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Jorotyn

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Hi fastlaners!

It's time to escape the rat race.

<--- This is me (my avatar).

I'm 23, living in Melbourne Australia, working full time (7am - 4pm, plus commute, Mon-Fri, min wage) in a job that leaves me with roughly $1000 left over after expesnes each month to invest in business opportunities. I budget relentlessly to reduce my expenses as much as possible, so the only way now for me to increase my left over money is by increasing my income.

The last 5 years have seen me take an erratic path after leaving school with no clear destination in mind; studying management, accounting, and then entrepreneurship while also working in various part time and casual jobs in different industries.

About 1 year ago I made the decision to create a long term plan designed to see me into life-long wealth, or as I now call it, the fastlane. The framework for the plan was simple: break down my long term goals into actionable steps that can be executed day by day, while constantly re-evaluating and pivoting the plan as required to overcome inevitable set backs.

1 year ago these were my actionable steps:
- Gain full time employment
- Reduce expenses as much as possible
- Move out with my long term partner
- Position myself to start a cashflow business

1 year later I can happily say I have achieved all of the above and am ready to take the next steps.

3 months ago, with a business fund of roughly $4000, I started my very first business on the side, following a framework I found online that many people claimed to have replicated with success, a domestic cleaning company.

Today, unfortunately, and after a great deal of consideration, I have decided to pull the plug and shut down my first business. I can go into detail about the specifics in another post, but for now I will just say that I learned a huge amount, experienced an incredible amount of personal growth, and will take the lessons learned with me into my next ventures.

Although my first venture didn't work out like I had hoped, my long term plan remains the same. My current goal is to create a new business and grow it to the point where net profit exceeds my income from my full time job. I have roughly $3000 put aside for my next venture, with $1000 more being allocated every month.

At this point in time i am considering entering the realm of ecommerce and will be looking into opportunities in FBA and dropshipping. I am excited to share my journey with everyone here in my upcoming progress threads and I hope I can share some exciting value bombs along the way!

Stay tuned for a write up about my previous venture and the mistakes I made and lessons I learned.

I look forward to engaging with you all in the coming months and years!

@MJ DeMarco
 
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minivanman

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I really look forward to your follow up. There was a guy on here that wanted to go in to the residential cleaning business and I talked him out of it. It either takes full dedication to get it off the ground or it won't work. And with today's workers it's almost useless, in America anyway. Back when I started I didn't have any type of dream except to buy a case of Dr. Pepper and some Little Debbie cakes.... no joke. I started with $3.17 so eating WAS my dream. lol
 

KSR

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Hello, fellow Melbournian.

Maybe we should revive the Melbourne, AUS Meetup?
Anyway -- do you have an idea for what kind of business you want to go into? e-Commerce? SaaS?

P.S: You should really read 'The Millionaire Fastlane ' -- it'll give you a heap of insight into 'Fastlane' mentality.
 
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Walter Hay

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Hi @Jorotyn. FBA yes, dropshipping no. Do a search on the forum for dropshipping. You will find that some have succeeded in that type of business to some extent, but the overwhelming view is that making it a fastlane business is very difficult.

The greatest negative is CONTROL. You have almost none. You are at the mercy of the dropship supplier, who may or may not deliver on time. In many cases they don't even bother to tell you when they are out of stock or have terminated a line. Meanwhile, if you have made sales, where does that leave you?

Walter
 

Jorotyn

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I really look forward to your follow up. There was a guy on here that wanted to go in to the residential cleaning business and I talked him out of it. It either takes full dedication to get it off the ground or it won't work. And with today's workers it's almost useless, in America anyway. Back when I started I didn't have any type of dream except to buy a case of Dr. Pepper and some Little Debbie cakes.... no joke. I started with $3.17 so eating WAS my dream. lol

Could you please direct me to the thread where you talked him out of it? I did find it was a LOT more time intensive than I was expecting.

What path did you take to get to where you are now?

Hello, fellow Melbournian.

Maybe we should revive the Melbourne, AUS Meetup?
Anyway -- do you have an idea for what kind of business you want to go into? e-Commerce? SaaS?

P.S: You should really read 'The Millionaire Fastlane ' -- it'll give you a heap of insight into 'Fastlane' mentality.

Always keen to expand my network, so I'm in!

At this stage I am heavily leaning towards e-Commerce, if only because it seems easier to manage alongside full time work than a service business. However I'm still in the process of shutting down my last venture so I haven't had any time to give it any real thought yet.

I have read a short summary but the takeaways were powerful so I'm planning on adding it to my bookshelf by the week's end

Hi @Jorotyn. FBA yes, dropshipping no. Do a search on the forum for dropshipping. You will find that some have succeeded in that type of business to some extent, but the overwhelming view is that making it a fastlane business is very difficult.

The greatest negative is CONTROL. You have almost none. You are at the mercy of the dropship supplier, who may or may not deliver on time. In many cases they don't even bother to tell you when they are out of stock or have terminated a line. Meanwhile, if you have made sales, where does that leave you?

Walter

Thanks for your feedback Walter. I have heard a lot of stories like yours about dropshipping. Do you think there is any merit to classic e-commerce models that involve holding stock on hand?
 

Walter Hay

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Thanks for your feedback Walter. I have heard a lot of stories like yours about dropshipping. Do you think there is any merit to classic e-commerce models that involve holding stock on hand?
Yes I do, but a full answer would require many pages.

First, may I suggest you look through my thread Sharing my lifetime experience in export/import. Product sourcing specialist.
You will also find a lot more information the marketing side by looking at Ecom man's thread
[AMA] Importing & wholesaling for resale on eBay.

My first principle is that profit begins with buying, so you need to learn how to buy at the best prices. Newbies tend to think "Wow, that's cheap" when they first get quotes from suppliers in China, but in reality they are often paying inflated prices (by Chinese standards). As for selling in an eCommerce situation, I am not the one to ask. I know marketing, but most of my experience has been B2B, so that's why I referred you to Ecom man.

Walter
 
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minivanman

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We talked about it in private. I had a large business up north for several years. Then I sold it (Girlfriend and I split). Moved to Texas and started another but just couldn't find the good workers that were up north. But it was a money train while it was going. It was like I was printing money every day. Stacks of checks on the desk every day. Even Texas made great money at it's worst... lots of money in the house cleaning business but it takes a LOT of time. I used to work almost 24/7 because I had 2 big commercial jobs that were done in the evening and I had to keep up with the workers there too. I always tried to make $40-$50 profit from each house and each girl would clean 2 houses per day. What was your goal on profit? At first it was very hard but as I learned what cheap chemicals to use and once I found my secret time saving weapon, it all fell in to place. I rent an apartment with a garage for my office and storage (and when company comes to visit they stay here. I hate people staying with me.) and I keep this place clean and also the house. We stay at the apartment as much as the house so it does get dirty. I just can't get away from cleaning. As far as a path.... I just wandered aimlessly really just like my posts. lol Taught myself how to clean, what to use to clean, how to clean faster, how to clean carpet when I added that on, how to clean carpet easier, paper work, how to work a computer, how to build a website and SEO. No one ever helped with anything.... except Google. I'm not saying I didn't have a few people doing these things for me but as a business owner you need to know how to do all of these things yourself. I knew where every girl was at all times and exactly what she was doing. Not by micro-managing, just by how long it took to do things so I could figure she should be done in say.... 20 minutes and I would be dang close most of the time. And then I figured out that I didn't know my numbers so I taught myself the books. I was also Dave Ramsey before Dave Ramsey was Dave Ramsey. lol I've never had any debt. Although we have a debit card, I have no idea how to use it except at the gas pump. I always use cash. You know those things at the cash register at stores.... no idea how it works. I wouldn't know what to look for if I was to go ask for a loan. And remember.... I started with $3.17, borrowed window cleaner, borrowed shower cleaner, cut up towels for rags and a '74 Nova (paid $500 cash) that was rusted out so bad the back fenders rubbed the tires driving down the road. lol Yet I never thought about a loan.

I was just sitting here thinking.... I would be sooooo embarressed if I had to pull up in front of a $300,000 house today with that rusted old Nova and bring out my towels with threads hanging off them and a vacuum that sucked in more ways than one, but at the time we were so dang pumped about getting our first few houses to clean we didn't even think about it. All we thought about was money. And to show you how life can go 2 different directions..... that ex-girlfriend is now an addict while I went a total opposite direction. That's also what money will do to you. Feel free to message me if you want to talk cleaning business. :)
 

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