I checked out milliondollarwiki.com. Seems worth a closer look. Thanks for posting
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Free registration at the forum removes this block.My biggest issue isn't the time or commitment or knowledge. I am hitting wall after wall as far as finding a niche to break into or a product that will sell. Are there any threads or subjects or anything on this issue?
I have the SEO knowledge. I have the e-commerce knowledge. I am always learning and thirsting for more knowledge. I just need a solid product and/or niche and to go for it.
SEO...hahaha
OK, Here's a fun exercise inspired by one of our fastlane members:
1. You have $3,000
2. You want to have $1,000,000 in 15 months
****
Limits:
-You cannot borrow money from any banks or other lending institutions
-You are 17, so you're not eligible for most other loans, RE, etc.
-You have to go to school from 8 am to 3 pm M-F
-You have no particular skills that would be considered mega-valuable
****
That's it.
Outline a PLAN for the next 15 months.
Your goal: Fifteen months from now, you have $1,000,000 in your bank account (and it's all yours, not OPM)
****
Ready? Go!
-Russ H.
What you are asking to DO it very very improbable. You have to have something great, be able to manage it, work your a$$ off, and sacrifice other thing in your life. And do that at 17. Very tough challenge. The first million is the hardest.
I am not being negative, just being a realist. Go for it but don't disappoint yourself.
Better off to do 250k in 15 months at 17. And build from there.
Good luck
This would have to be done quickly before larger companies could compete.
If your net was $7.00 per, you would only have to sell approx. 143,000
If your market accepted it coming out of the gate, I think it could be done.
How I'd do it...
1. Tape success principles to my wall and never deviate when the times get rough.
2. Research. I would look at businesses for sale on bizquest.com, bizbuysell.com, sites for sale on sitepoint.com etc. for the sole purpose of sparking ideas and seeing actual revenue. Most websites don't make money. Don't buy into the garbage for sale.
I would also look at the entrepreneur top 500 co's, Inc. most growth co's to spark ideas and see what co's and trends are making money. All the while I'd open up my antenna's for opp's and problems people would pay to have solved.
3. I would compare all these ideas to my strength's and see what's out of my reach - i.e. too much tech, to hone in on a few serious opps.
4. More research into the market. After finding a good idea that fits my mold as best possible I'd go to the library and research the market for this business idea. Study the problems, what they complain about, trade journals, etc.
(I'm fortunate to live in a big Metro and our county library was ranked #1 in the country and linked up to all colleges in the state. Their research databases are top-notch.)
5. After finding that there is a market who is reachable, willing to pay for this service, and having an angle that will give you leverage (niche, better service, faster delivery, etc.) then give it a go.
6. Product or service? I'd do service. Products can take too long to develop and cannot be adjusted as easily or at all as you go. Forget creativity in the product or service sense. Be creative with the delivery. I would be willing to license product rights but that might cost $$ and all the money should be funneled into marketing.
Also, be sure you can get repeat customers. Unless very high ticket, it's easier to get to the $1 mil mark when people are consuming every month. Creating new customers can cost alot ot time and money - better to resell current clients.
7. Study your competitors marketing methods. Use google adwords and design a website but don't spend months or thousands of dollars in this design. Hire a friend who can do this. Don't do this yourself unless you can complete FAST and cheap! Most websites are not the business themselves, but a marketing arm of the biz. Adwords and PPC speeds up the process of startup incredibly - that's why I'd do this first.
Keep your testing small and build on that. Could you run an ad in WSJ? Yes, but that costs serious money and may not be targeted. Forget mass marketing - that's for those with deeper pockets. Stick with small targetable, mediums and create calls for action via direct response. Use your profits to reinvest in more marketing.
8. After getting starting via small potato ad's on the web I'd start calling potential customers from a highly pre-qualified list, and to setup JV's. What I mean by JV's is setting up offers other businesses will send to their customers with their endorsement. Getting this may be tough but is much faster and profitable than any ad. Give the businesses a reason to do it like money in the form of % of sales revenue . Remember you only have 1 year and you must leverage the relationships of others.
Use press releases for PR and offer something of value to listeners - like a free trial for a week / one time use, etc.
I don't expect a newbie in marketing to jump in and tear it up unless they, at a minimum, learn a little bit. I'd be studying marketing, sales, and PR from a few very specific sources while in the research phase assuming I have no experience. I'd ask pros what they read. Most is just rehashed so go right to the top producers.
KEY POINTS:
-Don't be a pioneer trying to create a market. Create a better system of delivery or find an overlooked area to serve. Creating market's is possible but can be time consuming and expensive - we don't have this in 15 months.
-Don't be creative with the product or service but the delivery. Again too much time and untested.
-Direct response ad's on a very small basis. No branding.
-Leverage is key. You need to leverage your experience with the resources of others. -Much faster and more potential for than doing it alone.
-Focus on marketing and promotion and have other people or systems do the work for you.
-Research shouldn't take more than 1 month.
I think I just created my how-to for the next 15 months :banana:
Michael
Nice bump. Never even seen this thread before.
I'm only on the first page and this excellent post jumps out:
Great bump!I've been digging the forums, I had bump the GOLD! loads of it in this thread!
Of course it's possible. It's actually pretty easy to go from $3000 to $1,000,000 in 15 months. You don't actually have to earn a million. All you have to do is start a business that make a $25,000/month profit and then sell it after 15 months, and you should have a million.
Of course you need to start making $25K/month very quickly, but it shoudn't take more than a couple of months to get to that point.
Just throwing out an idea:hmm...
$3,000 is quite a good starting investment into lottery tickets. Spend a couple hundred on psychics and then the rest playing the magic numbers. It's a can't lose proposition, really!
All kidding aside, this has been a really cool thread to read. It sparks so much imagination and creativity of what is possible. I'll let my imagination rest, however, as my goal at the moment is simply to create small recurring revenue.
Limits:
-You cannot borrow money from any banks or other lending institutions
-You are 17, so you're not eligible for most other loans, RE, etc.
-You have to go to school from 8 am to 3 pm M-F
-You have no particular skills that would be considered mega-valuable
Just throwing out an idea:
Production cost per ticket: $0.01
Take $2000, print 200,000 tickets.
Spend the other $1000 on advertising
Sell tickets to kiosks for $2 each, they resell them for $5
Potential profit in first month: $400,000; minus the 10-20% you let your customers win
(the winners will be happy and spread the word)
Rinse & repeat, scale.
The longer you are in, the more you let people win.
This is of course oversimplyfied it'll not be that easy to do in reality, but difficult entry is a good thing
Yeah, same here...but I can imagine that the responsible institution lets you enter if you cameprivate for profit lotteries/raffles are illegal - at least in the USA
Great thoughts Andy. would that be $2500, $250, $25 revenue or profitMaybe 1,000 businesses paying $25/mth ?
Maybe 100 businesses paying $250/mth ?
Maybe 10 businesses paying $2,500/mth ?
Profit. It would have to be profit.Great thoughts Andy. would that be $2500, $250, $25 revenue or profit
Profit. It would have to be profit.
Guys, new challenge for you.
You have until the end of the year (so 2.5 month) to go from 10k to 100k. Your expenses are paid so you can play with all 10k.
You can't do anything illegal, but can do "grey" things (for example gambling at the illegal casino).
Again, no borrowing, no OPM.
I thought about it for a few days, herr's what I would do.
You need either insane scale or high magnitude. Scale is harder to do in a short time, so I will start with magnitude. Real estate? Probably not in 2.5 months. Same with cars, even if you're good at flipping, with just 10k and 2.5 months not gonna happen. What else is expensive AND liquid? Precious stones. So here's what I would do:
1. Read everything I can on emeralds. Pay a jeweller to learn even more. Become an expert in a few weeks or so of intense research.
Buy a plane ticket to Bogota, Colombia and buy a high quality emerald there for 5-7k.
Bring it to a country where emerald prices are highest, say it's Japan or Switzerland. Sell it there for a profir of 3-4K. Repeat until you reach 100k.
Is it guaranteed success? Probably not. But given extremely limited time it's probably your best shot.
How would you approach this?
I actually never watched gem hunt.
Problem with flipping cars, how muxh can you make with 10k initial? Say you're VERY lucky, you buy a car and it sells the next 2 days, netting you 1k. Not enough time.
Plus, cars are not liquid enough. There may be no deals today, or if there are, the guy is too busy to show it to you today. Supply is limited.
With emeralds or other stones you first purchase is 7k, your next purchase is 10k next one is 15 k, 22, 30, 40....
Again, I'm not saying it will work for sure, but I think you have more chances than with cars to actually hit 100k at some before new years.
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