Arggggggggggg

Cryp-

If lack of money is holding you
back, do something about it.

Why not sell some old junk on
Ebay?

Or if you can scrape $20, run
a WSO for your email writing
services...

Or write some articles for elance...

Or do odd jobs at mturks.com

There's a multitude of things you
could do. Just apply some thought.

My bet is that you'd feel a lot
better about starting a business
with your own money instead of
someone else's anyway.

I know I would.

Good luck.

-David Raybould

I rank this right up there with the can't miss computer sales and repair place located in the Amish community.

I suggest you will not find many offline businesses, presumably without a site or much to do with email, in an online forum.

Lesson Number One: Don't try to teach a pig to sing ...it wastes your time and annoys the pig.

This bodes ill for your copywriting career. It's about sales.

First off get a job -- at a sales outfit. Then sell. After that, write.

Thank you for your suggestions David, I am implementing some of them as we speak. Especially the old junk stuff!

When I am done with my copy for my local email-service could you take a quick peek at it? Would really appreciate it! Should be finished in 24 hours.

@ John S - Yes I know I can't find offline business here and I don't want to. My plan is already in place to get offline clients. I just want to learn email copywriting and get someone who can provide a little bit of feedback.

Thanks for your rant cryp, if it makes you feel better I'm in a bit of a rut myself. been trying to get this internet marketing thing going but nobody around me believes me either, not friends nor family and sometimes not even myself.

Anyways that was my rant, didn't want to make it too long.

if I could give some advice, i'd say follow some of the advice of the above posters, Do what works and keep the negativity to a minimum.

my 2 cents

^^ Exactly.

Hey, why not see if your local chamber of commerce has a part time position open. Or even a restaurant where they hold chamber meetings or gatherings. Think outside the box - spend two weeks working up enough scratch to support your minimal costs for 6 months, and watching chamber members. Then move on to phase 2, actually being in business.

Unfortunately for you, writing copy takes skill that most people spend years learning, usually beginning in offline sales - real face to face stuff. So you might have some problems closing deals in the beginning, and then getting results for your clients once you start closing deals... But hey, stranger things have happened.

My best advice isn't to ignore everyone, but prove them wrong. They're probably worried that you're going to go out there, suck at this, trash your reputation, and never going to be able to get a job. A valid concern - I'm assuming you're young, since your parents were your first reference, and they don't want you to fail at life.

Their other concern may be that if you're a 17 year old kid, real offline businesses might not even listen to you. Another very real concern. I'm 23 and I have a hard time getting some "old hat" business people to listen to my crazy new ideas about "websites" and "computers" - some people still think I'm a computer repair person for heaven's sake. Chances are, if you're 17 and trying to tell business people in their 40s how to run their shop - you're going to meet a lot of "you don't have enough life experience to know marketing from a hole in the wall" type resistance. Not saying it to be mean, just being truthful here - I ran into it too, when I was younger.

Good luck in any case, I hope it all works out.

"My best advice isn't to ignore everyone, but prove them wrong. They're probably worried that you're going to go out there, suck at this, trash your reputation, and never going to be able to get a job. A valid concern - I'm assuming you're young, since your parents were your first reference, and they don't want you to fail at life."

Hey Cherilyn, I think the problem is the difference in belief system. Parents, at least mine, wants me to study hard, finally get a job, work from the bottom up, make babies and retire at 65. How freakin boring. Who wants to be stuck in the rat race forever? Not me atleast.

I would rather fail, fail and fail some more, but learn something each time I don't get it right and keep thinking and making big plans. I would rather work for myself, building assets. And I would also rather sit on the other end of the table employing others instead of being employed. I would rather take a small calculated risk and recover later if worst comes to worst.

Oh and don't worry, I am not going to tell a 40year old how he should run his business. I think being young is truly a big advantage. Talk again soon, all the best

Just make sure you understand what you're doing here. It might sound fantastic to take vacations whenever you want, make millions, pay less in taxes, etc. but for most - the self employed lifestyle isn't even as nice as the employed lifestyle.

Consider employment insurance, for example. At a job, if you get laid off, you get UI. If you're self employed and your income drops due to health reasons, economy, etc. - you're screwed.

No regular paycheck. Very expensive health benefits. If you do decide to make babies, you won't get paid leave from work if you choose it. You still have to work from the bottom up, and especially if you're in a client oriented business, you still have bosses and deadlines and conference calls and meetings. And a service business like copywriting, or like yours, can't easily be sold as YOU are the only asset - so you have to save even harder than an employed person, who gets guaranteed minimal pension on retirement from the government. You don't.

Not trying to poop on your parade, just making sure you're aware that there is a lot more involved than you might see right now. There are benefits, but only after awhile, and sometimes the cost outweighs the benefits for some people.

There is a reason most people have jobs and do the rat race thing forever. Its easier. The hours are better. The pay is guaranteed, as long as you keep the job.

Perhaps discussing with your parents that you understand what this entails, but you're planning for your future - that might help.

And while a full MBA is almost useless unless you're going into high-end consulting (and even then, its questionable) it may be to your advantage to take some business or entrepreneurship courses at your highschool (some offer them) or through the local college to prove that you're serious, and willing to do the work to make it happen.

They'll still think you're crazy - but at least you will know that you've done your best to set yourself up for success, and you can help them out when they get older.

Best of luck!

This is the wrong way to go:
BASIC stuff, hosting, domain name and a couple of email marketing courses.

This is the RIGHT way to go ...and it's FREE:

1 - Build a FREE wordpress.com blog
---- It will state your offer and show a photo of you in your best business clothes
---- It will have your email prominently displayed for contact
---- That email will be a Gmail account that forwards to your main email
which you will never post online

2 Go get emails of every business you think can benefit

3 Send them this message

Hi, my name is ( Your Name ) you can see a photo of me on my website:
www,yourname.wordpress,com

I bet I can show you how I can increase your sales by 30% within about

a month. Seriously. Please give me a call at ( your phone number ) or
email me to set up a free 15 minute consultation where I'll tell you what
I do and how I can help your company...and I'll even let you try it FREE!

In the meantime, please take a look at my website and see the others
I have helped and see what they are saying about my service.
www,yourname.wordpress,com