$3,000 to $1,000,000 in 15 months: HOW TO DO IT

[LAMBO-N-IT]

Hmm this is an extermely interesting topic. I have been thinking for hours on how to come up with something. The one advantage I would have in this is I am thinking in a Canadian perspective. There are a lot of things that Canadians order from the US that causes a lot of issues at the border so we don't bother anymore. For example, muscle building/fat loss supplements from the US are about 50% less then the local stores sell them for here. You do not need to have every product immediately in your line up of things but you could have some of the more popular stuff. Ie..2 or 3 different types of protein (the most popular brands) 2-3 fat burners, etc. etc. I think inventory would cost you $2000. And you could run some ads, hand out some fliers at the mall, and maybe put in a radio ad or two on a station that younger people listen to. Advise them that its a local canadian store and that local drop off/pickup is available. Also if they want items shipped use paypal. Of course the product can be changed but there are a lot of things that get stuck at the border for a long time which is frustrating. Not to mention UPS/fedex etc. usually charge insane amounts of brokerage fees. Ie. I ordered an exhaust for one of my cars worth 1300 and had to pay 107 in brokerage. If you live close to the UPS office (45 mins away here) You could clear all the stuff yourself. I have a few other ideas that I will post as well. **edit: To avoid delays in shipping so that you can have good shipping times if your location is Vancouver like mine is the border is 45 minutes away. I could go pick up the products accross the border and clear them myself.

I have a great idea for manufacturing a product in China but not sure what the costs on doing something like that would be.

 

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[skeebadeek]

Interesting thread. Here's a way to do it even faster. A little humor.

1. Choose a wealthy philanthropist or charitable celebrity and monitor his/her daily activity
2. Notice where he/she gets hair cuts, shops for clothes and groceries, goes to Church, work etc.
3. Narrow the down the most predictable routine.
4. Pay someone $3000 and stage a runaway car driving right at the celebrity while leaving Church/etc.
5. Come out of nowhere, dive in and save his/her life.
6. When they say what can they ever do to repay you, ask for 1 million to start your new venture.

Of course I would never suggest that anyone do this, but you cant deny the possibilities.

 

[SteveO]

That is thinking outside of the box...

Keeping yourself outside of the box (slammer) might take some creative thinking as well. :smx4:

 

[fanocks2003]

What I would do with $3k in my pocket in order to create $1million in liquid cash in the bank in 15 months:

1) I would find a smaller company for sale.
2) I would put the $3k down as an option payment for the company (1% of sales price. That means you will control a $300k company).
3) I would then look for buyers to buy the shares I controlled for more money than I paid for it.
4) Pay taxes on the gains and put the gains on a new buy option (preferably not every cent of the gains though). On a bigger company. And repeat.

This is a workable option. This way is also more controllable than if you bought stock options on the stock exchange.

You can do this with real estate also.

The risk: If you don't succeed you will lose the premium payment on the option you bought. But you could have lost that kind of money doing anything else also. Business is not in anyway certain. Even the most robust business can go bust.

 

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[TheLife]

No skills, no money, no network!

My questoin would be:
What about the man or woman that is 7 thousand dollars in the whole. Fact!

10,000 away from the Goal given just to start the project.Fact!

All this young man has is a "desire" to obtain capital.

1. Where does he start?

2. Who and what does he eliminate? Should he eliminate disfuction at all?

"3. and 1." Considering that his question might be for a person within the general public... How long will it take for someone in a position with an even higher level of difficlty to turn his or her financial disability around?Knowing that there is no given answer. What should he or she do? "Will anyone offer advice to this young man? Just a question?"

Reason being, I do not know of a person with 3k in the bank without everything else surrounding this person. What should the common man do?

 

[andviv]

so yo have a desire and no skill, no money, no network?

OK, for sure you are good, very good at something. What could that be? Only you can answer that.

Skills and Network are things you can build on the cheap from a financial perspective, but the price is high, you need to dedicate your most valuable asset, TIME.

Do you know how to read? (of course, you are here)
Do you have access to a public library? (probably, right?)
Then go to the Book Reviews & Recommendations section in this forum and see what others here have recommended, borrow the book from the library and get to it. That's how you build the "technical" skill, by learning the concepts and theory and then apply them.

About networking, what type of network you want to build?
The best way I know of is by being part of the professional field you want to be part of. The example I always provide is, if you wanted to be in Real Estate Investment then go get a job in a RE Broker company. Start doing something, anything, answer the phones, be the copy boy/girl, and while there you will be in permanent contact with professionals in that field and you will start learning the terms used. Yes, it is a job, but hey, you will be getting paid to learn what you want to be doing.

Also, this forum provides a great way for networking. I have partnered with people from this forum. I learn from many of them constantly.

I know, it is not going to be easy, but it is doable.

What if I tell you there is a "mentoring program" here where some experts will give you advice and seed money to start. How much time would you put in it? How much effort? How much would you give back to your mentor and the community?

Sorry, I know this is not the answer you want to hear. But it is the reality I've seen. It is very simple, but it is not easy. You will have to invest your time. You will have to work for it. Have you read MJ's success story? What about Around The World's? Those are great inspiration.

 

[Jito]

Re: No skills, no money, no network!

Reason being, I do not know of a person with 3k in the bank without everything else surrounding this person. What should the common man do?

If you don't know one person with 3k in the bank, you might want to consider expanding both your professional and social circles. Something to think about. I believe it is important to surround yourself success oriented individuals.

 

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[AroundTheWorld]

Re: No skills, no money, no network!

Reason being, I do not know of a person with 3k in the bank without everything else surrounding this person. What should the common man do?

First of all, welcome to the forums!!! They can change your life!

Start with your mind. I know it's not action - - - not right away, but it is a necessary step. There are ways for you to get there.... some of the ideas on this thread take less than $50 dollars to start.

1) Eliminate all the outflow that is unnecessary. Evaluate your expense. Go to the Plan thread. It will help you do that.

2) Start setting some goals and expanding your mind... Go to: Steps to Financial Freedom.

3) Spend a lot of time browsing around these forums.... there are a lot of people here that have started with nothing or less than nothing (we were 50K in the hole!!!) and made it.... so you can too! Read some of the Success Stories.

 

[kurtyordy]

Another option, become homeless

http://www.thefastlanetomillions.com/showthread.php?t=8372

 

[TheLife]

I surely know the power of one! What I would like to know is what about joint ventures

Are this an exception to the thread posted?

Is there anyone who would like to take on a joint venture? Condidering that each member has 3 thousand dollars to start!

The numbers would be mor elike $6,000 to $4,000,000.

 

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[Jill]

I surely know the power of one! What I would like to know is what about joint ventures . . .

Joint ventures can create amazing synergy, provided both (all?) partners bring some kind of equity to the game. If you truly don't think that you (or your friend) can go it alone, then seek a partner. That's reasonable. But you must bring as much to the table as he does. If you have no capital, no skill set, no connections, etc, then you must accept the fact that you are going to have to bring more sweat equity than your partner(s). Don't resent that. If you're lucky, you may find a mentor. But you need to first look at yourself. What are YOU willing to do. What are YOU willing to sacrifice to turn that under-capitalized position into personal freedom? I know the verbiage sounds a little nebulous and PMA bookish. But it really isn't. These are real questions which many other folks on this forum have answered with action (and subsequently, success.)

Are you WILLING to do it by yourself? Do you believe that you CAN do it alone if you had to? What are you willing to sacrifice? Your ego? Your free time? Your luxuries (alcohol? soda? candy? tobacco? nice car? movies? cable? travel? nice clothes? Starbucks? dining out? online gaming?)

Not everyone is in a position that requires them to "bootstrap" and really sacrifice. But if you are not in a situation that affords you an easy way to increase your income, then you are - at least temporarily - stuck with the alternative of decreasing your expenses.

THEN get back to us.

 

[PEERless]

Lottery?

1. Odds of winning the Powerball jackpot: 1 in 146,107,962.
2. Odds, playing 3,000 times: 1 in 146,107,962 (the same)
3. Odds playing 3,000 tickets one time: 1 in 48,703.

Still not the best odds, BUT

1. Odds of winning $3 (tripling your money): 1 in 69
2. Out of 3000 tickets, about 43 will win >$3: $129 to try again.

So if you "invest" all your winnings back in the lottery, you'd get slightly more than 3,000 tries or slightly better that a 1 in 48,703 chance of winning a jackpot.

Larger wins along the way will increase returns and number of plays. Have fun!

 

[prodij]

If one has no special skills, I think Porn could be one of the only options. I know that this is not the most robust plan, but the criteria didn't indicate the scalability and robustness of the business.

 

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[australianinvestor]

I can't help myself:

Turn $3K into $1m in 15 months by moving to Zimbabwe. You'll need a million bucks in 15 months to buy what $3k today will buy you!

*naughty laugh*


Sorry, I actually am writing an extensive response, I promise

Daniel.

 

[Russ H]

Going from $1,000,000 to $3,000 is easy.

There have been so many that have read this thread, and so few that have really taken on the challenge.

-Russ H.

 

[howard_two]

Yeah, I've thought about that, but a little research indicated that I could only make about $500 per film. So, to make $1M, I'd have to do about 2000 films, and at one every other day, that would take about 12 years. That's not fastlane enough for me...

JScott, I think you're wrong. Your answer lacks imagination my friend. You see with some good planning and a lot of viagra I think it's doable. You can make at least three movies a day. This will shorten the time span to only two years. But again some entrepreneurial imagination can be used to gain the extra 6 months. Follow the lead of John Holmes and do some movies that pay more than $500 and which include goats, monkeys and horses as actors.

I think we have just solved this dilemma. Thank you James. Porn is the way to go. Porn is our Fastlane.

Caveat: BTW the above plan will only work if you eat and drink nothing.

I am sorry guys but I am little tipsy tonight. :smx6:

 

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[howard_two]

Yeah, but then it becomes a JOB...

You know I was joking...:smx9: Right? I was making fun of this dumb low idea. I myself despise people who use porn to get rich or make a living...
Wrong wrong way...:tdown: using people addictions and weaknesses is wrong.

 

[prodij]

I am sure most people are familiar with ecommerce these days and how the online marketing is done and shipping can be done worldwide.
So, let's think about this issue with 3 assumptions:

1. There are many US brands that are sold at premium elsewhere in the world because of tariffs and multi-level distribution channels.
2. Internet marketing is currently developing in many counties in the world. Many algorithms attempt to imitate google's adwords or even just partner with them. (or Yahoo's Overture) Some keywords are still very cheap.
3. There is enough demand for a particular brand products in the target country.

I know that above assumptions can be true because I've done my research. Google adwords can be paid in NET30 through credit cards. But since our guy is 17 he may have to front it or ask his mommy. Let's target about $1000 in Pay per click campaigns our first month.
He needs to make an ecommerce site for about $2K and put the products online himself.
He needs to find someone who is in distribution channel of these branded items. such items need to be small in volume and high in price. about $100 + can work. Very cheap rate shipping to Asia will be about $20+. The key is finding someone who can provide the goods with about 40%+ margin to get about 15~20% profit.
He needs to get his payment online. Which should hit his bank account in about 5 days max after the transaction.
I am not sure if getting a merchant account is possible for our minor but let's say that he somehow gets it done.
We are in business. With good enough keywords and traffic, he should be able to do 30K in revenue in a few months with positive cashflow if he can get the conversion rate above 2%, per click charges under a buck and average ticket at around $100.

Of course, he will need to do customer service which he can do after school. With time difference in Asia, his customer service can start after 5PM.

One more thing... he will need to know the native tongue... that's why he may need a gf or a partner or cheap translation labor force( which could be an illegal alien.. because they are cheaper)
I know I skipped a lot details, but I believe this is scalable enough to hit $1M in 15 months.:seeya:

 

[rxcknrxll]

Great post ... I'm formulating a strategy and will post it when complete.

In the meantime, a young man created the following page with the same aspirations

MillionDollarWiki
http://www.milliondollarwiki.com/

As of this post, he's recorded 450+ entries. At $100 apiece, thats $45,000 or 4.5% to his goal. Not sure how old the site is, but its been growing steadily. Novel concept and I commend the young man for being enterprising.

Pretty sure he's been doing that since May 07.

 

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[jaytrader43]

My Plan:

I live in Jamaica, and there aren't any localized online classified services here. I plan to create an online classifieds page, like for cars, land, cellphones, etc, charge $1000 JMD (about $14 US) for people to put their ads for cars, land, etc. on the page. Jamaica has large-ish internet user base, and therefore provides me with around 60-100 thousand customers. I will then charge website owners in Jamaica (and worldwide i guess) $30,000 JMD ($418 US) for an ad slot for one month. I will now show you the startup and expected sales.
Advertising will be by word of mouth and newspaper classifieds.

Startup:
Web Host: Dreamhost: $214.80 / 2 years
Website Creation: $70 (Template purchase)
Advertising: $2000 for two months

Sales:
Classified Ads
$14 x 40,000
$420,000

Ads:
$418 x 50 advertisers/mo *12 mo/yr *5 slots
$1,254,000

This won't work in the USA though as that is provided, but in Jamaica, there are no localized services providing this.

Now for Profits:

Income:
$1,254,000
+ $420,000
Less: Expenditure:
$2284.80

Equals: $1,671,715.20 Profits in 12 months.

 

[AroundTheWorld]

Where in Jamaica are you? (I lived there for a year... near Kingston)

 

[jaytrader43]

Where in Jamaica are you? (I lived there for a year... near Kingston)

Barbican. Near Kings House.

Where did you live?

 

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[AroundTheWorld]

I honestly don't remember!! LOL. I was there in 92-93. I lived in two different places when I was there. The first one started with a "b". It was west of Kingston (about 45 minutes) I took the bus in everyday to go to Holy Childhood. The second place was in a nicer neighborhood - and closer to the heart of Kingston.

I am surprised to hear that a lot of people there use the internet. But then again, the internet was hardly even around when I was there!

 

[jaytrader43]

I honestly don't remember!! LOL. I was there in 92-93. I lived in two different places when I was there. The first one started with a "b". It was west of Kingston (about 45 minutes) I took the bus in everyday to go to Holy Childhood. The second place was in a nicer neighborhood - and closer to the heart of Kingston.

I am surprised to hear that a lot of people there use the internet. But then again, the internet was hardly even around when I was there!

lol ya, back then it was called yahoo as that was the only site people knew about

So what you think of my idea?

 

[AroundTheWorld]

Jay,

I'll let other's more experienced in the world of internet business answer that one... It is out of my area!

 

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[jaytrader43]

I was also thinking of allowing people to open up virtual stores on the site, and have employees, etc.

 

[qwerety]

Ok, I only read the first post, none of the others because I want to try this all on my own. I don't have much experience in this kinda thing, so it may be a terrible idea so bear with me. I don't have anything yet, but I printed out the rules for this so I can spend some time on it.

My only question is how exact do certain numbers have to be? For instance, say I wanted to buy a domain or whatever for an internet business (which is what I was leaning towards to start). I just make up some random number like 10 bucks a month it cost for it, could I just go with that number or any other made up number, or does it have to be close to exact? I know in most instances it would be hard to be exact, but I could run into something where I could be way off in price.

 

[yveskleinsky]

For this project, as well as for a real-life business plan, you would want your numbers to be close to exact. So for example, if you were to launch a site for cooking, you would maybe put down that a domain cost you $5/year, and hosting was $10/month, and other other expenses you think you might have as a startup (marketing expenses, business cards, inventory, etc) and then you figure out your anticipated x number of customers and how much they would spend x in product/service from you, and how often. There are often expenses (and sometimes income!) that you don't plan for in your initial business plan, that appears as you ride your learning curve. The more experience you have (and get) the more accurate your numbers become. Of course in real life you would want to get estimates from various people and call around as much as possible so you can get as accurate as possible, so you are as prepared as you possibly can be. Hope that helps.

 

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[Russ H]

My only question is how exact do certain numbers have to be? For instance, say I wanted to buy a domain or whatever for an internet business (which is what I was leaning towards to start). I just make up some random number like 10 bucks a month it cost for it, could I just go with that number or any other made up number, or does it have to be close to exact? I know in most instances it would be hard to be exact, but I could run into something where I could be way off in price.

It's not that hard to be exact, at least with the example you give.

A very important part of implementing a successful PLAN is accurate budgeting/costing. This is part of a process called "due diligence". In a nutshell, due diligence is anything and everything you need to do PRIOR to buying something, building something, starting a business, etc.

It's understood that these numbers may change-- costs go up (or down), you think of other things you need, or eliminate others you thought were important, but aren't.

But for the planning phase, go online and get the costs. Investigate what you need, and check a few spots to see what the costs are.

Do NOT just "guess"-- this is a sure-fire way to screw up your PLAN.

The more you flesh out your idea with specifics (thinking through the entire process), the better chance you have of succeeding.

-Russ H.

 

[rxcknrxll]

SteveO-

Because the person who presented this challenge to me was under the age of 18, and said, upfront, that he wanted to do RE, but was not old enough.

BUT-- if you can figure out a way to do this at 16 years of age, then go for it!

My RadioHead link above also violates the rule of not having any advance experience/skills, but I still liked its audacity (bypassing the record companies).

I think it would be extremely difficult for a 16-17 year old to generate $1,000,000 in RE before they were 18, but again--it's probably doable.

I encourage out-of-the-box thinking in this exercise-- but do keep to the limits (16/17 years old, no advanced skills/experience/network of investors).

-Russ H.

I agree there's no way Radiohead's record would have made that return if they had not toured incessantly for years prior to this, building a very loyal fan base. BUT, and I believe this is a big "but"...they reinvented the rules, identified an opportunity and cashed in on it. They gave everything their fans wanted in a new way and made millions overnight as a result. There's a lot of talk about making mad cash in a very quick fashion. The only way to do this is to take equally mad risk (calculated as it may be) and to be audacious. Radiohead accomplished this in spades.

Personally while I feel this thread gets the mind thinking, and that's always a good thing, it should be more of an exercise than anything else. I'd rather set my mind on how to earn 20M over 20 years as opposed to 1M the FIRST year. There's kind of a fundamental difference in mindset in the former, and I feel it's not only more realistic but also more beneficial to the users of this forum.

Not trying to bust on this thread, just sayin...

It ABSOLUTELY is possible to earn a million dollars your first year. Chances are you are either a very rare type of genius that comes along every once in a while, OR you are someone who is not ready for that kind of success, and you will probably lose it as quickly as you earned it. Just a couple thoughts I thought I'd get out there.