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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Double To A Million - Totals Adding up...

Wow, I've had a good day !

I've sold another CD-ROM and a watch and best of all.... I've had the payment from a company who approached me to write about them and have 6 months worth of advertising on this blog :D

My total is now; $1195.20 !!!!!!!!!
Not too long until I'm at the next step. I thought I would never pass the $1,000.

So much thanks goes to Melissa at www.nationalpayday.com
This advertising revenue has really helped and I have a post coming about their company... quite an interesting read over at their website. Includes lots of articles on money management ect...

I'll be adding my post soon about them :D

Later,
Rachel.

Double To A Million - Small Update

Ok, I've sold a couple more things which brings my total up to.....

$998 !!

I may have more to add today though :)

Rachel.

Double Your Way To A Million - Another week, Another Idea !

Double Your Way To A Million - Another week, Another Idea !

This week I've been working on a more long term project to bring in money to the Doubling Challenge.
I realise that when creating artwork, you can only do so much for your time to be worthwhile so I have gone with an idea I've been thinking about.
After doing extensive "research" (a day of checking out art sites on the web !), I don't think my particular idea has been done in this way.

On 12"x 12" stretched canvas I am painting, in oils..... The coins that so many overlook.
It occurred to me that so often when you ask someone what picture is on each coin that many can only answer a few correctly.

The first coin is the NZ One Cent (before being pulled from circulation it was copperish with a fern on it. This one is completed but not for sale :D

The second is the now also extinct Two Cent Coin. It has Kowhai flowers on it. These are a yellow bell type flower on a large tree. It is for sale !

The Five Cent is a work in progress (stupid detailed Tuatara.....) but the Ten Cent is done.
I'll actually start another blog linking here to display these.

I'll also be writing about something interesting in the next day or so that had never occurred to me !

Later,

Rachel.

OK, I haven't signed it or cleaned it up totally... but here's a sneak preveiw of the 10c !
All Coin Series ©RA Hammond 2007, All rights reserved।



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Double Your Way To A Million - Dog Related Setback...

Three days ago I was quietly answering auction questions and counting my gold...(kidding !) when I noticed my Bullmastiff pup doing something odd.

She was quiet !
I turned around and she was in a pool of blood and was happily licking her paw.
On closer inspection it looked more like the Texas Chainsaw Massacre so I got something to stop the bleeding.
After about 15mins and the bleeding not stopping, I called the vet who just happened to be in town right then !

He wrapped it, but I had to run her into the surgery (1/2 hour away) to get 5 stiches put in her foot, just above the pad.

After having a good look around, I realised the little monster had tried to "dig" a broken bonsai pot. The glaze would have sliced right through her paw.

It turned out to be a pretty deep cut and now we are just trying to keep her busy so she doesn't chew on the bandages.

Poor Chloe.
She, of course, milked it for all she's worth :D

On the plus side, I found 80c and sold another CD-ROM.
OK, there's a pic up now...Pathetic, huh ??!!

Rachel.

Double To A Million - How To's...

My stake is gradually creeping up by $10-$20 per day now which is nice.
If you look at my total sometimes, it looks as if I'm lower than the level I say I'm at.
This is due to me investing some of my Stake money into goods that will sell, to bring me to the next level.

I just wanted to clarify this for the uninitiated :)

Reading a reveiw that was done on this site, I also thought I should clear up a few things also.

Even though I'm in New Zealand, most if not all of the things I have done to reach this level are do-able in any country.

You may notice that the bulk of my funds come through selling on TradeMe (The New Zealand version of eBay).
What I don't mention is that everytime I consider buying something, I search through all the live listings and then all the expired auctions to get a good idea of whether the item will sell.

• I'll get the number of closed auctions for the item I am considering selling.
• The number of goods that have sold above or at reserve and the amount of times they were re-listed until sold.
• Run the numbers to see the probability of easy sales
• Check current selling prices against RRP in shops and determine if I can undercut the market.
• Put yourself in the Buyers shoes. Wouldn't you prefer the same item for a huge discount ?!
  

These are things that anyone in any country can do.
Considering that America is my primary buying country, I think all you US people could get far better deals...I have to pay for international shipping !!

This concept also applies with things like my mosaic plate lots and beach china.
My advice is simply read the market and give it what it wants.

Later...
Rachel.

Double Your Way To A Million - New Assets

A few days ago I tracked down something that i thought might sell well.
I was right.

As you can see from my accounting on the side, this was quite a windfall !!

While I'd love to share all the impressive details with the world....You'll all just have to wait for the book :D

On this journey you learn a lot of things, but one I'm just hitting now is "the trade secret". My father defines this as something you find out due to dumb luck and keep it secret for fear of losing the advantage. I concur !

With a little "luck" and some aggressive marketing I could reach the next level in a few weeks.
Good Luck everyone !

Rachel.

Double Your Way To A Million - Easter Update

So, yesterday I spent $23.50 of the stake money on the goods in the previous post. It would have been less, but I decided not to interfere (I didn't haggle when I normally would have...very difficult :D).
The reason for not haggling was simply to prove that anyone can make a profit by selling anything.
You don't have to be hugely creative or innovative...Just buy something that will somehow make a return on investment.

I've already sold the digital phone for $8 which puts me ahead a few dollars as I also sold one of the silicone cake moulds.

I'm also thinking of having a $1 RESERVE week on my auctions to bump my stake up a bit.
I want to be at the next level soon !

Later,
Rachel.

Doubling Strategy - Just Double It !

Today was our annual Lions market day in my town.

Basically, the Lions club collects stuff from people and sells it or auctions it on Easter weekend.
What I wanted to do was get a bunch of things...quite a random selection... and simply see how easy it is for absolutely anyone to make double their money.
I'm giving myself a week !!

So what did I get ?

• 1 Fax/Copier
• 1 digital cordless phone
• 1 Atari System with 2 joysticks & 2 games
• 5-6 sets of plates to be cut into mosaic tile pieces
• 2 CDs
• 1 bag of knitting needles
• 7 Woods & Soms plates
• 3 photo albums

An unusual mix of things, but I figured if I could double my money on these, then there would be no excuse for anyone !

Funnily enough, as one pair of women walked past me they said, "Oh, a tent full of junk we can't use" I had to laugh to myself.

Anyway, I'll update this little experiment in a week including prices ect...

Stay Tuned,
Rachel.

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Double Your Way To A Million ! Sales

Well, I've sold a couple more watches which brings my total up to $722.

I went into town yesterday (We travel 75km to the nearest
city to do food shopping) and came accross a few things that I knew were popular on Trademe. I've listed a couple of Audio Books and a couple of other things....

If you want to check out my auctions my personal ID is Abeyance and the auctions are HERE

I've also gotten some great ideas to lead me into the next step.

More later...

Rachel.

Double Your Way To A Million - Help From The Universe

I kinda' want to share something that happened 2+ weeks ago so that if anyone reading this is in the same position, they can have hope !

About 20 days ago, due to my doing a small course, I realised I had to pay off my debts and become totally debt free...and quickly. (If you've read the same course, you'll know what I'm talking about !)
I made that decision vocal, I told my Father and went straight about making it happen.
9am the next morning I got a call from one of our local cafes and they asked me if I could work for them for 4 weeks or so as they needed a fill in Chef.

Due to my decision, I wasn't about to say no to an extra 20 hrs a week so I said Yes !
The next day I got a call from a market research company who were coming out to my town and wanted to pay me $50 for an hour & a half of opinions.
Again, I said yes.

Some of you will have seen the doc/film The Secret, and the past 3 weeks have really made me think more about this law of attraction.
The strange thing is, this kind of "co-incidence' has happened all my life ! It's just now I'm really starting to realise what can be done with this.

So now, after my second week working 4 hrs a day x 5 days, let me just say
"I am Jacks' aching feet...." But it's worth it, all the money goes to paying off any debts I have in order to become debt free.

I know this is a little off the doubling track, but if one person gets something from this, then good :D

Must go rest now and plan on a delicious sleep in :)

Rachel.

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Double From A Penny To A Million - Weeks End Acounting

Hi All,

The end of the first week of watch sales is coming to an end.
I have sold;
2 x Baby G
1x Gold Timex
1x Data-link
1x Purple Minnie
1x Musical Mickey
Plus
3x CD-ROMs

That's a total of $173 this week, bringing my total when the cash is collected, to $558.44 I'll up date the total on the right as the money comes in.

So far it seems that my risk of buying more goods has paid off, I'm almost back up to the level I was a few weeks ago and I'm hoping to hit Step 18 soon... Then it's only 10 more (long) steps !!

Rachel.

Double To A Million - More Assets to Report

OK,

I have sold 2 of the new shipment of watches ( A data-link and a Baby G).
I also saw a chance to get 3 silicone cake baking moulds for a good price that others may be interested in. I'll add a special CD-ROM filled with cooking recipes to sweeten the deal !
I noticed that these have been seling from $40-$50 on Trademe and I can offer them at half price !

We'll see how that goes.....

I'm keeping my dollar total up to date on the right so you can see my progress at any time :)

A couple more ideas.....

• If you have fish, read up on them and take notice when they spawn... You can sell the babies instead of letting the parents eat them.
• If there is a button or badge maker in your house, spend a couple of dollars on badges and offer to make your friends a badge with anything they want on it...for a small fee :D

More later !

Rachel.