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What to do if you're "killing it"

by Anton Louis
12 replies
I'm sure everyone has seen the thread about what do if you're desperate and I know it's helpful to those who are broke and who come here looking for ways to make a quick buck to pay some bills or to put some food on the table but at the same time I know there's an entire subsection of warriors here who are "killing it" and I want to know what you all do to make your money grow.

My story:

I've been in IM (primarily eCommerce) since 2007. I started off importing and did well and basically reinvested all of my profits into additional inventory.

My biz goes throughs an S Corp and after a year or so of reinvesting into product I was able to start paying myself via large distributions and that amount went up even higher when I switched my business model to drop shipping about a year later.

I was young and unsure what to do with all this money so I started investing in the stock market based on things I would hear on tv or read in the paper... this didn't work out too well for me. I didn't go broke or anything but I wasn't making money. Since then I have been very careful of investing in funds or individual stocks.

Around the same time I thought the way to go would be to invest into an offline business because I saw this as a more tangible asset than a website. I ended up putting mid 5 figures into a digital signage business that I partnered on. My company would install LED displays in high traffic Dunkin Donuts locations in New York and sell ad space on them. This business was highly profitable but a HUGE time drain and something I regretted starting. Luckily for me a competitor bought us out within our first two years of being in business and since then I've decided to stay away from offline ventures.

After that experience I have switched all of my focus into building online stores, doing affiliate marketing and building info products. The majority of them do very well and I am definitely getting paid but for the past few years I've just been banking money and putting cash into CDs because I'm not really willing to risk it on the market and I don't want go "offline" again.

I'm still building new web assets but this doesn't even take a lot of capital. I always try to build them as "lean" as possible and only put money into them once they prove to be profitable so I'm typically using their profits instead of my cash reserves.

I know real estate can be a viable option but right now I'm living abroad so I'm not really sure how I could make that work.

I know having money in the bank is a great problem to have but I'm curious what everyone out there is doing to make theirs grow?
#killing it #you’re
  • Profile picture of the author webmarke
    Why don't you just multiply what is working for you. there is really no risk if you just do more of what is working.
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  • Profile picture of the author RedShifted
    I'd invest a sizable portion into offline because that's where most my income comes from and there are so many profitable industries you can get into that won't rob you of your time.

    For instance, 1 of my offline ventures I've managed to automate 90% of this business over the past 12 months.

    I do very little if anything to maintain the business but my bank keeps growing every month on autopilot. Then a smaller chunk of my income comes from affiliate marketing.

    I know you said you regret doing offline but offline wasn't the problem. It was more than likely your business model.

    Even my cousin, the guy owns 3 offline companies and works like 10 hours a week most. He's pulling in mid 6 figures / year and doing very well for himself.

    I just can't say enough good things about offline.

    But if you've made your mind up 100% then I'm not really sure what to recommend. My mother made a small fortune for herself in real estate (this was after she retired after 38 years of teaching) and the reason she did so well (imo) was because she knew the right people. She didn't even have a clue what she was doing but she did really well for herself. She bought up a bunch of properties right by the jersey shore, rented them out for 3 years and made a killing.

    So real estate is definitely an option for me but not till a few years down the road.

    I just got way too much going on as it is.
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    • Profile picture of the author Anton Louis
      Originally Posted by RedShifted View Post

      I'd invest a sizable portion into offline because that's where most my income comes from and there are so many profitable industries you can get into that won't rob you of your time.

      For instance, 1 of my offline ventures I've managed to automate 90% of this business over the past 12 months.

      I do very little if anything to maintain the business but my bank keeps growing every month on autopilot. Then a smaller chunk of my income comes from affiliate marketing.

      I know you said you regret doing offline but offline wasn't the problem. It was more than likely your business model.

      Even my cousin, the guy owns 3 offline companies and works like 10 hours a week most. He's pulling in mid 6 figures / year and doing very well for himself.

      I just can't say enough good things about offline.

      But if you've made your mind up 100% then I'm not really sure what to recommend. My mother made a small fortune for herself in real estate (this was after she retired after 38 years of teaching) and the reason she did so well (imo) was because she knew the right people. She didn't even have a clue what she was doing but she did really well for herself. She bought up a bunch of properties right by the jersey shore, rented them out for 3 years and made a killing.

      So real estate is definitely an option for me but not till a few years down the road.

      I just got way too much going on as it is.
      Awesome stuff man, I'm glad to hear you're doing so well!

      I do agree that my offline model was the reason it took up so much time. We basically had to create an entire sales process and then train a small team which we constantly had to oversee. That coupled with managing our locations and troubleshooting the problem every time a display would go offline was seriously draining.

      I do have a lot of experience with a mixture of offline/online though. I've created a handful of physical product brands in the past where I imported, branded and recruited resellers via online marketing and via trade shows... it's looking like that's what I'm going to get back into once I'm ready to move back to the states in a couple years (I'm just having too much fun abroad right now!). I've included all of the brands that I have started in the past with previous business sales but I still have some ideas.

      Thanks for the input and keep crushing it!
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  • Profile picture of the author Alexa Smith
    Banned
    Originally Posted by Anton Louis View Post

    I know real estate can be a viable option but right now I'm living abroad so I'm not really sure how I could make that work.
    Similar, here: I've made it work by investing in buy-to-let property in another country. There are many opportunities at the moment, but expert professional advice is always needed. Good luck!

    Originally Posted by Anton Louis View Post

    I know having money in the bank is a great problem to have but I’m curious what everyone out there is doing to make theirs grow?
    I've paid off my mortgages and bought some prime-location property in Spain (buying right at the bottom of the market, I hope!). There are always real estate investment opportunities somewhere, if you do enough research and are well enough advised. Personally, I believe in "aiming upmarket" and sticking to prime locations only, whichever countries you look at. In my opinion, the potential downside is pretty limited if you do that and take a long-term view.

    .
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  • Profile picture of the author PeckhamPirate
    I'm British and I live in Brazil - I still buy property with my cash.

    When you're making good money online, I find the business of buying cheap-ish houses and fixing them up to sell on, sits quite nicely with the lifestyle.

    You may have heard of a book called 'Who moved my cheese'. Read that. Don't stand still and keep growing.

    Hitting paydirt online is great, but we all know nothing lasts forever, so always be looking for the next paystream and never assume the cash you're making today will keep flowing past next week.

    That said, it sounds like you have that part sorted, in which case just buy some more houses.
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  • Profile picture of the author InitialEffort
    @Anton Louis

    As a former financial analyst and banker I can assure you that your current strategy of buying CDs should be dropped. Yields on any deposit products are at historic lows, and any interest you receive will immediately be negated by the large early withdrawal fees if you experience a cash flow problem.

    Since you haven't mentioned many specifics, you should first talk to a financial advisor to get an idea what they can offer. If you are super risk-averse and don't want to touch stocks, that's fine. They'll still have options for you and will often just give free advice during your first meeting.

    Lastly, buying real estate can be an absolutely terrible investment for the short/medium term. Unless you have a keen ability to find undervalued homes and have the time and resources to make real improvements, don't expect a guaranteed ROI.

    TL;DR-- Risk = reward and nobody ever got rich off of CDs
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  • Profile picture of the author Michael J Anthony
    I like the idea of buying DRIPs (Dividend Re-Investment Plans) in a few companies that have a history of paying and increasing dividends for at least 25 years, that have little or no transactions fees. Even though you are buying stock, you are buying it in your name and not your brokers name, your extra money has a place to compound, and you don't have to worry about what the stock market is doing. Many big companies have DRIPs where you can park money at including McDonalds, Johnson & Johnson, Altria Group (ex-Phillip Morris), Abbott Laboratories, Exxon Mobile, Brookefield Infrastructure Partners, etc. and its much better than CDs. You just have to make sure you select the "full dividend reinvestment" option when you sign up as many of these are not automatically set that way, unless of course, you want them to send you the dividend payments as they occur. But if you just need a place to park some cash and let it compound, then this is a good option.
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    • Profile picture of the author Anton Louis
      Originally Posted by PeckhamPirate View Post

      I'm British and I live in Brazil - I still buy property with my cash.

      When you're making good money online, I find the business of buying cheap-ish houses and fixing them up to sell on, sits quite nicely with the lifestyle.

      You may have heard of a book called 'Who moved my cheese'. Read that. Don't stand still and keep growing.

      Hitting paydirt online is great, but we all know nothing lasts forever, so always be looking for the next paystream and never assume the cash you're making today will keep flowing past next week.

      That said, it sounds like you have that part sorted, in which case just buy some more houses.
      Thanks for the book recommendation! I just picked it up on Kindle.

      I'm curious if you are buying RE in Brazil?

      I'm currently living in SE Asia where you can buy a brand new (really nice) condo for less than $100k USD so I don't think there's much money to be made here but I certainly understand the appeal in places like Brazil and Spain. I'm heading to Europe at the end of the month and I may check out some investment opportunities while there.

      Originally Posted by Michael J Anthony View Post

      I like the idea of buying DRIPs (Dividend Re-Investment Plans) in a few companies that have a history of paying and increasing dividends for at least 25 years, that have little or no transactions fees. Even though you are buying stock, you are buying it in your name and not your brokers name, your extra money has a place to compound, and you don't have to worry about what the stock market is doing. Many big companies have DRIPs where you can park money at including McDonalds, Johnson & Johnson, Altria Group (ex-Phillip Morris), Abbott Laboratories, Exxon Mobile, Brookefield Infrastructure Partners, etc. and its much better than CDs. You just have to make sure you select the "full dividend reinvestment" option when you sign up as many of these are not automatically set that way, unless of course, you want them to send you the dividend payments as they occur. But if you just need a place to park some cash and let it compound, then this is a good option.
      This is a great recommendation. I was actually just on the phone with one my uncles who has a very successful offline business and this is how he said he invests the majority of his money. I'm going to start looking more into it right now
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  • Profile picture of the author Brent Stangel
    Wind turbines. I make money whenever the wind blows.

    It's been four years and I still haven't gotten used to that.
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  • Profile picture of the author jgant
    I buy a variety of index funds of varying risk levels which requires none of my time so I can focus on building my online biz.

    I agree it's good to diversify cash and investments... you never know what can happen.
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  • Profile picture of the author nicholasb
    I like to invest in private loans, I have been averaging about 9-10% on my money since I started.... at only 10% and all the compounding going on, the money grows super fast.

    I know someone who has made millions in the stock market, they are getting 10-20% returns on average for years, and he is showing me and my fiancee his strategy...

    I create products make a bunch of money then invest most of the money, even with all the money I make I still live a pretty average life..

    But in another 5 years at 35 I'll be 100% retired living off interest and not having to do a damn thing but move some money around in the morning
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