$25K for business start-up

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newbie marketer here and im really tired of my j.o.b. im thinking of taking my company's (airline industry) early retirement program, which will get me lifetime flying benefits and $25k lump sum.

i was thinking of maybe starting up a mail order business? sell physical products on ebay?

can someone offer some guidance on what they would do with $25,000.. :confused:

Al
  • Profile picture of the author AprilCT
    First things first. Who or what is going to support you while you get a business up and running?

    You already acknowledge you are a newbie at this...so don't plan on 6 months to a year from now with replacing your old salary. You might need that buy out to live on and pay your bills. It won't go very far.

    If you really want to take that buy out, find yourself another job, put the $25 big ones away and work at marketing in your free time until you get the momentum going. You can't just build a great business fast by throwing money at it...it takes your hard work and knowing what you're doing to get there.

    I'd also advise you to spend time on the forums here, get to know the posters so you know whose advice you can trust. You'll also find you don't have to spend a lot to start earning.
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    • Profile picture of the author Alipatinho
      THX April i did a small scale postcard campaign (2000 piece) for a penny trading system on clickbank and made over $300 after all expenses. i am considering going full throttle with that model but was looking for some insight into other avenues for making money. going to continue with my research and reading inside of WF! i owe my mail order success to this forum
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      • Profile picture of the author Dan Hower
        Originally Posted by Alipatinho View Post

        THX April i did a small scale postcard campaign (2000 piece) for a penny trading system on clickbank and made over $300 after all expenses. i am considering going full throttle with that model but was looking for some insight into other avenues for making money. going to continue with my research and reading inside of WF! i owe my mail order success to this forum
        That's unbelievable, 2000 postcards, you mean dropping them in letterboxes, and you made $300?

        So that is a profit of $300 for two days walking.

        Is that what you did? I am just curious which methods people use ...
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        • Profile picture of the author Alipatinho
          Originally Posted by Dan Hower View Post

          That's unbelievable, 2000 postcards, you mean dropping them in letterboxes, and you made $300?

          So that is a profit of $300 for two days walking.

          Is that what you did? I am just curious which methods people use ...
          website on my postcard sent visitors to a squeeze page, i probably could have done better than that if my lander was better.
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  • Profile picture of the author Dennis Gaskill
    First of all, I wouldn't tell people you have $25k to invest or you'll have people coming out of the woodwork trying to figure out how to take it away from you.

    Second, and please don't be offended by this, but ... if you have to ask how to invest that money to build a business you have a very long way to go, so I'd advise you not to rush into anything. You've got a lot of homework to do.

    Good luck.
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    • Profile picture of the author Alipatinho
      Originally Posted by Dennis Gaskill View Post

      First of all, I wouldn't tell people you have $25k to invest or you'll have people coming out of the woodwork trying to figure out how to take it away from you.

      Second, and please don't be offended by this, but ... if you have to ask how to invest that money to build a business you have a very long way to go, so I'd advise you not to rush into anything. You've got a lot of homework to do.

      Good luck.
      my inbox is full of offers right now LOL considering taking the buyout ($25K) haven't pulled the trigger. you're right though, i have a long way to go..
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  • Profile picture of the author J50
    I wouldn't bother, you live in the Bay Area lots of wealthy time strapped tech savy people. I'd offer them a local service which you can market locally online which somehow makes their life a bit easier.

    Offer a lunch delivery service which they order through your website, or maybe a fresh fruit delivered daily? You just need to be creative...

    People seem to forget the ocean of local online business opportunities out there.
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    • Profile picture of the author Alipatinho
      Originally Posted by Vokco View Post

      I wouldn't bother, you live in the Bay Area lots of wealthy time strapped tech savy people. I'd offer them a local service which you can market locally online which somehow makes their life a bit easier.

      Offer a lunch delivery service which they order through your website, or maybe a fresh fruit delivered daily? You just need to be creative...

      People seem to forget the ocean of local online business opportunities out there.
      THX for the ideas! definately alot of things to consider
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      • Profile picture of the author Kay King
        Taking $25K of potential retirement money to invest in a business you haven't yet learned the basics of...is too much risk for my taste. Worst case scenario - you don't succeed, the money is gone...what do you if that happens? If you can survive under the worst scenario, it might be worth the risk but be honest with yourself about it.

        Start small - learn - build - study - build some more. Reinvest what you earn from one small venture (postcards?) to fund another venture. I'd suggest before taking a retirement you seriously find a way to pay your basic life expenses monthly.

        One thing to consider is a way to use those lifetime flying benefits to develop a business where your personal travel could provide info for readers or the content for books or inside info on cheap places to retire, etc.
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  • Profile picture of the author hardraysnight
    bottle of wine and a steak dinner sounds good and within budget
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  • Profile picture of the author John Durham
    I agree with kay, you can start selling websites to your local community and outsource the work, without spending more than 20 bucks. There are too many ways to get started from zero.

    Throwing money at something usually only works if you have ALOT of it... because 25k can burn up so fast on testing opportunities that your head will spin.

    Why?

    Because when we have investment cap we tend to think that its the answer, so we throw money around more frivolously...instead of doing the "work", thinking the money will replace the work ethic.

    However, there are simple ways to make money without any investment cap. If I had 200k, then I might put up 25-50k to invest in something, but if 25k was all I had, I would use it to live on while I worked some opportunity that only costs 25 bucks to start. There are a ton of them.

    $25= hosting, domain name- and the ability to sell web design services and monthly maintenance to as many people as you want to without spending another dime.

    $100 = War room membership- domain- squeeze page- WSO Ad

    Now you can start a mailing list and market affiliate products or whatever. Offer a free gift to get people to opt into your list... You may even take a thousand bucks and do some massive free ad swap stuff to grow your list even faster.

    You now have the beginnings of an affiliate marketing, or product creation business.

    -John

    Ps. You could take a thousand dollars, and have some foreign company create a software for you that solves some markets problems, and sell the software for $30,000

    I did that back in 2011 myself.

    Dont look for a way to spend all your money in one basket, try some smaller endeavors that can double your money instead.

    You have some good guidance here... if we were looking to take advantage we would just say "Send it to me".
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  • Profile picture of the author tonyb23
    Before you go off and blowing all that money on one project. I would take use $1,000 chunks to test out different mail order projects. If one deems fruitful, I'd then slowly start investing more of your money into it.
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  • Profile picture of the author bizgrower
    Perfect the method that made you $300.
    Keep going until you are making sustainable income.
    Then perfect another method of providing products
    or services you want to provide.

    Always perfect your lead generation methods.

    Write out how quickly just your current living expenses
    would eat up your $25K. Then, there's the unexpected
    expense that happens just about every month.

    Then, down the road, maybe use part of your savings
    for a specific business need you know will return
    something to you. Like hiring a programmer for
    a software project as John mentioned. Or, like getting
    a web develpment client and paying contractor(s)
    for the stuff you can't do as needed.

    Then you can send it to me.
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    "If you think you're the smartest person in the room, then you're probably in the wrong room."

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  • Profile picture of the author Alipatinho
    just found out there are 3 levels of this buyout thingy. if 40-59 take it, they each get $25K. 60-89 participants it's $50K, 90+ and it's $75,000! thingz juss got alot more *interesting

    i Definately had no intention on blowing all the money in a single project. THX for all the words of wisdom, i have alot more to think about now
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  • Profile picture of the author Silas Hart
    $25k invested in 80% of high volume, low profit items, and 20% low volume, mild profit items will bring you between $15,000 and $17,000/mo revenue. Would likely need 1 local employee (unless you find a good fulfillment contract or something) and 1 outsourced employee.

    First year, I would probably bet the numbers would be around $11,000/mo with $25k invested in rotating inventory, until you've been in the game long enough to build a better relationship with your distributors.

    I personally wouldn't risk more than $500 while working, while you learn how eBay and eCommerce actually works, and then build up and match your revenue with your own money before reinvesting and continuing.
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