Project No Money Business Start Up

My new project will be starting soon.  I will be using money that I have found on the ground, from my penny millions days.  I have 67 cents right now that has been found.  So I will use that money to purchase something to resell.  I will open up a separate E-Bay account to prove that anyone can do this from scratch.  If I do not a lot of people will use it as an excuse, well I do not have any feedback so I cannot sell on E-Bay.  I do not want to leave any room for excuses :).  My plan is to build this into a part time business, the same way I have built my current business.  I will keep hunting for dropped change etc. throughout just to add to my capital.  I will start out picking at yard sales, thrift stores, etc.  And eventually move up to buying from E-Bay to resell and buying wholesale.  I will document each step, what I bought, what I payed, what it sold for, shipping cost, gas if it was not on my normal route, Ebay fees, paypal fees, the whole nine yards.  When I get enough data I will start writing the E-book, should be an educational journey for us all.  I will probably try some Crowd Funding on this project as well.  Regardless the things I will be doing are not difficult and anyone can do it.  That is the point, keep it simple and help people start a business to make a part time income, or even a full time income.  It will not be easy, it will take time, there will be some items that lose money.  All the pitfalls will be there, this is not going to be a book full of hype, just a realistic step by step manual for starting an E-commerce business.

What I learned from Penny Millions and Ebook documenting my Journey.

When I started Penny Millions I never thought it would amount to much.  I really had my doubts.  I did not succeed in doubling to a million, I could have but lacked the discipline to not spend the money.  I have started a couple of times and always ended up spending the money.  So was it pointless?

It was not pointless, it changed me as a person and changed my view on making money.  If it were not for Penny Millions I would not have started the business I currently have.  A business is not something that you have to plan for years before you start.  All you need to know is how to sell your service or product, and how much you can produce or procure that product for.  You can figure the rest out as you go.

I never would have tried to start this business with no money, I would have made excuses and procrastinated.  Those excuses are just ways that you sabotage yourself, if you do not believe in yourself, if you do not believe you can succeed, then your chances of succeeding are slim.  You will subconsciously sabotage yourself at every step along the way.  Penny Millions will help with that.  I recommend that everyone try it, whether you succeed with it or not you will learn a lot.

When I say I started this business with no money, I mean just that.  I think I spent 2 dollars on my first purchase.  I started out by picking small items that I can get for a dollar or two.  And now I have just made my first real wholesale purchase.  I am building a relationship with a wholesale supplier and have a couple of more suppliers in the works.  We are now an official business, I hope to be incorporating sometime this year and am working on building trade credit for my business.  My goals are rather lofty, I aim to build a business worth over 1 million dollars in a year.  My business is probably worth around $3000 at the moment, it is tiny, but yet we have somehow managed to survive on its income for the past couple of years.  I have recently decided to seriously work on growing, and we are well on the way.

Many people will see the above and think that this is only a pipe dream, how can someone grow a retail business that fast in this economy.  We are small, and have virtually no overhead.  We can do things the large retailer cannot.  My business model is, research, research, research, find that one product that sells well, find a source where I can purchase it cheaply, buy as many of that item as I can, quickly move enough of them to pay for the inventory, find another product, buy as many as I can rinse and repeat.

Do you honestly believe that you will grow your business that fast?

That is my goal, I am going to do everything in my power to reach it.  But think about it for a moment.  If I aim for a 1 million dollar business, what happens if I fall short?  Say I only grow it to a 30k business in a year.  Have I failed?  Keep in mind all of companies assets at the moment equal about $3000 currently, and I am able to actual live off of the business as it is.  How much better will it be when the company has a worth of 10 times what it does now.  My goal is 1 million+, call me crazy but I believe it is definitely possible.  Is it likely?  No, it will be a lot of hard work, and a lot of sacrifice to reinvest the amounts I will need to reinvest to grow it.

With all of the above being said, I will be starting over from scratch soon.  I will open a new ebay account, I will start picking with found money, I will document every step of the journey.  I will write an e-book that shows exactly how I built my business, it will be a journal / instruction book.  There will be no hype, I will document exactly how anyone can start a business with nothing and grow it to a part time income, or even into a full time business.  I will show step by step how it is done, and will even list each individual item I bought for resale, I will show how to find a decent wholesaler that you can profit with on ebay.  I will also possibly do antique malls or flea markets.  I want it to be a very approachable way for the average joe to take a couple of dollars and turn it into a business.  I will also document the journey on my blog, the e-book will be clearer and easier to read though.  Anyway, exciting times ahead, I am looking forward to the journey.  If I have inspired you feel free to donate via the link below:

My RocketHub Project

I hope you guys have a wonderful day, and I hope I have inspired at least one person to go for it, to quit making excuses and make something happen :).  If I have inspired you, feel free to link to me on your blog, facebook, or any other place you have on the web.  If you link to me let me know, I will visit your site and if it is a good fit I will link back.  I hope to be updating this blog on a regular basis so be sure to check back.

Growing a Small Business through Crowdfunding

What is Crowdfunding?

Crowd funding is an excellent idea.  It allows people to build business capital by getting small donations from many people.  It has been around in various forms forever.  An instance of this is research used to mainly be funded by a rich patron.  This is the same idea yet easier for the average person to take advantage of it.  There are a limited number of rich patrons, but an almost unlimited number of people who have an extra dollar or 10 to invest in something or someone they believe in.

How do I get started?

Quite easily.  There are many websites out there for this.  There are 2 projects I have started one is at rockethub, the other is at fundanything.  It is as simple as starting a free account, and following the directions, then publicize it to your network.  Some people have raised quite a bit, one company even raised in excess of 10 million dollars.

Does it cost anything?

Yes and No.  It does not cost anything to start a project.  The website generally takes a percentage of the amount raised, and generally you would offer a reward in the form of a product or service in exchange for someone donating a particular amount.  So it does cost a percentage of the money raised, and time, and costs for producing the reward offered.  Altogether though there is no risk, no upfront cost.  Tell your story in a compelling way and raise capital for anything you need.

For more information and an example of crowdfunding click the following links:
Rockethub
Fundanything