As MJ Said: "Finally turned a corner"

[CorsePerVita]

I wanted to share an update on my progress, I have not posted in a while. Figured i'd share with you what I shared with MJ.

A while back I was in a hell of a rut, had a hard time figuring stuff out and where i wanted to go. I took MJ's advice he told me a long time ago, and these are words he shared with me.

To sum up, no one gives a rats a$$ about your dreams and "doing what you love" -- what they do care about is what you can do for them; what your business can do for them.

If you can make 1,000,000 people achieve any of the following:

1) Make them feel better
2) Help them solve a problem
3) Educate them
4) Make them look better (health, nutrition, clothing, makeup)
5) Give them security (housing, safety, health)
6) Arise a positive emotion (love, happiness, laughter, self-confidence)
7) Satisfy appetites of all kind, from basic (food) to the risqué (sexual).

Make things easier
9) Enhance their dreams and give hope

You will end up making a lot of money. Best of all, that list is the short one - there are many others.

Ultimately, you have to ask yourself this: "What do I have to offer the world?"

Good luck.

I thought about it long and hard. I eventually got my foot in the door with my place of employment and got a raise and a promotion. Things looked great. Things have been great. However, something just kept bugging me. "Isn't there more? Isn't there more? There has to be MORE."

And then I started to realize something.

Here's what I sent MJ.

I know I recently messaged you. But I got to thinking harder and harder and well...

So i got to thinking about things more. love this job i finally got, but my thirst is much larger. i've had the itch to start a web design business, there is seemingly a lot of demand, and too many amateurs designing for far too much money for their work.

I spoke to my boss and let him know my intentions to ensure no conflict of interest, he said "go for it, that's fine as long as it doesn't interfere with this job."

in a matter of 2 weekends i made more off of 2 sites than i did in a long time, and then invested all of it into a compiled fund with the rest of my "safe money" in cd's for now, and a bit more in some stocks i hold.

I thought "man i'm onto something."

Taking your advice of "it's about how we can make the customer happier and wanting to pay more money, than thinking 'how can i make more money?'..." i give all my clients my email, phone number and told them "i'm on call for you 24 hours a day."

They're aware of my work situation, but i'm always able to help them around my work schedule, and have my contacts on my phone which is tied to the wonderful internet.

suddenly i'm making more money, and my "normal job" pays the bills, the other job pays for the further investments my life has been wanting to set aside.

I finally feel i'm making progress here.

Because the market is pretty volatile i've stuck with insanely longterm investments which i feel to be safe, the other bit of my fund that was in stocks is now in recurring cd's for interest funds so they can build and compile. every time i make money off of a web job, it goes there.

I've found that offering people something that is competitive of much higher quality, and service that is unmatchable (making my clients feel like they are my top priority every time they call, and things will get done) and for a far better cost.. they just keep coming.

Progress!

So as MJ replied, as I asked with "Now the question is, how do I better invest my money?

...

1) Gives you power to create more money ... remember the old "$10,000,000 at 5% interest is $500,000/yr" Can you live on 500K/year or $40k+/mo?

or

2) Every dollar put away gives way to doors of opportunity when Fastlane opps come by ... while trading your time for design jobs might be considered slowlane, it is a HUGE step in the right direction because now you're on a different playing field where you can leverage up the value of your time. Instead of making $15/hr at the job, you can leverage up your time to earn $250/hr.

Congrats and again, plz post this great news on the forum!!

I finally feel like I'm onto something. I have to keep it up, and it's hard work, but I absolutely LOVE THE WORK I'm doing at what I started. I feel fulfilled at both jobs, but I really feel like I'm truly "earning" what I actually am putting myself into now.

 

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[MJ DeMarco]

As I PM'd ya, A BIG CONGRATS!! Now YOU dictate the VALUE of YOUR TIME not some company. :great::yourock::groove::hl:

 

[CorsePerVita]

It's a nice feeling!

 

[yveskleinsky]

This is a huge milestone! I hope you are cracking open a beer or having a celebratory dinner!

 

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[Redshft]

That is great news! Congratulations! :cheers:

 

[CorsePerVita]

Update - One of my business ventures that I have started has an update. I purchased a site that had previously been quite inactive as the previous owner decided not to take any time on it anymore. The community was suffering from it. However, i purchased it for a very nominal price. Best part is I have mostly revitalized the community. I have a great staff helping me out with it.

As of december I applied for a license to operate under a company it directly relates to for legal purposes just to "C.Y.A." legally and make sure i'm covered to operate at the limitations i want to. As of today i am approved for a license and approval through them. My guidelines allow me to run it through my specified submissions as long as i submit them through approval first (quick process). I'm quite excited as it is a very large company. Not going to name sites, but I'm excited either way.

On another update a friend of mine started his own business doing house calls for pc work and web design and has had me help him with it so i'm doing the marketing as he has struggled a bit with the marketing aspect of things. We have worked in the past since we were kids, he is quite the entrepreneur type so it feels good to work with like minded.

Quite time consuming to do it all but the results so far have been good...

As MJ said, i'm finally dictating MY OWN time.

 

[ZDS]

I love to hear stories like this! I congratulate you for taking action!

 

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[MJ DeMarco]

Congratulations, I love it when the light goes off in people! This is my "DO WHAT YOU LOVE!!!"

 

[CorsePerVita]

Another update - Finally got a ton of licensing stuff out of the way and the ball is rolling a lot more smoothly! The initial approval was a decent go ahead, but the actual official licensing was difficult and felt like it was moving like a snail. Once it was done it was like seeing the light at the end of the tunnel and zooming through it at the speed of a bullet train, compared to waiting on the licensing at the speed of a snail. But hey, that's legal work for ya.

It's been a very LONG build, but the good news is that I have many sponsors for the site and a few interesting affiliate programs that will be running with it very soon. Most of it is fine detail work to get rolled out and I should be in full bloom soon. So far so good. Have considered starting up another one on my own outside of the current one I'm running so I don't have to deal with the licensing fees and such and running affiliate programs that would be a good run. Only thing is it'd be on a much smaller scale.

Because this is going to be my first self employed business though I'd love any advice on CPA stuff, taxes, how it'll be reported and any good advice on the first few years of tax info. I hate taxes, hate them.

The biggest lesson for me has been that you really CAN GET something going! You have to REALLY work at it. There is definitely no shortcuts I've found thus far. You have to put your foot forward, keep going, keep pushing, and not let anything get you down. There have been a few rough spots getting things going but nothing that couldn't be refined and pushed forward. Thankfully my fiance is insanely supportive with me the whole way. So that's a huge stress reliever as she understands my goals and motives.

So for anyone looking to get things going, plan things out, find out what your goals are, work towards them and realize that it IS possible to get things going. At this time I'm doing it all on the side until it's enough to support me and do it as my main job. Trying to do it the smart way since the economy sucks for now. That way I'm able to get it rolling first, without jumping in and potentially losing anything I've already gained.

Thanks again for the support everyone. Things are really starting to shape up. It feels liberating and VERY nice! First came the idea, then came the vision, then the shape, shaping, and finally things are becoming apparent and making sense and moving along. Very happy.

 

[wildambitions]

Great posts... Thanks for keeping it active. And congrats on all your progress. I am looking forward to hearing more as time goes on.

 

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[TaxGuy]

Congrats!

And as JScott says, go out and interview a few CPA's and remember that they work for you, so make sure you find one that is best suited for you. My dad has been doing tax accounting for over 30yrs and works in both AZ and IL, if you have any q's, shoot him a PM, his username on here is cubbyguy.

 

[CorsePerVita]

Spoke to the CPA i've been using and they had a lot of interesting answers. I guess on the negative side it sounds like i get taxed up the wazoo, but on the positive side it's money i didn't have before, so anything after the fact is a plus. Although it sounds like i need to keep track of any expenses, even though there are really none to speak of due to the way the program is running thus far except for the purchase of the site.

I might just shoot cubbyguy a pm if i have more questions. I just want to make sure i'm reporting and keeping track of EVERYTHING correctly so that i'm not having to worry about anything.

Taxes taxes taxes. THIS is where it confuses me.

 

[MJ DeMarco]

I don't remember all the details in the thread, but a sole-proprietor formation as a business is the worst entity to be in insofar as taxes. The self-employment tax is a killer. Try looking into S-Corps and LLC's.

 

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