I will be a Millionaire by December 2010

[PV123]

Wow. Keep up the great work. :yourock:

 

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[Caesarion]

I'm waking up an 1hr late every damn day. Wassup with my discipline..I'm working til 11 & 12, but a younger me couldn't wait to get up. Hahaha. I guess that what happens when you get a lil older. I have an update meeting with my investor today. I reached all the deadlines he asked me to accomplish.
Formed the parent company that owns both (music and clothing co), ordered samples of first line, got all songs for this first project mixed down (today) and got contracts prepared for producers, artist, etc. I put a plan together that shows him the timeline of events this year, how much it's gonna cost and what we will profit. I also wrote a detailed summary of our path for music industry and how we can make money in this economy. I hope he feels like I have done all my homework. My first check for 2k is coming tomorrow. I have 3k coming this week too just from being more aggressive and lowering my prices. I have to get more aggressive like the old days. I'm starting to play basketball in the gym again just to bring back that competitive spirit. Working out is helping too..I know it sounds weird but everybody has their lil tricks to help them..I know guys who even stop having sex as much during the week just to stay hungry..I don't know about that one. lol

 

[Caesarion]

Good morning! Been a few day since I posted. CRAZY BUSY! Been pushing extremely hard. I decided to stick with my plan and take Sunday off. Yesterday had a 7hr meeting planing this movement with my mentor/investor. We disagreed a lot on the direction, but we came to some good compromises that would make us both happy. He has a lot more knowledge than he tends to put off. We solidified our strategy and I am really excited about the possibilities on the music side. Once I review my notes, I will layout the basic concepts. I know I can hit this target.

 

[maximus20895]

Busy is always good. Your making progress. Keep up the good work!

 

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[moji136]

Great energy...can't wait to see how you progress.:great:

 

[Caesarion]

Dear Success Diary,

It's starting to get serious. I need your help. I would like to be really polished in this situation. I really like my mentor/investor, but I feel like guppy hanging around a Killer Whale. He wants in and wants me to throw out a number/percentage. I know a little about valuations and my company isn't really worth shit right now because I have no assets. It's worth how much money has been put into it so far. It's a innovative idea. I have been working on a product, that will release next month and he really believes in it.

What is a good percentage/investment number for start-up? Any ideas would be helpful. I was thinking along the lines of 20% of the company for 50k.

I know. I gotta do some research ASAP.

 

[RealOG]

Valuations of companies are a multiple of annual revenue (from 2 to 5X). Factor in assets and liabilities.

If the investor is sold on the idea and future execution, you can probably sell him on the potential of the business and build a valuation around that potential.

I dont know what multiples are used for clothing/music company.

 

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[Caesarion]

Valuations of companies are a multiple of annual revenue (from 2 to 5X). Factor in assets and liabilities.

If the investor is sold on the idea and future execution, you can probably sell him on the potential of the business and build a valuation around that potential.

I dont know what multiples are used for clothing/music company.

This is just the music side (for now). Hmmm. OK, So if I say I project $1 million in sales this first year, I can times that by 2X and base the company's value on that?

 

[mkzhang]

This is just the music side (for now). Hmmm. OK, So if I say I project $1 million in sales this first year, I can times that by 2X and base the company's value on that?

Valuations are mostly based on next years projected income, or in this case, this year (since we just started).

Yes you can times this year's projection by 2 and value it base on that, but I would assume its because the company haven't started yet or you don't have enough history of growth right?

If that's the case the devil is in the details, you can still push for 3x multiple, but you must be very detail and certain that x% of profit comes from y product, with z% margin, and it will sell to xyz amount of customers through distributor a and retailer b etc. This will ensure that when investors look through your projection, and your business plan, the numbers add up.

 

[Caesarion]

January is over. I've made $17,000. Waaay off my average mark of $100k. But I have a lot in the works for this month. My projection is more conservative this month. $30,000 and ramp up every month to meet my goal. I have a music product launching end of February that should bring in about $15k as well as clothing design product that should bring in 6k or 7k. and a lot of miscellaneous stuff.

About 1/3 of the people I started with, I am going to keep. The rest were all mouth. I learned I really need to be a better judgment of character when bringing people on board. Right now I'm batting about a .300. But what is cool is that my 33% are KILLER additions to the team.

I'm tired of being this nice guy. That has got me in trouble so many times in the past. Either people mistake it for weakness and cross the line, or try to walk all over it. It's already starting!! It's a shame I have to learn how to be an a**hole just to get shit done. My mentor is telling me this and I agree with him.

Let me practice: Hey you GET to work! I DON'T GIVE A SHIT ABOUT YOUR PERSONAL PROBLEMS, SUCK IT UP AND GET TO WORK! SHUT THE F*ck UP AND GET TO WORK! HAHAHA.

Gotta laugh sometimes.

 

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[sharper]

this is very very very inspiring to say the least... thank you for your updates

 

[songwriter]

No recent updates from this guy. I wonder what's going on? Even if you've failed I think you should tell all of us, as we can all benifit from the knowledge and experience you have shared.

 

[Caesarion]

SO SORRY I HAVEN'T POSTED.

I appreciate you getting on me about it! This was part of my motivation to make it happen. I've got bombarded with a lot of things over the past month, alot of which is bullshit.

Prior to me getting back on my horse and making things happen, I was ALONE!!!! Just me and my wife and my kids and my close friends.
I spent a lot of my February being sidetracked by new attention. Re-learning how to manage that. Meeting with people who don't have the capacity to go where I want. And so, I don't contribute all of my bad month that, I know it diverted a lot of my time.

And so, as easy as it could be to say I was in the vicinity of my target...I clocked $13k last month. So far, I have made 30k this year. I have a lot of GREAT things ahead that will make quantum leaps in my business.

I did a lot of filtering, but now The RIGHT people believe in me and I will make them a lot of money. I'm committed to the core of my being to make it happen.

I will go into more detail about last month later. But I wanted to jump in and give my apologies!!

PEACE!!!!!

 

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[PaulRobert]

Great! Filtering out the negative people and bringing in the positive people to you will get you closer to the goals you have set.

 

[OutcomeCertain]

I'm divulging some real private info, but hey maybe it could help someone. After organizing my life and debts and assessment. My business/Personal debt combined is about 115k. I met with two bankruptcy lawyers and erasing that debt looks really appealling for a fresh start. But a good part of me wants to just negociate that debt and pay it off next year. If I'm gonna make the 1.2 million like I say I am, then I shouldn't have any problem paying that debt off. right? Doing a BK is nice, but it can tarnish my score for 7 years!! Even though Entrepreneurs go into BK all the time I think I want to hold on to that wildcard in case I really get into some deep shit! lol. Naw, thats not the right thinking pattern. I don't want to ever use that card. I'll claw my way back into freedom "Richest Man in Babylon" style. I'll call and see what I can reduce the debt down to and pay it off every month based on a percentage of my income every month. Lets go.

Bankruptcy is an awful process. There are other options. Try looking into debt settlement or debt management programs. I am in that business myself and there are good programs out there.

I would not presume to offer my services, but there are some reputable organizations out there that can help you eliminate the debt and save a lot of money in the process.

Due diligence is important. Make sure you check out the company before you work with them. There are unfortunately a lot of bad actors in this business. Verify them with the BBB and IAPDA.

I hope this helps. Good luck in reaching your goals.

 

[Guest3722A]

Hi Caesarion and all on this board. This is my first post here and I am hoping that I can help some, as well as be helped.

Caesarion, I have a business idea that may actually fit in well with and perhaps compliment your plans. The idea is a business I owned a few years back that was actually inexpensive to start, and took off like a weed once word got out. At first it will not produce the revenue you're asking for, but with vision and a reasonable timeframe, it can easily produce a comfortable income, with franchise potential, and minimal involvement if you choose. The business idea... A rehearsal hall for bands and musicians. When it was all said and done with me, I had built up to an 18,000+ sq. ft. industrially zoned (key) building, for which I then partitioned 45 lockout rooms that I leased out to bands with 6 month lease commitments with MONTHLY payments, first, last and security deposits. 24/7/365 access with gameroom, juke box with 'their' cd's, and vending. The reasons why this potentially could help is that first off, your name gets out there with the local musician community which gets your name tons of free advertisement, along with local magazine interviews, back stage passes, and, big name musicians will use your facilities on occasion. In the rehearsal halls, you could sell your merchandise, and once you cookie cut the idea and spread out to other cities, your influence and products would be introduced there as well.

 

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[OutcomeCertain]

Hi Caesarion and all on this board. This is my first post here and I am hoping that I can help some, as well as be helped.

Caesarion, I have a business idea that may actually fit in well with and perhaps compliment your plans. The idea is a business I owned a few years back that was actually inexpensive to start, and took off like a weed once word got out. At first it will not produce the revenue you're asking for, but with vision and a reasonable timeframe, it can easily produce a comfortable income, with franchise potential, and minimal involvement if you choose. The business idea... A rehearsal hall for bands and musicians. When it was all said and done with me, I had built up to an 18,000+ sq. ft. industrially zoned (key) building, for which I then partitioned 45 lockout rooms that I leased out to bands with 6 month lease commitments with MONTHLY payments, first, last and security deposits. 24/7/365 access with gameroom, juke box with 'their' cd's, and vending. The reasons why this potentially could help is that first off, your name gets out there with the local musician community which gets your name tons of free advertisement, along with local magazine interviews, back stage passes, and, big name musicians will use your facilities on occasion. In the rehearsal halls, you could sell your merchandise, and once you cookie cut the idea and spread out to other cities, your influence and products would be introduced there as well.

That is a pretty cool idea. You might think about having the ability to record there as well.

 

[Guest3722A]

That is a pretty cool idea. You might think about having the ability to record there as well.

Actually, I can guarantee that someone with existing studio/video ambitions will want to rent space so that they can set up shop and get your tenants to use them which is why I had 3 premium studios built in the facility with sound booths. See for me, my goal was to rent space and not have to do much except collect the checks, and make friends. Something else that I didn't mention here is that in the vending machines, I also sold things like guitar strings, picks, cords, drum sticks and drum keys. And for security, I had a 2 keyed and key code entrance and 20 camera surveillance with infrared. This whole experience for me was a blast, and the talent that was developed because I enabled was quite the reward in itself.

 

[MJ DeMarco]

Hi Caesarion and all on this board. This is my first post here and I am hoping that I can help some, as well as be helped.

Caesarion, I have a business idea that may actually fit in well with and perhaps compliment your plans. The idea is a business I owned a few years back that was actually inexpensive to start, and took off like a weed once word got out. At first it will not produce the revenue you're asking for, but with vision and a reasonable timeframe, it can easily produce a comfortable income, with franchise potential, and minimal involvement if you choose. The business idea... A rehearsal hall for bands and musicians. When it was all said and done with me, I had built up to an 18,000+ sq. ft. industrially zoned (key) building, for which I then partitioned 45 lockout rooms that I leased out to bands with 6 month lease commitments with MONTHLY payments, first, last and security deposits. 24/7/365 access with gameroom, juke box with 'their' cd's, and vending. The reasons why this potentially could help is that first off, your name gets out there with the local musician community which gets your name tons of free advertisement, along with local magazine interviews, back stage passes, and, big name musicians will use your facilities on occasion. In the rehearsal halls, you could sell your merchandise, and once you cookie cut the idea and spread out to other cities, your influence and products would be introduced there as well.

Spectacular idea!!!!

 

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[Russ H]

Actually, I can guarantee that someone with existing studio/video ambitions will want to rent space so that they can set up shop and get your tenants to use them which is why I had 3 premium studios built in the facility with sound booths. See for me, my goal was to rent space and not have to do much except collect the checks, and make friends. Something else that I didn't mention here is that in the vending machines, I also sold things like guitar strings, picks, cords, drum sticks and drum keys. And for security, I had a 2 keyed and key code entrance and 20 camera surveillance with infrared. This whole experience for me was a blast, and the talent that was developed because I enabled was quite the reward in itself.

Great stuff- and thanks for sharing this.

We had a neighbor have a band practice last week, and I had the cops shut them down.

As I told the cops, I hated to do it-- b/c they were really good!

But business is business-- I have to pay my bills, and they were ticking off the guests (it was medium loud-- they really were trying to keep it down, had all the windows closed, etc).

I said to my wife, "If we had some empty space right now, I'd let these guys use it in exchange for them playing a couple of gigs". It would have removed the noise problem, given them a place to practice, and all of us would have been happy. A classic win-win. Only problem was, I didn't have any spare space.

Great idea.

Rep speed. No more parking for you!

-Russ H.

 

[Merkin Man]

Actually, I can guarantee that someone with existing studio/video ambitions will want to rent space so that they can set up shop and get your tenants to use them which is why I had 3 premium studios built in the facility with sound booths. See for me, my goal was to rent space and not have to do much except collect the checks, and make friends. Something else that I didn't mention here is that in the vending machines, I also sold things like guitar strings, picks, cords, drum sticks and drum keys. And for security, I had a 2 keyed and key code entrance and 20 camera surveillance with infrared. This whole experience for me was a blast, and the talent that was developed because I enabled was quite the reward in itself.

Is this a business that you still own? As others have stated, it's a great idea. If you're no longer doing it, I'd be curious to know why you decided to step away. To me, it is a great way to earn income, almost passive income if your real goal is simply renting out the space and collecting the rent, while doing something you have a passion for.

 

[Guest3722A]

Spectacular idea!!!!

Thank you very much. I put everything I had into this one, not just $$, and it turned into something that helped so many people in so many ways. Over time, I would like to post my story in a separate thread as to not hijack the OP here.

 

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[Guest3722A]

Great stuff- and thanks for sharing this.

We had a neighbor have a band practice last week, and I had the cops shut them down.

As I told the cops, I hated to do it-- b/c they were really good!

But business is business-- I have to pay my bills, and they were ticking off the guests (it was medium loud-- they really were trying to keep it down, had all the windows closed, etc).

I said to my wife, "If we had some empty space right now, I'd let these guys use it in exchange for them playing a couple of gigs". It would have removed the noise problem, given them a place to practice, and all of us would have been happy. A classic win-win. Only problem was, I didn't have any spare space.

Great idea.

Rep speed. No more parking for you!

-Russ H.

Thank you very much. The entire idea once it got going kept going in circles, but not in a bad way, when I say circles, or maybe I should say 'see circles' I don't know how to explain it except to say that things repeatedly kept spinning in harmony so to speak. A great example of this is how you mentioned about the local neighborhood band that was good, but disturbing. The circle here as you know, is that I pulled the issue out of the residential zone naturally helping homeowners/residents, and put it into an environment that was conducive to growth and networking for a band, in an environment with no time restrictions or volume restrictions. It was not uncommon for bands to show up at 4 am and plug in and jam full force. But, an additional 'win' (or circle) was that I was bringing hundreds of people into a city where the local business owners were benefiting from the additional volume of customers. Not to mention, all of the entrepreneurs who had the recording studios, guitar repair and music management businesses. This one I can honestly say was a spin-spin!

 

[Guest3722A]

Is this a business that you still own? As others have stated, it's a great idea. If you're no longer doing it, I'd be curious to know why you decided to step away. To me, it is a great way to earn income, almost passive income if your real goal is simply renting out the space and collecting the rent, while doing something you have a passion for.

Unfortunately, I do not still own this business as this loss to me was hands down, the greatest failure of my life. I would like to explain over time how it all unfolded on another thread as to not hijack this one. It's detailed and I believe will bring discussion. But to keep you and others interested, let's just say I ended up 'on the stand' getting drilled and grilled by attorneys for hours at a time. No exaggeration, and seeing that I was in the right, I kicked ALL of their a**es, to the point that the judge would smile at me while I was being grilled for which I have to continue here and say that I won in court, but lost my business.

 

[Caesarion]

That is a great idea. I lease space monthly from a facility similar to what you described for our artist. It is really run down, but it has so much history of all the great bands that recorded in there. I am so spread thin from the things I am doing now, I don't have the capacity to expand into anything else.

 

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[Caesarion]

May 1st,

Been on this roller coaster ride and loving it. I'm getting my entrepreneurial muscles back. I call it manifestation power, when the universe starts bringing to you things that need to take things to the next step. Talk is cheap. I created a life or death situation for me to make this money in my head. Like, I have to DO it or Die trying!! or if someone kidnapped my kids and said they would kill them if I didn't raise this money by the end of the year, what would I do? Then capture that fire, that spirit inside me and use it as my blueprint for everyday. All of a sudden all my bullshitting time decreased and my focus and intensity increased. I know it's extreme, but try it maybe it could work for you. Being broke is pretty extreme too. Every month is getting better. I made 3X more than I made last month. Have to keep focus. My schedule is getting dialed in. I listen to inspiration stuff ALL DAY EVERYDAY, whenever I can. I realize I need some much of this to retrain my brain. It is helping. I am different than I was last month. I have changed mentally. I think it is KNOWING that I have the power to bend the universe and create anything I want, instead of hoping or thinking it's possible. Maybe it's just that shift in thought. Not sure, but I just kicked in another gear. Lets go.

 

[Anon3587x]

lol that last post was poetic. I liked it.
I can also relate to your mindset at the moment, its friday night I'm 20.
but all I've been doing since about 8a.m is working on seo and perfecting html and some software programming.
Along with typing up a few pages for my site.

I could of been out partying, but I just feel this is more important.
I figure 2 years of anguish for a lifetime of joy.

Like you I came across a small sum of money, but not nearly as significant.
I won 700$ off a 2 buck scratcher which is exactly what I needed to fix my lap top and pay for some web design costs. Like the stars were aligning.
Until the great state of california told me I had to wait 8-10 weeks to get my check.. lol (what a joke)

Anyways good luck
Its tough trying to make a buck in the 510

 

[darkjediii]

Great read, looking forward to your updates!

 

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[Guest3722A]

Bump!

Caesarion,

Seeing that this was the very first thread I posted on here and knowing we're both in the music biz, I'm really interested to see how things have been going, and hoping you're still on track!

 

[MJ DeMarco]

And Happy BDAY Caesarion!