Help getting in as investment banking analyst (ive read efficiency) i am graduating baruch in may (finance) the companies like FT partners that recruit my school have gpa requirements like 3.5 which im lower than will my gpa hamper me when i start applying in january-may? I’ll be around 3.0-3.1 realistically (currently 2.7 and rising)
– In Efficiency you recommend [electronic content] as a good vertical to enter. Can you explain on this? I thought that you warn against selling ebooks.
– What is your definition for “recurring revenue”? Is clothing where people buy multiple items from a brand “recurring revenue”?
1) This is like educational software, software in general, anything recurring. Not things like PDFs that don’t make money and are constantly stolen
2) Recurring revenue is anything subscription based, second best is “consumable recurring revenue” where you sell something that is used like a can of coke. Clothing is not very recurring as it lasts longer than a year or so for each item sold. You want something that can be sold and re-bought quickly (ie. consumed)
As a former college golfer, I was excited to see you mention golf during this season. It is definitely a sport more people should learn.
I have played public/municipal golf courses all my life but noticed the initiations at private country clubs drop by 50-75% right now. Annual fees are down probably 25%.
Do you guys think it is worthwhile to join a private country club for the nicer golf facilities, avoiding 6+ hour golf rounds, meeting other members, etc.?
If yes, does it make a difference to join the prestigious/historical country clubs than a lower-tier country club?
If not, semi-private golf is always another option, as well.
The key here though is that if you have nothing to offer/no skills then it doesnt matter if you’re in a country club or not as you’re basically begging for meeting people. If you’re doing it for fun… then that’s defintely just a skill based/hobby decision!
We don’t want to give it away but you’re on the right track
Go to AI conferences (focused on visualization) then find all the major players. After that you’ll get down to about 3-5 people and then get to work with each one seeing which ad converts the best
Have been reading since you started, left the army, completing an MBA – Looking to go straight into tech sales, have some apprehensions.
Noticed a stripper was posting on reddit/sales. This feels like a pretty big red flag the same way it did when strippers became real estate agents in 2006. It’s become a hyper-competitive position that doesn’t seem to be protected by any tangible skill or regulation.
Can you guys think of any business skills that are worthwhile to learn for a couple years after an MBA? Maybe valuations and then go sales? Or even one of the corp rotational programs with an emphasis on sales. At the end of the day I’d like to move to the US.
I left a couple of invoices as i’m sure it doesn’t work this way but I’d love to hear any other poster’s recommendation on shipping online product
Looking forward to some easy Canelo money in the fall!
Just move into sales and start and online business.
Enterprise sales salaries realistically cap at 300k in 5 years, not enough for getting rich but u won’t work longer for 40 hours a week (FOCUSED), sell online after that
Just wanted to thank you guys for everything over the years!
Just graduated elite college a year early. I’m 21 now. Started reading you guys at 16. Was making $100+ the hour copywriting at age 19 — your suggestion. Born (lower) rich. You told me not to get a career. Currently, sold my parents on putting a RE fund together with a couple million they had laying around. They also listen to my (your) advice on their established businesses.
Also about to launch online high ticket info product biz. (partnered with a boomer)
Had a lot of confusion earlier in life. You really showed the way. Life is great 🙂 Couldn’t be more in debt to you.
1) In relation to this portion of your latest post when you said “you should certainly use machine learning to target your audience”. Are you referring to AI tools within Facebook (eg. CBO) and Google Ads (eg. Automatic Targeting)? If not, what external tools are you referring too, please?
2) How to know when you have tested an idea enough, that it doesn’t work and to move onto next idea (eg. 2000 clicks with no conversions over 3 months despite using Facebook / Google Ads)? Currently testing one of the ideas you gave out and haven’t found success. In the process of iterating but am wondering when to cut PPC ad losses and move on.
3) On the point about automating / outsourcing. How do you know what skill is worth learning, what is worth outsourcing? For example, you guys once said it wasn’t worth learning how to build websites. Found that strange cause if you can launch websites to smoke test from end-to-end without having to outsource (eg. hosting / website design / graphics design / a/b testing) isn’t this good? Cause you can iterate and test faster than competitors.
1) Again no we don’t give away competitive edge + intellectual property. But you’re on the right track for a start
2) That’s tough on a click basis, we’d say if you lose more than $15K or so, it probably is time to rethink what you’re doing. Chances are its a poor ad though
3) Everything is worth outsourcing if possible. This is like asking if you should dig your own ditch or have someone else do it. The key is figuring out if you can *conclude* if its done well or not. If you can do that you just want to delegate all tasks. IF you have no idea what a good website looks like or how to do it then you better learn the basics yourself
1. Moved to Asia 2 years ago. Recently got a gift of ~$2 mm from family and a rental property. Was promised another $3 mm. 23 years old, not a lot of business experience. Planning to go mostly with stocks (etfs), bonds, real estate. Any investment advice?
2. Working as a real estate agent, barely making anything due to language barrier (chinese). Salary would be crap at any other job but potential for high commissions if I stick with RE. Should I just do that and build an online side business?
3. Very low interest rates on mortgages in my area (1.35-1.5%). But very low rent as well relative to the house price (2-3% cap rate). Any advice for RE investments?
1) No just diversify it across all asset classes and sit back, you’re set for life with doing nothing
2) yes you have the time and financials to take more risk for free
3) No we don’t know your area but RE is a good place to be long term if you do your research
After reading your books I can tell you guys definitely prefer the major cities. How has 2020 changed your mind on that? Since you believe that an internet business is of primary importance and is not location dependent, If somebody has reached 40y/o and prefers a rural or suburban living situation, any reason not to pack up and leave the major cities? Thanks.
Background: BB IB 1.5yrs experience from a satellite office —> F500 Corporate Development & Strategy manager in the IT sector (for 7 months now, TC 110K, 60-70hr weeks, HCOL zone)
I have been interviewing due to the secular decline in my industry (think ~30% decline in revenue this year plus (2-3)% long term CAGR). Fortunately, I just landed an offer at a small unknown e-commerce company as their procurement/supply chain manager in a LCOL zone, compensation is around ~90k with no equity, fully remote and 40hr work weeks, projecting 70% growth this year.
My main goal is to start my business with a solid career as a hedge. M&A sounds like the place to stay but this company is facing too many headwinds and hours are on the long side of the spectrum. What would you do?
Depends on how good the firm is. If it’s a high quality firm M&A is better since deals come back next year or some time soon. If you think the company is dead try to get another M&A slot. Same old stick with the same three ideal career paths.
1) All of this is already on here
2) All of this is also already in the Q&A and on the blog 100 times
3) Already on here on the face of this website in Q&A….
Sounds like you’re new so please don’t ask questions for a month or so until you’ve read the content here
Hi. Not a “dating” question. But. Now that, after working my ass off, I’ve reached senior management in my career plus profitability on two side businesses, I think I’ve basically become addicted to working, making money, watching the numbers increase and gaining material power, as they provide me a satisfaction nothing else seems to match. And I’m having issues with finding women interesting/attractive. I used to chase girls all the time but now that I get dates much more easily I typically get bored after 5 minutes and I don’t see the point in investing my time. I don’t think this is normal. I did a testosterone check and I’m totally ok. Have you ever had similar issues? Maybe I’ve become addicted and I should take a complete break and just travel and have fun for 6 months-1 year? But with the businesses growing I would ruin everything by selling now. Any suggestion?
Can’t help here as this doesnt sound like a solvable issue. If you’re happy then there is nothing that you need to solve. If you are bored then you simply go out more. This honestly isn’t a question just a preference of yours
Thanks for the book recommendations in efficiency. Finished a few, favourite was “The Challenger Sale”. It’s about educating the customers on their problem, with insights they might not know.
In general, the main framework for sales is Problem then Solution.
For a dating example: “Feel lonely sometimes? You are not alone.” Then “Don’t lose out on your only chance to find a girlfriend. Register here now!”
I noticed these sort of approaches are used more for low tier product sales, it seems like brands with recognition don’t even start with the problem? E.g. Spotify, Tinder etc. Why is that so?
I’m starting a sugar dating company startup. Audience: Rich 40 y/o men paying $90 in subscription fees per month. Should I lead with the problem or the solution/benefit tagline at the first paragraph?
And since it’s dating with 2 types of users, sugar daddies and babies. Chicken & egg problem, need inventory of babies to attract daddies. Should the landing page be tailored to sugar daddies or both?
We don’t know that niche, we would just copy the same strategy outlined by seeking arrangements and other similar companies in the niche. IF they were successful they copy/modify their tactics
Final year at Ivy studying Applied Math and PPE (Philosophy, Politics, Economics).
Made top 5% on SAT numerics and top 3% on SAT “synthesis” sections.
Alumni have offered me interviews with ANY company.
I enjoy synthesis more (psychology, politics, economics), and can’t see myself being an elite programmer. But tech offers more money and less stress, which is nice because my joints are weak.
Should I go for synthesis at Goldman (M&A?) or software engineering at Google? Long-term, what should I do, a hedge fund / prop shop after 2 years of experience?
If you’re going for Software Engineering at Google, you obviously don’t care about career all that much… figure out a way to get Fb/Microsoft/Snap/Prop Trading firms like Jane Street/HRT
Microsoft will be ~lowest and FB ~highest for the group I mentioned but hours will be roughly proportional.
Source: my own job search and getting offers from all of the above 😉
Are you retarded MSFT pays garbage Google outpays Facebook and Snap – if you negotiate – with 1/2 the risk.
Don’t give out shit advice Google is king for making money.
Big Techsays
This is also pretty dumb because alumni are lying, no one except Recruiters can guarantee interviews at Big Tech. This isn’t your VP is staffer type of game
1) You have to have a marketing/product edge. If it has no following no one is going to care about it if it’s generic. Usually best not to sell there if you want to start a real brand at first
2) sounds like they are trying to either toe the line of legality, which means its probably blackhat like described in efficiency. IF you want to look at it go for it, it’s not long term sustainable. But could be worth learning so you aren’t fooled by the scams
3) Really not sure on this one
What are your long term thoughts on wether it’s likely for other protocols (XTZ,ADA..etc) to gain grounds on ETH ..or is the network effect + Dapps too strong ?
It’s possible but if you own 1-2% net worth in those smaller high risk ones it won’t matter if it happens or not. So same strategy not really a good use of time to worry about
Kilo here.
24 year old scientist living in Dallas. I make 60K a year in post tax income and have been working for two years.
Currently pushing 80hours a week at main job and making ~$100-$200/month from online ventures, (No businesses yet) with one income producing real estate property near a college.
Also have profitable family business I can work in.
Monthly living expense ~$2.2K/month and slightly bringing that down.
Read efficiency and notice I can’t hop into finance or wall steeet now, so focused on medical and online business.
Get MBA and go into Medical sales maybe? (The idea of owning my own laboratory and servicing the elderly and physician offices sounds enticing).
I am opening an online sales business and growing it from there.
Income goal is to make $1M before 30 and/or 50K a month by 25-30.
1. Am I on the right path? (what factors indicate a yes/no)
2. Should I go into finance to bolster my career?
3. What business would be suitable for a dedicated, idea producing and execution oriented person working in the medical field right now.
1) This is not a question if you’re on track to $1M by 30 you’re good to go. Sounds like a yes so all set.
2) No if #1 is true
3) we don’t know, never worked in medical. It should have products that are high margin and profitable at high ticket prices
1 – Build or buy: Looking at buying one or more established businesses (not websites) and then invest in more marketing / outsourcing / automation? Of particular interest are where current, unsophisticated owners aren’t spending much for online marketing. Primary reasons for buy: 1) business has customers / revenue 2) buying stable companies at 3-4x CF multipliers seems attractive in any environment 3) can get low interest SBA financing. I realize build might scale better digitally, but 1) success seems all or nothing; 2) my background is more in fixing problems then creating 3) not expert on pure social media marketing. Thoughts and blindspots?
2 – Got any productive pastimes / hobby recommendations for a practitioner of stealth wealth waiting out the 12-18 month shakeout period before I’ll be ready to look at more CMRE?
1) Not sure what your skills are here. As long as you know for sure the business is run poorly in an area you can fix you can buy it. If you have never done anything like this before you’re more likely to lose money as the #2 person will steal all of the clients/biz model and won’t be happy with some guy coming in and taking over.
2) Sounds like you’re doing it! Spend more time working online scaling up if you can and of course reading to stay ahead of the curve! This is the best time to buy ads – lots of political stuff going around driving down bids
Currently living in NYC and almost heading into my 30s in a couple years. Moved here from Atlanta a little about 2 years ago because I was sick and tired of life down south (marriage and kids by 25, lack of enough good looking women, very cliquey, and a lot of people who were goody two shoes). It was driving me insane, a lot of “average” and passive aggressive people.
I keep hearing that NYC is falling apart with all that is going on and with the lockdown happening, I do not see the nightlife that makes this city amazing coming back until 2021 if that.
Worst case scenario, I have to move as much as I have grown to fall in love with this city (especially Pre-Covid).
What US cities do you think are loaded with good looking women, decent ratios (already rules out LA), a lifestyle full of people over 30 who are single and party, great nightlife, and an opportunity to meet a lot of cool fun people as you make money?
1. Been feeling lots of chest tightness lately from bench press over the years and bad posture from desk job. Any habits you guys picked up over the years besides stretching, walking, yoga to help with imbalances?
2. what CGI software have you had positive results with?
3. best platform to re-sell retail products at when the economy picks up, especially with all the discounted retail products in light of this Covid thing?
1) Yes yoga+stretching helps but see a doctor if needed
2) Stated in Q&A we can’t give away our competitive edge
3) not sure, you should already have the retail companies reaching out for your product. You don’t want to be the one selling your idea you want them interested in carrying your product
Currently, doing Software Eng job (60k, remote, low effort) and online biz (60k with growth potential).
The hours are spent mostly on the biz but still need 20-30h a week to do the job.
Considering quitting the job by the end of the year and focus on the biz – if I go full time biz, it should easily grow 3-5x
Should I do it or wait till the revenue is 2x job (as you advice normally)?
I came to Canada two years ago as an immigrant. I left a poor country in Europe for a better life but I didn’t complete my Bachelor in Computer Science.
Now I’m working in Software Sales in Canada but make only $40K per year. Still cannot find better jobs at the moment due to the pandemic.
I’ve started doing Web Dev ( IT stuff ) + running Ads helping local businesses and made $12K extra this year on the side.
Should I go back to Europe or stay in Canada and complete my Bachelor in Computer Science or start it all over again here?
( it’s quite expensive In Canada to study, should I get a Loan and get in debt for it? )
What should I do to maximize my opportunities and earning potential? Thank you.
WE do not know as we don’t know the canadian/european job markets. Look up the wages in both countries, if you can get an ROI in under a year then yes go back to school for tech and get the higher paying job
This is a basic math equation that you can easily solve yourself. In the mean time just keep doing the Web/Dev stuff and scaling up online sales
I work in IT in Canada. Didn’t finish my BCSc due to health issues. Graduated with a two year diploma in Computer Programming, got a boring 9-5, found WSP and immediately got myself a promotion based on their advice.
If you really, really want to stick it out in Canada (dunno why) get your Cisco CCNP. It’s a 2 year diploma. My diploma had one semester devoted to the CCNA (a CCNP light version), and it was the most valuable thing on my resume for the first three years. Guys with their CCNP skipped over me on the career ladder. I’ve since eclipsed them by following WSP advice, but these guys were the only ones I’ve seen walk into a high-five figure job without a BCSc.
It won’t get you six figures right at graduation. Neither will a BCSc. Get your online business going, use it to pay for whatever school you choose in whatever country you like. CCNP isn’t difficult, it’s just tedious, you’ll be fine.
Anonymoussays
If u can make 12k a year self taught there is no purpose of going back to college
1. Tech IB at mid tier BB like Barclays/Credit Suisse, or C&R/Industrials/*insert group in dying industry* but still “strong” group at GS/MS?
2. Other than Tech and Healthcare, any IB coverage groups worth joining to pick up skills and be well positioned for the future? (I know M&A generalist is also a good choice)
1) Honestly at this point stick with the main good sectors even if brand is slightly worse. Don’t go to Joe’s investment shack over CS/Barclays or something. But if you can go into CS tech vs. Goldman (dead industry) go to CS
2) No that’s pretty much it, safest for sure is tech and healthcare
Making $80k and saving as much as possible. Should I find a second job like flipping products/fixing phones, or am I better off building online skills?
I know you recommend affiliate marketing, so I made a site with over 30 product reviews ranking on Google. The website earns about nothing so far, but been learning a lot towards selling effectively in the niche. Thinking maybe it’ll be an actual income stream after another 30 ranking articles or so, along with email marketing.
Am I on the right track, or better off building up capital until I can manufacture my own product and market with ads?
Ha nice we still know several guys making a killing
Oliversays
Yeah, affiliate marketing has been “dead” every year since it started 😀
Alexsays
1. Hedging your election bet at all or staying with it? I agree that polls can be noisy but the uncertainty here just seems huge…Biden is a weak candidate but Trump has been getting in his own way too sometimes.
2. Good recent books that you’ve read and recommend? Could be any topic, not necessarily business.
3. Your predictions have turned out well. More so than just asking you “what do you think will happen next”, I’m curious HOW you come about these predictions, as far as what kinds of heuristics or patterns that you look for (is it historical analysis, is it following what the smart money does, etc.). I know that’s a very dense question so perhaps an article for another time, or a book recommendation?
1) No staying the same for now
2) WE just started reading again this week so check back in a couple months nothing new yet
3) Not really replicable that would require having the same life experience and skills. Would suggest reading about human emotions as that’s usually the part people get wrong the most
Will soon accept FT position ($50K/year) govt-funded small biz development center, but my primary focus is my ecomm biz (netting $5K/month profit and growing).Job just feeds the growth of my business. Mostly autonomous, work is actually related to e-commerce/digital ads and I’m ok with pay as it will be only 15-25 hours of “real work” at the job per week, boss is someone I’ve known for years, benign & very relaxed attitude and knows about my biz, doesn’t mind me working on it during biz hours (will be WFH anyways for the next 4 months).
My question is if it would be politically smart or not to reveal the growth of my ecomm biz to the boss. He knows about the existence of the biz (he thinks it only makes $2k a month) because the same biz development center awarded my biz a small non-equity grant ($5000) about a few years ago. Biz has grown and isn’t linked to the center anymore, but I am technically “alumni” and I now work at the same center helping other companies grow.
I was considering possibly mentioning it as leverage to get at least 1-2 days per week “remote work” after COVID is gone…but not sure if I should reveal my success to boss as my combined income is higher than his and within a year might be higher than the director.
Should I reveal the full extent of my success to my boss so he knows my “market value/talent” or downplay it to avoid political problems?
Easy, never tell them what you’re doing. Your boss doesn’t care about you he only cares if you’re making him money. He doesnt want you to surpass him since he is insecure like 99.99% of the population. Don’t shoot yourself in the foot for ego purposes
I live in one of the two highest-cost of living cities in Canada. Worried about the money printing (plus Cdn. govt is ultra-immigration friendly which keeps housing demand very high) causing inflation of assets, specifically in housing and getting locked out of the housing market (assuming a similar to post-2011 housing bubble will start coming 1-2 years). We have not had any civil unrest here and seems like housing prices are very stable. Family currently rents (around C$2600/month)….concerned about us being renters for ever.
My net worth after debt is $50K, job income is ~$4K/mo, online biz generates $5k/mo and is growing. I would prefer putting alll my savings into the online biz as it is the fastest growing and highest ROI, but I’m wondering if it would be a good idea for me to buy a house or condo in the coming 1-2 years ? I would strongly prefer a detached (C$1mm, at least around $150K cash down) but would have to save and put up a significant downpayment….condo is the next best option at around C$400-500K, would need to put a more feasible 60-75K down).
Should I continue to rent for the next 2-4 years and simply grow the business significantly, or put a portion of the biz income toward a housing purchase?
This is already answered at the top, you’re wasting your time and don’t have enough money to care about these things. Work on more income streams forget the leverage for now unless you want to go into RE
Any advice from you guys (or from any other readers) on selling a naturally produced food ingredient (commodity) type product? Think maple syrup, but it’s a Made in the USA healthy alternative with zero sugar that is bought by health conscious and weight conscious people. It is somewhat new on the market and I expect it to 4-8x in demand in the coming 1-2 years, however my concern is that this product is pretty much a “commodity”, and the only differentiation will be through branding. There are already a few major health food brands that have started selling it. I could use the ingredient to instead create a health food product (e.g. cookies) but that would require even most investment and development, this product would be a simply buy, package and sell). Plus I don’t already have an established health foods brand (but do have e-comm experience) but would be willing to build it out. Deciding between this product and other simpler categories such as gardening or home goods.
I am a longtime reader. Graduated last year and moved to Miami earlier this year, joined Softbank startup as a Data Scientist, got furloughed because of COVID-19. I was looking for jobs but couldn’t find one, finally understood your point to have multiple streams of income.
After reading efficiency, I was interested in trying out Affiliate Marketing before starting an online business. Most of the resources that I have come across online talk about having your own blog, building your own brand first and then using that brand to launch your affiliate marketing thing. It kind of didn’t make sense with what I read in efficiency.
I was wondering if you can recommend any good starting points for beginners in affiliate marketing ?
1. Do you think it’s wise to stockpile food/essential supplements and/or buy batteries, gas tanks and the like?
2. Do you guys in believe in the so-called Agenda 21 where the evil Bill Gates is trying to anihilate humans through compulsory vaccinations and we will pretty much will be living in a orwellian state while the elite live in a some sort of technological super-heaven? If not, what would be your take.
1) Already covered, you should have a worst case scenario already packed in your place (we covered this back in jan/feb)
2) No clue what that is and sounds like a Reddit board full of losers and weirdos
Started affiliate marketing via Instagram bc I was bored during covid. Im in the best niche in the history of the world (make easy money) and doing everything whitehat so far. Consistently making $10 a day for every 1,000 followers. Have 3,500 followers so far and averaging about $35 a day. I need to get to 100K followers to start making $1,000 days. I tried asking influencers and very few helped me out because they were skeptical of my page, but the ones that did brought in good customers.
Is it worth it to go black hat to buy good followers and grow the page as fast as possible, or should I keep plugging away, doing follow for follow, like and comment on similar pages, and try to clean it up a bit so it looks better for influencers?
1) price/quality no, delivery yes more complex and slower since you’re working overseas
2) not a big issue, .com is most common
3) If assets offset all interest payments then B, if not then a
When I release original tech products that appeal to a broad market, big tech companies replicate the product. Should I try to sneak around this or is this a good sign and I should just attack it directly by trying to outdo the replica?
Do you think it’s worth starting a company selling masks right now targeting social/political issues? IE. BLM, Kanye 2020, Trump 2020? Even holiday-themed masks (safe for work) would work.
The numbers seem decently profitable, and there appears to be demand on specific platforms. Would it be a blunder for someone with no experience to get into this? I’m worried I’m an easy target for a manufacturer to screw over, or there’s some blind spot I’m not considering.
You can do it but its going to be short lived. An easy way to do it is sell custom masks on something like etsy. So you don’t have to have inventory risk like that spinner widget fad from a few years back
An 8-figure CMO told me I write good copy, so I’ve applied to Agora (finance) & Golden Hippo (health/beauty).
I have an offer from each.
Finance tends pay-out more commissions, since the products are more expensive. Also, Agora is said to have the best training program for new copywriters.
But writing health/beauty copy seems more transferable to ecom; seems easier to start a skincare offer than poach a guru to front my own finance offer.
Purely for long-term skillset, which would you recommend I working/learning copy at Agora or Hippo?
1. I have currently built two niche social media accounts with a couple of thousand followers each on Twitter. I’m looking to start affiliate marketing and sell info products and subscriptions. Is it a good idea to file one LLC and have multiple dba’s (looking to start more accounts in the future)?
2. Am I missing something or are the trades such as HVAC seriously underrated? The education system is pushing everybody to attend school in turn they fight for low wage paper-pusher jobs for big corps. While the trades have a low chance of automation compared to most jobs and way less competition. If you have business knowledge you are ahead of 90 percent of normal tradesmen plus many are unprofessional. I go to a top 35 school but it is tempting to start small in something like HVAC and scale.
3. I just started a digital marketing and copywriting service. Currently, I’m cold emailing prospects but would you say its better to print flyers/business cards and hit 50-100 small business per day?
1) Yes that’s fine, since its small you can just put all of it under one umbrella
2) That’s a fine business the downside is it’s a lot of people management and dealing with constant customer complaints + workers 24/7. It is a good business though
3) Not sure what this means, you should work on specific projects and build a rolodex, emailing people randomly saying you can help without any proof of success is going to be difficult
Thank you for the quick reply! I have done a couple projects for free but I will continue to work on building a bigger portfolio. I meant going into places and trying to chat with the owners vs cold emailing. Thanks again.
Jessesays
2) I wanted to add onto this in addition to my personal question in the Q&A. I am a former electrician and you can make bank in this trade if you join a union. There are guys in places like Seattle making 6 figures.
The one thing that needs to be understood about the trades is that you are never just going to be paid 6 figures for showing up. If you get paid 6 figures, you are going to work like a dog doing things that no college graduate would actually want to do.
For anyone who would rather make $80k working a trade versus making $40k in an office job… You are going to change your mind real quick when you get called into work at 3am to do hard labor on the railroad. Or when you expose yourself to dangerous chemicals at the wastewater plant everyday for 3 years.
The problems with being a tradesmen are numerous. You get zero respect and general society looks down on you. You are working with million dollar equipment doing dangerous work that could easily injure you. Your coworkers are toxic people who are petty, judgmental, hold grudges and are very quick to behave in ways that would cause immediate termination in a white collar office job. I worked 2 years at the company I was at and got laid off in the middle of the corona virus because the foreman was mad that I do not own a truck and would not purchase a truck to haul company material on my own time.
Your customers are worse and will treat you like you are a peasant.
Anonymoussays
Yes. I’m from a blue collar family, most people in trades have social/intellectual/drug issues and end up there as a last resort.
If you go in with the mindset of making money and stay sober and healthy you will make big big stacks within 5 years.
Going to be traveling for a few months for work. My lease ends right when I get back. Is there any sound financial strategy that lets me minimize costs?
1) We don’t know never went that route, there is a guest post on tech sales, also go and reach out to tech sales people
2) Not much, sales is the best at this point… most transferable
3) Yes. Focus on one idea, don’t juggle and do everything half-assed
How to benefit from this economic recession/downturn? I get that 1) you have to keep you job, 2) flat comps in 2020 is like a promotion/bonus, etc. From your experience from the last downturn/great depression, how should we think about taking advantage of this downturn, as the recession causes disruption and may create opportunities/orders.
When you feel like you’re paying way too much in tax you know you’re doing it wrong. It’ll be obvious until then focus on what matters, growing the biz
Get a tax accountant who used to work for the IRS.
If you’re the only owner an LLC will be taxed as a sole prop, an s Corp taxes as either a sole prop or s Corp, go for taxes as s Corp in the later. Boy your tax savings have to beat the $800 per year to the state SOS.
Ever made an re investmest in a different state from where you live? If so is there anything to be aware of before doing that? thanks.
Yes lots of tax issues and you better be sure you have a good property manager. We’d recommend against it unless you’re already set for life.
Help getting in as investment banking analyst (ive read efficiency) i am graduating baruch in may (finance) the companies like FT partners that recruit my school have gpa requirements like 3.5 which im lower than will my gpa hamper me when i start applying in january-may? I’ll be around 3.0-3.1 realistically (currently 2.7 and rising)
Yes it will dramatically impact you, so take classes online/community college and find a way to move the GPA up.
Most good firms throw away all resumes below 3.3 and the bigger firms toss them below 3.5
– In Efficiency you recommend [electronic content] as a good vertical to enter. Can you explain on this? I thought that you warn against selling ebooks.
– What is your definition for “recurring revenue”? Is clothing where people buy multiple items from a brand “recurring revenue”?
1) This is like educational software, software in general, anything recurring. Not things like PDFs that don’t make money and are constantly stolen
2) Recurring revenue is anything subscription based, second best is “consumable recurring revenue” where you sell something that is used like a can of coke. Clothing is not very recurring as it lasts longer than a year or so for each item sold. You want something that can be sold and re-bought quickly (ie. consumed)
As a former college golfer, I was excited to see you mention golf during this season. It is definitely a sport more people should learn.
I have played public/municipal golf courses all my life but noticed the initiations at private country clubs drop by 50-75% right now. Annual fees are down probably 25%.
Do you guys think it is worthwhile to join a private country club for the nicer golf facilities, avoiding 6+ hour golf rounds, meeting other members, etc.?
If yes, does it make a difference to join the prestigious/historical country clubs than a lower-tier country club?
If not, semi-private golf is always another option, as well.
Thanks again for your awesome content!
Not sure we’re not that into it.
The key here though is that if you have nothing to offer/no skills then it doesnt matter if you’re in a country club or not as you’re basically begging for meeting people. If you’re doing it for fun… then that’s defintely just a skill based/hobby decision!
Recommended method/product/outsource vendor for CGI images for products?
Also, came across this site. interested in what you’d rate their website & business model 1-10:
moonoralcare.com
We don’t want to give it away but you’re on the right track
Go to AI conferences (focused on visualization) then find all the major players. After that you’ll get down to about 3-5 people and then get to work with each one seeing which ad converts the best
Welcome to the future!
Have been reading since you started, left the army, completing an MBA – Looking to go straight into tech sales, have some apprehensions.
Noticed a stripper was posting on reddit/sales. This feels like a pretty big red flag the same way it did when strippers became real estate agents in 2006. It’s become a hyper-competitive position that doesn’t seem to be protected by any tangible skill or regulation.
Can you guys think of any business skills that are worthwhile to learn for a couple years after an MBA? Maybe valuations and then go sales? Or even one of the corp rotational programs with an emphasis on sales. At the end of the day I’d like to move to the US.
I left a couple of invoices as i’m sure it doesn’t work this way but I’d love to hear any other poster’s recommendation on shipping online product
Looking forward to some easy Canelo money in the fall!
Valuation is not a skill. Stick with sales.
So go into same 3 industries recommended, learn online sales and scale ASAP.
Best time to start re-selling products was yesterday, second best time is now
Roger, thanks for the advice
Just move into sales and start and online business.
Enterprise sales salaries realistically cap at 300k in 5 years, not enough for getting rich but u won’t work longer for 40 hours a week (FOCUSED), sell online after that
Just wanted to thank you guys for everything over the years!
Just graduated elite college a year early. I’m 21 now. Started reading you guys at 16. Was making $100+ the hour copywriting at age 19 — your suggestion. Born (lower) rich. You told me not to get a career. Currently, sold my parents on putting a RE fund together with a couple million they had laying around. They also listen to my (your) advice on their established businesses.
Also about to launch online high ticket info product biz. (partnered with a boomer)
Had a lot of confusion earlier in life. You really showed the way. Life is great 🙂 Couldn’t be more in debt to you.
You’ll be my first call when I buy the PJ…
1) In relation to this portion of your latest post when you said “you should certainly use machine learning to target your audience”. Are you referring to AI tools within Facebook (eg. CBO) and Google Ads (eg. Automatic Targeting)? If not, what external tools are you referring too, please?
2) How to know when you have tested an idea enough, that it doesn’t work and to move onto next idea (eg. 2000 clicks with no conversions over 3 months despite using Facebook / Google Ads)? Currently testing one of the ideas you gave out and haven’t found success. In the process of iterating but am wondering when to cut PPC ad losses and move on.
3) On the point about automating / outsourcing. How do you know what skill is worth learning, what is worth outsourcing? For example, you guys once said it wasn’t worth learning how to build websites. Found that strange cause if you can launch websites to smoke test from end-to-end without having to outsource (eg. hosting / website design / graphics design / a/b testing) isn’t this good? Cause you can iterate and test faster than competitors.
Thanks.
1) Again no we don’t give away competitive edge + intellectual property. But you’re on the right track for a start
2) That’s tough on a click basis, we’d say if you lose more than $15K or so, it probably is time to rethink what you’re doing. Chances are its a poor ad though
3) Everything is worth outsourcing if possible. This is like asking if you should dig your own ditch or have someone else do it. The key is figuring out if you can *conclude* if its done well or not. If you can do that you just want to delegate all tasks. IF you have no idea what a good website looks like or how to do it then you better learn the basics yourself
1. Moved to Asia 2 years ago. Recently got a gift of ~$2 mm from family and a rental property. Was promised another $3 mm. 23 years old, not a lot of business experience. Planning to go mostly with stocks (etfs), bonds, real estate. Any investment advice?
2. Working as a real estate agent, barely making anything due to language barrier (chinese). Salary would be crap at any other job but potential for high commissions if I stick with RE. Should I just do that and build an online side business?
3. Very low interest rates on mortgages in my area (1.35-1.5%). But very low rent as well relative to the house price (2-3% cap rate). Any advice for RE investments?
Thanks for your time.
1) No just diversify it across all asset classes and sit back, you’re set for life with doing nothing
2) yes you have the time and financials to take more risk for free
3) No we don’t know your area but RE is a good place to be long term if you do your research
After reading your books I can tell you guys definitely prefer the major cities. How has 2020 changed your mind on that? Since you believe that an internet business is of primary importance and is not location dependent, If somebody has reached 40y/o and prefers a rural or suburban living situation, any reason not to pack up and leave the major cities? Thanks.
This also isn’t a question if rich live wherever you want that’s your choice
Background: BB IB 1.5yrs experience from a satellite office —> F500 Corporate Development & Strategy manager in the IT sector (for 7 months now, TC 110K, 60-70hr weeks, HCOL zone)
I have been interviewing due to the secular decline in my industry (think ~30% decline in revenue this year plus (2-3)% long term CAGR). Fortunately, I just landed an offer at a small unknown e-commerce company as their procurement/supply chain manager in a LCOL zone, compensation is around ~90k with no equity, fully remote and 40hr work weeks, projecting 70% growth this year.
My main goal is to start my business with a solid career as a hedge. M&A sounds like the place to stay but this company is facing too many headwinds and hours are on the long side of the spectrum. What would you do?
Depends on how good the firm is. If it’s a high quality firm M&A is better since deals come back next year or some time soon. If you think the company is dead try to get another M&A slot. Same old stick with the same three ideal career paths.
16, looking to secure an internship in the finance industry (preferably m&a or hedge fund). How would I go about it now ?
Also, which verticals in finance do you suggest to look after ? (I believe that you said m&a would be one of the ones left after the virus)
Finally, do you guys have an interview playbook for finance ?
Lol!
1) All of this is already on here
2) All of this is also already in the Q&A and on the blog 100 times
3) Already on here on the face of this website in Q&A….
Sounds like you’re new so please don’t ask questions for a month or so until you’ve read the content here
Re Pe decent exit op / alternative to IB? Looking to build up skills in the area to own income properties. Entering junior year top canadian uni
Yes thats fine its basically part of M&A
Hi. Not a “dating” question. But. Now that, after working my ass off, I’ve reached senior management in my career plus profitability on two side businesses, I think I’ve basically become addicted to working, making money, watching the numbers increase and gaining material power, as they provide me a satisfaction nothing else seems to match. And I’m having issues with finding women interesting/attractive. I used to chase girls all the time but now that I get dates much more easily I typically get bored after 5 minutes and I don’t see the point in investing my time. I don’t think this is normal. I did a testosterone check and I’m totally ok. Have you ever had similar issues? Maybe I’ve become addicted and I should take a complete break and just travel and have fun for 6 months-1 year? But with the businesses growing I would ruin everything by selling now. Any suggestion?
Can’t help here as this doesnt sound like a solvable issue. If you’re happy then there is nothing that you need to solve. If you are bored then you simply go out more. This honestly isn’t a question just a preference of yours
Thanks for the book recommendations in efficiency. Finished a few, favourite was “The Challenger Sale”. It’s about educating the customers on their problem, with insights they might not know.
In general, the main framework for sales is Problem then Solution.
For a dating example: “Feel lonely sometimes? You are not alone.” Then “Don’t lose out on your only chance to find a girlfriend. Register here now!”
I noticed these sort of approaches are used more for low tier product sales, it seems like brands with recognition don’t even start with the problem? E.g. Spotify, Tinder etc. Why is that so?
I’m starting a sugar dating company startup. Audience: Rich 40 y/o men paying $90 in subscription fees per month. Should I lead with the problem or the solution/benefit tagline at the first paragraph?
And since it’s dating with 2 types of users, sugar daddies and babies. Chicken & egg problem, need inventory of babies to attract daddies. Should the landing page be tailored to sugar daddies or both?
Thanks a lot!
We don’t know that niche, we would just copy the same strategy outlined by seeking arrangements and other similar companies in the niche. IF they were successful they copy/modify their tactics
Final year at Ivy studying Applied Math and PPE (Philosophy, Politics, Economics).
Made top 5% on SAT numerics and top 3% on SAT “synthesis” sections.
Alumni have offered me interviews with ANY company.
I enjoy synthesis more (psychology, politics, economics), and can’t see myself being an elite programmer. But tech offers more money and less stress, which is nice because my joints are weak.
Should I go for synthesis at Goldman (M&A?) or software engineering at Google? Long-term, what should I do, a hedge fund / prop shop after 2 years of experience?
Easy go into tech. Not even close.
If you’re going for Software Engineering at Google, you obviously don’t care about career all that much… figure out a way to get Fb/Microsoft/Snap/Prop Trading firms like Jane Street/HRT
Microsoft will be ~lowest and FB ~highest for the group I mentioned but hours will be roughly proportional.
Source: my own job search and getting offers from all of the above 😉
Are you retarded MSFT pays garbage Google outpays Facebook and Snap – if you negotiate – with 1/2 the risk.
Don’t give out shit advice Google is king for making money.
This is also pretty dumb because alumni are lying, no one except Recruiters can guarantee interviews at Big Tech. This isn’t your VP is staffer type of game
Questions
1) You have to have a marketing/product edge. If it has no following no one is going to care about it if it’s generic. Usually best not to sell there if you want to start a real brand at first
2) sounds like they are trying to either toe the line of legality, which means its probably blackhat like described in efficiency. IF you want to look at it go for it, it’s not long term sustainable. But could be worth learning so you aren’t fooled by the scams
3) Really not sure on this one
Do you feel that backing up your journals to Dropbox/OneDrive is secure?
No, it should be hand written and short
Building software to sell, expected to be released Q2 2021. First solo enterprise, return likely not more than low-mid 5 figures.
Would it be better to push the release of software 7~ months and devote half of free time to creating a physical product ala Efficiency?
Income 120, NW 280, early 30s (late start at 29, your blog saved my life)
No it sounds like you have a niche skill here. If it works and you make 5-figures you just got a Harvard level education for free!
What are your long term thoughts on wether it’s likely for other protocols (XTZ,ADA..etc) to gain grounds on ETH ..or is the network effect + Dapps too strong ?
It’s possible but if you own 1-2% net worth in those smaller high risk ones it won’t matter if it happens or not. So same strategy not really a good use of time to worry about
Any frameworks for generating a product idea besides choosing something randomly that dovetails with the recommended industries and revenue models
Copy your competitors, so jump on a trend in that particular niche since you want to follow the rising tide.
This is why we always recommend selling someone else’s product first if lost
So, all time highs on stock market, housing and commercial RE has had no decline yet, and no significant price drops on other investment assets.
Do you think it all (above) will happen, just takes a little longer – or do you think the central banks, fed etc managed to rescue it all?
Also, you recommended TIPS for protection earlier, still recommending it?
Thanks, appreciate you
Real estate doesnt soften till they give up UE and the rent forgiveness stuff. So if it does get weaker around September.
This has already been covered a ton of times on here, nothing has changed. So yes no change to strategy
Hello Wall Street Playboys,
Kilo here.
24 year old scientist living in Dallas. I make 60K a year in post tax income and have been working for two years.
Currently pushing 80hours a week at main job and making ~$100-$200/month from online ventures, (No businesses yet) with one income producing real estate property near a college.
Also have profitable family business I can work in.
Monthly living expense ~$2.2K/month and slightly bringing that down.
Read efficiency and notice I can’t hop into finance or wall steeet now, so focused on medical and online business.
Get MBA and go into Medical sales maybe? (The idea of owning my own laboratory and servicing the elderly and physician offices sounds enticing).
I am opening an online sales business and growing it from there.
Income goal is to make $1M before 30 and/or 50K a month by 25-30.
1. Am I on the right path? (what factors indicate a yes/no)
2. Should I go into finance to bolster my career?
3. What business would be suitable for a dedicated, idea producing and execution oriented person working in the medical field right now.
Thank you.
1) This is not a question if you’re on track to $1M by 30 you’re good to go. Sounds like a yes so all set.
2) No if #1 is true
3) we don’t know, never worked in medical. It should have products that are high margin and profitable at high ticket prices
Thank You.
Have degree in both econ and CS. Any careers better suited here than just plain engineering, M&A or sales?
Nope not that we would recommend.
1. You guys mention mostly using just coffee during the hustle phase – how do you get past the “crash” (hoping answer is not more coffee).
2. What verticals of fintech do you think has the highest potential of being disrupted in the next 5 years?
1) PED routine is in Spending for Max Return
2) International Remittance
1 – Build or buy: Looking at buying one or more established businesses (not websites) and then invest in more marketing / outsourcing / automation? Of particular interest are where current, unsophisticated owners aren’t spending much for online marketing. Primary reasons for buy: 1) business has customers / revenue 2) buying stable companies at 3-4x CF multipliers seems attractive in any environment 3) can get low interest SBA financing. I realize build might scale better digitally, but 1) success seems all or nothing; 2) my background is more in fixing problems then creating 3) not expert on pure social media marketing. Thoughts and blindspots?
2 – Got any productive pastimes / hobby recommendations for a practitioner of stealth wealth waiting out the 12-18 month shakeout period before I’ll be ready to look at more CMRE?
1) Not sure what your skills are here. As long as you know for sure the business is run poorly in an area you can fix you can buy it. If you have never done anything like this before you’re more likely to lose money as the #2 person will steal all of the clients/biz model and won’t be happy with some guy coming in and taking over.
2) Sounds like you’re doing it! Spend more time working online scaling up if you can and of course reading to stay ahead of the curve! This is the best time to buy ads – lots of political stuff going around driving down bids
Currently living in NYC and almost heading into my 30s in a couple years. Moved here from Atlanta a little about 2 years ago because I was sick and tired of life down south (marriage and kids by 25, lack of enough good looking women, very cliquey, and a lot of people who were goody two shoes). It was driving me insane, a lot of “average” and passive aggressive people.
I keep hearing that NYC is falling apart with all that is going on and with the lockdown happening, I do not see the nightlife that makes this city amazing coming back until 2021 if that.
Worst case scenario, I have to move as much as I have grown to fall in love with this city (especially Pre-Covid).
What US cities do you think are loaded with good looking women, decent ratios (already rules out LA), a lifestyle full of people over 30 who are single and party, great nightlife, and an opportunity to meet a lot of cool fun people as you make money?
Already covered NYC people move to miami, LA/California people move to texas/vegas
so those are the spots
1. Been feeling lots of chest tightness lately from bench press over the years and bad posture from desk job. Any habits you guys picked up over the years besides stretching, walking, yoga to help with imbalances?
2. what CGI software have you had positive results with?
3. best platform to re-sell retail products at when the economy picks up, especially with all the discounted retail products in light of this Covid thing?
1) Yes yoga+stretching helps but see a doctor if needed
2) Stated in Q&A we can’t give away our competitive edge
3) not sure, you should already have the retail companies reaching out for your product. You don’t want to be the one selling your idea you want them interested in carrying your product
Currently, doing Software Eng job (60k, remote, low effort) and online biz (60k with growth potential).
The hours are spent mostly on the biz but still need 20-30h a week to do the job.
Considering quitting the job by the end of the year and focus on the biz – if I go full time biz, it should easily grow 3-5x
Should I do it or wait till the revenue is 2x job (as you advice normally)?
Answered your own question, stay for now
I came to Canada two years ago as an immigrant. I left a poor country in Europe for a better life but I didn’t complete my Bachelor in Computer Science.
Now I’m working in Software Sales in Canada but make only $40K per year. Still cannot find better jobs at the moment due to the pandemic.
I’ve started doing Web Dev ( IT stuff ) + running Ads helping local businesses and made $12K extra this year on the side.
Should I go back to Europe or stay in Canada and complete my Bachelor in Computer Science or start it all over again here?
( it’s quite expensive In Canada to study, should I get a Loan and get in debt for it? )
What should I do to maximize my opportunities and earning potential? Thank you.
WE do not know as we don’t know the canadian/european job markets. Look up the wages in both countries, if you can get an ROI in under a year then yes go back to school for tech and get the higher paying job
This is a basic math equation that you can easily solve yourself. In the mean time just keep doing the Web/Dev stuff and scaling up online sales
I work in IT in Canada. Didn’t finish my BCSc due to health issues. Graduated with a two year diploma in Computer Programming, got a boring 9-5, found WSP and immediately got myself a promotion based on their advice.
If you really, really want to stick it out in Canada (dunno why) get your Cisco CCNP. It’s a 2 year diploma. My diploma had one semester devoted to the CCNA (a CCNP light version), and it was the most valuable thing on my resume for the first three years. Guys with their CCNP skipped over me on the career ladder. I’ve since eclipsed them by following WSP advice, but these guys were the only ones I’ve seen walk into a high-five figure job without a BCSc.
It won’t get you six figures right at graduation. Neither will a BCSc. Get your online business going, use it to pay for whatever school you choose in whatever country you like. CCNP isn’t difficult, it’s just tedious, you’ll be fine.
If u can make 12k a year self taught there is no purpose of going back to college
1. Tech IB at mid tier BB like Barclays/Credit Suisse, or C&R/Industrials/*insert group in dying industry* but still “strong” group at GS/MS?
2. Other than Tech and Healthcare, any IB coverage groups worth joining to pick up skills and be well positioned for the future? (I know M&A generalist is also a good choice)
1) Honestly at this point stick with the main good sectors even if brand is slightly worse. Don’t go to Joe’s investment shack over CS/Barclays or something. But if you can go into CS tech vs. Goldman (dead industry) go to CS
2) No that’s pretty much it, safest for sure is tech and healthcare
Making $80k and saving as much as possible. Should I find a second job like flipping products/fixing phones, or am I better off building online skills?
I know you recommend affiliate marketing, so I made a site with over 30 product reviews ranking on Google. The website earns about nothing so far, but been learning a lot towards selling effectively in the niche. Thinking maybe it’ll be an actual income stream after another 30 ranking articles or so, along with email marketing.
Am I on the right track, or better off building up capital until I can manufacture my own product and market with ads?
1) you should do both your income is too low for now
2) Sure that’s a good start will be very low income though
Go into Ecommerce instead, affiliate marketing is 2010 to 2015 shit
Ha nice we still know several guys making a killing
Yeah, affiliate marketing has been “dead” every year since it started 😀
1. Hedging your election bet at all or staying with it? I agree that polls can be noisy but the uncertainty here just seems huge…Biden is a weak candidate but Trump has been getting in his own way too sometimes.
2. Good recent books that you’ve read and recommend? Could be any topic, not necessarily business.
3. Your predictions have turned out well. More so than just asking you “what do you think will happen next”, I’m curious HOW you come about these predictions, as far as what kinds of heuristics or patterns that you look for (is it historical analysis, is it following what the smart money does, etc.). I know that’s a very dense question so perhaps an article for another time, or a book recommendation?
1) No staying the same for now
2) WE just started reading again this week so check back in a couple months nothing new yet
3) Not really replicable that would require having the same life experience and skills. Would suggest reading about human emotions as that’s usually the part people get wrong the most
Will soon accept FT position ($50K/year) govt-funded small biz development center, but my primary focus is my ecomm biz (netting $5K/month profit and growing).Job just feeds the growth of my business. Mostly autonomous, work is actually related to e-commerce/digital ads and I’m ok with pay as it will be only 15-25 hours of “real work” at the job per week, boss is someone I’ve known for years, benign & very relaxed attitude and knows about my biz, doesn’t mind me working on it during biz hours (will be WFH anyways for the next 4 months).
My question is if it would be politically smart or not to reveal the growth of my ecomm biz to the boss. He knows about the existence of the biz (he thinks it only makes $2k a month) because the same biz development center awarded my biz a small non-equity grant ($5000) about a few years ago. Biz has grown and isn’t linked to the center anymore, but I am technically “alumni” and I now work at the same center helping other companies grow.
I was considering possibly mentioning it as leverage to get at least 1-2 days per week “remote work” after COVID is gone…but not sure if I should reveal my success to boss as my combined income is higher than his and within a year might be higher than the director.
Should I reveal the full extent of my success to my boss so he knows my “market value/talent” or downplay it to avoid political problems?
Easy, never tell them what you’re doing. Your boss doesn’t care about you he only cares if you’re making him money. He doesnt want you to surpass him since he is insecure like 99.99% of the population. Don’t shoot yourself in the foot for ego purposes
Is M&A(IB/PE) compensation going to be higher, lower, or the same in the long term – lets say 10 to 15 years?
M&A should be similar/the same on an inflation adjusted basis.
I live in one of the two highest-cost of living cities in Canada. Worried about the money printing (plus Cdn. govt is ultra-immigration friendly which keeps housing demand very high) causing inflation of assets, specifically in housing and getting locked out of the housing market (assuming a similar to post-2011 housing bubble will start coming 1-2 years). We have not had any civil unrest here and seems like housing prices are very stable. Family currently rents (around C$2600/month)….concerned about us being renters for ever.
My net worth after debt is $50K, job income is ~$4K/mo, online biz generates $5k/mo and is growing. I would prefer putting alll my savings into the online biz as it is the fastest growing and highest ROI, but I’m wondering if it would be a good idea for me to buy a house or condo in the coming 1-2 years ? I would strongly prefer a detached (C$1mm, at least around $150K cash down) but would have to save and put up a significant downpayment….condo is the next best option at around C$400-500K, would need to put a more feasible 60-75K down).
Should I continue to rent for the next 2-4 years and simply grow the business significantly, or put a portion of the biz income toward a housing purchase?
This is already answered at the top, you’re wasting your time and don’t have enough money to care about these things. Work on more income streams forget the leverage for now unless you want to go into RE
Any advice from you guys (or from any other readers) on selling a naturally produced food ingredient (commodity) type product? Think maple syrup, but it’s a Made in the USA healthy alternative with zero sugar that is bought by health conscious and weight conscious people. It is somewhat new on the market and I expect it to 4-8x in demand in the coming 1-2 years, however my concern is that this product is pretty much a “commodity”, and the only differentiation will be through branding. There are already a few major health food brands that have started selling it. I could use the ingredient to instead create a health food product (e.g. cookies) but that would require even most investment and development, this product would be a simply buy, package and sell). Plus I don’t already have an established health foods brand (but do have e-comm experience) but would be willing to build it out. Deciding between this product and other simpler categories such as gardening or home goods.
Unfortunately do not, not even close to that industry/space
I am a longtime reader. Graduated last year and moved to Miami earlier this year, joined Softbank startup as a Data Scientist, got furloughed because of COVID-19. I was looking for jobs but couldn’t find one, finally understood your point to have multiple streams of income.
After reading efficiency, I was interested in trying out Affiliate Marketing before starting an online business. Most of the resources that I have come across online talk about having your own blog, building your own brand first and then using that brand to launch your affiliate marketing thing. It kind of didn’t make sense with what I read in efficiency.
I was wondering if you can recommend any good starting points for beginners in affiliate marketing ?
Go on stack that money and learn how it works. Not a recommendation but honestly that’s so easy it could have been found with a google search
1. Do you think it’s wise to stockpile food/essential supplements and/or buy batteries, gas tanks and the like?
2. Do you guys in believe in the so-called Agenda 21 where the evil Bill Gates is trying to anihilate humans through compulsory vaccinations and we will pretty much will be living in a orwellian state while the elite live in a some sort of technological super-heaven? If not, what would be your take.
Thank you for the incredible ongoing content.
Alex
1) Already covered, you should have a worst case scenario already packed in your place (we covered this back in jan/feb)
2) No clue what that is and sounds like a Reddit board full of losers and weirdos
Bought all 3 books
Started affiliate marketing via Instagram bc I was bored during covid. Im in the best niche in the history of the world (make easy money) and doing everything whitehat so far. Consistently making $10 a day for every 1,000 followers. Have 3,500 followers so far and averaging about $35 a day. I need to get to 100K followers to start making $1,000 days. I tried asking influencers and very few helped me out because they were skeptical of my page, but the ones that did brought in good customers.
Is it worth it to go black hat to buy good followers and grow the page as fast as possible, or should I keep plugging away, doing follow for follow, like and comment on similar pages, and try to clean it up a bit so it looks better for influencers?
Also I am spending $0 and my Conversion rate per click is around 8%
Keep plugging away and keep it clean. Sounds like you hit a great niche!
You can even just buy ads and push the spend go negative for a while if you’re sure the ROI will be up later (spend clean ads)
My gf’s sister has a 200k organic instagram following which, going by what you’re saying, could be some niche.
Want to PM/Email about this?
1. Assuming you’ve gotten products manufactured outside of China, are there any noticeable differences in speed of delivery, price, quality?
2. All other things being equal, is a “.com” domain significantly preferable to a “.io” domain for an online business?
3. If you had zero net worth, would you prefer it to be with a) no debt and no assets or b) lots of debt and lots of assets?
1) price/quality no, delivery yes more complex and slower since you’re working overseas
2) not a big issue, .com is most common
3) If assets offset all interest payments then B, if not then a
When I release original tech products that appeal to a broad market, big tech companies replicate the product. Should I try to sneak around this or is this a good sign and I should just attack it directly by trying to outdo the replica?
This is far out of our realm, contact someone who has experience with this issue
chess or poker?
Going with Chess, poker has too many degenerates in it
Do you think it’s worth starting a company selling masks right now targeting social/political issues? IE. BLM, Kanye 2020, Trump 2020? Even holiday-themed masks (safe for work) would work.
The numbers seem decently profitable, and there appears to be demand on specific platforms. Would it be a blunder for someone with no experience to get into this? I’m worried I’m an easy target for a manufacturer to screw over, or there’s some blind spot I’m not considering.
You can do it but its going to be short lived. An easy way to do it is sell custom masks on something like etsy. So you don’t have to have inventory risk like that spinner widget fad from a few years back
22, college drop-out.
An 8-figure CMO told me I write good copy, so I’ve applied to Agora (finance) & Golden Hippo (health/beauty).
I have an offer from each.
Finance tends pay-out more commissions, since the products are more expensive. Also, Agora is said to have the best training program for new copywriters.
But writing health/beauty copy seems more transferable to ecom; seems easier to start a skincare offer than poach a guru to front my own finance offer.
Purely for long-term skillset, which would you recommend I working/learning copy at Agora or Hippo?
That one is easy, the one not related to finance is better. Sine it is more transferable.
IE. much harder to create a finance product than copy a health/beauty product under your own brand name
1. I have currently built two niche social media accounts with a couple of thousand followers each on Twitter. I’m looking to start affiliate marketing and sell info products and subscriptions. Is it a good idea to file one LLC and have multiple dba’s (looking to start more accounts in the future)?
2. Am I missing something or are the trades such as HVAC seriously underrated? The education system is pushing everybody to attend school in turn they fight for low wage paper-pusher jobs for big corps. While the trades have a low chance of automation compared to most jobs and way less competition. If you have business knowledge you are ahead of 90 percent of normal tradesmen plus many are unprofessional. I go to a top 35 school but it is tempting to start small in something like HVAC and scale.
3. I just started a digital marketing and copywriting service. Currently, I’m cold emailing prospects but would you say its better to print flyers/business cards and hit 50-100 small business per day?
1) Yes that’s fine, since its small you can just put all of it under one umbrella
2) That’s a fine business the downside is it’s a lot of people management and dealing with constant customer complaints + workers 24/7. It is a good business though
3) Not sure what this means, you should work on specific projects and build a rolodex, emailing people randomly saying you can help without any proof of success is going to be difficult
Thank you for the quick reply! I have done a couple projects for free but I will continue to work on building a bigger portfolio. I meant going into places and trying to chat with the owners vs cold emailing. Thanks again.
2) I wanted to add onto this in addition to my personal question in the Q&A. I am a former electrician and you can make bank in this trade if you join a union. There are guys in places like Seattle making 6 figures.
The one thing that needs to be understood about the trades is that you are never just going to be paid 6 figures for showing up. If you get paid 6 figures, you are going to work like a dog doing things that no college graduate would actually want to do.
For anyone who would rather make $80k working a trade versus making $40k in an office job… You are going to change your mind real quick when you get called into work at 3am to do hard labor on the railroad. Or when you expose yourself to dangerous chemicals at the wastewater plant everyday for 3 years.
The problems with being a tradesmen are numerous. You get zero respect and general society looks down on you. You are working with million dollar equipment doing dangerous work that could easily injure you. Your coworkers are toxic people who are petty, judgmental, hold grudges and are very quick to behave in ways that would cause immediate termination in a white collar office job. I worked 2 years at the company I was at and got laid off in the middle of the corona virus because the foreman was mad that I do not own a truck and would not purchase a truck to haul company material on my own time.
Your customers are worse and will treat you like you are a peasant.
Yes. I’m from a blue collar family, most people in trades have social/intellectual/drug issues and end up there as a last resort.
If you go in with the mindset of making money and stay sober and healthy you will make big big stacks within 5 years.
Going to be traveling for a few months for work. My lease ends right when I get back. Is there any sound financial strategy that lets me minimize costs?
Not sure, you should see if you can store your stuff and break lease? math may work out for you
Seems like pennies though worried about 1-2 months living expense. Traveling for no reason to see the world though is usually a death sentence.
1. What jobs/internships look good on a resume for tech sales? My current area is not a tech hub, therefore not too many tech sales internships.
2. Any skills other than Sales/Coding young people should learn to hedge themselves for the forthcoming of AI?
3. If I have the time is a bad idea to work on 2-3 small online business compared to going all in on 1?
1) We don’t know never went that route, there is a guest post on tech sales, also go and reach out to tech sales people
2) Not much, sales is the best at this point… most transferable
3) Yes. Focus on one idea, don’t juggle and do everything half-assed
How to benefit from this economic recession/downturn? I get that 1) you have to keep you job, 2) flat comps in 2020 is like a promotion/bonus, etc. From your experience from the last downturn/great depression, how should we think about taking advantage of this downturn, as the recession causes disruption and may create opportunities/orders.
This is all covered in our book spending for max return
General guidelines around sole proprietor vs starting an LLC or S-Corp? (Or when to transition)
When you feel like you’re paying way too much in tax you know you’re doing it wrong. It’ll be obvious until then focus on what matters, growing the biz
Get a tax accountant who used to work for the IRS.
If you’re the only owner an LLC will be taxed as a sole prop, an s Corp taxes as either a sole prop or s Corp, go for taxes as s Corp in the later. Boy your tax savings have to beat the $800 per year to the state SOS.