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If you had $1000 what would you do with it?

bjd02

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I've recently signed up to this forum after viewing for a few months, read the books etc. I just wanted to get some advice, im 17 and don't have a lot of money at the moment, about $1500 to my name, part time job that's giving me minimal money, i wanted to know if i could possibly start anything up with this amount of money or if there are any courses anyone would recommend. I'm not exactly looking to make any big money at the moment, i just want to get my foot in the door with the entrepreneurship. I've seen the Web Dev courses etc which seem interesting to me however i have no experience in any of that. Any response will be helpful, thanks.
 
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LHXS

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I've recently signed up to this forum after viewing for a few months, read the books etc. I just wanted to get some advice, im 17 and don't have a lot of money at the moment, about $1500 to my name, part time job that's giving me minimal money, i wanted to know if i could possibly start anything up with this amount of money or if there are any courses anyone would recommend. I'm not exactly looking to make any big money at the moment, i just want to get my foot in the door with the entrepreneurship. I've seen the Web Dev courses etc which seem interesting to me however i have no experience in any of that. Any response will be helpful, thanks.
1. What is your passion?
2. What are your skills?
3. What is your knowledge?

I'm sure we can come up with good help, but it's broadly useless to know about everyone else because there's an infinite number of answers, but you shouldn't try and be someone else...
 

LHXS

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Oh.... and just to add.... I had exactly the same thought as you about 15 years ago. I had £250 to my name and asked myself the same question. The result (after the above 3 questions) was something that generated me about £10,000 from that initial £250. I hope we can do the same for you.
 

bjd02

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1. What is your passion?
2. What are your skills?
3. What is your knowledge?

I'm sure we can come up with good help, but it's broadly useless to know about everyone else because there's an infinite number of answers, but you shouldn't try and be someone else...
1. I feel like i have little to no passions at this point in time which is a big problem for me, i love reading and improving my knowledge of finances etc, real estate has always interested me but im only 17 and don't even have a credit card as of yet.

2. Again, no real skills i can think of, although i'm willing to learn - i just need to know what to put my time and energy into, i spent too much time procrastinating (Is this skill worth my time etc) and never actually get started on learning anything as i overthink too much.

3. For my age i would like to think i'm quite knowledgeable on human psychology and finance but yet again, all i have been doing is reading, reading and reading. No action.
 
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bjd02

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Oh.... and just to add.... I had exactly the same thought as you about 15 years ago. I had £250 to my name and asked myself the same question. The result (after the above 3 questions) was something that generated me about £10,000 from that initial £250. I hope we can do the same for you.
How did you discover you passion? How did you know what to put your energy into?
 

LHXS

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OK, so I have no intention of getting 'deep' here, but perhaps look at it another way. Why do you want to "get my foot in the door with the entrepreneurship."? It's perfectly fine to say "money" - but check in with yourself to see why you want that money. It could also be to 'build something' or to be famous or whatever, but it's better to have some idea now, to avoid too many dead ends and projects you give up on.

Back to the point, it's certainly more than possible to do what what you're after, but keep in mind that $$ is just one resource and if you're short on it you're going to need to plug the gap with some other resource. That could be Knoweldge, Contacts, a Skill, ingenuity or just plain old hard graft. THAT's why I'm asking the questions. If you want to shortcut it and have the result but without the investment of some sort, then you're probably in the territory of using the money for entering the world of crime....
 

bjd02

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OK, so I have no intention of getting 'deep' here, but perhaps look at it another way. Why do you want to "get my foot in the door with the entrepreneurship."? It's perfectly fine to say "money" - but check in with yourself to see why you want that money. It could also be to 'build something' or to be famous or whatever, but it's better to have some idea now, to avoid too many dead ends and projects you give up on.

Back to the point, it's certainly more than possible to do what what you're after, but keep in mind that $$ is just one resource and if you're short on it you're going to need to plug the gap with some other resource. That could be Knoweldge, Contacts, a Skill, ingenuity or just plain old hard graft. THAT's why I'm asking the questions. If you want to shortcut it and have the result but without the investment of some sort, then you're probably in the territory of using the money for entering the world of crime....
I want to money because i do not want to live like my parents, i want freedom, i want to live a perfect life whilst im young, i just do not know what to focus my time on
 
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LHXS

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Cool, well it sounds like you know a few things about yourself, so that's good. You see yourself as a person of inaction and procrastination and you don't feel you have big pots of 'value' you can give to the world yet. You now know what to watch out for an guard against. It also sounds like you're about to go on a journey. You're young (sorry for saying that) and don't have a clear path, so I wouldnt waste heaps of time procrastinating to try and find out (as it sounds like this is one of your weaknesses). Just prepare yourself for a journey in which you keep heading forwards (don't stop or go backwards).

OK, for your $1500, I PERSONNALY would NOT spend it on courses or info products. Probably lots of people will tell me I'm wrong, but it sounds like if you have a lack of direction and a habbit of procrastination, then that will just feed it. I think the best you can do is invest it into a venture that you can commit to getting an outcome. There's an incredible amount of info for free if you want it, and a book would only cost £10 or so.

For me it was online businesses, because I love their ability to scale. For you, it might be something different:
1) Some tools or equipment to start a popup (like a coffee stand or something)
2) Some services to help you with an online service
3) As a co-finance to team with someone 50/50 and double the investment
4) Save it on standby and try 3-5 ventures that require no capital. When you get a whiff of something that's working, then use that money to double down on it.

Have you had any idead already? I think there's an INE section somewhere on these forums...
 

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Get a job, preferably in sales, make some bank & instill discipline while you figure out what to do.
 

Fox

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I've recently signed up to this forum after viewing for a few months, read the books etc. I just wanted to get some advice, im 17 and don't have a lot of money at the moment, about $1500 to my name, part time job that's giving me minimal money, i wanted to know if i could possibly start anything up with this amount of money or if there are any courses anyone would recommend. I'm not exactly looking to make any big money at the moment, i just want to get my foot in the door with the entrepreneurship. I've seen the Web Dev courses etc which seem interesting to me however i have no experience in any of that. Any response will be helpful, thanks.

I think you mean my web program. I would suggest holding off - it is always good to have a base of savings before looking at any courses etc.

There are lots of things you can do for free right now to get going - use those first...
- Internet and library for learning more in general
- Businesses ideas that require no more down
- Learn skills like selling, marketing, branding, coding etc online (for free)
- Go to local meetups if possible
- Get around business owners and entrepreneurial people
- Take a job that exposes you to business areas/skills more directly

At the same time look for businesses with problems/challenges and see if you can offer to help them.
 
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bjd02

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I think you mean my web program. I would suggest holding off - it is always good to have a base of savings before looking at any courses etc.

There are lots of things you can do for free right now to get going - use those first...
- Internet and library for learning more in general
- Businesses ideas that require no more down
- Learn skills like selling, marketing, branding, coding etc online (for free)
- Go to local meetups if possible
- Get around business owners and entrepreneurial people
- Take a job that exposes you to business areas/skills more directly

At the same time look for businesses with problems/challenges and see if you can offer to help them.
Yes your course was the one i have seen posted around, has a lot of good reviews, maybe in the future i'll delve into it a bit more. So it would be useful for me to look on Udemy and learn some of the skills you talked about?
 

Fox

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Yes your course was the one i have seen posted around, has a lot of good reviews, maybe in the future i'll delve into it a bit more. So it would be useful for me to look on Udemy and learn some of the skills you talked about?

I would try get started without it.

- Get a few books on sales and learn basics of coding (just enough to upload a website template)
- Try line up your first project for a real business
- Start a progress thread on it
- Hit me up on here with any questions you got

(That is if you go that route)
 
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Telamon25346

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I've recently signed up to this forum after viewing for a few months, read the books etc. I just wanted to get some advice, im 17 and don't have a lot of money at the moment, about $1500 to my name, part time job that's giving me minimal money, i wanted to know if i could possibly start anything up with this amount of money or if there are any courses anyone would recommend. I'm not exactly looking to make any big money at the moment, i just want to get my foot in the door with the entrepreneurship. I've seen the Web Dev courses etc which seem interesting to me however i have no experience in any of that. Any response will be helpful, thanks.

this is an easy one, I started at 16 with 0 dollars in my pocket, and that was only 2 years ago

highly recommend what everyone else has been saying, if you want to learn, read, get experience working. it will teach you things about life, and give you capital for any opportunities you will take in the future.

If you want to start a business, 1: take a useful skill 2: figure out how to bring it to people. 3: deliver with whatever resources you have.

you can operate as a 'middle-man economist' kind of, bringing benefit to two sides, facilitating value, and learning how to scale.

Here's some random examples to get your mind going:
  • Approach householders in your neighborhood with an opportunity to do lawn work at a fair price, get a few of your buddies together, Teach them how to mow lawns and give them the opportunity to earn some cash this summer. scale it up.
  • learn marketing, copywriting, and how to run advertisements, approach fitness coaches and teachers or people that sell a program, (you can find them on youtube or instagram something)
    approach them with the opportunity to generate more sales, all they have to do is let you run an advertisement for their product/coaching program, split it 50/50 (works especially well if the product is expensive, learn how to run advertisements well of course, but if only 0.5% of 1000 people that view your ad converts and the product is $3,500 per client, at $1 per click you've helped generate $17,000 for the coach and you to split.
of course these are some basic examples but the core principle is this:
learn how to offer and deliver value, and execute on the ideas and opportunities you have.

You can do this by always thinking about value, when you go to starbucks, you need to be thinking, what's the price of this coffee, what's the profit? it costs $20 per person, but probably $1 per cup (they put water in the larger cups to make it look bigger) why is this place doing well, do they sell cakes? if I open up a coffee shop next door and sell cakes will I get the same amount of customers they have?

and you need to be doing this all the time. You'll have tons of things that you can execute on in no time.

as for the skills, learn how to sell, how to network, and how to offer things to people.

the reason the majority of people aren't entrepreneurs is because they don't want to approach a prospect or a householder with an opportunity for them, they don't want to sell, they don't want their income to be completely controlled by their actions. They'd rather go to school, be told what to do, have a set amount of time and work every day and earn a guaranteed amount every day. that's totally okay, but you can provide jobs for these people provided that you are the one going out there, selling, and providing the opportunities to your customers and people that will work with you.
 

Telamon25346

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I've recently signed up to this forum after viewing for a few months, read the books etc. I just wanted to get some advice, im 17 and don't have a lot of money at the moment, about $1500 to my name, part time job that's giving me minimal money, i wanted to know if i could possibly start anything up with this amount of money or if there are any courses anyone would recommend. I'm not exactly looking to make any big money at the moment, i just want to get my foot in the door with the entrepreneurship. I've seen the Web Dev courses etc which seem interesting to me however i have no experience in any of that. Any response will be helpful, thanks.

one more thing from a teenager to another teenager

there are a lot of routes you could go about your future, and there will be a lot of people pulling you in different directions if not already.

My parents wanted me to be an engineer, I was enrolled in an engineering high school, teachers wanted me to get a good degree, my friends wanted me to hang out with them every Friday.

You have to really sit there and think, what do I want MY life to look like 1 or 5 or 10 years from now? what do I think will take me there?

your parents and teachers really do want the best for you, but you have to realize that what they know is what got them to where they are now, and that may or may not be where you want to be in the future, entirely up to you. you'll have to think about it a lot (or at least I did haha)

and when you grow up unscripted and Fastlane, you notice a lot of things. for example:

My friends told me I should stop trying so hard to "get rich" and just focus on going to college

I chose to work on online income instead

they went out to party every Friday, invited me

I chose online income instead

They started applying for college, celebrating acceptance letters

I kept my head down and worked on online income

now they're thinking about getting jobs to help them while in college, I've started generating and growing my revenue in my agency, building income, building credit, and eventually buying assets to replace my income. I choose when I want to work, from my home, while they have to work part-time at target for the next 4 to 10 years in college.

Trajectory.
 

bjd02

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I would try get started without it.

- Get a few books on sales and learn basics of coding (just enough to upload a website template)
- Try line up your first project for a real business
- Start a progress thread on it
- Hit me up on here with any questions you got

(That is if you go that route)
By coding do you mean HTML and CSS?
 
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bjd02

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this is an easy one, I started at 16 with 0 dollars in my pocket, and that was only 2 years ago

highly recommend what everyone else has been saying, if you want to learn, read, get experience working. it will teach you things about life, and give you capital for any opportunities you will take in the future.

If you want to start a business, 1: take a useful skill 2: figure out how to bring it to people. 3: deliver with whatever resources you have.

you can operate as a 'middle-man economist' kind of, bringing benefit to two sides, facilitating value, and learning how to scale.

Here's some random examples to get your mind going:
  • Approach householders in your neighborhood with an opportunity to do lawn work at a fair price, get a few of your buddies together, Teach them how to mow lawns and give them the opportunity to earn some cash this summer. scale it up.
  • learn marketing, copywriting, and how to run advertisements, approach fitness coaches and teachers or people that sell a program, (you can find them on youtube or instagram something)
    approach them with the opportunity to generate more sales, all they have to do is let you run an advertisement for their product/coaching program, split it 50/50 (works especially well if the product is expensive, learn how to run advertisements well of course, but if only 0.5% of 1000 people that view your ad converts and the product is $3,500 per client, at $1 per click you've helped generate $17,000 for the coach and you to split.
of course these are some basic examples but the core principle is this:
learn how to offer and deliver value, and execute on the ideas and opportunities you have.

You can do this by always thinking about value, when you go to starbucks, you need to be thinking, what's the price of this coffee, what's the profit? it costs $20 per person, but probably $1 per cup (they put water in the larger cups to make it look bigger) why is this place doing well, do they sell cakes? if I open up a coffee shop next door and sell cakes will I get the same amount of customers they have?

and you need to be doing this all the time. You'll have tons of things that you can execute on in no time.

as for the skills, learn how to sell, how to network, and how to offer things to people.

the reason the majority of people aren't entrepreneurs is because they don't want to approach a prospect or a householder with an opportunity for them, they don't want to sell, they don't want their income to be completely controlled by their actions. They'd rather go to school, be told what to do, have a set amount of time and work every day and earn a guaranteed amount every day. that's totally okay, but you can provide jobs for these people provided that you are the one going out there, selling, and providing the opportunities to your customers and people that will work with you.
Thanks for the long reply, some really helpful stuff there, i think for now i'm going to do what a few people have told me - build knowledge on sales, coding etc. Although i have no idea where this can take me i feel its best to just start learning about it now as it may well benefit me hugely in the long run, I've given coding a go before but was never really committed to it at all, bored me to some extent.
 

Fox

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By coding do you mean HTML and CSS?

That is one way (there are many others) but just work back from "what problem could I solve".
 

bjd02

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That is one way (there are many others) but just work back from "what problem could I solve".
Ok, just bought a cheap Udemy course by Rob Percival, going to go through it within this month, hopefully then i can try to start my own project and kick on from there, thanks for the help.
 
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juna

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https://www.freshbooks.com/fbstatic...te-assets/other/Breaking-the-Time-Barrier.pdf
www.nav.al/rich/
www.familyrocketship.com/clonemybusiness/ @Sean Marshall
 

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I would partner up with 99 other people in a similar situation to yours.

Built a online Co-Op together with them, each owning 1% of the corp.

:D


That $1k won't take you far. $100k on the other hand.... could build an online business that makes $100k to $1mil/month.
 
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LHXS

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I would partner up with 99 other people in a similar situation to yours.

Built a online Co-Op together with them, each owning 1% of the corp.

:D


That $1k won't take you far. $100k on the other hand.... could build an online business that makes $100k to $1mil/month.
I like the thinking.... but have you ever tried to make business decisions with 99 other equal-share partners?
 

sparechange

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$1,500 is a ton of money to start a business.

You could either startup a service biz like painting, landscaping, cleaning, repair etc

Or create a product based biz, you could buy bulk of XXX product and resell it / brand a product.




one of his comments from the thread

PTP said:


none of it would have happened had I not made the leap and put in that $188 order back in 2016. You don't need another book, you don't need another course, you don't need to drop out of school or leave your job to start. You don't need any of it.

What you need is to start selling something - almost anything. It doesn't have to be a home run, but it can't be a garlic press. Just by selling something and interacting with the marketplace everyday, you'll begin to see what works and what doesn't.


Another crazy thing happens when you start selling. Your customers will tell you what they want! I can't tell you how many times a customer has come to us and suggested we make a product they want to buy. It's crazy. You just need to decide on the first one and they will come up with the rest.
 

bjd02

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$1,500 is a ton of money to start a business.

You could either startup a service biz like painting, landscaping, cleaning, repair etc

Or create a product based biz, you could buy bulk of XXX product and resell it / brand a product.




one of his comments from the thread

PTP said:


none of it would have happened had I not made the leap and put in that $188 order back in 2016. You don't need another book, you don't need another course, you don't need to drop out of school or leave your job to start. You don't need any of it.

What you need is to start selling something - almost anything. It doesn't have to be a home run, but it can't be a garlic press. Just by selling something and interacting with the marketplace everyday, you'll begin to see what works and what doesn't.


Another crazy thing happens when you start selling. Your customers will tell you what they want! I can't tell you how many times a customer has come to us and suggested we make a product they want to buy. It's crazy. You just need to decide on the first one and they will come up with the rest.
Thanks for the reply, by reselling do you mean Shopify? Im hesitant towards it because of the Virus and the problems with delivery times etc, to me it seems to be oversaturated now and people are pumping thousands into their stores so how would i compete?
 
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sparechange

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Thanks for the reply, by reselling do you mean Shopify? Im hesitant towards it because of the Virus and the problems with delivery times etc, to me it seems to be oversaturated now and people are pumping thousands into their stores so how would i compete?

shopify, amazon, your own website, facebook marketplace, kijji, craiglist whatever.

ah over saturated.... there is always a way to sell something better, delivery times..do it yourself, hire someone, problem solve :cool:
 

bjd02

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shopify, amazon, your own website, facebook marketplace, kijji, craiglist whatever.

ah over saturated.... there is always a way to sell something better, delivery times..do it yourself, hire someone, problem solve :cool:
So shopify is still a viable choice for someone like me with little money?
 

LHXS

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So shopify is still a viable choice for someone like me with little money?
Possibly... But you're gonna have to come to terms with something.... Risk.

They scary thing about having low capital is that you could lose it all on your first venture. Be prepared for that and build inner strength to pivot and try again if you need to.
 
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bjd02

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Possibly... But you're gonna have to come to terms with something.... Risk.

They scary thing about having low capital is that you could lose it all on your first venture. Be prepared for that and build inner strength to pivot and try again if you need to.
Definitely, i'm the type of person never to really spend any money anyway unless i NEED to or if it's going to benefit me in some way i.e books so i've had this money sitting around for ages, at my age i have no real expenses and could live without the money until i get a proper job and raise capital.
 

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use it to learn to turn $1 into $2
hustle, small biz, service, buy / sell
get books, courses, connections, networks, tools to do so
write up the whole experience and use it to start a business
 

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