Absolutely not to argue but rather to have your opinion for those who are in scientific or intellectual fields.
You said “Whatever you do, do not start an informational website” and I absolutely understand your advice, but for those who have a talent in information synthesis, do you think in this case that selling info products (even not recurring) is an excellent path to build a profitable business and moreover with a brand difficult to copy ?
I give an example in my field: the site “examine dot com” 7 figures annual sales of science-based review of dietary supplements is a smarter way for founders to use their talents, their credentials and their personal brands of scientists than to sell vitamins, caffeine or diet pills?
Merci
There are always exceptions to the rule. So not going to debate the exceptions. Just run the math, how many information (no recurring revenue) companies last a long time? How many are always in the red? How many were a complete waste of time – hint 99%?
I intend to test affiliate marketing for muscle products before going on to make my own. From your experience:
1)What’s the minimum amount (monthly) I need to spend on advertising to test out affiliate marketing?
2) How much revenue (guesstimate) can I reasonably expect to make at this level of advertising?
1) we’ve stated $50K needed to start any basic product as an estimate how much you spend on ads is up to you.
2) unfortunately this question doesn’t make any sense, this is a question for people who haven’t tried yet. Some people have amazing CTRs other people are terrible and never even make a penny (always in the red).
A similar question would be “if I pay a sales guy $100K how much will he make me”… you won’t know until he is hired.
Thanks for the quick reply. I’ll work on it and get back to you.
1) Running a profitable business growing nicely but still in early stages. At what point should I allocate minimal capital and time to set up a small secondary income stream out of the main business (the first business will be the main bread winner).
2) For fun, do you think overall life is fair?
I hope you have a fun summer
1) Not sure what you mean here, you start the secondary source as fast as possible. As long as you’re not neglecting the primary source of income
2) Fairness isn’t really the right word. Some people just get bad genetics (bad luck). End of the day though, you get what you deserve out of life over the long-term.
Two options for an ecommerce store:
1. Churn and burn through ‘hot and trendy’ products
2. Build out a niche store around one successful product
One method seems to have longevity with brand trust, return customers, and higher conversions, but if all you care about is profits, doesn’t the first option seem better?
If you’re wealthy already then always go for the higher LTV of customer idea.
If you’re not rich, then it’s harder to figure out since it depends on how much you’ll make with the quick trendy win. The truth is that the fast money is normally better only if you’re sure it’ll work. You’ll have to calculate that one out
Specifically in the Wellness/Health/longetivity industry – people who buy these products ( floatation/massage/sauna/cyro) what in your opinion is there emotional driver, outside of not dying, for people who are healthy and wealthy?
Easy:
1) status – look at me I am rich I can afford this crazy therapy
2) insecurity – wow I need to stop the aging process time to do crypto therapy
3) fear – oh my god if I don’t do this I might get hurt
It’s all emotional.
In Triangle Investing for the aggressive type of investor you recommend building up a crypto position first and dollar cost averaging into small cap indexes like IJR, then real estate etc. But at the moment it seems you have recommended cash and crypto as better ways to prepare for the impending downturn in the next year or two for opps.
Do you recommend the DCA method for small cap indexes if I am talking about sub $100k amount of money right now (small amount so maybe doesn’t matter) or at this stage I should keep piling cash and wait? I will be DCA’ing into crypto in either scenario as always.
Thanks again for all your help!
Unless you are a millionaire wasting time worrying about these things will set you back many years.
At this time we are only looking at cash/crypto.
Our recommendations are not changed, just dollar cost into everything every month. We publicly place our current moves for fun, but at the end of the day, unless you’re over a million, thinking about investing is setting you *back* financially. Just dollar cost average.
Thank you very much! All noted and I’ll just keep building up the portfolio via DCA till the figures are actually worth anything significant
Get rich first then invest.
You’re not gonna get rich doubling an investment of only $50K.
You will get rich doubling an investment of $1-2M though!
two questions:
15, currently bringing in 5k a month through working a part time Jon & running a marketing agency what’s the next move ? Should I scale or start a product business ?
Why don’t you suggest starting a dropshipping store, if it’s branded and looks like a legit store but the products are sourced from AliExpress ? Why affiliate marketing ?
1) yes if you can create a product go there ASAP.
2) affiliate marketing requires you to learn sales which is most transferable. But. Sounds like you already got something going, so time to go the product route.
How would you talk with parents about diversification and longer term planning beyond themselves?
Assume parents are 65+, have ‘made it’ by the definition of baby boomers, and have expendable income plus the Florida retirement setup already in play.
Consensus would say vanilla assets, but there’s a very underrated risk play for boomers who have legacy in mind.
Don’t have this issue so can’t give advice. Once you’re rich you don’t really worry about your family. You just have money to help them in case something goes wrong.
If you’re trying to maximize the amount of money you get when they die then that’s a new level of low we can’t understand
Don’t do family questions!
The context is missing.
I’m an undergraduate student at a non-core school and spent the summer interning at a BB in NY in their capital markets program. Although half summer reviews went well, I indicated my interested in being in Houston to cover O&G and the senior capital markets bankers did not take that well, which led to no offer at the end of summer. I’m currently recruiting for a summer 2020 offer without an offer in hand – how would you recommend I approach this?
Thank you!
Yeah that was a very bad mistake, in that case just apply only to Texas. Your hands are now tied as they will call the former employee and you’ll need to sell yourself harder.
No change to normal recruiting just need to explain you messed up and want to live in Texas. Nothing else you can really do
No value in feeling bad about it, just apply and practice explaining your mistake in interviews.
What type of online marketing tool do you wish you had but doesn’t exist?
Quite literally anything that can filter for the right audience.
More data on who buys what, their behaviors etc.
Facebook is good at it, but even targeting age ranges and genders just isn’t granular enough.
To my knowledge, such software already exists. You may want to look into software like https://near.co/
Hi thanks for the great content on the blog.
I have one question regarding the value of time.
I am currently trading and doing 55 hours a week for a company which is paying around 200K. My net worth is around 1M and I have a small family to provide for. I am considering doing the same by myself which I guess would provide a little less but the hours would be less too. Would you recommend leaving now or would you until the megical 2M mark before leaving?
Never quit a job/career until you have enough money to live forever with the stock market, bond market and RE market all down 50% as well.
So if 2M is the magical number 4M would be needed before quiting? So you would not quit in the near future…
“Magic number” is for you to decide. Some frugal people live on way less than $2M
Hey,
22 year atm, i’m currently working at a somewhat big Firm(350KK revenue a year) on a non performance related role, the firm has an equity program where they give equity to the employees. My manager has 26 and already has equity on the firm.The partners know and like me.
I’ve been wondering if I should quit for some performance role or double the bet and stay for an oportunity to have equity on an already estabilished Firm.
Thnks
Not something we can answer. Calculate how much stock you’ll get and how much you think the company will be worth.
Just because you get a few dollars of stock doesn’t mean it’s useful.
You have to make your own decision on the equity you want
Want to A/B test some product ideas.
1) Recommendations for tool to create landing pages and carry out A/B testing? I have shortlisted OptimizePress.
2) Good resources to read up on landing pages and sales funnel optimization?
Thank you!
Two questions one answer same as always, find the competition copy them and then A/B test the pages.
Resources are not going to be useful as each product is different, just a scam to get people to buy into their “secrets”.
Use Leadpages or Webflow
Started in Software Sales recently. Having trouble with Office Politics. Specifically, which vertical I want to cover + what I should be doing to get promoted from BDR to AE as quickly as possible.
Would EnterpriseSales be interested in doing a post on this or do you think your Wall Street version should transfer over?
Don’t know as the post wasn’t written by us.
Most of the office politics stuff we write about transfers over to other industries.
I can maybe be bothered to right something in the next month or so
Any time you have our email
Re: Vertical
Your employer could put you in a bad vertical just to see how it goes. Don’t let them. Take a look around and choose what vertical is best for YOU, and go there. It’d also help if you BDR in the vertical you want to AE in. Two birds, one stone.
Re: Promotion
-Hit top 10% of numbers
-Tell them you want to be an AE and nothing else
-Impress your AE’s so they gas you up to management
DCA makes sense when you’re investing the same amount on a regular basis. What if
you don’t have a fixed revenue (salary) but performance based with significant swings from one month to the other? Could be 0, could be 5-6 figures, not salary + bonus based.
It feels you lose the benefit of DCA in this scenario. Curious as to how you’d invest this unpredictable revenue.
No difference as over the course of a year you should have a rough idea of what the annual income is. If you have seasonality in your business then you just hold more cash on the balance sheet when you’re preparing for weaker months so you can buy the same amount.
When is it time to quit a job/project + how do you think about this?
I have been working at a company where commission would be $150k+ but deals close infrequently. It’s been 8 months and nothing has closed so far + nothing on horizon. Other people have left.
Not sure if I need to tough it out or if it’s time to move on.
Only quit career when new biz is generating 2x more money as your career.
The second part doesn’t make sense to us, complaining about getting paid without another job in hand doesn’t make sense. If the job/career is dead, then interview and get out asap
Vague.
Your question still makes no sense.
Any desk job allows you to start online income from work, that’s the whole point of our book?
I’m on track of becoming an engineering manager at a big tech firm (google, fb, amazon size) and making about 400k a year. Have invested in crypto currencies and DCA. Debating between joining risky start ups to gain more ownership/earning- events and doing side businesses (online sales, affliate marketing, etc.). What’s your thought on this? My goal is eventually creating my own products and having more freedom.
Depends on your financial situation. $400K is solid. If you’re rich already the go ahead and jump to riskier items. If you’re not rich, then just stick it out until you’re rich.
I’m broke and I haven’t been able to monetize my side hustle. Lately though, I’ve been getting some promising leads.
Should I focus 100% on getting clients and build up my business at the expense of going out, until I have a steady stream of side income? I literally have no money to buy drinks for, currently.
Yes of course you should focus on money if you can’t even afford drinks. How is it enjoyable going out knowing you’re spending money that could cause you to be in debt? Insanely stressful, avoid
Starting an email marketing ‘agency’ to learn sales. Contacting local biz owners with high-value clients and pitching them increasing the value of their email-list members.
Writing my website copy now.
I’ll be making my pitch in their email inbox, plus a link to my website.
Do you recommend I also hard-sell on my webpage or just provide an brief overview of my services?
Generally it is best to ask for one item up front. Especially if new. The more you spam them the more it dilutes the message so always start with your core competency/offering and move up the stack from there
High-end clothing/shoes/accessories (SUPREME, Yeezys, etc) trading has gotten pretty big in the last 5-6 years.
Im 22, in tech, in a small midwest city. Came from a 0$ family, and am just now starting to build my savings. The idea is to save 10k to start an online business in that industry, with 5k leverage. Then using my tech knowledge to get an edge when it comes to overhead (think automation/ML).
Given a recession is coming within 3-5 years, do you see that industry slowing down?
If so, would the play be:
-Build logistics knowledge
-Build marketing skills
-Continue to build the technical stuff (website, neural network)
-Continue to save, past the 10k mark, until the market turns back around
Or just go thru with the business?
Would strongly avoid this unless you already have a brand. High end luxury only works when you have a built up reputation.
With zero experience the odds are heavily heavily stacked against you. Goes against everything in efficiency
Not sure if it makes a difference in your answer, but there is miscommunication:
The idea is buying already reputable high-end brands when they release exclusive lines. Not starting a new one.
Then turn around and sell those pieces at a higher markup.
For example: New Yeezys drop at 320$. You buy a pair or two. Then it sells out within minutes.
Now you can turn around and sell them for a huge markup (anywhere from 50-300%). There is risk that the piece wont sell though.
Oh that stuff it has been around for years. Lots of people do it at work/at home and make $1K a month or so.
Problem is if you guess wrong on the hot product you have inventory and lose time and money.
It’s good if you desperately need money but isn’t really easy to make a good business with it
Would you expect a luxury service such as cryotherapy to do ok in another GFC type economic scenario?
only the ultra high end, cryotherpay for pro athletes. Won’t work for just run of the mill therapy as services get slaughtered in down turns
I have a lot of time on my hands but next to no money. Working 56 hours a week at a desk. All money is going to debt payments and living expenses. I have a ton of free time at my desk right now.
What is a viable model to making money in the affiliate game with minimal cash available? If that’s not possible any alternative suggestions?
This is literally in the book? Affiliate marketing
Should’ve been more clear. I only have like 100 dollars a month to drive traffic to a landing page. How can I get more sales when my ad spend is so low?
Next to no chance with that little, would focus organic and get income from your career/take a second job so you have some real money to use.
You prob need to learn SEO to build organic growth
(You already asked this answered already here)
Not much in Efficiency around organic traffic. Outside of SEO/SEM, do you have any suggested resources or pointers on building an online product website up organically?
That is In the book already and we recommended books as well.
None of your questions were answerable so we’ll let you ask another.
Thanks – I’ve two competing offers for my time:
New offer is higher total comp (not more than 20% bump) but unlikely to take the new offer since I would lose valuable momentum/political capital built in existing firm. But also never been in a position to negotiate/leverage multiple offers. Negotiation tips for the conversation with current manager to match the higher salary? Bluff or just earnest conversation?
Just go in there with the offer. If they actually like you they will match. If they don’t actually like you, that’s info in itself (you weren’t liked politically).
No real negotiation needed, just get a match or better.
Abstract:
The big picture message received from the blog: If you want to be successful, free, and earn more that the average American, you need to own your own business.
At the moment I am in the middle of transferring from a boutique technology consulting firm (Oracle ERP & HCM implementations) to a more stable role at a healthcare foundation in IT financial systems as a Solutions Engineer. (TC ~125k)
The move will free up time and increase pay so that I can now focus more on building a business. Although I do not yet have a new business/product idea to develop.
23, Male, SF Bay Area, 0 Net Worth (Just paid off student debt), paycheck to paycheck family.
Question:
What money making activities do I focus my time on?
For example, do I go deep into trying to develop products and sell?
Or focus on doing smaller jobs to rack up cash?
(i.e. Tech home installs, social media agency for small business, services provider for students and H1B’s?) Understand that these are not ideal as they do not scale.
What I really want is a business where I can employ my father.
You somehow broke every question rule in a post. We aren’t going to read a life story, type your question in 3 sentences below.
All your high level questions are answered in efficiency, career, where to go, what to do. Etc.
One question only, not life story rants
Using the current stock market blip to load up on equities or waiting for market to go into full correction?
Unless you are a millionaire just dollar cost average. Won’t change your life since you don’t have enough money to invest anyway
(Too many questions)
You asked 4 questions with one transaction ID.
The answer is 1) how much money do you need per year, 2) multiply this by 2, 3) divide this number by 4%
That’s what you need to be set for life.
If you run an online business (solo team) selling physical products, what business entity do you set it up as? (i.e. LLC) and which location (if you can choose)?
Already covered search the blog and in the book.
Question 1: Currently work in tech earning 145k a year (safe position, great benefits and management likes me). There is alot of opportunity to grow but management is sub-par and colleagues are not much better (I run the function by myself).
Have a competing offer for 180k at a new firm. The management at this company is top tier and cutting edge so I think there is alot to learn from being exposed to and working with them. Same scope to grow but seems like a more unstable company (going through a merger).
Should I leave this position to take up a new one at the new firm?
Question 2: What is the best way to protect your assets in the case of divorce? (besides not getting married – discretionary trust perhaps?)
Thanks
1) take the other position and see if current company matches. Small money should be focused on second stream of income unless you want to work for 30 years
2) no, don’t get legally married, we don’t know as we have no experience there
Thank you for the devastating amount of quality you guys have shared over the years. Some things I have used/done because of your blog: small things: heel caps, quinoa. Big things: learning copywriting, part-time sales job.
I’m working a desk job 45hr/week (non-performance based), and sales job part-time, plus learning copywriting on the side. Should I start affiliate marketing/selling online now, or go into sales FT as a career, plus online on the side? Or just a judgement call?
Jump to performance based role if possible since the skills will transfer. A random desk job isn’t transferable.
1) What do you think of these “brand building” services for ecom/dropshipping stores? I’m not sure what to make of them.
On the one hand, it seems like it might be a very time efficient, structured way to learn the basics of ecom (won’t be magic moneymaker and will still have to put the work in. but it’s a start), on the other hand I feel like they are targeted at people who don’t want to do the work and expect a magic pill for saving up 3k.
2) How difficult is career searching going to be in a recession? I’m looking to move jobs in the near future after my first set of options vests. I work in tech where I’ve heard jobs are hard to fill, but if there is a big market crash I’m not sure how easy it will be to move.
Thanks for taking the time
1) they are profitable but basically scams. “Build your brand through me” is a great business. You’re selling to the lowest common denominator though. If you’re broke go for it
2) awful, we predict a lot of structural long-term unemployment as most don’t have skills and just follow procedures… if there are procedures then a robot is going to do it soon.
Unemployment going forward will be nasty. What’s worse will be the menial wage slave labor.
1% will live off assets/land/resource/rent.
10% will have the skills to bring in 250k+ for a family mortgage payments and cars.
Bottom 90% will work painful jobs and survive on renting with 2-3 people and very low quality food. Plant based meats and grains. Plenty of cheap tech gadgets for distraction.
If your not saving and grinding like a mad man right now 2025 will be a fking nightmare.
At BB doing IB – getting crushed time wise(plus staffers are nosy so hard to do things even in downtime) and have a business but need more hours/week to scale it. Are there any lower hour, but still high paying jobs I can go into with my BB m&a background?
Go into corporate development less oversight lower hours same skills.
Recently turned 26 working in SaaS sales. Have noticed a potential cognitive decline in recent years that’s made it more difficult for me to speak/write eloquently and learn new topics (e.g., affiliate marketing, foreign languages).
What non-pharmaceutical means or tactics do you use or recommend outside of the usual diet/exercise to ameliorate one’s mental faculties?
Thanks again for your time.
We don’t use anything but you can microdose lsd and drink lots of caffeine
Those two are common.
Magnesium, Vitamin D, Vitamin B12, Testosterone.
Get them checked and fix.
Coffee + Sleep + Low-carb diet as well.
Question about arbitrage on crypto. You mentioned here on the blog that it is still possible. Is it possible for you to give a current example (which two exchanges and which coin)?
I have been looking at this for a while, and it seems to me that manual arb was only possible until the beginning of 2018. Since then, opportunities are very rare, and usually exist only when something is not working (for example withdrawals disabled at one exchange).
The only arb is with international connections and software code.
We’re not giving more than that as we’re doing it
Thank you for your reply!
So we are competitors in this area 😉
I’m 31, working at a tech startup making $200k / year salary, $200k / year options, net worth around $750k. I work remote from an income tax free state and the job is fairly easy, ample time for side hustles that net around $100k and growing around 20% per year. But my current option vest is coming to an end and the new one is meh, plus private company so can’t sell the options. Worth it to jump ship to make $250k + liquid stock at somewhere like Microsoft in exchange for less free time, or stick it out at the current day job?
Just start a business at the day job, your move for $30K after tax isn’t going to do anything. It barely moves your net worth, 4% for all that headache? No way
What are your thoughts on how somebody in their early twenties should dress outside of the office (casual wear)? Follow trends or go for something else?
Always dress above your peers (quality) and dress to stand out. That’s really it. No jeans and vertical striped long sleeve shirts that are untucked
No jeans at all?
Might have answered this with your recent tweet.
You guys have some old posts that differ from your current best recommendations.
Would you advise avoiding your older posts (or categories of posts e.g. dating, travel) or is the information still fine? As you have pointed out, your posts over time “leveled up” in terms of target audience.
Until you get to $2M net worth, everything in efficiency is all you need. Just wasting time looking for other answers that won’t work.
Great recent article and I’m still struggling at the first stage. Worked as a management trainee for about 2 years but haven’t developed much tangible skills except building some connections here and there.
Recently I’ve been applying for SDR job for tech companies as suggested from your blog but haven’t got any useful feedbacks (using a clean CV template).
Anything I could do more to increase my successful rate in terms of career?
Always the same answer we don’t know never did it.
Same process, find someone in the position you want and ask them.
7k month net from business, virtually passive, evergreen. Residence is paid for. 1 rental breaking even. 100k liquid. Late 20s.
Cut back lifestyle to fund RE investing, OR risk liquid savings on another business location?
We would go with whichever one has the most “forced” returns where you can control the outcome. We don’t know your options
That would be the biz. Thought you would rule out cutting back, that’s reassuring. Thanks.
Everyone has different levels of risk tolerance. As long as you’re building net worth (equity) you’re good.
32 y.o Engineer here. Spent the last 4 years pursuing the online business route. Made barely enough to cover expenses. Learned web design, copywriting and a bunch of stuff. No work experience though. I want to pursue the software sales route.
How do I make up for that gap in my resume/interview process? Lie/made up stories? Would like to know your take on it.
Thanks
Contact a software sales person, ask them advice on how to get in. We don’t know as we never worked in software sales.
0183-9059-4558-4307
Not really a question and I know you have already touched on these things in prior posts but would you consider doing more posts on:
– Fashion/luxury goods once you made it.
– Best ways to spend money to make your life easier. Beyond basic services.
– Advanced asset allocation for high net worth individuals who don’t want to lose it.
Bit selfish but I would like to see posts on those.
I’m a personal trainer (in-person) who has a decent physique and I absolutely know I could make more money online were I to offer my training services online and pay for advertisements, though I don’t wish to be famous, or an internet-celebrity, or to be personally branded as ‘that guy who does personal training online’ despite the chance for a major increase in income.
Is there any way around this and to start selling my personal training services online? Or something else in the looks industry without exposing my name/face and gaining unwanted traction?
Would genuinely appreciate if you guys left your comments on this.
If you’re in the top then you’d save money and start a gym.
You won’t get famous unless you become a deca-millionaire.
While we hate fame, it’s funny that people think you’ll be famous with only a few hundred grand a year. Basically no shot, so don’t Worry about it.
With instagram businesses you’ll be surprised.
My gfs sister gets recognised in a major city more often than she likes, she has a 175k following.
We are in the same industry and role with the same goal of not getting recognised. WSP’s suggestion is exactly where I’m heading (gym in new country and market with HNWI). That’s one angle. Or don’t go for high follower count but target a specific niche to your skill set and market those people only. You could make loads of money from 1000-10000 following.
I’m looking at selling a small business + possibly acquiring a new one. I have no background in finance (tech career), so I only have a basic understanding of how to evaluate and price a business for sale. What is the best way for me to get up to speed quickly on the needed financial knowledge? At what price point is it worth hiring outside help vs. learning and doing deals myself?
Fastest way to get up to speed is find people in your industry who have sold businesses and with their info.
General advice isn’t useful since we don’t know your industry. Software companies will never sell at the same value as say clothing companies etc.
I’m in the process of running PPC ads (fb and google)
– FB and google usually require website to be compliant (i.e. you can’t just have a lead gen page, you have to have menu with links to other part of the website: blog, login, etc..). What do you usually do to remain compliant without decreasing your conversion? (removing distraction to make the visitor focus on lead optin or puchasing)
– For PPC ads, what is the break point in terms of impression when I’ll need to update the server?
1) copy the competition, rip the whole website it doesn’t take a long period of time.
2) there is no answer here, not sure what this means honestly. If you have too many people on a site you’ll know as the server can’t take more and it slows considerably.
2) yep that’s exactly what I meant. Is there a way to check if the server is too slow? I mean at one point it will break right? I don’t want to buy traffic to a dead server
You will be able to tell by clicking on it yourself and checking the load time.
The only way you get server overload is by going viral with organic traffic. Paid traffic is next to no chance as you’ll see the slow down and turn off the ads. Hence why the question didnt make much sense.
Background: I am a sophomore at a target school.
1: What is the most rewarding way to leverage your talents if your intelligence is truly beyond the 99th percentile in every domain: synthentic, numeric, analytic, etc; besides socially, where it is still ~95th percentile?
2: What is the strategy for going direct from undergrad to hedge fund?
We laughed no chance you’re In the top 1% in everything otherwise you’d already have a successful business and would drop out of college.
Same three careers in efficiency no change.
Hedge fund recruiting is on this blog, same process
What’s laughable is that you seem to believe intelligence has a direct relationship to success. Unless you’re incorporating willpower into your definition of intelligence, in which case you defeat the purpose of measuring ability. You can have all the talent in the world and do nothing with it.
There are countless examples of extremely intelligent people who went nowhere. Look at the Chris Langan vs. Bill Gates section of Outliers, it’s a great illustration of how paramount willpower is.
It’s not even that improbable that someone would have great ability in many areas, as ability in one domain is correlated with greater talent in all others. This is g, general intelligence.
In Efficiency you had a Venn Diagram of what to do with your three forms of intelligence. Each part of the diagram had recommendations. Except for the center, where all forms of intelligence intersect. It basically just said “congratulations” and I wondered if you actually had any advice for people in the center.
You telling me that if I wasn’t lying/delusional I would have already dropped out and started a successful business is one way of suggesting I go start of business. Guess I’ll take advice however I can get it.
Not sure why the comment was upsetting. If you’re truly intelligent then you would start something
We don’t believe in the view that you can be smart and financially broke, it is not a belief we hold. If you’re actually smart you would take advantage of what you have
You’re competitive and young and have high belief in yourself which is great, but how can you really believe you’re the best in all of it without any results? that’s quite extreme. We’re fine with young people talking smack (it’s normal for that age) but to claim top 1% when vast majority aren’t event top 1% in one item is just crazy without results to back it up. Someone in the 1% truly already has a proof point versus basic stuff like “got into a top college” which isn’t hard
An example of someone who is in the top 1% at age 18-22 would be someone who already started something or is already really rich. That’s truly an anomaly and we’d back up everything and apologize if that was true (chances are slim though).
Finally, if you’re really in the 1% in all of those you’d be picked up by someone legit like another billionaire not random low level rich people like us. I.E. child prodigies are not “finding themselves” they are already somewhere.
Took your advice on moving from NYC to Miami for taxes. Do I move to Puerto Rico?
Under Act 20 and 22, keeping US citizenship, corporate tax is 4% and capital gains is 0%, spending at least 183 days/year there. Incredible savings, almost doubling income.
That’s a lifestyle decision Puerto Rico is tough to live in, your call
Hi, I’m 25 and I’m working at SaaS sales and started a dropshipping business in the side (I’m in Brazil, by the way). My busines is starting to profit, but I’m investing all my money on it, I mean, I’m literally all in for now. Is this plain stupid or it is common in the start?
It’s your call this is just a question for you.
If you’re able to pay all your bills and go all in on your biz that’s just your decision. We can’t help you
Thoughts on direct linking instead of designing own website or landing page?
“Don’t Produce without Sales”. Long term plan (already in the works) is to sell own weight loss pills. With direct linking I can learn to sell without creating content.
Not sure if it’ll work, our strategy we know works so we will stick with that. Build your own site, the skills are also transferable so its a no-brainer.
Last year, I got into b2b sales, but have only got 1 close so far. I don’t know if it’s me or our product (my philosophy is that a good salesman will kill it regardless of the product).
I know you’ve somewhat talked about this, and don’t know my complete story but just wondering how to assess if it’s you or the product and how to improve.
Thank you.
Well if the product is the same as competition it’s you
If the product is 20% worse than competition, then its probably the product
Judgement call
25yrs – on par with your advice. Have a main business, saving 50% of income, bought an apt to rent out.
Have some spare cash, but little time to invest into a 2nd (active) business.
Any experience with franchising (like fast food)? Seems like bigger investment up front but little active management.
Cheers!
No experience in franchising, we only buy and flip websites. Other than that we have passive real estate, stocks and bonds. Basically triangle investing but with some boring bonds now as well.
26, Moved back to Hometown to cut expenses to 0.
Took advice and sold cars; Now saving nest egg for first real estate deal.
Banking 4k a month working Insurance sales Job and IT Sales job.
But income is static, get back into car sales or keep grinding it out for first deal?
It’s time to start a business. You should have enough money in a year to do real estate with $50K or so.
Hi WSPs
Absolutely not to argue but rather to have your opinion for those who are in scientific or intellectual fields.
You said “Whatever you do, do not start an informational website” and I absolutely understand your advice, but for those who have a talent in information synthesis, do you think in this case that selling info products (even not recurring) is an excellent path to build a profitable business and moreover with a brand difficult to copy ?
I give an example in my field: the site “examine dot com” 7 figures annual sales of science-based review of dietary supplements is a smarter way for founders to use their talents, their credentials and their personal brands of scientists than to sell vitamins, caffeine or diet pills?
Merci
There are always exceptions to the rule. So not going to debate the exceptions. Just run the math, how many information (no recurring revenue) companies last a long time? How many are always in the red? How many were a complete waste of time – hint 99%?
I intend to test affiliate marketing for muscle products before going on to make my own. From your experience:
1)What’s the minimum amount (monthly) I need to spend on advertising to test out affiliate marketing?
2) How much revenue (guesstimate) can I reasonably expect to make at this level of advertising?
1) we’ve stated $50K needed to start any basic product as an estimate how much you spend on ads is up to you.
2) unfortunately this question doesn’t make any sense, this is a question for people who haven’t tried yet. Some people have amazing CTRs other people are terrible and never even make a penny (always in the red).
A similar question would be “if I pay a sales guy $100K how much will he make me”… you won’t know until he is hired.
Thanks for the quick reply. I’ll work on it and get back to you.
1) Running a profitable business growing nicely but still in early stages. At what point should I allocate minimal capital and time to set up a small secondary income stream out of the main business (the first business will be the main bread winner).
2) For fun, do you think overall life is fair?
I hope you have a fun summer
1) Not sure what you mean here, you start the secondary source as fast as possible. As long as you’re not neglecting the primary source of income
2) Fairness isn’t really the right word. Some people just get bad genetics (bad luck). End of the day though, you get what you deserve out of life over the long-term.
Two options for an ecommerce store:
1. Churn and burn through ‘hot and trendy’ products
2. Build out a niche store around one successful product
One method seems to have longevity with brand trust, return customers, and higher conversions, but if all you care about is profits, doesn’t the first option seem better?
If you’re wealthy already then always go for the higher LTV of customer idea.
If you’re not rich, then it’s harder to figure out since it depends on how much you’ll make with the quick trendy win. The truth is that the fast money is normally better only if you’re sure it’ll work. You’ll have to calculate that one out
Specifically in the Wellness/Health/longetivity industry – people who buy these products ( floatation/massage/sauna/cyro) what in your opinion is there emotional driver, outside of not dying, for people who are healthy and wealthy?
Easy:
1) status – look at me I am rich I can afford this crazy therapy
2) insecurity – wow I need to stop the aging process time to do crypto therapy
3) fear – oh my god if I don’t do this I might get hurt
It’s all emotional.
In Triangle Investing for the aggressive type of investor you recommend building up a crypto position first and dollar cost averaging into small cap indexes like IJR, then real estate etc. But at the moment it seems you have recommended cash and crypto as better ways to prepare for the impending downturn in the next year or two for opps.
Do you recommend the DCA method for small cap indexes if I am talking about sub $100k amount of money right now (small amount so maybe doesn’t matter) or at this stage I should keep piling cash and wait? I will be DCA’ing into crypto in either scenario as always.
Thanks again for all your help!
Unless you are a millionaire wasting time worrying about these things will set you back many years.
At this time we are only looking at cash/crypto.
Our recommendations are not changed, just dollar cost into everything every month. We publicly place our current moves for fun, but at the end of the day, unless you’re over a million, thinking about investing is setting you *back* financially. Just dollar cost average.
Thank you very much! All noted and I’ll just keep building up the portfolio via DCA till the figures are actually worth anything significant
Get rich first then invest.
You’re not gonna get rich doubling an investment of only $50K.
You will get rich doubling an investment of $1-2M though!
two questions:
15, currently bringing in 5k a month through working a part time Jon & running a marketing agency what’s the next move ? Should I scale or start a product business ?
Why don’t you suggest starting a dropshipping store, if it’s branded and looks like a legit store but the products are sourced from AliExpress ? Why affiliate marketing ?
1) yes if you can create a product go there ASAP.
2) affiliate marketing requires you to learn sales which is most transferable. But. Sounds like you already got something going, so time to go the product route.
How would you talk with parents about diversification and longer term planning beyond themselves?
Assume parents are 65+, have ‘made it’ by the definition of baby boomers, and have expendable income plus the Florida retirement setup already in play.
Consensus would say vanilla assets, but there’s a very underrated risk play for boomers who have legacy in mind.
Don’t have this issue so can’t give advice. Once you’re rich you don’t really worry about your family. You just have money to help them in case something goes wrong.
If you’re trying to maximize the amount of money you get when they die then that’s a new level of low we can’t understand
Don’t do family questions!
The context is missing.
I’m an undergraduate student at a non-core school and spent the summer interning at a BB in NY in their capital markets program. Although half summer reviews went well, I indicated my interested in being in Houston to cover O&G and the senior capital markets bankers did not take that well, which led to no offer at the end of summer. I’m currently recruiting for a summer 2020 offer without an offer in hand – how would you recommend I approach this?
Thank you!
Yeah that was a very bad mistake, in that case just apply only to Texas. Your hands are now tied as they will call the former employee and you’ll need to sell yourself harder.
No change to normal recruiting just need to explain you messed up and want to live in Texas. Nothing else you can really do
No value in feeling bad about it, just apply and practice explaining your mistake in interviews.
What type of online marketing tool do you wish you had but doesn’t exist?
Quite literally anything that can filter for the right audience.
More data on who buys what, their behaviors etc.
Facebook is good at it, but even targeting age ranges and genders just isn’t granular enough.
To my knowledge, such software already exists. You may want to look into software like https://near.co/
Hi thanks for the great content on the blog.
I have one question regarding the value of time.
I am currently trading and doing 55 hours a week for a company which is paying around 200K. My net worth is around 1M and I have a small family to provide for. I am considering doing the same by myself which I guess would provide a little less but the hours would be less too. Would you recommend leaving now or would you until the megical 2M mark before leaving?
Never quit a job/career until you have enough money to live forever with the stock market, bond market and RE market all down 50% as well.
So if 2M is the magical number 4M would be needed before quiting? So you would not quit in the near future…
“Magic number” is for you to decide. Some frugal people live on way less than $2M
Hey,
22 year atm, i’m currently working at a somewhat big Firm(350KK revenue a year) on a non performance related role, the firm has an equity program where they give equity to the employees. My manager has 26 and already has equity on the firm.The partners know and like me.
I’ve been wondering if I should quit for some performance role or double the bet and stay for an oportunity to have equity on an already estabilished Firm.
Thnks
Not something we can answer. Calculate how much stock you’ll get and how much you think the company will be worth.
Just because you get a few dollars of stock doesn’t mean it’s useful.
You have to make your own decision on the equity you want
Want to A/B test some product ideas.
1) Recommendations for tool to create landing pages and carry out A/B testing? I have shortlisted OptimizePress.
2) Good resources to read up on landing pages and sales funnel optimization?
Thank you!
Two questions one answer same as always, find the competition copy them and then A/B test the pages.
Resources are not going to be useful as each product is different, just a scam to get people to buy into their “secrets”.
Use Leadpages or Webflow
Started in Software Sales recently. Having trouble with Office Politics. Specifically, which vertical I want to cover + what I should be doing to get promoted from BDR to AE as quickly as possible.
Would EnterpriseSales be interested in doing a post on this or do you think your Wall Street version should transfer over?
Don’t know as the post wasn’t written by us.
Most of the office politics stuff we write about transfers over to other industries.
I can maybe be bothered to right something in the next month or so
Any time you have our email
Re: Vertical
Your employer could put you in a bad vertical just to see how it goes. Don’t let them. Take a look around and choose what vertical is best for YOU, and go there. It’d also help if you BDR in the vertical you want to AE in. Two birds, one stone.
Re: Promotion
-Hit top 10% of numbers
-Tell them you want to be an AE and nothing else
-Impress your AE’s so they gas you up to management
DCA makes sense when you’re investing the same amount on a regular basis. What if
you don’t have a fixed revenue (salary) but performance based with significant swings from one month to the other? Could be 0, could be 5-6 figures, not salary + bonus based.
It feels you lose the benefit of DCA in this scenario. Curious as to how you’d invest this unpredictable revenue.
No difference as over the course of a year you should have a rough idea of what the annual income is. If you have seasonality in your business then you just hold more cash on the balance sheet when you’re preparing for weaker months so you can buy the same amount.
When is it time to quit a job/project + how do you think about this?
I have been working at a company where commission would be $150k+ but deals close infrequently. It’s been 8 months and nothing has closed so far + nothing on horizon. Other people have left.
Not sure if I need to tough it out or if it’s time to move on.
Only quit career when new biz is generating 2x more money as your career.
The second part doesn’t make sense to us, complaining about getting paid without another job in hand doesn’t make sense. If the job/career is dead, then interview and get out asap
Vague.
Your question still makes no sense.
Any desk job allows you to start online income from work, that’s the whole point of our book?
I’m on track of becoming an engineering manager at a big tech firm (google, fb, amazon size) and making about 400k a year. Have invested in crypto currencies and DCA. Debating between joining risky start ups to gain more ownership/earning- events and doing side businesses (online sales, affliate marketing, etc.). What’s your thought on this? My goal is eventually creating my own products and having more freedom.
Depends on your financial situation. $400K is solid. If you’re rich already the go ahead and jump to riskier items. If you’re not rich, then just stick it out until you’re rich.
I’m broke and I haven’t been able to monetize my side hustle. Lately though, I’ve been getting some promising leads.
Should I focus 100% on getting clients and build up my business at the expense of going out, until I have a steady stream of side income? I literally have no money to buy drinks for, currently.
Yes of course you should focus on money if you can’t even afford drinks. How is it enjoyable going out knowing you’re spending money that could cause you to be in debt? Insanely stressful, avoid
Starting an email marketing ‘agency’ to learn sales. Contacting local biz owners with high-value clients and pitching them increasing the value of their email-list members.
Writing my website copy now.
I’ll be making my pitch in their email inbox, plus a link to my website.
Do you recommend I also hard-sell on my webpage or just provide an brief overview of my services?
Generally it is best to ask for one item up front. Especially if new. The more you spam them the more it dilutes the message so always start with your core competency/offering and move up the stack from there
High-end clothing/shoes/accessories (SUPREME, Yeezys, etc) trading has gotten pretty big in the last 5-6 years.
Im 22, in tech, in a small midwest city. Came from a 0$ family, and am just now starting to build my savings. The idea is to save 10k to start an online business in that industry, with 5k leverage. Then using my tech knowledge to get an edge when it comes to overhead (think automation/ML).
Given a recession is coming within 3-5 years, do you see that industry slowing down?
If so, would the play be:
-Build logistics knowledge
-Build marketing skills
-Continue to build the technical stuff (website, neural network)
-Continue to save, past the 10k mark, until the market turns back around
Or just go thru with the business?
Would strongly avoid this unless you already have a brand. High end luxury only works when you have a built up reputation.
With zero experience the odds are heavily heavily stacked against you. Goes against everything in efficiency
Not sure if it makes a difference in your answer, but there is miscommunication:
The idea is buying already reputable high-end brands when they release exclusive lines. Not starting a new one.
Then turn around and sell those pieces at a higher markup.
For example: New Yeezys drop at 320$. You buy a pair or two. Then it sells out within minutes.
Now you can turn around and sell them for a huge markup (anywhere from 50-300%). There is risk that the piece wont sell though.
Oh that stuff it has been around for years. Lots of people do it at work/at home and make $1K a month or so.
Problem is if you guess wrong on the hot product you have inventory and lose time and money.
It’s good if you desperately need money but isn’t really easy to make a good business with it
Would you expect a luxury service such as cryotherapy to do ok in another GFC type economic scenario?
only the ultra high end, cryotherpay for pro athletes. Won’t work for just run of the mill therapy as services get slaughtered in down turns
I have a lot of time on my hands but next to no money. Working 56 hours a week at a desk. All money is going to debt payments and living expenses. I have a ton of free time at my desk right now.
What is a viable model to making money in the affiliate game with minimal cash available? If that’s not possible any alternative suggestions?
This is literally in the book? Affiliate marketing
Should’ve been more clear. I only have like 100 dollars a month to drive traffic to a landing page. How can I get more sales when my ad spend is so low?
Next to no chance with that little, would focus organic and get income from your career/take a second job so you have some real money to use.
You prob need to learn SEO to build organic growth
(You already asked this answered already here)
Not much in Efficiency around organic traffic. Outside of SEO/SEM, do you have any suggested resources or pointers on building an online product website up organically?
That is In the book already and we recommended books as well.
None of your questions were answerable so we’ll let you ask another.
Thanks – I’ve two competing offers for my time:
New offer is higher total comp (not more than 20% bump) but unlikely to take the new offer since I would lose valuable momentum/political capital built in existing firm. But also never been in a position to negotiate/leverage multiple offers. Negotiation tips for the conversation with current manager to match the higher salary? Bluff or just earnest conversation?
Just go in there with the offer. If they actually like you they will match. If they don’t actually like you, that’s info in itself (you weren’t liked politically).
No real negotiation needed, just get a match or better.
Abstract:
The big picture message received from the blog: If you want to be successful, free, and earn more that the average American, you need to own your own business.
At the moment I am in the middle of transferring from a boutique technology consulting firm (Oracle ERP & HCM implementations) to a more stable role at a healthcare foundation in IT financial systems as a Solutions Engineer. (TC ~125k)
The move will free up time and increase pay so that I can now focus more on building a business. Although I do not yet have a new business/product idea to develop.
23, Male, SF Bay Area, 0 Net Worth (Just paid off student debt), paycheck to paycheck family.
Question:
What money making activities do I focus my time on?
For example, do I go deep into trying to develop products and sell?
Or focus on doing smaller jobs to rack up cash?
(i.e. Tech home installs, social media agency for small business, services provider for students and H1B’s?) Understand that these are not ideal as they do not scale.
What I really want is a business where I can employ my father.
You somehow broke every question rule in a post. We aren’t going to read a life story, type your question in 3 sentences below.
All your high level questions are answered in efficiency, career, where to go, what to do. Etc.
One question only, not life story rants
Using the current stock market blip to load up on equities or waiting for market to go into full correction?
Unless you are a millionaire just dollar cost average. Won’t change your life since you don’t have enough money to invest anyway
(Too many questions)
You asked 4 questions with one transaction ID.
The answer is 1) how much money do you need per year, 2) multiply this by 2, 3) divide this number by 4%
That’s what you need to be set for life.
If you run an online business (solo team) selling physical products, what business entity do you set it up as? (i.e. LLC) and which location (if you can choose)?
Already covered search the blog and in the book.
Question 1: Currently work in tech earning 145k a year (safe position, great benefits and management likes me). There is alot of opportunity to grow but management is sub-par and colleagues are not much better (I run the function by myself).
Have a competing offer for 180k at a new firm. The management at this company is top tier and cutting edge so I think there is alot to learn from being exposed to and working with them. Same scope to grow but seems like a more unstable company (going through a merger).
Should I leave this position to take up a new one at the new firm?
Question 2: What is the best way to protect your assets in the case of divorce? (besides not getting married – discretionary trust perhaps?)
Thanks
1) take the other position and see if current company matches. Small money should be focused on second stream of income unless you want to work for 30 years
2) no, don’t get legally married, we don’t know as we have no experience there
Thank you for the devastating amount of quality you guys have shared over the years. Some things I have used/done because of your blog: small things: heel caps, quinoa. Big things: learning copywriting, part-time sales job.
I’m working a desk job 45hr/week (non-performance based), and sales job part-time, plus learning copywriting on the side. Should I start affiliate marketing/selling online now, or go into sales FT as a career, plus online on the side? Or just a judgement call?
Jump to performance based role if possible since the skills will transfer. A random desk job isn’t transferable.
1) What do you think of these “brand building” services for ecom/dropshipping stores? I’m not sure what to make of them.
On the one hand, it seems like it might be a very time efficient, structured way to learn the basics of ecom (won’t be magic moneymaker and will still have to put the work in. but it’s a start), on the other hand I feel like they are targeted at people who don’t want to do the work and expect a magic pill for saving up 3k.
2) How difficult is career searching going to be in a recession? I’m looking to move jobs in the near future after my first set of options vests. I work in tech where I’ve heard jobs are hard to fill, but if there is a big market crash I’m not sure how easy it will be to move.
Thanks for taking the time
1) they are profitable but basically scams. “Build your brand through me” is a great business. You’re selling to the lowest common denominator though. If you’re broke go for it
2) awful, we predict a lot of structural long-term unemployment as most don’t have skills and just follow procedures… if there are procedures then a robot is going to do it soon.
Unemployment going forward will be nasty. What’s worse will be the menial wage slave labor.
1% will live off assets/land/resource/rent.
10% will have the skills to bring in 250k+ for a family mortgage payments and cars.
Bottom 90% will work painful jobs and survive on renting with 2-3 people and very low quality food. Plant based meats and grains. Plenty of cheap tech gadgets for distraction.
If your not saving and grinding like a mad man right now 2025 will be a fking nightmare.
At BB doing IB – getting crushed time wise(plus staffers are nosy so hard to do things even in downtime) and have a business but need more hours/week to scale it. Are there any lower hour, but still high paying jobs I can go into with my BB m&a background?
Go into corporate development less oversight lower hours same skills.
Recently turned 26 working in SaaS sales. Have noticed a potential cognitive decline in recent years that’s made it more difficult for me to speak/write eloquently and learn new topics (e.g., affiliate marketing, foreign languages).
What non-pharmaceutical means or tactics do you use or recommend outside of the usual diet/exercise to ameliorate one’s mental faculties?
Thanks again for your time.
We don’t use anything but you can microdose lsd and drink lots of caffeine
Those two are common.
Magnesium, Vitamin D, Vitamin B12, Testosterone.
Get them checked and fix.
Coffee + Sleep + Low-carb diet as well.
Question about arbitrage on crypto. You mentioned here on the blog that it is still possible. Is it possible for you to give a current example (which two exchanges and which coin)?
I have been looking at this for a while, and it seems to me that manual arb was only possible until the beginning of 2018. Since then, opportunities are very rare, and usually exist only when something is not working (for example withdrawals disabled at one exchange).
The only arb is with international connections and software code.
We’re not giving more than that as we’re doing it
Thank you for your reply!
So we are competitors in this area 😉
I’m 31, working at a tech startup making $200k / year salary, $200k / year options, net worth around $750k. I work remote from an income tax free state and the job is fairly easy, ample time for side hustles that net around $100k and growing around 20% per year. But my current option vest is coming to an end and the new one is meh, plus private company so can’t sell the options. Worth it to jump ship to make $250k + liquid stock at somewhere like Microsoft in exchange for less free time, or stick it out at the current day job?
Just start a business at the day job, your move for $30K after tax isn’t going to do anything. It barely moves your net worth, 4% for all that headache? No way
What are your thoughts on how somebody in their early twenties should dress outside of the office (casual wear)? Follow trends or go for something else?
Always dress above your peers (quality) and dress to stand out. That’s really it. No jeans and vertical striped long sleeve shirts that are untucked
No jeans at all?
Might have answered this with your recent tweet.
You guys have some old posts that differ from your current best recommendations.
Would you advise avoiding your older posts (or categories of posts e.g. dating, travel) or is the information still fine? As you have pointed out, your posts over time “leveled up” in terms of target audience.
Until you get to $2M net worth, everything in efficiency is all you need. Just wasting time looking for other answers that won’t work.
Great recent article and I’m still struggling at the first stage. Worked as a management trainee for about 2 years but haven’t developed much tangible skills except building some connections here and there.
Recently I’ve been applying for SDR job for tech companies as suggested from your blog but haven’t got any useful feedbacks (using a clean CV template).
Anything I could do more to increase my successful rate in terms of career?
Always the same answer we don’t know never did it.
Same process, find someone in the position you want and ask them.
7k month net from business, virtually passive, evergreen. Residence is paid for. 1 rental breaking even. 100k liquid. Late 20s.
Cut back lifestyle to fund RE investing, OR risk liquid savings on another business location?
We would go with whichever one has the most “forced” returns where you can control the outcome. We don’t know your options
That would be the biz. Thought you would rule out cutting back, that’s reassuring. Thanks.
Everyone has different levels of risk tolerance. As long as you’re building net worth (equity) you’re good.
32 y.o Engineer here. Spent the last 4 years pursuing the online business route. Made barely enough to cover expenses. Learned web design, copywriting and a bunch of stuff. No work experience though. I want to pursue the software sales route.
How do I make up for that gap in my resume/interview process? Lie/made up stories? Would like to know your take on it.
Thanks
Contact a software sales person, ask them advice on how to get in. We don’t know as we never worked in software sales.
0183-9059-4558-4307
Not really a question and I know you have already touched on these things in prior posts but would you consider doing more posts on:
– Fashion/luxury goods once you made it.
– Best ways to spend money to make your life easier. Beyond basic services.
– Advanced asset allocation for high net worth individuals who don’t want to lose it.
Bit selfish but I would like to see posts on those.
I’m a personal trainer (in-person) who has a decent physique and I absolutely know I could make more money online were I to offer my training services online and pay for advertisements, though I don’t wish to be famous, or an internet-celebrity, or to be personally branded as ‘that guy who does personal training online’ despite the chance for a major increase in income.
Is there any way around this and to start selling my personal training services online? Or something else in the looks industry without exposing my name/face and gaining unwanted traction?
Would genuinely appreciate if you guys left your comments on this.
If you’re in the top then you’d save money and start a gym.
You won’t get famous unless you become a deca-millionaire.
While we hate fame, it’s funny that people think you’ll be famous with only a few hundred grand a year. Basically no shot, so don’t Worry about it.
With instagram businesses you’ll be surprised.
My gfs sister gets recognised in a major city more often than she likes, she has a 175k following.
We are in the same industry and role with the same goal of not getting recognised. WSP’s suggestion is exactly where I’m heading (gym in new country and market with HNWI). That’s one angle. Or don’t go for high follower count but target a specific niche to your skill set and market those people only. You could make loads of money from 1000-10000 following.
I’m looking at selling a small business + possibly acquiring a new one. I have no background in finance (tech career), so I only have a basic understanding of how to evaluate and price a business for sale. What is the best way for me to get up to speed quickly on the needed financial knowledge? At what price point is it worth hiring outside help vs. learning and doing deals myself?
Fastest way to get up to speed is find people in your industry who have sold businesses and with their info.
General advice isn’t useful since we don’t know your industry. Software companies will never sell at the same value as say clothing companies etc.
I’m in the process of running PPC ads (fb and google)
– FB and google usually require website to be compliant (i.e. you can’t just have a lead gen page, you have to have menu with links to other part of the website: blog, login, etc..). What do you usually do to remain compliant without decreasing your conversion? (removing distraction to make the visitor focus on lead optin or puchasing)
– For PPC ads, what is the break point in terms of impression when I’ll need to update the server?
1) copy the competition, rip the whole website it doesn’t take a long period of time.
2) there is no answer here, not sure what this means honestly. If you have too many people on a site you’ll know as the server can’t take more and it slows considerably.
2) yep that’s exactly what I meant. Is there a way to check if the server is too slow? I mean at one point it will break right? I don’t want to buy traffic to a dead server
You will be able to tell by clicking on it yourself and checking the load time.
The only way you get server overload is by going viral with organic traffic. Paid traffic is next to no chance as you’ll see the slow down and turn off the ads. Hence why the question didnt make much sense.
Background: I am a sophomore at a target school.
1: What is the most rewarding way to leverage your talents if your intelligence is truly beyond the 99th percentile in every domain: synthentic, numeric, analytic, etc; besides socially, where it is still ~95th percentile?
2: What is the strategy for going direct from undergrad to hedge fund?
We laughed no chance you’re In the top 1% in everything otherwise you’d already have a successful business and would drop out of college.
Same three careers in efficiency no change.
Hedge fund recruiting is on this blog, same process
What’s laughable is that you seem to believe intelligence has a direct relationship to success. Unless you’re incorporating willpower into your definition of intelligence, in which case you defeat the purpose of measuring ability. You can have all the talent in the world and do nothing with it.
There are countless examples of extremely intelligent people who went nowhere. Look at the Chris Langan vs. Bill Gates section of Outliers, it’s a great illustration of how paramount willpower is.
It’s not even that improbable that someone would have great ability in many areas, as ability in one domain is correlated with greater talent in all others. This is g, general intelligence.
In Efficiency you had a Venn Diagram of what to do with your three forms of intelligence. Each part of the diagram had recommendations. Except for the center, where all forms of intelligence intersect. It basically just said “congratulations” and I wondered if you actually had any advice for people in the center.
You telling me that if I wasn’t lying/delusional I would have already dropped out and started a successful business is one way of suggesting I go start of business. Guess I’ll take advice however I can get it.
Not sure why the comment was upsetting. If you’re truly intelligent then you would start something
We don’t believe in the view that you can be smart and financially broke, it is not a belief we hold. If you’re actually smart you would take advantage of what you have
You’re competitive and young and have high belief in yourself which is great, but how can you really believe you’re the best in all of it without any results? that’s quite extreme. We’re fine with young people talking smack (it’s normal for that age) but to claim top 1% when vast majority aren’t event top 1% in one item is just crazy without results to back it up. Someone in the 1% truly already has a proof point versus basic stuff like “got into a top college” which isn’t hard
An example of someone who is in the top 1% at age 18-22 would be someone who already started something or is already really rich. That’s truly an anomaly and we’d back up everything and apologize if that was true (chances are slim though).
Finally, if you’re really in the 1% in all of those you’d be picked up by someone legit like another billionaire not random low level rich people like us. I.E. child prodigies are not “finding themselves” they are already somewhere.
Took your advice on moving from NYC to Miami for taxes. Do I move to Puerto Rico?
Under Act 20 and 22, keeping US citizenship, corporate tax is 4% and capital gains is 0%, spending at least 183 days/year there. Incredible savings, almost doubling income.
That’s a lifestyle decision Puerto Rico is tough to live in, your call
Hi, I’m 25 and I’m working at SaaS sales and started a dropshipping business in the side (I’m in Brazil, by the way). My busines is starting to profit, but I’m investing all my money on it, I mean, I’m literally all in for now. Is this plain stupid or it is common in the start?
It’s your call this is just a question for you.
If you’re able to pay all your bills and go all in on your biz that’s just your decision. We can’t help you
Thoughts on direct linking instead of designing own website or landing page?
“Don’t Produce without Sales”. Long term plan (already in the works) is to sell own weight loss pills. With direct linking I can learn to sell without creating content.
Not sure if it’ll work, our strategy we know works so we will stick with that. Build your own site, the skills are also transferable so its a no-brainer.
Last year, I got into b2b sales, but have only got 1 close so far. I don’t know if it’s me or our product (my philosophy is that a good salesman will kill it regardless of the product).
I know you’ve somewhat talked about this, and don’t know my complete story but just wondering how to assess if it’s you or the product and how to improve.
Thank you.
Well if the product is the same as competition it’s you
If the product is 20% worse than competition, then its probably the product
Judgement call
25yrs – on par with your advice. Have a main business, saving 50% of income, bought an apt to rent out.
Have some spare cash, but little time to invest into a 2nd (active) business.
Any experience with franchising (like fast food)? Seems like bigger investment up front but little active management.
Cheers!
No experience in franchising, we only buy and flip websites. Other than that we have passive real estate, stocks and bonds. Basically triangle investing but with some boring bonds now as well.
26, Moved back to Hometown to cut expenses to 0.
Took advice and sold cars; Now saving nest egg for first real estate deal.
Banking 4k a month working Insurance sales Job and IT Sales job.
But income is static, get back into car sales or keep grinding it out for first deal?
It’s time to start a business. You should have enough money in a year to do real estate with $50K or so.