The Entrepreneur Forum | Financial Freedom | Starting a Business | Motivation | Money | Success

Welcome to the only entrepreneur forum dedicated to building life-changing wealth.

Build a Fastlane business. Earn real financial freedom. Join free.

Join over 80,000 entrepreneurs who have rejected the paradigm of mediocrity and said "NO!" to underpaid jobs, ascetic frugality, and suffocating savings rituals— learn how to build a Fastlane business that pays both freedom and lifestyle affluence.

Free registration at the forum removes this block.

Chriscross way to here

Chriscross

New Contributor
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
80%
Oct 31, 2017
10
8
33
Germany
Hey all,

today is the day I worked for four years now.

From 14 to 18 I worked in a meat company, cleaning 8 hours a week for 6,31 per hour forms where different kinds of products have been produced. After my school I went one year abroad, working for a project that was helping social and economical disadvanted people with help of sport in south America. One Idea was to figure out what I want to do with my live and what I would like to do later on. Indeed, the result was that I had the same problems to find this out after the year. So I started an industrial clerk training in the meat company I worked before to be on the sure side.

After 2,5 years I the training was completed and as I had no real working experience and not my marks where not that good I started to work in a small wholesale company to gain some experience. In the end I got in contact to an Amazon Seller exporting the products to the US. I had to fill out tons of excel sheets with product descriptions and details. What I noted was, that his sales were incredible high and increasing, he nearly doubled his orders in each month. (Looking back I know that I was optimizing his amazon listings)

And that´s where I noted that there must be more in the world than working for someone else. He had a VA in Philippines, giving him sales predictions, a book-keeping employee for the invoices and so on and his son working as “customer Care rep. He “just” had to find and order products.

So I decided to figure out more about Amazon – consequence was that is very capital intensive and that I was not sure how to manage it. I had a really bad income. As I was bored in the afternoons I also started university on Tuesday from 18:00 to 21 hrs and Saturdays from 08-13 o clock + working 40hrs a week. Maybe a mistake, maybe not.

But I started to look for possibilities to get some cash in and I found out that SEO and OM could be great options. After 6 month learning, reading and thinking, TMF finally helped me to execute. NOT in the sense that is suggested, but at least I executed. Result is that I am the owner of a sports website in a sport niche, with 30 EUR income and 300 visits per day. I have no clue how to monetarize this. And a few more niche websites.

However, I quit the job at the wholesaler and started to work for an international service provider specialized on Pharma companies. I do not know why and how but I was able to develop from an Call Center agent to Supervisor to Process Manager in three years. I can work where I want to – home office is no problem and I like my current boss.

Besides this I have a customer that i am consulting regarding his onlineshop. Project value is 5.000 Eur.

So guys, I read as well Unscripted last year and now I am able to execute like both books suggest. I finished my Economics bachelor degree, have a decent net income and a lot of spare time.

My Skills are
  • SEO and online Marketing
  • Niche research
  • Amazon knowledge (theoretical)
  • Amazon Kindle publisher
  • Spanish, English and German

I can imagine 4 things:

  • Dropshipping online Shop
  • Online shop
  • Copywriting
  • I have found a problem in the pharma company I am working for, affecting other companies for sure. But therefore I would need to work together with someone able to create an SAAS-Application for me.

I have problems to decide. Moreover it seems that I am not “The” executer, but as my biggest excuse in the past 4 years has been resolved yesterday, I am willing to act. I finished University. A thing I was working for four years now.
 
Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

Monkeycom

Bronze Contributor
Speedway Pass
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
97%
Aug 20, 2019
183
177
UK
Hey all,

today is the day I worked for four years now.

From 14 to 18 I worked in a meat company, cleaning 8 hours a week for 6,31 per hour forms where different kinds of products have been produced. After my school I went one year abroad, working for a project that was helping social and economical disadvanted people with help of sport in south America. One Idea was to figure out what I want to do with my live and what I would like to do later on. Indeed, the result was that I had the same problems to find this out after the year. So I started an industrial clerk training in the meat company I worked before to be on the sure side.

After 2,5 years I the training was completed and as I had no real working experience and not my marks where not that good I started to work in a small wholesale company to gain some experience. In the end I got in contact to an Amazon Seller exporting the products to the US. I had to fill out tons of excel sheets with product descriptions and details. What I noted was, that his sales were incredible high and increasing, he nearly doubled his orders in each month. (Looking back I know that I was optimizing his amazon listings)

And that´s where I noted that there must be more in the world than working for someone else. He had a VA in Philippines, giving him sales predictions, a book-keeping employee for the invoices and so on and his son working as “customer Care rep. He “just” had to find and order products.

So I decided to figure out more about Amazon – consequence was that is very capital intensive and that I was not sure how to manage it. I had a really bad income. As I was bored in the afternoons I also started university on Tuesday from 18:00 to 21 hrs and Saturdays from 08-13 o clock + working 40hrs a week. Maybe a mistake, maybe not.

But I started to look for possibilities to get some cash in and I found out that SEO and OM could be great options. After 6 month learning, reading and thinking, TMF finally helped me to execute. NOT in the sense that is suggested, but at least I executed. Result is that I am the owner of a sports website in a sport niche, with 30 EUR income and 300 visits per day. I have no clue how to monetarize this. And a few more niche websites.

However, I quit the job at the wholesaler and started to work for an international service provider specialized on Pharma companies. I do not know why and how but I was able to develop from an Call Center agent to Supervisor to Process Manager in three years. I can work where I want to – home office is no problem and I like my current boss.

Besides this I have a customer that i am consulting regarding his onlineshop. Project value is 5.000 Eur.

So guys, I read as well Unscripted last year and now I am able to execute like both books suggest. I finished my Economics bachelor degree, have a decent net income and a lot of spare time.

My Skills are
  • SEO and online Marketing
  • Niche research
  • Amazon knowledge (theoretical)
  • Amazon Kindle publisher
  • Spanish, English and German

I can imagine 4 things:

  • Dropshipping online Shop
  • Online shop
  • Copywriting
  • I have found a problem in the pharma company I am working for, affecting other companies for sure. But therefore I would need to work together with someone able to create an SAAS-Application for me.

I have problems to decide. Moreover it seems that I am not “The” executer, but as my biggest excuse in the past 4 years has been resolved yesterday, I am willing to act. I finished University. A thing I was working for four years now.

I'd recommend to go for an online shop. E-commerce is booming, and you're at the perfect time to take some positions.

I made my fortune in e-commerce, so I can't recommend it enough.
Feel free to read my threads, where I describe exactly how an e-commerce need to be launched to make real money, and not depend on Amazon, nor Google.

Feel free to pm me if you have private questions.

Best of luck, you're on the right path !
 

MJ DeMarco

I followed the science; all I found was money.
Staff member
FASTLANE INSIDER
EPIC CONTRIBUTOR
Read Rat-Race Escape!
Read Fastlane!
Read Unscripted!
Summit Attendee
Speedway Pass
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
445%
Jul 23, 2007
38,077
169,494
Utah
Welcome aboard. We all start somewhere! Thank you for sharing.
 

100speed

Contributor
Read Fastlane!
Read Unscripted!
Speedway Pass
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
111%
Jan 2, 2017
55
61
25
London
Thanks for your intro! And welcome to the forum :)
 

Kid

Gold Contributor
Speedway Pass
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
98%
Mar 1, 2016
1,736
1,707
Hey all,

today is the day I worked for four years now.

From 14 to 18 I worked in a meat company, cleaning 8 hours a week for 6,31 per hour forms where different kinds of products have been produced. After my school I went one year abroad, working for a project that was helping social and economical disadvanted people with help of sport in south America. One Idea was to figure out what I want to do with my live and what I would like to do later on. Indeed, the result was that I had the same problems to find this out after the year. So I started an industrial clerk training in the meat company I worked before to be on the sure side.

After 2,5 years I the training was completed and as I had no real working experience and not my marks where not that good I started to work in a small wholesale company to gain some experience. In the end I got in contact to an Amazon Seller exporting the products to the US. I had to fill out tons of excel sheets with product descriptions and details. What I noted was, that his sales were incredible high and increasing, he nearly doubled his orders in each month. (Looking back I know that I was optimizing his amazon listings)

And that´s where I noted that there must be more in the world than working for someone else. He had a VA in Philippines, giving him sales predictions, a book-keeping employee for the invoices and so on and his son working as “customer Care rep. He “just” had to find and order products.

So I decided to figure out more about Amazon – consequence was that is very capital intensive and that I was not sure how to manage it. I had a really bad income. As I was bored in the afternoons I also started university on Tuesday from 18:00 to 21 hrs and Saturdays from 08-13 o clock + working 40hrs a week. Maybe a mistake, maybe not.

But I started to look for possibilities to get some cash in and I found out that SEO and OM could be great options. After 6 month learning, reading and thinking, TMF finally helped me to execute. NOT in the sense that is suggested, but at least I executed. Result is that I am the owner of a sports website in a sport niche, with 30 EUR income and 300 visits per day. I have no clue how to monetarize this. And a few more niche websites.

However, I quit the job at the wholesaler and started to work for an international service provider specialized on Pharma companies. I do not know why and how but I was able to develop from an Call Center agent to Supervisor to Process Manager in three years. I can work where I want to – home office is no problem and I like my current boss.

Besides this I have a customer that i am consulting regarding his onlineshop. Project value is 5.000 Eur.

So guys, I read as well Unscripted last year and now I am able to execute like both books suggest. I finished my Economics bachelor degree, have a decent net income and a lot of spare time.

My Skills are
  • SEO and online Marketing
  • Niche research
  • Amazon knowledge (theoretical)
  • Amazon Kindle publisher
  • Spanish, English and German

I can imagine 4 things:

  • Dropshipping online Shop
  • Online shop
  • Copywriting
  • I have found a problem in the pharma company I am working for, affecting other companies for sure. But therefore I would need to work together with someone able to create an SAAS-Application for me.

I have problems to decide. Moreover it seems that I am not “The” executer, but as my biggest excuse in the past 4 years has been resolved yesterday, I am willing to act. I finished University. A thing I was working for four years now.

Welcome to forum!
 
Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

Chriscross

New Contributor
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
80%
Oct 31, 2017
10
8
33
Germany
So todays 1st of July - a small recap of the last six weeks.

First I started to search for niches that could be interesting looking at numbers like traffic, competition and e commerce know how (is the shop looking like 1990 or 2018, is it SEO-optimized or not).
If I compare my results with this thread I can confirm that most topics are from the mentioned niches. I am currently investigating the entry barriers.

Second I started a Green Belt Training at work. That will help me personally, career related and business related. And I hope to save the company I am working for up to 40K per year, but further math and calculation is needed.

Third, I visited a fair for Sports - it was ok. I collected a few Business cards and had a good conversation with a manufacturer who may help me to find a dropshipper (one of his customers with a Brick and Mortar store that is running well, but has no online shop yet, due to lack of knowledge and age). I will contact the possible partners until Wednesday and let´s see what works. But why dropshipping if I could do this by myself? Well, the reason is that you need a certain volume - without volume no good price.

The next days I am on a further workshop for learning to lead workshops, question techniques and as well process optimization. This is paid by my company either.

At work everything is ok - no important updates.

Best regards
Chris
 

Chriscross

New Contributor
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
80%
Oct 31, 2017
10
8
33
Germany
Cheers,
so more than a year passed and I can share the following updates.

Career related:
Green Belt for Work has been finished 03/2019 with a total saving of 130 k per year for my companty. Since 01/2019 I am in charge of a team of 6 persons. That all lead to a small increasment of my salary of 7 % more loan. I am currently preparing the next loan discussion. Current projects are NEARLY finished I am daily in touch with the upper management. Visibility in a company is helpfullfor the next steps.

I am thinking about studying my MBA in Germany on a private university that costs in total 30k for 2 years. The MBA deals with Pharma topics and the univercity is also sponsored by pharma companys. It´s might be the ticket to a 6 figure salary and to get in contact with these people.

Personal development
Nevertheless I ve noted gaps in my personality in regard to networking. A topic I have to start working on, in special if I will really attend to the univercity. The only thing that changed since July 2018 is that I am doing sports now and that I can run 1 hr 3 times per week. At the beginning i was just able to run for 20 minutes. Nice babysteps to the current shape.

Private goals
  • Dropshipping online Shop
  • Online shop
  • Copywriting
  • I have found a problem in the pharma company I am working for, affecting other companies for sure. But therefore I would need to work together with someone able to create an SAAS-Application for me.

So nothing of these points have been tackled.

The reason is that I connected with 2 guys on the Green Belt Training who had the same ideas and wishes that I had. The opener between us was that we were hearing the same podcasts and shared the same interests.

We pitched to each other once a week business ideas and we decided in January 2019 to focus on a project in an unsexy branch: Recycling.
I assume that you are aware of increasing amount of trash that is produced, in special electronic trash. Moreover Germany is very regulated and this causes a lot of pain points to all involved parties.

So we had on one hand the e-trash supplier and on the other hand the e-trash Recycler.
The Pain points for the e-trash supplier are
  1. Very manual and paperbased process between the parties
  2. Audits check the documentation, issues can lead to penalties
  3. E-Trashsupplier have to pay for the pick up of e trash or have to give it away for free
  4. The market and prices not transparent
These Pain Points have been identifyed for e-trash Recycler:
  1. The more volume of e-trash, the more is it worth. So 1kg of copper is less worth per KG as 100 kg of copper.
  2. Hard to find customer in the market
  3. Transport costs are often too high and it is always an investment to pick up e-trash
So we managed to get a customer via cold calling, we presented ourselves and managed twice to bring supplier and recycler together, that did not know each other but were pretty close.

But, the margin was too low for all three parties. We calculated a lot and thought about services around the business, for example digitalization of the paperwork communication, etc.

This took 7 month in total. We had the feeling that we were too slow, we had to make more calls and contacts within the recycling business or potential customers.
 

Chriscross

New Contributor
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
80%
Oct 31, 2017
10
8
33
Germany
Then we heard a podcast and it resulted that there was a start up doing exactly the same like us, telling the same learnings we had within the the past half year. We made a lot of things good, but were too slow, but I have still to highlight that they made the following things better:
  • They adapted the processes to the customer and did not try to educate them
    • We tried to take over the communication between the party, the other start up gave them a plattform to communicate like before via whatsapp or so
  • They were faster and had more customer contacts
  • They focussed and convinced not small to mid size recycle companies, but the ones in the end of the recycle chain to use their plattform
However, we just work on the next idea that has been discovered in the context, I keep you posted.

Kind regards
Chris
 
Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

Chriscross

New Contributor
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
80%
Oct 31, 2017
10
8
33
Germany
Hi all,
so a lot happened in the last years.

First, the guys and I connected and found an attractive niche which was
I'd recommend to go for an online shop. E-commerce is booming, and you're at the perfect time to take some positions.

I made my fortune in e-commerce, so I can't recommend it enough.
Feel free to read my threads, where I describe exactly how an e-commerce need to be launched to make real money, and not depend on Amazon, nor Google.

Feel free to pm me if you have private questions.

Best of luck, you're on the right path !
So in the end that´s where we are today

We discovered that the online gaming market is growing heavily and were able to adapt a products from the healthcare niche to it. Long story short: The idea has been to create a MVP, we exceled a lot, found suppliers,produced a charge of 500 units of our products, got certificates and more important insurances, found someone who designed our packaging , stored everything on pallets and set up a online shop with Shopify. This few sentences took like 6 month in coordination and alignment. Result has been that wewanted to launch everything in the first week of May.

The first week passed without any sales and spending ~100 EUR of Ads (I am doing this and I thought I would be able to handle it but pfff, no way. It is said a lot that the pixel needs some time, so I accepted it until a certain point). So we sit down again and we reworked the ad-creatives, the slogans and so on.

I am sure you expect now a turning point where everything turns well, but sorry no :)

Indeed we were able to generate like 7 sales with the rework, but still we were ages away to be profitable - we invested like 20 Euro per customer - the total product worth is 30 EUR with 10 EUR margin.

Then we made a move that generated a lot of sales, that I would like to share with you guys:
We set up a affiliate website, where you could apply as Influencer to become our partner and to sale our products. You get on the one hand a discount code with 20% for your own use (+ - self costs of the products) and on the other hand a discount code according to their social media reach for their fans. Next, we set up an AD where we just stated, hey are you an influencer and interested in gaming? Apply now ...

With this, we sold more than 30 units in two weeks and had even more applications where people just linked to our website and so on. I think this is a good thing if you start and you have a product where you get people buying your products (better with a small margin) and making advertising for free for you (less ad spends). Or in other words: You get applications to get your product sold and people even pay for it.

However, we decided that we have to add more value to our website and give people more reasons to buy on our website. We created therefore more pictures how to use the product, why we used certain ingredients and so on.

Well, in this time frame also the IOS Update for Facebook started and I am at a point again where we invested like 200 EUR in a week without generating sales nor finding people that add added the products to the chart.
I tried a lot: Changed Product price, set up again discount codes and made ads for it, but everything leads to 0 sales. I am not sure if I am selecting wrong interest groups or if our creatives and slogans are too poor. On the other side, most of them converted already. Do you have any ideas how I could get profitable with ads on instagram?

Best regards
Christian
 

Chriscross

New Contributor
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
80%
Oct 31, 2017
10
8
33
Germany
So, 2 years later a few updates:

1) we have been able to use a small hack to reduce our loss on the last journey. Therefore we acquired a lot of micro influencer on Twitch who bought our products with a decent discount to promote these with a customer discount code. In the end an experience that has been worth it.

I have never been able to figure out how to tweak the interest groups for instagram ads. Nowadays I think it was next to my lack of knowledge a bad moment due to the IOS 14 Update, too. However, we ran out of money and a founder ran out of motivation: the other guy had to build a house. We finished the project with a 4 digit loss each.

2) I changed my full time job and have been able to increase my income by 20.000 euro, doing the same work with less stress. Recommended.

3) during this time frame I studied for my master degree. Worth it? Maybe if I continue working full time for companies. I guess the university degrees are also kind of inflationary and so better to be higher qualified on the paper.

4) Bought a department.

5) I became dad. Recommended

6) founded another company with one of the previous mates. Basically an arbitration model where we are able to process digitalization projects in areas of RPA, EDI (Interfaces), App creation, MVP and Software developing. The customers are got by Instagram ads and todays simple answers to the right targeting - is open targeting and create ads in a way that meta is able to show the ads to the right persons. I think we can still improve the quantity of leads by implenting testimonials, but these are hard to get.

7) we have programmed a script that is able to generate a high amount of high quality articles around a topic, including pictures and videos. Here we are currently unsure how to proceed.

- affiliate marketing to grow
- promote our service to other companies that might be interested with ads and cold calls

Well, we are still far away from the fast lane but improving I guess. Let me know your thoughts and questions.
 
Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.
Last edited:

Post New Topic

Please SEARCH before posting.
Please select the BEST category.

Post new topic

Guest post submissions offered HERE.

New Topics

Fastlane Insiders

View the forum AD FREE.
Private, unindexed content
Detailed process/execution threads
Ideas needing execution, more!

Join Fastlane Insiders.

More Intros...

Top