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Sense To Dollars podcast 001: The real way to find stuff to sell on Ebay and Craigslist
May 18th, 2013Sense to Dollars podcast episode 3
November 16th, 2012Sense to Dollars podcast episode 3
Click here for this weeks episode
a lot of changes are coming up fast with the housing market, keep your eyes open there is a big shift going on in our economy. My guess is section 8′s days are ending fast. First pensions next is sections 8. everyone should pick up some books start mastering a craft and set out to become great at it. That’s how things always were before the industrial age. Us here in America cant afford to take care of the ones around who refuse to pull there weight.
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I Have ADD, Thats a big part why I am an Entrepreneur
November 15th, 2012I’ve been listening to tons of audio books, and reading business books, and following other entrepreneurs for quite some time now. and i discovered one common trait. most of them joke and make comments about being ADD, ADHD, dyslexic, or have social anxiety. as of the last year I’ve been hearing more and more people comment on having ADD, and other issues related to this disorder.
In my opinion these disorders are not a curse or something to be ashamed of at all. I do believe you should be aware of the facts of these issues, and observe if you have it or if kids you are around have it.
here is my story. I always thought I was strange, not really overly strange but a little strange. I fit in like most kids, I was fortunate I was tall, I liked sports I grew up in a place called East Cleveland Ohio. it a small town north east of Cleveland Ohio. it supposed to be a suburb but it is the biggest slum in the city of Cleveland. This area tought me to fight and we were poor so we played outside all the time. I discovered I was kinda fast, kinda strong, and back then some what athletic. but I still knew I was a little different. I was quite, mostly because i was having family problems, My mother was young when i was born (17) and so was my Father (18). So we consequently grew all up together. I was partially raised by my grandparents on both sides. my mother took one path in life, the street life, she was a hustler (the wrong kind), she didn’t really work, and at a young age she started down this path of getting in and out of trouble. know I was never abused I was never neglected. but dealing with my mother and the life she was choosing was a challenge to say the lease. and no I didn’t have a dead beat dead even though he was young, he spent a lot and I mean a lot of time with me (And i thank GOD every day he did, saved my life) . more than my mother did. and now looking back I see he was heading down one path and she was going down another. but anyway I grew up in east Cleveland up until about the fourth grade at that time my father got a “good Job” and I went to solely living with him and his parents. after I started getting some stability I could finally start to see the things I liked to do come to the forefront. I noticed a trait I would become totally in golfed in certain projects. I now know I had the ability to hyper focus. I always was doing 2 or three things at a time. I systematized almost everything. And one big factor I always, always hustled ( the good kind). From the time I was little. I don’t mean drugs or doing anything really wrong, at least not yet.
I sold Baseball cards in the 4th grade. I bought them on the weekends and then I would take my duplicates to school and sell them. then I started going to card shows, and buying in bulk players I thought would be good. I then started selling those extra cards the next year if the player did turn out to be good. but I didn’t just sell them at school then I started selling them in the back of baseball card magazines. I wasn’t making much money but I was making enough to make my collection huge. I had all the cards all the sets and an un-limiting supply of them. all I had to do was keep picking wich players would be good. I was hyper focusing. I was playing little league baseball, selling cards, reading baseball magazines, playing baseball on Nintendo. I would get up in the summer and do my baseball card thing, then i would go in the back yard and throw hundreds of balls at a tree and make the balls come off at crazy angles to get better at playing the ball. My step brother through me 100′s of pitches every day. i got really good. i played baseball up until i was about 16.
Funny thing is I discovered a lot of flaws I had with this but I played baseball up until I believe the distractions of life and the ability to self medicate my self came along. I never really fit in with the “cool kids” I played sports so I sort of did, and me growing up in East Cleveland I could fight, so nobody messed with me but I was more at ease with the nerds and geeks. but they didn’t really except me, because I was this tall sports dude who all the cool kids were friends with so why is this guy hanging with us, to beat us up or make fun of us. I never did make fun of them, still to this day some of the nerds are my best friends
I worked several jobs as I got older in my late teens and 20′s and even 30′s, now. but I always came back to dong my own thing. here is the list of all the business I’ve done and if they were a success or failure
baseball cards – success for a 4th grader
landlord- failure but again learned a lot
Cleaning Business- Mild success but the learning was amazing
auction hunting – mild success
buying and selling cars – success and the lesson learned were life amazing
laptop refurbishing – success
I learned so much about my life and myself, through all these business. I worked at the Ohio Prison, most people loved this type of job and retire from there. For me it was horrible because it was structured. I hated the structure. The only time was at ease was when I was doing my own thing, at that time it was selling cars. I was making about 19 dollars per hour and in Cleveland thats good money, but on the weekends I was making large sums of money buying cars. I was loving it. I was fixing the cars. I was hiring people to fix the cars. I was selling them to people at work and friends. and then I found online selling. It was great but I didn’t realize i had ADD. I also didn’t realize Working for my self was going to be the hardest thing in the world to do.
off the subject here a little. but do you know the reason entrepreneurs, small business owners, and business owners, when they do make it, why they have so much money. The reason is they take the chances. they have the guts, the courage, they hang in there, they make it so that that guy at the muffler shop can feed his family, or that girl working at the check cashing place has a job, they took the chance. I’ve lost more money than most people would care to think about, I’ve also won. The best thing about it all. it was all under my control.
in summary. I truly believe a couple of things
- we can overcome any challenge
- we use to many excuses
- we don’t know our best learning style
- we take the easy route, the easy route don’t work. people who have ADD, ADHD, Dislecsyia, Or any other common label. we some how saw things can get hard for us if were not careful, so we don’t go the easy route. that’s why were creative, and we lose a lot but we win a lot too. And most people only see the winning but we lost at times to.
please take time to listen to the following links if you have ADD, ADHD, Social Anxiety or maybe even some symptoms of bi-polar disorder. Although I believe if you have bi-polar disorder you should take this very serious and seek out more resource than I even have here.
http://feeds.feedburner.com/48DaysRadio
the HP pavilion DV6000 overheats all the time
October 23rd, 2012
A quick review and tip on a product that is common out there on the market. The HP Pavilion dv6000. All of these laptops seem to have over heating issues. I run across these from customers all the time. It was a very common computer and now all of them seem to be having the same issue. If you have one and the sounds goes or things start to go it’s properly done. It’s just a parts computer. Don’t try to repair it unless you have a hook up on the parts. If you run across them you can buy them for maybe 30 bucks and strip and sell or just sell for parts.
Check out my podcast
Stay tuned and subscribe their will much more quality stuff, tips tricks and info to produce more money for you.
Any comments, emails or question would b greatly appreciated were looking to start up a question and answer part for the site
use the fact that most people would rather complain then work
October 19th, 2012Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 16:20 — 15.0MB) | Embed
Work
Use you job to refine your skills to get you to a successful business
I was reminded today of a situation I’ve been noticing and haven’t really been able to put my finger on it. But I think today I was able to do just that, put my finger on it, and I decided I should share this with you today. I’ve noticed for a long time now different people deal with work in different ways. I’ve worked many jobs some low paying some middle class worthy paychecks. Through this time of working I’ve noticed something I especially notice it very evident while working with people on “out side of the job projects”. The thing that I have noticed is people don’t want to work. I mean some people are down right angry when they have to work. Sometimes when there is work to do you will see all sorts of reactions coming out of people they will start pointing fingers, getting upset, questions who what and why are we doing this. Most of the time the work that is being done is a normal part of the process of completing what ever that work task is. So basically people are lazy, and I mean lazy. So what you may say to yourself. The realization of most people are lazy opens up a tremendous opportunity for the person who is willing to look their selves in the mirror and say today I stop talking about things and today I start doing action.
I work a regular Midwest job like a lot of our country but I am aware of a fact. There is a change going on in our culture and it is going from a theory of we pay you for showing up and being here to we pay you for your output. With this being said no or should I say not very many jobs are definitely secure anymore. You may be replaced by outsourcing or technology at any given time. This being said your number one defense of this is to refine your skill set. Get really good at something. Your job hopefully is in the field you really want to be but if it’s not take a real look at that and start to create a part time business on the side. Grow it slowly and chart and watch what works and what doesn’t. Learn the industry from the ground up. Build this for several reasons. The value of the dollar in the USA and in most places in going down. This is pretty much a fore gone conclusion. There are going to always be products that need to be made and most of the time man will have to have something to do with this process. But so long of the days of just showing up to work and that’s enough. You have to learn your job and begin a good practice of being good there and then pull that same technique into your own personal business. The one that does move you to get up and do something.
It may seem like a difficult task to work harder at your own job. And I’m not saying kill yourself there. I’m just saying give it 10% more than either you are now or 10% more than the person at your job you work near and you consider them the best at what you do. Learn from that extra effort your giving and spend off hours creating your own person business. Yes it will be somewhat hard because it’s going against the normal of what we consider here in the USA. The norm being work, complain about work, say how there not doing us right, come home, complain, then drink some beers pass out and go do it all over again.
Most people wont work, it easier to complain then to do something. If it really was a problem with them about the situation one of 2 things should occur, you should be working your but off outside of work to get out of that situation or buckling down and figuring out a way to make this a learning experience of what you don’t like and figuring out if its worth it to learn to adjust to this thing what ever it is.
There is a quote I slept and dreamt that life was joy I woke and found that life was duty, I Acted and behold duty was joy.
In order to make life an enjoyable experience one must find joy is his day-to-day work. Not I’m not saying this has to be your day job. Sometimes you gotta do what you gotta do. But I will say this. If your not 80% happy with your job and would not mind working an extra 20 hours per week there so to build wealth through overtime. I would say you need to be spending more time working on YOU. Working on your personal brand. A business is the main way to create serious wealth here. A check from an employer is really just enough to make it. There aren’t many ways you multiply from being paid an hourly wage. But a business, you can outsource, batch work, systemize for efficiency. There are so many ways with a business you can multiply your efforts. Basically with your own business you can find different methods to help more customers get what they want. Your job you really are focusing on making your boss happy. The boss is your main customer when dealing with a job.
I read in the $100 startup By Chris Guilebeau. He was discussing the old saying of teach a man to fish you feed I’m for life. He was saying the truth is people don’t want to fish they want you to bring them the fish cooked up looking good and ready to eat. That’s the outcome they want. Provide a means to get to the outcome faster, better more enjoyable. At www.sense-to-dollars.com we discuss methods of finding businesses that you think would be a good fit for you as a person. If you look at opportunities around with the idea of what is the outcome they want from this. What do they want, and how can I get it to them. You may think oh everybody’s doing this or everybody’s doing that. This is not true, most people are lazy even if they say there doing it or have done it and it failed it wont happen to you. The difference is you understand people fail because of there effort. If you try something, think it out on paper before hand and set a realistic amount of time to try this thing out. Failure is a good thing. You can learn what doesn’t work. See most people when they fail they say forget this I’m better off to just work. And their downward spiral of self esteems goes. But if they would engage the idea from the beginning of mistakes will happen this first, second, third, and fourth time through but maybe by the fifth time I wont mess up until half way through, and who knows before long maybe my 20th time I did it right. I mean think about this most of the stuff you do at your job that is skill related. You messed up at least a little bit while learning either on the job or a school, but you messed up and you did it again, and you worked through it again and before long the process was easy. It’s the same for doing things on your own.
The way to find a solution to your work issues or business issues is look at your worthy goal. Do you have a worthy goal? Do you know what a worthy goal is. A worthy goal is an ultimate result you want. Mine is to be able to pay for my kids post high school education, and to when the day comes assist my father financially and with time when he gets elderly, and to live at an income level where I can do creative things and not just doing things for money.
I recently read Quitter, which I highly suggest, by John Acuff. But in the book he brings up your dream job. I equate this to being your dream job, dream position, or dream business. He brings up the fact that at your day job you can learn and refine skills you use at your dream job or dream business. I find this advice to be excellent. There are days I don’t want to go to my day job but I know my day job is doing a lot for me right now. Paying my lights, rent, and kids medical. Lets face it there helping me out and I’m helping them out it’s a good partnership right now. But I also realize things could change for either them or me. I have hours that are not spent at work I could do several different things I could
- Go drinking in the off hours
- Go dating in the off hours
- Do a hobby, video games, hunting, fishing, what ever
- Watch TV
- Read fiction
- Read non fiction
- Go to school
- Work on my own small business
In my opinion it makes sense to only do 2 of the above maybe 3, school if it’s really your purpose and calling. If your heart is in what you will go to school for and your willing to pay for it by working and going to school. Not student loans I suggest go for it. But if not at all spend 10 hours per week consistently working on creating a business. And I don’t mean talking about it or spending money thinking about it I mean doing what ever you can action wise to do the first smallest step you can think of to get that business going.
Earl Nightingale, Videos. For Business success I highly sugest you listen over and over again
September 10th, 2012
I found Earl Nightingale’s material and it literally changed me. His material changed my thinking , my life and my way of doing things. I felt like i should share this with you so that hopefully he can change you also. I heard one time before that people perceive things they pay for as more value, but the best things all the things we really need in life are free. These messages that Mr. Nightingale speaks of are so need in society today i could not resist the chance at giving you this for free.
Poor people complain and do nothing. There scared to take chances and if I may go further as to say they don’t really want success bad enough that’s why they don’t go to the library to get a book to start to figure out how to finish on top. It’s said but it is how the world goes, that’s why there are employees and that’s why there are business owners, the business owners have the courage to make a way for themselves and others and they have the money they also have all the responsibility. What do most workers say when asked a question on there duty, there quick to pass it and say oh that’s not me you want, you want this person or this department or I didn’t do it or I couldn’t have been me or should not be responsible for that. The poor are poor because they don’t want money bad enough to stop drinking, and start reading, they don’t want it badly enough to stop hanging out and start acting on there goals.
laptop repair videos
August 28th, 2012
Ask your self Who cares
August 23rd, 2012
Whenever your complaining or thinking of a complaint. Do 2 things.
1 think what can you do about it. If you can do something about it do it,
if you can’t do anything about the complain.
2 think to yourself, who cares.
Then get right back to doing or thinking about something you can affect.
Business idea, mobile video game cart
August 17th, 2012
Business idea:
Make a mobile video game cart.
- rent it out
- start producing them and selling them
- turn it into a franchise and sell franchises
Videos to fix common car problems so you can sell them
August 13th, 2012
Sometimes you can find cars with Sunroofs, and they sell pretty good, highlight the sunroof and take a picture of it open if it works good. They are pretty useless like Scotty says in the following video, but they do make the sell better. check out Scotty’s video to fix the sunroof on your cars you buy to re-sell.
if your looking to start a business working on cars, buying and fixing and repairing, check out his video
List of videos to give you business ideas, you can start now
August 7th, 2012List of videos to give you business ideas, you can start now
Here is a list of videos you, watch to get some business ideas. most of these can be started right away. if you start one of these or are currently doing one of these check in here and lets discuss how its working out, and ways we can improve it.
This one is about making IPhone apps. I definitely like this one
Information on making products and selling them all based on stuff that’s already out there in the public domain
A small Business can open up avenues for you to build wealth faster than just working
June 25th, 2012A Small Business is a time consuming thing. Its hard to make one successful. it takes a lot of learning, a lot of bootstrapping, a lot of patience a lot of digging deep and taking a hard look at yourself. It takes planning, charting, researching, and searching for the proper mentors. It is hard I will be the first to admit that its hard. but as the old saying goes anything worth having is going to be hard to get. the pay off for trying and i mean really trying to build a successful small business is so great.
small business can lead to learning and mastering of skills you never thought you were capable of
additional income that can be used to save for bigger better opportunities, for example say you have a business cleaning carpets. the savings from cleaning carpets we will say 500 hundred per month being conservative you save enough to have 10k put away. you hear of a real estate opportunity a friend of your grandparents moved and there house is being auctioned but before the auction your told the bank said they would except 10k to avoid sending it through the costly foreclosure process. you buy the house and with the additional income from your cleaning business pay contractors to fix the house up. you then rent it out for $800 per month minus tax and title you profit $600 per month now plus you still have your carpet cleaning income and your job income.
you went from job = $800 per week
to job =$800
Carpet cleaning business = $200 per week
rental income = $200 per week
monthly total before $3,200 ( just enough to pay bills and save $200 per month)
monthly total after $$ 4,800 (saving $1200 per month)
saving $1,200 per month will quickly open you up to find very lucrative opportunities to invest money, and create even more income
I Watch this gentleman on YouTube almost every morning after I work my 13 hour shift and get ready to lift weights, his material helps keep me focused on even though my job is here and i seem secure in it. i know a job is nothing more than another contract I’m fulfilling for a customer and at any given time that contract can be over if the customers needs change or if some how my service i offer them is not up to there par. i know i must do a great job for my job, but in my spare time, off days, and any other free time not obligated to family has to be dedicated to me making my small business strong. i must learn every aspect i must follow what my mentors suggest to a t. And above all else just stay the course
Hackintosh , get apple at an affordable price
June 24th, 2012
I Love the ease of use apple has. in business we have to make sure we have the best tools available and in my opinion hands down apple has the best and most responsive equipment out today. time is money and money is time. apple products flat out save you time. you can get what you need and want done faster. but there is a problem apple desktops cost, and I mean cost sometime upward of $2000. I just found this video about making building a computer for much less and it enable it to essentially run exactly like and apple desktop. check out the video. I will be building one of there soon. I will keep you updated of my review of it after I get all the parts in and build it
Hanging out and doing pretty much nothing equals an unsuccessful life
June 23rd, 2012
Ever notice when you ride through the poor community lots of people are hanging out and doing pretty much nothing. All the while there house is dirty and over grown and needs paint. And when you go through the upper scale community few people are just hanging out. You see people jogging (spending there time making there health better) or yard work or maybe even working on nice old cars, but very few just hanging out. These people more than likely spend hours every day also earning income but yet they have time to keep there house and neighbor hood clean, groomed and nicely painted.
How is the people in the affluent neighborhood can find time to keep things nice but the people in the poor community can’t find the time to do that. The answer is the poor people don’t value there time. They feel as though they have all the time in the world. The rich people value there time and use it wisely, reading, exercising , spending it with family and doing constructive hobbies.
On paper write down how do you spend your time, do you spend it watching TV or reading. Do you spend it teaching your children life or drinking beer with your high school friends. Do you have a solid project to look forward to like re-painting a living room or are you looking forward to a party this weekend. Evaluate how do you spend your time
Repetition equals sucess
June 20th, 2012Repetition is the key to success. If you will stay the course try hard when you don’t feel like trying at all, go through the pain practice and learn to love the process you will win. All the great sports stars did it, all the best singers did it, 99 percent of the CEO’s did it, all the successful inventors did it, all the best SELLING authors did it, all the best movie producers did it, all the best sales men did it. Now the question is will you do it. Will you wake up at 5 am to work out and then read a boring technical book that will directly support your business idea. Will you keep faith that your small business adventure will be a success when all your so-called friends are telling you your wasting your time. Will you go to meetups from www.meetups.com on your off day from work. Will you work overtime to get the funds to start your small business. Will you have the strength to not use credit and build the principals of bootstrapping your business. The question you must ask yourself is do you want it bad enough. It will take time it will take sacrifice but 2, 3, 4 years down the road when all your so-called friends are still working at the same job and complaining and your on vacation in Florida while your business system is being run by your contractors and hirees, they will all say your lucky, I wish I had a skill like that or god gave me your talent . They will have forgot all about the parties you missed the movies you passed up, the hanging out time you missed. All they will remember now is that you sure are a lucky person. Start today by writing a plan on paper and start making your tomorrow LUCKY