$100k 2017

[Guest3722A]

around 10k sq feet, dock doesnt matter or anything..just need a huge open space but the problem is these places are $10k+ in rent..unless i can just pull out the money myself from other ventures

Pay very close attention to what Biophase is about to tell you after you read this. It's ok to dream and to learn, but you need to understand that as the saying goes, it takes money to make money and everyone here with status either already had money to work with or built up to having the money.

Every. Single. One.


-------

Do you have a customer list/pre-orders?

What types of zoning will your use fit in?

What types of leases do these (ridiculously high priced) spaces offer? Gross? NNN?

Is there adequate parking?

How much will utilities be?

Who will be paying for utilities?

Is there enough power in the building for you use?

How's the roof/walls/doors/windows?

Is there anything that will put people's lives at risk?

How much insurance is required and is there a company that will write the policy?

What will the city allow you to do for your build out and what will they require licenced contractors for?

Can you afford contractors and all the hoops the city will hit you with?

How do other cities compare?

What do the neighboring businesses do?

Do you have enough money for city inspections and occupancy?

Are there enough restrooms in the facility for your use classification?

Will you make enough: to pay uncle scam? for ongoing issues? to pay yourself/put towards future growth?

Does the landlord have a criminal history?

Who were the previous tenants and what happened to them?

How much do you have saved up?

Are you capable of saving or will you always have a reason why you need to touch your savings?

Do you have enough to survive while you put this together?

Will the current market for your idea support this, or have times changed?



The first question is the most important one and I understand you currently have what equates to spare charge / beer money at this point. But, without an adequate customer supply and the right way to reach them continuously, this is all a wash.

Doing all of this footwork here now is ok with only beer pockets as it will serve to educate you with many of the basic moving parts. But chances are pretty good you'll need at least $40-50k saved unless you have the customer list of pre-orders. If you have this, negotiating with property owners is doable. And trust when I say that a property owner WILL steal your idea if it's doable and capable of being passive for him/her. It's happened to me.

This is only the tip of the iceburg for keeping legal.

 

[sparechange]

great and bad news, i feel like my life is some sort of twisted movie plot, today i just hit a big milestone in my life, i feel as free as a bird, i turned 25 today and have a networth of $800. i just got fired from my job so i have basically nothing, i made $18 or $19k this year and have fk all but big dreams, going to go and enjoy my temp freedom whilst snowboarding..

sitting in the cafe of a self made millionaire and we had a chat..have an idea ill be executing after im done snowboarding |(free pass on birthday) ill take lots of pics for you guys,

financial indepence is the dream..i spent a year of my life making pocket change & get canned on my birthday/christmas (im not mad) its a blessing in digsuise...cheers, mb write up some more thoughts another time in regards to work

 

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[Thiago Machado]

i will be updating this until dec 31st, looking to post a picture of $100's scattered everywhere (preferably in a beautiful porsche)

cheers!

???

I still have no idea what product or service you're offering.
You'll get much better feedback from the guy's here if you start posting information on sales, problems encountered and successes you have along the way, rather than how you are going to be spreading dollar bills on a car you currently don't have.

Post information that shows you've taken action.
Not information that shows how much you've masturbated your mind.

 

[Argue]

Huh? And this helps how?

This thread is a candidate for the #landfill -- I see lots of action-faking, motivational circle-jerking, and absolutely no plan or discussion of value. It's like you think this will be easy because you posted "$100k in 2017 posting random quotes on social media!"

2 pages in and I have no clue what's going on other than you like skiing and pictures of fast cars. None of that will make you hit $1k in earnings, much less $100k.

Have you read @Fox GOLD thread? Any of the GOLD threads?

This should be featured

 

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[Joe Cassandra]

Your best bet is do two things:

1. Focus on ONE business until success [take it from someone who tried multiple businesses and failed]
2. Do some bare bones marketing

FIRST:
Easy. Free.
Ask for referrals. All you have to do is this: "Hey Mr. Willis, you seem pretty happy with all the work I've done to make your yard pretty to look at. Is there any of your neighbors you recommend I ask if they need lawn help?"

SNEAK-ATTACK: Do an extra service for free before asking. For example, you mowed their lawn for the $40 or whatever. Trim their bushes as well. Tell them you did that, then go into your pitch.

Next, go to the neighbor he mentions and say , " Hi, I do Mr. Willis' lawn next-door. He considers you a great neighbor and friend. So, I just wanted to ask: Does anyone take care of your yard weekly?" Then, shut up, let them talk.

SECOND:
More legwork. Still very cheap involving paper and Kinkos.

Pull up Microsoft Word.
Write a headline along these lines:
THE RATS ARE OUT AND COULD GET INTO YOUR HOUSE TONIGHT. Here's how to stop them...
Rats live and thrive in unmanaged lawns. During the summer, as you know, grass grows as a fast as lightning. It's a hassle to get out your mower, your weed whacker and clippers each week to keep these disease-ridden critters out of your house. Nothing would scare your children more than waking up and seeing a dark shape scamper across their room. Or, you opening your pantry for a snack and seeing a little demon already got there first.

That's why, until May 31st, before the summer gets into full swing, I could be out into your home tomorrow.

For a summer package, here's what you can expect:
OPTION ONE: Lowest price
OPTION TWO: Middle-price (BEST VALUE!)
OPTION THREE: Top price

Print 100 of those and start putting them in mailboxes. Do that multiple times a week. See what works. Go back again 2 weeks later and put in the same message to the same mailboxes again.

This copy was off the top of my head, but you get the idea. You need to try a few messages and see what sticks. But, this should be a quick way to pick up more clients.

 

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[Aaron T]

getting a small amount of traffic towards my ebay store!!!

the pieces of the puzzle are slowly coming together

Just curious if you are aware of which pieces of your puzzle are coming together to drive that traffic. If you do know, then do more of it smarter. If you don't know, then it is not worth celebrating until you do. It makes things repeatable and that will help you succeed.

I do hope you can get a sale finally though.

 

[Longinus]

Every time I come on your topic, you started another venture. But I don't think there is one you take very serious.

You're chasing the cat, man.

 

[BD64]

hmm...melting poo, smells like a good idea, errr sounds...

found something! https://www.petco.com/shop/en/petcostore/product/poop-off-bird-poop-remover

the dog crap thing ive seen some leashes that feature a bag on top, thinking to produce these and sell them with my own design. see way to many people in vancouver holding dog **** in theyre hands. really believe i can sell that.

just tried to find a product about dissolving crap and found a product! The Future Is Here: Your Dog's Poop, Vaporized


one thing ive picked up on is some products that ive thought of (fresh idea i havent heard of) *has already been done*
now ill state something from the book(s) ofc its not about re-inventing the wheel but improving it which is preached on this forum frequently. so! the above links are years old, (found another aswell but website closed down)

its all about executing! what did the previous people do wrong? i could make there product better, i could market it better..yada yada yada

@Longinus so royalty or free product!? =)

thank you for the input!

That dog poop vaporizer seems like a pretty piss poor solution to me. I know from my time walking dogs around that in no situation would I ever want to carry around that big, shit-burning stick. Super inconvenient solution and not to mention, would you want to be seen with that thing? I'd probably laugh my a$$ off if I saw someone in the city walking his dog and carrying a vacuum cleaner for crap.

 

[c_morris]

That dog poop vaporizer seems like a pretty piss poor solution to me.

Worked for Jack Black in "Envy"

 

[sparechange]

Just saw it's my 1 year anniversary of the forum! Holy...... Lots of time pissed away slaving in poverty for low paying jobs, now being more confident and heading into the right direction for 2018, I have a strong belief as long as (WE) focus on escaping the rat race and bringing joy into the lives of others, it will return back to us. At first joining the forum , my big secret idea was to open up gaming cafés and launch a haunted house. Time went on and my focus changed onto other things. Now having closd an online sale I'm confident I can repeat history as long as the right product is being sold. The focus will be the pet industry and 2018 is the year of my semi retirement. I cannot wake up at 7am anymore for 5 days a week. I cannot take a bus to work anymore. I cannot ride a train around the city anymore. I cannot stand to be bullied at work and be treated like an actual slave. I cannot sell my soul for much longer. My physical health is declining and I feel my sanity slipping away. I've put in my time and have cash saved up To be fired away for building my business, which will produce freedom for me as long as I provide for the world first. No one deserves anything at all, it is to be earned. Looking forward to the upcoming year, rough calculations of 2018 expenses are around $25k, hitting this magical number is literally freedom, to sleep in Monday to Sunday granting me the ability to sit around all day picking my nose if I so desire. When I first joined the forum MJ asked me a question, why am I joining the forum? I said to buy an aventador in cash. Looking back at that comment with the knowledge I've absorbed on this forum and reading both books I realize how ignorant and moronic such a comment is that is based on selfish desires which is the opposite of entrepreneurship. My motives have changed to leave a positive impact in the world before I fully check out and have an eternal nap, well and have a better life aswell! ( not all of the selfish desires went away! ) To the people posting in the thread so far thank you for sticking along and giving input to a bonehead like me! 2018 is the year I am no longer financially dependent on a job, the plan is by quarter 2 of the year at the latest.

 

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[ZCP]

Raise your standards. Hit up @Kung Fu Steve , he can help you. Do more.

 

[Xeon]

Are you selling via FB ads and directing the visitors to your own website? If so, you should install a plug-in like LuckyOrange or Hotjar to see what your visitors are doing when they're on your site (e.g. do they click Back when they reach your site, or do they leave when they're about to checkout?)

From there, you can narrow down to whether it's a product or some other issue etc.

 

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[Danny Sullivan]

Product is rain jackets

I don't want to rain on your parade (that pun though, cheesy...), but isn't this a commidity (competing on price only)?

 

[Merging Left]

I've got a question for you and then a bigger-picture perspective for you to (hopefully) help slow things down.

So my question: what's your day job? If it's not too personal, how much are you being paid?

Now, it looks like your current product might be a bit of a dud. Like it's been pointed out, you don't quite have enough data to draw the conclusion yet, but you definitely haven't seen the explosive sales you were hoping for. Damn. It happened to me and it's soul-crushing. I get it.

But, look at it this way. How much time do you spend on this each day? Rather, if you weren't obsessing over it (totally understandable), how much time would you need to spend on it each day? If you had your ads in place, etc. 10-15 minutes, max?

So let's assume you need to spend 10 minutes per day just reviewing your ad performance and sales. Let's assume you're making a measly 5 sales per month. You pretty much have 5 sales coming in every month on autopilot now. It's not life-changing at all, but it's greater than $0.

What happens if you repeat this process for 10 more products, all of which "fail"? Now you're looking at an aggregate of 55 sales/month, which is just under 2/day. And if you're spending 10 minutes on each, you're looking at a bit under 2 hours/day. What does that do for your life? Can you quit your job, based on your current profits?

As long as your products are breaking even, there's no harm in continuing to grow your portfolio. I know you're negotiating on your second product, and that's awesome. That's what you need to do. Once you're up to 5-10, you can start to look at what's working and what isn't. You'll likely have found a minor or moderately successful product by then and can look into cutting back on one of the less exciting ones.

tl;dr: Your current action IS producing results. They're not the results you were hoping for, but if you do this exact same thing 10 more times, you just might be where you want to be... keep it up, man.

 

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[maverick]

Hate to be rude but it sounds like you're just doing a bunch of random things in the hope that something sticks. If you're looking to move into AMZ I'd suggest you take some time to think through an approach.

What problem are you solving? Who's the customer? How does your product solve the problem? What makes it better than any of the available alternatives?

Breakdown products into manufacturing cost, shipping cost + AMZ fees. Offset them against selling price. Will it warrant you with a good enough margin?

Use data to help you make decisions. Don't just jump into random things.

 

[Merging Left]

You tried shoveling snow, mowing lawns, and e-commerce, working towards the amorphous goal of obtaining "$100k." What did you learn from each of those that you can apply to your next attempt?

Before you jump into something new, you need to be asking yourself some questions about the viability of the idea. I'll try to describe this using the CENTS framework from the books, which you should be familiar with.

CONTROL
Are you in control of this business? Can one thing, totally outside of your control, destroy your business instantly? The obvious is example is: What will you do if Amazon bans your account or decides it no longer supports your product?

BEFORE you start something, you need to answer this question. For e-commerce, the answer could be that you're going to launch on Amazon to validate the product and be vulnerable for some time while you build up an organic following on your own web store. To me, that's a fine approach, but it should include a detailed plan on exactly how you're going to transition to your own site.

ENTRY
Can anybody copy you with 2 hours of work and have an identical, competing business? All of your business ventures so far fail this command, but that's not necessarily the end of the world. Anyone can start a lawn care, snow removal, or import-from-Alibaba business. Once that happens, how will you differentiate and compete?

For the service-based businesses, there's another thread that talks about how simply picking up your phone and returning customer phone calls can set you above 90% of your competitors.

NEED
Do people need what you're offering? How do you know? Are there other, perfectly suitable options that they could go with, or is your product something people can't live without? Have people actually been asking for this specific thing? Remember, not everyone is your customer, so don't talk yourself out of a good idea because some people won't care about this product. Is there a definable group of people who NEED this product?

TIME
If you go on vacation for a week, will you make any money? For your service ventures, the answer is probably "no" until you address Scale. So just focus on: Will this job require a direct investment of my time FOREVER?

SCALE
How will you grow this business in size? For e-commerce, maybe it's adding more products. For services, it's hiring people (and more people to manage the first people).

These are the fundamental criteria for a fastlane, time-independent business, and they help you determine whether an idea is worth exploring or not. To truly vet your idea, however, you need to dive much deeper.

Before you move forward with your CENTS business, you need to address the following issues:

DEMAND
If nobody wants what you have, no amount of brilliant marketing is going to save you. If you properly addressed the NEED commandment, then what you need to do here is quantify the level of demand for your product or service.

With your service businesses, you're limited by scale. What is your capacity for mowing lawns? How many can you mow in a day? Do you have enough savings and enough demand to justify getting another truck and hiring another 1-2 people to mow customer lawns?

If you're selling a product, you need to determine how many people want that product. Finding Google search volumes can help, as well as creating a landing page and collecting e-mails. If you create a landing page and run ads for a week and collect 12 e-mails, you might not have enough demand. If you collect 300 e-mails, you might have struck gold.

For Amazon, you can use BSR and there are tons of online tools to track inventory levels of your competitors that will help you gauge demand.

Knowing some people want your product/service isn't enough. You need to know HOW MANY, and at WHAT PRICE.

CUSTOMER
Who EXACTLY is your audience? For lawn care, your audience might be homeowners with large front lawns who have an income above $60,000 per year, and whose homes have other evidences of landscaping (i.e. they care about how their house looks). You need to be able to define your audience so well that you can ignore everyone who is not your specific audience.

In real estate, most investors have a very specific set of criteria for properties they want to invest in. For example, I only buy side-by-side duplexes where each unit has 3 bedrooms, is newer than 1950, in the Shaker Heights area of Greater Cleveland, for less than $100k. That's pretty specific. It's so specific, in fact, that it would only take about 30 seconds to know if it's worth looking into a property listing. The same concept can apply to any idea you have.

MARKETING
Now that you've determined the demand and identified who your customer is, how are you going to reach them? If you've solved Need and Customer correctly, it shouldn't take a lot to get them to purchase from you... they just need to know where you are. You need a legitimate marketing plan to reach your customers.

Facebook ads, Instagram shoutouts, Yelp ads, Youtube videos or Youtube ads, Kickstarter, pulishing articles with back-links on Forbes and Medium, etc... If you don't know how you will reach your customer, don't launch. Solve this first.

While you're doing that, figure out how much it's going to cost you as well. What's the cost-per-click (CPC) for each ad platform, and what is the monthly search volume for your keywords?

ROI
You have a goal of reaching $100k by the end of, well, 2017. So let's say $100k, in net profit, by 12/31/2019. Therefore, it's not going to be worth your time to pursue a business venture that has a maximum annual profit of $30,000. Now, maybe an annual profit of $30k sounds great to you, and you can adjust your ultimate goal. The point is that you should have an expectation for your results BEFORE you start your business.

You know your product. You know your level of demand. You know who your customer is and how you're going to reach them (and hopefully how much that's going to cost).

Now you can calculate your potential ROI. How much will your product cost, how much will you sell it for, how many will you sell each month, and how much will it cost you to attract that many sales?

Price - Product Cost - Advertising Cost = Profit.

If you are going to say "well, The Amazing Seller podcast says that I just need to sell 10/day at $10 profit to hit a home run, so I'll do that!" you're going to be sorely disappointed. You need to be objective here, and be conservative. Err on the side of higher costs and lower sales price & volume.

Define your worst case scenario and use that to make your decisions.
---------------------------------------------------------------

You need more structure to your approach to business. Throwing shit at the wall and seeing what sticks simply will not cut it. Today's environment is too competitive for that. You need clear, results-oriented direction.

Good luck.

 

[biophase]

Up front: I know NOTHING about selling products on Amazon. Only marketing. Keep that in mind with everything I'm about to say.

But it seems to me that you are in possession of an asset. A whole order of XXXX pet grooming gloves. No, the asset didn't perform as well as you hoped. They're not selling.

Now you're in a situation where you need to come up with whatever plan is going to give you the highest leverage with that asset, even if it means cutting your losses.

What if you did one minor, inexpensive tweak to give these gloves a slight upgrade and then sell them for a premium price? Kind of like the classic story from Robert Cialdini's book, Influence. In chapter 1, he tells this story...



So here's my idea:

Take 10 pairs of gloves down to a local embroidery shop, sewing machine shop, quilter with an embroidery machine, or friend who would do this as a favor. Have them embroider a beautiful dog on the back of each hand. Let's say you choose a pug. Or a German Shepherd. Or whatever dog you can use as a model for photography.

The cost of this shouldn't be a lot, as these machines are created to just take a design that is programmed in the computer, and the machine does all the work. It's just thread.

Now take these beautiful gloves and take highly emotional photographs of the glove from the back, showing the design. These photos should evoke all the love of caressing a pet, all the warm fuzzy feelings.

Now go online and post these gloves as "Pet Grooming Gloves for Pug Owners" and list them for double the price. This is only a test. It's only 10 pieces. You're validating the concept before you go gangbusters and pay to get ALL your gloves embroidered. But the focus is on the love and connection between the person and their dog. The focus is on the act of lovingly stroking their dog's fur, which they are going to do anyway, and which, thanks to the glove, will also come with a side benefit of taking out that loose hair that would have started getting all over their hand and flying around the room. Downplay the quality of the glove. Don't let that come into your buyer's mind. The quality doesn't matter. People don't need to expect it to be as good as a brush. If they want a complete grooming, they're going to go to a salon anyway. You're going for the first-time buyer of one of these things. Pet owners are already familiar with the concept of a glove like this, and now the cool fact that their favorite breed is depicted stylishly on the back of each glove is going to push them over the edge of finally getting the product.

Then go to facebook and find all the groups you can find of passionate pug owners and mention the gloves. (Pug owners are passionate about their pugs.) (Every dog owner is passionate about their breed. Golden retrievers. Labradors. Border collies. You get the picture... there's infinite directions you could go with this breed piece.) Actually--use a REALLY HAIRY dog, one that's notorious for shedding. E.g. no poodles! LOL...

Post your photos on instagram with tags like #pug grooming #pug love etc.

Suggest that people who know pug lovers buy this as the PERFECT Christmas gift for their brother or coworker or whatever.

Go around to local pet groomers, dog trainers, and veterinarians. Ask if they will let you sell the gloves there in exchange for X% of the "sale price" (which is double what you were asking before, so you have a margin to offer them). Some of them will give you display space.

See if you can sell all ten pairs. I bet you can. If they sell like hotcakes, at a great price point, then make some more in time to sell before Christmas.

Separately - here's another test.
Same product, different positioning. You can skip the embroidery on this set if you want.

There's a whole bunch of people out there who hate the way their hands feel after they pet a dog. [*Ahem* cough cough how would I know? :halo:]

This product solves a need: They can slip on the glove, pet their dog to their heart's desire, accomplish a bit of grooming in the process, and then slip the glove back off when they're done. The person is happy because they didn't have to get their hand feeling icky. The dog is happy because it got a ton of attention.

Create a system to find these people. This might take some thinking... maybe start in the dog groups on facebook and ask questions like, "Hey does anyone here know someone who doesn't like touching a dog because they're fastidious about what they touch? Maybe someone kind of like Monk around your pets? I'm doing some research and hoping to conduct a few interviews with people who experience this." And then go from there and see if you get any response, and ask some questions or conduct a survey, and see if you spot any patterns for people like this.

Then, using their responses, go write up some copy. "Do you hate touching dogs because you can't stand how your hands feel after you're done?" or whatever words they are using. Maybe they mention that the dog turns its head around and gets its wet nose on their hands, and they don't like that, either. Incorporate that into your copy. This product solves that. It's a dream come true for people who love their dogs but have sensory issues with petting them. Maybe there's a family with just one member who doesn't like to pet the dog... position it as a lifesaver for that situation.

And when you ship the product, include a free pair of latex (or allergy-free latex substitute) gloves, with a little note that suggests that they put on the latex glove first and then put on the grooming glove, and they'll be as happy as a lark.

The latex glove won't be expensive for you, and you're only including one pair, but it's a little touch that someone wouldn't have thought of (but that they will appreciate immensely). It'll be a WOW! moment. "I can finally have fun petting the dog!" Again - the person will not care that the product is junk in terms of grooming quality. That's not what it's about. It's solving a psychological need for them that might be worth 5 or 10 times the price.

Sell 10 of these as a test. If it takes off, go with it. If not, you haven't lost much because you were going to sell these as a loss anyway.

Just two ideas off the top of my head.

The whole problem with these ideas are that he will still be selling a product that doesn't work. I wouldn't feel right about adding embroidery and doubling the price and selling something that is useless to begin with.

 

[biophase]

With all due respect, I hope you're either being sarcastic or trolling. This doesn't seem like your style from what I read in your old ecommerce posts.....

Regarding the fake reviews, remember he is talking about his own website, not faking reviews on Amazon or Ebay, etc... If he thinks having 0 reviews is a negative, I personally don't think writing a review or two on your own website will hurt you. There are many ecommerce stores and websites with a bunch of bogus testimonials. If you feel moral and want an actual review from someone else, just ask your friend to go to your site and write one. Then it's a real review right? But if you are going to do that, why bother asking your friend then? It's your own platform.

 

[Xeon]

One thing I always admire about you is how chill and laidback you're in the face of adversity and hardship lol

 

[maverick]

One of the most respected members of this forum was so kind to use his time to provide you with advice / guidance free of charge and you choose to dismiss it.

Perhaps it would be wise to rethink your mindset and approach.

 

[sparechange]

Just something i wanted to share, next week will be my fourth week in a row doing 60 hour week. While my body is totally exhausted and my feet are killing me (I’ve broken both of them before) I’m making the most money ever in a while. Going to be heading into 2019 very strong and for the first time in my life have a surplus of cash where I’m not living paycheque to paycheque. This past year has been pretty brutal, save it for another post

 

[Bekit]

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hrATY5SPRDE


So this year has been another failure, I have been struggling with poverty for the past few years of my life, dropping in and out of homelessness. I've been fired from my job earlier in the year and decided to take some time off and try to enjoy life a bit, moved back to Vancouver and engaged in somewhat suicidal activities like blowing through red lights on a skateboard at full speed, whilst partaking in some hobbies that were constantly put off due to work.

In the summer had a nice little crash on my board where good ol spare change was laying on the road crying his eyes out in severe pain hitting a random bump in the road. Some ***** in his car was across the road just staring at me, not a single ***** given. I'm currently re-reading Unscripted and have passed the part where MJ talks about his situation at 26 mentioning if he dropped dead it would have no impact on anyone (how I feel).

There have been some flirtations with suicide but can't really commit to the idea of it as I feel there's still a little bit of fight left inside, so I've passed on that option at least for now. Recently I've been spamming out resumes to employers and finally landed a full time job that I'm starting tomorrow. Feeling a little bit better as I don't even have rent money for next month & have been starving quite literally for the past few weeks eating at shelters, hallelujah for expired food that's worse than dog food.

So what the **** It's been 4 years of living paycheck to paycheck, being a worthless bum on the street and starving. The best part is the whole time I have been working, I don't do drugs or drink and am lumped into the bottom 99% category, super deep into the script.

That's all for the negativity, for going forward I'm excited about a product that can add value into a customers life, still need to test it out but for now my focus is starting my new job (I'm trapped)

I'll list out my goals to help add value to someone else's life & expose my thought processes, consider it a blueprint on how to get started? I don't know, either that I can just document my life failure which would explain the reason why I got into a car and drove it straight into a truck at top speed in the direction of oncoming traffic.

Here are some of my goals for the next few weeks to keep me occupied, also in the to do is going over the thread, reading Unscripted as mentioned before (bout halfway through) TMF , E-Myth & Loris book.

GOAL #1 Be a good worker for the company I am starting at tomorrow
GOAL #2 Come up with rent money for next month so I am not on the street
GOAL #3 I can actually do this right now for free, negotiate an order for a product I believe could add value into someones life, and come up with how the product will be marketed & sold (currently theirs a rough idea sitting in my head)
GOAL #4 Dump all my money into rent & food and invest surplus cash into samples and a full order, my first one should be anywhere from $600-$1k++. And build a new website/reserve cash for ads etc etc. I'll go more into detail with this later when I'm at this stage.

I'm starting off with basically no money, last week my net worth has been negative $3, yes -$3 in my bank account. If you gave me something for free I literally would not be able to afford it. Total loser and highly likely to be an absolute moron, with a debt that still needs to be settled with a friend of mine of 200 bucks. I'm not complaining just venting, its not right for me to, infact.. I would strongly argue that life in poverty in Canada is a million times better than anywhere else in the world, don't get it twisted, even my total shit useless life is of higher quality than some kid in India or Africa. Please don't pity me.

Look forward to providing value, sorry for the hiatus & thank you to all contributors in my thread, its been a rough one.

Hey glad to see you back here! I was thinking about you just the other day, saying to myself, "Hey, where's sparechange? Haven't seen him recently."

Sorry to hear about the rough stuff you've been through. Happy to hear you found a job. You've got this!

I mean seriously, when you make it big, you're going to have an amazing story to tell.

In 2013, I was in a Walmart with $13 and spent $10, leaving me with my last $3. I was so close to ending up homeless and starving. I got a job the next day. I know how scary that can be.

Keep your chin up! We're rooting for you!!

 

[sparechange]

Ok, so skip the march part and pretend I didn't write that.

I have my own product in my room right now..

Now I need to figure out how the **** am I going to properly sell this. I'll continue the thread as a personal journal / self therapy for the world to read.

Competitors in my space are doing 9 digits, last night I was thinking about some doubts in my head whilst sitting in the forest after work.

I'm just a minimum wage slave that is a few paychecks away from being on the street, trying to compete with huge brands that have unlimited funds that will happily compete and bankrupt me.

So I did something different today, just kind of to change my mindset. I got up at 5;30am and layed in bed for a bit, having after thoughts of chapter 1 of the E-MYTH (I just started this sadly after lots of procrastination) In the book the author mentions the skinny guy and fat guy in your head.

For the ones unfamiliar with the book he talks about the Psychology of doing process work, the best example being 6 pack abs, obviously these aren't created overnight, but months of grueling shitty work of crunches, dieting and saying NO to free lunchroom pizza.

In the first time in a while I just went outside in the dark, shirt off like a maniac sprinted around the neighborhood, running up a hill I could barely breathe and near the top almost puked.

Laying in bed I was kind of dreading the grind of building up a website and all the boring parts of creating a business, but a big part of success is actually switching your mentality, am I going to stay in bed? Or get up and crush the world?

I'm hoping I can get a sale in the first week of February which will give me a new deadline, I still need to do all the boring behind the scenes work, but lets do it. If I can close a value voucher transaction I'll have some sort of celebration.

My sales target for the month of February is 100 units

Maybe sooner, rather than later I can leave my job? My brain can't even fathom a massive change like this, some unbrainwashing is in order......

MINDSET - Woohoo! One in a row!

Woohoo! One in a row! This truly is one of my favourite lines. Your first ad impression! Your first website visitor! Your first enquiry! Your first phone call! Your first meeting! Your first sale! Your first dollar! Each FIRST is proof you can do it. Celebrate every single one...

www.thefastlaneforum.com

@Andy Black !

 

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[sparechange]

So I'm off work for 4 days as Vancouver is basically shutdown. Work is being highly effected but Ive actually been enjoying this whole pandemic. Trains to work are less crowded, my boss is asking me to come in later as we have a shortage of work, days are shorter at work etc.

Going to use this downtime to work on my health and biz.

Ive decided to leave by the end of April and am likely moving to the island. (Yes I'm quitting) I'm pretty bummed I spent 1 day of my winter snowboarding, really need to increase my revenue and live of my business, I can really feel my life passing me by.

My ''record'' so far with the 80 units sold in a single day is my personal best, if I can increase this number at a higher price point I start flirting with life changing numbers and can sleep in for the rest of my life if so desired. Hmm......

It's not really unrealistic, infact It's fairly possible this is my ''retirement'' year. My business only needs to generate $1k to cover my life expenses and having experienced selling enough units in a single day to potentially cover a month of life is pretty cool.

random thought.....just some verbal diarrhea

So lately I've been exploring the game of basketball and have been playing at the local grade school just down the street.

In the chapter of Unscripted called 3b's really stood out to me, when I was a little kid, my stupid beliefs allowed me to believe that I can't play basketball, I'm white, short and not very athletic. But that is total nonsense, the game of basketball is super simple and easy to learn. The only thing that really matters barring genetics for height (being 7 feet tall) is the amount of practice you put into the game.

Now relating that to the game of business which is kind of a sport in itself that you play alone. It's all about putting in the effort, and effort that I haven't been really putting into my own business. Honestly I'm failing super hard at life, but it's because my focus is work and sleep. Which leads me to cutting the cord, I'll have enough money saved up to live for a few months and do nothing but sleep and work on *MY* business.

If I fail worst case scenario I end up on the street and go eat at a shelter, been there done that but my potential for growth is enormous, so I want to place a bet on myself and go all in so to speak. My health is declining to (mental and physical) from these long 50 hour weeks.

I wonder what would happen in my life if I put 50 hours of my effort into MY business? Wow the things that would change!

 

[sparechange]

thanks for the input guys, ive been writing down alot of stuff recently and my reasoning for pursuing my startups in the summer is because it is seasonal, i want to build a small business in landscaping/residential property upkeep, do all the hustle myself > acquire customers > then hire people to do all the physical labour for me and branch out (build repeat customers)

[($20) x 5k clients = $100k]

i will definitely be flipping items aswell & in the first quarter of the year ill be ''launching'' my company that i believe can achieve 8-9 figures (this will take years to build), i dno maybe i am just delusional but i strongly believe my concept will revolutionize the industry and plays into the part of emotional selling, also it is for a good cause so regardless of $ i will pursue it especially since it is a concept i hold extremely close to my heart & my vision is clear

also about the events thing, im planning in January to launch one of my niches, (now is a bad time with holidays etc) & another in Halloween, i think clearing 5 figs with these visions will be achievable.

today was another good day of shoveling..i officially hit 3 figures for a whopping $112.75 !! lol, baby steps..atm i do hold a job to at least feed myself whilst pursuing freedom & enjoying life

as for earning $100 by friday im stumped to be quite honest unless im selling a service (my labour) or item..i wouldnt be sure where to start..have been spending time thinking of needs in the area and i actually had one comeup today...that ive thought about, ironically enough a client brought it up...couldnt pull through as it required me to drive so i missed out on a service i could of provided (i moved / license suspended whilst not caring about having a car) but the business idea was proved legitimate.

enjoyed the day, was invited into a clients home and they offered to make a sandwich for me and a hot chocolate...was constantly thanked for my work by multiple people and i feel i actually improved someones life temporarily by giving them access to they're vehicle.. im blabbering quite a bit, again thanks for the input. this forum will help me alot, also the book has already opened up my eyes yet im still not finished it

ah.... $99,887.25 to go!

cheers guys

 

[Michael Burgess]

I totally agree with others about setting reasonable expectations; you're not likely going to jump to $100K any time soon, but don't let that stop you! Just remember that it may take a long time and a lot of fight to get where you want to go.

If you're going to continue pushing snow, I suggest you try to save your earnings to invest into some equipment. Even a handheld gas snowblower makes a WORLD of difference if you do many driveways or sidewalks. Machinery is a useful form of leverage that lets you do bigger jobs, work faster, save effort, and improve profitability. You can't afford not to get machines!

Good luck

 

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[LucasJames]

For the next months upcoming I've relocated to the most expensive and richest area in all of Canada, Kitsilano BC, I'm a block away from Chip Wilson (Lululemon Ex CEO) and will be hustling door to door landscaping (lawn cutting etc) and then aim to pawn off work to youth and earn profits off someone elses work, cheapest homes around here start at around $5m.
So in regards to value! Someone has to upkeep properties for the rich!! Why not me? I cant imagine someone worth 9 figures will give two shits about paying for lawn care etc! Planning to extract minimum low 5 figures from this alone. Maybe im delusional, I haven't a clue, although 500+ clients seems extremely manageable throughout the summer. Delegation is **key** hire someone else to do the work and collect payments from clients off someone elses hard work.

The other thing once I get a little more capital is a small rental business by the beach, extremely simple, rent out kayacks and bicycles etc for the public, I've learned alot about this business having worked the past few months at the largest ski resort in Vancouver, I was responsible for cash outs and have seen 5 figure days *on one department* bloody christ, people do not care about money at all in Vancouver, they will spend $30 on renting equipment yet at the store you could buy the item alone! Also on the side along with beach rentals I'll have food/drinks on sale, summer is slowly approaching.

Then for the fall season I will be launching a haunted house, super pumped for this.

Do you not think those Rich people probably pay someone to upkeep their properties already? Why is your service better than what they're already using?

As for outsourcing the labour, say you find some "youths" to carry out the work for you, will they complete the work to the standards you would? or more importantly, to the standard that your customers will want? Seems like you'd have to supervise them to some extent, which means you're still trading time for money just without the labour.

I feel like you're on kind of the right track, but you seem to want to skip the hard work. I'm setting up a reoccuring service business cleaning a special type of flooring, and im certainly not thinking about employing anyone until i physically cant handle the workload myself. To be honest for my business i certainly wouldnt want to pay someone to do something I havent already done a hundred times over.

Also i think you're definitely trying to do too much, and it seems like you're convincing yourself you're progressing because you have so many ideas, but really you've taken little to no action on them.

You'd be much better served picking ONE thing to concentrate on, even with my short time on this forum ive learned the "process" that people always talk about is not a quick thing, its taking daily action in a specific direction to realise a goal. You cant possibly focus on so many things and take daily action on them all especially when you're starting.

If you havent read this thread read it now, and if you have read it, read it again!
GOLD - 7 Steps That Will Radically Change Your Life in 30 Days or Less, Guaranteed.

 

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[sparechange]

Picked up another client, I've noticed I've overlooked a few small things, #1 raking and sweeping, #2 those crappy weeds between sidewalks on someone's property, the corner of a wall ( I don't have a weed trimmer) there's so many tiny things I overlook, a good lesson on learning, there is a million different aspects in any buisness that can be ignored, I think tiny things can really make a big difference when (as a custoner) Another example would be mcdonalds and Starbucks in regards to custoner service. Think il do another client today then tommorow check out a book by Felix Dennis, still waiting for unscripted ! Also ran into a local billionaire, who unofficially invited me out to go hiking. Will do a small update soon

 

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[AFMKelvin]

You should get some goats and tell people that you use them to cut grass. Something like a green grass cutting business. No pollution, no emmisions, 100% natural grass cutters. That'll be like your business gimmick do you want goats or the gas mower. And call the news stations they like weird stuff like that.

 

[sparechange]

im willing to sign a leasing contract for 3 goats, what are the terms?

 

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