Fastlane Competition 2

[CryptO]

Consensus

Would anybody like to have a shot at competing in a new fastlane business startup competition?

Same kind of rules as the last one i.e blog post to be made once per month with an update on progress.

This was a good way to help people focus on pushing forward with new ideas so maybe it would be of benefit to people, myself included, to get it running again?

I'd certainly like a chance to improve over my last attempt.

Perhaps we could implement some new rules such as

• Limitless amount of startups for each competitor, (an effort to keep more people going til the end)?
• Winner is the person who makes the most profit from their startup/s over the year.

The aim of this thread is to establish interest, any suggestions?

 

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[brycer9]

I've already started building the site for my startup, but if it still counts I would like to join

 

[Genium]

Same goes for me. I know my business is a couple months old, but if its viable, I'm in

 

[kyled427]

Mine will be live by the end of the month, if I am eligible to join in then count me in.

 

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[miked_d]

I'm in.

 

[TJPB]

The other competition fizzed out. No winner?

 

[1step]

The other competition fizzed out. No winner?

No winner was ever publicly named at least

 

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[TJPB]

Wasn't there supposed to be some type of award for the winner?

 

[DeletedUser2]

I won

Without even entering
Hahaha

Jk
Z

 

[Michael Raphael]

If I am launching my app end of the month/beginning next month does that count? Would I have to create yet another venture? Oh what about my clothing company that I am also launching in a few months? (Major stuff still needs work, but I got the branding (ish) down)... What are the overall entry rules pretty much?

 

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[ManWithABeard]

few questions regarding rules of this competition.

-limit on startup capital (example: only can spend $50 to startup)
-pics/video?
-social media usage allowed? buying traffic allowed?

maybe establish some rules to make it more interesting fun? . so far, I"m interested myself, I'm ready for a challenge.

 

[CryptO]

First of all, as there are clearly a few people interested in a competition, we need to establish or elect somebody who can determine the rules. Otherwise this is going be chaos.

Amail, where are you?!

If it's okay with everybody I'll put myself forward to help oversee it (this time round) and the rules will be as follows.

There are NO rules......

Apart from this.

You have to state your startup capital when you enter, and the winner is the person that makes the biggest profit in relation to startup capital.

If you inject money into your startup over the course of the year then you have to declare that too.

This competition should not be complicated so therefore I suggest a heavier focus on the numbers, in which people are open about what they've earned (or lost).

Anybody is welcome to join but it would help if the startup was not more than 3 months old.

Winner earns the tittle of Fastlane Forum Competition Winner, public vote.

Kick off in September.

 

[Michael Raphael]

Question, having no rules for entry is kind of dumb. I can just say yea I want to use my main company, already established, branded, and everything. I put 0$ into it, and if I make even just one sale I have 5000% increase in sales if I make two... so forth and so forth. Kind of unfair to the little guys, and I may even be considered a little guy compared to some other businesses here.

So why don't we make the rules like this, you can either agree or disagree, but if you disagree write a revision dont just be a douche and say no i dont like it.

1. The startup must be 1-3 months old. We like babies they are cute!


2. You have had made less than 2500.00 in sales (this number is debatable I am thinking 5000 or 10000 as max) to be considered eligible to enter it as a "new" business.

*The reason I think this is important is to motivate people to start fresh new businesses. The excuse I am already running another business is just that. I literally have 3 different projects not including my publishing and still manage to get stuff rolling in all of them. But I could be wrong. If you disagree write a revision!

3. You must post if you make a sale above $5,000 (or hit sales of 5,000) because we just want to know, be jealous, and proud of you (of course), and you deserve to brag a bit. Consider this milestone #2 of your business #1 is starting

4a. No spamming, insulting, over-abusing bragging rights, being a plain douche. This is a friendly competition, we do this not for the rights, but for the motivational support from other people in the competition

4b) If you want a prize, turn around, leave this blog, and find your way to a Good Will business relocation store. You win just by entering this competition. You will be gaining a F*ck load of knowledge, respect from others, and probably some good friends along the journey. (I suggest sharing emails and what not, seriously let's become a bit better friends with people on this site we talk to daily. I am not saying we go out for tea once a week. But sending emails and communicating with one another will really help build rapport and motivate you more so.)

4c) If you do win, I will personally make you a badge (will work on this over the weekend) and if MJ allows it or some other admin, we can try and make it on your side bar. Which would look awesome!

1-2-3 place badges that's debatable.


There are obviously more rules needed, but I cannot think of any.

 

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[angelique]

Ok. I'm in. Starting at ground zero. I don't even have a network for it. So, I really have nothing to lose. lol

Started cold calling yesterday. Right now, I'm working to get a first customer.

 

[miked_d]

I like Michael's rules.

I was thinking a little more about the competition. The last one fizzled out with no winner. Why?

It may have been too long (one year).

The posting of updates to the blog seemed one way. It didn't really encourage participation from the forum members.

The start date with no new entries. If a new forum member wants to join late, isn't it just their disadvantage?

 

[Michael Raphael]

Well yes, mike, it is there disadvantage. But technically this is based off the percentage of sales you make from day one. So technically a newbie can make 1mX their startup cost and win in two months. Anything is technically possible.

I think the 28th of every month [we got you feb ] we should discuss what we did that month, what we failed at, what we succeeded, what we learned, and of course seek advice. People should openly help others, the point of this is to be motivated by peers to excel.

So once a month we discuss what we did, what we need to do, and how we can improve. Then people can comment and really help others and find answers for their own problems. That is how an interactive "competition" like this should be.

The competition should be 6 months. What can you do in half a year. With that said, after 3 months, if everyone is really pushing and helping I don't see why people shouldn't be breaking the 10k/month mark or have made less than 20k.

I think there should be a form to sign and should be stickied (if possible)

Name:
Business Name:
URL:
Startup Cost:
Business Idea: (In brevity please)
Goal(s): 1 month goal, 3 month goal, 6 month goal



ie.

Name: Michael Rapoport
Business Name: Bearly Passing and I want Nips(two entries)
URL. BearlyPassing.com and iwantnips.com
Startup Costs: $2,500 and 5,000+ (respectively)
Business Idea: BP- App for students to organize studies and assist with homework
Business Idea: IWN- Males Clothing Line, European Style Low cut shirts.
Your shirt is so deep you can see your nips... where the name comes from
Goals: BP - 250k downloads, 750k downloads 2/3 updates/new modules, 2m downloads and multiple updates
Goals: IWN - 10k sales, 50k/75k sales new product lines, introducing major apparel change and 250k sales

So you fill out that form and you are in. Now you are expected to make posts minimum monthly, but really anytime you want advice, share a milestone, or messed up somewhere.

 

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[miked_d]

I agree with most of what you said.

The only thing I have an issue with is posting my details in the public forum. I will post on the INSIDERS.

Let's give others time to comment, this thread isn't even 24hrs old.

 

[TOS]

I would definitely join this.

 

[TOS]

I would definitely join this.

 

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[Michael Raphael]

The only thing I have an issue with is posting my details in the public forum. I will post on the INSIDERS.

Let's give others time to comment, this thread isn't even 24hrs old.

I completely agree, just think it needs to be organized. As for sharing details. What can you possibly share that will hurt. I also don't have INSIDERS, I would/should, just honestly lazy haha wanted to be on this for a month first.

Anyways lets have a good amount of people. I say 15+ to start.

1. Alty
2. Mike
3. TOS
4. Myself
5. Angel
6. Kyle?
7. Genium?
8. Brycer
9. Manw/Beard
10. Not sure one TJ or 1step but yea.

 

[FastNAwesome]

I think the 28th of every month [we got you feb ] we should discuss what we did that month, what we failed at, what we succeeded, what we learned, and of course seek advice. People should openly help others, the point of this is to be motivated by peers to excel.

So once a month we discuss what we did, what we need to do, and how we can improve. Then people can comment and really help others and find answers for their own problems. That is how an interactive "competition" like this should be.

The competition should be 6 months. What can you do in half a year. With that said, after 3 months, if everyone is really pushing and helping I don't see why people shouldn't be breaking the 10k/month mark or have made less than 20k.

I think there should be a form to sign and should be stickied (if possible)

Name:
Business Name:
URL:
Startup Cost:
Business Idea: (In brevity please)
Goal(s): 1 month goal, 3 month goal, 6 month goal



ie.

Name: Michael Rapoport
Business Name: Bearly Passing and I want Nips(two entries)
URL. BearlyPassing.com and iwantnips.com
Startup Costs: $2,500 and 5,000+ (respectively)
Business Idea: BP- App for students to organize studies and assist with homework
Business Idea: IWN- Males Clothing Line, European Style Low cut shirts.
Your shirt is so deep you can see your nips... where the name comes from
Goals: BP - 250k downloads, 750k downloads 2/3 updates/new modules, 2m downloads and multiple updates
Goals: IWN - 10k sales, 50k/75k sales new product lines, introducing major apparel change and 250k sales

So you fill out that form and you are in. Now you are expected to make posts minimum monthly, but really anytime you want advice, share a milestone, or messed up somewhere.

Not signing up for competition, but I like Michaels ideas.

It should be shorter and more interactive.

I think it definitely should be different in some aspects from the previous one. Blog post per month is not enough of an obligation, too many people including me dragged through months like this without doing much - it was enough to post "I'm still thinking and brainstorming" - and there you go, you stayed in the competition.

I think many of us needed much more a$$-kicking.

Not sure if this makes sense, but just throwing it out there - can building a business be defined with a set of action steps? Like:

1. Determining the need and testing the marketability of your solution (whether by finding a first customer, or directing people to a landing page before you have your product or simply by virtue of your knowledge of the industry etc.)
2. Coming up with concrete offering (product/service that you will put out there to meet the need/demand)
3. Setting things up (legal stuff, billing, website, warehouse or in short everything you need to finally start SELLING whatever you sell)
4. Getting first paying customer, then expanding + testing + tweaking + expanding.

Then everyone would be expected to go through the required steps and take concrete action for getting to the next level. And for those who reach level 4, the real fun and real competition would start in terms of who will make more revenue/profit/whatever's a good metric by the end of the competition.

Or there could even be categories like: most profitable, most passive and the absolute champ.

And everyone who actually moved their a$$ to make it to the level 4 would actually be winners by virtue of having their business up and running and having their first paying customer (or many).

I even believe it should be made a point NOT to have any other awards, other than knowing you created your own business.

Again, I'm not sure I'd like to enter, but as someone who's been through one competition just wanted to give you guys some feedback what maybe could make it work better.

I don't run a successful business yet, just putting my thoughts out there.

I think the 28th of every month [we got you feb ] we should discuss what we did that month, what we failed at, what we succeeded, what we learned, and of course seek advice. People should openly help others, the point of this is to be motivated by peers to excel.

Maybe it could even be a group call. Get people interacting and supporting each other, you never know where a wise suggestion may come from

Sorry guys for interfering and wish you the best of luck with the competition.

 

[angelique]

I don't care about the awards. Using this mainly for accountability, if that's cool.

Spent most of today cold calling. Tougher than I thought due to the gatekeepers. I've never really cold called before yesterday. (But I am good with interviewing/getting jobs.)

Generated a little bit of interest for my services and one possible client - who asked me to send my resume.

Edit: Hmm.. this sounded really cold. I mean, I'm trying not to get too wrapped up in technicalities about this. This just came up in perfect timing for me.

 

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[ManWithABeard]

I think Alty thought I was dissin' him, when I clearly wasn't at all. I was just suggesting rules to make it even more fun and maybe even more challenging. I like Michael's suggestion a lot and I think that will limit the chaos factor and also limit the number of people dropping out of it prematurely.

Either way, again I love the idea and I'm definitely down, nothing but positive can come out of this. it'll be a great learning experience on how to truly be Fastlane™.

 

[miked_d]

... As for sharing details. What can you possibly share that will hurt. I also don't have INSIDERS, I would/should, just honestly lazy haha wanted to be on this for a month first.

There are lots of reasons people do not want to share publicly. The best thread on the issue is here, but that's on the INSIDERS forum.

 

[CryptO]

Hey guys,

Don't worry about dissing me, I've grown thick skin during my working years.

All I care about is valid discussion that leads someplace.

At the moment I'm on vacation but as soon as I get the chance, I'll make a list of all the suggestions and we can use this to decide the rules of the next competition.

Until then please do feel free to make yourself heard!

 

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[miked_d]

Alty - Back yet?

 

[Amail]

Make sure to get the judging requirements spelled out at the start. The last competition fizzled because this step was never completed. We had requirements for entry, requirements for continuing eligibility, and a list of the judges. What we never fleshed out was how the businesses were to be audited and judged, and who was responsible for doing it.

I was happy to step in and maintain the table of contestants, drop outs, complete with links to their blogs. I think there was some value in that, but I'm not certain. I was not the guy who started the competition, but as a contestant the administration efforts were not a conflict. Imposing the terms for judging the contestants would have been.

As ad-hoc competition administrator, perhaps I should have taken a larger role in finishing the play. The honest truth is nobody was prepared to audit and judge the contestant start-ups, so it sort of died on the vine.

Like all things, learn from your mistakes and improve your process the next time.

 

[Tom.V]

I would join but I'm already a few months into my startup and WILL NOT be posting business info. There are better ways to go about displaying proof than giving would be competitors unfiltered access to your plans. Not saying anyone is going to do it, but it is an unnecessary risk.

 

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[Michael Raphael]

I would join but I'm already a few months into my startup and WILL NOT be posting business info. There are better ways to go about displaying proof than giving would be competitors unfiltered access to your plans. Not saying anyone is going to do it, but it is an unnecessary risk.

I agree with your point, I had no intention of revealing much, what do you propose, what are these better methods? Perhaps then we can all be comfortable and so can you? If you are still interested then.

 

[CryptO]

I'm still on vocation, so I don't want to get 100% just yet, but let's do this properly next time!!