The Entrepreneur Forum | Financial Freedom | Starting a Business | Motivation | Money | Success

Welcome to the only entrepreneur forum dedicated to building life-changing wealth.

Build a Fastlane business. Earn real financial freedom. Join free.

Join over 80,000 entrepreneurs who have rejected the paradigm of mediocrity and said "NO!" to underpaid jobs, ascetic frugality, and suffocating savings rituals— learn how to build a Fastlane business that pays both freedom and lifestyle affluence.

Free registration at the forum removes this block.

Old man tries to start

A detailed account of a Fastlane process...

Ing

Gold Contributor
FASTLANE INSIDER
Read Rat-Race Escape!
Read Fastlane!
Read Unscripted!
Speedway Pass
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
102%
Jun 8, 2019
1,621
1,651
58
Bavaria
I nearly refused to start an execution thread because of several reasons.
- i m 54 years old now, I have good slowlane job,
-with rising age my endurance with a business working decreases.
-I see my remaining time being endless,
- I have much fun living, working, making sports and I have good friends for drinking beer, too.
-because these reasons I want and will not spend 60 hours working and thats the reason, why I refused to make a such promise to me or others.

since I fell over the FLM and therefor I m here in the forum and I deal much with the idea of entrepreneurship, an idea rised,up again.
About 20 years ago a dream of me started.
There for the first Time I heared about a internet shop, which sells someting he doesn’t have in stock and earns money though.
I made a website, butI didn’t succeed to make it good and earning anything.

The last months I learned much that works and much about what doesn t work.

So here is a dream, a goal I have. And I make purposely small goals, I think.

My goal 3 months ago was to get a website, where I offer something. This target I achieved. I have a website, which offers someting. Without a shop and customers, but I offer something there.

My next target is to get a website with a dropshipping shop with at least 50 different goods I offer. of course anbody else could do that in one month, my target is to have it in summer next year.

I hope I can tell someting positive.
 
Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

BizyDad

Keep going. Keep growing.
FASTLANE INSIDER
EPIC CONTRIBUTOR
Read Fastlane!
Read Unscripted!
Summit Attendee
Speedway Pass
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
416%
Oct 7, 2019
2,885
11,989
Phoenix AZ
Congrats on taking the first step.

We all start somewhere.
 

Chip01

Contributor
Read Fastlane!
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
106%
Aug 4, 2019
81
86
27
Scotland, UK
Don't be too hard on yourself, progress is still progress. It's better than staying in the same spot!

Instead of going for 50 different products on your dropshipping store, you could go big on one product in the meantime and add others as you get sales.

I'm not saying being a general store wouldn't work, because I'm sure it would, but focussing on and building around one product may make things slightly easier for you especially if this is your first online store.

Good luck!
 

Ing

Gold Contributor
FASTLANE INSIDER
Read Rat-Race Escape!
Read Fastlane!
Read Unscripted!
Speedway Pass
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
102%
Jun 8, 2019
1,621
1,651
58
Bavaria
That's great man that you have started. Are you doing your site in Wordpress? Cheers
I m not sure jet. My site is wp.
for my shop I think about shopify. Seems to be easier than wp+woocomerce
 

Lucky Lu

Bronze Contributor
Read Fastlane!
Read Unscripted!
Speedway Pass
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
99%
Nov 2, 2019
247
244
Newport Beach, California
Go for it! Wish you big success brother. Don't listen to a dumb guy on the forum saying BS about the age to start the journey.

You will do great. Have fun and Welcome!
 
Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

LuckyPup

Opportunity + Preparation = Success
FASTLANE INSIDER
Read Rat-Race Escape!
Read Fastlane!
Read Unscripted!
Speedway Pass
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
159%
Aug 2, 2012
530
845
Midwest USA
I nearly refused to start an execution thread because of several reasons.
- i m 54 years old now, I have good slowlane job,
-with rising age my endurance with a business working decreases.
-I see my remaining time being endless,
- I have much fun living, working, making sports and I have good friends for drinking beer, too.
-because these reasons I want and will not spend 60 hours working and thats the reason, why I refused to make a such promise to me or others.

since I fell over the FLM and therefor I m here in the forum and I deal much with the idea of entrepreneurship, an idea rised,up again.
About 20 years ago a dream of me started.
There for the first Time I heared about a internet shop, which sells someting he doesn’t have in stock and earns money though.
I made a website, butI didn’t succeed to make it good and earning anything.

The last months I learned much that works and much about what doesn t work.

So here is a dream, a goal I have. And I make purposely small goals, I think.

My goal 3 months ago was to get a website, where I offer something. This target I achieved. I have a website, which offers someting. Without a shop and customers, but I offer something there.

My next target is to get a website with a dropshipping shop with at least 50 different goods I offer. of course anbody else could do that in one month, my target is to have it in summer next year.

I hope I can tell someting positive.
28917
 

LuckyPup

Opportunity + Preparation = Success
FASTLANE INSIDER
Read Rat-Race Escape!
Read Fastlane!
Read Unscripted!
Speedway Pass
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
159%
Aug 2, 2012
530
845
Midwest USA
I nearly refused to start an execution thread because of several reasons.
- i m 54 years old now, I have good slowlane job,
-with rising age my endurance with a business working decreases.
-I see my remaining time being endless,
- I have much fun living, working, making sports and I have good friends for drinking beer, too.
-because these reasons I want and will not spend 60 hours working and thats the reason, why I refused to make a such promise to me or others.

since I fell over the FLM and therefor I m here in the forum and I deal much with the idea of entrepreneurship, an idea rised,up again.
About 20 years ago a dream of me started.
There for the first Time I heared about a internet shop, which sells someting he doesn’t have in stock and earns money though.
I made a website, butI didn’t succeed to make it good and earning anything.

The last months I learned much that works and much about what doesn t work.

So here is a dream, a goal I have. And I make purposely small goals, I think.

My goal 3 months ago was to get a website, where I offer something. This target I achieved. I have a website, which offers someting. Without a shop and customers, but I offer something there.

My next target is to get a website with a dropshipping shop with at least 50 different goods I offer. of course anbody else could do that in one month, my target is to have it in summer next year.

I hope I can tell someting positive.
Do you really think you're old?
 

ZCP

Legendary Contributor
Staff member
FASTLANE INSIDER
EPIC CONTRIBUTOR
Read Rat-Race Escape!
Read Fastlane!
Read Unscripted!
Summit Attendee
Speedway Pass
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
336%
Oct 22, 2010
3,952
13,267
Woodstock, GA
54? you are just getting started.

considering buying a store already setup. shortcut the learning curve. you can tune and improve the business while learning how it all works AND have cashflow to support it.
 

Vigilante

Legendary Contributor
Staff member
FASTLANE INSIDER
EPIC CONTRIBUTOR
Read Fastlane!
Read Unscripted!
Summit Attendee
Speedway Pass
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
596%
Oct 31, 2011
11,116
66,265
Gulf Coast
My last company, that was built SLOWLY, took 6 years from idea to exit.

I was talking with @biophase a year ago, and he said something to me that stuck with me. I was talking about "retiring" and he pointed out that people live into their 70's - 80's. What would you do for real if you retired?

6 years from now would put you at 60. Hell, you could build 2 companies and still "retire" in your mid 60's, earlier than most.

Old? I'll be old when I am dead. I am currently in the throws of multiple "companies" that are in various stages of germination. My mentor called me Wednesday and told me that a deal I inked this week may very well be the largest deal of my life.

Spend the next DECADE building things, and cash out in your mid 60's with more money than you ever dreamed you would have.
 

BizyDad

Keep going. Keep growing.
FASTLANE INSIDER
EPIC CONTRIBUTOR
Read Fastlane!
Read Unscripted!
Summit Attendee
Speedway Pass
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
416%
Oct 7, 2019
2,885
11,989
Phoenix AZ
My last company, that was built SLOWLY, took 6 years from idea to exit.

I was talking with @biophase a year ago, and he said something to me that stuck with me. I was talking about "retiring" and he pointed out that people live into their 70's - 80's. What would you do for real if you retired?

6 years from now would put you at 60. Hell, you could build 2 companies and still "retire" in your mid 60's, earlier than most.

Old? I'll be old when I am dead. I am currently in the throws of multiple "companies" that are in various stages of germination. My mentor called me Wednesday and told me that a deal I inked this week may very well be the largest deal of my life.

Spend the next DECADE building things, and cash out in your mid 60's with more money than you ever dreamed you would have.

I love this.

Why retire at all? Continue to own the business and just build it as a passive revenue machine.
 

Ing

Gold Contributor
FASTLANE INSIDER
Read Rat-Race Escape!
Read Fastlane!
Read Unscripted!
Speedway Pass
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
102%
Jun 8, 2019
1,621
1,651
58
Bavaria
The plan now is, to create a shop with shopify.
As I want to have products to test the thing, I put some good via Oberlo into the shop.
Thats where am am now.
One big thing I have to do is the legally parts of the page.
in German thats
-Impressum
-Datenschutzerklärung
-Widerrufsbelehrung
-Verpackungsgesetz

the last one came this year and says you need a license for the packing trash disposal.

A question:
does someone know, if I dropship from China to USA or Canada, do I have to pay attention for anything(taxes(goods cheap, max 100 USD), VAT(seems not to have to be payed)?
Its told here to be that easy: only do it! But I m not sure.
 
Last edited:

MitchM

Act. Then Adapt.
Read Fastlane!
Read Unscripted!
Speedway Pass
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
228%
Nov 15, 2016
490
1,116
28
Atlanta, GA
Do you have a little bit of cash to play with?

Honestly, dropshipping is cool, but I really think people make life too hard on themselves by not just creating a product that is differentiated and solves a problem.

The upfront creative work is worth it. Because I did that, I make a good living while having to do almost nothing... if I were doing things the way you plan, I would constantly be brand building and competing on price.

Of course, I believe that brand is very important, but having a good product market fit is absolutely the best way to start out on a strong foot and make everything much easier for yourself.

In your position, I would look at what your advantages are.

You’re starting an e-commerce businesses at a later age than most. That’s a good thing. There are so many possibilities for great products targeted at an older audience.

From anti-aging supplements (mainly thinking of NMN) to products that leverage nostalgia... there’s an abundance of things you can do.

Don’t be afraid to think a little bit bigger. We’re talking about the difference between investing a couple of hundred to get started up and a couple of thousand + more creative work upfront to create a business that yields enduring returns.
 
Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

Ing

Gold Contributor
FASTLANE INSIDER
Read Rat-Race Escape!
Read Fastlane!
Read Unscripted!
Speedway Pass
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
102%
Jun 8, 2019
1,621
1,651
58
Bavaria
Do you have a little bit of cash to play with?

Honestly, dropshipping is cool, but I really think people make life too hard on themselves by not just creating a product that is differentiated and solves a problem.

The upfront creative work is worth it. Because I did that, I make a good living while having to do almost nothing... if I were doing things the way you plan, I would constantly be brand building and competing on price.

Of course, I believe that brand is very important, but having a good product market fit is absolutely the best way to start out on a strong foot and make everything much easier for yourself.

In your position, I would look at what your advantages are.

You’re starting an e-commerce businesses at a later age than most. That’s a good thing. There are so many possibilities for great products targeted at an older audience.

From anti-aging supplements (mainly thinking of NMN) to products that leverage nostalgia... there’s an abundance of things you can do.

Don’t be afraid to think a little bit bigger. We’re talking about the difference between investing a couple of hundred to get started up and a couple of thousand + more creative work upfront to create a business that yields enduring returns.
Mitch, thanks. I just read your about 5 times. I m not sure whether I really understood all the hints you gave me.

dropshipping maybe not the best idea, but its a way to get some goods in my store to test the processes of distribution.
for me thats a big issue now. To work through the building of a shop with all its issues. With all the legally problems.

when Ive been through that, I really plan inthe direction you touched. Next thought: will these elder people look for solutions via internet?
 

Champion

Silver Contributor
Read Fastlane!
Read Unscripted!
Speedway Pass
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
103%
Apr 12, 2019
682
701
Hamburg, Germany
Hey, great to see ur taking action!

I want to say however: beware that treating your business as a hobby means that you cant really expect it to pay anything more than a hobby.

If you really want to make some dough, its important to get behind it in terms of effort. If Energy/Time is the issue, you can always use the money you have available from your job.

You are a bit older, so im sure you have a good financial situation!

Best
Champion
 

BellaPippin

B is for Beast
Read Rat-Race Escape!
Read Fastlane!
Read Unscripted!
Summit Attendee
Speedway Pass
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
275%
Jul 16, 2015
1,430
3,928
34
Chicago, IL
will these elder people look for solutions via internet?

It depends and you raise a good point, make sure you appear where your audience goes. Here in the US, maybe. Down in Buenos Aires my mom JUST RECENTLY started dipping her feet in online purchases and she's 59. Part of it is her reluctance, part of it is that the infrastructure and system isn't 1/3 of States. You guys might laugh but our postal office is light years away from USPS.

I'd take a look around me to see what my audience does, it's part of the research I'd say.

AND. Hey. Do it anyway. Time is gonna pass no matter what. Don't have the regret of not trying.
 
Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

Ing

Gold Contributor
FASTLANE INSIDER
Read Rat-Race Escape!
Read Fastlane!
Read Unscripted!
Speedway Pass
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
102%
Jun 8, 2019
1,621
1,651
58
Bavaria
Update. Sat on pc for many hours the last few days.
Just a bit frustrated.
I built a test shop with shopify and one with wordpress/woocommerce.
In my opinion, None is better.

And wow, wellcome to Germany.
No one exactly knows, if Facebook pixle is allowed.
Adsense? No one knows exactly.. even if IP is anonymized.
Going through setup of the shop, no one knows, if anyting of that shit is allowed in Germany.


Well, learning by doing is wonderful, but Germany is the only country in the world, where first of all I pay perhaps 5 figures, if I make a mistake.

Dont know, if its worth here.

No doubt, i ll go on, but being law the main thing of the whole shop is upchuck.

Making a facebook ad is fun. As far as law is not concerned.

A word to people in US and anywhere else: if you want a business and dont do it, own foult. Its easy where you live. Or I m meanwhile paranoide!
 
Last edited:

BizyDad

Keep going. Keep growing.
FASTLANE INSIDER
EPIC CONTRIBUTOR
Read Fastlane!
Read Unscripted!
Summit Attendee
Speedway Pass
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
416%
Oct 7, 2019
2,885
11,989
Phoenix AZ
Update. Sat on pc for many hours the last few days.
Just a bit frustrated.
I built a test shop with shopify and one with wordpress/woocommerce.
In my opinion, None is better.

And wow, wellcome to Germany.
No one exactly knows, if Facebook pixle is allowed.
Adsense? No one knows exactly.. even if IP is anonymized.
Going through setup of the shop, no one knows, if anyting of that shit is allowed in Germany.


Well, learning by doing is wonderful, but Germany is the only country in the world, where first of all I pay perhaps 5 figures, if I make a mistake.

Dont know, if its worth here.

No doubt, i ll go on, but being law the main thing of the whole shop is upchuck.

Making a facebook ad is fun. As far as law is not concerned.

A word to people in US and anywhere else: if you want a business and dont do it, own foult. Its easy where you live. Or I m meanwhile paranoide!

We have our own challenges here in the States.

No matter where you are, the most important thing is to overcome those challenges. Good job there.
 

Ing

Gold Contributor
FASTLANE INSIDER
Read Rat-Race Escape!
Read Fastlane!
Read Unscripted!
Speedway Pass
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
102%
Jun 8, 2019
1,621
1,651
58
Bavaria
We have our own challenges here in the States.

No matter where you are, the most important thing is to overcome those challenges. Good job there.
Thanks for the motivation!
 
Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

MichaelCash

Contributor
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
34%
Apr 7, 2013
109
37
48
New York
Congrats! People can start business in any age. The older you are the more experience you have. Here is my strategy. I personally like looking at some of my pets project as not very important till some moment. I am running a bunch of them in parallel without dedicating significant resources (time and monney). If one of them works then I switch my attention and deploy more resources to it.
 

ruzara5

Bronze Contributor
Read Fastlane!
Read Unscripted!
Speedway Pass
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
104%
May 1, 2011
185
192
Currently in Washington State
I nearly refused to start an execution thread because of several reasons.
- i m 54 years old now, I have good slowlane job,
-with rising age my endurance with a business working decreases.
-I see my remaining time being endless,
- I have much fun living, working, making sports and I have good friends for drinking beer, too.
-because these reasons I want and will not spend 60 hours working and thats the reason, why I refused to make a such promise to me or others.

since I fell over the FLM and therefor I m here in the forum and I deal much with the idea of entrepreneurship, an idea rised,up again.
About 20 years ago a dream of me started.
There for the first Time I heared about a internet shop, which sells someting he doesn’t have in stock and earns money though.
I made a website, butI didn’t succeed to make it good and earning anything.

The last months I learned much that works and much about what doesn t work.

So here is a dream, a goal I have. And I make purposely small goals, I think.

My goal 3 months ago was to get a website, where I offer something. This target I achieved. I have a website, which offers someting. Without a shop and customers, but I offer something there.

My next target is to get a website with a dropshipping shop with at least 50 different goods I offer. of course anbody else could do that in one month, my target is to have it in summer next year.

I hope I can tell someting positive.
Right on. Take action.
 

minivanman

Platinum Contributor
Speedway Pass
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
265%
Mar 16, 2017
1,722
4,562
54
DFW
Old man? Dang, I'm 54 but I'm glad I'm not an old man. I do have my moments but over-all, I usually feel 34. I never exercise, eat what I want, when I want... I might fall over dead before I hit send but so far I've had a heck of a life doing what I want. Don't let that age stop you from doing things... it's just a number. We might have 40+ good years to go. My mother-in-law turned 92 last Saturday.
 
Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

Ing

Gold Contributor
FASTLANE INSIDER
Read Rat-Race Escape!
Read Fastlane!
Read Unscripted!
Speedway Pass
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
102%
Jun 8, 2019
1,621
1,651
58
Bavaria
Today I dared to set my shop online.

I m curious, what happens.

All my attempts to connect the shopify shop with fb failled And I I didn’t anything jet to optimate seo.
I m not sure, that I really want to deal with all these callow shit. Im too impatient.






edit:

The act of putting the shop online was not satisfying at all. Because its only a 5 pieces shop in a niche I didn t want to handle.
With only coppied pictures andt text.

I try to learn how to handle a shop with ordering and advertisement.


When I had a good idea for a product, I would source that out and care about the product itself. Ingeneering stuff is something I m good in.
I think, that would be much more satisfying and had much more reward.

This should be an execution thread.

So, if I m too detailed telling about my acts and fears and attempts, then tell me!
I don t want to bore someone.
 
Last edited:

Ing

Gold Contributor
FASTLANE INSIDER
Read Rat-Race Escape!
Read Fastlane!
Read Unscripted!
Speedway Pass
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
102%
Jun 8, 2019
1,621
1,651
58
Bavaria
Some days gone and I thought about all my actions, that I have taken.

I built a shop. Seen from now, an easy thing. Although it wasn t everything easy and I had a lot of dead ends, all in all it was easy.
So easy, that sure im in an ocean of competitors.

But! My goal was:
“My next target is to get a website with a dropshipping shop with at least 50 different goods I offer. of course anbody else could do that in one month, my target is to have it in summer next year.“

I have a shop now with 5 goods, anything else doesn t matter for now. Not 50 goods, but 5. adding 45 wouldn’t change anything.

now I could compet with the others dropping the price, rising the ads. I ve done a little homework about margins and so.

Now, while my shop is waiting for real good goods, Im looking for new hurdles. For new steps or chances to climb on.

I was thinking about constructing and building something.
For example an e scooter ( too late I think) or a dirtbike.
Or anything like that, which gives my skills as an engineer (mechanical) more chances than building an online presence.


PS: Aliexpress is fine for some pimp parts for a dirtbike or a cheep goods under the tax limit for privat use! ;)
 
Last edited:

GonnaBe2020

New Contributor
Read Fastlane!
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
113%
Dec 4, 2019
15
17
So, if I m too detailed telling about my acts and fears and attempts, then tell me!
I don t want to bore someone.
Not at all, keep it coming ! I'm 52 and like you don't want to keep on working for others, paying with my time, when I could work for myself, fastlane style. TMF was a trigger to start being proactive about doing something, for now I'm reading a lot of threads here and trying to come up with ideas/needs that I could address. You've already started, which it's certainly bigger than it feels. Keep going and keep posting !
 
Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

Ing

Gold Contributor
FASTLANE INSIDER
Read Rat-Race Escape!
Read Fastlane!
Read Unscripted!
Speedway Pass
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
102%
Jun 8, 2019
1,621
1,651
58
Bavaria
Wenn I was working in my garden last week , I re recogniced an issue, I wanted to be solved already 5 years ago. And I hat a idea for solution than, but didn t finish construating.
I googled, if there would be a solution, but didn t find one satisfying.
Now I think about trying to get a patent and fabricating it.
But I don t know, wheather someone would buy it. one friend I asked said bs, another one didnt understand/savvy the machine.

The same was in 1988: I thought about how marvelous it would be, if the car`s
travel direction indicator would make 3 or times signal with only a short actuating.
I thought it to be nonsense there.
Oh, imagine. I could only have some pence for every car having that now.
 

Ing

Gold Contributor
FASTLANE INSIDER
Read Rat-Race Escape!
Read Fastlane!
Read Unscripted!
Speedway Pass
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
102%
Jun 8, 2019
1,621
1,651
58
Bavaria
Its funny to jump around with ideas on the finding of the entrepreneur mindset, but I hope, my way is not only action faking.

After all, I imported some privat bike parts from China and have some requests running.
Other parts for realisation of an invention, I can hardly get. But I m working on that.
When it works, I ll have to think about the distribution. HP,Amazon, ebay.? Ebay is strong in Germany.

I wrote the first version of the first chapter of my first book and its terrible. And Im afraid, the index will be 18 years or so. And though nobody will read it. lol

I m in here too often, but its so interesting.
 

Post New Topic

Please SEARCH before posting.
Please select the BEST category.

Post new topic

Guest post submissions offered HERE.

Latest Posts

New Topics

Fastlane Insiders

View the forum AD FREE.
Private, unindexed content
Detailed process/execution threads
Ideas needing execution, more!

Join Fastlane Insiders.

Top