Getting started is this simple...

[The-J]

How do you do this?

First step: a clean. Virus clean using Malwarebytes, then running CCleaner, including a free space wipe. Then, defragment the hard drive.

This is sufficient for most cases. Now you can do this with Mac computers, but back when I used to do it, the software wasn't available for em. I also didn't know nearly as many people working with them. They simply weren't as common then.

If a clean isn't sufficient, the second step is checking the actual hardware for problems. I just run Task Manager to see how fast the CPU, RAM and hard drive are running. If the RAM is constantly at 80% or higher, I'll replace it or put more in it. RAM is cheap.

The hard drive is sometimes a problem, but not nearly as common. If I have to replace the hard drive, I have to back up all data... but usually, I'll do a fresh OS install beforehand to check and see if it's the problem.

Most other problems, I'll recommend replacing the machine depending on how cheap it is. I have a $500 HP computer and if it crapped out on me, I'd replace it ASAP because it's really not a big deal. Otherwise, I'd do more troubleshooting to see where the problem may lie. But this covers like 99% of 'slow computer' problems out there anyway.

 

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[daivey]

Just saw this post. Back in September helped my dad trim his tree. He asked a tree trimming service to give him a quote - $2,500.

What did he do instead... He rented one out himself. $800 for the weekend. The rental company brought it, dropped it off in our drive way. 2 days of trimming, we were done. 8 hours on Sat, 8 hours on Sunday, the two of us. He was up there cutting, I was down at the bottom cleaning up, bundling, etc.

Monday morning they came and picked it up.

Great tool, great machine.

Not fastlane on our end - my dad is of the old school mentality, do it yourself to save money.

I mean did we save money? yeah, but spent a lot of time.

lol

To add to the convo...

I'd guess that owning one of these in Phoenix would be a great impetus for a palm tree trimming service, tailored to commercial businesses and land owners. You can shoot for residential, but I always prefer B2B over B2C.

 

[Torty Emmanuel]

Now get out there, kick a$$, get started, get the cash you need to launch, and have fun...

but I swear if anybody PMs me asking what paint equipment I bought or how to find clients for car painting, Imma be waiting under your bed when you turn off the lights tonight.

i can't stop laughing. It's so true and to the point. When people don't want to do the work or are scared of doing the hard work, they just come up with silly questions to avoid EXECUTION. Nice one RHL

 

[ZeroTo100]

Thank you for the thread. It made me take some serious action.

I got in touch with a local club promoter (through a friend), and offered to take photos of an event in exchange for a free entrance.

I overdelivered hard. I mean HARD. Blew their heads off.

Yesterday was my first paid gig, one of many to come. The whole team loves me, and wants me to be the frontman for photo/video for a few of their clubs.

The PROBLEM I'm having, is the low rate I started off as. I asked for $150 a night to shoot and deliver the photos. This was on Halloween as well.

Granted they love my work, and my attitude (I always look like I'm working, even if I'm not. Only sitting down for a drink or a snack in the back where no one can see me), how can I move my rates higher, to where working 2 nights a week would give me a sufficient income to work on a fastlane venture?

I was in the nightclub business for a long time. By taking photos, you're not only doing them a service, you're also building their community every time you hand out a card that says "Check out your picture on this website." I've paid $250 to photographers and I've also cut costs by hiring college kids as interns to take pictures. I've also paid doorman $600 to be complete pricks to people and they're doing far less work than you are. Know your value and build some leverage. Personally, if I were you (I'd be building my own email list without them knowing) while you're in there. Connect with their patrons and now you'll be taking pictures and running your own guestlist.

It's a trickle down effect. Once you do that, now they have to give you some comps (bottles and entry's). What that means is you can use them for yourself or sell them to your own patrons for half the price the venue is selling them for. You can also keep the bottles for yourself and sell bracelets for people wanting VIP access.

When I first got started in this, I did everything I could to make money. I'm past the business now but I eventually built my business, had an office and a team and coordinated my own events. That's the level you want to be at. Why promote for someone else when you can bring your own team together after you learn the ropes and run your own parties. My biggest event was always Halloween night. It was bigger than TGE and New Years. Wherever we were, we were looking at 5k patrons that night and a 20% bar deal that would do 185k. Big money (not to mention we controlled the door to). Like I said, I'm too old now and married with a son on the way but I made a lot of money in that field. Now I'm looking to get into different business.

 

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[Darius]

Thank you for the thread. It made me take some serious action.

I got in touch with a local club promoter (through a friend), and offered to take photos of an event in exchange for a free entrance.

I overdelivered hard. I mean HARD. Blew their heads off.

Yesterday was my first paid gig, one of many to come. The whole team loves me, and wants me to be the frontman for photo/video for a few of their clubs.

The PROBLEM I'm having, is the low rate I started off as. I asked for $150 a night to shoot and deliver the photos. This was on Halloween as well.

Granted they love my work, and my attitude (I always look like I'm working, even if I'm not. Only sitting down for a drink or a snack in the back where no one can see me), how can I move my rates higher, to where working 2 nights a week would give me a sufficient income to work on a fastlane venture?

I did this exact thing a few years ago and ended up working with artists on major labels and going on tour a few times.

I think the best thing I did was "piggy-backing" off of the authority and credibility of those who are established. If the most respected promoter/artist/etc.. endorses you, you'll have new business coming in like crazy.

At one time I was financially able to work for free for a few major label artists due to all the new business I got just by being associated with their name.

 

[Aaron W]

Not clear. Painted car pink. People laugh at me now.


Awesome thread, really great insight and I guess what I'm adventuring on at the moment dives in to this aspect.

It truly is easy to make money with a skill. I remember I used to know how to tune a scooter (clutch & variator + de-restricting) when I was 16.

PS Scooter looks like this where I'm from.

All my friends would ask me about doing it, how to do it and even some asked me to do it for them: simply because I had the tools & knowledge of how to do it.



Only if I charged them....

 

[CommonCents]

Yep, shit is real hard. I cold emailed Marcus Lemonis and he emailed me back in 10 minutes, at 1030pm.

 

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[daivey]

Yep, shit is real hard. I cold emailed Marcus Lemonis and he emailed me back in 10 minutes, at 1030pm.

ill say it once, and ill say it again, 99% success is answering your phone, email, voicemail, WHATEVER, ASAP.

 

[Greg R]

Wow that was completely awesome!

Sent from my SM-G925V using Tapatalk

 

[amp0193]

Six weeks ago, I was content with just selling on Amazon, and had never considered selling my products wholesale.

Last night I did my first vendor/trade show event, got two orders placed by stores at the show, and hopefully 5 or 6 will follow through within the week.


My knowledge consisted of a one hour meeting with a guy I met at the UPS Store who does wholesaling, an email convo with a cousin who does graphic design, and scrolling through pinterest for "trade show booth design". Then, I just worked hard all month to get everything in place that I needed.


What are you waiting for? What are you thinking about doing? The resources you need are right there. Just go crazy at it for a month, and get it done. You'll reach the other side and think... was that really all there was to it?

 

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[MitchC]

Have a quick update on the situation,

I was unable to secure a higher rate, but I've become a weekly shooter for the venue, meaning I'm out there every Saturday night taking photos.

I've built a framework around the shoot, where I get all the photos I need within a couple hours, go home, and immediately sort through all the photos in 15 minutes. I then apply photo correction presets that I created, which takes another 5 minutes.

Including the hour of transit to the venue and back, this comes out to 3 hours of work for $150. Eh.

The framework I built is really what's worth the time here. Now I can do $500-$1000 shoots in the same timespan with the rep I've built. DJs that play at the venue are always looking for people to take good photos, and that's where my business cards come in I'll make my own thread once I have more news.

I feel like there's a scaleable digital product in there somewhere, but I don't know anything about photography to know for sure. Maybe that makes me the market? Something to think about

 

[sWALK90]

Thank you for the thread. It made me take some serious action.

I got in touch with a local club promoter (through a friend), and offered to take photos of an event in exchange for a free entrance.

I overdelivered hard. I mean HARD. Blew their heads off.

Yesterday was my first paid gig, one of many to come. The whole team loves me, and wants me to be the frontman for photo/video for a few of their clubs.

The PROBLEM I'm having, is the low rate I started off as. I asked for $150 a night to shoot and deliver the photos. This was on Halloween as well.

Granted they love my work, and my attitude (I always look like I'm working, even if I'm not. Only sitting down for a drink or a snack in the back where no one can see me), how can I move my rates higher, to where working 2 nights a week would give me a sufficient income to work on a fastlane venture?

We normally pay our people 2-350... you would just have to find more parties and gigs...

 

[TedM]

Such a great thread! I just sent a link to two of my kids..

 

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[Andy Black]

Such a great thread! I just sent a link to two of my kids..

Now THAT is the ultimate endorsement!

 

[Mike Kavanagh]

Love this thread. It reminds me of what's been going on in my life here lately.
I went to go learn mechanic stuff at a shop so I could work on cars.

Almost a year later, I can do just about everything that doesn't need a special tool to be done on a car. Need an axle done? Give me $200 for the job, and go buy your own parts. Need brakes? Can do them too. Go buy your parts and kick me a $100.
Need a new engine? Yeah I can do it. It'll take me a week and I'm gonna need 3 grand plus the cost of the motor. But you'll be driving after that.
Prices may vary from vehicle to vehicle.

Straight hustle.

Skills are so damn important. Selling is a skill. Programming is a skill.
You get paid for what you bring to the table. If the only thing you're bringing to the table is fries and a shake, you're out of luck.
Back to the drawing board.

Glad to see that people are killing it here with the wisdom after my vacation.
+Rep to RHL

 

[RHL]

If this helps even one person 14-22 say "Maybe there's something better than Burger King," that's enough.

 

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[#nowhere]

Hi RHL, hello Community,

first of all thank you so much for creating this thread. It fueled my ideas... So, I'll post one that maybe also work for others.

A) currently I'm working part time for a small engineering and programming agency. Most of the time I'm creating small clips on software products in use. They are for potential costumers or actual costumers. (11€ / hr)

B) in my skiing holidays I used a small Action cam to film stunts and freerides.

Additional Information: I love working out. At the present time there's a big Trend in Germany since everyone wants to explode their
inner value on instagram / YouTube with Videos on Training, diet etc. Most of the clips are unprofessional.



So A + B + additional Info = my idea

I thought on purchasing a used camera and used Laptop ( since my present one is 7 years old and doesnt suffice for clip creation)
And then offer something like:

"
Want to be a YouTube Star?
Want to push your facebook Page?

10 minutes of professional clip says more than thousand words.

Click here to purchase your filming hour! (the cutting and the editing is our Job)

..... And so on....."


First I would start alone and then hire employees just to Film. Editing and cutting on my own, half an hour per Job. Think that this will suffice to create good clips. So 90 minutes of work: 60-75€ (think that this range is okay, since I'm bringing camera and Software to the table)

How do you think about my idea RHL in terms of your first Post?

Thanks for validation, maybe this idea could be of use for other ones (regardless of field of execution, may it be fitness, weddings, family etc etc..)

Thank you a lot!

Edit: sorry read your Post weeks ago and didn't remember that you mentioned filming already. Sorry, nothing new! Nevertheless, I'm glad to hear opinions!

 

[Mike Kavanagh]

To add to the convo...

I'd guess that owning one of these in Phoenix would be a great impetus for a palm tree trimming service, tailored to commercial businesses and land owners. You can shoot for residential, but I always prefer B2B over B2C.

Or you can get a contract with the HOA.

I got the idea for HOA contracts from doing firewatch. I could be something as menial as picking up trash.

 

[petkovic]

Amazing thread, rep is coming!

Just had a long conversation today about the (old-age) pension that someone working a low-wage job, like a hairdresser, can expect to get (in Germany).

I argued that everyone starting in the hairdressing business knows it's an easy, more or less pleasurable, completely overrun profession and therefore not well-paid. So the consequences are know. from the start.

The counter-argument was that some people are able to learn a more complex profession. Be sure that I had a lot of valid points against that. But your post just kills any excuses!

 

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[GSF]

To add to the convo...

I'd guess that owning one of these in Phoenix would be a great impetus for a palm tree trimming service, tailored to commercial businesses and land owners. You can shoot for residential, but I always prefer B2B over B2C.

Was thinking of buying one of these for my tree cutting company a few years back as I used to hire them in quite frequently, I would have set up a seperate hire company and rented to other company's aswell, they used to cost me between £100-£500 per day to hire depending on their size, and I could do £2k + a day with 1 team of 2 workers, made commercial jobs very efficient and profitable, typical jobs were golf courses, car park maintenance, rows of street trees, holiday parks etc, rarely good for residential though.

 

[GuestUser1178]

Wow, thank you! This REALLY is a gold mine thread! Thumbs up!

I remember when I started out three years ago, I also share my experience programming and marketing my game app Bridezilla - Limitless Runaway Bouncer in another thread here. https://www.thefastlaneforum.com/co...ownloads-a-week-case-study.67350/#post-532579

All the best from Germany,
Patrick

 

[JuliaLV]

brilliant and funny Idea is simple and yet I didn't really get it before. Thank you!

What sets you apart from a customer?
tools ('things' or information) and/or skills
that you invested in and customer hasn't.

So simple. I can't believe I didn't see this :embarrased:

 

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[JDx]

Holy crap this is amazing.
Rep++ and saved. Re-reading this first thing tomorrow

 

[Raoul Duke]

@SinisterLex @Thiago Machado

He also plagiarized @RHL post.

https://medium.com/world-of-winners...siness-is-this-simple-c9ba8280dd97#.xsvz8fblp

 

[RHL]

He also plagiarized @RHL post.

https://medium.com/world-of-winners...siness-is-this-simple-c9ba8280dd97#.xsvz8fblp

Wow, that sucks.

Apparently this ferret-faced little bitch, Charles Jordan Phua of Singapore, is successful enough to contribute to a 36 million dollar business (presumably by scrubbing the CEO's toilet or fetching the engineers coffee while they created actual value) but not to create a 300 word essay without stealing everything but 25 words from the original:

@MJ_Demarco @AllenCrawley @Andy Black @Vigilante , maybe you'd like to weigh in, since stealing 'my' content off FLF doesn't really cost me anything, but is essentially stealing a traffic generating asset from MJ.

Archive.is link to plagiarist' content piracy here, in case Charles J Phua tries to delete or edit it:
Getting Started In Business Is This Simple. — WORLD OF WINNERS — Medi…

Screenshot of stolen graphic:

The rat's Facebook.
The rat's Linkedin.
The rat's Twitter.
The rat's Instagram.
The rat's FLF profile.

Fastlaners: I'd check into his other articles on Medium too. His style of writing and voice change so radically from piece to piece it wouldn't surprise me if he was ripping off other authors on here. I'm looking specifically at @SinisterLex, maybe @IceCreamKid too.

This dude needs to be banned yesterday and everybody needs to hit his boosted content with DMCAs.

This is why we can't have nice things.

 

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[AllenCrawley]

Wow, that sucks.

Apparently this ferret-faced little bitch, Charles Jordan Phua of Singapore, is successful enough to contribute to a 36 million dollar business (presumably by scrubbing the CEO's toilet or fetching the engineers coffee while they created actual value) but not to create a 300 word essay without stealing everything but 25 words from the original:

@MJ_Demarco @AllenCrawley @Andy Black @Vigilante , maybe you'd like to weigh in, since stealing 'my' content off FLF doesn't really cost me anything, but is essentially stealing a traffic generating asset from MJ.

Archive.is link to plagiarist' content piracy here, in case Charles J Phua tries to delete or edit it:

http://archive.is/nmqxX#selection-363.14-452.0

Screenshot of stolen graphic:

The rat's Facebook.
The rat's Linkedin.
The rat's Twitter.
The rat's Instagram.
The rat's FLF profile.

Fastlaners: I'd check into his other articles on Medium too. His style of writing and voice change so radically from piece to piece it wouldn't surprise me if he was ripping off other authors on here. I'm looking specifically at @SinisterLex, maybe @IceCreamKid too.

This dude needs to be banned yesterday and everybody needs to hit his boosted content with DCMAs.

This is why we can't have nice things.

MJ's already banned him, revoked his INSIDERS membership and is working on having it removed.

 

[RHL]

MJ's already banned him, revoked his INSIDERS membership and is working on having it removed.

Figures you'd find out before I did. I sent Medium a DCMA too. If you guys need the paint.net file of the original image or anything I think I still have it kicking around on one of my external hard drives somewhere. I can get it for you tomorrow morning.

 

[AllenCrawley]

Fastlaners: I'd check into his other articles on Medium too. His style of writing and voice change so radically from piece to piece it wouldn't surprise me if he was ripping off other authors on here. I'm looking specifically at @SinisterLex, maybe @IceCreamKid too.

Yes, the first one I checked was copied from Kissmetrics. Slime bag.

 

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[MJ DeMarco]

I filed a claim at LinkedIn ...

AND THIS MOFO STOLE THIS TOO...

https://gkic.com/blog/small-busines...r-business-hotand-keep-it-hot-all-year-round/

https://medium.com/world-of-winners/dos-don-ts-to-make-your-business-hot-a1d759d2d42e#.10i24124y

 

[Oztrepreneur]

This sort of thing really ruins good forums like this....now another reason for the value adders here to withdraw even more of their wisdom.