A while ago, when I was still in college, for a short stint of time I was a computer consultant. So I was an entrepreneur for a short stint of time (not even a full year). I could have continued with this route, but I decided I would be better off getting a bachelor’s degree in Computer Science.
Four years ago, I got the entrepreneur bug again. But this time I didn’t have the free time or money to start such an endeavor. I didn’t have the free time because I had a full-time job, not to mention spending time with my kids. I didn’t have the money because I was still paying the mortgage on my house.
So what I did I do?
I decided to start a small business selling merchandise on eBay. My spin was I bought the product online and would end up selling it on eBay where it would be bided up to a 50 to 100% premium over where I bought it. I didn’t have time to sell many units, so I limited myself initially to two products a week. Later, after I got comfortable with the process, I was selling four to five units a week. I was fun, exciting and fresh!
I stopped selling stuff on eBay because the supplier I use to buy from discontinued selling the product I was selling. I couldn’t find the product anywhere else for such a bargain price.
Next, I took some of the money from selling my product on eBay and started this blog (www.moneyreasons.com). While not making as much as I use to make on eBay, it’s still a lot of fun, and by far the best hobby that I’ve ever had! I will keep blogging for years, and any money that it generates will help fund future entrepreneur activities.
I’m not sure what the next entrepreneur activities I will be involved with. It might be a simple expansion of my blogging activities with the creation of additional blogs, or it might be something all together different. I may even use the money from blogging to help with the down-payment on real estate, if blogging starts to take off.
For the next few years though, I hope to continue to refine my writing and develop a following. We’ll see, time will tell 🙂
Do you have any entrepreneur plans in the near future?
-MR
No real entrepreneurial plans for now, although blogging can certainly make a nice 4 figure monthly income.
Yakezie.com is focused on community, however one of the key initiatives will be to grow our online revenue by hopefully double. We shall see!
Name of the game is to be in it long enough to have opportunities.
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A four figured monthly income would be great! I’m not even close right now…
But more importantly, I’m having a lot of fun with it.
As for Yakezie, I’m proud and glad to be a part of that helpful puzzle.
I currently sell books on Amazon and that gets me some money every month. I also have my blog, and that gets me about 2 cents an hour. 🙂
I need to get my head together and really make a plan for myself though so I am just not spinning my wheels. There has been a lot to learn, and I feel like maybe I can take the next step.
@Everyday Tips
Yeah, I hear you on blogging income, for the first 5 months, I only made $5.00…
I view my blog as a hobby, so I haven’t tried to maximize any money from it yet. It’s good just to put my thoughts on electrons 🙂
I started blogging to gather an online community. I didn’t even think it could make money unless I was huge like Get Rich Slowly.
6 months later (this Friday) I’ve made about $900 (have spent about $250) and have put in at least 600 hours into it (that’s a lowball guess)…that’s less than $1.50 an hour…yep, glad I’m not it for the money! 🙂
Thanks for being part of my community!
@Budgeting in the Fun Stuff
More than happy to be part of your community! I enjoy reading your site!
I only made $5 for the first 5 months, but it was mainly because I didn’t try to monetize it other than adsense. I wanted to get my page rank up a bit before trying to monetize on it. Rookie mistake on my part 🙂
Suba @ Wealth Informatics
My site isn’t a year old yet, so I know where you are coming from. I’m happy with my progress, but I’m very small potatoes when compared to a site like GetRichSlowly.org or thesimpledollar.com…
A lot of sites don’t try to monetize their site until the get a certain number of visitors. This is a good way to go too…
@Money Reasons, I don’t think waiting is a rookie mistake. For all we know, I’ve sold all my great ads at a huge discount by monetizing this early and it’ll hurt me in the next year…who knows? I’m impatient, lol. 🙂
@Budgeting in the Fun Stuff
Hmmm, I don’t think that is the case with your site 😉
You’re doing GREAT (just Like Tony the Tiger would say it)!
cyber real estate (i.e. www) and rental real estate have been a great one two punch for me. i focus on the internet to create multiple streams of income, then invest that income into real estate and the stock market. in 2006 i invested in a local small business as well – another way to diversify the portfolio. it’s been great – but definitely requires a lot more work than the more passive and residual type activities such as web based and residential real estate
@Sunil from The Extra Money Blog
That’s the way to go! For the first few years, I think I’d rather pour the money back into some type of money generating vehicle.
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