Flipping Nuts or Future Billionaire?

August 23, 2007

Out of the box thinking multiplied by acting fast are the hallmarks of famous entrepreneurs like Richard Branson.

Let me show you a real example of how an ordinary person like you and me can profit by coming up with a great idea and acting on it immediately.


I read a guest post on Shoemoney blog by Ryan Stewart, who’s trying to earn some cash online to put himself through medical school. He’d noticed some ad space on John Chow and thought it was undervalued. But, Ryan had two problems: 1) He didn’t have anything to advertise. 2) He didn’t have the cash to buy the ad anyway.

Now, at this point, most of us would have forgot all about the ad and got on with something else. Ryan didn’t. He bought the ad on his credit card for $1000 and sold it for $1250 two days later.

A 25% profit in two days is impressive, but he didn’t stop there. Flipping the ad gave Ryan the confidence to put a website up for sale that he didn’t really want anymore and he made $5000 from that.

Brilliant isn’t it? But it didn’t end there. On top of the profits he’d already made, the story generated a heap of publicity and traffic to his own blog at Eleven 21 . John Chow blogged about Ryan and he also got to guest blog about it on Shoemoney.

Now, you’re probably thinking one of two things: 1) Great story - the guy is a genius and he’s definitely going to be a billionaire, or 2) What a stupid risk to take when he didn’t even have the money.

It was a big risk, but it was a calculated one. At worst, he might have been stuck with the ad and he would had to have found another way to raise the cash to pay for it. But the upside was unlimited rewards and I’m sure he will go on to do great things.

Sheldon Adelson - one of the world’s richest men started out by doing something similar to ad flipping. He rented stands at tradeshows and rented them out to others at a profit.

Now, maybe you don’t feel comfortable taking a risk like Ryan took, and that’s ok. Just do one small thing each day that makes you feel a little uncomfortable and you’ll soon find yourself taking bigger risks.


[?]
Share This StumbleUpon It!

Posted by cathlawson | Filed Under Ideas 

Comments

Got something to say?





Close
E-mail It