How did you do it? Financial Success Thread

[El Diablo]

AJ,

Good to see you posting here. I'm curious about this line: "I don't really care that much about money and it doesn't enhance my lifestyle." Do you still live like a poor college student?

[TheWorstPlayer]

He probably never did, since he made a couple hundred grand in high school.

[ActionJeff]

[ QUOTE ]
AJ,

Good to see you posting here. I'm curious about this line: "I don't really care that much about money and it doesn't enhance my lifestyle." Do you still live like a poor college student?

[/ QUOTE ]

Since I never went to college I don't have much perspective on the life of a poor college student heh. But my parents are generous and I don't really care for spending money very often, so in that regard my life hasn't really changed-although itscertainly nice to not have to worry about money. I eat at nice restaraunts sometimes, and have spent some money on quality clothing and computers, chairs, things for my setup. But I haven't bought much of anything that would otherwise be inaccessible to someone in an upper middle-class family. I still drive my 2005 civic, lol- and don't see much of a purpose in buying a more expensive car, or "baller" watches or anything like that.

Ike,

is that unreasonable? I live with my family right now and care for them a lot. My parents are overweight and both of them had parents that died young, so I worry about that kind of thing. So would it be unfair to be like "I don't have any use for this money and think you would appreciate it a lot more, but I want you to promise to go to the gym with me and seriously try to eat in moderation because I'm worried about your health" ? I have a pretty good relationship with parents fyi.

and sorry for the hijak Taylor

-Jeff

[microbet]

Great thread. I'm in the process of starting a new business and I'm putting it in my calendar to come back to this thread in 1 year and post my success story.

[TheWorstPlayer]

AJ,

I'm not expert, but I imagine it would be better for yourself and for your parents and for your relationship if you were like "I don't really need this money and I care about you guys so I want you to have it. No strings attached. On a separate issue, I'm also worried about your health because you're overweight. Is there anything I can do to help you lose weight?" FWIW, my dad is overweight and somewhat recently had a heart attack. After that, he became pretty much entirely vegan and has lost a lot of weight. He also has stepped up his exercise, but I don't know how much. I'm pretty sure the change in diet has had the most dramatic impact.

- TWP

[Hardgrove]

@all

Thanks for posting your stories - they are interesting and really inspiring!

[faststeady]

hello all

firstly , i have not read this thread through as yet because i wanted to convey my thoughts on this subject without influence from what others have said.

i was given the heads up by a fellow poster who noticed a comment i made in an earlier thread regarding my experiences

cliffnotes first : i started a business which in its 1st year had revenue of around AUS$30 mill (about $27m US) aged 26 with no money myself. not only that but borrowed $26 mill without personal guarantees. it was "profitable" in its second month of operation.

here goes (long but all relevant)

i started as a printers apprentice aged 17. did my 4 year apprentiship in 2.5 years due to excessive overtime. I was considered one of the better printers going around. The company i worked for prints catalogues and magazines on presses the size of B Double trucks that run at about 100 km/hr and cost between $20 and $40 million each to purchase.

i was a bit unique in the sense that i have a private school background and an intelligence level i would say above most, particularly those that go into trades. Anyone know anyone that wanted to be a printer when they grew up?

After completing my time, rather than earn around $100k a year as a printer I chose to further my learning and became a "business cadet" which is a traineeship in management basically. I earned around $30k a year to start with.
For nearly three years I worked in all facets of the business (sales, estimating, accounting, transport,planning, HR etc).

I questioned everything and was like a sponge for information. I would go into a particular department and bug the crap out of people until i learnt. In most departments i went into i left with more knowledge than those that worked in them full time as i never became insular like people do, and related everything to everything else in the business and got a perspective of how things affect other things down the line and behind the line.

when i finished my cadetship I was offered full time roles in numerous department but settled on estimating. i did this because estimating is a combination of finance, production and sales and you need a strong knowledge of all these facets, particularly important in large volume printing.

By now i was around 22/23. i quickly became the best estimator in the industry and was appointed national group estimating manager by 24. In this role i controlled roughly $800 million of printing contracts, across 20 odd business units with around 50 or so printing machines the size i described above. I answered to the top and basically spent my time travelling around Australia negotiating contracts, reconfiguring print factories, rationalising cost structures etc.

Being young and grandiose I thought i could do this myself. In australia at the time there were 4 main printing companies as against the previous decade of about 17 (reduced due to industry rationalisation, bankruptcy etc)

I saw a timing opportunity but how was i going to do it with no money?

I resigned from my job (with a mortgage,wife and 2 kids and at the time earning $150K plus benefits) with only a concept, and spent the next year putting it together.

i went about it a simple way but the opposite way most would.


sales first. i grabbed the best salesman in the industry and between us we secretely negotiated a starting base of work. i targeted specific work that i knew we would be able to do better if i bought the correct press configuration. I did some rough numbers (being an estimator this was pretty easy) and worked out we needed about $20 mill p.a of work to breakeven on the press config i had in mind

printing presses. i then costed out the machinery requirement and worked with a major supplier to modify existing formats to suit what i wanted. i was going with a world first with full automation and actually worked with the engineers to redesign their own presses.

from this point i could work out a fairly accurate business plan which demonstrated a better than break even result and then went off to strategically targetted rich people to raise some money. this resulted in me going into partnership with around 8 others and resulted in me reducing my holding to 1/12 (100% of nothing to 8.33% of something big i could accept).
i raised around $4 mill of starting funds, but more importantly had partners with credibility in the banking world which enabled us to negotiate working capital, debtor finance.

i then went back to the press manufacturer and negotiated the finance through them, with the notion that there could be no directors guarantees as my partners would pull out if that were the case. they were eager to get a foothold in aust because all the opposition printers were tied in with other suppliers so they went with it on the back of the fact that we had the work to produce, the right people in the business, all the supply channels (paper on consignment etc) in place

i then spent some time in europe as the machinery was being built and customising it to suit.

the result was the most technologically advanced most automated set-up in the world at the time and a model that has been replicated world wide. to give you an idea i could print 250,000 catalogues per hour from a roll of paper at the front of the press to shrink wrapped pallets of finished catalogues ready to go on a truck at the back
of the press with no manual intervention and a crew of 2 people (at the time the industry standard was 10 people across 4 different pieces of machinery that were not integrated)

after the first year i clashed with my partners over future expansion and eventually sold my shareholding and "retired" for a few years. 2 years ago my eldest son got really sick with meningea cockle (they actually gave my wife and I a priest and social worker and told us to say goodbye as he was not going to live) he did , albeit he came out deaf, but kept all his limbs, his brain and his eyesight. this was the most revelating time of my life

this kicked me back into gear and i now work for one of the richest people in Australia running one of his business units. I am also working on my next big thing, which i can say confidently will be bigger and more mind boggling than the one i have described here. rough start up revenue will be $80 MILL!! p.a

thats a pretty short synopsis of my working life...
what little gems can i offer this community

when young, work your ring off. no matter what you go into you will succeed with this approach . the harder i worked the luckier i got. i know some of you have been fortunate with poker but the vast majority of people here will/do have to work for a living. i know filthy rich plasterers, truck drivers etc. you can make money at anything not just law and medicine

always have peripheral vision. in sport you can see the better players by their awareness of whats around them. in business this is the same and the people who do this move quicker through the ranks. this is something i didnt realise I had until i started reflecting here. its something that came natural for me but if it doesnt for you, work on it

when negotiating there needs to be always a win/win.sell the benefits to your suppliers... for example, the press manufacturer got a foot in the door in aust. i got machines without paying anything up front. the paper supplier got to sell me paper , but on consignment so i only paid for it after i used it. this allowed me to hold more paper and pick off jobs in the market that i wouldnt have been able to get due to stock holdings, hence i bought more paper than i would have. Annunciate these benefits

when going into partnership, ALWAYS have a clear shareholders agreement, and ALWAYS use your own legals to put it together, not your prospective partners (this is one i failed to do and offer this as direct personal experience)

manage down not up....i was lucky to be mentored through my career and was considered the golden boy. this brought alot of animosity from senior managers alot older than me but lower on the pecking order that thought i got special treatment (i did because i delivered)
i gained their respect by managing down not up. i typically subliminily steered my staff to the actions and decisions I wanted. that way it came from them and as such gained more traction and ownership. i also let them make mistakes, even though i could see them coming

the business i run now has gone from a loss of 1 mill to a profit of 5 mill inside 2 years. i dont really do anything except facilitate the requirements of those beneath me


hope the read was not too long. i left alot out but could write a book if i included everything.

i've also briefed over some of my beliefs that will probably come out as we converse

cheers
jason

[faststeady]

crickey, i just saw how long my post was sorry

[stoxtrader]

blueman - details on the business?