

btw the podcast where you exposed how Hong Kong corporations don't have to pay taxes for sales outside of Hong Kong blew my mind, I moved here recently !! :)

King that is so rad-- I LOVE Hong Kong, hope you are digging it too.

Also thanks for listening to our podcast, we love doing that.

IF Ian did not want to hang out in San Diego and manage the day to day of the product business, we probably would have sold it and focused on opportunities in Asia. Ian didn't want to do that because I don't think he saw (at the time) how he could add value in Asia, unless he moved to China or something and that wouldn't have been much fun. That's no longer the case as our team in SD is fully trained and high level and we no longer need to be there. That wasn't the case in 2009.

It's really tough to say where we'd be-- for me my "made it" moment was when we bought out our 3rd parter-- the one who was a great guy but didn't share our values-- in Dec 2010. Since that moment I've had complete and utter freedom (as much as one can have) in terms of how I spend my time and what projects I engage in. That is success to me, I just mention how much money we are making so other people will listen to us ! There' something to be said about believeing that the journey you are on is valuable to others, eventually, if you are right, value gets translated to money.
 

Hong King Kong

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IF Ian did not want to hang out in San Diego and manage the day to day of the product business, we probably would have sold it and focused on opportunities in Asia. Ian didn't want to do that because I don't think he saw (at the time) how he could add value in Asia, unless he moved to China or something and that wouldn't have been much fun. That's no longer the case as our team in SD is fully trained and high level and we no longer need to be there.

Hey no worries on the podcast, I should be the one thanking you guys for making it! Just wondering...why exactly would you guys sell the business and focus on opportunities in Asia? I guess you'd need someone back there to hold the products and distribute it right? Can't drop shippers take care of this problem?
 
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TropicalGuy

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BTW... was just looking at this without being logged in, the ads were really distracting. Worth dropping MJ the INSIDERS's love just to get rid of them...

In 2009 when I left for Asia, I would have sold it. It wasn't "mature" yet. Needed some first-hand hustle to get lift-off... things like we weren't making enough products to pay top talent to run the thing... now I pay guys in their' 20's more than I made for most of my career. Couldn't afford that before. Regarding the warehouse, we assemble our B2B products in-house so turnkey dropshippers wouldn't have been a great option (for out Cat Furniture biz it would have been okay).

Anyway, I would have sold it b/c it would have given me the capital necessary to do something with ambition in Asia, and pad my bank account for runway (back in 2009 I still had that CC debt...)

Hey no worries on the podcast, I should be the one thanking you guys for making it! Just wondering...why exactly would you guys sell the business and focus on opportunities in Asia? I guess you'd need someone back there to hold the products and distribute it right? Can't drop shippers take care of this problem?
 

100k

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Great post buddy! :)

Quick question, are your businesses all online ?? I mean, do you run e-eCommerces or do you run offline businesses and just have a few sites?

If you do run online businesses then, maybe you can share how you take a site from A to Z (especially the Z part - generating traffic that converts).

Thank you kindly.
 

TropicalGuy

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Great post buddy! :)

Quick question, are your businesses all online ?? I mean, do you run e-eCommerces or do you run offline businesses and just have a few sites?

If you do run online businesses then, maybe you can share how you take a site from A to Z (especially the Z part - generating traffic that converts).

Thank you kindly.

Cheers.

First thing first: if you don't have a phone number on your website, you are leaving it on the table.

Not only because the phone is the best way to convert sales, but outside of in-person meet-ups, it's the best way to get to know your market.

That's all to say I don't make much of the distinction between online and offline. If I owned a laundromat, for example, I'd have a kick a$$ website for it! (I'd also serve cocktails, but that's another story).

I might frame it up as selling bits vs. selling atoms.

Also, while I'm on a roll: a "market" shouldn't be confused with a demographic. "Cat owners" are a demographic. They aren't my market. "People who buy cat furniture" are a market. I know it seems academic, but the distinction can prove useful. As a marketer, you aren't seeking to reach certain demographics, you are seeking to reach certain cash-flows.

Ok... so traffic. I actually don't frame it up that way. "Traffic" is a word I only use in the framework of online opportunities (buy traffic volcano!) or vanity (my personal blog receives 24,000 unique visitors a month-- what does that mean? jack shit!)

Strategically, and as a business owner, I'm seeking "leads." Where is my market? How can I reach them? How much is it worth to me to get somebody on x mailing list? What is the potential lifetime value of a customer? How much am I willing to spend to get somebody to buy? What are the best types of customers? Should we ask for phone numbers on that opt-in so we can follow up on the phone? Should we throw a meet-up so we can get our leads in a room? Should we go to a conference?

Tactically-- we've done it all-- remarketing, PPC (full time consultant monitoring ads), SEO, blogging, podcasting, conferences, cold calling, direct snail mail, ya know...

Anyway, that's just to say 'traffic' doesn't mean much. I own a membership site with over 500 members and it wasn't an issue of "traffic." I developed relationships with those people by Skyping with them, helping them, calling them, and traveling to meet them, both 1:1 and at conferences.

PHEW. What's the answer? How do you get traffic?

You don't. You get customers.

....

/RANT OVER

....

So, if you want to get traffic....

Find out what articles are viral or popular in your marketplace and write another article that "piggybacks" them.

It's really easy to siphon traffic off of already popular stuff. "Sell what they are buying." If everybody on the webz wants to talk about "x," write about x. They sure as hell don't want to hear about your product!

In the parking industry, way back in the day, we created an online directory from them to list their companies. Nobody wanted to hear about our cool products, but they sure as hell wanted to hear about how they could get more biz. That got us in the door and developing relationships. 3 years later and a few handfuls of those people spend 5 figures annually with us.
 
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100k

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Also another question. If you are importing HIGH quality products how do you make sure that your products are really made out of high quality? Especially if you are not an expert at manufacturing. It seems like ether you need a lot of money and pay professionals in china to make sure everything is fine or you need to be an expert yourself.
As an example i do know how to import stuff from china so i could import cat products but only products that are already made. How could i go about creating a premium cat product brand like you did? Assumed you don't have any knowledge in product design and manufacturing overall. Can this be done, even without flying to china? Could you just tell a manufacturer to build a hole new product for you and making sure it's high quality without risking a lot of money?

Would be cool if you could give us some information about it. Because importing and selling cheap/unbranded stuff is easy but building a new brand with high quality products seems to be very hard without any education in the industry.


Check out this video I was watching the other day! :)

It kicks a$$!

[video=youtube;3AA5lLmRqWc]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3AA5lLmRqWc[/video]
 
D

DeletedUser2

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FINAL MISTAKE: not getting into high quality and intimate mastermind settings ASAP. These groups are like rocket-fuel for small businesses.

awesome stuff.

this. right here.

has helped me more times than I can count.

Mentors, masterminds, accountability groups. all good



Z
 
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mayana

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Apr 26, 2011
984
1,183
Georgia, USA
Cheers! We try to compete to have the most expensive price in every market!! We are always really worried about margin pressure. We seek small niche markets and always want to be the premium supplier. We are too small to compete on price. We will not get into a market if our GROSS margins will not average 50% (EDIT: 50% would be the ABSOLUTE MINIMUM WE'D ACCEPT... I'd suggest aiming for your landed cost to be at least 25% of your retail price), especially for anything sub $300USD) Just a rule of thumb. Most of the times our margins are much better.

We have the best price by trying to have the best products-- we do that by talking to our customers more, having excellent customer service (and mining our leads for their needs) and building in solutions to their problems into our products. We love value adds that don't cost us a lot of money, like our custom signage and LED process for our portable bars brings a ton of value to our clients but doesn't cost us a ton to execute.

Wow, this is GOLDEN. Thanks for explaining so precisely your value proposition :)
 

DennisD

Mini Media Mogul
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Speedway Pass
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216%
Jun 16, 2012
1,488
3,207
36
Bali, Indonesia
I work so intensly sometimes... that my brain just feels CLOGGED. I can no longer concentrate and need to take an hour long nap to get back into the groove of things. This slows down things and ruins my sleep schedule... but if I want to get any solid work done I need the nap.

Give your "im not a doctor" disclaimer if you want, but I know you're personally interested in 'smart drugs.' wondering if you take anything or reccomend anything for concentration.
 

TropicalGuy

Silver Contributor
Speedway Pass
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
434%
May 18, 2012
118
512
Barcelona, Spain
I work so intensly sometimes... that my brain just feels CLOGGED. I can no longer concentrate and need to take an hour long nap to get back into the groove of things. This slows down things and ruins my sleep schedule... but if I want to get any solid work done I need the nap.

Give your "im not a doctor" disclaimer if you want, but I know you're personally interested in 'smart drugs.' wondering if you take anything or reccomend anything for concentration.

Great question. I can preface this by saying I've been seeking a push-button cure for years! I even went to a Psychiatrist one time to try and get a prescription for Adderall (failed!).

So far, aside from the :ahem: hard stuff, Modafinil is the best 'push button' solution I've found.

If you are well rested, and take 200MG of the modaf, when you've got a clear idea of what you've got to do, it can keep you off distracting websites for a few hours while you focus in on your task. It doesn't tweak you out or feel "druggy" like Adderall or similar stimulants.

BUT let me say this.... reluctantly... the normal difficult stuff works better than any drug.

Here's a list of stuff that works better than Modafinil:

*not eating carbs, sugars, or other crap (+ not drinking). 80/20, this is the fastest and easiest way to get more working hours IMO.
*taking naps! - you nailed it, I do it too, almost everyday.
*15 minute workouts. not enough to exhaust you, but get the brain back in shape quick.
*not doing shit you hate to do. try to build your biz around what you love to do if possible.
*keeping in mind that returns on productivity tweaks are linear, whereas mindset tweaks can be exponential. one guy takes a bunch of pills and coffee and works for 14 hours. I read a book and implement a strategy that rethinks our biz before I fall asleep. Who wins?

... i know what you are going to say....




the guy who does both. :)
 
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xtn5021

PARKED
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
0% - New User
Aug 8, 2012
6
0
30
Hey Dan, do you have any tips for an aspiring 19 year old entrepreneur that has little money in his bank account (about $120.00), and no college education? I want a better life for myself, I've worked 3 jobs that I've worked hard at. I just found out that I don't like the fact that I'm making somebody else rich, while I can do the same thing for myself at a young age. I've read MJ's book and it really motivated me to get my a$$ up and do something. So I started learning to code a few months ago, but I'm kind of thinking it's not fastlane enough. And that a business could possible be the way to go. But with little resources, and little cash, I have no idea where to start, and what niche to pick.

My parents are definitely NOT wealthy. I was thinking of reselling products on eBay, but eBay is already heavily saturated. I'd appreciate some feedback from ANYONE at this point. I WAS interested in the SFM marketing system with Stuart Ross, but I don't believe Affiliate Marketing is fastlane enough for me. Thank you in advance for any responses.
 

Graham Chong

Contributor
Read Fastlane!
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
54%
Apr 29, 2012
63
34
Hey Dan,

I first got to know about you from Cody McKibben's recommendation.
Didn't expect to see you here again in the Fastlane Forum.

Do let us know if you are looking for your next apprentice :)

Graham from Malaysia
 

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