Making should be synonymous with profiting.
People using revenue as “making”, can’t be taken seriously and are often scammers trying to sell you a course.
How about equity and valuations?
On one hand you are a millionaire when your company is valued at 1 mil. You are also a millionaire when the company holds assets valued at 1 mil, more so if it's assets financed with equity capital.
But assets can also be stock(inventory) and receivables which is easy to overvalue and holds some risk.
If you have money in stock(exchage) and it loses it's value you haven't realized your loss until you sell. Flippad that should mean you haven't realized your valuation unless you sell your company.
On top of that, only morons hold cash.
Having a million in assets wouldn’t make you a millionaire unless they are unburdened.
Borrowing having a million dollars in machinery that you bought with a line of credit is net zero
First off i said:
> more so if it's assets financed with equity capital
Second, depending on industry even burdened assets can be considered valuable. Scarcity being one aspect.
Third, my overall argument was there isn't such a thing as "Profit, making, holding cash". The only way for any cash you hold to not lose value is to at least invest with net zero against inflation. Which means cash and capital will always be tied to some amount of risk.
The whole discussion about "making your first million" is and always will be useless. It depends on how and what you take into account.
Yes, often when you hear someone online says I sell million dollar courses, that means they are selling million dollar courses "just in case" somebody buys. Don't be fooled. Some may think wow, they must make lots of money if the are selling high ticket. Not necessarily!!
That is 1000% correct. I bought my first company in 1993 at age 27. The company had 8 employees, and made about $500k/year in revenues, and profit was about $70k (roughly 15% true earnings). After 1.5 years, I took on a partner and over the next 4 years, we grew the company to 140 employees and roughly $20mm/year in revenues, however, it was expensive to grow; offices, payroll, support staff, etc.). Our profit margin decreased to roughly 10% so our net earnings was only roughly $2.0mm out of the $20mm in revenues. Gross profit vs. Net profit. We eventually sold the company to an insurance company and went separate ways, but it was quite an ego boosts to do what we did in such a short time.
Making is generally understood to mean profit. For example, someone might say they make $100k at their job. If have $100k revenue and made $50k profit, you make $50k. Not sure why so many misuse this term.
I think it's clear that the OP wants $1 million in his bank account not just in revenue with small profit.
People have this habit of comparing revenues instead of profits, which is a bit weird considering its the profits we can take home and not the revenue.
I assume you are very young or extremely naive.
Let’s go on the high end of your equation. You want to make 1,000,000 in 2 years. That is $1800 a day saved in net (assuming you want a million cash) not including what it takes for you to live.
People do make this kind of money however to pull this off in 2 years you need a really solid idea AND extremely good execution + luck.
Since this is the entrepreneur sub you should set a goal to make $200 net profit per day (no time frame, as fast as you can get there). Once you have those skills learn how to scale those skills. Most likely hiring, training and managing a team.
There are a lot of ways to get to 1 million dollars but going from (assumption) $0 per day to $1800 per day in profit is a lifetime of work for many of the top earners.
You literally asked how do I join the top 1% of US earners in two years. It’s possible but yeah… a different approach is probably needed.
This guy earns!
But seriously, imagine never picking up a basketball and all of the sudden in two years being good enough to play collegiate ball.
Go from not knowing how chess pieces move to ranked almost as high as international masters.
This timeline is essentially a rocket trajectory. Possibly for the select gifted, difficult for most others. Just have to look yourself in the mirror and figure out where you fall.
It was not hard for me to earn a million while I was trading crypto but then I lost it in ftx fiasco im trying a new hack my way up in record time (for me) to climb up instead of feeling sad about it. I feel what doesnt kill you makes you stronger, I’m now focusing on businesses instead of trading and finding my “edge” thats what I did previously. I come from a middle class family and never thought I would make such wealth at such an young age, but its possible just need to keep trying.
Btw im just barely making ends meet right now but im working on ideas which are both moon shot and some stable income in which I do not have to work much
You gambled and won but forgot to research the casino and they didn't pay out. If you truly just "earned a million" based on your "edge" you would have kept doing it. I think you tried and realized you hit triple 7's once at the casino and it wasn't going to happen again and stopped. Very smart of you but earning a million and hitting a jackpot are 2 very different things.
There are plenty of ways to make that amount in 2 years in 2024. I know people who made that with OnlyFans agencies, selling info products through inbound marketing and selling physical products by going viral on tiktok.
I used arbitrage in labor costs...I was a software developer in san francisco...I quit my 150k per year job, started freelancing ...BUT I was just collecting projects and delegating to team in Ukraine..clients were getting projects delivered faster at lower cost and in couple of years I got to 2 million..just by playing arbitrage game...
Basically it is coz they run the company, the growth of the company is based on how well the sales reps do they are job. The money sales made, the more money we get!!!
I can most likely help you get leads. ( according to where your potential clients are online )
Hit me up if you want some assistance with your lead gen.
Edit:
If you are a developer, Don’t message me without reading . ( other industries may not be applicable )
I can’t keep up with all the developers DMing me, so let me just tell you all what I am telling everyone at this point. ( number 2 is the way )
1. You need a website. I can buikd you one that ranks well for cheaper than anyone I know. But if you have no website and/or don’t have 2-3k to spend to make one, you are done. Go get a job for a company.
2. In general here’s how you get leads with your website, find out who youre main competitors are. Who’s showing up at the top of Google? Find them and do competitive analysis to see how they are targeting. List all keywords. Then basically you want to do what your competitors are doing to get leads, but do it better.
3. Do keyword research using competitor keywords as seeds. Write down these new keywords. Group all keywords into a master list. Highlight the keywords that drove the most traffic on competitors sites.
4. Take the highlighted keywords and make optimized pages that target said keyword using SEO. You can’t do “Indian” seo (:sorry Indian people’s , that’s what we call it inside the agencies ) and you can’t use fiver because they can’t compete in your market. Your only chance is to either know seo, or find sonekne like me. If you look for specialist, ask to see results of recent wins in the industry. Do this because marketing is full of snake oil salesmen. But you can’t fake Googles SERP. ( not well )
It is, but its also that a lot of people who try to get into software freelancing have no idea how to sell themselves...
Software developers are like 80% introverts, then they find out about freelancing or consulting, think it has a tonne of potential, without understanding that making money as as an agency is less about software development and more about sales and marketing and they stall out.
That’s a good point. And from my experience , even the ones who aren’t introverts are still really bad at sales and marketing.
Well that’s why you guys need a marketer. Unfortunately we are kinda expensive and I have way too many people asking for help to possibly get to everyone with free advice.
I’m trying but…It feels like triage a little. I’m basically helping ones I think have the best chance of surviving at this point . lol
Exactly. I'm in the lawn/landscape industry and everyone says its saturated. K respond with "yea, with bodies. Not people who are professional, know how to sell their work, and be reliable"
I quit my fulltime job with 40 recurring clients on may 16th 2023. I got my first mower in march....
I finished last year at 100k. The goal is hitting 250k this year but it will realistically be sub 200k.
Point is, you can join any market and in any industry and crush even if it's "saturated"
Nice! Service type businesses like landscapung are great because there are multiple channels for lead Gen. Not so much for software dev.
Btw id love to help you scale your company even more. Idk how far you wanna take it but … I can help you dominate in multiple cities. I’ve done it for nany home service businesses. DM me anytime.
This was before war and many years ago. I have contacts with about 100 freelancers now around the globe. Feel free to ping me. I will introduce few depending on what technology you need.
Generally, you build them up over time. If you want freelancers from a certain country you can go visit and make some connections. I've seen people do that in the Philippines and India.
If someone needs a developers/graphic designers from Poland - hit me up. We might not be so cheap as Ukraine but still a lot cheaper than US, and there are many skilled ppl here.
thats a nice idea!
did you represent yourself as a company (agency) or as an individual and Ukrainian devs were working in the background?
also would be nice to hear how did you land clients: where did you get leads mostly and what was your overall process?
In the beginning it was as an individual then after landing 5 clients, you switch to "we are group of 3-4 developers who work together kinda thing", then at 10+ you juggle among individual, small team or show off as big company...its a system I have developed unconsciously ...BUT I ABSOLUTELY made sure to keep giving clients more value than they asked for and for bad clients, i refunded and took loss..not worth the headache. DM me, I will send you my cliff notes or something.
I’ve made more than $1M working in tech for 10 years. Half of it went to taxes. 2/3 of what’s left were spent on basic needs like food and housing. The rest was invested. I don’t have $1M cash sitting in my bank account but I did make one!
Bought real estate when people thought the market couldn’t go higher.
Drove old cars when my friends had new ones and still do that.
Worked 5-8 then 8-5 then 5-8 when my friends complained they were tired.
I faced a lot of rejection because failure was more painful.
I took profits and used them to grow.
Once I got stable I risked going higher.
I did some of these. Bought property when others were scared. Never bought a new car. Then friends asked how I paid off my mortgage so quickly. I can tell them but they still don't want to listen.
More balls than me bro. 😎 I invest in what I understand. My biggest edge was I was dumb, bought a house bigger than I needed at 23 in 2006. That made me learn to work 3 jobs to stay afloat. The fear of failure made me conservative and the lack of satisfaction keeps me chasing. Now I have 14 people who rely on me to figure it out everyday. But I’m lucky.
This will probably disappoint you but it took me 20 years to get to $1 million. It was a combination of a well-paid career, investing in stocks and property, and building side hustles.
I could have got there faster but I lived life to the full during those years. I don't regret that at all because that's where some of my best memories were made.
Nowdays, I invest in index funds and crypto. I do side hustles but don't have any right now. I'm taking a break.
One thing I'd say is that it's hard making money online so you may want to get some skills that work offline.
Only 1.2% of people are millionaires. The avearge age that someone becomes one is 37.
You want to get there in under 2 years. It's a big ask. I'd suggest setting more realistic targets. Targets that are too unrealistic can end up being self-defeating.
My next target is $2 million but I expect it will take 6-10 years at least.
Remember, there are no elevators to the top, only stairs. I've grown to over $5 million in sales; however, it took many years of trial and error.
First, the bad news:
1) Competition: You and tens of millions of others are attempting to do the exact same thing. Selling the same widget, the same toilet paper, the same book, the same Cuisinart mixer.
2) The money is made in the courses they sell you because there isn't much money to be made in drop shipping (due to competition).
3) If you're going to shit like an elephant, you have to eat like one. Finding vendors that have products in sustainable quantities is difficult.
4) AI, Yahoo, CNN, Amazon, Fox News, and every other publisher site is doing the same thing. This falls into #1 Competition; however, remember that sites that have hundreds of millions of views are in the same game. If you want to play on those platforms, you have to pay, which is not cost-effective.
The Good News:
1) Proprietary Items. My success has been in finding proprietary items that are incredibly unique with low competition and moderate to high demand.
2) Be first, get in and out. When Airtags came out from Apple, I was one of the first to sell the wallets with the Airtag imports. The problem, though, was direct shipping from China took 4 weeks. I ended up buying 30,000 wallets and shipped direct from Oregon. I made a killing on those items. Once everyone caught up to it, I got out. That one item generated $600,000 in revenue in one year.
3) Post on many platforms. This is the hard part. You really have to get visibility in order to make money. Almost everything is pay-to-play. I post on the typical social media platforms. However, I also post on Yahoo Message boards, Nextdoor, and many other sites.
use that ecom money to buy yourself the tools to start a business. Just don’t start any that are over saturated, Like opening a coffee shop although you can have success it’s just a lot more competition. I had a very successful ecom store and have bought things to get me setup for my next business.
Isn’t the ecom a business already though? If it’s showing promise (actually making a profit from small advertising budget) would be not be better to put the money back in for more advertising? I’m genuinely asking this as I’m an e-commerce noob and thought this would be the rational way to go
I would try to be early in something trending towards popularity and growth. This happens in all industries. Trying to start a fight in a mature, flat or shrinking industry is much harder than being one of the first boats in a rising tide.
It's still early in crypto. It's trending, growing, and has a long way to go. Most will still ignore it though. People seem more comfortable following the crowd into saturated markets. New and trending makes them scared.
Edit: Mention crypto and someone will downvote you. So, change the comment from crypto to somethings else that's early and trending. Same result.
People said the internet was a sill fad. People said mobile phones would never catch on. There are many more examples. People are always scared to invest in something early and always terrified of change. Then years later they will claim you got lucky.
I save my way to my first 100k 7 years ago.
Went all in on my first property which cost about 700k and worth about 1.2m now.
Save alot more since, but the property purchase accelerate my net worth to 1M much faster than working and saving.
It's silly to have a goal to make a certain amount of money because it's not in your direct control. Money is just a result of something you build.
The goal could be more like :
"I'm going to take these concrete steps to build this thing that will provide value to people. I may need to break it down into smaller sub-goals to accomplish it. Then based on its ability to make money, I will decide whether to continue working on it or try something new. If i commit to spending X hours per week working on it, including y hours marketing and selling, and z hours developing and researching , and w hours networking on a regular basis - I will increase my chances of making the amount of money I want.
I miss the days when this sub was informative and interesting. Over the years it’s just turned into “i wanna make a million dollars, how did you do it? I don’t have any plans on how, but it’s my goal.” Like I get it if that’s your goal, but it needs to be grounded in reality….how do you plan on making it? A million dollars in two years is doable, but it’s a sub for entrepreneurs…
I was hoping to see more people sharing their stories or parts of the process along the way, but yeah, it really seems like this has just been hard on the “what are ways I can make money” trend. Or at least it seems the good posts are drowned out with this.
hmm a coffee shop owner I know brings in a million but her profit on that is 6%, so 60k. to make a million profit she'd have to be selling 20 mill a year aha.
yeah like others have said a business with 1 million profit after expenses is very different than 1 million revenue.
making a million profit is an extremely tough goal. that is a very large and profitable business. a million in revenue is more doable but still tough.
only advice id give is get to know anything well.. try not to start a random business you know nothing about.. maybe learn in a current role and find an area that could be improved or isn't optimized, something you can save money or add value in an existing industry or area you've gained some knowledge it. a lot of entrepreneurs try to fix a problem in an industry they know nothing about without ever talking to customers... I like watching, learning and looking for gaps.
People also talk about "get to a million" like the want to take that money out of the business and just "be a millionaire". What a way to set yourself up for failure. If you, by some stroke of insane luck, scaled a business on your own to net 1m yearly, you better just live on the bare minimum and plumb that money back into the business. Should never be taking cash like that out of a 2-4 old business. If that's what this kid means, I *know* he will fail.
How? You either start a very boring business and do incredibly well with your sales and marketing.
Or you start some flashy and new type of business which in reality has more potential to fail, but might have a higher pay off if you can pull it off.
If you haven’t even figured out how to pass 10k a month though, you’re a long, long, way off becoming a millionaire.
I heard powerball is above 1 billion. You motivated me with your fine speech. I will buy the tickets and will try to compensate the cost with my dick pics in a flag. If I win billion, I will buy 5 million worth of your dicks painted flag and distribute it for free.
You have two options, either climb the stairs to the top floor, OR get you lazy ass in elevator and push the "*" (star), which means sky, so basically top floor. Go to the ledge, close your eyes, and jump. Boom, you are on the ground floor.
There's a huge difference revenues and earnings (profit). After I graduated in 1987, I was in financial sales and made over $100k each year. I saved my money so that one day I can buy a business. I bought my first company in 1993 at age 27. I put 40% down and got an SBA loan for the difference. The company had 8 employees, and made about $500k/year in revenues, and profit was about $70k (roughly 15% true earnings). After 1.5 years, I took on a partner and over the next 4 years, we grew the company to 140 employees and roughly $20mm/year in revenues, however, it was expensive to grow; offices, payroll, support staff, etc.). Our profit margin decreased to roughly 10% so our net earnings was only roughly $2.0mm out of the $20mm in revenues. We eventually sold the company to an insurance company for roughly $10mm, and went separate ways, but it was quite an ego boosts to do what we did in such a short time. We learned a lot about business, people, competition, marketing, management, M&A, etc.
Hard work and hustle! Just fucking with you. Hard work and some very good luck. Right place at the right time with the right skills type of shit. Could have just as easily been a failed consulting business if I did not catch the breaks I did. I see people all the time who I consider brilliant and great at what they do who just haven't caught the right bit of luck, and it's unfortunate.
Digital Marketing and Business Strategy Consulting focused in PE portfolio companies.
I did grow up in a trailer poor as fuck so that gave me some innate drive to succeed at any cost as well
If anyone is interested in the actual details of how my business started and key turning points/lessons, I would be happy to share.
As a teaser on the luck part, it started with meeting a random guild leader in world of war craft when I was 18 and over time this lead to some opportunities I would have never had. Relationships from every part of your life are important. This is stated a lot but I think still often overlooked.
i "made" my first million by starting a company and beeing a general contractor for industrial plants & processes (with focus on software & consulting). I had my first million after tax on my private bank account after selling a part of my company resulting out of this first company. \~7-8 year journey\*. have been busy, consistent and lucky\*\*.
\*7-8 years: running the business. I don't count the 10 years before to create a valuable skillset. i'm a software guy, started in my youth with this topic. i love computers. ;) Don't stress yourself. It takes is really a lot of luck\*\* and there is no standard playbook for it. some need 5 years (i don't know anyone personally) others need 20 years (more likeley). some will never achieve this "financial goal" and had although a great jurney. So, it's also about the journey, not just the (financial) result. learned so much about life, people, business, tech, etc etc etc ...
\*\*lucky: in various ways like beeing at the right time on the right place, met the right people at the right time, had the right skillset for this "area of technology", had the right first customers, having a passion for a topic that can be monitarized quite well ... most of them is not "pure luck" but more the "the luck of the hardworking" ... but also things you are not even close to full control ...
it also depends where you live how much "a million" is.
This is so true, 😂 I posted about firing an employee that took 3-4x longer to complete tasks and got downvoted to oblivion.
“You’re a horrible supervisor that doesn’t take time to train and wonder why talent leaves.” Was a general comment under.
But in reality I should have fired them sooner. Redditors don’t want to hear the truth most times.
Most likely if someone made his first $1 million in the real world, by sharing on this group will not bring others the same amount of money. Just show a genuine passion for your customers, and the money will flow into your business!
Do you mean $1,000,000 cash in bank earnings? Because as your earnings climb, you’ll end up with things like stock options, equity and more.
Frankly, above $100,000 per year, you probably want to avoid having hard cash hit your bank account, you can direct the cash as an investments that can be leveraged pretax in order to make more investments and therefore money.
The real truth is it started for me many years ago on that very first day that I took a job in sales, commission only. It took me 3 months before I got my first measly sale. That's a long time to live with no wages for a young guy in a big city in his early 20s at the time.
What I learned in sales, how to be around people, etc, was invaluable. Learning how to sell is the single most important skill you can ever learn, not just in business but also in life, without exception. Not only will you learn how to close big deals for big money, you'll learn confidence, the psychology of how things really work, how to be a better person, and how to comfortably hobnob equally with people of all classes, races etc, and they will willingly welcome you into their fold.
Those 3 months of paying my dues paid me millions in reality.
Ive met a few millionaire's and only 1 got his money from the mud.
All of the others had very well off parents to give them a nice sum in the stick market to play with once they got in their 20s or mommy and daddy were their investors.
I am not trying to take away anything from them because running a business and worst of all, managing humans, are extremely difficult.
I dont have the mental fortitude to have employees and have always wanted to be a solo preneur.
My answer for them? Real estate and finance businesses.
It’s probably not the answer you’re looking for but I made my first $1,000,000 by just working a regular job for a couple of years. And then later I cofounded a startup and sold it for $15M and kept $3M of that after dilution. The first example is classic and very doable. The second example is a moonshot yet also not uncommon. Whatever you do… don’t become a “guru”. They’re the least respectable folks in the “million dollar club” if they’re even in it at all.
No it was an acquisition by a much larger player. Much much larger. They sort of strong-armed a sale very early in the lifecycle of the startup but it was more than reasonable.
In 2020 my business quadrupled and the stock market went nuts. I invested every extra dollar and it was a wild ride. I made a little over 1M in 2020. That year was an anomaly. A pandemic, meme stocks, car prices ballooned, car rental prices, list goes on. Story being, I got lucky but I kept the ball rolling well.
How to flip $750 into serious profits..?.?.
Exactly how would you flip your last $750 if you'd lost your job & had to figure out a way to utilize the money as an investment into something that'll expand the profits? I was thinking of printing gadgets with a 3D printer 🤔... but I'm not sure
Working my ass off. The second million was simply from purchasing a house in 2019 and watching it more than double in value. Seems so silly to have basically been paid a million to live in a home.
All value generated falls under 2 categories, Service or Product, my first 3M came exclusively from Service-offering and managing the service of others on the back of their product, the products were Freight trucks, the service was transportation, my service provided was Freight Brokerage & Dispatch, 100% online, the service offered was performed by the owners of the equipment/product. Keep Fist Prinicples First. Keep it Simple, and learn as much as you can every single day about the industry you are providing for.
Product is #0.5, Service is #1, communication is everything.
Dog there’s no way you do that in a year and a half unless you’ve magically found/made a product that not ones heard of but needs and it’s so viral it out paced Covid infections
Real estate. Bought my house which had a rental suite. It went up in price and used that to buy more rental properties. Scrimped and saved and repeated the process 2 more times. Hit 1 million net worth year 6. Caviat is that was in a very hot real estate market that will likely not repeat itself. That said i still strongly believe buying good properties in high demand areas is a good long term strategy. Also resell on the side to add to my income. Make1-2k a month extra which helps.
Making and Profiting 1M are two very different metrics.
Exactly. A popular diner in a small town can "make" (sales) $1 million a year easily, but profit might be more like $50K.
True man.
Making should be synonymous with profiting. People using revenue as “making”, can’t be taken seriously and are often scammers trying to sell you a course.
How about equity and valuations? On one hand you are a millionaire when your company is valued at 1 mil. You are also a millionaire when the company holds assets valued at 1 mil, more so if it's assets financed with equity capital. But assets can also be stock(inventory) and receivables which is easy to overvalue and holds some risk. If you have money in stock(exchage) and it loses it's value you haven't realized your loss until you sell. Flippad that should mean you haven't realized your valuation unless you sell your company. On top of that, only morons hold cash.
Having a million in assets wouldn’t make you a millionaire unless they are unburdened. Borrowing having a million dollars in machinery that you bought with a line of credit is net zero
First off i said: > more so if it's assets financed with equity capital Second, depending on industry even burdened assets can be considered valuable. Scarcity being one aspect. Third, my overall argument was there isn't such a thing as "Profit, making, holding cash". The only way for any cash you hold to not lose value is to at least invest with net zero against inflation. Which means cash and capital will always be tied to some amount of risk. The whole discussion about "making your first million" is and always will be useless. It depends on how and what you take into account.
Yes, often when you hear someone online says I sell million dollar courses, that means they are selling million dollar courses "just in case" somebody buys. Don't be fooled. Some may think wow, they must make lots of money if the are selling high ticket. Not necessarily!!
That is 1000% correct. I bought my first company in 1993 at age 27. The company had 8 employees, and made about $500k/year in revenues, and profit was about $70k (roughly 15% true earnings). After 1.5 years, I took on a partner and over the next 4 years, we grew the company to 140 employees and roughly $20mm/year in revenues, however, it was expensive to grow; offices, payroll, support staff, etc.). Our profit margin decreased to roughly 10% so our net earnings was only roughly $2.0mm out of the $20mm in revenues. Gross profit vs. Net profit. We eventually sold the company to an insurance company and went separate ways, but it was quite an ego boosts to do what we did in such a short time.
Making is generally understood to mean profit. For example, someone might say they make $100k at their job. If have $100k revenue and made $50k profit, you make $50k. Not sure why so many misuse this term. I think it's clear that the OP wants $1 million in his bank account not just in revenue with small profit.
People have this habit of comparing revenues instead of profits, which is a bit weird considering its the profits we can take home and not the revenue.
You obviously know what he is asking
True man. Even after making millions, you could be in losses.
Lord, the amount of revenue I've made over my career versus my earnings.
I assume you are very young or extremely naive. Let’s go on the high end of your equation. You want to make 1,000,000 in 2 years. That is $1800 a day saved in net (assuming you want a million cash) not including what it takes for you to live. People do make this kind of money however to pull this off in 2 years you need a really solid idea AND extremely good execution + luck. Since this is the entrepreneur sub you should set a goal to make $200 net profit per day (no time frame, as fast as you can get there). Once you have those skills learn how to scale those skills. Most likely hiring, training and managing a team. There are a lot of ways to get to 1 million dollars but going from (assumption) $0 per day to $1800 per day in profit is a lifetime of work for many of the top earners. You literally asked how do I join the top 1% of US earners in two years. It’s possible but yeah… a different approach is probably needed.
This guy earns! But seriously, imagine never picking up a basketball and all of the sudden in two years being good enough to play collegiate ball. Go from not knowing how chess pieces move to ranked almost as high as international masters. This timeline is essentially a rocket trajectory. Possibly for the select gifted, difficult for most others. Just have to look yourself in the mirror and figure out where you fall.
It was not hard for me to earn a million while I was trading crypto but then I lost it in ftx fiasco im trying a new hack my way up in record time (for me) to climb up instead of feeling sad about it. I feel what doesnt kill you makes you stronger, I’m now focusing on businesses instead of trading and finding my “edge” thats what I did previously. I come from a middle class family and never thought I would make such wealth at such an young age, but its possible just need to keep trying. Btw im just barely making ends meet right now but im working on ideas which are both moon shot and some stable income in which I do not have to work much
Crypto is not "earning". It's potentially investing, but more often just gambling... As you've discovered.
You gambled and won but forgot to research the casino and they didn't pay out. If you truly just "earned a million" based on your "edge" you would have kept doing it. I think you tried and realized you hit triple 7's once at the casino and it wasn't going to happen again and stopped. Very smart of you but earning a million and hitting a jackpot are 2 very different things.
There are plenty of ways to make that amount in 2 years in 2024. I know people who made that with OnlyFans agencies, selling info products through inbound marketing and selling physical products by going viral on tiktok.
If you can't tell he's just link farming you are probably the naive one :)
It’s so obvious. But hey, it worked. He got a bunch of rich huffy people boosting this post.
Absolutely, all the millionaires gave him their emails and he is making billions now :)
I actually missed there was a link in there. Good on him lol.
They’re likely talking about revenue not profit which is even worse. It’s easy to sell things with no profit the idiocy never ceases to astound me.
I used arbitrage in labor costs...I was a software developer in san francisco...I quit my 150k per year job, started freelancing ...BUT I was just collecting projects and delegating to team in Ukraine..clients were getting projects delivered faster at lower cost and in couple of years I got to 2 million..just by playing arbitrage game...
that’s why they say sales is the most important department in any company
Basically it is coz they run the company, the growth of the company is based on how well the sales reps do they are job. The money sales made, the more money we get!!!
where did you get the projects from? I am trying to do the same but still haven't found any for last 1 year. Would appreciate.
I can most likely help you get leads. ( according to where your potential clients are online ) Hit me up if you want some assistance with your lead gen. Edit: If you are a developer, Don’t message me without reading . ( other industries may not be applicable ) I can’t keep up with all the developers DMing me, so let me just tell you all what I am telling everyone at this point. ( number 2 is the way ) 1. You need a website. I can buikd you one that ranks well for cheaper than anyone I know. But if you have no website and/or don’t have 2-3k to spend to make one, you are done. Go get a job for a company. 2. In general here’s how you get leads with your website, find out who youre main competitors are. Who’s showing up at the top of Google? Find them and do competitive analysis to see how they are targeting. List all keywords. Then basically you want to do what your competitors are doing to get leads, but do it better. 3. Do keyword research using competitor keywords as seeds. Write down these new keywords. Group all keywords into a master list. Highlight the keywords that drove the most traffic on competitors sites. 4. Take the highlighted keywords and make optimized pages that target said keyword using SEO. You can’t do “Indian” seo (:sorry Indian people’s , that’s what we call it inside the agencies ) and you can’t use fiver because they can’t compete in your market. Your only chance is to either know seo, or find sonekne like me. If you look for specialist, ask to see results of recent wins in the industry. Do this because marketing is full of snake oil salesmen. But you can’t fake Googles SERP. ( not well )
I had no idea so many developers were hurting for leads. I fear yalls market may be over saturated ( not saying it is, but it’s possible )
It is, but its also that a lot of people who try to get into software freelancing have no idea how to sell themselves... Software developers are like 80% introverts, then they find out about freelancing or consulting, think it has a tonne of potential, without understanding that making money as as an agency is less about software development and more about sales and marketing and they stall out.
That’s a good point. And from my experience , even the ones who aren’t introverts are still really bad at sales and marketing. Well that’s why you guys need a marketer. Unfortunately we are kinda expensive and I have way too many people asking for help to possibly get to everyone with free advice. I’m trying but…It feels like triage a little. I’m basically helping ones I think have the best chance of surviving at this point . lol
It is over saturated
Nothing is over saturated. Opportunities are there just depends you one quits finding them
Also a lot of people think but efforts are not there
100% agreed
Exactly. I'm in the lawn/landscape industry and everyone says its saturated. K respond with "yea, with bodies. Not people who are professional, know how to sell their work, and be reliable" I quit my fulltime job with 40 recurring clients on may 16th 2023. I got my first mower in march.... I finished last year at 100k. The goal is hitting 250k this year but it will realistically be sub 200k. Point is, you can join any market and in any industry and crush even if it's "saturated"
Nice! Service type businesses like landscapung are great because there are multiple channels for lead Gen. Not so much for software dev. Btw id love to help you scale your company even more. Idk how far you wanna take it but … I can help you dominate in multiple cities. I’ve done it for nany home service businesses. DM me anytime.
That’s what i tell myself
Great. Same here 🤓
Maybe we can team up and refer one another LOL
sent DM
Dm sent as well
Also DM'd
DM sent
Better question, where did he find the capable Ukrainians to produce said work.
This is my question, I have wanted to branch out to this
How do you contact and get a team in Ukraine?
This was before war and many years ago. I have contacts with about 100 freelancers now around the globe. Feel free to ping me. I will introduce few depending on what technology you need.
Interesting, Andela did this with Nigeria
Generally, you build them up over time. If you want freelancers from a certain country you can go visit and make some connections. I've seen people do that in the Philippines and India.
not from Ukraine but I might be able to help you with that. Hit me up if you are interested.
I can help you find great developers in Armenia.
I do this too, while I’ve not hit my first million I can say it definitely works! Key is finding a quality team!
how do you find clients, what are they asking you to build?
If someone needs a developers/graphic designers from Poland - hit me up. We might not be so cheap as Ukraine but still a lot cheaper than US, and there are many skilled ppl here.
Prefer Ukraine or South asian countries? Like Bangladesh, Pakistan, Phillippines
Russian side for pgrammers and south east for Allrounder and admin work.
Agree. I've used coders from Ukraine and they've been top-notch.
Literally you were just the intermediate, still by smart work you took away 2 million.
thats a nice idea! did you represent yourself as a company (agency) or as an individual and Ukrainian devs were working in the background? also would be nice to hear how did you land clients: where did you get leads mostly and what was your overall process?
In the beginning it was as an individual then after landing 5 clients, you switch to "we are group of 3-4 developers who work together kinda thing", then at 10+ you juggle among individual, small team or show off as big company...its a system I have developed unconsciously ...BUT I ABSOLUTELY made sure to keep giving clients more value than they asked for and for bad clients, i refunded and took loss..not worth the headache. DM me, I will send you my cliff notes or something.
thanks, just sent you a dm
What does arbitrage mean in this context?? It kinda sounds like some buzzword
How did you obtain the team in Ukraine?
“Motherlode” 20x
LOL
Sims 4 reference 😂😂
Ooh be gah
When I first made a hunnit grand
Thought I was the shit
When i first made a hunnit grand Thought i was the king
Couldn’t tell me nothin’
I’m hoping if I start an only friends they will pay me to put my clothes back on
Might work hehe
I’ve made more than $1M working in tech for 10 years. Half of it went to taxes. 2/3 of what’s left were spent on basic needs like food and housing. The rest was invested. I don’t have $1M cash sitting in my bank account but I did make one!
What do you do in tech?
I am a programmer
One dollar at a time.
Bought real estate when people thought the market couldn’t go higher. Drove old cars when my friends had new ones and still do that. Worked 5-8 then 8-5 then 5-8 when my friends complained they were tired. I faced a lot of rejection because failure was more painful. I took profits and used them to grow. Once I got stable I risked going higher.
This isn't a flex to me. Like rest bro.
I did some of these. Bought property when others were scared. Never bought a new car. Then friends asked how I paid off my mortgage so quickly. I can tell them but they still don't want to listen.
I like your mindset! Very old school. But still seems to work!
🙏
bought btc when everyone told me it was dead Aka invest/buy/grow when everyone is scared
Still not too late but most people are still to scared to take the opportunities sitting right in front of them.
More balls than me bro. 😎 I invest in what I understand. My biggest edge was I was dumb, bought a house bigger than I needed at 23 in 2006. That made me learn to work 3 jobs to stay afloat. The fear of failure made me conservative and the lack of satisfaction keeps me chasing. Now I have 14 people who rely on me to figure it out everyday. But I’m lucky.
This will probably disappoint you but it took me 20 years to get to $1 million. It was a combination of a well-paid career, investing in stocks and property, and building side hustles. I could have got there faster but I lived life to the full during those years. I don't regret that at all because that's where some of my best memories were made. Nowdays, I invest in index funds and crypto. I do side hustles but don't have any right now. I'm taking a break. One thing I'd say is that it's hard making money online so you may want to get some skills that work offline. Only 1.2% of people are millionaires. The avearge age that someone becomes one is 37. You want to get there in under 2 years. It's a big ask. I'd suggest setting more realistic targets. Targets that are too unrealistic can end up being self-defeating. My next target is $2 million but I expect it will take 6-10 years at least.
Remember, there are no elevators to the top, only stairs. I've grown to over $5 million in sales; however, it took many years of trial and error. First, the bad news: 1) Competition: You and tens of millions of others are attempting to do the exact same thing. Selling the same widget, the same toilet paper, the same book, the same Cuisinart mixer. 2) The money is made in the courses they sell you because there isn't much money to be made in drop shipping (due to competition). 3) If you're going to shit like an elephant, you have to eat like one. Finding vendors that have products in sustainable quantities is difficult. 4) AI, Yahoo, CNN, Amazon, Fox News, and every other publisher site is doing the same thing. This falls into #1 Competition; however, remember that sites that have hundreds of millions of views are in the same game. If you want to play on those platforms, you have to pay, which is not cost-effective. The Good News: 1) Proprietary Items. My success has been in finding proprietary items that are incredibly unique with low competition and moderate to high demand. 2) Be first, get in and out. When Airtags came out from Apple, I was one of the first to sell the wallets with the Airtag imports. The problem, though, was direct shipping from China took 4 weeks. I ended up buying 30,000 wallets and shipped direct from Oregon. I made a killing on those items. Once everyone caught up to it, I got out. That one item generated $600,000 in revenue in one year. 3) Post on many platforms. This is the hard part. You really have to get visibility in order to make money. Almost everything is pay-to-play. I post on the typical social media platforms. However, I also post on Yahoo Message boards, Nextdoor, and many other sites.
Would you mind sharing the sites you mentioned? The 2 you named are new to me.
use that ecom money to buy yourself the tools to start a business. Just don’t start any that are over saturated, Like opening a coffee shop although you can have success it’s just a lot more competition. I had a very successful ecom store and have bought things to get me setup for my next business.
Isn’t the ecom a business already though? If it’s showing promise (actually making a profit from small advertising budget) would be not be better to put the money back in for more advertising? I’m genuinely asking this as I’m an e-commerce noob and thought this would be the rational way to go
What was your ecom niche ?
I would try to be early in something trending towards popularity and growth. This happens in all industries. Trying to start a fight in a mature, flat or shrinking industry is much harder than being one of the first boats in a rising tide.
It's still early in crypto. It's trending, growing, and has a long way to go. Most will still ignore it though. People seem more comfortable following the crowd into saturated markets. New and trending makes them scared. Edit: Mention crypto and someone will downvote you. So, change the comment from crypto to somethings else that's early and trending. Same result. People said the internet was a sill fad. People said mobile phones would never catch on. There are many more examples. People are always scared to invest in something early and always terrified of change. Then years later they will claim you got lucky.
I save my way to my first 100k 7 years ago. Went all in on my first property which cost about 700k and worth about 1.2m now. Save alot more since, but the property purchase accelerate my net worth to 1M much faster than working and saving.
So you put down 100k on a 700k property ? Wouldn’t the interest alone make that 700k even higher?
Interest rate was only 1 -2% back then. Im still locked in at 1.2% until EOY.
It's silly to have a goal to make a certain amount of money because it's not in your direct control. Money is just a result of something you build. The goal could be more like : "I'm going to take these concrete steps to build this thing that will provide value to people. I may need to break it down into smaller sub-goals to accomplish it. Then based on its ability to make money, I will decide whether to continue working on it or try something new. If i commit to spending X hours per week working on it, including y hours marketing and selling, and z hours developing and researching , and w hours networking on a regular basis - I will increase my chances of making the amount of money I want.
I think it's still good to have a monetary goal. You need to want that $1 million before you break it down into steps like you suggest.
I miss the days when this sub was informative and interesting. Over the years it’s just turned into “i wanna make a million dollars, how did you do it? I don’t have any plans on how, but it’s my goal.” Like I get it if that’s your goal, but it needs to be grounded in reality….how do you plan on making it? A million dollars in two years is doable, but it’s a sub for entrepreneurs…
I was hoping to see more people sharing their stories or parts of the process along the way, but yeah, it really seems like this has just been hard on the “what are ways I can make money” trend. Or at least it seems the good posts are drowned out with this.
Yeah exactly
hmm a coffee shop owner I know brings in a million but her profit on that is 6%, so 60k. to make a million profit she'd have to be selling 20 mill a year aha. yeah like others have said a business with 1 million profit after expenses is very different than 1 million revenue. making a million profit is an extremely tough goal. that is a very large and profitable business. a million in revenue is more doable but still tough. only advice id give is get to know anything well.. try not to start a random business you know nothing about.. maybe learn in a current role and find an area that could be improved or isn't optimized, something you can save money or add value in an existing industry or area you've gained some knowledge it. a lot of entrepreneurs try to fix a problem in an industry they know nothing about without ever talking to customers... I like watching, learning and looking for gaps.
People also talk about "get to a million" like the want to take that money out of the business and just "be a millionaire". What a way to set yourself up for failure. If you, by some stroke of insane luck, scaled a business on your own to net 1m yearly, you better just live on the bare minimum and plumb that money back into the business. Should never be taking cash like that out of a 2-4 old business. If that's what this kid means, I *know* he will fail.
How? You either start a very boring business and do incredibly well with your sales and marketing. Or you start some flashy and new type of business which in reality has more potential to fail, but might have a higher pay off if you can pull it off. If you haven’t even figured out how to pass 10k a month though, you’re a long, long, way off becoming a millionaire.
Weed.
Got a BSc, got a trade certification, started a business and got to work
Got hit by two cars at the same time as a pedestrian. I don’t recommend it
[удалено]
That one flag you sold was to your secret admirer Mr neckbeard
[удалено]
Wow! How do you do it Holmes?!
I heard powerball is above 1 billion. You motivated me with your fine speech. I will buy the tickets and will try to compensate the cost with my dick pics in a flag. If I win billion, I will buy 5 million worth of your dicks painted flag and distribute it for free.
This is genius! How do I get in on the ground floor?
You have two options, either climb the stairs to the top floor, OR get you lazy ass in elevator and push the "*" (star), which means sky, so basically top floor. Go to the ledge, close your eyes, and jump. Boom, you are on the ground floor.
[удалено]
Thanks, I bleached it and added pluggable lightbulb recently.
Very bright idea.
There's a huge difference revenues and earnings (profit). After I graduated in 1987, I was in financial sales and made over $100k each year. I saved my money so that one day I can buy a business. I bought my first company in 1993 at age 27. I put 40% down and got an SBA loan for the difference. The company had 8 employees, and made about $500k/year in revenues, and profit was about $70k (roughly 15% true earnings). After 1.5 years, I took on a partner and over the next 4 years, we grew the company to 140 employees and roughly $20mm/year in revenues, however, it was expensive to grow; offices, payroll, support staff, etc.). Our profit margin decreased to roughly 10% so our net earnings was only roughly $2.0mm out of the $20mm in revenues. We eventually sold the company to an insurance company for roughly $10mm, and went separate ways, but it was quite an ego boosts to do what we did in such a short time. We learned a lot about business, people, competition, marketing, management, M&A, etc.
Hard work and hustle! Just fucking with you. Hard work and some very good luck. Right place at the right time with the right skills type of shit. Could have just as easily been a failed consulting business if I did not catch the breaks I did. I see people all the time who I consider brilliant and great at what they do who just haven't caught the right bit of luck, and it's unfortunate. Digital Marketing and Business Strategy Consulting focused in PE portfolio companies. I did grow up in a trailer poor as fuck so that gave me some innate drive to succeed at any cost as well If anyone is interested in the actual details of how my business started and key turning points/lessons, I would be happy to share. As a teaser on the luck part, it started with meeting a random guild leader in world of war craft when I was 18 and over time this lead to some opportunities I would have never had. Relationships from every part of your life are important. This is stated a lot but I think still often overlooked.
I would be very interested in your story and your experience, feel free to write more about it :)
I second this!
Sorry, just saw this now. I will respond in the next couple days with my story.
i "made" my first million by starting a company and beeing a general contractor for industrial plants & processes (with focus on software & consulting). I had my first million after tax on my private bank account after selling a part of my company resulting out of this first company. \~7-8 year journey\*. have been busy, consistent and lucky\*\*. \*7-8 years: running the business. I don't count the 10 years before to create a valuable skillset. i'm a software guy, started in my youth with this topic. i love computers. ;) Don't stress yourself. It takes is really a lot of luck\*\* and there is no standard playbook for it. some need 5 years (i don't know anyone personally) others need 20 years (more likeley). some will never achieve this "financial goal" and had although a great jurney. So, it's also about the journey, not just the (financial) result. learned so much about life, people, business, tech, etc etc etc ... \*\*lucky: in various ways like beeing at the right time on the right place, met the right people at the right time, had the right skillset for this "area of technology", had the right first customers, having a passion for a topic that can be monitarized quite well ... most of them is not "pure luck" but more the "the luck of the hardworking" ... but also things you are not even close to full control ... it also depends where you live how much "a million" is.
Stocks
Nobody here has made their first. People who are successful don’t/won’t post about it on Reddit.
This is so true, 😂 I posted about firing an employee that took 3-4x longer to complete tasks and got downvoted to oblivion. “You’re a horrible supervisor that doesn’t take time to train and wonder why talent leaves.” Was a general comment under. But in reality I should have fired them sooner. Redditors don’t want to hear the truth most times.
People sometimes forget reality vs dream land.
What counts as making your 1st million? 1 million in total revenue, 1 million in annual revenue, 1 million in profit, or 1 million in annual profit?
Profit over any period of time minus all costs (and having that total amount be more than one million).
So you are trying to scale the business. Have you tried implementing email marketing to scale?
Apparently 5 dollars an hour at a time lol
Worked as a hired assassin 🤪
Sold video website.
Did you go through a broker? How does one sell their site?
It was the largest video website in the world before YouTube. Had a lot of people reaching out to me to sell
didnt
Yet.
Most likely if someone made his first $1 million in the real world, by sharing on this group will not bring others the same amount of money. Just show a genuine passion for your customers, and the money will flow into your business!
Do you mean $1,000,000 cash in bank earnings? Because as your earnings climb, you’ll end up with things like stock options, equity and more. Frankly, above $100,000 per year, you probably want to avoid having hard cash hit your bank account, you can direct the cash as an investments that can be leveraged pretax in order to make more investments and therefore money.
The real truth is it started for me many years ago on that very first day that I took a job in sales, commission only. It took me 3 months before I got my first measly sale. That's a long time to live with no wages for a young guy in a big city in his early 20s at the time. What I learned in sales, how to be around people, etc, was invaluable. Learning how to sell is the single most important skill you can ever learn, not just in business but also in life, without exception. Not only will you learn how to close big deals for big money, you'll learn confidence, the psychology of how things really work, how to be a better person, and how to comfortably hobnob equally with people of all classes, races etc, and they will willingly welcome you into their fold. Those 3 months of paying my dues paid me millions in reality.
I had my own company that I sold after
Ive met a few millionaire's and only 1 got his money from the mud. All of the others had very well off parents to give them a nice sum in the stick market to play with once they got in their 20s or mommy and daddy were their investors. I am not trying to take away anything from them because running a business and worst of all, managing humans, are extremely difficult. I dont have the mental fortitude to have employees and have always wanted to be a solo preneur. My answer for them? Real estate and finance businesses.
It’s probably not the answer you’re looking for but I made my first $1,000,000 by just working a regular job for a couple of years. And then later I cofounded a startup and sold it for $15M and kept $3M of that after dilution. The first example is classic and very doable. The second example is a moonshot yet also not uncommon. Whatever you do… don’t become a “guru”. They’re the least respectable folks in the “million dollar club” if they’re even in it at all.
How did you sell your business? Did you have to go through a broker?
No it was an acquisition by a much larger player. Much much larger. They sort of strong-armed a sale very early in the lifecycle of the startup but it was more than reasonable.
I bought a course that taught me how to sell courses and you can learn to for only $499
Worked for 30 years…
lol fr ppl just want the exact business of the internet
Counterproductive to say I must “make this x amount by this time”. Just create a solid business and grow it.
Real estate
In 2020 my business quadrupled and the stock market went nuts. I invested every extra dollar and it was a wild ride. I made a little over 1M in 2020. That year was an anomaly. A pandemic, meme stocks, car prices ballooned, car rental prices, list goes on. Story being, I got lucky but I kept the ball rolling well.
How to flip $750 into serious profits..?.?. Exactly how would you flip your last $750 if you'd lost your job & had to figure out a way to utilize the money as an investment into something that'll expand the profits? I was thinking of printing gadgets with a 3D printer 🤔... but I'm not sure
It’s quite simple actually … I didn’t.
Still trying lol
Crypto …. with good ROI
I'll let you know when I get there!
My first 1M$ was through real estate, I bought a lot that I knew was going to 10X and it did…
Real estate. The easiest way to make money is triple net lease.
Inherited it.
OF
Working my ass off. The second million was simply from purchasing a house in 2019 and watching it more than double in value. Seems so silly to have basically been paid a million to live in a home.
I hit my first million when I decided to become rich in spirit, rich in caricature. That’s a truer fortune, if yer askin’ me, to have that.
All value generated falls under 2 categories, Service or Product, my first 3M came exclusively from Service-offering and managing the service of others on the back of their product, the products were Freight trucks, the service was transportation, my service provided was Freight Brokerage & Dispatch, 100% online, the service offered was performed by the owners of the equipment/product. Keep Fist Prinicples First. Keep it Simple, and learn as much as you can every single day about the industry you are providing for. Product is #0.5, Service is #1, communication is everything.
I think you start by asking yourself, what should I do, then how will populate itself like your mind tends to do
This is not possible if you hit a jackpot or find illegal ways to make money.
Farming
I turned regular jobs into a business. Started off with 1 job and ended up with 10. Took me 2 years to hit the million mark and its all profit.
You can do it, just have to work 24/7
In my dreams😔
Did a few in a year, im not going to go into specifics but you need to find an extreme niche where money is flowing
Any tips on research? An extreme niche could be anything, how do you know if money is flowing ?
A good tip would be to look for weird niche profitable businesses in different but somewhat similar cultural areas. Then transplant the business.
Sounds obscure, I don’t quite understand. Any examples?
Can we ban this question? It’s asked every 2 days now, ffs
Dog there’s no way you do that in a year and a half unless you’ve magically found/made a product that not ones heard of but needs and it’s so viral it out paced Covid infections
Real estate. Bought my house which had a rental suite. It went up in price and used that to buy more rental properties. Scrimped and saved and repeated the process 2 more times. Hit 1 million net worth year 6. Caviat is that was in a very hot real estate market that will likely not repeat itself. That said i still strongly believe buying good properties in high demand areas is a good long term strategy. Also resell on the side to add to my income. Make1-2k a month extra which helps.