How I started my biz journey when I was on welfare & broke:
From my very first (awful) business idea through to the one that made me $250,000 overnight - Here's everything I learned that you should know:
1. Stopped working - collected Government assistance (paid my rent and 70GBP/(about $100) pocket money for food per week). This meant I could go deep on learning and planning.
(Yes, I paid this money back many times over in taxes since, for all you anti-welfare do-gooders lol)
2. Lived in a “guardianship scene” - you move into an empty house to stop squatters breaking in.
I paid 250 GBP (about ($400) and had a four-floor run-down mansion to myself.
Water dripped from the roof in the bathroom lol
3. Tested 2 (awful) business ideas - connecting driving instructors with people who wanted to drive (what?) - went nowhere.
Idea two was market research for nightclubs to improve their businesses.
Ran some tests at two major nightclubs - went nowhere.
Idea three was an online magazine (more on that below)
4. Flipped a few concert tickets on eBay for working capital.
The key is to join all the fan clubs to get early access and know which tickets will sell out.
SAD: Bots run this market now, probably too late for you to get in. But flipping things is a good first business, as Gary Vee will often say 🙂
5. Went to business/startup events in London.
Talked to people.
Understood what a “business” was.
I don’t recommend this so much - There is so much great information online.
One reason to “do” real life is to meet people like you, can help you see you’re not alone.
6. Read lots of business books.
Once my businesses ramped up I was too spent at the end of each day to read.
My advice is always: Read LOTS before you properly “start” as you will be very busy and want your time not doing business “stuff” to be Netflix or similar to de-stress.
I got into audiobooks recently though, that can be a good warm-down at the end of the day.
Essential books to read/listen to:
General:
the 7 agreements
Turning Pro
How to win friends and influence people
Think and grow rich
Unlimited Power (Anthony Robbins)
For tech startups:
The Hard thing about hard things
Zero to One
the lean startup
Marketing:
Trust me I’m lying
The E-myth revisited
This blog :)
7. Find a co-founder if planning to build a big company.
As mentioned, my third business idea was an online magazine.
It was the one thing I did that changed my life more than any other.
Lewis was smarter than me, much deeper in the internet, introduced me to websites which would change my life (Hacker News, Reddit, Twitter), and was cynical in a good way, saying “no” to many of my ideas until I got to a good one.
The idea that Lewis said “yes” to?
Building an online magazine.
In the second week of the website going live, we had 25,000 visitors.
Within six months, we had 300,000 website visitors per month.
Within a year, we had raised $250,000.
I was never broke again.
If you’re reading this you’re probably building a cash-generating business, not a longer play like I did with an online magazine, but the principles are the same.
Check out these articles about getting started if you are at the start of your journey and want to make money fast:
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