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

Idea threads

royemunson

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Ok. Great points Russ. It all starts with what is between your ears. Profound as it may be and no matter how many books state it, many of tend to forget that part.

My first step would be to pick a vehicle. As I believe I'm well versed from a standpoint of getting started in a number of avenues, I would have to pick one and focus based on my circumstances.

With little money, I have heard/seen it done in real estate, internet, or trading.

1. Real estate - since the markets have cooled, flipping preconstruction homes in CA isn't going to be the option. Esp since I'm in Ohio, if I were to go this route my choice would be to utilize what contacts and knowledge I do have to partner up with someone/some people looking for big deals. This route would have to allow enough time, money, and energy to pretty much put all eggs in one basket. As MJ has said there will be some barriers to entry when dealing in bigger deals, but if committed enough I could do it. Being that real estate isn't as liquid and now is a time to buy, but necessarily not sell, this may not be the route I would take. The option could be to buy low enough to refi/cash out and put that liquid cash in the bank.

2. Trading. Here I would focus solely on futures. Being that I was trained in futures on the technical side, I have seen it done. The main points would be focus, plan, and money management. I wouldn't risk everything on one trade, but I would have to keep rolling my money over and really set my emotions aside and follow my system. Starting with 3K limits me to the markets, but one trade can make the difference. Obviously you have some downside risk to this too and can lose it all immediately, but that would be a learning experience worth learning. On top of trading, I would set up some sort of site/blog/ or something to track my progress that could eventually lead into a subscription based community site to discuss/track trades going forward.

3. Internet. I agree with many others. I have already sold everything possible on ebay - trust me I checked, so that is out to gain additional capital. I currently have an idea that would cost much less to start, but I would have to be super aggressive and really work the plan. It is a service and does cater to businesses - mostly service type businesses. It isn't real tech oriented, the market can be competitive, but not necessarily. I have seen others doing something similar in various markets making over half million a year, so in 15 months this woudl be possible.
As for research, I am looking more and deeper to ensure my strategy at least has some staying power and ability to get off the ground.

It is possible - hearing someone successful like Peter2 say, yeah I'm going to start another business soon - sounds so confident and makes you excited that it can be done.

Looking forward to seeing what kurtyordy does!
good luck

Joe
 
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randallg99

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a lot of good ideas on this thread... except that the time period to record a $997,000 profit using 3k will require a lot of leverage. SteveO`s idea is good.... but I have a question - has anyone on this board gathered partners together without bringing dough to the table?

While real estate presents awesome opportunity for leverage, 5k is a tough amount to get real estate with... site planning, engineering, attorney, and other expenses generally swallow up much more than 5k.... also, doing DD on property to find the right one that will reap these kinds of rewards are out there but tough to find and close on (in my experience) and realistically can take significantly longer than 15 months to achieve the objective.

to answer the threads question- I am buying shares of publicly traded junior e and p companies and using derivatives on margin. As the US$ continues to flutter (and for as long as the yuan is pegged) it looks like foreign junior gold, silver and other metal mining companies will reap highest rewards along with other foreign holdings.
 
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Peter2

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It is possible - hearing someone successful like Peter2 say, yeah I'm going to start another business soon - sounds so confident and makes you excited that it can be done.

Of course it's possible. It's actually pretty easy to go from $3000 to $1,000,000 in 15 months. You don't actually have to earn a million. All you have to do is start a business that make a $25,000/month profit and then sell it after 15 months, and you should have a million.

Of course you need to start making $25K/month very quickly, but it shoudn't take more than a couple of months to get to that point.
 

SteveO

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but I have a question - has anyone on this board gathered partners together without bringing dough to the table?

I am closing on a 4.8M deal next week with investor money. The next one should be 8-15M.
 
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snowbank

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To turn $3k into 1M, I would do:

- Day trading
- Arbitrage
- Affiliate Marketing

I guess websites like the million dollar homepage, wiki etc would work too if you're good at marketing. I think many of them spend a ton more than $3k building and marketing those sites though..

shawn,

do you currently day trade?
 

snowbank

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2. Trading. Here I would focus solely on futures. Being that I was trained in futures on the technical side, I have seen it done. The main points would be focus, plan, and money management. I wouldn't risk everything on one trade, but I would have to keep rolling my money over and really set my emotions aside and follow my system. Starting with 3K limits me to the markets, but one trade can make the difference. Obviously you have some downside risk to this too and can lose it all immediately, but that would be a learning experience worth learning. On top of trading, I would set up some sort of site/blog/ or something to track my progress that could eventually lead into a subscription based community site to discuss/track trades going forward.

Joe

Joe,

I'd be real interested in speaking with you. I had been looking into trading, and decided on futures a few weeks ago. I've been studying/training with someone in my spare time.

-Bill
 

camski

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I agreee with Russ in that it is interesting the responses this thread has elicited. Myself when i first read the challenge it started me to thinking about how I would do it and to be honest I havent come up with a concrete plan yet ( a few possibilities but I am in the planning stages and not ready to post them until I ave it all figured out). What i find interesting is how many people in this thread seem to be just throwing things out there without really putting much thought into this. What makes this challenge so great is that it can be done but not without planning. I am a big believer in taking action but I also believe that you must spend some time planning or you can end up waisting time and resources when you just rush into something without really knowing where you are going. It seems very cliche' but a sales manager told me this when I fiorst started in sales, PLAN YOUR WORK and WORK YOUR PLAN.
 
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AroundTheWorld

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but I have a question - has anyone on this board gathered partners together without bringing dough to the table?

Yup, we closed on a deal last week.

Remember.... deals are not just about the money. It is not the *only* thing that NEEDS to be brought to the table in a partnership or JV.

There are 4 basic necessities in putting a deal together:

  • MONEY
  • CREDIT
  • TIME
  • KNOWLEDGE

So what if you don't have or don't want to use your own money,

what else can you bring to the table?
 

LazyPenguin

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Havent read all the posts yet. but im going to definately later.

this all is perfect for me! im 17 and im looking forward to reading the rest.
Russ, you start some very interesting posts, but I like 'em. :D
 
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LazyPenguin

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Okay, Ive read all of the posts and they are very interesting. Like Russ said there are 3 different types of people here, but I also see it differently. Because in those 3 catagories, The people who are successful and confident AND have the experience say it CAN be done and some say its easy (peter2 :notworthy:)

But the people with lack of experience say it is not possible and there is no way, or they say reduce the amount of money at the end of 15 months (the 100k plan) wel this is a $1 million plan so strive for that.

I have lack of experience but I believe this is totally possible
If you put your mind to something and work at it, anything is possible, creativity is KEY

I will post my 15 month plan as soon as I finish brainstorming about it

By the way, eBay you must be 18 to have an account.

peter2, you say its easy to create a biz that make $25,000/month, but you never explained on how to do it. I hope you can give me and the rest of us a more in-depth response if possible, please and thank you :coolgleamA:
 

LazyPenguin

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The first part of my plan:

-go to printmaking shop
-get prints of my art pieces
-sell my art pieces to gain profit
-use income to create more, but set a limit on how many, to raise value
-Donate 5% of earnings to local charity I am interested in helping
-complete more art and repeat above ^

-Use excessive cash and put into an investments account (only can spend this money on investment from here on out)
-Continue to add money to this account until I turn 18 (happens to be a month away)

Little hazy from here on out
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
-Invest in stocks
-Begin a part-time business
-Invest in real estate

-sell biz/real estate

-create another biz from $ from 1st.. my point is to re-invest passive income

needs work but ive already put this into action, I'm sure I can make things work :banana:
 
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imirza

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There are some pretty interesting posts in here.

$3,000 do $1 million in 15 months. Challenging but certainly not beyond the realm of possibility.

Acquire an REO package from a bank. Make a bulk purchase of SFRs for 50-60 cents on the Dollar. Sell it for 60-70 cents in individual pieces. eg. the bank is offering $20 million of real estate for $11-12 million. Buy and sell individual pieces for $13-14 million. Things like this are being done on a regular basis in todays market. It pays to think BIG. The notion of buying a below market value property and flipping it for $20k profit is thinking too small.
 
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andviv

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imirza, you have not mentioned HOW you'd do it with $3K. Yes, we all agree in how great buying REOs for pennies on the dollar is, but your post seems like SPAM to me. Please answer the question by providing a plan. You'd use $3K as a 5% down payment for a property worth $120K and buy it from the bank at 60K and have the bank pay for your closing costs... is this what you are proposing? or are you proposing to put those $3K in your investment group to buy these REO packages?
 

Russ H

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Andviv-

I removed the part of imirza's message that is trying to sell something.

imirza- If you are looking for investment partners, then you need to post this part in the Investment Assets section (under Residential, if you're talking about SFHs).

And imirza, if you re-read the original post that started this thread, you'll realize that what you suggest is outside the bounds of this exercise.

Please re-read the conditions/structure of the proposal and make an appropriate reply if you wish. :)

Thanks,

-Russ H.
 
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imirza

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Sorry. Did not mean to come across as a spammer.

Russ. Did not see the no RE , no borrowing part. You could start an LLC to buy the RE for you and get equity partners and borrow from private individuals vs banks and lending institutions. Just a thought.

If RE is out of the picture than why not try brokering an RE deal. Find a bank that needs to get rid of their REO portfolio. Offer to find a buyer. If you can find a buyer and get the deal closed you could get a 2-3% commission check or even more. If the portfolio is sold for $50 million you could get atleast $1 million. Many banks and asset managers get rid of their REOs in chunks of $50 -100 million and sometimes more.
 

Russ H

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imirza-

Thank you. GREAT update to your post. :)

SteveO-

I'm tempted to tease you about reading the fine print, but I know you have someone in your life that works with you on things like that. I can only assume your wife doesn't read all of your posts. :smxB:

For what it's worth, I don't do ANYTHING until my wife reads a contract. Almost every single time, she's found something I've missed. Part of why I married her (she sees things I don't) :)

-Russ
 
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Russ H

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china-

This is the second time you've tried to answer this question.

The first time was called out by forum members as spam, and you asked me to delete it.

This second post was, I think, something you thought was funny. It did not constructively contribute to the discussion.

You'll note that we have a section for humor and off-topic discussions.

You'll also note that the majority of the humor on this site does not demean or ridicule others (except, perhaps, for cats ;) ).

Please reconsider your motivation for posting/being here and try to make posts that contribute to the positive, proactive nature of these forums.

Thanks! :)

-Russ H.
 
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china

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china-

This is the second time you've tried to answer this question.

The first time was called out by forum members as spam, and you asked me to delete it.

This second post was, I think, something you thought was funny. It did not constructively contribute to the discussion.

You'll note that we have a section for humor and off-topic discussions.

You'll also note that the majority of the humor on this site does not demean or ridicule others (except, perhaps, for cats ;) ).

Please reconsider your motivation for posting/being here and try to make posts that contribute to the positive, proactive nature of these forums.

Thanks! :)

-Russ H.

Au contraire, my dear. This is the first time I have tried to answer this particular post. The other time you slammed me for an original post that had nothing to do with this thread and I did ask to have that post removed because it was not well-thought out.

I had no idea so many of the members here were so young until I read the "Say Hello" or "Introduce yourself" board. Now I realize I was way off-color for those under 18 and I apologize. I will only talk about fluffy kitties and oinky pigs from now on and I will refrain from writing anything that would be appropriate for National Lampoon. I'll also try to add lots of smilies :notworthy::rofl::blush::smx4::iagree::banana::smx1::cheers: because people like you like them. :smxG:

So... $3,000 to $1,000,000 in 15 months? I suggest creating a website and running unusual content. My original suggestion (since deleted) involved dates with starlets (which would be really cool, yes?) and raffle tickets. In other words, raffling off dates with starlets! :love2: Of course, you have to get the starlets to agree and herein lies the problem. :smxD: Unless you know some starlets! :icon_super:

If you don't know any starlets, then I would still suggest a website. I would try to get popular content and a gazillion hits a day. Isn't that how people collect adsense dollars? (Oh! And try to be funny! and try to get people like Russ to hate you because people just Luv conflict!):hurray::hurray::hurray::hurray::smx4::eusa_clap::eusa_clap::smx6: :3some:

Conflict and smilies: I just love the banana guy myself! :banana::banana::banana:
 

Russ H

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China-

You are right-- the post you asked me to delete was not part of this thread.

I'm sorry you feel like I "slammed" you for that post; I PM'd you (in private) to let you know that other members on these forums had reported that post as SPAM, and you PM'd me back and asked me to delete it.

My apologies for misremembering/thinking that it had been part of this thread.

-Russ H.
 

china

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It's okay Russ. I'll try not to take it personally... (I couldn't find the crying PMS woman smiley so I guess this site isn't catering to women... boohoo...:smxD: )

I'll try to only write humor for younger folks and I'll stay away from anything having to do with Frank Sinatra or <gawd forbid> Huey Lewis & the News.

:smx4:Silly old me. :iamwithstupid:
Love this one: :icon_super:

:smx19:
 
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Russ H

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Hey, I like Huey Lewis and the News!

(I used to live across the street from Huey's dad).

I like Sinatra, too.

Never lived close to his pop, though. :)

-Russ H.

(hint for the video below: Hit play and mouse forward to 4:12-- that's when the music starts)

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dIH8xctqGUw"]YouTube - Doing It All For My Baby - Huey Lewis &amp; The News[/ame]
 

Russ H

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Absolutely!

Let's get back on track:

WildAmbitions, you're obviously following this thread with interest.

What would *you* do to take $3K an turn it into $1M in 15 months?

Looking forward to your response. :)

-Russ H.
 
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biophase

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That's a tough thing to do. I can't see any way to do it other than trying your hand at the markets.

Think about how many examples there are of people who've done this less than a year ago. Here are two:

www.milliondollarhomepage.com - took him 5 months
www.milliondollarwiki.com - He's at $100k in 3 months I believe

I heard about this from a friend of mine and don't know the name of the company. I post this just as an example of thinking outside the box. Two people developed a website that tracks lightning strikes. Collects weather data from sources online. Simple huh? WTF do you do with a website that collects lightning data???? Sell it to insurance companies!!! Result? $1M sales in a few months.

How about a site that sells a service at $25/mo. 10,000 members in 12 months. $250,000 a month in gross revenue.
 

randallg99

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Response deleted.

>>> Last edited by Russ H : 09-29-2007 at 11:09 AM. Reason: Inappropriate humor (celebrity/gay/world trade center/organ transplants/sex change/transexuality; did not answer question)<<<

holy crap! how did china manage to inappropriately bring offensive content containing celebrity/gay/world trade center/organ transplants/sex change/transexuality all in one post?!? I wish I read it. heh.

Anyway, here is an excercise I learned not too long ago and have found it helpful enough to share with the forum... credit goes to Brian Tracey, the sales/motivational guru.

I use this tactic commonly among my personnel and I have found it very, very effective and I cannot emphasize enough the power of what we call a `mind storm.`

When confronting an idea, or a task, or a problem, simply write down the idea, task or problem on top of a piece of paper and then form a question pertaining to solving the task/problem or pertaining to developing the idea.... at this juncture, spend at least 20-30 minutes writing down every single idea that pops to mind... no thought is too crazy to put on paper.

Assess the info you wrote on the paper and pick only a few ideas to work from (unless you have the time to act on all of the ideas)

The title of this thread is a perfect candidate for a mind storm... How to make 3k into 1mil in 15 months. ...

I perform a mind storm on a weekly basis- most recently, the topic was how to develop my sales personnel more. I was pleased with many of the results and have already implemented a few of them.

Good luck.
 

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