Hi, I'm from the UK and am 70% of the way through TFL book, I've joined the forum to share my experiences, get advice and give a little too hopefully. I struggle to find like minded people too as a lot of people don't really get it.
I'm 30, not doing too bad, I own a house (mortgaged), have a family, an understanding and "on board" fiancee, relatively okay free time if I want it (although I prefer to work at the minute) and I drive a brand new Range Rover, but I knew something wasn't quite right and reading TFL put things into perspective a little, I'm a bit of a sidewalker with fast lane tendencies. To be fair I'm only a few "pay checks from broke", I'm now re-investing heavily in my fast lane businesses which means I only have my primary wage so things are a bit tight now.
I work full time (operations manager), but it's for the family business so potentially it's "all mine" one day, not 100% sure I want it yet though
however the better the company does, the better I do so there is incentive, a lot of downsides as well too. Not to mention the fact we're not doing too great at the minute, and it's a really stressful industry (construction related contracting) still trying to work out how it can be "fast laned" - aside from finding decent staff to run it for us, it's near on impossible. Even harder for me as I don't own or control any of the company. My future in this is currently unknown.
I have two of my own businesses as well, one of them is online retail, I have recently employed someone to run the day to day and we've now got commercial premises so it's growing, I think within a few months I'll be back to earning a decent amount from it by working one day a week, which is definitely a lot more fast lane! I could currently go on holiday for a month and I'm confident that the business will survive just fine. I suspect by the end of 2016 it should be paying me far more than I get in my slow lane job. We have three niche sites, sell on eBay and Amazon and we're just starting a new broader niche site with far more potential than the current niche, but in the same area. (all products are fulfilled by ourselves or via distributor partners from forged links over time, we don't really do any true "drop shipping" from traditional drop ship suppliers but I do recommend it.)
Second business is 50/50 with a business partner, it was all my idea and I gave away 50% because it was simply just an idea and I needed a proper sales man for it to work, so I got myself a known trusted salesman. We're set to launch early 2016. It's fairly new to me but essentially we are just re-selling, however we've managed to get a deal direct with the largest provider in the UK which is really, really good. It's vehicle tracking (fleet) and prestige vehicle (supercar) asset protection. All on a monthly recurring revenue model. We only need 1000 vehicles tracked per month to pay more than I'm on at the minute! We are having an automated system created, we simply need to sell, all support and issues are dealt with by the provider!
So my current goals (by this time next year);
- build the retail business monthly sales to £40,000 per month maintaining the same margins and overheads (in feb this year I was doing £4000 p.m (net of VAT) last month we did £16500 net! so it's definitely growing. This will be done via growing the existing channels and also with the new broader niche website.
- start building the customers on the tracking company, we're aiming to get at least 300 vehicles tracked by the end of next year. (this is a low effort, low input, low cost businesses, we're not expecting full time results)
- pay down credit card (not really a lot, £3500)
- finish house restoration
- pay for the wedding (sept 2016!)
Completing that should see me out of debt (aside mortgage and car) and earning a good amount each month ready for the next phase.
Once I get there I'm looking to sell my car (financed) and buy one outright to reduce the monthly costs and we'd like to step up a larger house too to gain off street parking and some extra room. Even so our outgoings should be less than 50% of the income, that said, if I get the business to £40k a month my potential earnings based on my proposed living costs would put the bills at less than 30% of my income, and that's ignoring my slow lane job and the tracking company.....
My plan is for the tracking company to pay my bills and spending money, then the retail company will be restructured to be owned by an investment company and from there I will start buying, renovating and reselling/renting property.
For anyone considering the fast lane, it's the way forward, I've had over £1000 of orders whilst typing this, there is NO better feeling than making a few hundred pounds whilst you're not even working. I'm sure that's really small scale compared to some on here too.
I'm 30, not doing too bad, I own a house (mortgaged), have a family, an understanding and "on board" fiancee, relatively okay free time if I want it (although I prefer to work at the minute) and I drive a brand new Range Rover, but I knew something wasn't quite right and reading TFL put things into perspective a little, I'm a bit of a sidewalker with fast lane tendencies. To be fair I'm only a few "pay checks from broke", I'm now re-investing heavily in my fast lane businesses which means I only have my primary wage so things are a bit tight now.
I work full time (operations manager), but it's for the family business so potentially it's "all mine" one day, not 100% sure I want it yet though
however the better the company does, the better I do so there is incentive, a lot of downsides as well too. Not to mention the fact we're not doing too great at the minute, and it's a really stressful industry (construction related contracting) still trying to work out how it can be "fast laned" - aside from finding decent staff to run it for us, it's near on impossible. Even harder for me as I don't own or control any of the company. My future in this is currently unknown.I have two of my own businesses as well, one of them is online retail, I have recently employed someone to run the day to day and we've now got commercial premises so it's growing, I think within a few months I'll be back to earning a decent amount from it by working one day a week, which is definitely a lot more fast lane! I could currently go on holiday for a month and I'm confident that the business will survive just fine. I suspect by the end of 2016 it should be paying me far more than I get in my slow lane job. We have three niche sites, sell on eBay and Amazon and we're just starting a new broader niche site with far more potential than the current niche, but in the same area. (all products are fulfilled by ourselves or via distributor partners from forged links over time, we don't really do any true "drop shipping" from traditional drop ship suppliers but I do recommend it.)
Second business is 50/50 with a business partner, it was all my idea and I gave away 50% because it was simply just an idea and I needed a proper sales man for it to work, so I got myself a known trusted salesman. We're set to launch early 2016. It's fairly new to me but essentially we are just re-selling, however we've managed to get a deal direct with the largest provider in the UK which is really, really good. It's vehicle tracking (fleet) and prestige vehicle (supercar) asset protection. All on a monthly recurring revenue model. We only need 1000 vehicles tracked per month to pay more than I'm on at the minute! We are having an automated system created, we simply need to sell, all support and issues are dealt with by the provider!
So my current goals (by this time next year);
- build the retail business monthly sales to £40,000 per month maintaining the same margins and overheads (in feb this year I was doing £4000 p.m (net of VAT) last month we did £16500 net! so it's definitely growing. This will be done via growing the existing channels and also with the new broader niche website.
- start building the customers on the tracking company, we're aiming to get at least 300 vehicles tracked by the end of next year. (this is a low effort, low input, low cost businesses, we're not expecting full time results)
- pay down credit card (not really a lot, £3500)
- finish house restoration
- pay for the wedding (sept 2016!)
Completing that should see me out of debt (aside mortgage and car) and earning a good amount each month ready for the next phase.
Once I get there I'm looking to sell my car (financed) and buy one outright to reduce the monthly costs and we'd like to step up a larger house too to gain off street parking and some extra room. Even so our outgoings should be less than 50% of the income, that said, if I get the business to £40k a month my potential earnings based on my proposed living costs would put the bills at less than 30% of my income, and that's ignoring my slow lane job and the tracking company.....
My plan is for the tracking company to pay my bills and spending money, then the retail company will be restructured to be owned by an investment company and from there I will start buying, renovating and reselling/renting property.
For anyone considering the fast lane, it's the way forward, I've had over £1000 of orders whilst typing this, there is NO better feeling than making a few hundred pounds whilst you're not even working. I'm sure that's really small scale compared to some on here too.
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