Today I made my first pound. The first sum of money I have ever earned entirely off my own back; not a wage, not a gift, not found down the back of the sofa. It's not much, but it's a start.
The short term plan is as follows: be an employee for at least 6 months to build capital, then branch out on my own. I've hit a major load of luck in getting a well paid job at an international organisation, but the downside is that the working day is at least 8am - 6.30pm. This doesn't leave much time to plan/run a coffee business - so where did the pound come from?
My father ran a price comparison website for a year or so in order to teach himself php and to learn more about affiliate marketing. It's a beguiling idea: review a product, post links to that product on the virtual shelf of an etailer, and earn commission whenever a reader decides to buy. Dad operated this system in the traditional way with a modern twist: he built a database system which served up the realtime prices and user ratings of the products he reviewed. With a little work he was earning around £200 monthly - not a living, but not bad either for what was essentially a side project.
Well, yesterday he handed me a book called 'Affiliate Millions' which teaches a more advanced strategy known as 'search marketing'. Essentially the principal is that you pay Google or a like search engine to display a small ad, including affiliate link. You pay per click, and for each click a cookie is placed on the user's system with your tracking code. If they make a purchase during the 'referral period', which for Amazon is 24 hours, you earn a commission - in Amazon's case initially 5%, rising as you make sales.
The name of the game, then, is to pay less for advertising than you make in comission, and this is what happened yesterday. Half of the users who clicked my ad made a purchase yesterday. The clicks cost me £1.50, the commission was £2.50: hello Poundland.
Stay tuned for more tips and tricks of search marketing, as well as some thoughts on the shiny world of work.
Monday, 7 December 2009
Tuesday, 1 December 2009
coming up...
A preview of what's to come:
- The business snapshot. My idea is essentially a mobile coffee business - not original, but unique in certain aspects. This is not a corporate site, indeed I hope to remain as anonymous as possible. Ten points if you guessed that 'Joe', American slang for coffee, is not my name. As previously stated the goal is to become as profitable and hands off as possible, so I will be exploring the different means to expansion, including franchising.
- How to use spreadsheets to model your business. Whether convincing yourself that it could work or convincing a bank to finance you, it is imperative to simulate as far as possible every detail. By changing one cell you can instantly see the knock on effects of lowering prices or rising costs. How many employees can you pay for, and (crucially) can it operate without you?
- The fundamentals of Technical Analysis and how to backtest a financial strategy.
- The business snapshot. My idea is essentially a mobile coffee business - not original, but unique in certain aspects. This is not a corporate site, indeed I hope to remain as anonymous as possible. Ten points if you guessed that 'Joe', American slang for coffee, is not my name. As previously stated the goal is to become as profitable and hands off as possible, so I will be exploring the different means to expansion, including franchising.
- How to use spreadsheets to model your business. Whether convincing yourself that it could work or convincing a bank to finance you, it is imperative to simulate as far as possible every detail. By changing one cell you can instantly see the knock on effects of lowering prices or rising costs. How many employees can you pay for, and (crucially) can it operate without you?
- The fundamentals of Technical Analysis and how to backtest a financial strategy.
the beginning
I have a common dream which is infamously difficult to realise: to achieve what Robert T. Kiyosaki terms 'financial freedom' in his bestselling guide, Rich Dad Poor Dad. More than being wealthy, I take this to mean that money no longer has a bearing over how you chose to live your life. While I don't aspire to fame, or necessarily even to fortune, my goal is to design a system whereby I can work little or not at all.
This blog is intended for anyone who aims to seed and grow a profitable company, while also considering how to invest the proceeds. It will refer to the writings of industry leading entrepreneurs and financial experts, covering subjects as diverse such as forming and running a limited company, franchising, marketing and evidence-based Technical Analysis.
Right now I'm a graduate, unemployed and unexperienced, and living with my parents in a UK city. Like a newly floated company, there is no guarantee of my success - worse, the odds are against it. But it is clear from here that in order for anyone to succeed as business owner and investor there are certain lessons to be learnt and routes to be explored, and so I hope my story will be relevant and, if nothing else, entertaining.
- Joe
Note: The majority of small businesses fail, and the majority of investors lose money on the stock market. In writing this personal account I will refer wherever possible to the advice of experts but even they are not infallible, and as such I cannot guarantee the efficacy of anything given below. Amazon and the Amazon logo are trademarks of Amazon.com, Inc. or its affiliates.
This blog is intended for anyone who aims to seed and grow a profitable company, while also considering how to invest the proceeds. It will refer to the writings of industry leading entrepreneurs and financial experts, covering subjects as diverse such as forming and running a limited company, franchising, marketing and evidence-based Technical Analysis.
Right now I'm a graduate, unemployed and unexperienced, and living with my parents in a UK city. Like a newly floated company, there is no guarantee of my success - worse, the odds are against it. But it is clear from here that in order for anyone to succeed as business owner and investor there are certain lessons to be learnt and routes to be explored, and so I hope my story will be relevant and, if nothing else, entertaining.
- Joe
Note: The majority of small businesses fail, and the majority of investors lose money on the stock market. In writing this personal account I will refer wherever possible to the advice of experts but even they are not infallible, and as such I cannot guarantee the efficacy of anything given below. Amazon and the Amazon logo are trademarks of Amazon.com, Inc. or its affiliates.
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