Goal: 3000/m profit in 14 months besides work and family

[GMJimmy]

I've started yesterday...

Background info: My ultimate goal is to gain total control of my life in 5 years, both money and time should be maximized by then. This is a pretty long journey so I set some milestones for myself. This thread would document my progress towards the first sub-goal: having 3000 in passive income monthly (profit, of course).

Some rules of my game:
- keep my job and perform excellently there as well
- spend enough time with my family
- don't create a job for myself but a business

So due to the the first two points, I have about 10-20 hours per week for the business. I'll get 6-8 hours during commuting (nice, empty trains, no change, undistrupted journey). The rest will be at nights after bedtime or in mornings when I get up eary (I prefer nights, that's my active period). Average 2 hours every day would add 14 hours weekly.

I have spent my last 4 years in employment, but before that I have gained experience in both online and offline businesses. I can write HTML, CSS, create graphics (Photoshop, inDesign, Illustrator), use wordpress and plugins, set up ecommerce, do marketig (SEO, PPC, PR, etc), launch products, create digital products and several other related tasks.

Started yesterday, here is the first part of my plan:

1. Sell infoproduct as soon as possible.
Last year I have created a few digital products for sale (was more like an experiment, not a business). These are not the typical ones that most of us thinks of, not an ebook, not a membership site or e-learning or courses. It's actually very simple and it is used widely. I'd rather not disclose as I would gain global competition immediately
These were sold on 2 sites only (not my website, not ebay/amazon). I have not done any advertising or promotions, just listed the products. Pricing is between $4-10. Product development took about 30 minutes each, and I have spent another 2 hours in creating my accounts to the sites, uploading, writing descriptions, etc.

I made the first sale in just 2-3 days, and even it was just 4.99, it felt incredible. I was literally sitting in a pub with my friends when I got the email, and I was thinking "Hey, that works! Someone just paid my beer!"

I made about £50/month without touching the products anymore. It lasted for 3 months then it decreased and I cancelled my accounts.

2. Sell those products again immediately. Will do it this weekend. I've done research and according to google trends, the relevant keywords have 3 peaks in a year. One peak is dec-jan.
I'll use the same logo.

3. Create more similar products by early november and list them on sites continuously. Create improved products to add more value without increasing the price significantly (better price/value for better conversion).

4. Look for more sales channels.

5. Promote - to maximize sales during nov-feb.

6. Use FB pages and twitter accounts to promote. It's been a while since I last marketed anything and I have no experience in the use of social media for this purpose. I'll use it to experiment and find the best ways. Later I'll try other new ways (uh, new for me), such as pinterest. I'll need them for my future business

6. Repeat 1-5. with other products to create a more evenly distributed stream of income in other months

7. Identify steps that can be outsourced.

8. Learn all about company legals and taxes in UK. Establish a company when income reaches 600£ in a FY.

9. ???

To maximize speed I wont read any books in the next 4 weeks but dedicate my time to learning the market again. I'll rather read tutorials and blogs that help directly.

 

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[Sheps]

Awesome, looking forward to reading the updates.

 

[JustAskBenWhy]

You are on the right track. However - where's the real estate piece of all this? Aside for the fact that RE offers potentially the most stable revenue, it allows us to shelter income relative to taxation like nothing else, meaning we work less for more...

As to selling products, there is a distinction to be made. Unlike physical merchandise, educational content requires that you achieve an expert status in the space, which is, of course, a function of having succeeded in the space.

Something to think about

 

[GMJimmy]

You are on the right track. However - where's the real estate piece of all this? Aside for the fact that RE offers potentially the most stable revenue, it allows us to shelter income relative to taxation like nothing else, meaning we work less for more...

As to selling products, there is a distinction to be made. Unlike physical merchandise, educational content requires that you achieve an expert status in the space, which is, of course, a function of having succeeded in the space.

Something to think about

Thanks Ben for your valuable post.

At this point I may want to tell more details:

- This progress thread is solely about this separate business entity. I keep it separated from my other activities and incomes. The goal is to grow it to a business that produces 3000 in profit per month by dec 2016. I have other incomes, mainly from my employment, and

- RE. You are right, and I like RE too. I had done some refurbishig/flipping in my home country with my stepfather, and I still have investmental RE there (both rental and speculational). I'm renting out a flat in the best part of my old capital city. I have 2 other houses yet to be refurbished and rented out, and 2 pieces of agricultural land with house (like a farm?) for speculation (motorway is being built there and big companies invest in factories - job security). I am buying additional plots of land for renting out too. Not too much money but as you said: stable. I will not invest all my money in RE, as it is not liquid. Apart from the monthly rent, you cant take larger sums out of it very quickly.

As I have just recently moved to the UK I'll have to wait a few years until I can fully utilize the potential of the RE business (right now I cannot even have a credit card).

- Taxes: all revenue will stay in the company, I'm not going to take money out. I still have to learn everything about taxes in UK, but at this point it's more important to me to start the business. I assume that (in an overly simplified way) I'll pay taxes after the profit. So if I spend most of the money on expenses, such as hosting, software licenses, subscriptions, ads, contractors, office equipment, rent etc I wont have to pay much in taxes.

- The product: I agree. But these products are not educational, just digital I dont have to be anybody to sell such product.

But looking forward, I have ambitions to create educational products (or rather a consultancy, or service provider company) in my field where I'm an expert, but I can't do it now due to restrictions in my employment contract. I am continuously approached by several institutions and global professional event producing companies to participate as a speaker. I'm on my way there

 

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[Delmania]

Unlike physical merchandise, educational content requires that you achieve an expert status in the space, which is, of course, a function of having succeeded in the space.

Not necessarily. I'm certain Pat Flynn has never run a Food Truck business, yet he has a successful page, FoodTruckr, that's dedicated to it. There's a number of good basketball coaches who never played the game. It's not so much about succeeding in that task as it is in learning as much as you can from both theory and real world cases and then teaching that to other people.

 

[GMJimmy]

Not necessarily. I'm certain Pat Flynn has never run a Food Truck business, yet he has a successful page, FoodTruckr, that's dedicated to it. There's a number of good basketball coaches who never played the game. It's not so much about succeeding in that task as it is in learning as much as you can from both theory and real world cases and then teaching that to other people.

And as we say in healthcare: a doctor does not have to have cancer in order to be able to cure it.

But definitely, you have to know a lot more than the average. And your knowledge has to be validated somehow.

 

[JustAskBenWhy]

Thanks Ben for your valuable post.

At this point I may want to tell more details:

- This progress thread is solely about this separate business entity. I keep it separated from my other activities and incomes. The goal is to grow it to a business that produces 3000 in profit per month by dec 2016. I have other incomes, mainly from my employment, and this may be kinda silly in that the money may be taxed at a higher rate if it stays inside the business. Most likely, however, you'll set up an LLC or S Corp equivalent of flow-through entity, in which case it'll get taxed at your level anyhow. With that being the case, with careful planning you may be able to shelter this income. Why lose 30% effectively if you don't have to. I suggest researching this before you start

- RE. You are right, and I like RE too. I had done some refurbishig/flipping in my home country with my stepfather, and I still have investmental RE there (both rental and speculational). I'm renting out a flat in the best part of my old capital city. I have 2 other houses yet to be refurbished and rented out, and 2 pieces of agricultural land with house (like a farm?) for speculation (motorway is being built there and big companies invest in factories - job security). I am buying additional plots of land for renting out too. Not too much money but as you said: stable. I will not invest all my money in RE, as it is not liquid. Apart from the monthly rent, you cant take larger sums out of it very quickly.

As I have just recently moved to the UK I'll have to wait a few years until I can fully utilize the potential of the RE business (right now I cannot even have a credit card).

- Taxes: all revenue will stay in the company, I'm not going to take money out. I still have to learn everything about taxes in UK, but at this point it's more important to me to start the business. I assume that (in an overly simplified way) I'll pay taxes after the profit. So if I spend most of the money on expenses, such as hosting, software licenses, subscriptions, ads, contractors, office equipment, rent etc I wont have to pay much in taxes. I understand your position. But, remember - the biggest expense on the income are the taxes. You are well-advised to plan carefully

- The product: I agree. But these products are not educational, just digital I dont have to be anybody to sell such product. Nice!

But looking forward, I have ambitions to create educational products (or rather a consultancy, or service provider company) in my field where I'm an expert, but I can't do it now due to restrictions in my employment contract. I am continuously approached by several institutions and global professional event producing companies to participate as a speaker. I'm on my way there

 

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[GMJimmy]

Hi Ben,

Thanks for the warning. I agree with you on the importance of tax planning and corporations. I'm doing my research for a while but at this point I act as a sole trader. I pay a lot in tax as I'm in the highest tax band, but there are no other expenses such as bookkeepers, etc.
I'll switch to LLC and pay 20% corporation tax on profits. There are also reliefs and allowances, but my focus are not these at the moment.
And I'm in the UK not in the USA, these subtle details may be different between the countries.

I'll make sure I'll research the topic in time. I'm just not there yet.

To illustrate my point:
A: I could save all 30% tax by researching legal structures and tax rates in 1 week
B: I could double my sales by working on my business for 1 week.

Assuming starting with £100 profit, 'A' would result in net £100, while B would be net £140.

I can't comment on this more yet, but I'll do my homework in time. So far I had talks with an accountant friend of mine, but I'll prefer to hire an experienced professional later for the business.

 

[GMJimmy]

An unexpected moment happend to me today.

I thought I'll write an update about the progress, just in case someone beginner like me would find it valuable, but I didn't expect that I'll include one point!

So what I've done since I have started:

- Spent a little more time on the forum as I have subscribed to the INSIDERS part and found some extremely valuable content there. Though this might temporarily hinder the speed of the launch, but on the long run I believe it's beneficial for the outcomes.

- Moved my files and work from my old computer to a new one, as the old one is also used by my daughter as well and also the performance is lower (An AMD A6 lenovo compared to the latest high-end macbook pro)

- Checked my old work to see if those are still viable products. Decided to make some improvements

- Struggled with the Mac. I've been using MS Dos/Win PCs since I got my first 286 in the 90's. To use the mac for work is a nightmare to me. Everything is the opposite. Where Win has sg on the left, its on the right in the Mac. Top vs Bottom. Double-click vs long click. Ctrl vs command key. I use a lot of keyboard shortcuts so moving to a Mac is not easy to me...


And then we walked to the beach with the family, spent a wonderful afternoon there, and on the way back... I ... INVENTED SOMETHING!

Thanks to reading MJs book, I was about to consciously look for opportunities, problems and needs, and I realized that I already know something that is not on the market yet, there is a mass market for the product, it's easy to manufacture, and the concept is simple. It was not a heureka moment for the invention itself, but rather for the business side of it.

I have used different solutions to this problem in the past 15-18 years, but this one is way better than those! I generally like to think about solving problems, and I have already had the concept in my mind last year. But at that time I didnt think of making a business for it. Just wanted to make it for myself and thats all.

I quickly searched the internet for similar products or solutions, but I have found nothing. Checked the UK Intellectual Property Office online, and nothing there!

I'll order some parts I need to make my first prototypes, and start manufacturing the product as soon as I can. It is related to heating and insulation so I could test the market and the product itself this winter, and by next winter I can make more improvements and start mass production.

You wouldn't believe how excited I am!

 

[GMJimmy]

Update on the progress:

I have spent my time since the last update on the following:

1: Regarding the seasonal digital products:
The planned improvements are ongoing and the products will be ready for re-launch in time. I've decided to create more products and promote the store as well (including all listings).

2. Website niche#1 launched.
Basic version is ready (in wordpress, on my unlimited hosting, using a free template so far). It's already live with a few articles and products, I'll make continuous improvements gradually.
The site will be advertised on twitter and later on instagram. Currently the aim is to gain good quality followers, butnotto makehuge profits. Hence I'm providing them valuable content mostly for free, but also have a few offers so they are already shown the commercial aspect as well, and also have a perception of value via price anchoring.

3. Invention:
I have decided to go for a consultation with a professional and apply for the patent. Hence I'm not launching any MVP before patent is obtained, as I'm afraid that on the long run I'll lose the big opportunity. I expect that the product will be ready for launch in 2017 Q2.

4. Website niche#2
I'm launching a website in another niche I'm pretty familiar with. I'm providing content, service (mostly automated but will require some work initially) and ecommerce. I have found good local sources for the products. I'll stock the good deals in my inventory. And also I'll fill up the store with products I'll buy when someone orders them, so that it doesn'tlook empty. To be launched this week.

5. Niche #3:
I have decided to buy good deals for another niche I'm very familiar with and sell those on ebay and similar big sites. My purpose is to make money and practice sales again as it's been a while I was active in these activities. I know the niche very well from my previous experience, so I'll just spot the opportunities and make sales. Win-win situation, good products for good price for the customer, good profit for me.

That's all so far, I am satisfied with the progress, but of course I could have done more. We had a school holiday last week and all my children were at home, I have also spent a good amount of time with them.

This week will be busy, will keep you updated.

 

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[GMJimmy]

It's been a while since I last posted in this thread. I have not stopped doing business, but there were quite a few bumps on the road. These are not excuses, but I had to make changes to my plans.

The biggest impact was that we had to fire 3 au-pairs (live-in nanny/babysitters) in a row, and still haven't found a proper one yet. I have 6 children so this has a huge impact on my plan, mainly because I can allocate very little time for the business (rule #2: spend enough time with my family). So I have made a few tweaks:

• I work on my daily commute, which is 6x50 minutes per week on a train. I use this time to work on the online businesses, create content, interact, fine-tune etc. I usually only have my phone with me, but all of my works and files are accessible in clouds. I only do tasks that can be completed within these 50 minutes time slots, so that I don't carry over anything, and this also pressures me to get the task done.
• I decided that I will invest more in real estate, because on the long run, rent income is quite significant.

So an update on my business and passive incomes:

• Online digital stuff sales: this fell out of focus, I have sales occasionally but not worth mentioning. I make x.x to xx.x weekly for most of the products, though I don't have too many. I will improve marketing and send more traffic to those sites.
• Physical product sales: I prefer digital products so I restricted my involvment to consulting, lead generation to partners etc. Not a big deal at the moment, and the consulting is definitely not fastlane, though it makes very good money. I will improve efficiency of the lead generation business by looking up other partners in the niche and putting together a massive webshop for them, creating a proper sales funnel and al the usual stuff. It is an unused capacity right now.
• Importing products: Recently I came across / was offered some good product opportunities that I took. I am familiar with these niches and also with some of the products, as many of these came from old partners of my former employers. Good thing is that they are the manufacturers, therefore there is no middlemen between us, and I have managed to negotiate exclusivity for all these products throughout the UK, so I can go both retail and wholesale. I'm setting up the systems while paperworks, logistics etc is finalized. Estimated to launch retail from August and onwards. Brexit is a great risk at the moment, due to currency and potential customs issue, but I don't have any estimates yet. Keep on doing the work and I'll see.
• Real estate: this was my escape route when I had to rearrange my schedule due to the babysitters. I have spent most of my time and money to come up with additional real estates to rent. I will have 2 for this purpose from September-October this year.
  • One is a house I bought a year ago, but it is undergoing massive refurbishment, the house was abandoned for 5-10 years. I have removed everything from the house, including internal walls, doors, windows etc. and changing the layout so that it will be suitable for 2 apartments, as it has 2 floors and an attic. Building works are still ongoing, so far the new walls are in place, replaced all windows, put in additional windows so that the house will be bright and sunny, and installed 2 big glass doors on the first floor wall as there wil be a small balcony. Electric cables, water pipes are replaced. Next thing is fitting the bathrooms and kitchens, flooring, painting etc, do the garden, painting the outside, and then rent out. I have already demolished some old useless buildings in the garden and there is a garage and parking place for cars. I am expecting about 7-800 income monthly from these two. Selling is also possible if I can have a good profit.
  • Also, I have a nice big flat that we used to live in, but now it's just for our temporary accomodation. My wife and children are currently staying there for the summer, in the meantime we are doing some minor necessary work and will rent it out when they move out. Expecting 1000-1500/month.

So, apparently I'm on track

I have a few more things in the pipeline, but due to many uncertainties, I am not sure what will be after I have completed these goals, and anyway I will focus on scaling and automating more. One of these ideas is to split the garden of the house (it's a big garden, more like a land plot) and build a children centre there, that would include some bungalows, playgrounds and several outdoor activities etc. Also, I am thinking of entering into new countries, currently the majority of my incomes are in 2 currencies, but adding more to my income streams would give more room for corrections when volatility is greater than normal.
We are even considering moving to a new country again, perhaps Greece, Spain or Italy and live on the seafront while keeping our businesses up and running everywhere else.

Brexit is a great motivation for me in these businesses. My job is in the pharmaceutical industry, so if I want to stay in the hot spots, UK may no longer be the place for this if they really quit the EU. Also, jobs are at risk, so the more money I make outside of my job, the better. I don't want to be in a position where I am exposed to job market fluctuations.

I try and not neglect this thread and keep you updated more frequently.

 

[Guest34764]

Why are you dividing your focus so much?

One proper niche site can net you 10k a month.

Stick to one thing and build it up.

 

[GMJimmy]

Thanks for asking.

Why are you dividing your focus so much?

One proper niche site can net you 10k a month.

I'm not sure that this is very probable with 1hr work in 1 year.

Stick to one thing and build it up.

I'm building an "empire" not just one thing, all niches are related (apart from the RE).

 

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[JokerCrazyBeatz]

Thanks for asking.



I'm not sure that this is very probable with 1hr work in 1 year.



I'm building an "empire" not just one thing, all niches are related (apart from the RE).

But the thing is you can focus on 1 aspect at a time . It makes no sense to have multiple things failing at once , you can't put 100% effort into everything , you're splitting your effort which is slowing your progress

 

[GMJimmy]

But the thing is you can focus on 1 aspect at a time . It makes no sense to have multiple things failing at once , you can't put 100% effort into everything , you're splitting your effort which is slowing your progress

Yes, I see your point and more or less agree to that. However, my situation is different than most of those who start a side business besides work. Further to this, there were many changes on my way that made me shift my focus. I intended to set up all digital product sales initially (focus on one aspect, as you said) but that was not possible due to my family situation. And in my job, my only peer colleague dropped out in the middle of a project so I had to take over his tasks, and he has done a lot of sh.t, so I worked a lot harder in my job, was often very tired and could not work on my business so effectively. So I have adapted and changed my plan and focused on those aspects that could be set up quicker and run without my involvement.

If I look at the numbers, this is not completely off track. I have counted with an average of 14 hours of work per week, but instead, I ended up with 5 hours max, or even less when I was dead tired on my way home. And I still have 6 months to reach my target. I don't care how the profits curve looks like before the end of the period, it doesn't matter too much to me if it is 10/week all along the way and then suddenly increases to 3000/m in the last month.

 

[JokerCrazyBeatz]

Yes, I see your point and more or less agree to that. However, my situation is different than most of those who start a side business besides work. Further to this, there were many changes on my way that made me shift my focus. I intended to set up all digital product sales initially (focus on one aspect, as you said) but that was not possible due to my family situation. And in my job, my only peer colleague dropped out in the middle of a project so I had to take over his tasks, and he has done a lot of sh.t, so I worked a lot harder in my job, was often very tired and could not work on my business so effectively. So I have adapted and changed my plan and focused on those aspects that could be set up quicker and run without my involvement.

If I look at the numbers, this is not completely off track. I have counted with an average of 14 hours of work per week, but instead, I ended up with 5 hours max, or even less when I was dead tired on my way home. And I still have 6 months to reach my target. I don't care how the profits curve looks like before the end of the period, it doesn't matter too much to me if it is 10/week all along the way and then suddenly increases to 3000/m in the last month.

I understand the partner dropping out part , I guess if u can handle it then do what you gotta do

 

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