I Need a Job...Now!

Off Topic
41

[quote]Amiright wrote:
SWR wrote:
Rhino Jockey wrote:
Start your own damn company. You got the business degree right?

I’m fully ready to do this…except for one thing. I would need about $500,000 (on the lower side) to get started, and I can put in about $4,000 of my own money.

Nobody is going to loan the rest of the money, so unless someone has very wealthy family, or a ton of money saved up, this isn’t happening.

What type of business are you trying to start… my parents started their auto repair shop 25 years ago with absolutely no money. Dad had about 200 dollars to his name.

edit: you can never start big… you have to start with what you have and work up to it. If you go with that mentality you will never get anywhere.

[/quote]

Opening a Powerhouse Gym. I already have the information from Powerhouse, a few locations in mind, and set up most of my powerpoint presentation to take to a bank or investors for a loan.
I just need a hundred more thousand or so to be able to move forward.

One could start with a small no-name gym, but the cost for the land, and rent would be significantly more than I could afford as well, though a loan for that would be a lot less than everything needed to open a Powerhouse gym…

42

Having a business degree does not mean you can start a business. What will your business be? If you have no start up capital, than you choices are limited. If you have some friends that are tradesmen, or web designers, or something else, you might have a start. For instance: I have a few friends that are in HVAC, and some that are into web design. Both of these fields can charge a decent amount of money (web design is getting outsourced a lot more, but can still be applicable); there are hundreds of these trades and professions that command a decent hourly wage ($25+/hr at least).

If you can put together a small team, say 3 - 4 friends (hopefully more) that have a skill that you can actually make some sort of commission off of (Not fucking mowing lawns. This won’t work unless you have a couple of teams of illegals working for $4/hr. But you are from PA so no bueno.) then there you go. You run the books. You handle the appointments. You handle the marketing. You’re going to have to bust your ass at first, and handle the marketing yourself (read: sales), but once you get a good grasp on who you target customer is, and how to sell to them, find someone ambitious and teach them. Obviously, you are going to need to know a decent amount about the product/service in order to sell it, but you really don’t need to be a pro.

You know the fundamentals of business, you just need to have a good or service that you can market.

43

[quote]SWR wrote:
Amiright wrote:
SWR wrote:
Rhino Jockey wrote:
Start your own damn company. You got the business degree right?

I’m fully ready to do this…except for one thing. I would need about $500,000 (on the lower side) to get started, and I can put in about $4,000 of my own money.

Nobody is going to loan the rest of the money, so unless someone has very wealthy family, or a ton of money saved up, this isn’t happening.

What type of business are you trying to start… my parents started their auto repair shop 25 years ago with absolutely no money. Dad had about 200 dollars to his name.

edit: you can never start big… you have to start with what you have and work up to it. If you go with that mentality you will never get anywhere.

Opening a Powerhouse Gym. I already have the information from Powerhouse, a few locations in mind, and set up most of my powerpoint presentation to take to a bank or investors for a loan.
I just need a hundred more thousand or so to be able to move forward.

One could start with a small no-name gym, but the cost for the land, and rent would be significantly more than I could afford as well, though a loan for that would be a lot less than everything needed to open a Powerhouse gym…[/quote]

A few hundred thousand dollars to start a gym? Lol! Anyway, I spent the past 4 months “unemployed” so to speak after moving from DC back to nothern maryland.

During that time I started a gym and many websites before picking the job of my choice.

Myself and a friend of mine built a personal training studio in a room in his house (300 square feet):

  • We got a “light industrial” squat rack, 2 benches and some plates of craigslist for 500$ (ceiling is not high enough for a really HQ rack). Came with a bunch of misc. stuff as well like a smaller straight curl bar, little plates for that, a band, ab wheel, just little things that are useful.

  • We got a full DB set up to 100 lbs and two DB racks for about 800$ off of craigslist. Some of the handles were rusted so we filed it down / painted some ourselves.

  • We bought rubber flooring from a “Tractor Supply Store”. I think it is supposed to be for horse stalls, all I know is it is the same thing as gym flooring and 1/4th the cost. This ran us abotu 200$ total.

  • Various forms (LLC, “health club” registration, contracts, etc) ran us about 500$.

  • We got some other misc equipment as well - a few mats, trap bar, texas power bar, and a high quality ez curl bar for about 500$ total.

  • A few hundred bucks on various insurances (yearly cost).

So we spent under $3,000 to get the place fully outfitted, and it’s big enough us to both be training clients at the same time. After we set it up:

We made a website (did it ourselves) - neither of us are programmers but it is so easy to do with various page building programs, it’s practically point and click. With a few hours work can right your own sales copy. A website is great because you can advertise on google, yahoo, and msn for next to nothing (.50 cents - 2.50 for highly targeted traffic) while your competitors (big gyms) are most likely too stupid / slow to use internet advertising or can’t make it profitable because they have a poorly converting site.

You can even submit your newly created business to google and yahoo’s local business listings and local people will be able to find it very easily (this is free).

Now we have a gym with absolutely no overhead

If you don’t want to do personal training, you can still start a “warehouse gym” for not much more. Times are tough, and many warehouses have excess space that they will rent to you for cheap. People have been talking about getting 3,000+ sq foot spaces in industrial areas for less than $1,000 a month (a commercial front space can run 5x as much easily depending on location). You could stick plenty of “hardcore” equipment, like strongman implements, a few squat racks and benches and a DB set, in a place that size and have a cheap membership fee and make your money back very quickly.

Once you set that up you can once again advertise on google / add yourself to local business. Internet marketing is the way to go.

Speaking of the internet, it’s a freaking gold mine, and you don’t need a job to participate. Over the past 4 months I’ve been blogging about a completely unrelated hobby of mine (to working out / personal training) and this month am looking to break $1,000 for the first time.

Four months later, I found an agreeable 8-5 job, M-F, in the field I got my degree in (Kinesiology). On the side now I have an overhead-free personal training business and blogs, the monthly revenue of which will be about a 2 week paycheck for me. I expect these two to grow with time (that’s the way they’re headed) and may eventually overtake my current 8-5 job in terms of pay. At this point I could either quit my “real” job and focus on my own businesses, or do both and just enjoy the benefits of my 8-5 (insurance, vacation, etc) and progress my career (via side projects) on my own terms.

Point is, you don’t need to have a job to make money. You don’t need money either. Forget starting a franchise, go your own way, remember one key facet of business:

If you can’t be #1 or #2 in your prospective field, don’t bother. Where I live, there is no such thing as a personal training studio, so we are by default #1. What I blog about, there was really no good blogs prior to mine, so it was only natural that it would be successful. You don’t need money if you can find something that no one else is doing in your area and be the first to do it.

44

[quote]markdp wrote:
Having a business degree does not mean you can start a business. What will your business be? If you have no start up capital, than you choices are limited. If you have some friends that are tradesmen, or web designers, or something else, you might have a start. For instance: I have a few friends that are in HVAC, and some that are into web design. Both of these fields can charge a decent amount of money (web design is getting outsourced a lot more, but can still be applicable); there are hundreds of these trades and professions that command a decent hourly wage ($25+/hr at least).
[/quote]

Little off topic here, but yeah, I think design is a terrible field to get into unless you plan to play at the cutting edge. Freelance designing is dying IMO, I just had a talented designer in Indonesia do a job for me for 40 bucks. I bet it would have cost 500 to do that for me to hire someone from the US.

45

good post challer, might I ask how many years removed from college/fulltime work experience you had prior to this endevour?

Also I am curious about the blogging thing, how do you go about getting paid for this (im not very tech savvy).

I will agree with the sentiments that if you have a degree in business you dont have the skills to start your own.

Businesses are started based off of ones skill set, generally if you become very good at something. mowing lawns, designing clothes, opening a restaraunt, consulting firm, etc. With a business degree you CAN do that if youve worked in the field for a while and you want to open your own accounting firm or something.

46

I graduated from college in dec 2008. However, I worked as a trainer through the last half of college, so I had almost 3 years of training experience. While my B.S. in Kinesiology is not much on it’s own, it is relatively uncommon and with almost 3 yrs of experience as a trainer and being a CSCS with a few other misc certifications, in such a new industry as fitness I am pretty well-credentialed.

I’ve only worked full time for 6 months (post college) before figuring out that working as a trainer at someone else’s gym can be a very, very bad job (depends on owner / set-up though).I loved training but I was miserable due to split days, low pay rate, and no benefits - I knew I had to get out quick.

The idea that you can’t start a business without an intimate knowledge of the field is bullshit. Richard Branson (Virgin founder/ceo) was a journalist, started a record magazine/recording company, and then went out on a whim and started an airline. He knew nothing about airlines, was never a pilot, just seemed like a good business to get into. He said if you put in the effort you can know the ins and outs of any business within 3 months.

To 666rich, I once was tech savvy when the internet once came out, but I’m definitely not so sharp anymore. It doesn’t matter though, the only thing that is important is content. Blogging is easy - you go to www.blogger.com and sign up for a free blog. There, write about a topic that interests you. If your content is good - you are truly at the top of your game and you are a decent writer - people will come to you. This can be a long process. Post something once a day and see where it takes you.

My first month I posted a ton of great content on my niche (my specific topic) and got next to no visitors, for a whole month straight. I was getting maybe 50 visitors a day. By great content, I mean the content of my articles literally changed my “niche” forever. Despite this, it still took awhile to get started.

About a month into it, google decided that my content was well liked and boosted me up a bit in the rankings. I started getting 500 visitors a day. A month later it was 2000 (all the while I am posting a quality post twice per week). A month later, 4,000 a day.

About four months into it, my site went viral on Facebook, spiking up to over 15,000 visitors and establishing tons of links for me. Since then I’ve made several spinoffs, which are currently getting 1,000-3,000 visitors a day. I can easily promote them through my main site which helps a lot (no “starting out” only getting 50 hits a day that way - jumped right into profitability).

I make money off of advertising built right into the blogger software called Google Adsense (just click monetize). It’s so easy, you just need to have good content that people will want to read and you will get visitors.

Some niches though are hard to break into (just think of all the fitness writers out there). The cream eventually rises to the top, but being first to the market doesn’t hurt!

47

will you just say what your niche is already?!?! lol. im really curious and want to know/visit your blog.

48

[quote]pushmepullme wrote:
Go be a grocery store manager.

I’m unemployed now, have been for too long, but things look to be loosening up in my field, knock on wood.

A few more weeks and I’ll become a stripper.[/quote]

I’m headed early decision to LS in the fall. I wasn’t exactly wearing rose tinted glasses before, but this sort of anecdote rattles the nerves a bit.

49

[quote]fighting_fires wrote:
will you just say what your niche is already?!?! lol. im really curious and want to know/visit your blog. [/quote]

Nope lol, I’m not entrenched enough yet and I know there are some internet marketing lurkers haha. It’s just another hobby of mine that has absolutely nothing to do with weight training, there was an audience for it and not many writers.

50

[quote]challer1 wrote:
I graduated from college in dec 2008. However, I worked as a trainer through the last half of college, so I had almost 3 years of training experience. While my B.S. in Kinesiology is not much on it’s own, it is relatively uncommon and with almost 3 yrs of experience as a trainer and being a CSCS with a few other misc certifications, in such a new industry as fitness I am pretty well-credentialed.

I’ve only worked full time for 6 months (post college) before figuring out that working as a trainer at someone else’s gym can be a very, very bad job (depends on owner / set-up though).I loved training but I was miserable due to split days, low pay rate, and no benefits - I knew I had to get out quick.

The idea that you can’t start a business without an intimate knowledge of the field is bullshit. Richard Branson (Virgin founder/ceo) was a journalist, started a record magazine/recording company, and then went out on a whim and started an airline. He knew nothing about airlines, was never a pilot, just seemed like a good business to get into. He said if you put in the effort you can know the ins and outs of any business within 3 months.

To 666rich, I once was tech savvy when the internet once came out, but I’m definitely not so sharp anymore. It doesn’t matter though, the only thing that is important is content. Blogging is easy - you go to www.blogger.com and sign up for a free blog. There, write about a topic that interests you. If your content is good - you are truly at the top of your game and you are a decent writer - people will come to you. This can be a long process. Post something once a day and see where it takes you.

My first month I posted a ton of great content on my niche (my specific topic) and got next to no visitors, for a whole month straight. I was getting maybe 50 visitors a day. By great content, I mean the content of my articles literally changed my “niche” forever. Despite this, it still took awhile to get started.

About a month into it, google decided that my content was well liked and boosted me up a bit in the rankings. I started getting 500 visitors a day. A month later it was 2000 (all the while I am posting a quality post twice per week). A month later, 4,000 a day.

About four months into it, my site went viral on Facebook, spiking up to over 15,000 visitors and establishing tons of links for me. Since then I’ve made several spinoffs, which are currently getting 1,000-3,000 visitors a day. I can easily promote them through my main site which helps a lot (no “starting out” only getting 50 hits a day that way - jumped right into profitability).

I make money off of advertising built right into the blogger software called Google Adsense (just click monetize). It’s so easy, you just need to have good content that people will want to read and you will get visitors.

Some niches though are hard to break into (just think of all the fitness writers out there). The cream eventually rises to the top, but being first to the market doesn’t hurt![/quote]

Damn. 4000 uniques a day? I run the marketing for a niche business as well. Unfortunately, there aren’t enough people out there searching for what we do to make blogging profitable.

However, we advertise on Adwords and do pretty well. Unfortunately, many industries are finding this out and the ROI for many businesses isn’t as good. You just need to find a business that is very niche, as your cost per click will be a lot lower. I ran an Adwords account for a web design company at one time, and the CPC was $5 - $10! They could of easily spent a couple thousand a day. They eventually realized the ROI didn’t justify it. It’s funny, because the businesses that rely the most heavily on technology and the internet, aren’t going to do the best by advertising on it.

The old fashioned stuff really works the best. Obviously, it is the exact opposite for companies that aren’t heavily into technology, although many of them are finding out the benefits of online marketing.

51

Second the process server idea. You are self employed, make own hours. If you wanted to serve nights or weekends you could pursue other interests during the day plus would probably have better luck getting the defendant’s served. Court deputies (atleast around here) generally work M-F 8-5 or some variation, and not everyone that is being sued is home at that time.

The debt collection industry has flooded the courts with suits, many of which are frivolous, but it has caused such a backlog that it creates openings in the private sector.

Another idea, depending on your interests, is to be an oil and gas landman. There are a number of job descriptions under that umbrella but it basically involves court house research and interpreting what you find, or leasing, which is basically sales. If you are willing to travel, and don’t mind living in a hotel, often in a small town, that might be a good idea. the business tends to run in cycles, and if it’s a hot period, someone will sign up a newbie with a brand new degree.

52

[quote]markdp wrote:
challer1 wrote:
I graduated from college in dec 2008. However, I worked as a trainer through the last half of college, so I had almost 3 years of training experience. While my B.S. in Kinesiology is not much on it’s own, it is relatively uncommon and with almost 3 yrs of experience as a trainer and being a CSCS with a few other misc certifications, in such a new industry as fitness I am pretty well-credentialed.

I’ve only worked full time for 6 months (post college) before figuring out that working as a trainer at someone else’s gym can be a very, very bad job (depends on owner / set-up though).I loved training but I was miserable due to split days, low pay rate, and no benefits - I knew I had to get out quick.

The idea that you can’t start a business without an intimate knowledge of the field is bullshit. Richard Branson (Virgin founder/ceo) was a journalist, started a record magazine/recording company, and then went out on a whim and started an airline. He knew nothing about airlines, was never a pilot, just seemed like a good business to get into. He said if you put in the effort you can know the ins and outs of any business within 3 months.

To 666rich, I once was tech savvy when the internet once came out, but I’m definitely not so sharp anymore. It doesn’t matter though, the only thing that is important is content. Blogging is easy - you go to www.blogger.com and sign up for a free blog. There, write about a topic that interests you. If your content is good - you are truly at the top of your game and you are a decent writer - people will come to you. This can be a long process. Post something once a day and see where it takes you.

My first month I posted a ton of great content on my niche (my specific topic) and got next to no visitors, for a whole month straight. I was getting maybe 50 visitors a day. By great content, I mean the content of my articles literally changed my “niche” forever. Despite this, it still took awhile to get started.

About a month into it, google decided that my content was well liked and boosted me up a bit in the rankings. I started getting 500 visitors a day. A month later it was 2000 (all the while I am posting a quality post twice per week). A month later, 4,000 a day.

About four months into it, my site went viral on Facebook, spiking up to over 15,000 visitors and establishing tons of links for me. Since then I’ve made several spinoffs, which are currently getting 1,000-3,000 visitors a day. I can easily promote them through my main site which helps a lot (no “starting out” only getting 50 hits a day that way - jumped right into profitability).

I make money off of advertising built right into the blogger software called Google Adsense (just click monetize). It’s so easy, you just need to have good content that people will want to read and you will get visitors.

Some niches though are hard to break into (just think of all the fitness writers out there). The cream eventually rises to the top, but being first to the market doesn’t hurt!

Damn. 4000 uniques a day? I run the marketing for a niche business as well. Unfortunately, there aren’t enough people out there searching for what we do to make blogging profitable.

However, we advertise on Adwords and do pretty well. Unfortunately, many industries are finding this out and the ROI for many businesses isn’t as good. You just need to find a business that is very niche, as your cost per click will be a lot lower. I ran an Adwords account for a web design company at one time, and the CPC was $5 - $10! They could of easily spent a couple thousand a day. They eventually realized the ROI didn’t justify it. It’s funny, because the businesses that rely the most heavily on technology and the internet, aren’t going to do the best by advertising on it.

The old fashioned stuff really works the best. Obviously, it is the exact opposite for companies that aren’t heavily into technology, although many of them are finding out the benefits of online marketing.[/quote]

Currently I’m actually closing in on 10,000 uniques a day actually on my blogs. I’m not selling anything on them (though I have done some affiliate deals) - I find adsense pays the best. And yeah, due to the high specificity of my niche those 10,000 uniques are only producing 25-50 bucks a day. The nice thing is though I only post twice per week - I only spend about 10 hours a month blogging at the moment.

53

[quote]challer1 wrote:
markdp wrote:
challer1 wrote:
I graduated from college in dec 2008. However, I worked as a trainer through the last half of college, so I had almost 3 years of training experience. While my B.S. in Kinesiology is not much on it’s own, it is relatively uncommon and with almost 3 yrs of experience as a trainer and being a CSCS with a few other misc certifications, in such a new industry as fitness I am pretty well-credentialed.

I’ve only worked full time for 6 months (post college) before figuring out that working as a trainer at someone else’s gym can be a very, very bad job (depends on owner / set-up though).I loved training but I was miserable due to split days, low pay rate, and no benefits - I knew I had to get out quick.

The idea that you can’t start a business without an intimate knowledge of the field is bullshit. Richard Branson (Virgin founder/ceo) was a journalist, started a record magazine/recording company, and then went out on a whim and started an airline. He knew nothing about airlines, was never a pilot, just seemed like a good business to get into. He said if you put in the effort you can know the ins and outs of any business within 3 months.

To 666rich, I once was tech savvy when the internet once came out, but I’m definitely not so sharp anymore. It doesn’t matter though, the only thing that is important is content. Blogging is easy - you go to www.blogger.com and sign up for a free blog. There, write about a topic that interests you. If your content is good - you are truly at the top of your game and you are a decent writer - people will come to you. This can be a long process. Post something once a day and see where it takes you.

My first month I posted a ton of great content on my niche (my specific topic) and got next to no visitors, for a whole month straight. I was getting maybe 50 visitors a day. By great content, I mean the content of my articles literally changed my “niche” forever. Despite this, it still took awhile to get started.

About a month into it, google decided that my content was well liked and boosted me up a bit in the rankings. I started getting 500 visitors a day. A month later it was 2000 (all the while I am posting a quality post twice per week). A month later, 4,000 a day.

About four months into it, my site went viral on Facebook, spiking up to over 15,000 visitors and establishing tons of links for me. Since then I’ve made several spinoffs, which are currently getting 1,000-3,000 visitors a day. I can easily promote them through my main site which helps a lot (no “starting out” only getting 50 hits a day that way - jumped right into profitability).

I make money off of advertising built right into the blogger software called Google Adsense (just click monetize). It’s so easy, you just need to have good content that people will want to read and you will get visitors.

Some niches though are hard to break into (just think of all the fitness writers out there). The cream eventually rises to the top, but being first to the market doesn’t hurt!

Damn. 4000 uniques a day? I run the marketing for a niche business as well. Unfortunately, there aren’t enough people out there searching for what we do to make blogging profitable.

However, we advertise on Adwords and do pretty well. Unfortunately, many industries are finding this out and the ROI for many businesses isn’t as good. You just need to find a business that is very niche, as your cost per click will be a lot lower. I ran an Adwords account for a web design company at one time, and the CPC was $5 - $10! They could of easily spent a couple thousand a day. They eventually realized the ROI didn’t justify it. It’s funny, because the businesses that rely the most heavily on technology and the internet, aren’t going to do the best by advertising on it.

The old fashioned stuff really works the best. Obviously, it is the exact opposite for companies that aren’t heavily into technology, although many of them are finding out the benefits of online marketing.

Currently I’m actually closing in on 10,000 uniques a day actually on my blogs. I’m not selling anything on them (though I have done some affiliate deals) - I find adsense pays the best. And yeah, due to the high specificity of my niche those 10,000 uniques are only producing 25-50 bucks a day. The nice thing is though I only post twice per week - I only spend about 10 hours a month blogging at the moment. [/quote]

Ever checked out Commission Junction?

54

goldfingers, do you have any experience with IT biz? Are you a good communicator and able to track progress of salespeople, write memos etc? If not, would you be willing to learn? What type of salary are you looking for?

PM me with all of those answers if you’re interested. Business is a meritocracy, if you have the right mindset + the skills(which you have since you graduated with a degree in business) you’ll get a well paying job. If you’re freaked out about IT type business, then don’t email me, but if you think you can be effective keeping contact with salespeople, processing payments, overseeing the labor force(in this case Indian IT workers), this job could be a good opportunity.

Eh, as a matter of fact, just PM me with your email if you’re interesting, and we can communicate through there and see if this position would be a right fit for you(IT manager).

Good luck bro.

EDIT : to the guy with the successful blog, those numbers are impressive, but that doesn’t transfer over well to money. You’re probably pulling 3k a year tops with the blog, right?

55

No, I’m on pace to break $1,000 for the month’s total earnings… 1k a month would be 12,000 over the year. It’s certainly not anything to make a living on and there are people doing much much better than I am. BUT, I’m just getting started though and work a normal 8-5 as earlier stated. It’s something I put together while I was looking for a job. Sure as hell beats moping and crying about how you can’t get a job.

There’s all kinds of weird stuff out there and you’d be surprised by how much people can make.

For anyone interested but doesn’t know a topic, this is a great video:

http://fora.tv/2009/10/23/CRUSH_IT_Gary_Vaynerchuk#fullprogram

Just as an example, the guy in the video has a friend that runs www.midtownlunch.com and makes 70k a year off it… simply blogging about what he ate for lunch that day in manhattan, lol.

56

Hey that’s still good though, it sounds like you’re still getting a good hourly rate with that investment, so props. :slight_smile:

brb resenting the guy making 70k a year writing about what he ate

57

[quote]blithe wrote:
pushmepullme wrote:
Go be a grocery store manager.

I’m unemployed now, have been for too long, but things look to be loosening up in my field, knock on wood.

A few more weeks and I’ll become a stripper.

I’m headed early decision to LS in the fall. I wasn’t exactly wearing rose tinted glasses before, but this sort of anecdote rattles the nerves a bit.[/quote]

You’ve got three years for the economy to right itself. You’ll be fine. I’ve been doing real estate development and public financing…when there is no real estate being developed, baby associates (like me) get fucked in an unpleasant way.