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Are you a morning person?


  • Total voters
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Birdie

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We both woke up early today and worked (yay us, even on a Sunday).

I have listed several things on eBay and am working on Amazon/other sites.

We've talked about making our bills. We have enough to cover January, our problems start on February. I was worried yesterday night because the bills are due and it always stresses me out to juggle them.

We are working on a plan. We will make sales projections so we have a very clear path of what to do to get there. We'll post that later to be accountable.

It might be wise to take on a day job again, as several people have suggested. I am still unsure how it would work out to have dinho7 go back to the poker and work this business too. I'll try to chip in and I think taking some pressure off our personal bills *might* help.

With regards to expanding to another market.. I've seen the demand for the product I will be offering, but it's not bulletproof. I think I'm just going to dive head first and just try this... I'll obviously give priority to eBay/Amazon and try to move inventory ASAP.

Thanks for all your comments. Trust me, this is not a dead project. We'll keep you updated.
 
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MajeStyle

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Good job: if you read the book, just remember this one thing.
A solution that makes you stay "1 or 2 months/salary/selling/something away from bankrupcy" cant' be a good one.
You shouldn't be struggling that much, especially as long as you are not alone and with a child. Poker is a good way to make money in an indipendent and self organized way, I've played very much myself. Problem is, it's getting harder and harder to win it, and if you want to earn a decent amount you need to grind 8-10 h/day, or play very high stakes, wich seems a very bad idea considering your bankroll.
 

xhcsurge

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I don't know much about ecommerce either, but I read your story with high interest. Here's some of the stuff you said you've been working on:

Progress today:
-My husband adjusted prices to offer free shipping.
-I batch post-processed 20 product images.
Him:
-Small fixes to the site
-Research on new products (profit margins, is it worth it or not)
-Got more inventory (replenishing the things we sold).
Me:
-daydreaming about new project, I have written copy on the offer for the new service.
-got web developer... We've been struggling with that.
-learned how to update products (finally!) so now I can start translating to another language.
Him:
-added products (without using capital)
-did research for new products
-shipped an order
-updated finances
Me:
-worked on a banner to advertise.
-worked on analyzing other products- I got 5 new products, while he added 9.


Now, as I told you, I'm no expert on how to run a business like yours, but this really strikes me:

Where and when are you SELLING? You seem to just sit and tob, waiting for a wild sale to appear??!!!

Nothing is more important than getting people to your website and closing sales. It is the simple highest priority ON EVERY DAY that you run your business.

You URGENTLY need more customers and more sales, so here's what I would be doing from 8AM till 18PM EVERY DAY:
  • Make hundreds of phone calls to people you know and don't know; tell them about your site and have them visit and buy it now, here, today!
  • Go out in the streets and drop 4000 paper flyers per week in peoples mailboxes saying "WE HAVE A COOL NEW WEBSHOP, CHECK IT OUT". Printing flyers is cheap and more efficient than stupid banner ads that are simply hidden by everyones adblock.
  • Ring random doorbells (100 per day) selling your products face to face --> Why not?? I dont know your products but I can imagine some of them are attractive if they are demonstrated
  • Call everyone you know that has a facebook or twitter account, and DIRECTLY ASK THEM to post 1 tweet or fb-post about your site here and now. Just ASK THEM and they'll do it! "Hey all, a friend of mine has a crazy webshop. Visit it PLEAAAAAAAAASE". Everyone is bored on FB 24/7 and they read status updates of their so called friends!!
  • Make a special effort to call friends who have >1000 followers on twitter. Give them a shareable coupon for example?
I know this means making LOCAL use of your ONLINE webshop, but sales are sales, whereever they come from.

All of this is ACTIVELY PERSUEING CONCRETE SALES, instead of simply PASSIVELY waiting for them. Jeff Bezos can passively wait. You guys CAN'T.

I would suggest splitting up. Have your husband do the SELLING, the hustling, the hunting -- 10 hours a day.
You (the wife) can be support and handle shipping etc, and make more calls in every spare minute that you have
 

MajeStyle

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Make hundreds of phone calls to people you know and don't know; tell them about your site and have them visit and buy it now, here, today!
  • Go out in the streets and drop 4000 paper flyers per week in peoples mailboxes saying "WE HAVE A COOL NEW WEBSHOP, CHECK IT OUT". Printing flyers is cheap and more efficient than stupid banner ads that are simply hidden by everyones adblock.
  • Ring random doorbells (100 per day) selling your products face to face --> Why not?? I dont know your products but I can imagine some of them are attractive if they are demonstrated
  • Call everyone you know that has a facebook or twitter account, and DIRECTLY ASK THEM to post 1 tweet or fb-post about your site here and now. Just ASK THEM and they'll do it! "Hey all, a friend of mine has a crazy webshop. Visit it PLEAAAAAAAAASE". Everyone is bored on FB 24/7 and they read status updates of their so called friends!!
  • Make a special effort to call friends who have >1000 followers on twitter. Give them a shareable coupon for example?
This is the old fashioned way to sell: it could work (I hear magic stuff about USA), but there are way better ways to market and sell products, especially in online business. This solution is the most expensive in terms of cost and labour, and even if you get an incredible conversion of 10%, you will still be highly dependant on your daily sweat to get something done, (don't get me wrong, daily efforts are necessary, IMHO in a different way).

Ever heard about Al Ries? Gary Halbert? If not, shame on you, go read their websites.

Point is, people are wearing iron shields when you knock their doors and ring their phones: they know how to defend vs you trying to sell them something.

The solution is apparently absurd: don try to sell them something, try to inform them about what happens in the sector you are working. Give examples of what you do different from other companies, tell them wich problem you are solving and how. Poeple aren't willing to spend money on products, they want to spend money (big money), for SOLUTIONS.

You can open a blog to give news about things you are selling and make the coustumer sensible about the competititors and why they make wrong (it will be implicite that you are doin' it right).

Another thing: don't ever ever say you are the "best" in something. This creates a lot of confusion about brand positioning.

Enjoy the ride!
 
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tafy

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I agree with cold selling B2B but never B2C, It's illegal here to cold call homes without checking that they are not on the "list". 90% of people are on the list as cold calls are really a nuisance.
 

MajeStyle

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I agree with cold selling B2B but never B2C, It's illegal here to cold call homes without checking that they are not on the "list". 90% of people are on the list as cold calls are really a nuisance.
Not only it may be illegal, it's way more inefficent than an internet website with tons of infos (and good ones) that works for you 24/7
 

miked_d

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eBay and Amazon can be used as sales funnel to your website. The listings can have your "brand name" on them. Any sales from eBay or Amazon will include a flier to your website. You don't lose your lose your brand just because you use eBay or Amazon as a sales channel.
 
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xhcsurge

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  • Make hundreds of phone calls to people you know and don't know; tell them about your site and have them visit and buy it now, here, today!
  • Go out in the streets and drop 4000 paper flyers per week in peoples mailboxes saying "WE HAVE A COOL NEW WEBSHOP, CHECK IT OUT". Printing flyers is cheap and more efficient than stupid banner ads that are simply hidden by everyones adblock.
  • Ring random doorbells (100 per day) selling your products face to face --> Why not?? I dont know your products but I can imagine some of them are attractive if they are demonstrated
  • Call everyone you know that has a facebook or twitter account, and DIRECTLY ASK THEM to post 1 tweet or fb-post about your site here and now. Just ASK THEM and they'll do it! "Hey all, a friend of mine has a crazy webshop. Visit it PLEAAAAAAAAASE". Everyone is bored on FB 24/7 and they read status updates of their so called friends!!
  • Make a special effort to call friends who have >1000 followers on twitter. Give them a shareable coupon for example?


Yes OK I understand, maybe cold calling on the phone, and door by door visits are an entirely different business model.

But I'm still convinced that you should spread the word through flyers and your friends social media accounts!
 

Birdie

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eBay and Amazon can be used as sales funnel to your website. The listings can have your "brand name" on them. Any sales from eBay or Amazon will include a flier to your website. You don't lose your lose your brand just because you use eBay or Amazon as a sales channel.
eBay and Amazon can be used as sales funnel to your website. The listings can have your "brand name" on them. Any sales from eBay or Amazon will include a flier to your website. You don't lose your lose your brand just because you use eBay or Amazon as a sales channel.
Hi Miked_d,

I have tried using our brand on ebay... Just hope I won't get caught because it is against their policy.

We have been working on getting approved for the restricted Amazon categories. It's also against Amazon policy to post your brand or redirect to your own website. I believe they close down your seller account if you violate their terms.

We've been hustling like crazy lately.

Me:
-Listing on ebay and Amazon... Amazon's restricted categories are a pain to get into, but so worth it.
-Made some sales on alternative sites, unrelated but still nice additional income.
-More product pictures.

I actually remember someone saying focusing time in product pictures was irrelevant... The #1 rule when you are selling online is to have VERY good pictures. Amazon will turn you down for this, and even selling on ebay with poor pictures doesn't work. Amazon has minimum requirements for high resolution images that you should be taking. I believe the time spent on setting up the lights, camera background, then taking MULTIPLE pictures of the products and post-processing is time well-spent. Just multiple 160 product times at least 4 pictures per product, and you will understand why it has taken so much time.

Him:
-Listed on equivalent sites to ebay.
-Helped with the listing on ebay/Amazon
-Did 8-hour customer service, despite having to do all his everyday tasks.

We have a plan now.

We reviewed our finances and debt.
We have $11K of personal debt
We have $18K of business debt.

Even though everything is on 0% interest until 2015, we still have to repay $300 a month of business loans- while the business is making very little profit.

We have decided Dinho is going to take a dayjob with the poker, which will help us pay down the debt faster. All income from the business is going to repayment of business loans only. Once we get to that break-even point, we can pay ourselves. Meanwhile, we will still have that dayjob income to support our personal expenses.

Our initial sales forecast required that we make 600 sales per month, or 24 sales a day, where we would make $3K a month and have all loans repaid by December 2015. We are adjusting our goals since we are not going to pay ourselves until all loans are repaid. Need to do the math better.

Thank you for all your amazing ideas for marketing.
 
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Birdie

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I don't know much about ecommerce either, but I read your story with high interest. Here's some of the stuff you said you've been working on:




Now, as I told you, I'm no expert on how to run a business like yours, but this really strikes me:

Where and when are you SELLING? You seem to just sit and tob, waiting for a wild sale to appear??!!!

Nothing is more important than getting people to your website and closing sales. It is the simple highest priority ON EVERY DAY that you run your business.

You URGENTLY need more customers and more sales, so here's what I would be doing from 8AM till 18PM EVERY DAY:
  • Make hundreds of phone calls to people you know and don't know; tell them about your site and have them visit and buy it now, here, today!
  • Go out in the streets and drop 4000 paper flyers per week in peoples mailboxes saying "WE HAVE A COOL NEW WEBSHOP, CHECK IT OUT". Printing flyers is cheap and more efficient than stupid banner ads that are simply hidden by everyones adblock.
  • Ring random doorbells (100 per day) selling your products face to face --> Why not?? I dont know your products but I can imagine some of them are attractive if they are demonstrated
  • Call everyone you know that has a facebook or twitter account, and DIRECTLY ASK THEM to post 1 tweet or fb-post about your site here and now. Just ASK THEM and they'll do it! "Hey all, a friend of mine has a crazy webshop. Visit it PLEAAAAAAAAASE". Everyone is bored on FB 24/7 and they read status updates of their so called friends!!
  • Make a special effort to call friends who have >1000 followers on twitter. Give them a shareable coupon for example?
I know this means making LOCAL use of your ONLINE webshop, but sales are sales, whereever they come from.

All of this is ACTIVELY PERSUEING CONCRETE SALES, instead of simply PASSIVELY waiting for them. Jeff Bezos can passively wait. You guys CAN'T.

I would suggest splitting up. Have your husband do the SELLING, the hustling, the hunting -- 10 hours a day.
You (the wife) can be support and handle shipping etc, and make more calls in every spare minute that you have

In order for me to use my Facebook contacts, I would need to translate the page, which is in my to-do list already.
Dinho has already contacted people with big audiences, like you mentioned about twitter (but alternate sites that are more geared towards our target market).
We both alternate tasks, and do what is needed. When I make sales, I take care of everything. When we make sales in our site, we both work on an efficient manner to ship the package (we have a system that uses both of our strenghts...)

I found that ebay is not necessarily the audience we want... we would be selling at a loss there. Ebay is great for selling used stuff, but not necesarily for what we are selling. Regardless, the stuff is listed so we might end up getting sales after all.
 

Birdie

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I will be honest with you, I cant see this working with poker...Good jov for all the rest, keep going!

The game in poker is definitely getting tougher. If Dinho can't make it on this, he could get any dayjob. He is graduating with a business degree in May but he can take part-time or full-time because he only has one class left starting January.

This would be only to support ourselves, since we want the business to stand on its own.
 
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MajeStyle

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The game in poker is definitely getting tougher. If Dinho can't make it on this, he could get any dayjob. He is graduating with a business degree in May but he can take part-time or full-time because he only has one class left starting January.

This would be only to support ourselves, since we want the business to stand on its own.

Is he playing cash game or tournaments? Wich stakes? The #1 rule in poker is bankroll management. You cannot play in a table more than 2% of your total bankroll to avoid getting crushed by variance. Since u are somehow broke, I don't see how you can borrow a capital from your business and invest it in poker in exchange of your time and effort.

To start making decent money at poker (something that can compare to daily joobs) you need to play NL25 (or tournaments with 25 ABI). You NEED 100 buy ins to avoid variance and play it like it's meant to be.

100*25= 2500 $.

I can't see this working. You can get a way more profitable dayjob FOR FREE.

Poker is really a bitch, the more you play it when you are in absolute need of money, the more you stress out and loose (get bluffed etc..). Think carefully about it.
 

Mr.B

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Poker is really a bitch, the more you play it when you are in absolute need of money, the more you stress out and loose (get bluffed etc..). Think carefully about it.

I don't know anything about playing poker professionally, but this makes a lot of sense.

A bit like trying to make sales when you desperately need to make a sale... it never works.

@Birdie and @Dinho7 - I'm glad you guys have a plan now :)
 

miked_d

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I have tried using our brand on ebay... Just hope I won't get caught because it is against their policy.

We have been working on getting approved for the restricted Amazon categories. It's also against Amazon policy to post your brand or redirect to your own website. I believe they close down your seller account if you violate their terms.

I did not mean to say you should break any of their rules. External links are generally a no-no but there are always exceptions. I believe eBay allows a link on your "about me" page. There are no rules against you including a flier for your website when shipping out sales. You are allowed to include your brand name in the listing. Example - Bird Houses by Birdie Inc.
 
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Dinho7

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@MajeStyle: I share your concerns about stress and bankroll. Stress and the emotional swings were two of the reasons that I quit about a year ago (along with diminishing returns). But, I have played professionally for 5 years so I know how to cope with stress and feelings when less experienced players would tilt. Regarding the bankroll, you are right about the risks of having a small bankroll. However, my goal is to find a great rakeback deal that pays out frequently to reduce the risk. There have always been great deals for new players (75%+) on some networks. I have lost my investment just once out of around ten times with this strategy. It is far from optimal, but it's a risk I am willing to take.

Getting a day job would KILL this project that I still believe in. We did not do four months of preparation work just in order to put our guns down and surrender after just three weeks of operation. We will make this work.

So my goal now is to work about 4 hours on the poker (3 hours playing + 1 hour studying) and 4 hours on the business per day. My wife would also help some hours a day with fulfilling orders, take product pictures, assist with marketing etc. But she is going to be a full-time student this semester, so I really want to get some money in to make her feel more relaxed and give her the time she needs for herself and for the baby.

I am going to use today to scout out a good poker deal and try to get back in the game tomorrow.

We are in a tough spot now, thanks to ourselves, but 2015 is going to be the best year we have ever lived!
 

Sean P

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I read most of the posts on this thread.

If this is what you really want to do for an income you can surely make it happen. But like many others have mentioned, get a job first(I read the post where you've agreed to it :)). A regular income from a job is a great motivator for a second income. Besides, if you have a job that requires you to be present in the office at 8 am in the morning, you will stop getting up late.

If you don't want to do a regular job in an office, take up an online job. There are plenty of regular jobs available on freelancing sites including project managers, assistants and writers. That will help you with your monthly expenses. Once your fixed expenses are taken care of, you will be be able to focus on your business better.

Here is a suggestion which, although I haven't actually tried it myself, is a method of making money that works well. This has to do with arbritrage between Amazon and eBay. Look for a highly discounted item on Amazon and post an ad on eBay. Though I know people who do it without ordering it for themsleves first(ordering it as a gift instead) it is better if you order it to your address first and then ship it. Never mind the extra 1-2 days- at least your account will be safe as Amazon may not like what you're doing(some customers may not either). If you do this on a regular basis you can take care of your expenses while you work on you main project. I wouldn't consider it for a long-term business but you can earn some quick cash for those expenses.
 

Dinho7

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Thats bullshit.

This is how I see it:
Sleep 7-8 hours.
A day job to pay the bills would mean 8 hours of work.
Commute, getting ready etc. would maybe take an hour.
Cook, clean and regular house chores could add up to an hour.
I will also study part-time in the upcoming semester where I have to go to school twice a week.
My wife will be a full-time student, which means I need to take care of the baby for several hours per day.
This would leave me with approximately 4 hours a day to be with my family, AND run the business.

I don't think the business project can succeed with me only working on it in the weekends. Part of the problem so far is that we have not been able to put in enough hours of quality work to make it grow. Cutting down that time to a fraction will not help.

Perhaps you have another (constructive) opinion on this?

For now, it is really an actual option because I am not legally allowed to work in the US until May. So for now I will work on the business from about 8 to 12, then try to make enough to cover the bills by playing poker from 1 to 5.

Here is a suggestion which, although I haven't actually tried it myself, is a method of making money that works well. This has to do with arbritrage between Amazon and eBay. Look for a highly discounted item on Amazon and post an ad on eBay. Though I know people who do it without ordering it for themsleves first(ordering it as a gift instead) it is better if you order it to your address first and then ship it. Never mind the extra 1-2 days- at least your account will be safe as Amazon may not like what you're doing(some customers may not either). If you do this on a regular basis you can take care of your expenses while you work on you main project. I wouldn't consider it for a long-term business but you can earn some quick cash for those expenses.

Cool idea. Definitely something to look into. Shipping it directly should not be a problem if it is sent like a gift, since I assume that the receipt is not included? I heard an intriguing episode on the SPI podcast about a couple making six figures a year on buying discounted items in stores a while ago. Looks like a lot of people are doing this now (the episode was the most popular in 2014).
 

theag

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Sleep 7-8 hours.
A day job to pay the bills would mean 8 hours of work.
Commute, getting ready etc. would maybe take an hour.
Cook, clean and regular house chores could add up to an hour.
I will also study part-time in the upcoming semester where I have to go to school twice a week.
My wife will be a full-time student, which means I need to take care of the baby for several hours per day.
This would leave me with approximately 4 hours a day to be with my family, AND run the business.

Well, sounds pretty easy to me.

Get a job to pay the bills (if you cant legally work, you and your wife switch roles. she works, you take care of the kid), sleep 2 hours less, dont go to university (both of you, because why should you?? Its useless if you want to be entrepreneur. read some books instead.), let your wife take care of your kid and work on the business every free minute of the day. You can spend time with your family when the business makes enough money so you can quit a job. We are talking about maybe 1 year max of living like this, then you should be able to quit your job if your business doesnt suck.

If you cant make that sacrifice you wont be successful.

Everything else is just excuses.

So, how bad do you want it?
 
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theag

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I will work on the business from about 8 to 12
I hope you dont get a burnout working that much.

The poker part I wont even comment because its just SO stupid in your financial state.
 
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Bila

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I hope you dont get a burnout working that much.

The poker part I wont even comment because its just SO stupid in your financial state.
I agree with @theag , one of you should get a day job to pay the bills.
when i started my business i worked full time ( single mother of a little one as well ) then start at 3:30 pm to work on my business, at 5:30 go pick up little one, have quality time with him, 8:00 pm work again until 11:00.
I did that for a year....crazy but doable.
 

Bila

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Wish you the best .... The number one lesson i learned ....get rid of the mental blocks....push your own bouandaries ....everything will be a piece of cake after....one mental block i see in your situation is that you think that your business needs 2 full time employees ....NO, it doesnt.
 

Birdie

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Is he playing cash game or tournaments? Wich stakes? The #1 rule in poker is bankroll management. You cannot play in a table more than 2% of your total bankroll to avoid getting crushed by variance. Since u are somehow broke, I don't see how you can borrow a capital from your business and invest it in poker in exchange of your time and effort.

To start making decent money at poker (something that can compare to daily joobs) you need to play NL25 (or tournaments with 25 ABI). You NEED 100 buy ins to avoid variance and play it like it's meant to be.

100*25= 2500 $.

I can't see this working. You can get a way more profitable dayjob FOR FREE.

Poker is really a bitch, the more you play it when you are in absolute need of money, the more you stress out and loose (get bluffed etc..). Think carefully about it.

Hi MajeStyle,

Sorry about not replying yesterday. I was busy making and fulfilling sales through multiple sites (our own, ebay and others)

We have enough bankroll for Dinho to play on NL25 cash games and we have enough to cover bills until April (about $7500, need to use this wisely, plus some extra income). We did projections for the business, and repayment of our loans.

  • With our business, we have sold 12 items for this month. If we manage to bump up to 50 to 100 items sold, then we can pay ourselves $1000 and repay minimum loans.
  • By May, with 250 items, we would be able to pay ourselves $3000, still repaying the minimum on the loans.
  • We will have repaid all $18K of business loans by December 2015, selling 600 items per month, snowballing the debt (increased payments) towards the end and still paying ourselves.
We could have the loans repaid faster if we don't take a salary so early, which would mean Dinho7 working in the poker longer, which is what he is going to do. Depending on his earnings, we would be able to repay the loans faster.

I stress about repaying the loans, but I realized this is a mentality that will get us nowhere. I am instead focusing on bumping up the sales and directing traffic to our own site.
 
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Birdie

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I did not mean to say you should break any of their rules. External links are generally a no-no but there are always exceptions. I believe eBay allows a link on your "about me" page. There are no rules against you including a flier for your website when shipping out sales. You are allowed to include your brand name in the listing. Example - Bird Houses by Birdie Inc.
Hi Miked_d,

I have thought about this. We can include our own flyer to our site with a discount code for our sales on ebay/amazon, I'll make one.

I have also thought about paying the $15 a month for an ebay store front, making us look more professional. I'm wondering if this is worth it at all. I think it might be better to just list and focus on alternative sites.
 

Birdie

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I agree with @theag , one of you should get a day job to pay the bills.
when i started my business i worked full time ( single mother of a little one as well ) then start at 3:30 pm to work on my business, at 5:30 go pick up little one, have quality time with him, 8:00 pm work again until 11:00.
I did that for a year....crazy but doable.

I really appreciate your story, Bila. I honestly understand how though it is to be a single mom... I'm just worried about burning myself out on the process. It might seem like I am not doing much, but I am. I slept 3 hours or less for 9 months. The sleep deprivation really got to me... I just don't know how to justify myself without sounding like I am whining, so I am not going to list all the stuff I do as a mother.

Instead, I am just going to say that we carefully considered me putting off school for some time so I can focus on the business or take a job. We decided against this for multiple reasons. I don't care that much about a degree, but I know that I need to finish it already. Putting it off is not going to make matters better. I also have student loans (not a crazy amount), so it is not in my best interest to NOT finish the degree and have to start repaying right now. My school is not expensive, anyway... it's probably the cheapest alternative in my state.

Theag suggested that I take a job and put my child on daycare. I am against this for many reasons. Mainly because the childcare cost alone would suck up 1/3 of my salary, and put more strain on us. It's not gonna help pay down our loans and it will just make both my child and me miserable. I have considered all alternatives. I would also need to quit school, unless I want to work Monday through Saturday and then do school on Sunday only to do it all over again next week. The pure definition of the rat race, and still living with debt.

Actually, Dinho can work legally in the U.S., he would need to apply for an OPT permit asking the school for permission, which he will have to do eventually anyway.
 

Birdie

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I read most of the posts on this thread.

If this is what you really want to do for an income you can surely make it happen. But like many others have mentioned, get a job first(I read the post where you've agreed to it :)). A regular income from a job is a great motivator for a second income. Besides, if you have a job that requires you to be present in the office at 8 am in the morning, you will stop getting up late.

If you don't want to do a regular job in an office, take up an online job. There are plenty of regular jobs available on freelancing sites including project managers, assistants and writers. That will help you with your monthly expenses. Once your fixed expenses are taken care of, you will be be able to focus on your business better.

Here is a suggestion which, although I haven't actually tried it myself, is a method of making money that works well. This has to do with arbritrage between Amazon and eBay. Look for a highly discounted item on Amazon and post an ad on eBay. Though I know people who do it without ordering it for themsleves first(ordering it as a gift instead) it is better if you order it to your address first and then ship it. Never mind the extra 1-2 days- at least your account will be safe as Amazon may not like what you're doing(some customers may not either). If you do this on a regular basis you can take care of your expenses while you work on you main project. I wouldn't consider it for a long-term business but you can earn some quick cash for those expenses.

Hi Sean P,

Dinho actually did freelance work for some time. He got paid more than the average freelancer gets. It just doesn't pay as well as the poker does, unfortunately.

Also, wouldn't it be better to just import from China? I thought that would give better margins than reselling already existing stuff, and it is not really adding any value to the customer. If someone is smart enough to search online for the item, surely they can price compare with other sites? I would think this puts you at a disadvantage if you are not even offering a better price. There is always that person who will pay a premium for it, but then it's just sheer luck and not really bringing any value. I might be wrong about my whole way of thinking, though.
 
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Birdie

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Well, sounds pretty easy to me.

Get a job to pay the bills (if you cant legally work, you and your wife switch roles. she works, you take care of the kid), sleep 2 hours less, dont go to university (both of you, because why should you?? Its useless if you want to be entrepreneur. read some books instead.), let your wife take care of your kid and work on the business every free minute of the day. You can spend time with your family when the business makes enough money so you can quit a job. We are talking about maybe 1 year max of living like this, then you should be able to quit your job if your business doesnt suck.

If you cant make that sacrifice you wont be successful.

Everything else is just excuses.

So, how bad do you want it?

Hi Theag,

I really appreciate your input. Love how direct you are:)

We actually have a though year ahead of us regardless. With the plan we have made, we will probably have very little family time, we will both be stressed out of our minds, and Dinho will have the equivalent of more than a dayjob.

If you know anything about poker, you understand how much of a toll it takes on you. I tried following on Dinho's footsteps, and failed. You need a very cool mind to not let it get to you... it's a very intense and draining 3-4 hours where he has 4 poker tables open at once, and where he is constantly deciding what to do with $100 on each table. The fact that he doesn't let our financial strain affect him whilst making this decisions is amazing. I honestly do not understand how he doesn't tilt, because I know I would. In all honesty, poker is not the easy way out. Dinho will need to study in order to keep being profitable and have the right mindset.

He has set a goal for himself that does not put too much pressure, otherwise he would tilt and start making -EV decisions.

Going back to the poker IS a sacrifice. There is a reason why he quit it in the first place.
 

Sean P

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Hi Sean P,

Also, wouldn't it be better to just import from China?

That is indeed a better way and is also more long term - the method that I briefly described was just for some quick funds to tide over immediate expenses. If you import from China(but why only China?) you need to carry out a detailed analysis of your samples as well as know everything about your supplier. I was just reading Flyleaf's thread and he is right when he says that the best dropshippers my not even realize that they are dropshipping i.e. companies that advertise themselves as dropshippers take huge margins and already know about online ecommerce entrepreneurs and may not be ready to sacrifice their margins for your profits.

But if you do locate manufacturers who have the ability to dispatch items that are ordered and follow the "dropshipping process" for you then you have winners who will help you scale up in the long run, once you have tested out your process and started making profits. I was reading somewhere about 2 dropshippers who make at least 1 trip in a year to China to survey the market and tie up deals for dropshipping products in their niches.
 

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