Op- M4Virus
I'm unsure what part of the world you are in . That may or may not be a factor in your decision.
If you're smart your location is trivial these days. To your question.."Where to start and be safe?"
Your mental construction.
All depends on your skill set, background, mindset ambition level. How you see yourself in the world.
Your question is generic and lacks specifics for the things that matter most.
Anyway, I'll give my personal feedback based on my own personal experience in turning $5,000
into my first 7 figure milestone by the age of 23.
It all began with my addiction to a late night infomercial, an Asian guy on a yacht, and bikini glad girls with
big bOObies. Mental impressions can be strong. It took me about 10 years to earn my fist Barely Million
and it didn't last long before I crashed and burned then had to recover and grown.
The short version of how I did it.
I started an import export business and I sold exclusive electronic products to big box retailers.
For example I'd commit to a minimum purchase QTY of say 500 pcs of a stun gun sold by the
supplier in China for say $17.00 and I'd contact the purchasing department of US based retailers
who sold relevant products to what I bought from the Chinese.
I'd sell a product that I bought for $17.00 in volume to a USA based buyer at a wholesale volume
price of say $24.00, and they would sell it on their shelves or in their catalogs for $49.99 on sale.
That's how I made my first $ from a $5,000 personal loan that my parents gave me when I was
14 after I nagged them. I bought a guide from Entrepreneur Magazine back in the day that listed
the Import / Export biz as the lowest cost intensity biz for the highest Return on Capital.
The emphasis was that all of this could be done from Home, remotely. That appealed to me since my
office became my parents kitchen table and my bedroom.
Despite being initially under capitalised by the time I was 21, I had broken 6 figures Remotely and
from home.
Seasonally since I only earned the few months before and the 2 months AFTER
Christmas. A part time remote 6 figure business after only a handful of years. Started with $5,000.
Eventually I rented an office at Regus since working from home became a bore even after I left home.
While at Regus, I met a fellow entrepreneur in the Mortgage business, he had a friend from school
who was a 7 or possibly 8 figure business owner with several side hustles. But his core business was
he owned a company that had the janitorial contracts for many office buildings worldwide. Not a technology
guy at all.
Old school guy, made his money with a handshake and smile. Still I was earning remotely, chiefly with
the Chinese while I spent most of my time trying to get products on infomercials and heaps of omnichannel
retail points of sale.
That was a step UP from selling to catalogues. TV and the vertical distribution
deals which emerged from TV exposure is where the money was back then. Home shopping was
and remains a huge cash cow for product scouts who can find novel products and secure them for mass
distribution. A ruthless business.
So during this era at Regus, my neighbor at Regus introduced me to his Millionaire friend who understood
that I sold strictly remotely and online. He was impressed. He didn't understand online selling so much
he was a bit older and of a different era.
We cut a deal. I became his exclusive online reseller of branded video conferencing systems. A
side hustle business that he owned.
During this side hustle phase for me, I sold far more products than this guy expected me to sell. I sold
strictly online. He didn't understand how, he was equally impressed and later I discovered envious.
During a trip that he and I took to Hawaii for fun, he badgered me constantly about how I was able to
sell his products at such a high volume...ONLINE. At the time I didn't unpack in full how I did it. I was
bringing in $50,000 per week during my peak era, that was more money than I was earning with my
import export business, though the character of HOW I was Selling was Very Similar.
Ultimately I was selling high end media products at a big savings to a multinational with thousands of
employees. I made the mistake during a time of weakness and comfort of telling my supplier Who and
how I was selling at such high volume levels.
I was selling to a procurement group that I had met on a b2b forum on AOL. Back in the day AOL had
very high quality B2B global trade board where buyers and sellers could connect and make deals.
That's where I found my buyers. Corp media types.
90% of my sales were coming from 2 buyers. It was a little grey hat because they were buying high volume,
at one point more than my supplier could handle in a timely manner.
Grey hat because I later found out that the buyers were aggressively buying from me because they were
Repackaging the products for an unauthorized export market division, where the boxes clearly stated
"Not For Export". Another story for another day.
So yeah, that's ultimately how I turned $5,000 into 7 figures during roughly a 10 year period. A trade business
and a high paying side hustle and a mentor who taught me a harsh lesson about breaking one of the 48 Laws
Of Power... [Never Outshine The Master]. Grrrr
Then I moved on to other ventures and adventures.
Becoming a full stack remote media entrepreneur selling 6 & 7 figure lux media products of a different kind
(meaning Dominant SEO-Video-Branded Print & Private Services) to high income professionals, within
the industry least impacted by Covid-19.
The Medical Economy for those wondering. A multi Trillion dollar global market.
That's where the money has been for the past 100 years, and will remain. A biological imperative for most
humans is to LIVE. Uncomplicated. Simple.
The ultimate evergreen market. Ignore the Guru hype, if you just focus on economic research and street smarts
you'll always prevail in business. You don't need a "Passion" you need to follow what smart economist reveal for free
and take action.
In business and in life, you learn fast that you win some and you lose some. The fun is the persistence that most
people don't have. Plus persistence never feels like FUN when you are persisting.
Later, I met a SEO practitioner on this forum Years ago. He used to actually do the technical SEO
for this very forum before the new owner took over in 2011.
Based on some feedback from him privately and on the thread below, and with my
own Master Plans, I relocated from a PH view in a sun belt community and put boots on the ground in
Asia, and things have only improved. A few hiccups along the way. I recently got stranded on the world's
Best Island in Asia for months for what should have been a 3 night business trip.
[Anyone interested here is the old thread]
https://www.blackhatworld.com/seo/own-your-own-seo-company-in-the-philippines.332002/page-16#post-5309602
Being stranded was the result of an unexpected national lock down of all non essential air and sea travel.
Technically speaking, it all began with $5,000, a loan that my Dad put his foot down on with my mom who didn't
want me to have the money because she wanted me to Focus on School, not on infomercials pitch men,
yachts and their big bOObie girls in bikinis.
Mom & Dad's $5,000 came with the capitalist stings attached of repayment at $170 per month. Giddy up!
Take smart "risk", there is no reward without Risk. Something unexpected will ALWAYS gut punch you.
The key to success is having a great plan and having more resilience in the face of uncertainty.
Most people won't do that.
Ultimately that separates the winners from the losers. That's why there will always be a 1%.
Sidenote: I also know a guy who turned $4,250 into double that amount within 4 weeks selling high end SEO.
The math behind that is more straightforward. He invested the $4,250 for properly setting up his pre revenue
start up agency.
Then his first client was around $1,500 per month with less than 15% fulfillment cost. A personal
sports coach I believe was the client. But that was only the first client of his new inside sales agency because
he started with a 5 seat mini call center at the time or something like that.
Last I checked he scaled his proven sales formula with his growing remote sales force. He is American.
Anyway, lots of smart ways to make great return on capital for the amount that you have. Offline & Online.
Happy Holidays to all whatever you believe.
https://www.blackhatworld.com/seo/own-your-own-seo-company-in-the-philippines.332002/page-16#post-5309602
CJ
