The rule of making money, is spending money!

[IBA]

A great businessman and philosopher once said: "The rule of making money, is spending money!"

Things is, he didn't provide much explenations to that. It took me a while to "get it". And I think I have.

I'm from Israel. At age 16 I started my first business. I was very much into heavy metal in those days, so much that I was buying 10-20 CD's every month, going to all parties and concerts in th genre etc etc. There was no internet at the time. Maybe just a little bit. Things is, in order to stay updated with new heavy metal CD releases I had to fly abroad on vacations and visit music stores, write letters to music dealers to get their catalogs and change tapes and CDs with friends of friends and other people.

So I wrote a letter to all the big record companies and distributions I knew, telling them I'm about to import music into Israel, and I want their wholesales prices catalog and I want exclusive agreement. They all agreed to give me exclusive rights. So I printed a catalog on my mom's printer, handed it to all my friends, took a bunch to every party I went, and what do you know? I immediatelly began to get orders and cash flowing. It spread like fire.

But I had to close the business soon, because I had trouble at home, I couldn't get funds to make big orders so I'll have stocks at home. Everything was working on backorder. Customers waited 3 weeks~. Also, I had more and more school exams, the army before me, and I told myself that I'll return to business when I'm done with school and army.

I didn't think about it much later on in life. Later on, I put my hands on many many startups and businesses which failed.

Only when I bumped into this philosophy (The rule of making money, is spending money!) I started to analyze and understand what went on, and how great and correct my first business was.

In order to succeed in selling, you have to understand the customers. Since I was first a customer myself of heavy metal merchandize (CD's mostly), I did know:

(a) How much money will my customers pay each month on new music
(b) What items they want
(c) Where to find my customers
(d) What prices and items does my competitors, local music stores offer.​

This is why I had customers flooding my (mom's house) door right from day 1 of the business.

I hope you enjoyed the story and figured out on what you spend your money that you can turn into making money strategy. And of course, back then I didn't know about CENTS, so it wouldn't have worked anyways. But I think, that besides CENTS, the sixth commandment would be "know your customers". Know them really good.

So if you're wondering what business should you get into, and you can't find anything that works for you, you can't find opportunities, you're probably not spending enough money to know where there's money to be made. Go spend some on yourself.

 

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[stranger]

Zuas guapf vjios piif. Tez, ov't sesimz xjip e juccz dep csoph detj.
Nz juccz csopht ni tuni detj. Juxiwis, ov't onquttocmi vu fiwimuq ov op e siem coh catopitt.

 

[IBA]

Emvjuahj op nz deti ov jeqqipif vu ci nz juccz, ov dep ci epzvjoph imti zua tqipf nupiz up.

Vji quopv ot vjev O guapf vjios piif upmz cideati O jef vjev teni piif nztimg cigusi, epf vjisigus O lpix e-c-d-f.