Boring politically correct people
June 29, 2006 | Filed Under You've gone to the finest schools allright, Practical tips | Leave a Comment
The job interview. Usually no way to get filthy rich, but we all have experienced it.
I want to add something about “political correctness.” In some jobs (marketing for example) you may get questions where it is tempting to give the boring political correct answer. If you have strong opinions on a matter I would not like to keep those opinions down. Explain your position, even if you may be a minority.
Honest people stand out, there is enough of bland people out there.
Other interesting posts to look at:
Excellent blog post about non bullshit ways to impress at the interview
Did you know?
June 27, 2006 | Filed Under Start ups, Entrepreneurship | Leave a Comment
You can start a business in one day. Just remember to not start promoting it until the DNS have properly propagated.
A service to a lady: How to market a blog
June 25, 2006 | Filed Under How to create a successful blog, Practical tips | Leave a Comment
A lady with a grumpy old husband e-mailed me, she asked me how she could get started with this blogging thing. I answered her by sending her some links.
How to fail properly?
June 25, 2006 | Filed Under You've gone to the finest schools allright | Leave a Comment
Memories from University days:
- Ohh… I am so busy.. got a lot of things to do.. I can not cope with all my assignments..
- Why?
- I got the part time job, my interview next week.. need to prepare.. also, I need time to sleep as well!
Lack of determination and poor time management skills seem to be all around you when you are at University. But not everything is as depressing as it seems. Students tend to talk about it like other people talk about the weather.
If you are going to do something, do it properly, or do not bother at all. This story from a Professor sums it up beautifully: “The student finished the class with a high 50 out of 100. An F. A waste of time in my opinion. If you are going to fail, then fail with a 20 or 30.”
Make money on commuting
June 23, 2006 | Filed Under Start ups, Entrepreneurship, Practical tips, Business Opportunities | 1 Comment
A guy earns $100 - $300 a day by helping people to drive in the car commuter lane. The best part of it is that he doubles the price if there has been an accident and the traffic is particular bad that day.
Capitalism at its finest.
Photos: “My icecream business failed”
June 22, 2006 | Filed Under learning from failure, Entrepreneurship | Leave a Comment
You would think that selling icecream from your van would be a good earner in a beach resort huh?
Business Games part 1: Can you rise to the top of Mighty Microcomputer Corporation?
June 22, 2006 | Filed Under business games | 8 Comments
Start off as a mailroom clerk, be introduced to dilemmas where there are no black and white. Only plenty of grey. Stab your supervisor in the back or help your co-workers prosper? Climb the corporate ladder and become the President of the company.
Business idea from Dane Morgan: Songversations
June 22, 2006 | Filed Under Start ups, Entrepreneurship, Practical tips, Business Opportunities | Leave a Comment
My comment on the opportunity: Pretty nice idea, I think it could catch on and go viral. Just wondering if there is an open source script already that you can use or if you need to develop the solution from scratch?
A downside of the idea is that the site will probably generate low value adsense ads so you need other ways like eg. Allposter to monetize it.
10 reasons your great start-up is gonna fail
June 21, 2006 | Filed Under Start ups, Entrepreneurship, Money making as young | 1 Comment
When discussing entrepreneurship, starting your own company, making money on your own and so on with friends and acquintances, a lot of people seem to have a very pessimistic outlook on their opportunities to create wealth for themselves.
The law of Jante
This is of course written from a North European standpoint where the “Jante Law” often comes into play. Allow me to quote the law, from Wikipedia:
“There are 10 different rules in the law, but they are all variations on a single theme and are usually referred to as a homogeneous unit: Don’t think you’re anyone special or that you’re better than us. The 10 rules are:
- You shall not think that you are special.
- You shall not think that you are of the same standing as us.
- You shall not think that you are smarter than us.
- Don’t fancy yourself as being better than us.
- You shall not think that you know more than us.
- You shall not think that you are more important than us.
- You shall not think that you are good at anything.
- You shall not laugh at us.
- You shall not think that anyone cares about you.
- You shall not think that you can teach us anything. “
It is damn difficult to make serious money if laws like this keep you down.
Art of the deal: Buying a house - The negotiation process
June 20, 2006 | Filed Under Art of the Deal, Practical tips | Leave a Comment
2million has bought a house and has been kind enough to share the details of the negotiation process with us. I really enjoyed the diplomatic way this deal went down.
The dark side of cheap labour part 3 - Escrow is your friend
June 20, 2006 | Filed Under Services like Scriptlance and Getafreelancer, Outsourcing, Practical tips | 1 Comment
When getting your projects done through online marketplaces it is essential for you to make use of the Escrow function. What is escrow?
“The holding of funds, documents, securities, or other property by an impartial third party for the other two participants in a business transaction. When the transaction is completed, the escrow agent releases the entrusted property.” - American Trust definition.
By using escrow you do not need to send money until the project is completed to your satisfaction. I am a friendly chap, I like to trust people, but in business transactions there are so many things that can go wrong.
The script from hell
I had a web script assignment that got posted to Scriptlance. A programmer from India won the project for $350. He had received good reviews for his previous projects, so I thought he was a good match. Unfortunelately, the script he delivered me was infected with minor and major bugs. Not all bugs were discovered instantly or at the same time so the communication between me and him went back and forth a few times.
After he had made some fixes and I had requested additional bug fixes he told me this :
“I want to complete the payment before do these fixes.”
Time to get tough?
I’ve found it no use to make enemies just for the cause of it. I replied in a friendly manner explaining that: “I do not feel confident paying for a script that does not work.”
Things got sour and after a few days of communication I received this outburst from my programmer:
“On my server NOT problem!
…
I not think that i MUST change my script. Why you not change your host?
I REALLY WONT TO COMPLETE MY PAYMENT OR YOU STEAL MY SCRIPT”
I was getting angry with this but I kept my diplomatic tone: “I am a extremely worried by the language in your emails. Please stop with the accusations and try to be constructive.”
Googled the solution
After this I started to do some Google research and found some links that I sent him to check out.
Voila!
A few days after his last outburst the error was discovered and fixed. The error? The script could simply not handle files with CAPS LOCK extensions like .HTML, .JPG and .GIF. I received a new e-mail with the completed script attached and a more businesslike way of writing e-mails:
“This is fix for uppercase extensions.”
Then I released the $350 in the escrow account.
Anyone have similar experiences with Escrow accounts?
Earlier parts in this series:
The dark side of cheap labour part 1 - Introduction
The dark side of cheap labour part 2 - Dirty tricks
The dark side of cheap labour part 2 - A haven for dirty tricks?
June 19, 2006 | Filed Under Services like Scriptlance and Getafreelancer, Outsourcing | 1 Comment
Internet Marketing Consultant Nick Wilsdon has posted about the illegal/unethical/dirty jobs advertised at Scriptlance and other marketplaces for online jobs.
The listings he refers to are seem to be straight out stupid (in addition to “illegal”) and will probably offer a low ROI no matter how cheap this kind of labour is!
Remember the old quote: “If you can not do it right, do not do it.” If you have a great idea, the idea should be strong enough to be marketed and accepted by the web community without needing to spam and steal. I suspect people that post these type of job ads are bottom fishers that have no real urge to become “filthy rich”, but just want a few dollars to buy beer and burgers.
How to hire a worker through Craigslist.org
June 19, 2006 | Filed Under Services like Scriptlance and Getafreelancer, Outsourcing, Practical tips | 4 Comments
Craigslist, the internet heaven of classifieds ranging from prostitutes to rental apartments.
I was most interested in the jobs section.
Free to hire
Yes, I am a cheapo. I was going to hire a part time worker for 5-15 hours a week to do some html work and other basic things. Unfortunelately I discovered that ScriptLance & GetAFreelancer charged you $30-100 to search for employees throught their sites. Then I discovered Craigslist and their “jobs category.” There is no costs to publish a job ad in their system.
Where to post it?
Craigslist is a huge site divided into different cities or areas. Where should I put my job ad? On the New York part of the site? Well, since I am a cheapo and this work was something you could do from anywhere in the world I kind of looked into where my dollars could reach the furthest. I decided to try my luck by posting it in the Web design / HTML job category at the Buenos Aires part of the site.
How to write it?
I wrote an ad with detailed descriptions of the work involved. I also told applicants to attach their CV and the hourly wage they thought they were worth.
Responses?
After 14 days I had received 11 responses to the ad. By judging of what the different applicants wrote in their e-mail, all of them could do the work I offered. When it came to the requirements stated in the ad. I was a bit disappointed.
7 of 11 attached CVs.
5 of 11 mentioned a desired hourly wage in addition to attaching the CV.
It was also a bit surprising to discover that there were North Americans applying for the job even though it was listed on the Buenos Aires part of the site.
How did I choose?
In the end I had plenty of candidates to choose from, so I did it the easy way. The 5 applicants who listed a hourly wage requirement ranged from $5-15. I picked the one who wanted $5 an hour.
Things to do after you have selected your candidate
After I had found my man I replied to all the applicants telling them that the job opening was now filled. I also thanked them for their application.
I think this is the simplest thing in the world to do. Yet, when I was younger and applied for jobs I often did not hear back from the employers.
Update: How to get filthy rich this way?
Well, one thing that comes to mind is start ups. If you are launcing an online business and can use remote employees you can effectively have 10 workers working for you. If everybody is at $5 an hour and works 50 hours a week that gives you monthly wage costs of:
50 hours a week x 4 weeks a month = 200 hours
200 hours x 10 employees = 2000 hours a month.
2000 hours x $5 = $10 000 in monthly wages.
There you go. An easy and affordable way to get an armada of employees to eg, write Adsense content for you.
The dark side of cheap labour
June 19, 2006 | Filed Under Services like Scriptlance and Getafreelancer, Outsourcing, Practical tips | 1 Comment
(No, the title is not referring to the latest Naomi Klein book.)
Let’s talk about sites like Scriptlance.com and GetaFreelancer.com. You do not follow me? I have written an introduction post to these online marketplace services.
Cheap labour! Yes, save money! Get it done cheaply! That is what I initially thought as well, but my experiences from 5-6 projects may drift you in the other direction.
Project management skills are essential
For small projects like “Make a cartoon for me - max $20″ these services set you up with people in low cost countries that can do the job cheap and of OK quality. You can not go much wrong with such small and easy tasks. I strongly recommend you to try it out by posting some easy peasy job and getting it done.
For more complicated projects you need to be extremely detailed on what you want to get out of the project. You need to supervise the work very closely. My experience as a buyer of various projects is that you can not and should not expect that the seller of the services posess such a thing as “common sense.” Everything needs to be spelled out so that nothing at all is unclear. The less things that are left open to the designer/programmers judgement, the better.
Also, I need to acknowledge that from a seller’s point of view, they probably prefer clear instructions of what to do in order to do it fast and without the need for consulting you on every little detail.
Bugfixing may be usual activity
On several occassions I have received pieces of programming that once I installed it to a server, would not work. You would think that the programmer maybe tested the solutions before he send off the completed job. This is in many cases not the case. After I received the scripts I found that there would be an awful lot of bug testing to do before the job was done with decent quality and I could pay for the script.
Dear Matador.. but there are so many snowflakes in the world.. not everyone is like this
Of course not. You may strike lucky and find people that genuinly do great work and at a decent price. I have found people like this on several occasions. Once I find someone really good in a particular area, I will get their direct contact details like MSN username, phone number or e-mail. Then contact them directly for the next project.
Using services like Scriptlance, Getafreelancer and RentACoder to get work done cheaply
June 19, 2006 | Filed Under Services like Scriptlance and Getafreelancer, Outsourcing, Start ups, Entrepreneurship, Practical tips | 8 Comments
This type of service is facilitating buyers of services like coding, programming, website design to get in contact with sellers/providers of this type of work. The buyer post a project outline together with a maximum budget and sellers outbid each other in order to get awarded the job.
There are a lot of Indian and Russian programmers bidding for the projects available. These are countries known for cheap hourly wages. “Yes! Cheap labour to do my projects! I wil stop using my fellow countrymen’s expensive services!”
If the project management and selection process is done right, it is no doubt that these services may give you a cost efficient way to build and launch your online enterprise. In a few days, I will return with some posts about my experiences in this area. Until then, check out the services:
How to create a successful blog? Part 1: Using link carnivals
June 18, 2006 | Filed Under How to create a successful blog, Practical tips | 1 Comment
This is a brand new blog. Nobody reads it. In order to make it noticed in the blogosphere I had to do some research. I will try the ideas I read about and post about the success or lack thereof.
A search on Google for “how to create successful blog” & “hot to make successful blog” gave me some tips
There is a garden of information available on the subject, so I happily dug in.
Participate in link carnivals
I started by picking the flower of Harvey of Bad Example. In his post about getting blogs noticed he introduced me to the idea of a “Link Carnival.” A link carnival is basically something like a “free for all link” where you can get your relevant post mentioned among other posts by the carnival owner/blog owner.
First, I tried to get noticed by the Carnival of entrepreneurship.
I found a carnival that fitted my site content: Carnival of entrepreneurship. I sent them my post about the firewood business. I sent the tip using a very handy “submit your blog post link to the carnivals tool.” I eagerly await the results!
I will follow up with a post about other link carnivals I participated in.
Healthy fast food: A profit opportunity for investors and entrepreneurs?
June 18, 2006 | Filed Under Investing in stocks, Business Opportunities | 2 Comments
Are the burger and french fries on their way down?
A post at Genuine blog made me think of the big opportunity that lies in creating a chain of fast food restaurants like McDonald’s. The unique selling point would be to sell fast food, but healthy food.
The reason for this is that there is a trend favouring healthy options instead of the unhealthy fast food. But.. before I commited myself to start a chain of my own I was looking into if there are other, easier ways to profit from this trend.
Buy shares in Subway?
After I watched Morgan Spurlock’s “Supersize Me” a few years ago I realized that this may be the start of the end for unhealthy fast food outlets like McD and Burger King. I actively started to search for stock exchange listed restaurant chains and fast food outlets that were offering a more healthy product in order to buy shares(stocks) for a long term investment. I had a very hard time finding any! The obvious choice would be to buy shares in Subway. The sandwich chain who offers healthy and good tasting food. Unfortunelately, Subway is a private company.
Innocent is an unaccessible angel
An UK option which offers healthy and good tasting drink products is smoothie producer Innocent. Unfortunelately, they are also a private company and therefore unaccessible for the small investor.
Do I need to make the healthy food myself?
Seems difficult to locate publicly listed healthy companies who compete with Burger King, McDonald’s and Dominos Pizza. Do you know any? Please leave a comment. At this stage, if I am gonna profit from this trend I need to either do it myself, or to go short in the big burger shares.
Selling firewood
June 17, 2006 | Filed Under manual labour, Money making as young | 4 Comments
If you have access to natural resources like trees and wood you can count yourself lucky.
Easy to sell, but do not forget the delayed gratification
When I was 17-18 years old I chopped down wood all summer, put an advert in the classifieds section of the local newspaper in the winter and people started to call me.
It was easy to sell because the demand for firewood was high at the time due to rising electricity prices. The alternative cost of using firewood instead of electricity to heat your home was favourable, therefore creating demand for my products.
The downside of it is that it is very hard work to do for a lifetime and it can be hard to expand the business due to limited natural resources (only had a tiny tiny forest to work with). Another thing you have to be aware of is “delayed gratification.” You work during the summer to produce the firewood, then it has to dry for a few months before you can sell it in the winter when people demand it. You will not get your money until 4-7 months after the work is put in.
How to become filthy rich in the firewood business?
As I worked with all this wood I had plenty of time to ponder about that particular question. The solution if I was to go into the business on a larger scale would be to import wood from countries with low wages and plenty of resources. In Europe this would be Poland, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia. By importing the goods I would gain 2 things:
1) No more hard labour for myself
2) The business was easily expandable because you could only import more if you wanted to sell more.
Of course, this transformed the business from a production based enterprise to the art of marketing and selling firewood.
At the time there were several other people doing this import of wood from low cost countries so I decided to not go through with it. A few years later the price of firewood had dropped due to the competition.
An OK option for young people
To conclude, firewood is like a commodity. I think it would be pretty hard to become filthy rich by selling it, but if you enjoy some hard work on your own, I think it is a nice little earner for teenagers or children that want to earn some extra in their vacation.
The start
June 17, 2006 | Filed Under Uncategorized | 1 Comment
Yo! This is the first post. I have lots of ideas of things to discuss. The blog should be updated a few times every week.