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mex-i-can

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Hey guys, I'll try to make this as concise as possible.

As my username suggests, I'm from Mexico, born and currently reside in this beautiful but strange country. I'm 28 years old. I actually joined the forum more than a year ago but had no idea what I even wanted out of life at that moment, so I didn't post an intro,

Let's start with the very beginning of my fastlane journey. I read the Fastlane Millionaire some 4 years or so ago and loved it, found out about the forum and lurked from time to time but at that time I was too scared to take real action.

Fast forward to a month or so ago, and many things started changing in my life in this short period of time.

First of all I was feeling fed up with my job, and was seriously considering returning to my original career and starting again in it (three years ago I left my career only to end up in a menial job with very low pay handed to me by a family member to help me out). I was (am) just tired of being poor and having no direction or sense of purpose in life.

Before jumping back to my old career, I decided to read Unscripted out of desperation I guess, and inmediately remembered why I liked the Fastlane Millionaire so much. Creating value instead of stealing it just resonates with me so much, and thus I started thinking in Unscripted /FLM mode and looking how with my current skills/knowledge (plus whatever others skills I must learn) I can create some real value.

I actually came up with some ideas, and decided to pursue one which follow the CENTS commandments and create value as well. (Which I will explain in better detail later, as not to clog this already long post)

Then, I spotted a golden opportunity in the company I work for to make some serious money, learn the executive/manager trade for real and possibly get some serious passive income due to the nature of the company. (Which I will also explain later in more detail).

Around this time I also (unadvertedly) had my F*ck THIS EVENT. I was helping this girl I strated dating not too long ago (but whom I really like and want to explore the long term potential with) with furniture shopping for her new apartment. At this point in time we start joking around since the store helpers thought we were looking for furniture as a couple, and at this exact moment the truth hit me like a ton of bricks. I couldn't afford a single piece of furniture. I can't provide for myself let alone for another human being (not that she needs it, since she has a very good job). I feel like a loser on a daily basis due to my financial situation, but this was different, this burned deep to my soul. I felt like crying right there, and still do every time I remember the incident.

Bear in mind she has no idea that I'm actually poor, since we have been dating only for so long, because I am an excellent pretender, I have almost no financial obligations, and have a family that have provided me with fancy things like a nice car and cool trips (which obviously also make me feel like a loser).

I didn't even realized this was a FTE until I started writing this intro, which I had already planned before the incident.

So anyways, this is my introduction to the forum. I will expand shortly on my two current business ideas.
 
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MJ DeMarco

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Thanks for the intro, welcome aboard. Now get to work so it never happens again!
 

Walter Hay

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Ave Caesar! From your thread title it is clear that you won't need motivational prompting, and your post bears this out.

When your ideas are revealed (discreetly so as to avoid risking competition) they will no doubt prompt many helpful responses.

Best Wishes,
Walter
 
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mex-i-can

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tl, dr: long time no see, pandemic bla bla, same spot as last time I wrote, miserable in my line of work, realized I had to grow some OO, planning my exit and my first bussiness venture, currently stalled due to some family health issues.

Damn it's been a freaking long time since I wrote my introduction and so many things have changed, yet some remain exactly the same.

First of all thank you to @lowtek , @MJ DeMarco and @Walter Hay for the welcome and the kind words.

Sooo it only took me two and a half years to write my follow up post (talk about procrastination at it's finest :p).

In all seriousness though, I'll wirte a short summary of my life this past two plus years (for me to remember all I went through h in the future mostly).

In short order:

- From november 19 through march 20 I was working my a$$ off, saving money and preparing to make a small investment in my line of work that would have netted me some nice semi passive income (This was my original plan from my first post).

-March '20 the pandemic hits. My line of work was one the hardest hit and we couldn't work until march '21. ( During this time I blew through some of my savings but managed to survive just fine)

-March '21 through december '21 my line of work was allowed to work on a very limited capacity which meant that I couldn't make the investment that I had planned (all this time I was sent to work to Mexico City and since my girlfriend lived there I moved to her apartment with her other two roommates) (During this time I blew through the rest of my savings due to a lower salary and not managing my money correctly)

Thanks to the pandemic I was forced to realize and accept some mental health issues that I've been kinda working on (but not enough honestly) and with some mental blocks as well.

I've come to realize that I have some mental blocks or limiting beliefs which froze me from taking action in my past: Low self steem and fear of failure.

I'm dealing with both of them atm and I know I've made some progress but I also realize that the only way to deal with them is by taking action, which takes me to the part relevant to this forum.

I didn't mentioned in it in my recap, but this past year and a half I realized I was not happy in my line of work. One day I asked myself how much money would I need to make here to be happy or ignore my unhappiness and I couldn't come up with a number.

Since that moment on, I've been planning my exit and my next move.

I've been doing a list of possible enterprises for a long time (it's just something I think about all the time, so one day I decided to start writing every idea down) and came up with about 50 possible bussiness ventures. Plenty are shit, some are good, some are way out there, some are big and some are small.

I narrowed and narrowed the list until I decided on one, and here we are again.

I actually started to plan my escape in january and put myself a deadline of june to move back to Mexico City and start my business there.

I decided on a six month deadline since my mom is going through a serious health issue and I'm helping her out and that's the time I estimated for her to be at least recovered enough for me to be able to leave her (she is not alone by any means, but I am the main caretaker and me leaving would put a lot of stress not only on her but on the rest of the family for various reasons)

Alas, it is May and she is way behind schedule for recovery, so my plan to change cities is getting stalled for I don't know how long.

I'll start another post to get to the nitty gritty since thisis mostly fluff .
 
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mex-i-can

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So now the nitty gritty.

My plan is to start a bussiness in the food retail industry (I'm not sure this is the correct terms, but think of something similar to starbucks but not in the coffee sector).

I'll start with one store, but my long term goal is to open at least 30 stores, and also check the posibility of opening stores in the Texas and California markets since I have friends and family there that could help me with the connections needed.

I came up with a list of expenses and needs to get the business going and by selling my car and my small savings I think I can cover three months of business and personal expenses.

I wonder if it is not enough money to start the store, since three months is little time to make it profitable, but I'm the same time I'm itching to take action now, because I've seen so much ofmy life pass right by me while I sat still.

I've considered asking friends and familiy for investment money, but I'm not sure if this is the path I want to take at this particular time (i'd prefer to ask for money to expand once I have proof of concept)

Another thing is my mom's health issue which is keeping me from moving, but in the next few weeks some things will hopefully clear out and I'll have a better idea on her recovery time. My guess right know is sometime between august and september for me to be able to move.

Anyways I'll keep saving money and honing my plan for the store in this time.

I already have the products I'll sell, the overall theme based on the target audiences for my products, but I'm lacking the name for the brand.
 

Walter Hay

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I'll start with one store, but my long term goal is to open at least 30 stores, and also check the posibility of opening stores in the Texas and California markets since I have friends and family there that could help me with the connections needed.
Expansion by franchising is far better than employing managers. I suggest you have a look at my thread:

Rapid Scaling a business by franchising


Walter
 
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mex-i-can

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Jul 12, 2018
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Now, for the CENTS commandments. It is somehting I've been thinking about and that is one of the reasons I returned to the forum (besides accountability), as I wanted to analyze my idea through the CENTS lens, so writing it down will force me to do this.

Control: I think I got this one covered. My business relies mainly on two things. Physical stores to sell the product and the raw materials to make it, both of which are heavily commoditized so one single entity refusing to rent me space or one single supplier of the raw material would not put me out of business by any means)

Entry: This one could potentially give me some problems. The difficulty of entry on what I'm planning to do is not very big. I myself I'm entering the market with relatively little money. Also, the product is really easy to make. My main advantage here is the differentiation I'll make relative to similar stores already in the market. I know I'm creating convenience, satisfying a desire and solving a problem, but to me this will eventually go down to a matter of who executes better to get the #1 spot in this niche.

This brings me to the next point which is Need. From my perspective, I will be adding new relative value to a already existing niche, which also currently lacks a #1 player that owns a mayority of market.

Time: Obviously, building a big company with multiple stores requires a lot of time invested. But the commandment of time still applies if I do things correctly. Obviously the goal is for the store (s) to run themselves through systems and managers (or franchises even) while I focus on continued expansion.

*As a side note, I realized not long ago, that I didn't understand this command at all. I wanted so bad to create passive income because I was lazy that any venture that required any effort in time (event vs process) was discarded in my mind. Now, thankfully due to life being hard the last couple of years I showed myself that I am a grinder and that I can work hard, so I'm not afraid of the work anymore.

Scale: this one is simple, but not easy, and is the ultimate test of wheter my venture will be succesful or not. Scaling in my case simply means opening up new stores to sell more product. Whether or not I can achieve this will be determined by the simplest and most important concept in business: productocracy, demand, or whoever you want to name it. If the demand is there as I think it will be, then it is a matter of me having the ability to scale succesfully.

This was a "bird's eye view" of my idea, but I want to focus more on the "next step" in my following posts, as I don't want to get too caught up in the thinking or analyzing phase. Right now I would really prefer to jump right in, but as I commented earlier it's not possible atm.
 

MJ DeMarco

I followed the science; all I found was money.
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Now, for the CENTS commandments. It is somehting I've been thinking about and that is one of the reasons I returned to the forum (besides accountability), as I wanted to analyze my idea through the CENTS lens, so writing it down will force me to do this.

 
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