Mike39's Progress Thread

[Mike39]

Starting a new progress thread focusing on my fastlane ideas, my old progress thread about my 1st website can be found here. I will be updating anything concerning hr.biz on there and all fastlane progress on this thread.

Update: May 19th, 2012
Finally finished up the layout of my app last night, this morning I listed it on several freelance sites and am already getting some applications but am going to give it a couple of days before filtering any of them. Hopefully will get some help in filtering devs. Should be an exciting week trying to find someone, will re-update everyone when it officially begins development!

[Bond]

Good Luck!

[Yussef]

Starting a new progress thread focusing on my fastlane ideas, my old progress thread about my 1st website can be found here. I will be updating anything concerning hr.biz on there and all fastlane progress on this thread.

Update: May 19th, 2012
Finally finished up the layout of my app last night, this morning I listed it on several freelance sites and am already getting some applications but am going to give it a couple of days before filtering any of them. Hopefully will get some help in filtering devs. Should be an exciting week trying to find someone, will re-update everyone when it officially begins development!

Mike39 I would love for you to share which freelance sites you posted the job on if you don't mind. I just want to know which ones some of you guys have gotten the best success and value from. Thanks

[PatrickP]

I am not mike but I have been very happy with rentacoder elance and odesk

[Mike39]

Mike39 I would love for you to share which freelance sites you posted the job on if you don't mind. I just want to know which ones some of you guys have gotten the best success and value from. Thanks

I used Elance, Odesk and Guru and so far, Odesk has been the most successful as far as applicants.

[Mike39]

Ok, tomorrow I will have scheduled to call or Skype several Developers, all are in the U.S. Should have one of them selected by the end of the week but don't want to rush the hiring process. App will be started in the next 1 1/2-2 weeks, my hopes are for the app to be done by mid June but will definitely be done before the end of June. Once development starts, I think am going to mess around in the Online E-book/Video world and test the PPC advertising waters, but that is all just speculation at this point, want to get the app handled first and foremost! Tomorrow is my last day of Sophomore year, have a 2.4 accumulative GPA , things are looking up!

Other cool thing on the plate is I am going to have lunch and play a round of golf with one of my moms old friends sometime next month. He is one of the biggest real estate developers in the state and is working on some absolutely huge projects in the coming years, going to talk about RE development and may open up some cool opportunities for the future, hopefully will become a regular thing to meet up and chat with him, he has a very strong entrepreneurial drive as well and has done very well for himself. June will be a very exciting month. Will keep everyone posted!

[Mike39]

Loser Update for 05-28-12: Today I spoke with the developer I was going to hire, the team had quoted me at 2k for app development, I have $2100 in my savings account. On top of that, the ******* iOS won't allow me to enable the LED functions that I need for the app to work properly, it will still work but won't look nearly as professional and may not function as well.

I began to think really, really, really hard about going through with development, the app is based off a product in the marketplace that has a patent pending, the product sells for $60. This concerned me, I wouldn't know what to do if I spent ALL of my savings on an app only to have a copyright lawsuit from a large corporation, they could not only put me out of business but also put a big financial burden on my parents with a lawsuit. To help avoid this, I need to go to a lawyer and find out exactly what their patent pending is for and if I am O.K. to move ahead in development, effin great, that's another thousand or so bucks that I don't have and my parents are not willing to dish out for me (not that they should).

I looked at my 2k sitting in my bank account and said to myself, should I put everything including ALL of my savings and parents financial situation and gamble it on a somewhat properly functioning app, or should I take that 2k and spend it diligently and put it towards other projects that may have a smaller return but won't have the possibility of completely ruining my situation. I honestly feel like a complete loser at this point (and an a-hole for leading a dev team to thinking they had another 2k deal on thier plate), but I would rather take that 2k and turn it into 4k and so on untill I have some more cash to not only do the app properly and minimize risk but enough so that I am not gambling all of my money on 1 deal. I am going to start hustling schit on Craigs List with my 2k and work my tail off at that for a couple of months, all the while learning objective-c when I have any free time so I can hopefully develop my own apps in the future again minimizing costs (I decided to learn objective-c because I've been listening to Robert H's live chats and both him and his buddy who is visiting for the week build their own apps "and both drive lambos" and they have convinced me that if I am going to go into the app game, it would be worth while to learn). So the app is on hold at this point, I may build it my own over winter or have it built closer to the end of summer if I have the cash. For now, I will be hustling Craigslist and learning code. From learning so much about the app industry, I have come up with some interesting ideas about app payments that may be big, but that is for another post . Wish me luck, 2k in my pocket and a long couple of moths ahead of me, well see if the loser can have some positive results, I learned a valuable lesson don't shoot for the moon when you can't even get in the air haha

Your fastlane loser
Mike

[Whole Paradigm]

Erase "loser" out of your vocabulary and thoughts going forward. And anything negative, demeaning, degrading, belittling, etc. for that matter.


Goodluck on your endeavors,


Cory

[oddball]

Side question about Robert's live chats, is it his buddy Allen with a green Gallardo visiting? I only watched the first live video so missed it. If it is Allen, I've talked to him a few times about apps. He knows his stuff, made millions with them.

Onto your topic though, it might not be the right app to make. Not sure if you read the App Empire book but they talk about how to find a good app idea. If I were you, I'd take the $2k and buy/sell some stuff to make some money. In the meantime, work on another app idea. By the time you come up with another idea and are ready to spend the money, you might have $2,500-$3000, maybe $4,000.

Don't call yourself a loser though, as long as you learned something from the experience you are good. You didn't spend any money yet so its a positive event. You know I am working on my app right now, I think I will be successful, but even if its not, I will still try again. You don't always hit a homerun your first at bat.

[Alty]

You are not a loser: A loser would not have got that far. Plus, you made an intelligent choice. Holding out rather than running with a half baked product. A loser would have settled for second best. You didn't!

Good luck saving up to get what you need!

[PatrickP]

Hey Mike,

I KNOW you have made a GREAT decision.

A lesser person would have gone ahead with doing the app and end up with nothing. Mike it is FAR FAR more important to realize which businesses NOT to start.

Did you see the thread MJ started on buying things on Craig's list? Basically it was suggested buying Apple products. You call the person offer MUCH lower than what they are asking. 85% will hang up on you. Then the ones that are open to you offer, you show up and go lower by approx 40% from what you mentioned on the phone.

Then you re-list on Craigs List at a higher price than you bought it for.

[Mike39]

Erase "loser" out of your vocabulary and thoughts going forward. And anything negative, demeaning, degrading, belittling, etc. for that matter.


Goodluck on your endeavors,


Cory

Thanks, waking up and feeling better now, just a tough day though..

Side question about Robert's live chats, is it his buddy Allen with a green Gallardo visiting? I only watched the first live video so missed it. If it is Allen, I've talked to him a few times about apps. He knows his stuff, made millions with them.

Onto your topic though, it might not be the right app to make. Not sure if you read the App Empire book but they talk about how to find a good app idea. If I were you, I'd take the $2k and buy/sell some stuff to make some money. In the meantime, work on another app idea. By the time you come up with another idea and are ready to spend the money, you might have $2,500-$3000, maybe $4,000.

Don't call yourself a loser though, as long as you learned something from the experience you are good. You didn't spend any money yet so its a positive event. You know I am working on my app right now, I think I will be successful, but even if its not, I will still try again. You don't always hit a homerun your first at bat.

Thanks, I was just being hard on myself this morning, the whole reality of the situation hit me like a wall, I just feel like I should be doing something more productive than upselling on CL, well I won't be the first to do it. About the live chat: its his buddy Christian that's over right now but he has talked about his neighbor with the ithaca lambo who makes apps as well, I would love to hear what he had to say about apps if you want to PM me!

You are not a loser: A loser would not have got that far. Plus, you made an intelligent choice. Holding out rather than running with a half baked product. A loser would have settled for second best. You didn't!

Good luck saving up to get what you need!

Thanks Alty!

Hey Mike,

I KNOW you have made a GREAT decision.

A lesser person would have gone ahead with doing the app and end up with nothing. Mike it is FAR FAR more important to realize which businesses NOT to start.

Did you see the thread MJ started on buying things on Craig's list? Basically it was suggested buying Apple products. You call the person offer MUCH lower than what they are asking. 85% will hang up on you. Then the ones that are open to you offer, you show up and go lower by approx 40% from what you mentioned on the phone.

Then you re-list on Craigs List at a higher price than you bought it for.

I have the article printed and sitting on my desk, going to be selling a couple of things around the house I don't need to get a feel for CL, then probably next weekend, going to withdraw my savings and hit the ground running, I am ready to be called words I've never even heard before haha

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If anyone else reads my latest update post, disregard most of the emotional b.s, I guess I forgot to put on my big boy diapers when I got up this morning , found them and feeling less loser-ish, more relieved that I made what I feel was the tough but right decision

[The-J]

One of the most important skills for an entrepreneur to have is to figure out when a business is no longer worth pursuing. Never get attached to an idea. I still remember when I was trying to go forward with a book rental service (like Netflix but for books) and someone told me that not only would they not pay for it, they didn't think I would go so far as to get the books in the first place. She told me I had no market and that if people really wanted an e-book, they would buy it for 99 cents instead of join my service for $5 a month. So I took her comments not to heart, but to mind, and ran the numbers again.

The lady was right. Not about not having a market, but about how far I would get. The barriers to entry were already set in place far too high by IP law, Amazon and large publishers. Plus, if someone wanted to borrow a book, they could just go to a library or download it illegally. I could possibly get publishers on board if I promised them enough, but they would turn to Amazon before they would turn to little ole me.

Not a week after I had ditched the idea, Amazon added the feature to their $80/yr Amazon Prime service. Trying to take on Amazon would be a gigantic waste of my time and would ultimately result in my tiny business getting crushed under the weight of their influence.

Due diligence is your best friend.

[Mike39]

1st, after finally re-registering my account with the bank, I discovered I only had 1.6k in my account which came as a surprise to both my parents and me, seems like it had been so long since we checked that we forgot the exact amount of $ in there (no nobody has been taking money out of the account, I checked). So I said holy sh**t, I am $400 short of my development price for my app, so I began bootstrapping.

Update 06-09-12: So after 2 weeks of bootstrapping I made $400!

Well, it sure is cool to know that I made $400 in a couple of weeks, if I told one of my friends that I made that amount of cash in 2 weeks, they would be blown away. Oddly enough, I don't get some great sense of pride when I hold the money, no excitement even though this is the first time in my life I have held that much of self earned cash. I think the fact that I know I could be making a whole lot more is what bothers me, $400 is not that great because I know I could be making 5k in the same amount of time. The only real sense of excitement is the fact that I can now pay for the development of my iPhone app if I decide to go ahead with development. I am nervous as hell about putting all of my cash on the line for 1 product and I have some real deep thinking to do before I move ahead and pay the dev. (Its comforting to know that I can make $800 a month or more if I screw something up though!) We'll time to begin deciding on the biggest decision of my life thus far, no pressure there.....

[LamboMP]

1st, after finally re-registering my account with the bank, I discovered I only had 1.6k in my account which came as a surprise to both my parents and me, seems like it had been so long since we checked that we forgot the exact amount of $ in there (no nobody has been taking money out of the account, I checked). So I said holy sh**t, I am $400 short of my development price for my app, so I began bootstrapping.

Update 06-09-12: So after 2 weeks of bootstrapping I made $400!

Well, it sure is cool to know that I made $400 in a couple of weeks, if I told one of my friends that I made that amount of cash in 2 weeks, they would be blown away. Oddly enough, I don't get some great sense of pride when I hold the money, no excitement even though this is the first time in my life I have held that much of self earned cash. I think the fact that I know I could be making a whole lot more is what bothers me, $400 is not that great because I know I could be making 5k in the same amount of time. The only real sense of excitement is the fact that I can now pay for the development of my iPhone app if I decide to go ahead with development. I am nervous as hell about putting all of my cash on the line for 1 product and I have some real deep thinking to do before I move ahead and pay the dev. (Its comforting to know that I can make $800 a month or more if I screw something up though!) We'll time to begin deciding on the biggest decision of my life thus far, no pressure there.....

Beauty!

[Kak]

So how are you bootstrapping?

[Mike39]

So how are you bootstrapping?

1. Re-selling fiverr services on ebay

2.Selling items on craigslist and ebay

3. 3 people on my block are moving, I asked them to give me things for me to sell at a garage sale with the promise that if it did not sell, I would get rid of it for them (won't always work if you don't have people moving nearby)

[Kak]

Haha nice reselling fiverr services LOL

[Kak]

I wonder if I can sell energy on ebay. Sell rates at cost for 5-600 bucks.

[Mike39]

Haha nice reselling fiverr services LOL

I made about $115 in 3 days doing that!!!!