How I Made a Rack of Money Selling Cement Mixers Online And What That Taught Me About *NOT* Following My Passion.

You already know...

/A Thread

So this is a continuation of my threads on businesses I've built now that I'm stuck at home:
1- million dollar software: https://twitter.com/rohangilkes/status/1256264500501594112
2- million dollar sub box: https://twitter.com/rohangilkes/status/1258083735125159936
3- Getting to a million dollar business:
https://twitter.com/rohangilkes/status/1260282470601158656

First a little backstory on how I came to be selling portable cement mixers online in the first place.

Back when the bottom fell out of the real estate market, I was working for an accounting firm in the DC Metro area.

I had gone to college, got my degree, "good job", bought a town house in the suburbs... that whole thing.

Nothing fancy but it was mine and I was happy.

Then one Friday, I got the dreaded call to my boss' office.

Wasn't too surprising.
Layoffs had already started, I had dodged a few rounds, but guess it was my time.

I went from income to zero income in one single day.

Very reminiscent of what is happening right now.

So in between job hunting, I spent as much time as possible trying to figure out how to make money online.

I stumbled across this product that allowed you to build a website and connect it to Ebay and pull in products that were already listed on Ebay by other people

I figured maybe I could pull this off. I had no income and was rapidly burning through the little money I had left in my 401k. It's not like I had a ton of options at the time.

So I got to working.

I found a guy in the Philippines that said he could set up my website for me for like $200 (I can't code), and I then went about trying to figure out what product I would focus on. I could sell ANY product that was listed on Ebay.

What to sell?

A lot of folks in the forums at the time were selling these super cool things that they felt some connection with.

Things that they felt passionate about.

So the car fanatics would sell sports cars

The bikers would sell dirt bikes

The gym rats would sell gym equipment..

You get the deal.

But when I checked in with these people, I came to find out they weren't making any money.

They were working on projects that were super fun but they had a hard time turning their efforts into cash.

So I thought, what if instead of focusing on my passions, what if I found something boring and dull and ugly but for which I knew there was a nice healthy market?

Enter portable cement mixers. These things...

I spent a week or two putting together the best portable cement mixer website you could imagine, complete with articles, photos, price comparisons...the whole shebang, and launched the website.

After a few months of online marketing (learning as I go) reading blogs from @randfish , writing articles, and such, I was the on the first page of Yahoo for portable cement mixers and was making enough to keep the lights on, food in the fridge, and basic living expenses paid.

What I learned in this experience stuck with me.

Pursue things that you're passionate about? I mean maybe?

For me though, I focus on viability. Not passion.

There's no rule that business has to be fun.

Focusing on viability makes it so I’m free to appraise the universe of opportunities that arise without limiting myself to things that fit into my personal sphere of hobbies or something like that.

So now:
-I find something that people will drop money on without batting an eyelid.

-Things the best marketers are themselves NOT passionate about. So I can avoid competing with them.

- Things with a shot at high profit margin and good customer retention/recurring revenue.

As a rule, people don't part with money so you can pursue your life passions.

They couldn't care less.

They pay you to solve some problem that they don't want to solve themselves.

As always Life rule #36 always applies.

Do what works for you.

And if it's working do it more.

But if what you've been doing hasn't been working maybe consider a different approach? :-)

So I find things where I'll have a good competitive advantage, that I can start with minimal risk/cost, and get to work.

Then I can make enough money and spend time pursing my passions at my leisure.

No matter what though, for one fleeting moment in time I was a king at selling these bad boys...

Ok off to hit the treadmill to try to get this quarantine body!

Catch you peeps on another one.

Oh and word is Retweets cure summer allergies, so if you found value, I'd appreciate it. :-)