Trying Again

[sadlerj]

I've tried and failed at business before, but I'm going to soon try again- and I want to contribute to this forum that I have lurked on and off of for many years.

I read that first book from MJ, loved it.

I'm going to be vague about some detail. I don't want my family and coworkers and family to dox me and make fun of me as I admit to my failings.
I want to be honest though. PM me if you have a specific question.

Background:

I'm mid 40s white guy, breadwinner, married with a school aged daughter, income 70-80K. Salaried in IT/Medical.
Never went all-in on a business. Tried, but never successful with a consistent side-hussle.

I grew up in large Catholic family in a poor neighborhood in Pennsylvania, but my family ended up in lower-middle-class status. Historically they were immigrant coal miners to steel workers to factory workers or military. More recently service industry.

When I was a kid my parents had an event/craft business. It was my mother's full time, stepdad's part time. I helped too, working the cash box at shows, performing at events. I've never been materialistic, but I loved counting money ever since I was a little kid, making change, stacking, sorting, that sort of thing.
Their business continued for many years, but it never became very successful.

A few blocks from my house the autoparts store went out of business and was replaced by a candy wholesaler. I would buy bulk candy and sell it at recess in school. I could flip Pop Rocks from $.15 to $.50, it was great until the teachers shut it down. I also had a road side table where I sold candy, soda, and iced kool-aid.

I tell you this because I've always had a little hustle in me. But I'm still a wannapreneur, here's why

 

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[sadlerj]

I've tried and failed at business before, but I'm going to soon try again- and I want to contribute to this forum that I have lurked on and off of for many years.

I read that first book from MJ, loved it.

I'm going to be vague about some detail. I don't want my family and coworkers and family to dox me and make fun of me as I admit to my failings.
I want to be honest though. PM me if you have a specific question.

Background:

I'm mid 40s white guy, breadwinner, married with a school aged daughter, income 70-80K. Salaried in IT/Medical.
Never went all-in on a business. Tried, but never successful with a consistent side-hussle.

I grew up in large Catholic family in a poor neighborhood in Pennsylvania, but my family ended up in lower-middle-class status. Historically they were immigrant coal miners to steel workers to factory workers or military. More recently service industry.

When I was a kid my parents had an event/craft business. It was my mother's full time, stepdad's part time. I helped too, working the cash box at shows, performing at events. I've never been materialistic, but I loved counting money ever since I was a little kid, making change, stacking, sorting, that sort of thing.
Their business continued for many years, but it never became very successful.

A few blocks from my house the autoparts store went out of business and was replaced by a candy wholesaler. I would buy bulk candy and sell it at recess in school. I could flip Pop Rocks from $.15 to $.50, it was great until the teachers shut it down. I also had a road side table where I sold candy, soda, and iced kool-aid.

I tell you this because I've always had a little hustle in me. But I'm still a wannapreneur, here's why

I have a long employment history, over 20 employers.
My grandparents met at a printing press where they both worked from teenagers until retirement.
They met there in 1940s, I'm very old.
A fringe benefit for me was that growing up I got tons of free misprinted books and paper. The crappy city kindergarten I went to had busted out windows and no paper. They asked us to bring in our used wrapping paper to do our homework on. My grandpa end up hooking them up.

So I've always loved reading. I got a job at bookstore in the 90s.
I read Rich Dad, I read Think and Grow Rich, I read Win Friends. All that stuff.
But I was pretty bent on living in the moment, so I didn't really get interested in business until 2006.

I bought a house in a crappy city neighborhood. My reasoning was the house was cheap and, I grew up in a crappy part of the city, so I can deal.

One night had to walk 12 blocks to drop my crappy car off at the garage and I was carrying a butcher knife under my jacket.
I thought, this is stupid, I should get a gun.

 

[sadlerj]

I have a long employment history, over 20 employers.
My grandparents met at a printing press where they both worked from teenagers until retirement.
They met there in 1940s, I'm very old.View attachment 33182
A fringe benefit for me was that growing up I got tons of free misprinted books and paper. The crappy city kindergarten I went to had busted out windows and no paper. They asked us to bring in our used wrapping paper to do our homework on. My grandpa end up hooking them up.

So I've always loved reading. I got a job at bookstore in the 90s.
I read Rich Dad, I read Think and Grow Rich, I read Win Friends. All that stuff.
But I was pretty bent on living in the moment, so I didn't really get interested in business until 2006.

I bought a house in a crappy city neighborhood. My reasoning was the house was cheap and, I grew up in a crappy part of the city, so I can deal.

One night had to walk 12 blocks to drop my crappy car off at the garage and I was carrying a butcher knife under my jacket.
I thought, this is stupid, I should get a gun.

It was while researching revolvers that I came across a website article about silver & gold. It led me down a rabbit hole of survivalist money postings. You know, stuff that 'Merica! people care about.
I had never really paid much attention to metals or the stock market, but I really started to dive deep.

I started reading two forums. A survival blog and a trading forum.

I learned a lot. I managed to save 25K in a few years.
I started trading stocks. I had a couple of lucky trades, but after few months I was down to 20K and decided to hang up the towel. All it got me was an audit from the IRS. But it was very educational.

Meanwhile, I had been harboring an absolute hatred of working.
I saw Office Space in 99, pretty much hating working ever since then.


I had been wanting a way to get out.
And I think it was around that time that I finally read Tim Ferris's book.

It resonated with me, it opened my eyes to a business as a key to freedom.
One of my childhood best friends was running a successful wholesaling business, if he could do it, why not me?

I was hedging my bets (probably a mistake, slowlane) and I went to college to get training in ultrasound.
My employer was paying for it and it could nearly double my income.

It did. I moved. I rented out my crappy house. I moved again and bought another house in a neighborhood with an apartment that I rented out.
I had a kid. I bought a 16K car instead of a 3K car.

I had 15K in cash. I had my income outpacing my debt, but I was in the slowlane and I knew it.

It was 2012
I read MJ's book and I asked myself, what's this dropshipping all about?

 

[sadlerj]

It was while researching revolvers that I came across a website article about silver & gold. It led me down a rabbit hole of survivalist money postings. You know, stuff that 'Merica! people care about.
I had never really paid much attention to metals or the stock market, but I really started to dive deep.

I started reading two forums. A survival blog and a trading forum.

I learned a lot. I managed to save 25K in a few years.
I started trading stocks. I had a couple of lucky trades, but after few months I was down to 20K and decided to hang up the towel. All it got me was an audit from the IRS. But it was very educational.

Meanwhile, I had been harboring an absolute hatred of working.
I saw Office Space in 99, pretty much hating working ever since then.
View attachment 33203

I had been wanting a way to get out.
And I think it was around that time that I finally read Tim Ferris's book.

It resonated with me, it opened my eyes to a business as a key to freedom.
One of my childhood best friends was running a successful wholesaling business, if he could do it, why not me?

I was hedging my bets (probably a mistake, slowlane) and I went to college to get training in ultrasound.
My employer was paying for it and it could nearly double my income.

It did. I moved. I rented out my crappy house. I moved again and bought another house in a neighborhood with an apartment that I rented out.
I had a kid. I bought a 16K car instead of a 3K car.
View attachment 33204
I had 15K in cash. I had my income outpacing my debt, but I was in the slowlane and I knew it.

It was 2012
I read MJ's book and I asked myself, what's this dropshipping all about?

Dropshipping introduced me to wordpress, SEO, and product sourcing.
I made contacts in China, I learned about customs.
I settled on a product - Sheepskin Rugs

I set up my business legally, got my business ID number.
I opened up a business bank account, I set up a merchant account.
I got my file system together.

All of the overseas samples I received smelled funny so I ended up going with US manufacturer.
The best margins were in the 6 pelt rugs, other sizes I couldn't compete well on price.

I hated the pictures from my manufacturer- small, no pictures of different dyes.
I didn't want to steal pictures.

So I started to learn how to take professional pictures

....Meanwhile, I started to notice a rise in the gun market in tandem in the rise of Hillary Clinton.
The prior gun ban was a pretty much a roadmap to where the scarcity would be in the market.

Most people focus on the weapons, others on the ammo, less on the magazines, or what some may mistakenly call the "clip" or the detachable part where the bullets go.
Magazines are easier to store, easier to ship, and therefore a commodity of sorts that you can speculate on.

I read a survival blog.
Well the blog writer sold ad space, and he posted his rates.
I could afford a fairly large ad on his page.

He also had a speculative attitude about rifle magazines (not my original idea) and there was a particular magazine he thought was the best investement - the HK91 or G3 .308 aluminum army surplus magazine, the former rifle of Nato.
At one point they had been so cheap that people bought them in bulk to melt them for the metal.

These magazines normally sold for $3, very cheap, but prices were up to $9, and they were sold out everywhere.

Knowing this I stumbled across a very old anglefire type webpage where I could still buy $3 G3 mags.
I bought 300 mags, an easy flip.

And, hmmm, a very specific Keyword...
And...I could funnel people by advertising on....that survival blog.


By this time I was using Bigcommerce, I took awesome pictures of those magazines.
I can honestly say there was no website on the internet that focused on G3 Magazines and looked as beautiful as mine.
It looked great on mobile, it was awesome!

I contacted the survival blog admin, and he disappointingly told me that his advertisements were booked out for the next 15 months, but he would mention my site in a blog post because my website looked great.

I said thanks.
I was bummed, but at the same time I had counted over 60 advertising squares on that survival blog, all of them rented out for the next 15 months, and his rates were $200 monthly a square.
Holy shit! I thought- that's like 150K annual income a year for running a blog!

 

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[sadlerj]

Bigcommerce at the time, were very helpful when setting up my website, their tech support even did a little html for me. I had just put some finishing touches on my site, went to bed, and when I woke up I looked at my phone and I had 10 orders.
Yes!

By the end of the day I had 20 orders.
Hell yes!

The next day I had 20 orders.
Ooookaayyy....

My phone was linked to my merchant account and I watched as orders kept coming in.
I worried though. Why was I doing so well?

I was making as much with my eCommerce shop as I was with my day job. Mostly I was elated. I thought maybe I had done it, I cracked the code! I could cast off the yoke!


Hallelujah!

It wasn't too hard, just a bit of effort and now I could rest on my laurels comfortably selling a singular type of rifle magazine at 100% margin.

Ah, how I was wrong.

What had happened was the survival blog author mentioned me in one of his posts. Just a throwaway comment- has a nice looking site, seems like a good source. His loyal followers rushed to my site.

Unfortunately orders dropped off as fast as they came on. I tried to expand my products a little, but the other products didn't have good margins. I dabbled in some google adsense campaigns, which brought in some sales, but it wasn't a good ROI. I didn't know how to market. Within a few weeks I closed the website.




It was a good education, I called that blog author a "kingmaker", but I suppose in today's terms he might be more akin to an "influencer". It opened my eyes to much of the way eCommerce operates, and I made enough money to pay off all of my expenses. To this day I still have a ton of G3 mags up in my attic.

However, I wouldn't learn nearly as much as I did with my next endeavor -Kindle Romance Novels

- and this time, I didn't break even