Millionaire Challenge

crv1963

Hi Everyone,


I don't post often but read here regularly!


I think you're all doing great, it is the getting up after a fall that shines through here, bouncing ideas around and sharing hopes/ plans/ thoughts all helps people (especially me) stay on track even if it is a maze with a few dead ends!


For myself it is all about my working a few extra shifts to save/ invest and put towards luxuries that I wouldn't have otherwise, my own goal is the ability to retire earlier than I thought possible a few years ago.


The strongest thing holding people back is themselves, those that seem to succeed, write the autobiography and do the motivational speaking all have one thing in common- incredible self belief, they never give up get a block in the way, work round it, go over it or go through it! Most here are doing the same, keeping the goal in sight and working hard at it.


For myself I have a plan- I will retire by age 60 with a reasonable income (that meets my and Mrs CRV needs), sure it is constantly tweaked and amended as circumstances change but the goal is constant.


Good luck you are inspiring and awesome!

lessonlearned

Great post crv1963. You’ll do it.

As you know I did retire early at 56 to become my husbands carer. I am financially independent and have a reasonable income so am not forced to work.

However, I want to do something, preferably something worthwhile and hopefully get paid for doing it. I want it to be flexible so self employment is my way forward.

Well heres the next step in my master plan. Cue evil witches cackle.:rotfl:

I am going back to school........ I have my college interview on Thursday.

Wish me luck.

crv1963

LL- definitely wishing you good luck!

LuxuryWoman

Hey everyone, I'm still reading along and gaining ideas and inspiration from all of you. I have put a little more money into the business now and things continue to grow. I have an idea for something to add to my stable as it were and am in negotiations which could take things up to the next level.

I'm having the problem of balancing home and work, in one way I'm hugely lucky to work from home but on the other hand work from home plus growing a business means very long which I don't mind but my daughter says I'm 'not really here' much of the time. It's very difficult, there is only me keeping a roof over her head and she has a long 'I want' list and I try to explain I'm doing this for us and for a future good life and my customers don't stick to a timetable. If anyone has any ideas to manage this I'd love to hear them. Do I work all night when she's in bed? Ho hum.

lessonlearned

How old is your daughter. Is she old enough to help. If she has a string of wants Then i am guessing she is not a baby or toddler. Even pre teens can be useful in a family business. Personally I think it does kids good to work. Obviously nothing too taxing or stressful. No kids up chimneys....:rotfl:

I genuinely think it installs in them a good work ethic. And of course if you can pay her a little something it also teaches her the value of money. Let her earn her money so she can pay for some of those wants herself. I had my first job when I was 13, as a Saturday girl in a hairdressers. I loved it and I really loved having my own money.

What skills does she have that you could use. Tech or computer skills perhaps. Most teens are streets ahead of us with technology and social media is their mothership. Perhaps get her into helping with marketing or some of your admin, sending out invoices, helping with accounts etc.

My sons got involved in both our businesses and also in my diy projects from an early age. They loved it and they tell me they learned a lot of skills that have helped them in their lives. They even put that experience on their first job cvs and university application forms.

Do you have a separate work space or do you work from your actual living area. It can be easier to separate work and home life if you can keep your actual work contained in a seperate room so you can close the door.

How much can you automate. How about proper answering services or at least a seperate phone line, with an answer machine. There are all sorts of methods you can use. How often do you check your e mails. Do you have an automatic email answering system. Can you train your clients to fit around your timescales.

I am not explaining this very well but you can end up becoming a slave to Your customers if you are not careful. You can end up running around like a headless chicken with not very much to show for it. It is not a good idea to always be at their beck and call.

An example of getting people to respect your personal time and work within your preferred timescales ........when my kids were small I had to ask my boss not to call me at home between 6 to 9 pm. A nightly catch up phone call was part of my job. I explained that I needed that time for family time and I wanted to keep it sacrosanct. My boss was perfectly happy with that.

I suggest you read the 4 Hour Work Week by Tim Ferris for ideas of how to maximise your effectiveness, how to manage your time.

And yes, both my husband and I worked sometimes when the kids were in bed. :rotfl:

But finally I would remind you of something my mother taught me. She said - you must always remember your children are not yours to keep, you only get to borrow them for a while. She was+right. The years will pass in the blink of an eye and you never get that time back so you need make the most of every minute you have with them even if it means working little less.

A true story.........I was once working on a project and deadline was approaching fast. Whilst I was working my younger son, who was 7 at the time, was trying to talk to me. I thought I was giving Him sufficient attention because I thought I was being efficient and multi tasking - working whilst I talked to him. All of a sudden I noticed his face, he looked so sad and crestfallen because he realised I was only half listening and he turned away from me.

I was so shocked by what I had done to him. I stopped working, scooped him up and tickled him to death just to make him smile again. Of course I had to make up the work time when he was in bed to finish the project but That incident taught me a lesson. My kids came first and work had to fit round them.

It is hard, especially when there is only you, but you do need to find a way. Your daughter has had the courage to tell you that she feels left out because you are !!!8220;not really there!!!8221; so yes you need to try to make it work....for both of you.

LuxuryWoman

LessonLearned your words are wise and I agree with them all, trouble is I can't tell customer to fit around me as it's a retail website so while I can deal with orders during school time it's the social media side that caused problems, and that's 24 hours a day. Problems need to be dealt with there and then really. It the longer term if things really take off then I will be able to pay for software and perhaps a person to do the grunt work but this is such early days (not a year yet)

There isn't really anything my daughter can help with, just about everything is done via my phone (technology hey, it's quite remarkable the power these tiny gadgets have)
I have started to take her for a cheapie meal most weeks so we can talk and I try to spend a good couple of hours every evening focusing on her but it never seems enough. I have to make a go of this, otherwise I'll be in a minimum wage type job (please believe I really don't mean that the way it might come across, it's just that I am older, no qualifications and the business has massive potential)

I will have a good old think though to see if there is anything I can streamline, right now I have no time to read a book, my diet is pretty rubbish and I barely see daylight.

Thanks for your long and thoughtful reply, I appreciate it and will think things over.

lessonlearned

It is hard when you are in the thick of things and feeling overwhelmed. Sometimes it can be difficult to see the wood from the trees. It is precisely at such times that you do need to take a step back and try and evaluate what you do. See where you can streamline things. If it means taking time out to read a book then do it. If I remember correctly you would not need to read the whole book anyway, probably just the first few chapters to start with.

The guy I told you about - Tim Ferris who wrote the 4 Hour Week Work Book - said he had to do exactly this. His business was doing ok but it just took up too much time. He was overwhelmed and exhausted just trying to keep up let alone being able to grow the business. He said he streamlined and automated, cut out the dead wood and got organised. He said he got his life back and made his business more profitable.

It does sound like you are seriously overwhelmed. Be careful, do not neglect your health. Good idea to have a meal out with your daughter away from the house. Perhaps a spa treat session would be a nice mother/daughter thing you could do together. A de-stressing massage or facial might be just what you need. I bet your daughter would love it - pretending to be a celeb for the day..... Take a look at Groupon for offers.

And do not apologise for not wanting to remain in a min wage job. I doubt very much that anyone here will be offended. After all we are all here to better ourselves.

Speaking of health I went for a massage this morning. Told the masseur all about my plans and she offered to lend me some textbooks. How kind was that.

I visit the college tomorrow so today I am going to sort out what I need to take with me and then do a bit of refresher reading to prepare.

But first lunch......

lessonlearned

Hello everyone.

Just to let you know I have been successful in my college application. Start the course end of March.

The course is Complementary Therapies level 2, , building on from my beauty therapy qualifications. This will enable me to open my own treatment rooms.

Depending on how it goes I am hoping to go on to Level 3 which is diploma level.

But I am ahead of myself ......one step at a time.

I celebrated by buying myself a handbag I have been lusting after. :rotfl:

Hope you are all well and making lots of lovely money.

minxy-x

Hey all

CRV
You are very right about successful people having incredible self belief, my husband does, it is actually amazing if you listen to him. There is simply no doubt that in his head that we will not succeed in what ever business we are undertaking at that point.
This does not mean he does not think there will be hard times, but he does think things work out right in the end, and if its not right, its not the end.

Our most recent business, he was told it would be money down the drain, not worth taking, no point doing the refit as customers would not appreciate it, bla bla bla.
He listened, but thought it was right for x,y and z reasons,we carried on doing what we had planned, and although it is early days, its doing very well, and this is with a management team in place (extra costs) as well as staff, the plan being in the future we are not tied to it 24/7 (we are both very busy with it at the moment but its early days and still things to put in place).
Actually when I wrote out this, I remembered out first business there were people saying similar, and the business we are looking into currently again people saying similar.
He listens, smiles, and carries on with our plans...
My people are much more positive :rotfl:

LuxuryWoman
Balance is always tough!
We don't have children yet, so I cant give advice around that, but will talk about a few things we do and maybe you could adapt those to fit in.
Additionally please don't take any offence at any suggestions, thoughts, its just chucking ideas/thoughts around as quite often they may lead to the answer...
Also it depends on your business as some things might just not work.

When we are home together at the end of work, we catch up and are in the moment for the conversation, not asking the questions because we feel we should, whilst looking at emails, or thinking of other things- but asking and listening.
This is also (on the whole) the first thing we do, and then we get into business things :rotfl:

If we have a day off/time off together, and have to deal with anything businessy (which happens everytime)!
We will try and look at our needs for the business and do these tasks, but try to get into tasks which are for an outside companies needs, and could wait.
E.g till system down, its important to us/staff/customers/business that this is sorted ASAP- we deal with.
Company who deal with till system, call and want to talk about an upgrade etc- they can wait until the next day.
It was a tool I learnt from Brendan Burchard- I think it was on his how millionaires plan their day talk.
He says don't look at other peoples agendas, your purpose is to work on your goals.
Now there does need to be some balance, as if you get back to people with what they need in a timely manner, they will hopefully do the same for you when needed.

Finally on a day off (haha), we will try and split the day, time for us, deals with business things, time for us and repeat.
We try not to have the whole day as a mish mash of us and business intermingled, as then it really does not feel like we have spent any quality time together.
When we have to do something to do with the business we will also update the other one about the task, how long it will take etc, sounds very official when I write it, but its more like, I need to X, and then y, will be about 30 mins.
In the times you need to deal with work things, could you update your daughter, I need to work for an hour, why don't you do your homework (or whatever needs to be done), and then we will do x together in an hour.
Is it paramount that you respond to customers there and then? Could they wait for a bit even it its a few hours?

Could you have a Q&A on the website for questions asked regularly?

Could you provide more info around products/services on the site itself?
Which may negate the need to respond to some questions, this may take some work setting up, but look to work on one item/section at a time.

Could you have times on social media where you are available for live chat, and advertise these?
I will be available for live chat between 8pm-9pm, outside of these hours please send an email to .... and I will respond within (whatever time you think is reasonable).

Any competitors? Have a stalk and see what they are doing, any ideas you could adopt?

Could you swap a skill set, to implement tech things you may want to but do not have the money to do, with someone else who you may be able to provide a skill to?

Do you have people you can talk to about business? Any small company group meet ups locally? Know any one else starting out/running a business?
Running a business is f'ing hard and a roller coaster, its really important to be able to offload, and shoot around ideas.

Another thing to think about is if you can scale back any areas, and it may take longer to grow the business, but for now you have a better balance?

Finally you need to look after yourself, quite simply you can not long term continue to achieve your optimum in your personal life and business without looking after yourself.
You need to look after yourself to be able to look after others.
I am sure we have all been here, and I know its needs a constant kick up the butt for us as we all slip into bad habits. But it is so important.

LL
Congrats, how exciting, not long to go until you start.
Hope you are enjoying the new handbag!

minxy-x

LuxuryWoman
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wv1pzSxqxPA
You tube audio book for the 4 hour work week, if you dont have time to read, do you have any time you could listen to this and fitting it around normal tasks?
Going from and to school drop offs (once dropped daughter off), shopping (listen to it when going around the supermarket)? Cooking dinner?