The Poor Man I Cant get a job: Flipping Stuff Log

[minivanman]

And if all else fails and you are healthy, I have a question for you.... do you take a shit ? If you are healthy and you take a shit, you can earn money.....

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/speaking-of-science/wp/2015/01/29/you-can-earn-13000-a-year-selling-your-poop/

I know there is going to be 1 person that is GROSSED OUT by this post!

 

[EvanOkanagan]

Why not get a lesser paying job for now?

I’m sure even a low level job will do better than garage sale flipping. Or do both?

 

[biophase]

I know many will find it hard to believe, but just based on my experience alone, I’m pretty sure you can narrow it down to who I am. Field is super niche.

I highly doubt it. Please explain? How would someone who’s resume could identify him not be able to find a job in that niche? Makes no sense.

 

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[Busch_Jager]

I could be away for training all over the country for a few months. Apparently a ton of time on the road. I fear I might not have time to do business if I have this job.

The job knowledge is helpful in my venture far along the road though, doesn’t help me out now.

I average 100+ hours a week as a hydraulic fracturing engineer and can still find time to work on my side ventures. I just treat travel time as time in the classroom learning through audiobooks and podcasts. I never get 8 hours of sleep if 6 works for you then that's two more hours every day to work on your side business.

I highly recommend what I learned from the MFCEO podcast on writing down 5 critical tasks you are going to do during the day to get you closer to your goals. Just doing this every day has made the single biggest impact on my life. Once I write down the five things it drives me insane if I don't complete and cross them out. Here is the episode he talks about it Kill It Every Day: Maximizing Productivity, with Andy Frisella - MFCEO09.

I agree with everyone else though even if the job only pays 50k that's still a lot more than flipping for not even $100 profit a day. 60 hours a week still leaves plenty of time to work on a side business.

 

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[WJK]

For those that literally got no luck getting job even applying endlessly.

I have no choice, but to do yard sale/thrift store/estate/garage/retail arbitrage sale flipping now.

Total investment thus far:

3x Branded Retail Arbitrage Hats = $34
4x Cups with Brands on them = $6
1x Toy = $2

Total investment: $42
Started 2 days ago.

Not gonna go with retail arbitrage too often because the margins kinda suck. Also being intentionally general with descriptions

Can’t wait for the weekend for all the garage sales. That’s where the money is.

I know a woman who buys clothes by the pound offseason and then sells them at flea markets at about a 10 times price she paid for them. She specializes in coats. There's a ton of side businesses like that.

 

[PizzaOnTheRoof]

Take the well paying job and live below your means for the next year.

Work on perfecting your product in the meantime while saving up as much of a runway as possible so you can go part time or quit your job to pursue your business idea.

I highly doubt you’ll need a house full of machinery to build a working prototype.

You could probably buy/rent just the essentials and outsource the rest.

Found 6 different makerspaces in Seattle with a quick google search: seattle makerspace - Google Search

Change this thread title to: “Poor man couldn’t get a job but finally got one.”

 

[Dan_Cardone]

If you cant make without money then you likely wont make money with money either.

Started my first real business at 16 with less than 10 bucks. Ended up making a ton of money from it.

Former clients of mine just sold their business for seven figures and moved to Hawaii. They started their business with almost no money.

What you lack in money you have to make up for in resourcefulness and hustle.

 

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[G-Man]

You've got to accept that many of the processes you have to go through in this world are just nonsense, arbitrary barriers designed by irrelevant people, that stand between you and your goals.

Almost the entire HR profession, and much of the legal and compliance profession is comprised of self-important people doing make-work jobs that exist to make life difficult for people that are trying to do things and build things.

See this as a learning experience. Learning to read what people want and then give it to them, so you can get where you need to go.

I went through a drought when I first wanted to move to TX. Every resume I sent out with my real Midwestern address went straight to the trash. I started using the address of a UPS store in a strip mall in Dallas, and started getting callbacks. The ability to tell people what they want to hear about materially irrelevant details can open doors in life on an almost supernatural level.

 

[AgainstAllOdds]

8. I would have called him an idiot and walked away a LONG time ago. I also tend to expect ppl to not want to “waste” their time fighting my limiting beliefs. This thread is confronting that belief, in spades.

I'll be the one to call him an idiot.

go back to each of my posts in this thread and answer each of them again in one reply. then we'll find you a job. do your part.

When @ZCP posts things like this, it means that he's going into full-on "I'm going to change this guy's life mode". I don't know if @ZCP can, but from what I've seen, he sure as F*ck tries (in private and publicly... for example in the Eric's Cheesecake debacle).

Meanwhile the kid's reply to the multiple offers for help is laugh it off and come up with another excuse for why he's going to be a loser.

I'm with @Timmy C - this thread is becoming #landfill material. @MoreValue isn't doing shit with his life because he doesn't want to do shit with his life. He's coming up with reasons why he's going to fail. Until he sees that and realizes that he's the problem, then this thread is an absolute waste of time, as are the countless of threads we've seen before this where the OP wants to lose.

 

[G-Man]

$500 is a chance. Not guaranteed. If I flew out to every interview I had, I would be down several thousand by now.

You might have a job by now too. You seem to be mentally defeated before you even step out a little. I understand and sympathize. My natural disposition is the same.

That said, when your inner coward jumps out, you gotta recognize it for what it is, and override it with the front lobe.

Also, I don't know if you're just not teachable, or if the rationalization hamster is in sheer override because of fear and anxiety, but dude, you've got so many people who know what they're talking about trying to offer workable suggestions and you just shoot them down left and right. It's Olympics level mental gymnastics.

Take a deep breath and be open.

 

[broswoodwork]

I don't think @MoreValue wants to be ready yet.

There's a fellow over here that's chomping at the bit to sell some shit: Cold Feet Before ReLaunching Business

 

[CaptainAmerica]

I finally read through all of this. Here's my advice, based on what worked for me:

- get A job. for me, I took a series of mind-numbing, dead-end jobs until I finally found one I could stand for more than a few months: forklift and truck driver for the ReStore. It was very physically demanding, and I didn't know if my health could take it, but it did. Minimum wage = food

- talk to EVERYONE about your dream, and who do they know, and how could you have a prototype built? Don't worry about people stealing your idea. a) most people never take action and b) if they do, they get to do the heavy lifting of proof-of-concept for you.

- in your spare time, flood LinkedIn and everyone you know with your shiny new resume. Don't even start counting until you've sent out 500. Not kidding.

- When you get a nice new job in your field, it should be enough for you to pay for your daily survival + saving for the new venture. (this is the level I'm at, as of this morning)

- NOW you can look around for actually getting the prototype made and presales and investors. Remember Control: don't give up more than 49% of your ownership. File a patent.

Baby steps, man. Stay healthy, and take baby steps in the direction you think you want to go.

 

[ChrisV]

what happened to the force field

 

[Dan_Cardone]

How can you not get a job?

 

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[ZCP]

then give yourself some props!!

measure your progress and push yourself to do a little more each day. one foot in front of the other! you got this!

 

[Raoul Duke]

GOLD! - A job isn't something you "get"...

"Hey... you're the guy with the Viper, right?" It's 12:45AM, the holiday weekend has ended and the 24 hour gas station is utterly dead, not one customer. The attendant actually has to walk out from the store to pump the gas. I have on muddy sneakers and dusty jeans with a huge tear in the a$$...

www.thefastlaneforum.com

 

[Raoul Duke]

Yeah, thanks. I am slightly making a career move. So not gonna lie, can’t give much. I could give more, but would need schooling again as advised by someone. Can’t afford schooling right now and getting a slowlane job obvious isn’t my end goal. Just a stepping stone to build my own venture.

wah wah wah
WAH wah wah
WAH wah WAH WAH
wah WAHHHH !!!!!

 

[minivanman]

So how many garage sales did they have near your home?

 

[DeletedUser0287]

How I write on this forum is pretty much how I speak in person and also how I write to people in business. You are trying to separate work and play, in business it's usually the same and converges.

I do wonder what your resume sounds like then.

My resume is professionally worded which is the difference. Highlighting skills that would be valuable to the business.

 

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[Tourmaline]

#landfill

 

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[minivanman]

Dude, you are all over the place. I probably should be putting you on ignore, but I'm still trying.

I'm guessing that a Field Service Engineer, Hydraulics/Pneumatics/Fluidics makes somewhere between $50/yr-$75k/yr and you are currently driving to garage sales trying to flip stuff for $10-$100? Hmmm, which should you pick?

You use the word golden handcuffs as if they are going to pay you soooo much that you can't quit.

And now you are asking if taking this job is worth it because you might have to rent instead of buy?

Tell me how this job "doesn’t help me out now". Do they pay you in cookies?

Seriously, WTF. You really are just lost in your own head.

This is the title of the thread that YOU MADE, "The Poor Man I Cant get a job: Flipping Stuff Log", now we can all see why you can't get a job. You aren't really trying because you don't want one.

Actually I have 2 answers..... which should HE pick? Probably taking a job if he is only going to go to 5 garage sales in a week and say he 'did something'. lol What would I choose if I was in his shoes and had to do it all over again.... I'd choose picking. As usual, I'd be involved in the every day aspect of it but at the same time, build it to a business that almost ran itself. I mean, if 1 person can make $100,000 profit from flipping in a year, just think if someone had a team of 10+ people all working separate for the same goal. And from there..... branch in to other things like I did. You find some things just luckily fall in your lap once you start. Hell, I ended up with oil wells and I didn't even know a person could buy oil wells. Once things start rolling.... it's all down hill from there.....

 

[biophase]

What? The guy I was responding to said that he uses travel time by listening to podcasts and other things. I was just stating the fact that my business does not have that. That it all. Did I ever say I expected everything to be perfectly laid out? I mean it would be nice, but it is not.

Yes, you said that your business does not have podcasts. What did you mean by that then?

Once your technical details are done, you will need all the other general business knowledge.

The product is the easiest part of business, it's all the other stuff that is hard.

 

[Dan_Cardone]

Ehh...product is easiest if you just import stuff or some low quality stuff. But if yah building something really good and in house like me. I would consider it the hardest part. Going for the highly remarkable so I will not have to spend much on marketing.

Marketing consultant here....

You wouldn't believe how many entrepreneurs have said some variation of "I always thought if my product/service was good it would just catch on. I don't understand why it didn't but now I need to know how to market it" to me.

Build it and they will come... But only if they know about it from marketing.

 

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[JByers210]

Ehh...product is easiest if you just import stuff or some low quality stuff. But if yah building something really good and in house like me. I would consider it the hardest part. Going for the highly remarkable so I will not have to spend much on marketing.

LOL. It’s interesting to see... you’re currently driving from garage sale to garage sale looking for toys to flip for $20 profit ....and you’re responding to a guy like @biophase who knows his stuff acting like you know what you’re talking about.

I’m sure your highly remarkable sewn products are going to blow up fast though and you’re going to have to barely do any marketing.

 

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[tpuffer]

Just finished reading this whole thing...

As far as the job goes - your resume is probably shit. Go out and network with people in the industry that you want to be in and show them how awesome you are. When opportunities come up they will think or you. I've had this happen a few times.

You mention renting out a home costing you $20-$30K? Is this the amount you have in savings right now?

At some point you need to quit talking about it and start BEING about it. Just pick something and get moving down a path. I'd rather have 60% of an ok plan but be moving forward than 95% of a "great" plan and be doing nothing.

ACTION IS KING!

 

[MHP368]

First of all , this entire 5 pages is...an interesting trainwreck of sorts. Some solid insight and info , what caught my eye though

You’re also not going to get handed free shit to resell

What if you had va's post ads in a huge area (reachable by car) saying you take idk like old vintage electronics that dont work , free pickup , learn how to fix em and then resell that to hipsters?

Some (lots?) Of that old stuff goes for a pretty penny and i'm sure in most cases its the same simple fix. Like when washing machines break you can run down a list of the most common reasons and fix em for 20 bucks then flip those. Probably the same for ol electronics , same parts go bad.

Worst case scenario you become a skilled hoarder with lead poisoning.

 

[Jon L]

I'm gonna throw in my two cents.

Before you start a business, hire a therapist. (After you find a job). The therapist should be paid for after you pay for rent, utilities, food and transportation, and before anything else. They're that important.

I'm not at all trying to insult you. I have one myself. A good one is worth their weight in gold.

A lot of people here are picking up on your limiting beliefs. I agree with them. Limiting beliefs will prevent you from doing quite a few things. A good therapist will help you get rid of them.

 

[ShamanKing]

Don't feel bad. I once applied to over 350 jobs, 15 interviews, 4 offers. Most I qualified for, some not as much.

BTW I suggest you enter all the positions, employer, and date of application sent onto say a google sheet b/c it's free. That way you can pop it up when someone calls you and don't have to second guest whose calling.

Getting a job was easy. I needed something to take care of my expenses so I can focus on building a business. But here I am with a job to cover my cost of living but no business yet.

 

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[PizzaOnTheRoof]

Another less risky method would be to just put my real address and mention relocation at my own cost. I mean they are eventually going to find out I am not local. My thoughts on it backfiring is that you give the impression that you are untruthful. If you are untruthful about address, what else are you untruthful about?

Yeah, I keep saying that it takes money to make money for my specific venture. I am aware of free/near free ventures like software, landscaping, painting, etc.

This is an example of a business that has high costs that received lots of funding, how would a regular income person go about bootstrapping a business like this? No loans or investors. As you can see, it is extremely costly to produce a prototype that is presentable on a crowdsourced platform. But then again you kind of need to have all the equipment to make it professional enough.

Just skip to the middle of video to see their product development area.

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RTlmhOCU5sQ&t=530s

What’s wrong with taking an “unremarkable” business and using it to fund your dream business?

How do you plan on building a remarkable business when you can’t even feed yourself?

 

[ZF Lee]

You need money coming in but cant get a job.

You also want to start up a business.

Here is what you do (though Im sure you'll have an excuse)...

Make a list of all companies you can find that sells something with high profit margins. Insurance, office furnitue, high end vacation packages, etc.

Now go down that list amd call every single business and offer to work for them as an outside sales rep for COMMISSSION ONLY and then negotiate your commission. You'll find at least one company who will jump on that offer.

Then you will have a job, be making money, and be developing sales skills which you will need as an entrepreneur.

Wow, didn’t expect so much help poured into this one thread!

I noticed @G-Man talking on HR, so I’d just chime in here...

In all my freelance jobs, I’ve never ran into a HR person. It’s always the head of department of the related area whom I get to talk to e.g head of email marketing, the owner of the biz himself, the sales manager, etc.

I’ve also heard more hiring success stories done through cutting past gatekeepers by going direct to the real decision maker, be it by email, walk-in or referral.

And it’s not unheard, where I am, for folks to get jobs over dinner or tea, or over WhatsApp.

Also, on getting a job ASAP, it would be good to see if your skills can be converted into other areas that aren’t too related to engineering.

For example, project management.

I’m currently taking a unit on it in university, and it isn’t as simple as doing checklists and taking meeting minutes.

It’s about making Gantt charts (dealing with time), risk matrix (I’m doing one now for a present project lol), planning activity crashes, updating projects charters and work breakdowns now and then. A lot of work, but also a lot of space to train your mindset to find ways to improve work quality.

It’s even more crucial for engineering projects, especially those with lots of deliverables. But it applies to all businesses in general (especially those with lots of sales funnels with many campaigns aimed at different customer sophistication levels)

If you can take some of your earlier projects, even those from university or whatever past education you had, and do a not-so fictional project breakdown as a portfolio for prospective hirers, you could have something much more to offer than just a resume.

That is just an example off the back of my head, but don’t be too scared of looking into jobs in other areas.

On Upwork, I actually did this with a client who originally wanted to send a resume to an NGO, targeting jobs specializing in social impact. She didn’t get the job, so she came back to me.

I re-worded some details, and tailored her resume so that she could go for jobs with project management and HR. Think she went off to WeWork.

Must have worked, as she didn’t come back to me.