I’m currently building a high-ticket info product in the dating niche. Angle is that when it comes to attracting women in 2018, looks/face > money/status/confidence, etc. The product is a course on how to improve looks to get women and is being sold entirely based off emotion through a CF+EverWebinar funnel (think Neil Patel). I’m currently building out VSLs and the Webinar and will test demand before building product.
I am having difficulty finding a competitor that is selling the exact same product (which may imply there is no demand), but I know of many online forums in which there are insecure guys that have asked for a product like this, so I know the niche exists, albeit small, and I plan on at least going through and filming the webinar/finishing the funnel.
Question: Is It still possible to go down this “guru/expert” sales funnel to sell this expensive video course if my spokesperson is not “famous” on YT/FB/Twitter, or will I need to invest in social media? i.e. buying followers/likes for my spokesperson. Also, what traffic sources would you recommend, assuming you’ve worked with / know of some high-ticket info products?
We have never done this so we don’t know. We’re guessing that you will always find a market for dating that said we have no clue how to do this as we’ve never done it. We focus on product sales not video/information sites.
Thanks for taking the time and for the years of top quality content.
Currently starting a niche supplement product. At least 2 competitors are up and running, their marketing being done mainly through instagram influencers, making good profits. Websites are surprisingly simple and don’t look scammy (no before/after, don’t create urgency, etc).
Website almost done and now thinking of ways to test demand. I am concerned that I may get an unreliable conversion % from paying $500 to a wannabe model to post a pic and get to the wrong conclusion on the product/channel mix. Would you test the same channels the competitors are using or rather go through a more transparent channel (facebook & instagram ads)?
Thanks
Google and Facebook are best to start. If you can convert there influencers are even easier so learn the biggest venues (fb/google) then move onto influencers
Soon to graduate from a business school (in europe)..
Not the best but a decent one.
I’ve been a full time webmarketing intern, for a year, in an insurance company.
I specialised in SEO, did PPC too, obtained very good results in a competitive market, and really love this field.
Problem: salary is shitty (35k€ when i graduate, 50k€ with 2 or 3 years of experience..)
And i’m already old, 25 years old.
But, once I graduate, I could obtain a decent first job in finance or sales and get a better first salary. But I have little experience in these areas.. and not sure to enjoy it.
So what should I choose ?
Leave webmarketing whereas I obtained great results (I really did) and enjoyed myself
OR choose a job in finance/sales and start a complete different career ?
Thanks for your advices !
Choose the one that leads to the highest chance of being rich in 8 years
This year I’ve transitioned from a declining industry to ICO biz. While it’s exciting, the problem is that it’s still basically trading (more) time for (a bit more) money. Not sure how to develop further in this space… and not sure where it’s all going. But it’s a “new mountain” to cite late Dennis Felix.
My question to you: do you think tokenization could create a new type of liquidity event for “regular” businesses?
I.e. selling security tokens to a lot of people instead of selling shares to strategic investors. It would still be selling and should be good margins.
P.S. I’m also consulting and working on an online biz.
We’re not sure what you’re creating. Essentially if you’re just becoming a middle man that’s going to die quickly due to decentralized exhanges. Need to explain exactly what it does.
Doesn’t sound good if it’s a time for money exchange though with no ownership.
If you were to start over and go into enterprise tech sales, which companies would you go for?
Highest growth highest margin. In efficiency/triangle investing, we even tell you the companies
Can you please do an analysis of DLJ partner’s 24 life rules?4
Especially interested in ‘Don’t leave old friends behind – you may need them’
No. We dont have time for that junk
You guys talk a lot about avoiding negative people, normal people, mass media, etc because of mental well-being, and I think I’ve been doing a much better job of avoiding that sort of thing (not watching the news, staying off social media for the most part, etc).
I guess my question is, you’ve listed all the things to avoid, but are there any other things besides the obvious ones (exercise, diet, etc) that you find works to put you in a better “state” for lack of a better term?
I’m struggling with this because I know what to avoid, but I’m unsure of what to replace it with if that makes sense.
When you catch yourself “thinking” and in rumination, ask “is this a good use of my time”. You’ll always answer no.
Therefore simply ask this before doing any activity and a productive task will come to mind. As a basic example, anything historical is of no value, anything that improves health, money, future relationships is a win.
Want to test market for my cosmetic product idea with affiliate marketing. However affiliate sites I can use (new to affiliate marketing so options limited) only have poor quality products that aren’t the vertical I want e.g facial creams vs lipstick. Don’t want to drive traffic to LP with 404 error since it is expensive and I’m new to internet marketing. How should I test demand?
Create landing page, buy traffic from fb/google. See conversion rate. Have checkout say “product unavailable” to see how much you would convert. No inventory risk.
Is that the best option given I’ve never run an online ad campaign before? Not sure if I should do some affiliate marketing before spending several $1000s testing a market.
We suggest affiliate route first so you know how to sell but you can go any route you wish
Assuming you are ~4 years out of undergrad with a finance background (banking to MM PE) and have to go to business school… how would you think about choosing the school between the following options:
(1) pay full price and prioritize prestige and caliber of colleages (HBS / Stanford / Wharton / Booth)
(2) Go to the best school that offers a full ride or near full ride (something like a UCLA / UT)
(3) Try to compromise between the two (~25% – 50% scholarship to Kellogg / Columbia)
Goal is entrepreneurship (start a fund or buy a single business directly) which I may pursue right after school or after a few more years of working in finance.
Easy, full ride. MBA’s add zero value for entrepreneurship
Hey y’all,
Career question here (your favorite!)
Background:
26 y/o male, switched from consulting to tech sales 1 year ago.
Long story short, I’ve spent the last year in 2 different SDR positions (this is entry level in tech sales), not performing well at all.
The SDR position has been pretty difficult for me. Its causing me lots of stress, and taking time away from my affiliate marketing pursuits.
Question:
I’m not sure how much insight you have into ENTRY-LEVEL tech sales, but based on my experience, should I stay in this field?
Maybe seeking advice from alumni in the field would be a good idea?
The only problem is, if tech sales isn’t a fit, other careers aren’t an option (too old for finance, not smart enough for tech/engineering)
You essentially answered your own question. Focus on highest paying career you can get then start affiliate. We don’t know why it is causing you stress, it doesn’t require long hours,”. Find someone who is good at it and copy their mannerisms to get to a normal run rate
Always wondered.. during your late teens / early 20s who gave you advice? We have this great resource alongside two excellent books (efficiency / triangle investing) to give most of us some direction.. I’m sure this wasn’t the case when you were really young.
What kind of parents did you have?
Cant answer this as here are four authors here but, one general theme is finding future successful friends vs relying on parents for everything
Making a decent side income from dropshipping. What are the next steps to private label my own product?
(have thousands of sales on the FB pixel so targeting would not be an issue. I’m curious about inventory management/ finding suppliers)
Go to a conference for the specific product. Find the manufacturers on the labels, contact them.
Then find out the cost per unit vs conversion ratio and figure out if it’s more profitable than operating as you do today. The key is just copying the manufacturing process from a similar competitor
1. Working on starting my side business, which is why I bought Efficiency. Will start with consulting and then hope to move to selling a product. Should I create an LLC at the very beginning, or go the sole proprietorship route until I start earning revenue? Basic question I know but I know nothing about business.
2. It wasn’t clear to me from Efficiency, but how does one obtain a product to sell? Do you buy wholesale? Contract manufacturing? Where would I go to explore this further? I work in a service industry so am ignorant here.
Thank you.
As stated two times in the post one question only. Choose one, one means one question mark that’s it.
Darn. I realized my mistake about an hour after I wrote my comment.
Question 2, if it’s not too late. Thank you.
It is laid out in steps in the book: you sell someone else’s product. When you know you can sell it then you just take the product and make your own, something with similar ingredients with a slight marketing change. All the stuff you sell as an affiliate is essentially commodity. Most blatant is diet pills which is essentially caffeine
1. What backup finance job would you recommend for someone who is not able to get M&A IB straight out of college, excluding sales?
If you cant do sales, then you go into tech.
If you can’t do either and must do finance, you work in corporate development for a large tech company then try to change jobs into m&a a year later.
There really only are 3 careers worth pursuing, the rest pay too poorly and have structural long term issues
What’s your favorite funnel structure for selling consulting or information products/digital products?
I’ve read dotcom secrets and expert secrets, but I wanna see how you do it.
Ha less of a funnel, we just prefer starting with an influencer.
Once you know the right demo, you just get the right influencer who is popular with that demo. Much higher conversion, stickier, safer.
The other stuff essentially is better to outsource to AI/automated systems since you’re just buying traffic from fb/google.
Hey man – I’m currently building out a Webinar funnel to sell a high-ticket info product. Have you looked into those at all? Mine is just about finished and I’ll be testing traffic soon to see if I can get sufficient conversions without a famous spokesperson or an influencer.
Efficiency is priceless, thank you! How can I live “The Life” / make the most amount of money as fast as possible and also become a doctor? I know it’s not the most direct path, but I am already applying for med school. Get into a good specialty like orthopedic surgery and open a private practice? Use the medical degree to get into business and also build an online business? I’m 24 y/o and need income to move out from home, would you suggest working in medical sales or software/etc for one year before I hopefully start med school? I have launched dropshipping ecommerce stores without much success so far. Thank you!
Our explanation is already in efficiency? For doctor stuff we don’t recommend it too much time not enough money in time. Come back with a new question. You asked multiple despite limit to one.
You often talk about Wall Street being in secular decline, but do you think this also applies to specialized fund managers (ie: tech-focused HF, distressed debt at a place like Oaktree)? I agree that algos will crush the plain vanilla asset managers but would think there should be a place for specialists for a period of time.
True but point remains the same. AUM declines, fees decline and harder to outperform. Hence the phrase long term decline, not gonna go down 50% in a year, more of a slow and steady death
What would be the highest income career I could work in for one year before going to medical school?
Enterprise sales, won’t make you much in one year though, nothing does in terms of careers
Hey guys,
I’m currently in college right now and most of my friends are doing or have done drugs and are trying to get me to do them. I’m not comfortable with the idea but I’m also scared that I will miss out. I really don’t know who to ask to get a non biased opinion on this topic so I thought that you guys might give me a good answer.
Do you think that one can have a good/successful/fun life without ever trying or doing drugs?
As long as your life is in order trying that stuff out here and there doesn’t matter. You can also live a great life without them (see president trump)
Your call
Trump never did drugs? I didn’t know this. Cool to know. Yes. My life feels in order. Thanks guys.
started my first 2 weeks of my internship on the trading floor, and feeling like i don’t integrate too well into the culture…
i didn’t realized how inarticulate i am when i speak to people i can’t relate (many years older than me) and i don’t know how to make small talk with them. generally speaking, I’ve always heard its best to listen and ask smart questions to get people to open up. the issue is, i don’t know how to uncover topics that people like to talk about. i think i can also improve on reading people’s intent since i find myself thinking too logically at times. whether or not i want to talk with the people, its still important to make small talk so i can get a return offer.
what are simple things i can do to improve on this?
Simple go out a lot more get used to regular social skills that way. Also get into online sales, just as transferable to regular sales.
I’m West Coast timezone – hope not too late for Q&A
e-Commerce brand dropshipping, gray-market, paid traffic w/ private publishers. Running $25-50k rev/month. ~25% profit margin. 1%-1.5% conv rate. Had admin tasks delegated to VAs. Lasted few months, but got shutdown by payment processors due to high-risk industry/high-fraud dispute cases. And perhaps Greed.
Been getting by using Stealth Stripe and PayPal accs but similar to FB Cloaking (blackhat) – I have to continue farming stealth merchant accs – main bottleneck/scaling issue, also Order Vetting for Fraud (carding), which I am slowly teaching my VA’s to do. Less profit for the work involved now unlike before.
I tried looking into offshore banking and offshore merchant accs for high-risk processing – namely Hong Kong & Singapore – for solutions (even tried STMforum) but no dice.
Any solutions for payment processing or should I scale down my operations for the Brand? Good news is: growing FB Pixel & Email List for the niche gray-market and I’m starting to gain organic traffic/sales. So not sure if I should shut down idea.
Your call but we would scale down for brand and do something legit without black hat. Too much stress long term
If your dispute / chargeback rate is not way off (above 1.5%), you could process your own transactions to offset the frauds. Might be worth to pay the $ in transaction fees, that’s what I’m doing just to always have a buffer and stay way below the 1%.
Question: What is your opinion on switching careers after being out of school for short period of time ( ie. 4 years (2 years IB, 2 years PE for example).?
For example if I learned my skillset is much more suited for tech sales, I am thinking it makes the most sense to switch after saving much larger amounts of money for 4 years on Wall Street.
Pros of switching:
1. sales is most important skill – I know you compare sell-side M&A to tech sales, but I feel that the skillset gained in direct tech sales must be better overall (in person presentation skills, and other points you bring up in efficiency)
2. more time to build a business – despite Wall Street having much higher base salaries out the gate – I’ve noticed associates and VPs are being stretched more thinly (makes sense given secular decline) – so I really think there is no argument that you have more free time in tech sales vs. sell-side Wall Street (unless you’re at high end AE and vs. MD, but I’m talking earlier in career)
Con of switching:
1. Will need to change lifestyle a bit as starting at lower pay to build the sales career
To me it makes sense to get the $ out of finance career for 4 years then pivot to sales and scale business asap with free time (your recent Twitter post on renting the position)
Appreciate hearing your thoughts.
Either plan is fine becuase the big money is in a business. So go ahead and switch since it sounds like you have more confidence in the switch.
Hey Guys,
I’m currently building a high-ticket info product in the dating niche. Angle is that when it comes to attracting women in 2018, looks/face > money/status/confidence, etc. The product is a course on how to improve looks to get women and is being sold entirely based off emotion through a CF+EverWebinar funnel (think Neil Patel). I’m currently building out VSLs and the Webinar and will test demand before building product.
I am having difficulty finding a competitor that is selling the exact same product (which may imply there is no demand), but I know of many online forums in which there are insecure guys that have asked for a product like this, so I know the niche exists, albeit small, and I plan on at least going through and filming the webinar/finishing the funnel.
Question: Is It still possible to go down this “guru/expert” sales funnel to sell this expensive video course if my spokesperson is not “famous” on YT/FB/Twitter, or will I need to invest in social media? i.e. buying followers/likes for my spokesperson. Also, what traffic sources would you recommend, assuming you’ve worked with / know of some high-ticket info products?
We have never done this so we don’t know. We’re guessing that you will always find a market for dating that said we have no clue how to do this as we’ve never done it. We focus on product sales not video/information sites.
Thanks for taking the time and for the years of top quality content.
Currently starting a niche supplement product. At least 2 competitors are up and running, their marketing being done mainly through instagram influencers, making good profits. Websites are surprisingly simple and don’t look scammy (no before/after, don’t create urgency, etc).
Website almost done and now thinking of ways to test demand. I am concerned that I may get an unreliable conversion % from paying $500 to a wannabe model to post a pic and get to the wrong conclusion on the product/channel mix. Would you test the same channels the competitors are using or rather go through a more transparent channel (facebook & instagram ads)?
Thanks
Google and Facebook are best to start. If you can convert there influencers are even easier so learn the biggest venues (fb/google) then move onto influencers
Soon to graduate from a business school (in europe)..
Not the best but a decent one.
I’ve been a full time webmarketing intern, for a year, in an insurance company.
I specialised in SEO, did PPC too, obtained very good results in a competitive market, and really love this field.
Problem: salary is shitty (35k€ when i graduate, 50k€ with 2 or 3 years of experience..)
And i’m already old, 25 years old.
But, once I graduate, I could obtain a decent first job in finance or sales and get a better first salary. But I have little experience in these areas.. and not sure to enjoy it.
So what should I choose ?
Leave webmarketing whereas I obtained great results (I really did) and enjoyed myself
OR choose a job in finance/sales and start a complete different career ?
Thanks for your advices !
Choose the one that leads to the highest chance of being rich in 8 years
This year I’ve transitioned from a declining industry to ICO biz. While it’s exciting, the problem is that it’s still basically trading (more) time for (a bit more) money. Not sure how to develop further in this space… and not sure where it’s all going. But it’s a “new mountain” to cite late Dennis Felix.
My question to you: do you think tokenization could create a new type of liquidity event for “regular” businesses?
I.e. selling security tokens to a lot of people instead of selling shares to strategic investors. It would still be selling and should be good margins.
P.S. I’m also consulting and working on an online biz.
We’re not sure what you’re creating. Essentially if you’re just becoming a middle man that’s going to die quickly due to decentralized exhanges. Need to explain exactly what it does.
Doesn’t sound good if it’s a time for money exchange though with no ownership.
If you were to start over and go into enterprise tech sales, which companies would you go for?
Highest growth highest margin. In efficiency/triangle investing, we even tell you the companies
Can you please do an analysis of DLJ partner’s 24 life rules?4
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-05-01/here-are-handwritten-rules-for-success-dlj-s-jenrette-bequeathed
Especially interested in ‘Don’t leave old friends behind – you may need them’
No. We dont have time for that junk
You guys talk a lot about avoiding negative people, normal people, mass media, etc because of mental well-being, and I think I’ve been doing a much better job of avoiding that sort of thing (not watching the news, staying off social media for the most part, etc).
I guess my question is, you’ve listed all the things to avoid, but are there any other things besides the obvious ones (exercise, diet, etc) that you find works to put you in a better “state” for lack of a better term?
I’m struggling with this because I know what to avoid, but I’m unsure of what to replace it with if that makes sense.
When you catch yourself “thinking” and in rumination, ask “is this a good use of my time”. You’ll always answer no.
Therefore simply ask this before doing any activity and a productive task will come to mind. As a basic example, anything historical is of no value, anything that improves health, money, future relationships is a win.
Want to test market for my cosmetic product idea with affiliate marketing. However affiliate sites I can use (new to affiliate marketing so options limited) only have poor quality products that aren’t the vertical I want e.g facial creams vs lipstick. Don’t want to drive traffic to LP with 404 error since it is expensive and I’m new to internet marketing. How should I test demand?
Create landing page, buy traffic from fb/google. See conversion rate. Have checkout say “product unavailable” to see how much you would convert. No inventory risk.
Is that the best option given I’ve never run an online ad campaign before? Not sure if I should do some affiliate marketing before spending several $1000s testing a market.
We suggest affiliate route first so you know how to sell but you can go any route you wish
Assuming you are ~4 years out of undergrad with a finance background (banking to MM PE) and have to go to business school… how would you think about choosing the school between the following options:
(1) pay full price and prioritize prestige and caliber of colleages (HBS / Stanford / Wharton / Booth)
(2) Go to the best school that offers a full ride or near full ride (something like a UCLA / UT)
(3) Try to compromise between the two (~25% – 50% scholarship to Kellogg / Columbia)
Goal is entrepreneurship (start a fund or buy a single business directly) which I may pursue right after school or after a few more years of working in finance.
Easy, full ride. MBA’s add zero value for entrepreneurship
Hey y’all,
Career question here (your favorite!)
Background:
26 y/o male, switched from consulting to tech sales 1 year ago.
Long story short, I’ve spent the last year in 2 different SDR positions (this is entry level in tech sales), not performing well at all.
The SDR position has been pretty difficult for me. Its causing me lots of stress, and taking time away from my affiliate marketing pursuits.
Question:
I’m not sure how much insight you have into ENTRY-LEVEL tech sales, but based on my experience, should I stay in this field?
Maybe seeking advice from alumni in the field would be a good idea?
The only problem is, if tech sales isn’t a fit, other careers aren’t an option (too old for finance, not smart enough for tech/engineering)
You essentially answered your own question. Focus on highest paying career you can get then start affiliate. We don’t know why it is causing you stress, it doesn’t require long hours,”. Find someone who is good at it and copy their mannerisms to get to a normal run rate
Always wondered.. during your late teens / early 20s who gave you advice? We have this great resource alongside two excellent books (efficiency / triangle investing) to give most of us some direction.. I’m sure this wasn’t the case when you were really young.
What kind of parents did you have?
Cant answer this as here are four authors here but, one general theme is finding future successful friends vs relying on parents for everything
Making a decent side income from dropshipping. What are the next steps to private label my own product?
(have thousands of sales on the FB pixel so targeting would not be an issue. I’m curious about inventory management/ finding suppliers)
Go to a conference for the specific product. Find the manufacturers on the labels, contact them.
Then find out the cost per unit vs conversion ratio and figure out if it’s more profitable than operating as you do today. The key is just copying the manufacturing process from a similar competitor
1. Working on starting my side business, which is why I bought Efficiency. Will start with consulting and then hope to move to selling a product. Should I create an LLC at the very beginning, or go the sole proprietorship route until I start earning revenue? Basic question I know but I know nothing about business.
2. It wasn’t clear to me from Efficiency, but how does one obtain a product to sell? Do you buy wholesale? Contract manufacturing? Where would I go to explore this further? I work in a service industry so am ignorant here.
Thank you.
As stated two times in the post one question only. Choose one, one means one question mark that’s it.
Darn. I realized my mistake about an hour after I wrote my comment.
Question 2, if it’s not too late. Thank you.
It is laid out in steps in the book: you sell someone else’s product. When you know you can sell it then you just take the product and make your own, something with similar ingredients with a slight marketing change. All the stuff you sell as an affiliate is essentially commodity. Most blatant is diet pills which is essentially caffeine
1. What backup finance job would you recommend for someone who is not able to get M&A IB straight out of college, excluding sales?
If you cant do sales, then you go into tech.
If you can’t do either and must do finance, you work in corporate development for a large tech company then try to change jobs into m&a a year later.
There really only are 3 careers worth pursuing, the rest pay too poorly and have structural long term issues
What’s your favorite funnel structure for selling consulting or information products/digital products?
I’ve read dotcom secrets and expert secrets, but I wanna see how you do it.
Ha less of a funnel, we just prefer starting with an influencer.
Once you know the right demo, you just get the right influencer who is popular with that demo. Much higher conversion, stickier, safer.
The other stuff essentially is better to outsource to AI/automated systems since you’re just buying traffic from fb/google.
Hey man – I’m currently building out a Webinar funnel to sell a high-ticket info product. Have you looked into those at all? Mine is just about finished and I’ll be testing traffic soon to see if I can get sufficient conversions without a famous spokesperson or an influencer.
Efficiency is priceless, thank you! How can I live “The Life” / make the most amount of money as fast as possible and also become a doctor? I know it’s not the most direct path, but I am already applying for med school. Get into a good specialty like orthopedic surgery and open a private practice? Use the medical degree to get into business and also build an online business? I’m 24 y/o and need income to move out from home, would you suggest working in medical sales or software/etc for one year before I hopefully start med school? I have launched dropshipping ecommerce stores without much success so far. Thank you!
Our explanation is already in efficiency? For doctor stuff we don’t recommend it too much time not enough money in time. Come back with a new question. You asked multiple despite limit to one.
You often talk about Wall Street being in secular decline, but do you think this also applies to specialized fund managers (ie: tech-focused HF, distressed debt at a place like Oaktree)? I agree that algos will crush the plain vanilla asset managers but would think there should be a place for specialists for a period of time.
True but point remains the same. AUM declines, fees decline and harder to outperform. Hence the phrase long term decline, not gonna go down 50% in a year, more of a slow and steady death
What would be the highest income career I could work in for one year before going to medical school?
Enterprise sales, won’t make you much in one year though, nothing does in terms of careers
Hey guys,
I’m currently in college right now and most of my friends are doing or have done drugs and are trying to get me to do them. I’m not comfortable with the idea but I’m also scared that I will miss out. I really don’t know who to ask to get a non biased opinion on this topic so I thought that you guys might give me a good answer.
Do you think that one can have a good/successful/fun life without ever trying or doing drugs?
As long as your life is in order trying that stuff out here and there doesn’t matter. You can also live a great life without them (see president trump)
Your call
Trump never did drugs? I didn’t know this. Cool to know. Yes. My life feels in order. Thanks guys.
started my first 2 weeks of my internship on the trading floor, and feeling like i don’t integrate too well into the culture…
i didn’t realized how inarticulate i am when i speak to people i can’t relate (many years older than me) and i don’t know how to make small talk with them. generally speaking, I’ve always heard its best to listen and ask smart questions to get people to open up. the issue is, i don’t know how to uncover topics that people like to talk about. i think i can also improve on reading people’s intent since i find myself thinking too logically at times. whether or not i want to talk with the people, its still important to make small talk so i can get a return offer.
what are simple things i can do to improve on this?
Simple go out a lot more get used to regular social skills that way. Also get into online sales, just as transferable to regular sales.
I’m West Coast timezone – hope not too late for Q&A
e-Commerce brand dropshipping, gray-market, paid traffic w/ private publishers. Running $25-50k rev/month. ~25% profit margin. 1%-1.5% conv rate. Had admin tasks delegated to VAs. Lasted few months, but got shutdown by payment processors due to high-risk industry/high-fraud dispute cases. And perhaps Greed.
Been getting by using Stealth Stripe and PayPal accs but similar to FB Cloaking (blackhat) – I have to continue farming stealth merchant accs – main bottleneck/scaling issue, also Order Vetting for Fraud (carding), which I am slowly teaching my VA’s to do. Less profit for the work involved now unlike before.
I tried looking into offshore banking and offshore merchant accs for high-risk processing – namely Hong Kong & Singapore – for solutions (even tried STMforum) but no dice.
Any solutions for payment processing or should I scale down my operations for the Brand? Good news is: growing FB Pixel & Email List for the niche gray-market and I’m starting to gain organic traffic/sales. So not sure if I should shut down idea.
Your call but we would scale down for brand and do something legit without black hat. Too much stress long term
If your dispute / chargeback rate is not way off (above 1.5%), you could process your own transactions to offset the frauds. Might be worth to pay the $ in transaction fees, that’s what I’m doing just to always have a buffer and stay way below the 1%.
Question: What is your opinion on switching careers after being out of school for short period of time ( ie. 4 years (2 years IB, 2 years PE for example).?
For example if I learned my skillset is much more suited for tech sales, I am thinking it makes the most sense to switch after saving much larger amounts of money for 4 years on Wall Street.
Pros of switching:
1. sales is most important skill – I know you compare sell-side M&A to tech sales, but I feel that the skillset gained in direct tech sales must be better overall (in person presentation skills, and other points you bring up in efficiency)
2. more time to build a business – despite Wall Street having much higher base salaries out the gate – I’ve noticed associates and VPs are being stretched more thinly (makes sense given secular decline) – so I really think there is no argument that you have more free time in tech sales vs. sell-side Wall Street (unless you’re at high end AE and vs. MD, but I’m talking earlier in career)
Con of switching:
1. Will need to change lifestyle a bit as starting at lower pay to build the sales career
To me it makes sense to get the $ out of finance career for 4 years then pivot to sales and scale business asap with free time (your recent Twitter post on renting the position)
Appreciate hearing your thoughts.
Either plan is fine becuase the big money is in a business. So go ahead and switch since it sounds like you have more confidence in the switch.