Friday, August 31, 2007

The Doubling Challenge - Finally above $1500 :)

In the last week I sold one of my vending machines, a few watches and some CD-ROMs.

Apart from that I am working 4 mornings a week, getting the garden ready for spring, running my other business, painting and working out my next doubling purchase !
Busy times !!

I've already decided on a course of action when I get to $2500 and it will be perfect timing for Xmas (hopefully !!).
Lately I've actually been checking out all the great online closeout sources in the USA. People over there are so lucky ! Many of them offer free shipping to the contig. 48 states and you can sell the items on eBay at lower than retail and still make an excellent profit !
It baffles me as to why most people aren't doing this, but I guess everyone has a different path :D
Found another nice little niche product the other day... I actually got it off an ebay seller who made a nice profit on a case of 12, but I can still make more than double by reselling them in NZ... so many profit opportunities, so little time !!!

Later,
Rachel.

Sunday, August 19, 2007

Double From A Penny To A Million - Auto Pilot !

I just checked and it's been almost 1 month since I posted !!

Just wanted to update here.
I've brought in some more watches, developed a few more products and now my sales are pretty much on auto pilot :D

After I reached $1300, I spent some on more CD roms (another 100) and more watches. This brought my total down to $800 but my assets went up to a minimum of $2250 (remember, this step I am aiming to have $2500).

Since then My sales went kinda' crazy !!
My cash total to date is $1113.25

The most popular product has to be the Anne of Green Gables Audio book I have.
I didn't count my artworks in the assets total, but I have managed to do the $0.01 Australian and am doing the 2c now. When a few more are completed, they will be released :D

Later...
Rachel.

Tuesday, July 24, 2007

Double To A Million - Tag Those Humans...

8 Random Facts About Me

I have been 'tagged' by Rachel and am now required to give some random facts about myself...

Phew... Here goes.

1. I have 3 brothers & 2 Sisters All older than me
2. I collect 1980's Glo Friend figures
3. My pets are 1 Bullmastiff, 4 Black Moor Goldfish and 2 Celestial Goldfish
4. I grew up in Australia so now I have to fake support for the All Blacks...
5. I'm a compulsive Learner
6. I spent 6 years at Uni studying Graphic Design, Law/Psychology & Genetics
7. I've found the local dump is an endless source of firewood
8. I don't believe Pink is the new Black.

Now you know more about me than most humans !!

My tags are :

1. The Doublers' Den - A Place for all Doublers
2. Another NZ Artist Tracey McDonald
3. FireDocs Remote Viewing Info
4. Blondies' Doubling To Millions
5. Fyonnas Penny Project

And in doubling News....

I have just bought another lot of watches as the NZ dollar is up to 80c against the US dollar :D
Thats 10% more profit for me !

Rachel.

Thursday, July 19, 2007

Double From A Penny To A Million - More Sold

Uggghh !
Stupid winter and it's stupid flu... Is it even possible to catch 2 strains of the Flu that are not covered by the Flu injection ?? Perhaps I'm just super lucky ;)

Anyway, I've sold 2 more torches which adds another $20 to my total so I'm at...$1302 I think !

I'll be advertising the vending machine/s this week and we'll see how that goes. If I were to sell all of them at my asking price, I would have $1900 pretty soon....

OK, more later... Need coffee & drugs......

Rachel.

Monday, July 16, 2007

Double To A Million - Update

Ok, finally an update !!

I have had 3 viruses in a row, the first for 9 years !!
The worst of it is, that I have a flu shot every year (my dad needs to be protected from the Flu....) and it has worked at keeping it at bay.
This year, I have had 2 bouts of the flu and one throat virus.

Doubling-wise.... I have sold quite a few goods that operate on auto-pilot, such as the CD-roms & torches.
I spent $216 on the 3 vending machines and have made up $220 with the machines yet to be listed for sale.

My total is then $1284
I've been painting the Aussie Coins for my Coin Art, so we will see how that goes...

Rachel.

Friday, June 08, 2007

Double To A Million - New Assets ect..

Double To A Million - New Assets ect..

So, what have I been up to ?
Well, this has been an exhausting week :) After reaching the $1280 mark, I decided I would have to make both larger investments and passive investments.

After checking up on Trademe for how my painting was doing, I noticed an ad for a vending machine.
I spent a day or so going around the forums and getting opinions on ROI and profit margin from these machines.
It seems that people have to pay between 0-40% to the business or place where they are placed.
Most seem to earn between 40-80% profit on the items sold.

So to me,I figure if you get a machine cheap enough, pay only a smaller percentageto the business owner and sell high profit margin items you may do a lot better than putting your stake in the bank.

I currently have $300 of my doubling stake in RaboPlus. On the first 20 odd days I earnt $1.31 in intrest which is pretty good ! I thought I might look into investing $300 into vending.

After having a very good look around, I used buy now for a mechanical machine which holds 20 lines for $100.
The guy, Andrew, called me the next night and offered me a couple more....
I ended up getting 3 machines plus spares for $216.30 !! There was $30 odd in one of the machines, so it brought the price down from $250.

So, I thought if I placed 2 machines and sold one, for $0 investment, I may get a turnover that turns out pretty well. I'll give it until the end of summer (Feb 2008) until reveiwing how they do. At that point I will either decide to keep them, or sell them as sited, profit earning machines.

I also sold my 20c NZ Pukaki painting so the total was $1300 ! Now it's back down to $1083.70.

My new set of canvas' are coming soon so the Aussie coins will be featured both on my Coin Art blog and at www.RachelHammond.net

I'll update again later....

Rachel.

Saturday, June 02, 2007

Double to a Million - STEP 19 REACHED !!!!!!

That's Right !!

I just got home from my once a week chef job, and Sally (The Best Boss Ever...) Traded me some old coins that could only be cashed at the reserve bank.
I got lots of coins and a cool old New Zealand Five Dollar note ! That brought me up to $1282 and I'm taking the $2 out as the rules state !!

I keep a DYWTAM list on my wall and tick off each step as I go.
I was just updating it and I noticed the difference between the last step and the first ones.

For steps 10 through 15 I sold a few CD Roms, some seconhand stuff, but mainly 1-5 items per step.
I've just realised that in this step I used the following income sources;

  • Watches
  • CD Roms
  • eBooks
  • Audio CDs
  • New Goods that were sold on for between 2-5 times what I paid
  • Secondhand goods
  • Dump goods
  • Donation
  • Found money
  • Advertising
Quite a list !!
And for this step I get to add art works as well !

Later,
Rachel.

Thursday, May 31, 2007

Double To A Million - Update

It been a busy couple of days !

My "20 Cent NZ" painting sold for $51 and the buyer of the 2c decided he wanted 2 more !

After buying the 10 canvas' and auction costs ect... I am 76.95 in profit !
I'm not going to add that to my stake (although it is awfully tempting !), instead I'm buying the next 10 canvas' with it so I can start on the Aussie coins and everything from there will be profit !

The buyer of the 20 cent painting decided she wants the Kiwi one, so The Pukaki is listed on trademe here;
http://www.trademe.co.nz/Browse/Listing.aspx?id=102454427

I'm also going to be putting in another watch order in a week or so.
And the "$2 NZ" has been submitted to an art comp ! (The pic is so crappy, it will be a miracle if it gets accepted...)

SOOO BUSY.......

Hopefully by next week I'll have the Aussie coins started.
I have also sold another watch which will take me to the next step, but I want to make sure it's paid for before I announce the next step :)

Later,

Rachel.

Tuesday, May 29, 2007

Double A Penny To A Million - Passive Income

The value of passive income has always been apparent to me, but now having my doubling project almost up to step 19 I'm seriously thinking more about this.

Apart from interest and property (which are out of the question at this level...) the other thing I know that works is digital products sold by affiliates.
After agreeing to auction some goods for someone for a commision, they mentioned that they had written and self published a couple of books.
Now these books are in an interesting and highly popular niche area...which got me thinking !

I'm considering digitising these books and submitting them to clickbank.
The author is happy to do this as she wasn't sure how to proceed. If they are successful, I can take a percentage commision... hence, passive income.

Obviously this depends on the market and the affiliates who sell the product.

My second auction for a painting based around this concept is due to finish on Wednesday, and hopefully this will allow me to buy some more canvas to start the Aussie coins.

I've also started another art project, but That's for me :D

Rachel.

Friday, May 25, 2007

Doubling Challenge - Sponsor ; NationalPayday.com !

Recently I was contacted by someone who expressed interest in buying
some ad space on The Doubling challenge.

Naturally I checked out the site and something just hit me !
Another lightning bolt.

The site was www.nationalpayday.com
Basically what they offer is money to tide you over until your pay
comes in.
While I realise this can be dangerous to some who have issues with
debt, it can be an incredible thing if you have a very tight budget.

For example, a family who have just had to pay for school camps, have a
dog who gets run over.
The dog needs a pin in the leg and the family doesn’t have pet
insurance. They have just spent their liquid income for that month and
need to wait 3 weeks to pay the vet.
Vet says ...No Deal !
What do you do ?

www.nationalpayday.com allows you to borrow this money right now from
them and simply pay it back on your payday !
The advantage of this service is that you pay just a small fee rather
than putting it on a credit card which you may forget to pay off
immediately or pay off slowly, accruing 14% ++ interest for months.

It also made me consider an application for the Doublers.
Consider if you take an amount of your doubling stake and put it into a
month long (or so) fixed term account.
You see a great deal and don't have access to your stake money. You
could borrow it from these guys, take fees into account and simply pay
the bill with your doubling stake.
You make money from the deal, you keep interest from the doubling stake.
Again, I would only advocate this to those who are disciplined enough
to pay their bills on time !

Uniquely, this service is based online and is pretty good about terms
and conditions.
Even if you’re not considering this, it makes interesting reading !

Check it out HERE.

More later,
Rachel.

PS; If you are interested in articles on Money Management, credit and income I would suggest you head over there, they have some great resources.