July 1, 2013

[Vigilante]

The year is HALF OVER.

Where are you at?

I posted a thread called 30 Months on November 1, 2011 one day after I joined this forum.

https://www.thefastlaneforum.com/your-goals-your-fastlane-plan/35183-30-months.html

It included this link.

Countdown to May 1, 2014 in Honolulu

In the thread, I said the following :

1. Have a Panoz Esperante

2. Have a place in Maui, on the water and

3. Own a race horse and competing in at least the "B" tier (allowance races)

See the album I created in my profile called 30 months if you want a visual.

My business is already positioned - process is in place and execution has begun. At the end of 30 months, I will accomplish 1, 2, and 3 as above without necessarily having a "liquidation" event... and may continue at that time to use my business as an ATM machine or cash it out at that point.

So where am I at?

I am not sure I really want the Panoz Esperante. Funny how time changed that. It's not really that good of a vehicle for where we are heading. Vehicle wise, I am good. Leave the flash to someone else who needs it to compensate for their... never mind.

We are on track to greatly exceed the countdown calendar for our place on the Islands. Not sure at this point that it will be ocean front (as there's not been a liquidation event yet to trigger it) but we will exceed the main timing goal none the less. It is still possible a liquidation event will happen between now and the expiration of that countdown clock, but that was never really the goal anyway.

And, 2012 saw me fulfill the goal of being a race horse owner. I bought (and subsequently sold) two race horses last year with a few partners. So... mission accomplished there.

I have a new, super secret goal which is not the stuff that blog posts are made of.

How about you? How is your 2013 coming together? Are you making it happen? My countdown calendar has less than a year left on it, and the minutes are ticking past at a seemingly faster pace.

 

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[CryptO]

This year is turning out to be exciting for the following reasons

• No longer an employee
• Making a turnover that shall forseably increase
• Opportunity to scale a real business
• Fastlane ideas in the pipeline (so something to constantly strive for)

In terms of material things there is not really anything that I'd like until I get the income to be able to splash out a bit. We are going on holiday to the South of France for a few days this year to meet my mum (who's flying over from Scotland), but apart from that, the main expenditure will be invested back into the business.

By July 2014 I hope to have at least six full time employees an official office space, yard for stockage of materiels and shooting for some big contracts.

 

[rogen]

First half was terrible for me (been kind of depressed after break up, drank a lot, problems in school).. This one have to be better!

My status for now:
-I'm no longer regular student, I will finish my last year, third year in extended class. (school only in weekends)
-I'm trying out everything, released PC musical app which was total flop, to compensate this, I will take "look at something that already exists and upgrade it" approach.

I hate failing.. Motto for now is "work smart"

 

[tormat]

My year has been moving.

I started my business, and grown very well. discovered some growing pains I was not expecting to hit till 6 months later. I have saturated my market and need to grow out side of the local area. The draw back is the capital needed for that growth is not there at the moment. Trying to figure out how to deal with it. Once that is dealt with I will be well ahead of plans for this year!

 

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[Amail]

It's been a year since I started my importing venture, and I must say I'm not where I'd hoped I'd be. After a year I expected I'd have multiple products on offer selling vigorously on eBay, Amazon, and my own ecommerce site. I haven't reached that goal.

What I have done, however, is to get my own brand solidified. I have my own custom labels on a product that sells well and that people really like. I built up a solid eBay reputation and opened an eBay store. I opened an account on Amazon and started selling there - still a lot to do on that front. I built a network of suppliers that want to do business with me. I culled some dogs from my potential product lineup (test orders are wonderful things). I got my EIN and business name. I've done air and sea shipments and have dealt with customs clearance issues.

Growth has been very good lately, and it's been organic. Could I have grown more quickly? Yes, knowing what I know now, for sure. But that's why learning the process (whatever your process might be) is the most important step. Everything else flows from that.

This time next year I do expect to have multiple products selling in multiple marketplaces. The difference will be I have done this already and now know how to make it happen. I can concentrate on getting products that support the brand.

A year ago I wanted daily passive income deposits, dammit, profitable and growing from the word go. It's starting to swing in that direction. I'm making lots of sales every day, and although they don't amount to a lot, it's the trend I want. I can scale.

 

[DeletedUser2]

just over a year ago we sold our first bottle, on April 30th. in May of last year, we really started our business.
we entered a new market where we had virtually no market knowledge, no real market experience, and a snoot full of hope.

today we shipped 1386 products out, that sold over the weekend.

Today I looked at our numbers and we have Shipped 310,299 bottles and generated $12,285,308.95 in gross sales.

We are on track to do 18-20M this year alone.


all it took was an experienced team, a TON of work, the vision to see it, and ALOT of processes...



What can YOU do?

Time to give up excuses.

Z

 

[Vigilante]

just over a year ago we sold our first bottle, on April 30th. in May of last year, we really started our business.
we entered a new market where we had virtually no market knowledge, no real market experience, and a snoot full of hope.

today we shipped 1386 products out, that sold over the weekend.

Today I looked at our numbers and we have Shipped 310,299 bottles and generated $12,285,308.95 in gross sales.

We are on track to do 18-20M this year alone.


all it took was an experienced team, a TON of work, the vision to see it, and ALOT of processes...



What can YOU do?

Time to give up excuses.

Z

And that is what you might call an MBA in the Fast Lane. Well done, sir. Well played.

 

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[Genium]

Since the start of 2013:
- I found the forum and read TMF (eye-opening).
- I decided to create a brand of kitchenware, specializing in fine ceramics.
- With the help of my brother, I have built an eCommerce site, its looking better and better.
- I have went through a couple manufacturers to finally find "the one" to supply my products.
- I have raised $1100. ($300 is a loan from a friend, the rest are pre-orders).
- I sold 2 knives from my sample order within 24 hours for a 200% ROI (testing the market a tiny bit).
- I have contacted over 15 high PR blogs for product featuring and I am conversing with a few of them now.
- I have moved out of my parents house, and my relationship with my girlfriend has been getting more amazing everyday. She is fully-supportive, and a really understanding woman. At the start of this I didn't know what she would think. It will be our 2 year anni, on July 4th

For the next 6 months:
- I foresee even greater challenges, especially with college starting back up :/ I hope to start making a lot more sales so I can start working less and less.
- I plan on doing a product demonstration video series, and setting up a booth in Costco, and Trader Joe's, Whole Foods and AJ's (organic grocers), and at farmers markets here in Phoenix. (If you are from here, I would love for you to come check it out, and chat. The farmers markets are pretty cool, and i'd love to meet some forum members).
- Looking to expand the product line to accessories, shears, and different knives.
- I have a friend with an INSIDERS at Macy's and hopefully can land my product in there, and I am trying for many other retailers/grocers.
- The sales goal in these next 6 months is $20,000 in sales (coming from retailer orders or online sales).
- If profits are insane, and I am comfortably re-invested into my business, pay off my truck loan in total and be debt free

Cheers to everyone, and good luck with all of your ventures! The rest of 2013 will be great, lets make it happen.

 

[PrincessK]

Awesome ! What were the inital start up cost?

 

[JEdwards]

Zen. Great man, that is great.

I am about halfway to where I want to be for the 2013. Things are going just as expected.

 

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[Darius]

In 2013...I woke up and planted a money seed.

 

[SBS.95]

Hmmm... where to start. This first half of 2013, I finally started to get my a$$ into gear. Rather than worrying about screwing up, I've just started doing. There's no way other way to describe it than simply great.

Now, more recently, in June, there have been some major occurrences, good and bad..

• I watched more money flow into my bank account throughout June 2013 than ever before. Seriously, I've never made more money in a month than I did in the past 30 days.
• I was involved in a car accident. And now have quite a bit of debt, as I need to get my vehicle repaired. Not fun. A very humbling experience, though not one I'd ever like to go through again. Seriously guys... just don't F*ck up on the road.
• There's an opening for me to get a better paying job. I need the money to fund my ventures, so at the moment this is a very good thing. Plus it may (not sure yet) put me in contact with some people that could benefit from a new business idea I've been mulling around. Which brings me to my next point...
• I may have a business idea. My main problems with it now are that it has some upfront costs, and I'm pre-occupied with paying other bills. The other problem is my lack of experience with cold emailing, but I've been reading and getting better. I'm in the process of making up a sort of sample for half a dozen local businesses and seeing what the response is like.

My goals for the rest of 2013:

1. Be debt-free.
2. (if #1 is achieved) have a safety net of money so I don't have to be stressed like this again.
3. (if #2 is achieved) I want to get a new toy- either a car or motorcycle... I'm actually setting this goal a bit farther into the future (May 2014) but the sooner the better.

 

[oddball]

I hit my head on a wall a lot. I have been all over the place. I decided NY is not where I want to spend the rest of my life so I am planning to move to Texas in January. I want to focus on real estate. In the mean time I am trying to make as much money as I can at my current job. I am also trying to setup meetings with Texas investors.

I thought I had my import business going pretty well but then I hit some road blocks lately. I learned a lot though so am currently working on making some corrections. I would like to have that as a steady business before I move. I recently came up with a product but have been so busy with other things and goofing off I haven't done much on it. I really need to get to work on that today, it has some good potential as long as we can get it made for the right price.

Reading Zen's post makes me realize I have been F*cking around too much. It's been the same amount of time we had, I wasted a lot obviously.

 

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[Talisman]

Thanks for the thread Vig. Good time to look back and appreciate all that I've done because I have a frigging mountain of process in front of me for the next 6 months.

I'm happy to list my 2013 targets, and Im proud of what I've achieved in the last 9 months:

- October 2012, decided I needed some $ capital injection to forge ahead. Wrote an app (in less than a week) that provided value. Made over $10k off it in a couple of months (it's still bringing a bit more in, every month).
- Used that money to then launch an idea, with a plan to have it making money and 95% automated within 6 months (or trash the idea).
- April saw that business break into the black, with me doing about 5-10% of the work.
- Concurrently, as I was needed less on that, I decided I needed a way to turn every $1 into $2, so I launched my importing business in Feb/March (damn chinese new year!) (Thanks Vig & Will), along with a Brand and online shop.
- Put $300 toward sourcing my first product (which I had to stop after a few sales because I got a cease and desist on, woops) and now, 3 months later, running 10 products, funded with money from the first, then the second and third and so on.
- Have proven to myself that it scales, with these ready made products, as long as I can fulfill a pain point, help someone, save someone time (etc), so I need a way to find many things to bring to market, faster.
- While sourcing products, I found a market need. Have begun manufacturing process to fill that need. Going slower than hoped for. CAD design complete (INSIDERS will get a look at the product from my manufacturing thread, when I update it soon).

Current broad targets for 2013 -
- Organise my passport for my trip to the HK Electronics Show (apparently Im not who I thought I was)
- Go to HK with NFI what to expect, not speaking the language, but needing to know if it's the next step
- Build my shop / brand. Recognition. Learning. SEO. Videos. Marketing. Learning.
- Get my manufactured widget to market, and sell it globally.

Problems Im facing -
- Putting the funds aside to travel (smallest of problems, and should return x10-100 the cost)
- Sourcing funds to buy massive order from the 50, 100, 200 who knows how many, products I want to pursue, after the trade show. Will push for this once I know exact figures, but I will get the money, somehow, somewhere.
- Worrying that if I get a big order delivered, it won't arrive by sea until probably mid December, missing most of the "good sales times", if not all
- Not knowing if my widget will succeed, could be a big money drain, could be the start of something huge. Risky? Yeah. Risk-to-reward ratio: Favourable

Good stuff, I feel better now about everything I've done so far this year.

 

[Lights]

It's lame, and hopefully it gets better.

 

[Brentnal]

-I got a job a temporary job as a dishwasher
-i don't feel like i am wasting my time anymore
-I finished the fastlane,Now reading the 50th law of power

Thats basicly it i am now working on fitness making a food and training program for myself to follow after that when i am muscilair and finished my job in februari 2014 i will start my own little income : Buying/Selling. Maybe something else but for now i think about that.

 

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[Vigilante]

Thanks for the thread Vig. Good time to look back and appreciate all that I've done because I have a frigging mountain of process in front of me for the next 6 months.

I'm happy to list my 2013 targets, and Im proud of what I've achieved in the last 9 months:

- October 2012, decided I needed some $ capital injection to forge ahead. Wrote an app (in less than a week) that provided value. Made over $10k off it in a couple of months (it's still bringing a bit more in, every month).
- Used that money to then launch an idea, with a plan to have it making money and 95% automated within 6 months (or trash the idea).
- April saw that business break into the black, with me doing about 5-10% of the work.
- Concurrently, as I was needed less on that, I decided I needed a way to turn every $1 into $2, so I launched my importing business in Feb/March (damn chinese new year!) (Thanks Vig & Will), along with a Brand and online shop.
- Put $300 toward sourcing my first product (which I had to stop after a few sales because I got a cease and desist on, woops) and now, 3 months later, running 10 products, funded with money from the first, then the second and third and so on.
- Have proven to myself that it scales, with these ready made products, as long as I can fulfill a pain point, help someone, save someone time (etc), so I need a way to find many things to bring to market, faster.
- While sourcing products, I found a market need. Have begun manufacturing process to fill that need. Going slower than hoped for. CAD design complete (INSIDERS will get a look at the product from my manufacturing thread, when I update it soon).

Current broad targets for 2013 -
- Organise my passport for my trip to the HK Electronics Show (apparently Im not who I thought I was)
- Go to HK with NFI what to expect, not speaking the language, but needing to know if it's the next step
- Build my shop / brand. Recognition. Learning. SEO. Videos. Marketing. Learning.
- Get my manufactured widget to market, and sell it globally.

Problems Im facing -
- Putting the funds aside to travel (smallest of problems, and should return x10-100 the cost)
- Sourcing funds to buy massive order from the 50, 100, 200 who knows how many, products I want to pursue, after the trade show. Will push for this once I know exact figures, but I will get the money, somehow, somewhere.
- Worrying that if I get a big order delivered, it won't arrive by sea until probably mid December, missing most of the "good sales times", if not all
- Not knowing if my widget will succeed, could be a big money drain, could be the start of something huge. Risky? Yeah. Risk-to-reward ratio: Favourable

Good stuff, I feel better now about everything I've done so far this year.

Speed+. Keep pressing.

 

[DeletedUser2]

Awesome ! What were the inital start up cost?

raised the money for it. so none out of pocket

just a TON of blood sweat and tears, and about 1M in negotiated credit

Z

 

[Sir Ingenious]

Amazing thread, amazing progresses.

Thank you for revealing such info to us.

In fact, I did something today that's rocking the boat: delivering my 2 week notice at my job.

I'm becoming a full-time entrepreneur now.

And thank you for the proper motivation and the push to do so!

So far in 2013 I've:
- Contacted a manufacturer from China
- Got the (3) samples by mail from overseas
- Read 35-40 books on business and life
- Gained life experience and perspective through job
- Lost 20 or so additional lbs (went from 485 lbs to now 220 lbs)
- Got more involved in TMF forum
- Quit my job (gave my 2 week notice today)

Future Goals:
- Survey test the product
- Launch via Kickstarter or with some other crowdfunding platform
- Contribute and touch as many people as I can
- Lose more lbs 'til I'm roughly 180ish lbs
- ...and build muscle!
- Read more books on business and life
- Network with more like-minded people


Here's my struggle: not knowing what I don't know.

I'm facing an inevitable storm but I hope I have enough resources to push through it.

Anyways, good luck in your goals and see you all at the top!

 

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[Vigilante]

Amazing thread, amazing progresses.

Thank you for revealing such info to us.

In fact, I did something today that's rocking the boat: delivering my 2 week notice at my job.

I'm becoming a full-time entrepreneur now.

And thank you for the proper motivation and the push to do so!

So far in 2013 I've:
- Contacted a manufacturer from China
- Got the (3) samples by mail from overseas
- Read 35-40 books on business and life
- Gained life experience and perspective through job
- Lost 20 or so additional lbs (went from 485 lbs to now 220 lbs)
- Got more involved in TMF forum
- Quit my job (gave my 2 week notice today)

Future Goals:
- Survey test the product
- Launch via Kickstarter or with some other crowdfunding platform
- Contribute and touch as many people as I can
- Lose more lbs 'til I'm roughly 180ish lbs
- ...and build muscle!
- Read more books on business and life
- Network with more like-minded people


Here's my struggle: not knowing what I don't know.

I'm facing an inevitable storm but I hope I have enough resources to push through it.

Anyways, good luck in your goals and see you all at the top!

Speed+. Make it happen!

 

[Vigilante]

Amazing thread, amazing progresses.

Thank you for revealing such info to us.

In fact, I did something today that's rocking the boat: delivering my 2 week notice at my job.

I'm becoming a full-time entrepreneur now.

And thank you for the proper motivation and the push to do so!

So far in 2013 I've:
- Contacted a manufacturer from China
- Got the (3) samples by mail from overseas
- Read 35-40 books on business and life
- Gained life experience and perspective through job
- Lost 20 or so additional lbs (went from 485 lbs to now 220 lbs)
- Got more involved in TMF forum
- Quit my job (gave my 2 week notice today)

Future Goals:
- Survey test the product
- Launch via Kickstarter or with some other crowdfunding platform
- Contribute and touch as many people as I can
- Lose more lbs 'til I'm roughly 180ish lbs
- ...and build muscle!
- Read more books on business and life
- Network with more like-minded people


Here's my struggle: not knowing what I don't know.

I'm facing an inevitable storm but I hope I have enough resources to push through it.

Anyways, good luck in your goals and see you all at the top!

We pride ourselves on not being cheerleaders. Well… I am cheering for you. I reread your post. I am excited for you.

 

[Sir Ingenious]

Thanks man.

It's all because of your mantra that inspires me a lot everyday.

Because I can.

 

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[DeletedUser2]

-I got a job a temporary job as a dishwasher
-i don't feel like i am wasting my time anymore
-I finished the fastlane,Now reading the 50th law of power

Thats basicly it i am now working on fitness making a food and training program for myself to follow after that when i am muscilair and finished my job in februari 2014 i will start my own little income : Buying/Selling. Maybe something else but for now i think about that.

use your time as a dishwasher to listen to an ipod. Listen to books on tape. listen to some of the great business books, process books. other books on tape. to me, you have about 8 hrs a day to learn while you work,

Get it done!

Z

 

[OzGrinder]

Some awesome achievements in this thread.
It's been about a year since I joined this forum, and most of my achievements have occurred in the past 6 months. In that time here is what I have achieved.

Achievements:
- Registered my company
- Built and then Launched my web application around 6 weeks ago
- Since launch, acquired over 40 clients, 2 of which are paying clients on a recurring subscription
- Received a 40k investment offer from a prominent Australian company (which I turned down)
- Pitched to my organization (day job) about some improvements that could be made internally. Which resulted in a further promotion, on favorable terms I negotiated. Now managing a team and one of the largest databases of it's kind in Australia. While still leaving plenty of time to pursue my business outside of hours.

Goals/tasks for the next 6 months - 12 months:
- Acquire 20 paying clients on recurring subscriptions (by increasing advertisement/marketing effort and retiring the 'free' plan option)
- Further automate my business/processes so that it is entirely hands off
- Launch a second web application under the same automated model as the first
- Ensure I continue to properly manage my day job so that it doesn't encroach on my after hours business building time

Extended Goal:
- Continue to acquire paying clients on recurring subscriptions until the income from my web applications exceeds that of my day job and move into full time entrepreneurship

 

[Dezzamondo]

Man, this is why I love this place. So many entrepreneurs with so much ambition, making so much money, from creating so much value to so many people!

Keep it up guys

I started on the forum in March 2012 after moving careers back to my home town to be with friends and family.

Back then, my goals due for 2013 were simple:

• Learn about and create my own business.
• Take no crap off anyone.
• Leverage my employer for networking and learning.
• Become Debt Free.
• Quit my job and be my own boss.
• Buy an Aston Martin as my first car.

To date, I have accomplished almost all of that:

• I read and read and read and read about business.
• I stopped taking crap from anyone within the industry I was employed in and bit back with no time for incompetence. Respect of myself and my team went up 10 fold.
• I read and read and read and read about programming.
• Automated significant portions of my J.O.B. Productivity went through the roof.
• Got promoted to Manager without an interview or any formality. More money & the effectiveness of my team increased ten-fold.
• I read and read and read and read... and then...
  [*]Started my first company on my 24th Birthday.
• Experimented with importing. Fun, but not enough value to the customer (Cheap electronics are just that... cheap, no value.)
• Brokering my first £1.2K deal for imported memory cards as B2B. (Better quality, more value to customer)
• Found an opportunity in selling artwork thanks to Vick having trouble selling his art internationally. Now I have 5 artists sending me work to sell around the world on their behalf. Coming Soon!
• Made some extra cash on the side with eBay selling other people's stuff... so much that...
  [*]I became debt free.
  [*]I quit my job. Senior Management crapped themselves. I have no master (other than the love of my life )
• Aston Martin is still on hold...

Next Goals due for 2015:

• Make my first million.
• Hire my first employee.
• Marry the woman I love.
• Buy that Aston Martin.
• Go find more opportunities on travels around the world, whilst a team handles Business As Usual.

Off into the wild and unknown, will it work? Will it fail? I don't know!!

But I'll damned well keep going until I can't go any further.

REMEMBER: Freedom is only round the corner.

 

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[oddball]

use your time as a dishwasher to listen to an ipod. Listen to books on tape. listen to some of the great business books, process books. other books on tape. to me, you have about 8 hrs a day to learn while you work,

Get it done!

Z

Took this advice, I am always listening my iPhone in the car or just at my computer, got a couple of books to listen to now.

 

[Jake]

Trying my damndest to upload a pic of the cohiba im smoking and crown and coke im drinking but its a no go. A few hours before the 4th and im waiting on my one way flight from dubai as I wont be returning to Afghanistan. Its time

Edit: thought i posted this in the 4th thread. Would have made more sense there ha.

 

[Steve37]

Great topic. Was thinking about this for a while on the first. Decided I was both succeeding and failing to meet goals.

Positives:

-Well ahead of plan for real estate deals.
-Raised my first amount of ( non family ) investor capital with relative ease. Have others trying to get me to take their cash.
-Finished groundwork for several new spec projects which will all happen in the next few months..
-Have already doubled what I expected our net worth to grow by for the year and Q3 / Q4 are looking better than the first half of the year.
-Great progress on personal goals I've had

Negatives:

-Have a goal of starting something non real estate related and so far i've made little progress in that regard. It's a double edged sword as spending time away from real estate investing has a large opportunity cost for me in a sellers market, but a goal is a goal and it has to be met. When the shit hits the fan again I'd like to be diversified in a few different areas.
-Have struggled to get all of my time waster tasks on the right system, but i'm getting there.


So far it's been a good year with plenty of room for improvement.


On a side note - I had a Panoz for about a year and wasn't really impressed with it. Might be an apples / oranges comparison vs the Esperante since mine was a track car, but I wouldn't consider buying another one.

 

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[1step]

So Far 2013 has been an unbelievable year for me.

After quitting my job in Sept of 2012 it took me awhile to find the path that I am currently on but since the start of 2013 I have reached a lot of important milestones (to me) and feel like I am finally heading in the right direction

Some Highlights of my year
-I made my first real dollar working for myself
-Made my first 100k dollars working for myself (sales)
-Hired my first fulltime employee
-Debt free, dont have to worry about paying off CC's and the like

So far I am on pace to meet my goals for the year

It will take a lot of hardwork but everything I want out of 2013 is within reach.

Hoping by the end of the year I can accomplish my goal of generating a million dollars in sales.


I think most of my slowlane friends are starting to get it, its been quite some time since I got the "what are you doing this week" or similar disparaging comments in regards to working for myself.


**To my 26th year being the best one yet :cheers: