Ideas. Ideas. Ideas. Execution starts today.

[Dave Daily]

In your position, Dave @Hugh Nivers, since you're essentially making custom designed tables, it's possible to generate a cash upfront payment from your customer. Which you can then use to source raw materials. And make the product for your customer.

Yes. You'll need to be able to make prototypes. But you should be able to pay for this via credit card. Which is how most people start their small businesses. They may not admit it. But most people max out their credit cards in the prototype stage.

You could also see if the banks believe in you.

For crowdfunding, you need a large following. @JAJT has been successful with this in creating funding for his Bone Owl Puzzle business. Read his thread. I'm sure it can be of help.

Regarding paying your supplier, make sure your terms of payment are: payment is due 30 days in the following month in which you place your order. These are normal payment terms in Australia.

That's as far as I can help you, Dave. I hope this helps. ~Carol❤

Great advice all the way around. Thanks for the tip about @JAJT. I went by his site earlier today. Fun concept. I'll definitely need to pick his brain about crowdsourcing. Thx again.

 

[Jello]

Together Tables ~ Day 1 ~ wherein I discuss my plans for my tiny workspace in my messy and tiny yard.

This video is embarrassing, but I want to share myself and my thoughts, so I can get feedback on what I need to work on both about me and my ideas. As an introvert, one of the things I need to know is how I'll handle putting myself out there more. If I come off as a little insane, lol, just know that I'm trying to put some energy into this, so it may not read as 100% natural. Thanks.

Nothing to be embarrassed about, I do like the video and you got yourself a subscriber on your YouTube channel.

At the moment I'm reading unscripted and this reminds of the Kaizen principle described in chapter 19. No problem you're a introvert (like myself) with a growth mindset it's possible to bypass this just by doing it. Not to become extroverted but learning how to deal with it. Just another example how @mjdemarco his books and the forum complete eachother and inspire certain people like yourself who have it in them.

I'm following your progress closely and am enjoying it. Also because after I'm done with unscripted I'll join the insiders and post my own progress thread (getting out of my comfort zone will be the hardest part). Anyway you're a inspiration to me. Just keep on doing what you're doing and you'll get there. [emoji106]

 

[Dave Daily]

Nothing to be embarrassed about, I do like the video and you got yourself a subscriber on your YouTube channel.

At the moment I'm reading unscripted and this reminds of the Kaizen principle described in chapter 19. No problem you're a introvert (like myself) with a growth mindset it's possible to bypass this just by doing it. Not to become extroverted but learning how to deal with it. Just another example how @mjdemarco his books and the forum complete eachother and inspire certain people like yourself who have it in them.

I'm following your progress closely and am enjoying it. Also because after I'm done with unscripted I'll join the insiders and post my own progress thread (getting out of my comfort zone will be the hardest part). Anyway you're a inspiration to me. Just keep on doing what you're doing and you'll get there. [emoji106]

Thanks @Jello ,

Kaizen is definitely my approach to this—one small step at a time.

I appreciate the encouragement and I'm glad to have you along for the journey. Let me now how I can help you out. Do you have any ideas you're ready to get to work on yet?

 

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[Dave Daily]

Speaking of the tables and puzzles from @JAJT. I found this brilliant coffee table plan and I was thinking of seeing if my brother in law can build it for me. I might need to bribe him with more cigars though.

There's a ton of cool stuff you can do with a table and families especially will see the value in a well designed table. My parents had a table in the den which had a top with a hinge that lifted up. My sister and I loved that table growing up. It was the perfect spot for HW, reading, watching TV, eating dinner. I actually think my sister still has that table somewhere. Anyway, I'm really excited to see what you do with this. Tables can really help add value to someone's home especially in tiny apartments or condos where there isn't a ton of space.

View attachment 18507
Source : DIY Coffee Table With Pullouts - Home Made By Carmona

That's a great table and it's giving me ideas.

Thanks for sharing your table story. I love it. It goes to show just how central this one piece of furniture can be in people's lives. I wonder if people feel the same away about their couches, lol.

 

[Dave Daily]

After deciding on the business, my ToDo list just got very long, so my first order of business is to establish some order.

TASK ORGANIZER

 

[Dave Daily]

I'll probably regret putting this video up, but I look at doing so as an exercise in facing my fears. In this video, I sit on my couch and pontificate about fun things such as "Rep Envy" and learning to overcome selfish tendencies. [Spoiler alert] The learning isn't done yet.

I also dip into next steps for Together Tables now that our last table project is just about finished.

 

[Dave Daily]

G'day Dave @Hugh Nivers from Oz,

I saw the video. Liked it. It's raw. But true.

If this is something you desire. And want to do. As Napoleon Hill says, "Desire is the starting point of all achievement, not a hope, not a wish, but a keen pulsating desire which transcends everything."

And remember. You're not going to be making them into infinity. Once you know what's required of making a table, you'll be outsourcing it to professionals more skilled than you are. But you need to know how it's made. Before you can hand it over to someone else. Just so that you know the process.

This is exactly what we did with all our products. We made the first 'X' amount. Before handing it over to a sewing company. Just so we knew the problems they may have.

This is just the beginning. And you're doing just fine. ~Carol❤

Thanks @Carol Jones,

I think building and selling the first 100 or 1,000 tables is the right thing to do. I may decide to hand it over to another company or three, just to make sure no single company controls our business or I may decided to build a larger production facility. It's far too early to decide, but I agree that it will probably be best to get more skilled craftsmen handling the manufacturing.

I just signed my son and I up to use a local makerspace, so for now, we've got a much larger facility to grow in and it costs a fraction of what it would cost to have our own shop. I'll keep you posted on how it goes.

 

[Dave Daily]

Kinetic Execution Update

I believe I have a better solution to having a good table building workshop, rather than just enlarging our backyard workshop. Instead we are going to pay for a membership at the Idea Fab Labs in Chico where we can reserve the woodshop and the CNC Shopbot Router for up to 8 hours each week. We can still do some of the home in our backyard and reserve the time at the Fab Lab for router work and major assembly tasks.

 

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[Dave Daily]

The documentation and process in this thread is reminding me of Vick's epic eyewear thread!

Don't worry about the videos and being "awkward" lol. The fact that you as an introvert dare to make youtube videos already prove you've bigger balls than other introverts like myself

You should do more videos of you and your son/family in the process of assembling the table, the whole hard-at-work stuff, as well as those vids like that CNC cutting vid (looks beautiful in real life btw). As a guy, I find these sort of manual labor stuff very interesting to watch.
Then on your About page and social media, you'll have plenty to post and lots of stories to tell and draw people in ("We were bringing the table out into the open when this fat squirrel dashed across my legs...).

Thanks @Xeon ,

I appreciate the encouragement.

I'm planning to do more videos. Whether anyone watches or not, I'd like to have a good record of the events leading up to success or failure or pivot to something else.

What are you working on at the moment? Let me know how I can encourage you. Thx.

 

[Genius01]

Some still images from today's CNC router practice:

View attachment 18736 View attachment 18737 View attachment 18738 View attachment 18739 View attachment 18740 View attachment 18741

Lol, finding these interesting.
What exactly is this CNC Router thingy? Is it like some software you use to design whatever you are going to imprint on your table, before translating the actual designs to your table?
Pardon my novice question, don't have a clue about these things...

 

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[eliquid]

Facing fears with regard to using a table saw. The table saw at the makerspace I'm using doesn't have any safety features, like a riving blade or a guard. It's just pure blade and the push sticks are sh*t. I've been watching youtube videos and I'm finding out that there are a lot of things wrong with the setup of the table.

Oh the stories I could tell about people losing fingers on table saws and chop saws.

You lose a finger, but gain a hotdog!

.

 

[eliquid]

Mmmmm hotdogs.

I’m a noob so what do I know, but a few of the guys at the makerspace seem to be a bit overconfident when it comes to the table saw.

Those are the guys that will end up in a accident. Trust me on that

 

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[ZF Lee]

Anyone here use Clickfunnels.com? I'm looking around for website options and this looks pretty turn-key, although it ain't cheap. They have a funny and persuasive marketing video though:

I haven't smiled at a marketing vid for SOOO long.
@IceCreamKid, a possible case study for the Marketing Chronicles?

 

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[NMdad]

Mmmmm hotdogs.

I’m a noob so what do I know, but a few of the guys at the makerspace seem to be a bit overconfident when it comes to the table saw.

Table saws should rightfully freak you out. I took the blade guard off on mine (since it gets in the way & kinks when pushing wood through). If I'm doing a lot of cutting, I use ear plugs, but find that NOT using ear plugs focuses me on the loud whir of the blade & thus makes me much more conscious of the possibility of split-second ripping through my irreplaceable fingers.

 

[NMdad]

Also, if you haven't read the licensing thread, you might want to check it out:
GOLD! - The Licensing Game

 

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[Dave Daily]

So I just read this post:

Sorry, But the Forum Can't Make Your Life Decisions For You!!

and I see that my thread here is asking the forum to make some decisions for me. I considered taking this long-a$$ post down, but I think I'll leave it up as part of the documentation of all of my fun mistakes. Still, any insight is welcome.

 

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[Dave Daily]

@MJ DeMarco Okay, Thanks. I like that you put your decision matrix on line. I'll give it a shot.

 

[ButGregSaid]

Haha! Yeah, I'm Dave, but you can call me Al. LOL. Hugh Nivers (Universe—Get it? ) is my pseudonym when I get around to writing my novel after I get my Fastlane business where I want it to go.

I see what you did there....

 

[Tommo]

Thanks.

Interesting that you highlighted the only brick and mortar business in the list. I definitely agree that healthy eating is a movement. I did a second decision matrix analysis and put Good to Go against VectoryVictory (the winner from my last analysis) and this is what I got:

View attachment 18304
Maybe your highlighting it skewed my thoughts on it, but it does have a lot of merit. The NEED / RELATIVE VALUE is there, the barrier to ENTRY is high, so high that it scares the sh*t out of me. Plus I have to consider that I'd be setting it up in my home town of Chico, California, population 100,000 or so and not in Phoenix. CONTROL is there. SCALE is there, but it's iterative and not easy like an internet biz. TIME is tricky because lots of fast-food systems would have to be put in place, so that would take a while to get TIME out of the way.

Man I really like you.

 

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[Dave Daily]

Honestly, I like the apartment route, but not the App thing you mentioned.

1) You can do deals that have large MAGNITUDE in RE especially if you have capital or access to capital (Read @SteveO Posts)

2) I think there's a lot of opportunity for SaaS businesses in the RE Space.

I'm not sure how much of a marketing background you have, but I would do another analysis on how you plan on getting customers for each opportunity you mention as they are vastly different from each other.

You know I tend to agree with you. The reason I made this poll is because I vacillated between business ideas. Apartment investing has a lot of pull for me. Housing is a perennial need. I am a bit confused about your comment about do doing the app thing when you then suggest that there's a lot of opportunity in SaaS for real estate. My app idea is SaaS for Apartment investing. Perhaps you thought the concept was weak. Thanks.

 

[Dave Daily]

Would it make sense to partner up with Design Pickle? "You're missing out on customers that might need your design services, just because you can't deliver in their preferred vector format. Meanwhile I'm not that great at design. We each have a big hole in our offering that the other can fix. So you keep marketing and send the vector business to me, I'll keep marketing and send the design business to you, and we'll both benefit."

Lots of details to hammer out for pricing, revenue sharing, etc, but it might make your vector business more viable.

Yes! I thought about that. That's a great idea. We could refer back and forth. I'd need to build something worthy of getting their attention first, at least that's my assumption. Thanks for jumping on the thread. Did you vote on the poll? If you have, thanks, if not, I'd be indebted to you.

 

[Dave Daily]

Speaking of genius teachers that broke free and became wildly successful...

(I'm looking at you Dave)

Stephen King was a "lowly" English teacher before he decided to become a writer.

J.K. Rowling, although not a teacher, was on welfare when she finished her first Harry Potter book. She also had applied to Oxford University at one time, but was turned down. She is the most successful author ever, in the entire world. I often wonder what she would have become if things went her way and she did not have so much difficulty in life...

Haha! I'd be in great company.

 

[Dave Daily]

I would not sell benches without getting professional legal advice. There's only a few makers of ladders in the world because people suck and they are stupid. One 400-pound Jimbo hurting his back when your bench collapses would be a nightmare.

Hmmm. Something to think about. That's a bit scary.

 

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[Dave Daily]

@Hugh Nivers
Congrats on taking the first steps towards something awesome. Your posivity shows through in your posts and I think that’s awesome. VectoryVictory will be my vote. It seems like design pickle has done a lot of heavy lifting in terms of deciding if there is a market for subscription/contract design services. The comment about possibly partnering and an exchange of work/clients is golden.
As a commercial re broker who has worked on only MF and retail, I don’t think the apt idea has legs. The main issues being the proforma and one page sales/OM type concept (no better word for it lol). I think these are both issues because how do you set the templates or determine what metrics are included in both? I’ve seen basic back of napkin proformas and full 10 year Argus runs. Everyone/each entity evaluates properties differently. Coupled with certain markets using cap rate, grm or price per door, etc as a metric for the value add portion of the purchase. How do you price this variety and what segment of the market are you going after? The value add market is extremely saturated...when I have people call on my listings or tell me that they’re value add Buyers looking right now, I immediately peg them as unsophisticated/not real. Most importantly, as a former M&M guy I’m sure you had somebody on staff who pumped these kind of things out on the regular. I think all of the large guys (CB, M&M, Colliers) are moving towards proprietary type solutions for these types of scenarios, in which they’re offering them to clients in the hopes of getting deals done. In my market I’m starting to see development + spin proformas being done by the brokerage houses for their smaller development clients. And there is a group doing Argus runs for mid to larger Buyers...I’ll see if I can find a link. Best of luck, I’ll be watching to see what awesomeness you brew up.

Thanks @itsemdub — You're not the first person to encourage me to rethink the real estate idea. I'll come back to it after my first successful fastlane road trip.

VectorVictory.com got a lot of votes in this poll. I'm actually a bit surprised considered the $500 per month subscription fee, but that's what it would take to make it worthwhile. What I'll need to do to sell that is to calculate how much my typical target customer spends on this kind of thing. I bet that's way over $500 per month. Anyway, I wouldn't need everyone. It's a big market and I'd only need a few thousand in the next 3 to 5 years to create a salable asset. Thanks for taking the time to vote and respond.

Cheers,

Dave

 

[Dave Daily]

How old is your son? It is likely that he could get involved in any of these business ideas. Don't fall in love with a biz idea for the wrong reasons. "Do you want to be right, or do you want to be rich?"

He's 16. You make a good point. VectorVictory.com does have the most votes. Something to think about. Thx. I'll wait until the poll is over on the 8th to make a final decision.

 

[Carol Jones]

Geez Carol. You're a bright light. Thank you for your encouragement. I hope you're around for a long time to come

@Hugh Nivers

❤❤❤ ~Carol❤

 

[ExaltedLife]

Do the Value Array analysis from UnScripted on these ideas - if you can see a place where you can add huge value, hit the ground running!

 

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[Dave Daily]

Oh the stories I could tell about people losing fingers on table saws and chop saws.

You lose a finger, but gain a hotdog!

.

Mmmmm hotdogs.

I’m a noob so what do I know, but a few of the guys at the makerspace seem to be a bit overconfident when it comes to the table saw.

 

[Genius01]

CNC stands for computer numerical control, so a CNC router is basically a router attached to a robot arm which is controlled by a computer. The designs can be made in any vector art program. I'm using Adobe Illustrator and then it's converted into a file that the ShopBot program can read, and that's an SBP file.

Thanks for the clarification.
Same goes to @Arun Siva .
Learnt something new.

 

[Dave Daily]

Table saws should rightfully freak you out. I took the blade guard off on mine (since it gets in the way & kinks when pushing wood through). If I'm doing a lot of cutting, I use ear plugs, but find that NOT using ear plugs focuses me on the loud whir of the blade & thus makes me much more conscious of the possibility of split-second ripping through my irreplaceable fingers.

Yep. As soon as I can afford it, I'll buy one of those SawStop table saws.