Personal Challenge: 1 Month To Impossible Success

[Aaron T]

What Is Challenge
I am new here, but I am am not new to investing, entrepreneurship and doing hard things. I love a good challenge. I love impossible challenges. So I am giving myself Until Oct. 28th to hit $120,000 with a new business. I am not sure what it is, but I have a few really good ideas. I probably won't hit the goal, but I am going for it.

Why Am I Doing It?
Because I can. Well because I want to but also because there is a reason to do it. Being the Entrepreneur I am I have had a few successes. As a result of one success I end up with pretty crazy tax bills. After the sell of one of my investments last year I incurred some tax liabilities. No worries I paid them easily. But then oops.. looks like the accountant made a mistake. No problem says the IRS just pay the $85,000 by Oct. 28th and there will be no penalties. These things happen. Nice guys right?

I am not worries. I can pay the bill, but I thought instead of wasting my current money I should earn the money to pay the bill off and the additional tax that the income required to pay the bill off would incur.

No, this is not your typical progress thread. I am already Unscripted by my standards. I am doing this because I can. Why not? More to the point, I am encouraged by all that people on this forum do. So I want to have a little fun myself. Plus this is a pressing need of mine. I hate giving the IRS anything more than I can. Fair is fair though so let's do this right.

How

• Must be a legal and ethical business
• Probably will use my current knowledge so it will be an online business using a digital product
  • Will try to avoid just doing a big software contract as it feels like a cop out
• I want to start it with as little outlay as possible as I feel it reflects what people are capable of doing so let's say less than $1000 initial capital
  • I can absolutely invest what it earns back into itself to accelerate and I do reserve the right to throw more money at it if I think it is going to work
  • I am trying to avoid the concept of throw 200k at the problem to make 85k as that doesn't seem fair
• I will share as much of the business and provide proof as I can without using this forum as a means to gain business
• Update should be frequent since this is a short time period, but the learning for me, and maybe others will be long term

Final Thoughts
This is putting myself out there in a way I never have done publicly. It might even make me an action faker versus taker if I let friction stop me from moving forward. I can afford the bill and I don't need to do this so the NEED might not be enough to overcome my general Unscripted lifestyle.

I do think this will motivate me to push to do something mostly because I really enjoy creating business concepts, and seeing them work. I might as well do one that could benefit others if it works or even if it fails. There will be learning regardless.

I am hoping to have my initial concept defined by the end of this week giving me a solid month to execute. Knowing me though, I will have it done sooner. Some blockers are that I will be out and traveling this whole week. Is than an excuse? Nope.

My goal is to show that if you have knowledge, will power, intestinal fortitude, then you can do this and do it in a short time. I will have a follow up post with my idea as soon as possible.

TL DR
Aaron is stupid and wants to do the impossible publicly because he is a bored old fart. Follow his general stupidity here and let's have a good laugh.

 

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[Almantas]

I traveled to the future and back. Unfortunately, the only thing that I clearly remember is you hitting your goal and this thread turning into Gold.

 

[Aaron T]

I traveled to the future and back. Unfortunately, the only thing that I clearly remember is you hitting your goal and this thread turning into Gold.

Thank you for your faith! it's gonna be hard and I am not looking for a gold thread unless there is value here to be had.

I just want to see if I can do another impossible thing before Halloween. I have a big Halloween bash to go to that is scary enough without the IRS trying to frighten me a bit more.

To be honest, my biggest challenge here will be to stay on top and motivated and not fall back to current funds to pay the bill. I can do that. I can afford it easy. But, where is the fun in that?

 

[Almantas]

Thank you for your faith! it's gonna be hard and I am not looking for a gold thread unless there is value here to be had.

I just want to see if I can do another impossible thing before Halloween. I have a big Halloween bash to go to that is scary enough without the IRS trying to frighten me a bit more.

To be honest, my biggest challenge here will be to stay on top and motivated and not fall back to current funds to pay the bill. I can do that. I can afford it easy. But, where is the fun in that?

I love the way you try to challenge yourself. That's why this thread is going to get a Gold status for sure! I have all my fingers crossed for you and am doing a similar challenge myself, just on a much financially smaller scale - mine is more emotionally related at this stage until I pick myself up properly. Best of luck with your progress and PM if I can be of any help!

 

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[Aaron T]

I love the way you try to challenge yourself. That's why this thread is going to get a Gold status for sure! I have all my fingers crossed for you and am doing a similar challenge myself, just on a much financially smaller scale - mine is more emotionally related at this stage until I pick myself up properly. Best of luck with your progress and PM if I can be of any help!

Thank you. I love a good challenge!

Likewise let me know if I can help you with yours.

I am just trying to figure out the best thing to move forward with. I am not sure what to do yet, but it will consume me until I do.

 

[Symphony]

What Is Challenge
I am new here, but I am am not new to investing, entrepreneurship and doing hard things. I love a good challenge. I love impossible challenges. So I am giving myself Until Oct. 28th to hit $120,000 with a new business. I am not sure what it is, but I have a few really good ideas. I probably won't hit the goal, but I am going for it.

Why Am I Doing It?
Because I can. Well because I want to but also because there is a reason to do it. Being the Entrepreneur I am I have had a few successes. As a result of one success I end up with pretty crazy tax bills. After the sell of one of my investments last year I incurred some tax liabilities. No worries I paid them easily. But then oops.. looks like the accountant made a mistake. No problem says the IRS just pay the $85,000 by Oct. 28th and there will be no penalties. These things happen. Nice guys right?

I am not worries. I can pay the bill, but I thought instead of wasting my current money I should earn the money to pay the bill off and the additional tax that the income required to pay the bill off would incur.

No, this is not your typical progress thread. I am already Unscripted by my standards. I am doing this because I can. Why not? More to the point, I am encouraged by all that people on this forum do. So I want to have a little fun myself. Plus this is a pressing need of mine. I hate giving the IRS anything more than I can. Fair is fair though so let's do this right.

How

• Must be a legal and ethical business
• Probably will use my current knowledge so it will be an online business using a digital product
  • Will try to avoid just doing a big software contract as it feels like a cop out
• I want to start it with as little outlay as possible as I feel it reflects what people are capable of doing so let's say less than $1000 initial capital
  • I can absolutely invest what it earns back into itself to accelerate and I do reserve the right to throw more money at it if I think it is going to work
  • I am trying to avoid the concept of throw 200k at the problem to make 85k as that doesn't seem fair
• I will share as much of the business and provide proof as I can without using this forum as a means to gain business
• Update should be frequent since this is a short time period, but the learning for me, and maybe others will be long term

Final Thoughts
This is putting myself out there in a way I never have done publicly. It might even make me an action faker versus taker if I let friction stop me from moving forward. I can afford the bill and I don't need to do this so the NEED might not be enough to overcome my general Unscripted lifestyle.

I do think this will motivate me to push to do something mostly because I really enjoy creating business concepts, and seeing them work. I might as well do one that could benefit others if it works or even if it fails. There will be learning regardless.

I am hoping to have my initial concept defined by the end of this week giving me a solid month to execute. Knowing me though, I will have it done sooner. Some blockers are that I will be out and traveling this whole week. Is than an excuse? Nope.

My goal is to show that if you have knowledge, will power, intestinal fortitude, then you can do this and do it in a short time. I will have a follow up post with my idea as soon as possible.

TL DR
Aaron is stupid and wants to do the impossible publicly because he is a bored old fart. Follow his general stupidity here and let's have a good laugh.

I'll definitely be following this thread closely. I've been fascinated by a number of threads and it has reaffirmed in my mind that abundance literally is a mindset. Or... it's both a mindset and a skillset.

I'm excited to see you hit your goals!

 

[Philip Marlowe]

I plan on transferring all of my rep to @amp0193 when his money is in the bank, but whatever I have built from then will go to you on 10/28 when you crush this!

Definitely watching this thread.

Question - are you leveraging an existing network or relationships for this (i.e., is this something analogous to what you've done in the past and know some folks will be interested in from the start?)?

 

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[Aaron T]

I plan on transferring all of my rep to @amp0193 when his money is in the bank, but whatever I have built from then will go to you on 10/28 when you crush this!

Definitely watching this thread.

Question - are you leveraging an existing network or relationships for this (i.e., is this something analogous to what you've done in the past and know some folks will be interested in from the start?)?

Thank you Philip! I am certainly not doing this for rep. More doing this cause I am angry at the IRS.

That is an excellent question. I think I should leverage my knowledge, but I think it is more challenging if I don't use my current lists or network and therefore I have to start one fresh. That would make this a hell of a lot harder, but also a hell of a lot more interesting and maybe valuable.

OK, I think I will leverage knowledge to build the network, but not use my current Aweber mailing lists or current FB network. This will be fresh. That seems fair.

 

[BD64]

Gonna be watching this thread closely. I'm brand new to the entrepreneurial world and just started on my own ventures. Really curious and looking forward to seeing how someone with more experience and some wins under his belt goes about this. Also kudos to you for doing something like this simply out of boredom, wish I could say the same aha, anyway goodluck!

 

[CareCPA]

I'm also going to watch closely.
I'm always interested to see how other people walk through the process. Plus this is an ambitious goal if you aren't using current mailing lists.

 

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[Aaron T]

I'm also going to watch closely.
I'm always interested to see how other people walk through the process. Plus this is an ambitious goal if you aren't using current mailing lists.

I know. I feel stupid for that one, but ambitious is a good thing. What is the worst that can happen?

I will leverage my knowledge, and maybe my network of professionals and friends. I decided after it was raised to not hit any of my current or even old lists because I think it would provide less value as a case study for anyone that might want to do something like this from the start. I think there are a lot of people that would like to see if such a thing is possible, including myself. I am just crazy enough to attempt it.

 

[Aaron T]

Update 1:
I just came back from a long walk/jog down from the house.. along the beach to some caves, watched whales, saw sunset, got some pics.. walked back up.

The whole time on my mind is what will I do. I came up with an idea. This is the business in a nutshell.

• I will provide an info product on a topic I know well
• Create a small entry-level freebie
• Create a longer much more useful and detailed product for 29.99
• Perhaps make an online training sight to go along with with video training for additional or maybe included price
  • Kudos to @AndrewNC for advice in another thread that might really help me here
• I will need a landing page to entice and accept emails to build my list for upselling
• Use the freebie to hopefully provide actual value and get the email
• Use one of the very things I will be teaching in this Info course as the means to get traffic
  • Self serving test of the same said idea
  • Plus if I was starting from scratch this is what I would do hence this is starting from scratch
  • Also I know how to do this well

I still need to create the product. I will give myself this week to create the initial product, get the website, get the landing page setup. I am traveling and speaking but this should be no reason to not find a moment or two and get this done.

I will try to detail as much as possible during the process.

I still need to figure out the following:

• If i want to spend as little as possible to get this thing going so as to provide a template for people to do the same should I immediately get an LLC? It would be cheating to use one I already have.
• I have no idea how to take payment for this
• Perhaps a new bank account should be created for this before accepting payment
• Do I leverage other marketing services like JVZoo? Go at it alone?
• Am I nuts? Maybe.

Stay tuned. Ideas are forming. I am terrible at writing, but I will try to provide the details for what I am doing while keeping specifics of the product and all out of the forum. My goal is to NOT use this forum as a market so I need to be careful still. I will entertain questions, criticism, insults, idea. I am doing this so others can learn from my folly or, fingers crossed, success.

 

[CareCPA]

...

• If i want to spend as little as possible to get this thing going so as to provide a template for people to do the same should I immediately get an LLC? It would be cheating to use one I already have.
• I have no idea how to take payment for this
• Perhaps a new bank account should be created for this before accepting payment

...

How long-term is this? If it's just a short-term project, with no other complications or liability issues, I probably wouldn't bother with the entity or separate account. Unless you think that you're going to make enough for the S Corp conversion to be worth it?

The problem (as you probably know), is that everything with the government takes time. By the time you register with a state and the IRS, how much of the month timeline you're giving yourself will you have wasted?

 

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[Aaron T]

How long-term is this? If it's just a short-term project, with no other complications or liability issues, I probably wouldn't bother with the entity or separate account. Unless you think that you're going to make enough for the S Corp conversion to be worth it?

The problem (as you probably know), is that everything with the government takes time. By the time you register with a state and the IRS, how much of the month timeline you're giving yourself will you have wasted?

That is very much my worry. I don't have the time to waste. It is a conundrum. However if I hit my goal, financially it would make sense for it to be in the right kind of entity. Of course, I can convert and put in the entity if it is a success after the fact, the tax penalty would be minimal.

I am baking in about 40% for taxes right up front which is wasteful if planned right. For a challenge like this, it might be worth it. Setting up the entities however might cost me more than I was budgeting to get started and even if not, it most certainly costs me enormously in time.

 

[cat]

This may be a silly question or response, but would a Legal Zoom LLC provide a quick and minimal cost start?


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

 

[Aaron T]

This may be a silly question or response, but would a Legal Zoom LLC provide a quick and minimal cost start?


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

I have never used them, but I assume some of it would be set up pretty quickly but there would still be a turn around as they file with whatever state body I would choose. However I honestly don't really know.

 

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[rogue synthetic]

I'll be watching this thread closely. Great to see the energy here!

 

[lowtek]

Rooting for ya Best of luck

 

[Aaron T]

Official Update 2:

As I am creating the product I need to find a good Landing page theme for Wordpress (heard good things about Thrivethemes I believe it was called) or I might go with a service. I have not decided. If anyone has opinions share them please.

Also, I have done some affiliate marketing in the past and I might consider opening this up to affiliates. I would not reach out personally to past affiliate markets I know so as to not violate the terms of the challenge.

BTW I want to share something important here. I can afford this challenge therefore this is a stupid as hell to not use every resource one has to succeed. If you are starting a business of any sort, don't do this aspect of what I am proposing. This is merely for informational reasons to see if one can get a decent income quickly using this technique I am proposing.

Second, most info marketing is pure crap and borderline scam IMHO. So this makes me a bit of a hypocrite in my mind. The only way I am going to justify this is by doing my damned best to provide real value and do everything I can to NOT rip off a single person. If ANYONE is unhappy with what I deliver at ANY time I will immediately refund. Otherwise I can't justify this. I WILL NOT RIP OFF ANYONE TO MEET THIS RIDICULOUSLY HARD GOAL.

That said, I feel greasy even doing a campaign like this, but I actually think it might be of value to the right people. Since to some degree I will be using some of the very same said techniques I will know how valuable it might be.

Stay tuned. There will be slower updates. I just felt I needed to say this bit.

 

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[Aaron T]

Rooting for ya Best of luck

Gonna be honest. I will either look a fool, or be lucky. My real goal is education. to that end this will be worth it for me, and hopefully for others.

Thank you for the well wishes friend.

 

[mo3]

Wow Aaron! Big challenge. Best of luck and I am definitely following!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Deleted50669]

Official Update 2:

As I am creating the product I need to find a good Landing page theme for Wordpress (heard good things about Thrivethemes I believe it was called) or I might go with a service. I have not decided. If anyone has opinions share them please.

A few people on the forum recommended Divi and Generate Press to me. Those might be worth a look.

 

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[Qstyle]

TL DR
Aaron is stupid and wants to do the impossible publicly because he is a bored old fart. Follow his general stupidity here and let's have a good laugh.

I laughed.

Very curious to see your outcome. Good luck!

 

[wade1mil]

As I am creating the product I need to find a good Landing page theme for Wordpress (heard good things about Thrivethemes I believe it was called) or I might go with a service. I have not decided. If anyone has opinions share them please.

I assume the one month goal is a joke because this should be a decision you make in 5 seconds and implement in 15 minutes if you're serious about the time frame. You don't have time for feedback on this small of a decision. Of course, you'd also be crazy if you don't have a proven game plan AND a high-demand product a the start.

Want a challenge? Pick a product/service and make your first sale (to someone you don't know) before midnight tonight. Then you can worry about which Wordpress theme to use later. Have fun man.

 

[Aaron T]

I assume the one month goal is a joke because this should be a decision you make in 5 seconds and implement in 15 minutes if you're serious about the time frame. You don't have time for feedback on this small of a decision. Of course, you'd also be crazy if you don't have a proven game plan AND a high-demand product a the start.

Want a challenge? Pick a product/service and make your first sale (to someone you don't know) before midnight tonight. Then you can worry about which Wordpress theme to use later. Have fun man.

No, not a joke. I sincerely wanted some feedback. You provided. I actually agree with you. I have some very strong opinions on what I want for my sales funnel, my landing page, how it would flow. In a sense I had already decided. What I also wanted was some feedback from other people on what they use/used.

Why?

I am building my product right now. I have the luxury of time in not having to sell it by midnight or having to make a decision in 5 secs. I thought it would bring good discourse.

The time to decide/setup to first sell is not my limiting factor. Regarding my seriousness, you can decide later. I am taking it quite serious and I know from a new idea, fresh info product being created, to first sale is important, and also takes more than 15 mins.

In terms of online businesses and marketing this is not my first rodeo.I did pick a difficult bull to ride though.

 

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[MarekvBeek]

Nothing is impossible. Just go for it my friend!

 

[wade1mil]

I have the luxury of time

You really don't though...

this is not my first rodeo

Great. I think having done this before is really the only way this is possible unless you run unbelievably lucky.

I'm also assuming you want to profit here. $100k in revenue is easy if you sell $100 for $50 like in Unscripted . Good luck man.

 

[TStrike]

Official Update 2:

As I am creating the product I need to find a good Landing page theme for Wordpress (heard good things about Thrivethemes I believe it was called) or I might go with a service. I have not decided. If anyone has opinions share them please.

I use Thrive Themes for all of my personal and client sites.

Highly recommended. Incredible front-end and back-end. Great for lead capture, content building, testimonials, etc.

If you want to see the funnels that it can build, just go to thrivethemes.com and click around.

Otherwise, I used to use Clickfunnels for funnels. Now I'm more of a website instead of funnel guy, so just laying out options for you.

Incredible goal. Love this thread. Watching!

 

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[Aaron T]

You really don't though...

Great. I think having done this before is really the only way this is possible unless you run unbelievably lucky.

I'm also assuming you want to profit here. $100k in revenue is easy if you sell $100 for $50 like in Unscripted . Good luck man.

You are right in terms of the goal and time left. Absolutely. Specially considering I won't be hitting my lists up directly with the offers at all. Time is of the essence. I think what I meant, is the reality of this is that I already have the money to pay the bill that is driving this idea. I am doing this more as a challenge than out of a need. However I am treating it as a need. I find it makes it more fun for lack of a better word. Also I am somewhat intrigued by it.

I do want to profit. Of course I understand the analogy MJ made. It is just like that old line about how to make a million dollars in the airline industry. Start with a billion.

This is an info product based on my own knowledge gained, with a few levels of upsells. I appreciate the luck. As stated, it is an impossible challenge, but those are the best kinds ! I might even surprise myself.

 

[TomSac]

As a new member I am really interested in watching how this turns out.