90 Day Money Challenge

Well, I've been really busy with Kleeneze (my Network marketing business) these last few days so I've not had time for much else. I hosted a conference call training on Thursday evening, and this afternoon I did a training at a local meeting. Preparing for those has left me with little time for much else but I'm hoping to have some time tomorrow for my 90 day challenge project. I want to finish my article for DevShed, spend some time working on Kwikgames.com and also check out Second Life.

One of our Kleeneze team has just gone full time in the business. She finished at her job yesterday, and so is full time with Kleeneze from Monday. We're expecting her business to turn over £4000 next month which ought to help give us our best period to date. If we can help her achieve Gold distributor status in the next couple of months that will be a massive boost for the team (We're aiming to have 4 Golds in the team by the end of the summer, giving us a turnover of around £35,000 per month). We're on track but just need to keep things moving along.

Labels: business, Kleeneze, mlm, Network Marketing, team

The end of my first week, and as you can see my total stands at £137.32

That's a long way off target (of roughly £390 per week) but a lot so far has been brainstorming and planning so I'm happy with the total. I also didn't include the £300 I'll earn from the workshops I'll be teaching. I'll add that to the total when I invoice DPN, but if I was to add that to the total it would put me well past my first weekly target.

Now I've had a week to get into the swing of things I want to make some real inroads over the next 7 days and get that total at the top of the screen looking a little more healthy!

Just read an article which Cressy found in 'Woman' magazine about a single mum from Manchester who looks set to earn £25,000 in her first year trading online as a 'virtual furniture designer'. According to the article, Lisa (34), gave up her £15,000 a year job at British Gas to set up a virtual company in an online virtual world called Second Life.

Apparently more than 2 million people have joined the online community where users can create a new identity, called an avatar, and explore a virtual world. Second life has its own currency, the Linden dollar, and the exchange rate is currently around 275 Linden dollars to one US dollar. Users can trade online and exchange real money for Linden dollars and vice versa via a Paypal account.

It all sounds a little odd, but a lot of fun, and there so appear to be many people making real money this so I'm certainly going to look into it. Anyone interested in finding out more can do so at http://secondlife.com/ and I'll post again after I've had time to investigate further.

Labels: earn online, second life, virtual business, virtual world

This post is a bit of a side note today, but the challenge is about saving money as well as making it. This certainly won't save me money within the next 90 days but I think it's worth mentioning anyway...

I've been looking at French property. House prices in Cornwall, and the UK in general are still going up and up. The average house price in the UK is now a staggering £184,924 and in Cornwall it's higher than that. Prices in France are considerably cheaper, to the extent that a move over the channel is very appealing. It's something we've looked into before and certainly something which is on the cards at some point in the future. After all, both Cressy and I are self employed working from home, so long as we have a phone and a computer we can live and work anywhere in the world.To give you a rough idea, the photo above is of a 6 bedroom house in Brittany, northern France. It has 2 bathrooms, central heating and comes fully furnished for just €100,000 which is around £68,000 or $135,000. An equivalent house in the UK would certainly be at least 5 times that and probably a lot more in many areas.

While there's no way we'll be buying French property in the next 90 days, I thought anyone reading this blog would probably be interested. We're currently living in a small 2 bedroom bungalow. An equivalent price would get a us a 3 bed villa with a pool in Southern France... got to be worth more investigation!

Labels: France, investment, property

I can't believe it's nearly a week since the start of my challenge, time really does fly when you're having fun I guess! I've half written my article for DevShed, but I'm not happy with it and thinking about starting from scratch with a different subject. I chose to write about the YouTube/Viacom litigation case but I think I'd have been better of with something more techie and less topical. I'll get my thinking cap back on and see what I come up with.

I've designed a new layout and look for Kwikgames and I'm planning on migrating to the new look on Sunday. It's quite a lot of work, and I'll want to redo some of the scripts and add some new pages while I'm at it, but I think it's worth the effort. It certainly needs doing if I'm going to release any new games on the site as it currently looks very dated.

The Network Marketing business is going well though and I'm confident on our biggest income to date from that this month. Cressy and I have set ourselves a big target of £3400 personal sales this month and we're roughly on target so far. I'm determined to increase our volume and get to Executive level in the next couple of months.

No update to my total today, but I have a few bits and pieces from clearing out the office ready to go on eBay. I also have a couple more games on there, and will add more over the weekend while also setting up online payments to sell them directly via the Kwikgames site.

Amazing isn't it, you can have an opportunity right under your nose and not realise it until your mind is tuned into the possibilities. I wrote a Sudoku game back in December 2005. I'd become hooked on Sudoku puzzles from a puzzle book that Cressy had with her on a holiday to Turkey. When I got back I made the game really to improve my understanding of the puzzle and for my own enjoyment.
I hosted the game on Kwikgames.com and thought no more of it. When I was brainstorming the other day (see my previous entry) I had the idea of selling customised versions of the game as promotional tools. As a tester I created 2 eBay listings, one for the Sudoku game and then another for my 'Bubble Wrap Simulator'. I really wasn't sure what to expect but the Sudoku auction ended today on £49.99 and the second auction has a while to go but has one person watching it!

What an opportunity I've been missing out on. Even if I ignore all the other games I've written, just the Sudoku game alone could have generated a reasonable income. If I had just sold one copy per month since I wrote it, which I now think is pretty conservative, that would be over £700. Needless to say I'll be listing more games, and spending some time marketing the idea via Kwikgames itself. Anyway, that's £43.62 after fees to add to the total, hopefully with more to come!

Labels: ebay, flash games, missed opportunity, sudoku

I had an email this afternoon confirming that DPN want me to run a couple of workshops next month. We still have to confirm dates but the 2 half-day workshops will add a welcome £300 to my target. I did some a while ago and had a lot of fun, I've always found it amazing that you learn more my teaching then by 'learning' in a traditional sense. I'll be teaching foundation and advanced Flash and should be able to get the students doing some really fun stuff in the advanced class.

I've started planning my article for DevShed too. I've decided to write about the Viacom litigation about YouTube so I've been researching that. I'll plan the article out tonight and hopefully will have time to write it tomorrow evening.

I've also been on the phone to a chap in The Netherlands this afternoon. I've sponsored German distributors for my Networking business before so it would be great to break into the Dutch market. I wonder if my focus on this challenge is giving me extra enthusiasm on the phone because people appear to be drawn to me at the moment - hopefully that will continue and my business will move on leaps and bounds over the next 3 months.

Another old camera went today on eBay for £31.84 after fees. I'll add that to the total, but I won't add the £300 for the workshops until I invoice them.

Labels: flash games, Holland, Teaching, Viacom, Web design, Workshops, YouTube

I have a few items ending on eBay later today so I'll update the total afterwards. In the meantime though I've had a couple more ideas. Both involve photography.

The first is to produce and sell postcards (and/or greetings cards and related items) using photo-mosaics of local scenes. Tourism is probably Cornwall's biggest industry and countless thousands of postcards depicting St.Michael's Mount, The Eden Project, or Wheal Coates must be sold every year. However, I've never seen one using a photo-mosaic.

A photo-mosaic is simply a picture made up from lost of smaller pictures. You've probably seen them for big Hollywood films. Maybe a poster of Luke Skywalker made out of thousands of frames of StarWars footage. My postcards would be of typical local postcard scenes, but each pixel image would also be a Cornish scene. I'm very confident in there being a market for this and we're fast coming towards the tourist season so a little research is in order.

My second idea again involves photography. This time again producing greetings cards, or maybe small framed prints or posters. This time though each image would be highly personalised.

The idea is to take a photograph of a person and use it as the basis of a caricature. I'm supposing people would buy them as gifts for friends and family. They might involve the face being distorted, big ears put on, green skin, or maybe dropped into a different setting. Here's an example:

This is a photo of my good friend Frank, merged into a picture from the film Finding Nemo. It was done for a birthday card. I've done quite a few caricatures for people's birthday cards and the response has always been really good. If I can come up with a viable way of charging for, printing and distributing these I think there could be a market for them. Again, I'll have to put my thinking cap on!

Labels: article writing, caricatures, photography, postcards

I realised this morning that my 90 days includes 3 paydays from my Network Marketing business. Cressy and I sat down this morning to revise our plan and we think we should be able to increase our Kleeneze turnover and income considerably over the next 3 months. I'm expecting that roughly 1/5 of my target (£1000) will come from that.

Developer Shed have given me a long list of possible topics for article writing. They want to see a sample 1500 word article to decide whether or not they will pay me for regular writing. I've narrowed the list down to the following; Search Engine Optimization (SEO), HTML, PHP, Link Building, PC Gaming, Style Sheets or Search Engine News. Google has been in the news quite a lot this week with the whole YouTube fiasco so unless I think of a better alternative tonight I think I'll write the article on that.

So that's my first weekend gone. Not too much money in yet but lots of ideas and a few plans hatched!

Labels: article writing, Kleeneze, Network Marketing, seo

I've had little time today due to last minute work commitments. That was further compounded by the fact I picked up Richard Dawkins' new book, The God Delusion, during the week and since starting it I've found it extremely difficult to put down.

I have however been reading through the information from sms.ac and it does look like some of my games will be suitable, although it may take a little more work to make them compatible than I first thought. I'll find out later in the week when I should have time to try the sample code.

I've been trying to register over at geniuscatalyst.com on the forums for the radio show which inspired me to start this challenge in the first place. Unfortunately new registrants have to be approved by admin who seem to be rather slow to respond. Hopefully I'll get an email soon as I'll be able to join in with the discussions.

Very little change to the total, just £22.40 for an old roofrack I've never used. Hope to have more time tomorrow to really start moving things forward.

A few hours into my challenge and I've made my first profit. OK so it's only a few pounds (£41.14 after fees to be precise) and only by selling an old camera on eBay, but it's a start.

I've also spent some time over at www.sms.ac reading up about 'pod development'. Their 'mobile pods' are basically small web applications which users subscribe to for a small fee. I believe I may be able to modify some of my Flash games and submit them as pods on a profit sharing basis. There's quite a lot of technical stuff to read through but luckily it's the weekend now so maybe I'll try and submit one tomorrow. I also have a few more bits and pieces to add to eBay, and possibly an article to write so it looks like it will be a busy weekend.

Labels: flash games, mobile pods, profit

Well, I've made a commitment, set my target and so for the next 90 days I'll be focused on the task in hand. Can I make £5000 extra income in the next 90 days? We'll soon see. As promised I'll blog my success or failure here and hopefully be an inspiration to others.

I thought it might be useful to list some of the money making ideas I've had so far:

Article writing
eBay trading
Street photography
Finish my book
Promote and build my Network Marketing business
Relaunch my Flash Games site to increase traffic
Sell customised versions of my Flash games
Find ways to save money (Reduce my outgoings)
Garage sale or Car-boot sale
Put on a web design workshop
Do some private IT tuition
Sell advertising space on my websites
Go busking

I'll post an updated list at a later date as I'm sure the ideas will keep coming. Of these, the one's I'll be working on over the next couple of days are de-cluttering (clear out the garage and office for bits to sell on eBay or for a garage sale), article writing (I'm applying to Developer Shed as a writer) and working a plan to relaunch Kwikgames.com. I'm always working on promoting ad building my Network Marketing (Kleeneze) business so I'll not be counting that as 'extra work' at the moment.

There we go. It's Friday, the end of the working week for most people and the start of 90 days hard work for me. I don't know at this stage if I'll succeed in meeting my target but it will certainly be a lot of fun trying!

Labels: hard work, ideas, money making

Why? Why not?

I did put a certain amount of thought into what my target should be. It needed to be attainable. If I'd gone for a million I know there's no way I'd have managed it or even got close. £5000 to me seems like an attainable target. At the same time it had to be high enough that I would have to push myself. If I went for £100 I'd have found the challenge too easy so it obviously wouldn't have been high enough.

£5000 works out to around £55 per day, or £390 per week. Broken down like that I can see how I might achieve it: £50 here, £50 there. At the same time it's not an insignificant amount. £390 per week is not far off the average wage in the UK, and I'm aiming for this as an extra income - on top of my regular income. I'm sure an extra £390 per week would make a big difference to most people's lifestyle, it certainly would to mine.

So there we have it, my reasons for choosing £5000. You'll notice I've now added a counter at the top of the blog which will count my extra income as I go and act as a constant reminder of how close I am to my target. My challenge starts tomorrow so wish me luck...

Labels: extra income, goals, targets, wage

It's amazing, since deciding to do this challenge I've been having ideas all the time. I guess by focussing on the challenge my subconscience is open to suggestions.

I started putting ideas together for a book a while ago and opened my file this morning to read through. I'm going to do a little research on the market for this specific topic but I've never found a book on this subject before, so I think it would be a worthwhile venture to complete the book.

Tracy also reminded me of another venture she tried a few years ago. She sold party-poppers for a pound each at the Edinburgh Hogmany festival and made £300 in two and a half hours. The whole concept of trading, buying and selling, is something I'll certainly look into. There appears to be many successful traders on eBay so maybe I can find a niche market on there...

I've had so many ideas already in a few short days, I can't wait to see what I come up with next!

Labels: buy and sell, ebay, markets, trading, write a book

In Michael's radio show he posed a question:

If you woke up in a strange town, knowing nobody and with only £100 and the clothes you were wearing, what would you do to double your money and how long would it take?

The idea here is just to open up your mind. You don't need to think of things and then actually go and do them, just brainstorm and be creative. Here's a few I thought of right away.

1. Buy a 'pay as you go' mobile phone. Spend a small amount on printing leaflets offering a dog walking/sitting service and giving the phone number. Distribute these to houses in the local area and hopefully some people would call. The same could be done for a gardening or 'odd job' service if enough of the £100 was left for tools.
   
2. Buy a cheap guitar and go busking.
3. Buy cans of cold drink at the cash and carry, take them to the park/beach and sell them for a profit. Variations on theme could suit different climates/seasons.
   
4. Visit charity shops, junk shops, car boot sales, garage sales etc. and look for bargains which could be cleaned up/fixed/improved and sold via eBay or a market.
5. Set up a small market stall.
6. Buy a Polaroid camera and film. Find a busy square/beach/fair etc. and charge people to have their photo taken.
7. Buy some supplies and set up a car-wash, giving a percentage of the profits to the car-park owner.

The list could go on and on. While all of these activities are very different, there appear to be 2 underlying themes. Firstly, just about any venture will incur costs - you have to speculate to accumulate. Secondly you can either offer a service or a product. In each of the above examples, and every other one I've thought of, there is some level of investment (stock, supplies, advertising etc.) and an exchange of value (goods or services for money).

I guess the key to making a profit must be to a) Keeping the overheads low while b) Offering a fair exchange of value. That makes the venture low risk and profitable, while building customer loyalty. I'm going to try thinking 'outside the box' and see if I can come up with any money making ideas which don't fit these 2 rules. If anyone can think of one please leave a comment.

Labels: customers, profit, trading

I'm getting closer to the start of my challenge now and I've already started making enquiries and thinking of new ideas. I remembered an online content provider who emailed me several months ago about converting some of my Flash games to their format in a profit sharing system. Yesterday I found their website and started reading about the system with a view to trying it next week.

I also signed up as a potential article writer for Developer Shed. They sent me an email explaining what material they are interested in and requested a sample 1500 word article. They pay cash for regular submissions and also provide high PR back-links to author's websites.

My sister, Tracy, came up with a couple of ideas for me. One was a T-Shirt selling idea, the other was for a website promoting local cycle paths to tourists. I'll certainly give them both some thought. She also had a photography idea which sparked off an idea I had last year of producing postcards of famous local tourist attractions (St.Michael's Mount, The Eden Project etc.) done as compound photographs made up of Cornish landmarks. Again that's something to think about over the next week or two.

It really is amazing how many ideas you start to have when you open your mind up to the possibilities. Tune into the idea of making extra money and the possibilities appear endless.

The closer I get to the start of my money challenge the more excited I'm becoming. I've no idea yet whether I'll reach my £5000 target but it's going to be a lot of fun trying!

Labels: cycle paths, photography, small business, targets, tshirts

I have three more days until the start of my 90 day challenge so I've been brainstorming ideas. The 'game' element to this challenge means that I'm open to any ideas for making extra money; big or small, simple or complex. If anyone reading this blog has any suggestions please do leave a comment. Here's a few I've come up with so far...

• Increase my Network Marketing business. I'm a distributor for Kleeneze, the UK's premier Network Marketing company, and that currently earns my partner and I around £1500 per month. Spending time increasing our sales and team will probably have the biggest effect on my 90 day total, but I don't want to limit myself only to this.
  


• Article writing. I've written a number of articles in the past but I've never successfully sold them. I know that Developer Network will pay for good quality, original articles and I'm going to research other companies and see if I can make some money from writing.
  


• Web design workshops. Last year I ran a couple of web design workshops for small businesses. The half day workshops made me about £150 each so I'm going to look into doing a couple more in the coming weeks.
  


• Kwikgames. I have a Flash games website which earns a small sum each month in advertising revenue. I've not had time to update it for about 2 years and I know that with a little work I could increase the number of visitors and the revenue.
  


• De-clutter. Like most people, my office, garage and loft are full of junk that I no longer need. A simple clear-out could, I'm sure, raise a few hundred pounds via eBay or a garage sale.
  


• Tuition. I've done a certain amount of one-to-one tuition in the past for small businesses looking to increase their IT and Internet skills. I'm sure there is a market for more of this type of work.
  


• Saving money. They say A penny saved is a penny earned so I'll also be looking at ways of saving money. If I can reduce my normal monthly outgoings (switch to a cheaper provider, save energy etc.) then the amount saved will also count towards my target.
  

I'm sure I'll have many more ideas over the coming days and weeks but at least I have a starting point. I now have a time-frame, a target and a list of possible money making ideas. On Friday I'll start my challenge and begin putting these ideas into action.

Labels: brainstorming, extra income, extra work, ideas, saving money, second jobs

I've set my target at £5000.

That is equivalent to around $10,000 USD. The target is for extra income, over a 90 day period. I already have an extra income in the form of a Network Marketing business so I've decided on some specific rules regarding what does and does not count toward that target.

Rules for the 90 day challenge

1. I must attempt to acquire a minimum of £5000 extra income in 90 days.

2. The regular income from my web design business does not count. However, if I take on extra web design work which I would not otherwise have done (outside of the challenge) that would count.

3. Only increased income from my network marketing business will count. I will use my previous highest monthly income from my Networking activities as a base, only earnings over and above that level will count.

4. Money which comes to me unexpectedly, for example if I win or am given money, will count. However any winnings from gambling (including lottery winnings) do not count (I don't play the lottery anyway so that point is purely academic).

5. No more rules! So long as everything I do is legal and ethical it will count. I could do with clearing out the garage so I guess selling a few bits on eBay will count, I guess busking would count if I wanted to... it's up to my imagination now.

I've also decided on a start date of 23rd March which is this coming Friday. That means the final day of the challenge will be 20th June which is the day before my birthday. That gives me a couple of days to think and plan before the challenge starts, but any money I make before Friday will not count.

So there we have it. Can I make £5000 extra cash in 90 days? Will I have a double celebration on 21st June? I'll use this blog to chart my progress and pass on any tips I find along the way... Let the challenge commence!

Labels: challenge, game, rules

A few days ago a good friend of mine recommended a radio show to me called You can have what you want by Michael Neill. It's an American show and since I'm British I downloaded a podcast of the latest show from the website at www.hayhouseradio.com

The particular show was called The 90 Day Money Challenge and, as you can probably gather from the title of this blog, I was very impressed. Not only did I enjoy the program, but I liked the idea so much that I decided to try it, and keep a journal of my challenge in the form of this blog.

The basic premise of the challenge is to aim for a target amount if money to acquire over a 90 day period. There are a couple of points to clarify. Firstly that this target is for extra income, i.e. on top of regular jobs or business. Secondly, in his radio show, Michael refers to the challenge as a 'game'. As such I'm viewing it as a fun challenge, and as a game can be 'won or lost'. Whatever the outcome however, I'm planning to approach it seriously with the intention of meeting my target in the 90 days, making some extra cash and learning a lot along the way. Firstly I need to decide on a target amount and a start date which I intend to have decided on by tomorrow.

Labels: challenge, extra money, game, income, job