Friday, September 28, 2007
Clothing Apparel Idea
I've hit a couple of (temporary, I hope) road bumps trying to push this clothing apparel idea out. The first issues is trying to find an outfit to make a good prototype for me. I admit I haven't sat down and tried making my own yet, mainly because I'm not too savvy when it comes sewing and the like. Perhaps this weekend, if I have time, I'll sit down and try to make a best-effort prototype. The second issue I have is along the lines of marketing. As I mentioned before, my audience has changed slightly from when I originally thought of this idea. My "new" audience comes with a lot of licensing issues that I am only now beginning to find out is a lot harder to break through than I originally thought. Both issues aren't dramatic enough to halt my efforts - they are just a couple of things I need to get past. I'm sure everyone who has gone down this similar path has run into the same issues with temporary road blocks. Perseverance is key.
Monday, September 24, 2007
What would you do ... ?
I'm sure at one point or another in our lives, we've either been asked or have asked ourselves,
I recall years ago reading a book which posed a similar question (although, I think it was 'What would you do with $100,000?'). It was a self-help type of book that reflected more on ways to cut costs in your individual life and get started thinking about investing. For the purpose of this book, it was more geared towards investing in stocks. I vaguely remember putting down the same old answer of paying off debt, stocking some money away in stocks (even though I didn't have a clue about the stock market), and diversifying the remaining in mutual funds and other types of "savings" accounts.
I was actually thinking of this same question the other day and instead of thinking what I would do with the money NOW (vs. when I read the similar question in the book years ago), I started analyzing the question itself. Sure, I could probably do quite well today if given $1,000,000, but why $1,000,000 in the first place?
Why not $500,000?
Why not $100,000?
Why not $25,000?
Why not $10,000?
Why not $1,000?
Why not $100?
Why not $1?
Why not nothing?
So, instead of asking ourselves, "What would you do with $1,000,000?", we should be asking ourselves, "What would we do with $0?" THAT, to me, is the question answered by successful people, and it's one we should all be asking ourselves on a daily basis.
"What would you do if you had $1,000,000?"Of course, all the semantics aside, like taxes, where it came from, etc., the question is just a basic one with regards to how you would "spend" your newly acquired wealth?
I recall years ago reading a book which posed a similar question (although, I think it was 'What would you do with $100,000?'). It was a self-help type of book that reflected more on ways to cut costs in your individual life and get started thinking about investing. For the purpose of this book, it was more geared towards investing in stocks. I vaguely remember putting down the same old answer of paying off debt, stocking some money away in stocks (even though I didn't have a clue about the stock market), and diversifying the remaining in mutual funds and other types of "savings" accounts.
I was actually thinking of this same question the other day and instead of thinking what I would do with the money NOW (vs. when I read the similar question in the book years ago), I started analyzing the question itself. Sure, I could probably do quite well today if given $1,000,000, but why $1,000,000 in the first place?
Why not $500,000?
Why not $100,000?
Why not $25,000?
Why not $10,000?
Why not $1,000?
Why not $100?
Why not $1?
Why not nothing?
So, instead of asking ourselves, "What would you do with $1,000,000?", we should be asking ourselves, "What would we do with $0?" THAT, to me, is the question answered by successful people, and it's one we should all be asking ourselves on a daily basis.
Monday, September 10, 2007
Brainstorming Ideas
Here is the current list of ideas I have on my plate:
Group A
These are the ideas I am focusing my efforts on first ...
Clothing Apparel - I ran this idea by some family members and all of them agreed it would be something they would consider buying. I don't want to reveal what it is at the moment for fear that someone will take the idea and run with it. I will say that my initial target audience has changed slightly from my original thought, though.
Book - Not sure if this will be an eBook or a bona-fide off-the-shelf paperback book. I have a name already lined-up and an outline. Now all I need to do is find time to write it. It's actually something I thought about writing almost 10 years ago, but never got around to doing. I won't say what it is at the moment, only that it has absolutely NOTHING to do with real estate.
Web Site - Create a web site to help market the book above. Nothing fancy, although, I guess I could add a message board, etc., and make it into something larger.
Another Web Site - This web site will definately be big time. Again, for intellectual property issues, I'd rather not talk about the purpose.
Buying(/Selling?) Domain Names - I got this idea off of a message board I was reading a couple of weeks back. People have become millionaires by doing nothing more than buying unique domain names and reselling them for 1,000%'s more. I spent about 45 mins the other day thinking and searching of names and I was surprised to find that many names I thought were taken are available. Sure, names that are common are taken, but there still exist names that with the right "twist" may fetch a good price. I doubt any of the ones I came up with will sell for $100,000, or even $30,000, but if you can buy one for $7.95 and make even $100 off of it (over 1,000% ROI), why wouldn't you?
Affiliate Ads - I've known about affiliate ads for some time, but never gave it much thought when it came to making $$$ off of them. However, after reading this post on Kenric's web site, I have given it much more attention.
Group B
These are ideas that I think will generate some good money, but I have them on a back burner until the ones in Group A are at least tried first ...
REI Book - Just a simple introduction-type of book for anyone interested in getting into real estate investing. Most of it will be rehash from other books, but I have some ideas to add value based on my experiences in REI, along with some other thoughts.
REI Web Site - Mainly a web site to promote the book above.
REI Game - A free online game with play like Cashflow 101, Monopoly, and some other twists thrown in. This may be linked off of the web site above to help promote the book, too.
Group C
These ideas are decent, but either will take so much effort tha they'll HAVE to return a good profit, or just aren't what I think are "fabulous" ideas ...
eBook Software - There are some good eBook writing software packages out on the web. The one's I've seen, though, could be enhanced.
Backup Program - With Jump drives becoming larger and larger, I had the idea of making a backup program that would automatically start when the jump drive is inserted into a computer. Of course, there would have to be some configuration work at first, but the main idea would be a "pop it in and run a backup" type of application - IOW, quick and easy.
Data Storage Service - Have a service that will save/backup/restore company's (or individual's) data over the web. Lots of things to consider first, though, like facility management, hardware purchasing costs, security.
Web Site - Not another one!
Web Site - And again!!!
Facebook Application - Something some college enthusiasts my find useful.
PHP Encoding/Decoding Software - Software to encode PHP files so the data is unreadable when deployed. Zend has something like this already, but it seems overly cumbersome, has some issues, and is kind of expensive, if you ask me.
Group A
These are the ideas I am focusing my efforts on first ...
Clothing Apparel - I ran this idea by some family members and all of them agreed it would be something they would consider buying. I don't want to reveal what it is at the moment for fear that someone will take the idea and run with it. I will say that my initial target audience has changed slightly from my original thought, though.
Book - Not sure if this will be an eBook or a bona-fide off-the-shelf paperback book. I have a name already lined-up and an outline. Now all I need to do is find time to write it. It's actually something I thought about writing almost 10 years ago, but never got around to doing. I won't say what it is at the moment, only that it has absolutely NOTHING to do with real estate.
Web Site - Create a web site to help market the book above. Nothing fancy, although, I guess I could add a message board, etc., and make it into something larger.
Another Web Site - This web site will definately be big time. Again, for intellectual property issues, I'd rather not talk about the purpose.
Buying(/Selling?) Domain Names - I got this idea off of a message board I was reading a couple of weeks back. People have become millionaires by doing nothing more than buying unique domain names and reselling them for 1,000%'s more. I spent about 45 mins the other day thinking and searching of names and I was surprised to find that many names I thought were taken are available. Sure, names that are common are taken, but there still exist names that with the right "twist" may fetch a good price. I doubt any of the ones I came up with will sell for $100,000, or even $30,000, but if you can buy one for $7.95 and make even $100 off of it (over 1,000% ROI), why wouldn't you?
Affiliate Ads - I've known about affiliate ads for some time, but never gave it much thought when it came to making $$$ off of them. However, after reading this post on Kenric's web site, I have given it much more attention.
Group B
These are ideas that I think will generate some good money, but I have them on a back burner until the ones in Group A are at least tried first ...
REI Book - Just a simple introduction-type of book for anyone interested in getting into real estate investing. Most of it will be rehash from other books, but I have some ideas to add value based on my experiences in REI, along with some other thoughts.
REI Web Site - Mainly a web site to promote the book above.
REI Game - A free online game with play like Cashflow 101, Monopoly, and some other twists thrown in. This may be linked off of the web site above to help promote the book, too.
Group C
These ideas are decent, but either will take so much effort tha they'll HAVE to return a good profit, or just aren't what I think are "fabulous" ideas ...
eBook Software - There are some good eBook writing software packages out on the web. The one's I've seen, though, could be enhanced.
Backup Program - With Jump drives becoming larger and larger, I had the idea of making a backup program that would automatically start when the jump drive is inserted into a computer. Of course, there would have to be some configuration work at first, but the main idea would be a "pop it in and run a backup" type of application - IOW, quick and easy.
Data Storage Service - Have a service that will save/backup/restore company's (or individual's) data over the web. Lots of things to consider first, though, like facility management, hardware purchasing costs, security.
Web Site - Not another one!
Web Site - And again!!!
Facebook Application - Something some college enthusiasts my find useful.
PHP Encoding/Decoding Software - Software to encode PHP files so the data is unreadable when deployed. Zend has something like this already, but it seems overly cumbersome, has some issues, and is kind of expensive, if you ask me.
Tuesday, September 4, 2007
Introduction
I decided to split-off my B-quadrant (i.e., business ventures) postings into a separate blog to distinguish it from my real estate ventures. This blog will concentrate solely on my ventures into the business world and I'll leave real estate information for my other blog. I hope that by having a fresh slate to work with (i.e., this blog), it will better help me delineate the two ventures and I can concentrate on the business venture completely away from real estate (unless the two do happen to cross paths as I'm sure they will).
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