Greetings from New Jersey

[ptoronto]

Hello all,

My name is Phil living in northern New Jersey. I started my career as an entrepreneur back in high school selling pre-paid cell phones on eBay. It was a small venture, but it gave me the taste I needed to spark up the drive inside of me.

Right before college, I started up an eCommerce website focused around aftermarket automotive parts for Japanese vehicles. I've been running this by myself while attending college full-time and learning lesson after sometimes expensive lesson I've learned more on my own through my business ventures than I ever could have dreamed of in the college classrooms.

I'm always open to learning more and reading success stories. Reading other people's success drives me to achieve my own. I have not achieved millionaire status... yet. I will though, it's just a matter of when.

It's a pleasure to be here and I really look forward to the rewards and gains that result from being a part of a successful community like the Fast Lane

 

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[MJ DeMarco]

Welcome to the Fastlane Phil!!!

 

[Knowledge Kick]

Welcome man...nice intro. What part of NJ are you from?

 

[kwerner]

Welcome Phil, you're in good company here. Best of luck with your Fastlane education and business ventures!

 

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[ptoronto]

Welcome to the Fastlane Phil!!!

Thanks a bunch Your personal story was another source of inspiration so thank you, MJ!

Welcome man...nice intro. What part of NJ are you from?

I'm way up in Bergen county about 10 minutes away from the NY border

Welcome Phil, you're in good company here. Best of luck with your Fastlane education and business ventures!

Much appreciated! Woo for warm welcomes!

 

[Runum]

Welcome to the fastlane Phil. +++speed for your clean, appropriate intro. Hope you stick around for a while.

 

[phade]

Welcome Phil! Is your current venture a one stop shop for any Import, or specific to particular makes (Nissan/Honda/Subie/etc.?)

 

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[Knowledge Kick]

Oh okay cool my ex-gf is from Bergen County (Paramus) but she went to school down here. I'm about 10 minutes from Philly.

 

[ptoronto]

Welcome Phil! Is your current venture a one stop shop for any Import, or specific to particular makes (Nissan/Honda/Subie/etc.?)

I focus mainly on what I know which includes the Subaru WRX/STi and also the Mitsubishi Evolution 8-10. I also offer items for the 350Z, S13 & S14 240SX, GT-R, and the new 370Z as well.

I've also started branching off into the European market because the demand for Mercedes-Benz, BMW, and Porsche tuning parts is here in the area. I'm hopefully going to branch out even further to incorporate exotic cars as well. These are just short-term goals All in good time!

Oh okay cool my ex-gf is from Bergen County (Paramus) but she went to school down here. I'm about 10 minutes from Philly.

Paramus is about 15 minutes from me I went to school down in Ewing at The College of New Jersey.

 

[TaxGuy]

:Welcome:

And what an intro!!!

Way to make things happen in college and do something you love, being a car nut myself I always wanted to start a tuning shop, but it just didn't look like the margins were there, especially with how cheap/demanding customers can be, especially in the 3K GT/Stealth community

Then again, not sure if you're on LP too, but there were pictures posted from the collection of the "Sheikh of Detroit", a guy who started a few Corvette shops and has a jaw dropping collection including a Veyron, Reventon and my personal favorite C-GT :coolgleamA:

 

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[Yankees338]

Welcome, Phil!

I'm a Jersey guy myself. Suburbs of Essex County, not too far from you. I just graduated from HS, and I have a bunch of friends that will be going to TCNJ next year.

Glad to have ya here!

 

[worldplus]

Welcome Phil..good to read about you.

Regards

Russell

 

[ptoronto]

Way to make things happen in college and do something you love, being a car nut myself I always wanted to start a tuning shop, but it just didn't look like the margins were there, especially with how cheap/demanding customers can be, especially in the 3K GT/Stealth community

Then again, not sure if you're on LP too, but there were pictures posted from the collection of the "Sheikh of Detroit", a guy who started a few Corvette shops and has a jaw dropping collection including a Veyron, Reventon and my personal favorite C-GT :coolgleamA:

Believe me, I've come to find out how cheap/demanding customers can be and the margins can be questionable at times, but you can make it work You'll watch other companies come and go because they simply set their success on rock bottom pricing and nothing else. If the service is not there, there will be no repeat customers!

Forgive my ignorance, I'm not familiar with LP. That car collection does sound familiar though!

Welcome, Phil!

I'm a Jersey guy myself. Suburbs of Essex County, not too far from you. I just graduated from HS, and I have a bunch of friends that will be going to TCNJ next year.

Glad to have ya here!

Awesome, thank you! If your friends are looking for any good places to go for food or anything, let me know :banana:

Welcome Phil..good to read about you.

Regards

Russell

Much appreciated, Russell, thank you!

 

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[TaxGuy]

Yea that's why I was glad I read the Four Hour Work Week, one of the best pieces of advice is to not try to compete with the bargain basement companies as you'll always price yourself out of business. In fact it recommends finding a niche product to sell for $50-200 with an 8-10x markup. His product was a supplement that sold for $79.95 which means that cost must've been about $8-10.

This is why moving up to the exotic market will probably do wonders for your business, before getting started I'd strongly recommend testing the market and getting pre-orders for your products and services in the forms of signed purchase agreements that state that they are willing to pay X price for parts/services before investing too much money in it.

Hopefully fanocks2003 takes a look at this 'cause I know he'd have some good input on this :smxB:

As far as LP it stands for LamboPower(Lamborghini owner/enthusiast forums), the forums that I found by accident(see my intro post) and was told about these forums from RedShft when I posted my intro there that stated: "What do you guys do and how do I it?" a la Chris Gardner in Pursuit of Happyness :coolgleamA:

This would be a great place to gauge a market as there are quite a few guys on there with heavily modded Lambos and best of all, contrary to popular belief(and as you can see with MJ and some of the other Lambo owners on here) they're very down to Earth and generous people :icon_super:

I know there's quite a few of us from there as I believe MJ first introduced the fastlane on there and the richdad forums.

 

[randallg99]

I confused this thread with another New Jerseyan and didn't read until now. Nice to have a few of us here now. I grow up right near Trenton State College, and went to high school in Princeton. Glad to have a local with us and welcome to the fastlane.