I've been a forum member for a few years now and I've had little financial success. And its been all my fault.
I'm an IT data guy (62 years old) that always has to analyze the shit out of everything before I do anything. Everything has to be planned down to the gnat's a$$. Works great for some things, but not business. At least that's been my experience so far.
I don't have a job and for the last year or so I've been "getting ready" to provide Adwords and Google Maps ranking services to contractors. Roofers, remodelers, you get the idea.
I bought courses (some expensive) to learn the process and I actually ended up doing some low cost work for a few contractors - building web sites and doing Adwords. It's such a difficult sell for me that I finally gave up on it. Most contractors (at least those in my area) are booked months out. So even though their sites are terrible, they could care less because they're super busy and making money. I chose the wrong vertical.
This thread is something to track my progress as I completely "shift gears" and move into something non-techy.
About 10 days ago I started looking into cleaning out our garage and I needed extra storage. A shed like we wanted costs about $3,000. So I thought - "screw that, I'll just build one myself". I priced out the materials and they are only about $900.
Then my analytical wheels started turning.
CAN I BUILD THESE AND MAKE MONEY?
And that's when I "poked the cat". If you're not familiar with that term, see Chapter 39 in Unscripted .
I placed an ad in my local area and to my surprise I got about 1 response every other day from potential customers.
THE CAT LET OUT A SOFT MEOW! That's all I needed to hear.
So now I am pursuing this opportunity, but I have to work through a few challenges that include:
1) I live in California and to do this kind of work you need a contractor's license. I don't have one.
2) I don't have a truck.
3) I don't have anyone in mind to help me build these.
4) I've never built one myself yet.
A single meeting that I had today solved all of these issues at once.
We had a new deck put in two years ago. I hit it off with the contractor, I did some Adwords work for him and we've kept in touch. Today he solved all my problems.
He's 73 years old and almost blind. Probably legally blind. He told me that he brings in $1,500 a month in Social Security and his rent is $700. He said he could really use more money, but he can't really do much work any more. Pretty sad.
Here's what came out of my meeting with him:
- He's willing to be a small part of this and so I'll be able to use his contractor license number. Problem solved.
- He has a truck we can use. Problem solved.
- He has reliable help that we can use. Problem solved.
- I will pay him a fair amount on every shed that is built. His problem is solved.
For now the one single most important thing I have to do is contact the people that were interested earlier and make a sale.
Once I do that we can go through the building processes and see how things go.
Best of all... all the stuff that I learned and couldn't get other contractors to buy can now be used by me in this business. Website, Adwords, Google Maps, etc.
I'll continue to update this as things move forward.
I'm an IT data guy (62 years old) that always has to analyze the shit out of everything before I do anything. Everything has to be planned down to the gnat's a$$. Works great for some things, but not business. At least that's been my experience so far.
I don't have a job and for the last year or so I've been "getting ready" to provide Adwords and Google Maps ranking services to contractors. Roofers, remodelers, you get the idea.
I bought courses (some expensive) to learn the process and I actually ended up doing some low cost work for a few contractors - building web sites and doing Adwords. It's such a difficult sell for me that I finally gave up on it. Most contractors (at least those in my area) are booked months out. So even though their sites are terrible, they could care less because they're super busy and making money. I chose the wrong vertical.
This thread is something to track my progress as I completely "shift gears" and move into something non-techy.
About 10 days ago I started looking into cleaning out our garage and I needed extra storage. A shed like we wanted costs about $3,000. So I thought - "screw that, I'll just build one myself". I priced out the materials and they are only about $900.
Then my analytical wheels started turning.
CAN I BUILD THESE AND MAKE MONEY?
And that's when I "poked the cat". If you're not familiar with that term, see Chapter 39 in Unscripted .
I placed an ad in my local area and to my surprise I got about 1 response every other day from potential customers.
THE CAT LET OUT A SOFT MEOW! That's all I needed to hear.
So now I am pursuing this opportunity, but I have to work through a few challenges that include:
1) I live in California and to do this kind of work you need a contractor's license. I don't have one.
2) I don't have a truck.
3) I don't have anyone in mind to help me build these.
4) I've never built one myself yet.
A single meeting that I had today solved all of these issues at once.
We had a new deck put in two years ago. I hit it off with the contractor, I did some Adwords work for him and we've kept in touch. Today he solved all my problems.
He's 73 years old and almost blind. Probably legally blind. He told me that he brings in $1,500 a month in Social Security and his rent is $700. He said he could really use more money, but he can't really do much work any more. Pretty sad.
Here's what came out of my meeting with him:
- He's willing to be a small part of this and so I'll be able to use his contractor license number. Problem solved.
- He has a truck we can use. Problem solved.
- He has reliable help that we can use. Problem solved.
- I will pay him a fair amount on every shed that is built. His problem is solved.
For now the one single most important thing I have to do is contact the people that were interested earlier and make a sale.
Once I do that we can go through the building processes and see how things go.
Best of all... all the stuff that I learned and couldn't get other contractors to buy can now be used by me in this business. Website, Adwords, Google Maps, etc.
I'll continue to update this as things move forward.
Dislike ads? Become a Fastlane member:
Subscribe today and surround yourself with winners and millionaire mentors, not those broke friends who only want to drink beer and play video games. :-)
Access Restricted: Unlock 1,000,000+ Posts
Stop Peeking Through the Keyhole.
Open the Door.
You hit a wall because the best advice isn't free—it's earned. Since 2007, MJ DeMarco has been active here daily (99.9% active rate), building a war room for entrepreneurs who refuse to settle for mediocrity.
- Active Daily: Life-changing content posted dozens of times every day. No dead threads.
- MJ's Inner Circle: Direct access to the author of The Millionaire Fastlane.
- Vetted Network: Connect with founders scaling to 7 and 8 figures.
- Proven Roadmaps: Strategy over motivation. Execution over "hustle porn."
"SCALED TO 6-FIGURE MONTHS"
"Tips and advice here saved me from huge mistakes, others allowed me to scale my business to 6-figure months."— User MitchC
"INSANE QUALITY OF PEOPLE"
"The number of high quality people I've met from this forum has been insane. All of it predicated on building real value."— User Richard Peck
"You are the average of the five people you surround yourself with."
Are you surrounding yourself with success?
