The $100 Week

Inspired by the 30 day challenge (to make $10 online in 30 days) I would like to challenge the younger members of this forum (like myself) that are still on the road to creating a successful fastlane business:


The Goal: To make $100 in one week via entrepreneurial means.


A few months ago, sick of waiting tables as my college casual job I decided one afternoon to letter-drop about 200 flyers to my local neighbourhood offering inexpensive computer support. At the time, I had no idea that this would be able to match my previous casual job.

This is not your be all and end all business (likely not to be fastlane scalable) but the relatively instant gratification reminds you why you put the time into escaping the rat race. I also believe there are some very valuable lessons learnt from undertaking this exercise:

1. Motivation: You can daydream about your future success all you want, but there is nothing quite like being paid from your own creation to keep morale high.

To those plagued by procrastination: Procrastinating almost always comes about because you don't believe the reward from your labour justifies the effort required to complete the task. The problem for many starting entrepreneurs, is not that becoming a millionaire isn't an enticing enough reward, its that when you're starting out, there's so much self doubt that you don't truly believe the reward is attainable. When you realise that you can go from 0 to $100/week in a few days – you start to doubt yourself less, trust me.

2. Learning to sell: While I was doing my first letter drop, I had a man outside his house genuinely interested in what I had seconds ago dropped in his box. Having been put on the spot I found myself poorly explaining what I was offering – a terrible pitch: I had no idea how to sell.

On the bus a few weeks ago, after overhearing a pair of older ladies grumbling about their computer I introduced myself, pulled out a flyer and pitched to them on the spot – a few months ago that would've been unheard of from me. Start getting some practice on the most valuable skill any entrepreneur can have.

3. Low consequence mistakes: There are plenty of lessons to learn applicable to all businesses. I liken my service to a stockbroker who paper-trades while learning the ropes. The stakes are small and thus sales faux pas and customer service mistakes can be learned without serious reprisal.

4. Business “Street Smarts”: Most have probably heard the equation success = idea x execution, and that no matter how great an idea is – if it's executed poorly, its bound to fail. Felix Dennis goes as far as saying that “if the execution is flawless, it sometimes barely matters what the idea is.” See this exercise as a way to improve your execution so that when that potential million dollar idea strikes, you know what to do with it.


A few tips on getting started:

With little time (only 1 week!) and limited resources a service can be the fastest way to get started.

MYTH: I don't have a service to offer. Washing cars, mowing laws, tutoring primary/high-school students – all could command a higher price than a casual wage job. If you can: add a wireless password to a network, install itunes or teach someone to burn a CD – you have enough knowledge to handle more than 80% of the call-outs I receive – why not clone it in your suburb. If you're worried about credibility have a “If I can't fix your problem, my service is free!” guarantee – and honour it.

On pricing: A typical computer technician call-out in my city is ~$120+. After a bit of experimenting I found that around ~$40/hr seemed to be the price most people would be willing to gamble on someone “technically” unqualified. I would recommend pricing low (relative to the normal rate for someone qualified) and adjusting up if the supply is more than you can handle. $40/hr is still a 100% increase on $18/hr waitering!


Are you game?


Having the advantage of flyers on bus-stops/shop windows/etc for a few months now, I will be joining anyone up to the challenge with a $400 personal target from Tuesday 30th June to Monday 6th July. Please let us know if you're bold enough to make your own $100 week and post your start date and keep us in the loop over the duration!

You can make a quick $100 - $1000 OR MORE when you join an "affiliate program" to promote someone else's product or service.

It is FREE to join.

Find a product and or person you trust. Usually on their web site there will be a link to AFFILIATE PROGRAM where it explains how it works and what you need to do to join.

Be careful NOT to promote products or people you don't know anything about - it is YOUR reputation on the line.

I had included a link to one of my own personal affiliate programs but was told I had to take it down. You can PM me if you want more details.

You can usually make 10-50% commission - sometimes more when you help sell a product or service. For example, on a typical $97 product you would make $50 for each sale you make. No product needed, no web site, no banners, no emails - it's all done for you!

It works better if you have a mailing list but there are a lot of other ways to get the word out too. I'm sure there is plenty of discussion here about how to market a product or service.

Some affiliates make tens of thousands of dollars each month selling other people's products. I personally know many who make a very good living at it.

Did you know even many of the hotels in Las Vegas have affiliate programs and pay 50% of the room rate. Cruise ships have affiliate programs.

Amazon has an affiliate program.

Do a little research on Affiliate Programs and you'll find there is are thousands of ways to make money with ZERO start up costs.

Once you get a good size mailing lists you can also do joint ventures - it is a quick way to make money too.

Let's not put are affiliate link in the links provided..stop spamming..

Message received, working on it. Thanks

that was NOT an affiliate link. And it is not spamming.

That was a link to how to sign up for my own affiliate program so you can make that $100 you want to make OR MORE. I send out thousands of dollars in affiliate checks each month.

If that is not allowed I will be glad to remove it.

BTW - your goal of $100 in one week is too low. You should make it $100 a day minimum every day.

I don't you are allowed to put up your own links in order to make you profit in the first place.

I also think he/she is starting off small, then working their way up. It is a good thing to make smaller goals. If you don't, you will start off with this massive goal and be overwhelmed.

I congratulate you on having your own successful affiliate program - It is clear that you have a defined plan and are executing it well.

As it says above, this exercise is targeted at those who are yet to formulate their own plan, but who are keen to get into action immediately. I found this exercise to be "entrepreneurship with training wheels" - a taste of working for yourself without spending months slowly monetizing your blog or website. It's really a motivation and learning exercise - any cash along the way is just a bonus.

Perhaps a better way to help here on the forum would be to describe what an affiliate is and how it works and then ask them to check out your sig line for some places to find a high paying affiliate program they may want to participate in, and why. Perhaps this can be a learning experience for everyone here - that is what this forum is really about.
I think that there are many people who do not know that most affiliate programs are free to join. And many also don't know that the owner of the affiliate program does not make a dime unless their affiliate is actually able to sell something. And even more people do not understand that a good affiliate program will offer training to ensure that the affiliate who joins does actually make money. Affiliate programs can be win-win and a great way for affiliates to learn how to develop their own product and eventually their own affiliate program.

the fastlane as far as an affiliate goes is making a product so you can have affiliates working for you.

Not Fastlane but to go with the exercise: Go to thrift store, buy old piece of furniture, clean it up (sand, stain, paint, whatever) resell on Craigslist. Should yield a $20/hour return.

If you have no money, you can also talk to some people and find plenty of stuff to sell. There is a lot of "garbage" (or so most people think it is) that will sell online.
Orginal iPhone 8GB box only and documentations - eBay (item 140326666736 end time Jun-18-09 11:32:12 PDT)

apple iphone 3g 16gb white box - BOX ONLY - - eBay (item 260429421688 end time Jun-22-09 10:33:16 PDT)

Many more boxes than just an iphone box will sell too. Another good thing is broken electronics or incomplete items(items with lost pieces etc). My buddy just ran across a broken ps3 and xbox360 last week. Both were going to be thrown away, when they can be sold on ebay for $100+ parted out. People will pay good money for the parts. Magazines are another freebie that can sell fairly well, usually only worth your time if you sell them in larger lots though.

As for MJs idea, if you are in a place with a decent size college....you should be able to flip furniture extremely quick when everyone comes back for school. I'd go for garage sales though.

Yup garage sales are better. Honestly, I cannot believe all the shit I've been selling on Craiglist.

I've had a broken pot rack/chandelier in my garage for a year -- it needs to be repaired -- I took some good photos, explained the repair, and sold the thing for $50. I am enjoying getting paid to "declutter" my life.

What if you take that same idea, only buy 5,10, or 15 pieces of furniture (tables, bath tubs (jk), sofas, desks), and rent them to low income individuals (single people,military personnel,families, college students) or business men that rent apartments by the month. Rent may be lower than selling out right, but it is a stream of income.

There actually is a craigslist-like service for renting. People rent things ranging from a baseball bat to a private jet off that site. I can't remember the name from the top of my head, but you should be able to find it.

As for this idea, it's a great exercise. I'll make a follow up post when I come up with something, or when I succeed.

I have a friend who buys, fixes, and sells espresso machines yielding around $1000 profit per unit.

Go on craigslist and buy things that are significantly below market value and resell on ebay or otherwise. If you know your stuff about musical instruments there are plenty of deals to be had. I bought a mint condition Fender Deluxe Reverb off there for $500...Guitar Center price: $1200.....it's like I bought myself a great amp and $500 extra dollars!

I like to call the concept "buying money".

So millionaires do have garage sales too

Ironic as we just had one this weekend and I know there was a thread from a while back about how slowlane flea markets and garage sales are being that they are very time intensive and limited in scope(unless you're the organizer of the big flea market, like the one here in Chicago- Wolff's) and the time we spent setting up, tearing down and cleaning up after the garage sale(still not done with this part) is getting in the way of taking action on a fastlane plan.

Now using craigslist or eBay as a tool to sell old junk or re-sell items from craigslist, garage sales or goodwill is a great 21st century way of doing what my mom did to make a decent amount of extra spending money in the 90's(flea markets and garage sales)

In fact it'd be nice to see what Luke12321 has to say on this subject, I know he's done pretty well with the online resale biz

The plus side however, is that we do have some extra spending cash, but most of all, less clutter = less worry and thus more positive energy to focus towards fastlaning and of course making it easier to pack up and move when we're ready to

Been there, done that.

Why not up the ante a bit? Say, make $100,000 the next coming 30 days? That's a challenge. Both for young newcomers and old newcomers.

No way, I think they are a waste of time. My mom does them, wastes 20 hours on shit, and makes $200. Not worth 10 bucks an hour.

Craigslist I can list shit, they come over, and take it. I feel like I am getting paid for someone else to clean up and it takes all but 15 minutes to snap photos, list, and meet.

Hmm... and you're from the Southside? I think there must be something in the water as my mom is the exact same way!!!

And oh yea, I have a list now of leftover items to go on either craigslist or eBay which will most likely sell for more than what we made total this last weekend and will involve about 1hr of work versus the 30+ combined that ItsMyLife, my mom and myself put in, well mostly them as I was a slacker, although I did do the signs

Back to topic though, I think using craigslist and eBay as a "buy-sell" tool is a great idea and in fact a family friend makes a good living off of doing this with toddler clothing, I've mentioned her before, in that my mom always complains that she doesn't want to share her "secrets" and to which I reply that she needs to get on here for threads just like this one where one of the great Keith Cameron Smith principles lives and as true fastlaners believe, "there's more than enough to go around", rather than "no way I share my idea with you, you'll steal it and make all the money"