Could You Turn $200 Into $400 In A Week?
October 16, 2007
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Could you turn $200 into $400 in a week? And do you think it’s possible?
It’s not a trick question. I found this exercise in “I Can Make You Rich by Paul McKenna.” and it is really useful if you’re struggling to come up with business ideas, or creative ways to earn extra cash. And even if you’re not, it’s a great way to get yourself thinking creatively.
Imagine you have $200 and you need to double your money in a week. You’re not allowed to use tools from your existing business, including mailing lists. Then make a list of things you could do to change $200 into $400 in one week (£’s if you’re English). And do feel free to share your ideas in the comments section if you want to.
Now, I know I said I’d review “I Can Make You Rich by Paul McKenna” and I’ll keep it brief. Firstly, I think it’s going to disappoint the “Give me something for nothing” crowd. It’s not just about becoming financially rich, it’s about improving every aspect of your life, and also recognising and appreciating what you already have.
Paul has tried to target a broad market with the book, but I think it will appeal mostly to those who are either starting in business, thinking about starting a business, or those wanting to start up something part time.
The ideas in the book are based on NLP. It has some great exercises to try, including a really sensible approach to business planning. And you also get a free hypnosis CD, which makes it great value. The only trouble is, Paul McKenna’s voice is so hypnotic that the CD sends me to sleep.
If you enjoy the exercise - you can get the book from Amazon.com, or Amazon.co.uk.
And as I’ve asked you to share your ideas for turning $200 into $400 in a week, I’ll share a couple of mine.
I think one of these two things would double the cash quickest, which is just as well, as they may also get me into trouble. Firstly, there’s a sandwich shop near my old office. It’s the only one and gets really busy. They have no decent queing area, so people have to stand outside and wait for ages in the freezing cold.
I’d use the cash to make fresh soup, bread and cookies - all smells that would appeal to people more, and I’d steal the shops potential customers. If I got moved on, I’d just deliver round the local offices instead. And I reckon I’d almost double my money in a day or two, which is good because I hate cold weather.
Are you going to try the exercise? What would you do?
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17 Responses to “Could You Turn $200 Into $400 In A Week?”
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This is a fun exercise! Here are some:
1) I will go up to the Washington and British Columbia border where a long line of cars are waiting to go through immigrations. I will set up a shop like you selling a cup of coffee to all these inpatient people waiting there.
2) I have found a great store of home interiors in the China town that sells everything so cheap, probably 1/3 of the price of Home Depot. I will buy them and sell them on Craig List.
3) I will lend it to my 5 years old niece to buy crayons for her to draw, and have her sell them to our family members to raise a cash for her to buy her own study desk and chair to prepare to go to school, but they do not know actually I charged her 100% interest.
4) I will cook nice pet meals and go to a park and sell them, following my Pet Food Bar idea
I should stop here, before all your readers get annoyed with my crazy ideas.
I think that $200 could easily be turned into $400 in a week through arbitrage. But that doesn’t really benefit people, so…
Buy $200 worth of hot chocolate mix at costco (bulk = cheap) then go to a corner in NYC or any big city during the morning commute hour (when people will be walking to the subways and such), set up a stand and sell cups for $1. $1 is an easy amount, almost every one has a $1 bill in their pocket and don’t think twice about spending it. The key would be to find the perfect spot.
Nick: It is easier said than done
What I would do is start planning and head over to Yahoo PPc and Adword!
1. find a couple of profitable affiliate products.
2. Head over PPC.
Start playing with it and testing it. This does require lots of planning and some skillz
I am already using Yahoo PPC and it is really great. Many affiliate and business use it and some makes a lot.
interesting question. off the top of my head, i could buy as much soda (I can buy for the money I have) for cheap at a bulk discount store, some hot dogs and hot dog buns. Then I’ll head over and grill them outside the stadium (where the baseball or football game is played). The price I’ll sell it would be much cheaper than you would buy in the stadium yet marked up from my original costs.
@ Sean
I was told (from reliable sources) that those guys that go to NYC and sell food or drinks during rush hour earn $1000s everyday — I’m not exaggerating too. There is the charge by the city for renting the pavement/ space you are selling in but your gross proceeds are pretty healthy. Those guys selling drinks and food on the sidewalk are actually pretty rich, earning an average of 6 figure incomes a year.
haha, I like your competitive nature in making money.
hmmm… off the top of my head.
1. Create a website with decent content
2. Buy some ads
3. Sell the site for 10x revenue to some lazy chum.
wait a sec… i guess this is leveraging tools (knowledge) from my existing business….
alright… let’s see…
I’d pay for a stylist to make me look like a homeless person ( I look way too young ). I’d buy a box of little american flags. Then I’d make a cute sign that said something like “Pursuing the American Dream. Step 1: Earn a clean set of clothes”. I’d then find a good intersection and place flags under each car’s wiper blades unless the person looked like he was goign to kill me.
From the power of reciprocity and the emotional connection, I’d imagine I’d get $400 in no time.
I spent way too much time thinking about this. This reminds me of the time I thought I’d like to be homeless for a month to see how well I’d do. My bet is that I’d make quite a bit especially after I understand the system.
I would book a double car parking space with my $200 (or £100) for 2 hours.
I would charge passers-by $10 (or £5) to hurl a custard-pie at me.
The cost of the custard-pies and the parking fee would come out of $200.
HOLD ON. I’m already doing that! But the cost is being paid by the car park people and the custard-pie manufactuerers. And they are also supplying a number of people who want to hurl pies at me.
In my suit. Whcih won’t ever be wearable again.
And I won’t get a cent (or penny) as the money will go to a local children’s charity, and I’ll get the dubiousl pleasure of seeing me plastered all over YouTube and our blog just like my colleague Steve was last month.
I would probably fail atturning $200 into $400 without my client base! Incidentally, we’re hoping to make $1000 (or £500), some of which will come from clients (so far $300 or £150 but more coming in each day).
Great question, just what I need to get the braincells working.
It is easier said then done, especially when you look at the setup costs of going the food option ie, cooking equipment, stall, permits etc.
The best way that I am finding to double small amounts of cash quickly that anyone can do is via ebay. Just study a category, go out on a Saturday to garage sales etc and buy low, then sell high.
But would you really charge your family 100% interest!?
Nick - the hot chocolate is a great idea too. You’d probably make your $200 in a day.
Great idea Sean - I have not tried Yahoo pay per click yet. Google is complicated enough for me to begin with.
Mel - great idea. Those places always charge rip off prices for food and drink so you’d definitely get plenty of takers.
Food and drink is big business. And I’ve always wanted to visit New York. Maybe I could just do some selling while I’m there to fund my trip.
Carl - every time I see a business which is providing a bad service I think about ways I could improve on it.
Now, I like your idea of flipping a website, and using knowledge you already have is not against the rules. But, please tell me you wouldn’t really pretend to be homeless.
Ian - do you have a definite date for the pie throwing yet? It’s probably going to put you off custard for life.
And I don’t believe that you couldn’t raise $200 in 7 days - you’ve just revived a dying business, which is something that few people could do.
Steve - another good idea. And many people make a bomb on ebay doing exactly that. I should imagine you would have to put a lot of effort into studying and choosing a category.
Hello Catherine,
Yes, it was a bad joke to charge my family member with 100% interest rate!!
I was just thinking, it seems we can come up with so many ideas to make $200 to $400, I wonder if we can do so to make $20,000 to $40,000. Somehow, when the number becomes bigger, it starts feeling more challenging.
Do you feel the same?
[...] Success Passcode has an interesting article of how to make $200 to $400 in a week. Maybe, we should start from $200, and make an immense success, by doing whatever it takes. [...]
But I bet it could be done. You could take something like your coffee idea and do it on a larger scale - paying others to sell the coffee.
I think the biggest difficulty would be finding a heap of people who had a spare week and wouldn’t disappear with the profits - students maybe?
It would definitely be an interesting experiment to try.
By the way I was thinking about your idea for novelty candy. I did a search on wordtracker and the number of people searching for things like candy and candy shops is huge.
I think it would be a definite hit.
hah, I’d never do it other than a social experiment to see what it’s like to be homeless.
The whole $200 to $400 in a week is way too short term to me. It will only make myself and others resort to nastier tactics. However, it’s always possible to do it in a nice way.
Carl - I knew you wouldn’t seriously pretend to be homeless. And you are very right. A week to double your money is definitely too short term. But it does encourage you to think. And also, it will really help to get you out of trouble quickly if you ever need to.
Personally, after what Mel said about the money to be made in New York selling food and beverages, i think we should all take a sort of working vacation in New York.
Catherine,
These are some great ideas.
One time my husband asked me, “If I can double that $50.00 bill you have, in less than a minute, can I have it?”.
I was kind of dumbfounded, and said “yes”
He proceeded to fold it in half, and said, “O’K’ , I doubled it”
He’s a funny guy….
If I had to try and double my money, I would go to Costco, and buy cases of bottled water. Then set up a stand, along side the walking trails, and sell them for $1.00. That would nearly triple my money.
Not too long ago I did a blog about how much we pay for bottle water. It comes out to be about $8.00 a gallon. And, we complain about gas prices. Huh!
Selling water is a great idea and people get really thirsty when they’re walking.
It’s weird - we’ve almost all picked food and beverages. But, I suppose they’re the quickest things to sell. People don’t need to ask for a quote, or go away and think about it - they just buy.
$8 a gallon is extortionate. I’d never thought of working it out in pounds before, but I bet that even in the uk it is more expensive than gas.
You still have amazingly low gas prices over there in comparison to us. Mind you it is so cheap for us to visit the states right now as everything is half price for us.
[...] fun exercise on “Could You Turn $200 Into $400 In A Week” at [...]
I love things like this Catherine! I believe the main thing is to always try to create “new” ideas instead of trying to propel off old thoughts or ways of doing things. I believe that once we’re taken out of our comfort zone, it lands us into a sea of ideas and innovation.
PS:
The blog looks great.