$100k 2017

[ZCP]

Didn't read the entire thread..... Are you trying to get high end up yards? You will need a company look, uniforms, etc. Will be tough to get high end yards as a 'kid' mowing grass. Too much liability and chance of being let down for them.

Time to change your pitch...... Maybe 'concierge service' that could include things like making sure the yard is done?

 

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[sparechange]

Didn't read the entire thread..... Are you trying to get high end up yards? You will need a company look, uniforms, etc. Will be tough to get high end yards as a 'kid' mowing grass. Too much liability and chance of being let down for them.

Time to change your pitch...... Maybe 'concierge service' that could include things like making sure the yard is done?

my strategy is to mass distribute flyers throughout multiple cities (1 being a high end area) where I have a couple clients.
i do have the kid mowing grass idea, i like to have the image of acting small and i reflect this in my price, perhaps i should do the opposite, but in my mind i place myself in the mind of a millionaire, some kid shows up to my big mansion offering to cut the grass for 20 bucks...ah why not here you go.'' i have like a gazillion dollars in the bank and i cant even fill my mercedes for 20 but im sure he could use it since hes knocking on my door. also i dont feel like doing some dirty work''

rather than acting like a big hot shot that will most likely charge a premium to do a small tedious job.

imagine MJ sitting in his massive mansion, do you think he gives a crap about 20 bucks? its hot as hell in Arizona, i bet if i knocked on his door and offered to do some work around his place i cant see him objecting for example, most likely he has better things to do than do some dirty work like pull weeds or be outside in 50 degree weather. (unless he already he already has someone contracted) which ive found to be a problem, certainly overestimated the market but oh well.

 

[sparechange]

I do like the concierge idea tho, been considering up selling window cleaning and similar services.

 

[sparechange]

as i read more and more of unscripted my mind constantly wanders to product sales, i actually made a big notepad where i list a bajillion ideas popup in my head, titled 'useless ideas' since that is basically what they are.

although, the idea of having a product designed or redesigned excites me a bit, in theory its simple, come up with a product, get paid traffic and make that million bucks! ah....

 

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[NoahK]

my flyer is quite simple, you can check it out here!

Here's a very informative flyer-related article you might be interested in reading.

Also, if you'd like some free help on a new design, send me a pm and I'll hook you up.

 

[sparechange]

a person above shared that, i find it informative, but am slightly worried of looking to professional with something with a super official flyer, correct me if im wrong. any thoughts on my flyer? what do you think of it?

 

[NoahK]

a person above shared that, i find it informative, but am slightly worried of looking to professional with something with a super official flyer, correct me if im wrong. any thoughts on my flyer? what do you think of it?

I design and illustrate for a living, so to be very honest, I don't think the flyers for the powerwashing service in the article are very well designed.

But honestly, they don't have to be, because they do very well at directly communicating the value of his offer.

I think there is a lot more room to tell your story and demonstrate your value in your flyer, even if your story is that you're a kid next door.

What makes you not just another kid next door? What makes you the kid next door!

If you feel that your work ethic, hustle, commitment to a job done right, and entrepreneurial spirit are going to hit home with the owners in the nicer neighborhoods, then showcase that. Put it front and center!

I think there are some that might feel good about going with a scrappy little guy than something that seems more corporate and impersonal.

 

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[jclean]

my strategy is to mass distribute flyers throughout multiple cities (1 being a high end area) where I have a couple clients.
i do have the kid mowing grass idea, i like to have the image of acting small and i reflect this in my price, perhaps i should do the opposite, but in my mind i place myself in the mind of a millionaire, some kid shows up to my big mansion offering to cut the grass for 20 bucks...ah why not here you go.'' i have like a gazillion dollars in the bank and i cant even fill my mercedes for 20 but im sure he could use it since hes knocking on my door. also i dont feel like doing some dirty work''

rather than acting like a big hot shot that will most likely charge a premium to do a small tedious job.

imagine MJ sitting in his massive mansion, do you think he gives a crap about 20 bucks? its hot as hell in Arizona, i bet if i knocked on his door and offered to do some work around his place i cant see him objecting for example, most likely he has better things to do than do some dirty work like pull weeds or be outside in 50 degree weather. (unless he already he already has someone contracted) which ive found to be a problem, certainly overestimated the market but oh well.

@sparechange
The whole purpose is helping people.,
Not making money..,
the problem right now is confidence in yourself.
You dont think you are worth a premium price/ you take the path of least resistance.
And propose a low price.,
You cant keep this promise to your customers or you cant pay the bills.
Result: your customers have to search the nex lawn mowing kid. And people are sick and tired of doing that. They rather pay a few bucks more and have the same company for years that do a good job and that they can trust with there property.
I cant count how many people ask me how long are you in business .,?
This is the main reason small businesses fail., they simply stay not long enough to gain those good clients and build relations with them.
in the beginning when i started my small business i had the same problem. Charged not enough became bigger and that early client or two i had to let go because i was losing money.
Next quote you do step out your comfort zone and ask more.
So you can truly help that person.

 

[sparechange]

what do you think is a fair price? usually i go for 20 or 30 tops for a job that takes around an hour or so.

 

[ZCP]

It is one thing to buy a box of Girl Scout cookies they don't need. It is another to have some kid with power tools jacking up their yard.

If you want repeat business from the wealthy, you need to be / look like a business, have insurance, and provide great, consistent service. If you also 'have a story', then you have a leg up.

The way you describe your current pitch, you might get an odd job here or there. No repeats. They need service, not another mouth to feed. Look at it from the other side.

 

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[sparechange]

that makes sense

 

[jclean]

what do you think is a fair price? usually i go for 20 or 30 tops for a job that takes around an hour or so.

what do you think is a fair price? usually i go for 20 or 30 tops for a job that takes around an hour or so.

It depends.

But lets break this down.
100k (your goal) : 12 months = 8333$ each month.
Or 100k :52 weeks = 1933$ each week.
1933$ :40( work in your business) = 48 $
Now you work at 25/hourly = 50k
You only have 6 months to mow the lawns .,? Charge 100$ or hire people to do the labour for you.

Nobody can say to you., charge this amount.. or do this or that.
I send you a pm couple of weeks ago. Check it out. Helped me a lot.

 

[sparechange]

One of my clients is a fellow entrepreneur, (involved in window cleaning ironically enough) so I asked him to show me around and offered to work for free. Whilst doing some work we have a few people come up to us requesting us to work on theyre buildings! Certainly a small market in this, although in these businesses they are a money chase according to MJ which makes sense. But my idea is to eventually hire people for jobs and disconnect my time from the business (in the future)

On to the bad part of this post,my grass cutting operations I haven't been acquiring enough clients, I do have a handful, although to make enough for the month to feed myself etc is not profitable enough and im dipping into my cash far to much, sadly I will have to violate both whole books temporarily and work a suicide thought inducing job, with my move to Europe I don't want to be completely screwed when I am in a foreign country. i feel like crap breaking the commandments let alone the whole book.

I feel like a worthless loser, I am 25 years old and a broke idiot. On the positive side I built a tiny business that can earn me a few hundred dollars or so which i will to work more on to build clientele and scale further.. Ill still continue this venture, not all is lost! I refuse to be sucked into a career or job for the rest of my life, for now its a temporary jail and the key is value vouchers to get out, its like im on life parole. What a nightmare to consider there are people in my position in life at 50+

Lots of long days ahead..

 

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[sparechange]

next clients will go for the glory and go for a bigger price, have some unexplored neighborhoods to go through later on.

 

[Lucious]

Have you tired getting a property maintenance contract for a whole apartment block. You get the contract by contacting the owner of the block. The good thing is while you are doing maintenance work for the apartment block tenants will notice you and ask you to do side jobs for them as well. I did this for a while. You could potentially get a large amount of regular customers.

Go for a big contract , then some small jobs will naturally come up as well.

 

[sparechange]

made a few phone calls and alot of the properties around here (commercial) were already maintained. struggling to secure apartment work, but i do have some 'verbal' contracts with residential clients.

will try around in a different city

 

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[sparechange]

Went around a different part of the neighbourhood, lol bentleys and Porsches are so normal around here it's funny. So spent about half the day and didn't do to well, found maybe a couple houses where I could get a call back but not really to optimistic about it. Saw a fellow competitor and pretended to be a customer while asking for a quote on a similar sized lawn that he was already doing. Me, I'd price it at $15 to $20 max, it would take me under an hour easily...the price I got was $80 wtf!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!????????? Complete insanity someone would pay that! I guess I'm way undercutting myself, holy crap. And for fun on Sunday there is an open house for an $11 million mansion, gonna give that a look!

 

[sparechange]

alright been doing some mental mastu.........

a product i want to exist in the market locally (vancouver) exists in a different part of the world, now i looked at the price of it and it goes for $6k.....

really want to go after this, i have no idea on how ill do this but if people can figure out how to goto the moon in a big box perhaps ill figure it out on the way... id like to remake this product and go for a lower price to make it affordable to regular broke people like myself, i dont think this thing should be reserved for rich people that can afford to blow a few grand without a care. now whether this product is overpriced due to materials or pure greed ill have to learn myself, in the meantime ill have to be working a crappy job, so im not starving and sort my citizenship in eu.

played with my little notepad on hitting $1m

say if i retailed at below $1k mark (there is a similar company in a different field going for $1k and people are buying it alot)

so i could retail around $500 all i would need to sell it 2.000 units! breaking down the math really helps make the goal seem alot more achievable (laying a brick vs building a mansion) example, 5 year grind (400 units sold which is 34 sales a month) with a population of 7 billion, i dont see any reason why this is not a realistic venture, regardless of failing there are other niches as well...

almost done unscripted , one thing that slipped my mind is money saving and taxes/decision making. for sure i can see myself (ask anyone that knows me) making lots of money and then spending it all as MJ mentioned in later chapters.

25 young and dumb. have a good weekend guys

 

[sparechange]

crazy how people spend so much money on products, i have a notepad with products i will pursue and one market i think could be quite profitable is cat condos 77" Cat Tree

people spend $500 on stuff like this!?!?!? ha! if i sold 200 of these id clear my goal of $100k. there are millions of pet owners throughout the world so acquiring a small portion of the market would be a beautiful thing. so i read the reviews of the item and people are buying this stuff. regardless whether or not i even decide to do this or fail in it. it opens my eyes to the world of online sales. in theory its simple, executing is a different story. build a facebook page, instagram following and make a silly youtube channel yada yada.

ive completed unscripted , will have to refer to it every once and a while.. also ive discovered a positive and negative of online stores (just an opinion from a broke idiot) alot of them seem to be quite similiar and simply copy eachother, with everyone and theyre grandma riding the ecommerce train, lots of the competition is filled with crappy self acclaimed hot shot CEO's. i think standing out like a sore thumb in a positive way *having a brand* is attainable. my billionaire pal ive hiked with mentioned a strategy of online sales, to have a few small stores globally (physical products) and have the majority of sales online. this is where Nike will possibly going with theyre strategy of joining Amazon (hear-say)

ill need to hustle cash from a crappy job and start hustling into a niche. i believe im onto something, now the key is not to make a quick buck, but to build brands (like this website) and capture the market share.

 

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[sparechange]

been looking at calgary as an option, getting the run arounds with european consulate so if i have to wait for approvals and all that im thinking big berta is not a bad choice...been looking at some rooms to rent and i found a bunch for 300-500 range. extremely cheap compared to vancouver, my yearly expense could be under $10k a year for food and rent. some people on this forum clear 5 figures a month...applied for some jobs today...tm have a meeting with a manager to sell my soul.

 

[sparechange]

hoping this fb trial run for advertising works out, reporting back in a week...my vision for a product sale will be mass targeting on facebook, instagram, live demos, forum pitches, cold calling + renting possibly & youtube videos. chartering into dark waters here but the math just makes so much **** sense... not sure if i am delusional or onto something extremely huge. i believe the only way of finding out will be to test the market and wait for an echo.. a random google search reveals there are about 23 million users of my nice, in the part of unscripted when MJ talks about competing with big brands where you need to capture only a tiny % of the pie, if i can convince 2,300 people (0.01%) in the world to pay a mid 3 figure price i am clearing 6-7 figures, in theory i dont see why this isnt possible. of course, i need to start with one sale (more importantly creating the product!)

in the mean time scoped out more parts of the neighborhood and am not finding to many prospects for grass cutting.
perhaps will have a job in the next day or so...had an interview today, had a mini heart attack when they mentioned a career *yikes*

 

[sparechange]

ok i take back the week update, quite excited about this! fb advertising is working for me! im having a lot of unique visitors to my page!! ahh !! now onto creating the product, and making sales, this will be a long process

 

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[sparechange]

fb page is slowly blowing up, this is very good and motivating. im thinking some type of cool video/movie would also attract more people.

acquisition client for landscaping (i will shoot for a higher price!) asked if im able to remove garbage ah, dont have a truck ***** maybe i could find someone to do a small driving job.

today with a client from lawn cutting i worked with him on powerwashing a building/window cleaning and wall washing (fellow entrepreneur) so i asked him to show me around. and will get a retention grass cut when im able to next

have to fill out an assessment questionnaire for a silly job. didnt get a call back from another place i interviewed for...lol its funny, i need to beg on my ***** knees for a minimum wage job. please sir! may i have a job so i dont starve and die on the streets? im 25 and my life choices have led me to my position in my life, hey atleast im not in my 40's. i wish i had found unscripted /fastlane when i was 15, maybe id be worth 7 figures by now somewhere on a yacht on my private island!

had a few people approach me while working with the person showing me around and ask if were for hire about the cleaning jobs...hm will have to expand my grass cutting gig/upsell. a truck would be nice.

off topic about myself, as a kid ive done some mma and followed ufc religiously, really pumped about mcgregor & mayweather! the conferences are quite entertaining

 

[sparechange]

answering a million questions for a job assessment online omfg i want to scream. minimum wage loser job

 

[sparechange]

no luck on the job thing, 3 weeks or so have applied to a few different places and nothing, its hilarious. luckily my friend hooked me up a construction gig for now...want to make a few bucks and escape to the rockies.

for the facebook trial its been extremely successful , i spent $7 and gained 6.5k views or so. likes, shares and the whole works. i think ill save my next update for my first product creation or something. the next bit of time will be generally boring with working a retarded job that makes me think about killing myself saving a bit of extra cash, and having a crappy prototype product, is that the word?, heck if i know..onto making a product (as a learning experience) and possibly making a beautiful clash of ''sparechange'' !

i see several people using the product id like to remake, which people spend 2 grand on...fairly insane if you ask me..but as ive said vancouver people are to rich and dont care about $. my next post shall be a big one! may be a few weeks from now or so.

oh! and just a bonus laugh for you guys dont know if i posted this above, applied for a job at a cafe! minimum wage job serving coffee making sandwiches and stuff... built a rapport with management fairly quickly (made them laugh about a story i told from previous work) and later they asked about my experience with food, i was honest and said im not the greatest but am capable of learning! i have references from the #1 ski resort in vancouver that would vouch for my work ethic..is that something to be proud of?? anywho, they phoned days after saying i dont have enough experience making sandwiches! ha! putting a tomato piece of lettuce, and maybe some chicken in between a piece of bread is to hard ! amazing !! imagine if i applied for a job that requires more than one brain cell!?!? until next time ~sparechange

 

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[sparechange]

just a funny story, not an update. had a client i pitched for $25, trying to increase my price and said client declined my offer, so i quickly repitched for $15 lowballg myself and he accepted....after he payed with a $20 asking for $5 change lol. i said i only have a $10 so he GIVES ME $25 AND asks for a $10 back...ha!

done this a few times at an old sales job i had..repitched at a lower number and would close...best one i had was getting a solid *NO* 4 times in a row & then closing that person.

 

[sparechange]

I have a product online officially...now I just need to take my laptop to the beach, have a vacation and watch those 9 figure deposits into my bank account whilst sipping margaritas and writing inspirational quotes on facebook.



Ha! But really I AM online, I give myself the next month or so to make *one* single sale that is all I care about at the present time, so September 20th will be my personal deadline ** ACT, ASSES, ADJUST ** Clueless as how to most effectively market this product, although this will be a learning experience as we go on. As entrepreneurs we envision the goal to much and not the process, well at least me!

We'll see how I do within the next week or so, its night time and about to check into jail (work) in the morning... Keeping up with trying to stack up some cash and dump everything into *MY* brand, there was a great quote by someone.. went something like this ''Build your own dreams, or someone else will hire you to build yours'' I honestly feel sometimes trapped in life but believe I'm holding onto a golden egg, It will take some time to hatch and it needs to be taken care of. This will be a very important time for me.

I've discovered a third book that should help me on my journey by Lori Grenier, the woman from shark tank..she has a book on creating, marketing and selling a product which I'd strongly recommend for the majority of people on this forum.

Had my final client for landscaping (not been focusing to much on this a repeat customer) and gave away a freebie cut for my longest customer just to do a nice thing.

Try'd the value challenge stated in the book Unscripted and failed quite miserably. Noticed in the cities people never smile back (miserable people) and people in close knit communities occasionally smile back. (more common sometimes in high networth areas?) sometimes ill be at the beach side near all the massive houses and older people will engage first / say hello. (ongoing for a few weeks!)

Dont think theres much more to add, the main point is my test product is online and now it needs to be marketed effectively

cheers

 

[sparechange]

about to go read up on lori greniers book.. some insight into my thought process would be appreciated.

my current lifestyle is working during the week 8am - 4pm, its been like this for a bit. now that i have my product online, i need to ''wait'' ah dont even like saying that although thats how i feel. the product will sell or not and ill need to # act # asses # adjust and go from there giving myself a timeline of a month. in the mean time im working to earn cash with a little construction gig i got.

will be getting another paycheque tomorrow and will use that money for food/set up some advertising on facebook (been considering a youtube channel just need to come up with a video idea) most likely have some type of short clip of going around vancouver and showcase my product in a mini infomercial thats entertaining. along with the current facebook page i have with memes etc.

any input is greatly appreciated

if there was a belt ranking system in business similar to karate, id be a white belt with a few stripes confident enough to take on mark cuban in a kata demonstration match

my biggest fear is pouring my heart and soul into something and be delusional about its sucess.

 

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[sparechange]

Building a 10k sq foot mansion in surrey , 1 hour from vancouver, the garage is bigger than my whole apartment i had in burnaby when I first moved to bc! Boss invited staff out for drinks and spent the night at his place, spent a couple days away and just got back to the east side of vancouver, ugh... Have to go through the ghetto and go back "home" in kitts. Honestly it is like being in two different worlds, checked to see if I have any online pending sales and nothing! Will act adjust asses for the next few weeks, any input is highly welcome negative or positive. Gonna go clean up ( I'm covered in cement looking like a dirty bum on the street ) and spend my night reading Lori greenies book. Cheers

 

[sparechange]

Been thinking if I can't sell shortly eventually drop price and try again??