Project: BellaPippin | Real Estate, Social entrepreneurship, Art and YouTube, and who knows what else

[Bud Fox]

I've read both books. If you refer to 2) and 3) why yes, I'm following my passion. They are hobbies. I'm doing it through the Fastlane/Unscripted /CENTS framework, though. What I'm aiming to make a living out of is rental properties (1). The other two is what I'm setting up to do with my time, they are my purpose and what makes me happy. I wanna give and I wanna paint. How I do it doesn't matter.

If you still think I'm in the wrong direction, then please go ahead and make a case of why you think that.

When Bill Gates first met Warren Buffett, their host at dinner, Gates’ mother, asked everyone around the table to identify what they believed was the single most important factor in their success through life. Gates and Buffett gave the same one-word answer: “Focus.” (See more in The Snowball by Alice Schroeder).

While your goals are great, they’re scattered and uncorrelated - my advice is to be prepared to do things you wouldn’t expect, thing you don’t want to do, to get the things you do.

More advice is to keep your hobby a hobby for now; rarely do hobbies turn into lucrative endeavors, and painting is for sure one of the hardest to monetize and scale, even if you are super talented.

what’s more important to you, following your passion or making money? unfortunately, they are most likely completely different paths, just the facts my man I wish you well.

 

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[BellaPippin]

While your goals are great, they’re scattered and uncorrelated

Yes.

More advice is to keep your hobby a hobby for now

That's what I'm doing.

what’s more important to you, following your passion or making money?

I can do both, I'm not in a rush. My first house-hacking isn't that far away, takes priority and will be the foundation of separating my time from my money. That's about all the money I need.

just the facts my man I wish you well.

Thanks sister, wish you well too.

 

[Bud Fox]

Yes.

That's what I'm doing.

I can do both, I'm not in a rush. My first house-hacking isn't that far away, takes priority and will be the foundation of separating my time from my money. That's about all the money I need.

Thanks sister, wish you well too.

Oops! Sorry I shouldn't have assumed you were a guy, my apologies there...

And, I'll also say, "I'm not in a rush" also means "I'm not a fastlaner"

"That's about all the money I need" - From one rental property, that you also live in? How much do you expect that will generate? Not sure where in Chicago you are, or what type of rental income you can generate, or what a $20K DP on a multi-unit will get you, but I cannot imagine your net being more than $1,000/month at absolute most, and that's assuming it needs no repair or upkeep (which is a terrible and highly unrealistic assumption as all real estate requires maintenance).

How do you generate income right now? I'd suggest continuing on your real estate education while generating as much money as possible doing whatever it is you do day to day....Join the BiggerPockets forum for more specialized info on RE...

 

[BellaPippin]

Oops! Sorry I shouldn't have assumed you were a guy, my apologies there...

And, I'll also say, "I'm not in a rush" also means "I'm not a fastlaner"

"That's about all the money I need" - From one rental property, that you also live in? How much do you expect that will generate? Not sure where in Chicago you are, or what type of rental income you can generate, or what a $20K DP on a multi-unit will get you, but I cannot imagine your net being more than $1,000/month at absolute most, and that's assuming it needs no repair or upkeep (which is a terrible and highly unrealistic assumption as all real estate requires maintenance).

How do you generate income right now? I'd suggest continuing on your real estate education while generating as much money as possible doing whatever it is you do day to day....Join the BiggerPockets forum for more specialized info on RE...

I didn't say that was the only property I'd get, I plan to build on that! I know a single property isn't going to be enough, that's why I said it's just the foundation. Right now I have an office job that pays well enough to save aggresively to start shopping for my first property next year. As soon as I have some or most of my expenses covered, that will be enough to switch to part time which is an improvement, or milk my job to get a few more properties even faster. Then I will keep building on it. Again I don't want to hit big money, I want to get my time back.

Fine then, I'm not a fastlaner. As long as I'm happy. Expel me lol

 

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[BellaPippin]

Ok so @Envision thread got bumped, which I loved, which got me to check the Gary Halbert challenge thread, I spent one or two hours and went through the whole 25 pages. @Lex DeVille is about to hit me in the head-- Don't worry, I also got lost in the 15-Day Challenge thread...if I have product coming in the incoming months then I better get ready to write a good website/social media ads.....

This is a rabbit hole ugh it's 11PM.

 

[Hai]

We artists don´t need a lot to live LOL
Jet? Nah
Painting? Hell Yes!

When Bill Gates first met Warren Buffett, their host at dinner, Gates’ mother, asked everyone around the table to identify what they believed was the single most important factor in their success through life. Gates and Buffett gave the same one-word answer: “Focus.” (See more in The Snowball by Alice Schroeder).

While your goals are great, they’re scattered and uncorrelated - my advice is to be prepared to do things you wouldn’t expect, thing you don’t want to do, to get the things you do.

More advice is to keep your hobby a hobby for now; rarely do hobbies turn into lucrative endeavors, and painting is for sure one of the hardest to monetize and scale, even if you are super talented.

what’s more important to you, following your passion or making money? unfortunately, they are most likely completely different paths, just the facts my man I wish you well.

If you really really like a business model, then this will create "Focus" and "Commitment".

 

[BellaPippin]

We artists don´t need a lot to live LOL
Jet? Nah
Painting? Hell Yes!



If you really really like a business model, then this will create "Focus" and "Commitment".

They obviously haven't seen art supplies prices

 

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[BellaPippin]

Mini Update:
1) House-hacking savings: $6500

2) Got one set of samples on the way, nobody else answered. Guess they are all out for gobble gobble.

3) Haven't painted. I should, this weekend...

 

[BellaPippin]

Update: Writing this from my hospital room, might lose my gallbladder. Why is this relevant?

Because OOF I just hope the insurance covers this. Otherwise 1) I might lose my savings progress 2)Gotta CC it and I don’t want debt by the time I hit the market in spring. Or maybe both. Grrrrrrr.

Samples haven’t arrived yet, no answers from anyone else. Time for follow up. But what if I like these samples? Can I lose too much by jumping the gun? The faster I get a bottle of shampoo the faster I can try to sell it.

My BFF made me a super cool animation of my logo and I put it as my first Instagram post. Just nice to have it there.

 

[Strategery]

Update: Writing this from my hospital room, might lose my gallbladder.

Lo siento mucho, amiga. Just get healthy, you'll bounce back.

 

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[aum]

Update: Writing this from my hospital room, might lose my gallbladder. Why is this relevant?

Because OOF I just hope the insurance covers this. Otherwise 1) I might lose my savings progress 2)Gotta CC it and I don’t want debt by the time I hit the market in spring. Or maybe both. Grrrrrrr.

Samples haven’t arrived yet, no answers from anyone else. Time for follow up. But what if I like these samples? Can I lose too much by jumping the gun? The faster I get a bottle of shampoo the faster I can try to sell it.

My BFF made me a super cool animation of my logo and I put it as my first Instagram post. Just nice to have it there.

Wish you a speedy recovery.

 

[BellaPippin]

Wish you a speedy recovery.

Thank you. Got myself plenty of time to read

 

[PapaGang]

I love your plan(s) and if I can help let me know.
I used to do package design.

 

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[Bearcorp]

Hope you have a quick and safe recovery!

 

[BellaPippin]

Quick Update: Read @Andy Black 's post on Figuring Out YouTube and I came across @AgainstAllOdds 's comment... :

For those of you with Youtube channels: WHY?

Whenever I click on someone's channel, there's typically a couple thousand views per video or less. Is that really worth your time?

Is the effort you put into maintaining your channel worth more than if you did other forms of marketing and sales?

And before everyone gets all defensive, answer this: How much money has your channel brought in for YOU to date, and what's that come out to per hour of effort that you spent (learning how to publish, editing, creating the content, etc.).

I'm sure it could be effective, but I believe for the vast majority of people it's a waste of time - time that could be better allocated into higher revenue producing activities.

Now, it might not apply to Andy but it did resonate with me somehow and left me thinking... - @AgainstAllOdds always bringing the knife down and splitting the butter in two with his comments

I'm gonna try my luck with a Udemy painting course and instead of using YouTube platform to document, once I have paying students I will leverage Patreon and possibly Crowdcast to do the same streams, and try to turn it into a "come paint along" you can do from anywhere where I'm the host. Difference is I get money upfront, and into my savings account. The Patreon is subject to up to when I wanna link it to my time, but I see it as it could be my weekly "you need to go paint something" without having to pay myself for a class. I'd be getting paid instead!

OR SO IS THE PLAN, I've got the content/layout ready now I just need to produce some reference images to use for each exercise and that I can turn into downloadables. I know I have good ones on my computer (that are mine).

Gallbladder is still inside me by the way and besides lack of appetite things are going good. I feel stuck on everything because it's the holidays and it's making me impatient. I won't be free until Sunday. -_-

How cool would it be if I earned my first dollar before the summit hhuuuuhhhhhh

 

[BellaPippin]

INE - Self sustainable kitchen gardens.

One plot of land. One tiny house. One person willing to work it and sell the organic produce, market to their surrounding blocks and maybe some other product (preserves, etc). Gotta look how much would mortgage payment be for that so they can break even

P.S. No I won't work on that right now

 

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[Guest24480]

2) Social Entrepreneurship: Develop a simple line of hygiene products through private labeling. Raise funds from revenue to rehab properties into centers where homeless people can shower and change clothes

While I commend you for the noble purpose behind this business, may I ask how you plan to differentiate your products in an extremely crowded market? How do you plan to get sales?

If you think it's going to be as easy as ordering samples, slapping your label on a shampoo bottle, and raking in the cash needed to rehab properties into homeless centers, I'm afraid there's a possibility you may be sorely disappointed. I've been there with similar ventures so trust me on this.

You are entering one of the most competitive markets, and you are doing so without any differentiating factor, no other products, no marketing plan, no analysis of the costs or margins, no value skew, nothing.

You need to have a plan.

Right now it just seems like you are trying to throw stuff at the wall and hope it sticks.

I think you should focus 100% on the real estate and scrap the hygiene products idea. Do some actual hustling and 2x your savings rate, and in the meantime start researching your rental property market. Then in 4-6 months when you've done enough research and have enough saved to invest, and you've analyzed at least 100 properties, you buy your house hack.

Investing in real estate is no walk in the park. You need to know your market inside out and analyze a crap ton of properties, even for just a house hack.

How badly do you really want it?

 

[BellaPippin]

Thanks for your input @holmzee!

may I ask how you plan to differentiate your products in an extremely crowded market?

no value skew

My value skew is in my product's mission. TOMS isn't that much more glam and I say TOMS because it's the most popular one, but if you hit google there's many products that didn't re-invent the wheel either and people buy because they stand behind the cause. What's Method's value skew? They make safe products. What's Lush Products' value skew? No packaging, organic products. This Bar Saves Lives is just a snack bar and it's another one-for-one business model.

Check these companies out-- how many of them are super innovative products? I don't need to rack millions to help, I just need to be profitable. Much easier than going around begging for donations for a non-profit and people wondering how much of that gets eaten by operation costs.

If you think it's going to be as easy as ordering samples, slapping your label on a shampoo bottle, and raking in the cash needed to rehab properties into homeless centers, I'm afraid there's a possibility you may be sorely disappointed.

No, I don't think it's gonna be easy. I'm basing myself on the fact there's plenty other nothing-special products that sell really well and all they have is a social impact value proposition (and a quality product, ofc). But I don't expect anything to explode or work overnight. Yes I'm aware it might fail, too. While I thought we say "fail a lot" around here, anyway, I don't think I'm pursuing something nonsensical either, given other businesses are profitable (I mean, failing for nothing). Heck, check out this soap called Oars and Alps. Found them by chance on Instagram and went all the way to the first post to see how they started marketing. They literally did just what you describe (private labeling, and started with one product only) and their only value skew is that their niche is active/kinda hipster/self-care aware men. It was two ladies from Chicago that did it, nobody famous. By the second year they were in Target. They have like 5 products tops, not even a social entrepreneurship venture. They're alive and well, they've got a business running.

Also, @Strategery's genius discovered and shared this with me, which makes it even easier to start offering showers without having to acquiring a property and rehab it.

Again this is totally not happening overnight, I know, I know.

As for the RE yes everything is going to my savings right now, I'm reading on the subject as I save, about the process and about analyzing deals, but for my first hack I'll probably also have a realtor help me that has worked with investment properties and knows more than me about neighborhoods I don't know (I have someone already). I'm producing a simple Udemy course to see if I can get some extra income to put into savings. There's some multitasking going on yes, but I'd say I have way more direction than I've had up to know.


Now let me ask you how much more planning do I need over every other person in this forum that just acted on their idea and achieved something? Honest question. You are the second person saying I am being unrealistic, and while I want to make sure I'm not, how come I'm different than all those other businesses? One of them is an umbrella. The other one is a dog bowl. Another one is just a BT speaker. If they have an alive business going on there, why cant I make an organic, cruelty free shampoo and do the same? I never said I was expecting a mountain of capital on the first year to build anything. It might be my newbie a$$, believe me I'm not doubting you-- I'm sure you know much more than I do. At the same time I have people supporting me and giving me ideas on how to make this work for less and much quicker.

If I get my soap done, put it out there explaining what I want to do and nobody buys I'll come back and let you all know I was wrong so it stays on record. Worst that will happen is I'll have made a kickstarter campaign for nothing or invested a thousand or two in inventory and will be using it and giving it away for a good few years lol

 

[ecommercewolf]

Great thread! One of my goals in 2020 is to also buy my 1st property and use the househacking strategy. The process can seem overwhelming but I know once I get the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd deal done it gets easier over time. It's just getting over my initial fear of my first property. Best of luck

My 1st House Hack (RE Investing Journey)

Hey guys, I have decided to purchase my first property in the DFW area. I have read some books, been listening to a lot of podcasts on Bigger Pockets and also G. Alexander's threads on real estate inspired me. I believe that real estate is a great financial vehicle and it has been proven over...

www.thefastlaneforum.com

 

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[BellaPippin]

Great thread! One of my goals in 2020 is to also buy my 1st property and use the househacking strategy. The process can seem overwhelming but I know once I get the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd deal done it gets easier over time. It's just getting over my initial fear of my first property. Best of luck

My 1st House Hack (RE Investing Journey)

Hey guys, I have decided to purchase my first property in the DFW area. I have read some books, been listening to a lot of podcasts on Bigger Pockets and also G. Alexander's threads on real estate inspired me. I believe that real estate is a great financial vehicle and it has been proven over...

www.thefastlaneforum.com

Thanks for the link I'll be following it!! Let's get it done!!!

 

[Guest24480]

My value skew is in my product's mission. TOMS isn't that much more glam and I say TOMS because it's the most popular one, but if you hit google there's many products that didn't re-invent the wheel either and people buy because they stand behind the cause.

Thanks for diving deeper into your plan and giving those examples. Just to clarify, I'm not saying you need to reinvent the wheel, but you do still need a quality product that people love to create a sustainable business, which it sounds like you understand already which is great.

Branding is definitely a differentiation point and value skew, and I know a few others on the forum have taken the 1 for 1 approach to social entrepreneurship with success.

If you do want to do the shampoo maybe you could look into creating a custom formulation so you have more control over the product quality instead of private labeling a me-too formula that everyone else is using. It might cost more, but that would give you two unique value skews, branding and product.

Either way I think it's great that you're getting started, that's the most important part. Just thought I would drop my two cents based on my initial perception of the progress so far.

 

[BellaPippin]

Thanks for diving deeper into your plan and giving those examples. Just to clarify, I'm not saying you need to reinvent the wheel, but you do still need a quality product that people love to create a sustainable business, which it sounds like you understand already which is great.

Branding is definitely a differentiation point and value skew, and I know a few others on the forum have taken the 1 for 1 approach to social entrepreneurship with success.

If you do want to do the shampoo maybe you could look into creating a custom formulation so you have more control over the product quality instead of private labeling a me-too formula that everyone else is using. It might cost more, but that would give you two unique value skews, branding and product.

Either way I think it's great that you're getting started, that's the most important part. Just thought I would drop my two cents based on my initial perception of the progress so far.

Totally, I really appreciate any input I get. That is why I'm here and people make me thing twice about everything.

So far the samples I've requested/in the works of requesting (need to follow up w/manufacturers that haven't answered yet) aren't custom formulated but they are confirmed to be natural made or USDA Organic Certified (certified being much better), Sulfates and Parabens Free, and Cruelty Free. I've got a list of 5-10 places that passed those filters, and for now I'm just requesting a gender neutral, pleasant scent, with some nourishing element to it such as Aloe and/or Argan oil pretty much. So it's not a custom-made formula but it's a quality product I can stand behind/know it will work for the general hair/skin type.

Branding is definitely a differentiation point and value skew

That's half baked because I didn't want to fall into the trap of action faking, but I have a nice logo I'm satisfied with and color scheme started and an idea of the general packaging look I want. I stopped there while I get an actual product on my hands (the packaging part kinda comes along with the private labeling part anyway). I'm confident visuals wise because I know graphic design and my best friend actually graduated (she made the logo and even a great little animation to start my Instagram), I will have to work the marketing piece of the branding to make sure it's effective though, not just look nice.

 

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[BellaPippin]

1) Little Payday Update for house-hack

Savings: $7500

2) Product:

Nothing new because <excuse>holidays</excuse>

3) Paint:

I'm taking Thursday and Friday off so that gives me from tomorrow until Sunday night to get as much of the Udemy Course done. Fingers crossed, I'm not really that comfortable in front of a camera lol

 

[BellaPippin]

E X E C U T I N G
L I K E
A
B A W S​

I have a couple lessons left to record, and then edit everything. I hope I can finish recording by tomorrow evening, editing after work isn't as bad as taking out all the painting materials and record. I woke up with a cold today but recorded anyways, I will have to edit out the sneezes lol

​

 

[Determined2012]

1) House-Hacking: Purchase a multi-family property to live in and rent for extra income. Build on that as desired to increase income from rentals. Currently reading The House Hacking Strategy by Craig Curelop as recommended by @JScott

Raise funds from revenue to rehab properties into centers where homeless people can shower and change clothes

What I'm aiming to make a living out of is rental properties

My first house-hacking isn't that far away

Just scanned your thread, any real time updates on any of this stuff? What areas are you looking to purchase, house hack, and rehab in? And why did you pick those areas?

 

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[BellaPippin]

Just scanned your thread, any real time updates on any of this stuff? What areas are you looking to purchase, house hack, and rehab in? And why did you pick those areas?

I have a little list of neighborhoods that I've driven by and look good but I'm not very knowledgeable on quite a few of them or ones that I don't know at all that might have good stuff so I'll have to rely on finding a good realtor. I will have more on this once I am closer to my money goal and start shopping around. In the meantime I read on the subject.

 

[BellaPippin]

Much round​

So failure

Silverlining - I finished something. Ah who cares. Kill me.

 

[CareCPA]

Much round​

View attachment 29860

So failure

Silverlining - I finished something. Ah who cares. Kill me.

I don't really see this as a failure. You got 2 people to sign up for a course that you just created. From what I've seen in this thread, the course had no list to "launch" to, no marketing funnel, no big names promoting it. Do you have name recognition in the space that lends credibility to your course?

If not, you got two random people to stumble across your course and decide that it had enough value to spend their time signing up for it, in less than a month. Imagine what will happen as you continue to build out your content.

 

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[broswoodwork]

Much round​

View attachment 29860

So failure

Silverlining - I finished something. Ah who cares. Kill me.

I spent a whole summer writing a book once, and I got 1 person to read it. You've gotten twice the results in 1/6th the time.

 

[BellaPippin]

From what I've seen in this thread, the course had no list to "launch" to, no marketing funnel, no big names promoting it. Do you have name recognition in the space that lends credibility to your course?

No, no, no, no etc.

And those two randoms were from Reddit. I've been running an Insta ad too, all in all I have 20 redemptions going around for free (I did ask for an honest review from the Redditors) and nobody has used it. And it's FREE. The ad insight gave me 130 likes on the promoted post, only 1 person clicked through to the course page, but didn't enroll.

I now realized I know nothing about marketing, but also idk how much value the course has at all with that feedback, if I've learned something from this place is that the market speaks.

I'm defeated and tired of not being able to provide value to anyone. Not even here. I feel useless and empty and right now it feels I'm gonna rot in jobs I don't even know how I got in the first place. For the first time I was able to stick to something to see it finished, I worked every evening after work, and I was hoping so bad I would be able to update that I got my first dollar before the summit. The scripted part of me did hope for fast success I guess, or maybe I'm just so frustrated I can't find THE thing or even be able to stick to one thing, my brain sucks.

Let me save y'all the tough love yes I know I'm not gonna get anywhere speaking like this. I probably won't. F*ck depression F*ck anxiety F*ck myself.

Rant over, I think I'll see you at the summit cuz I've got nothing to do here.