If You Went Broke Tomorrow...

[jamesuk]

...What would you do to start again? Speaking as somebody who has "started again" on more than one occasion, this is a question that always interests me. Here is waht Michael Masterson has to say on the matter:

"If I went broke tomorrow and wanted to start making money by next week and leverage that money into a multimillion-dollar fortune over the next 10 years, I would do the following:

(Edit: Excessive copy and paste removed due to Rule 7 violation, see http://www.awaionline.com/2011/07/8-...-entrepreneur/ for Masterson's suggestions)

He makes it all sound so easy. Like all top copywriters will be falling over themselves to work for a broke wannabee for no money up front.

I'm interested to hear how you all might approach things? Let's keep it purely Internet based.... no going off to work at Tesco's!

Personally I think I would start with some sort of service offering and if possible, use that money to invest in more passive forms of income if I could...

[rob]

I know you ruled out Tesco, but I would get down there first Abit of steady income however low is useful if starting from £0 then work on stuff in spare time!

[DomainMagnate]

I have "started again" at least 2-3 times before. Things are a bit different now though, I try to focus mostly on long term, low risk projects, diversify etc., but hey you never know. Stoics say it's a good thing to practice and prepare for. It's a scary possibility though.

Many things I could do if I did go completely broke tomorrow. Starting from taking one of those jobs I've been offered in SEM to getting into doing brokering and services as these are probably the quickest ways to start making money. I'm pretty sure I'll be able to use my experience and knowledge to get back on my feet quickly. The web really does offer plenty of possibilities.

[grynge]

Knowing what I know now, I would do some research about the local companies around my area.

I would find 2 or more larger companies that are competitors with terrible/no website.

I would then build a website that would compete for their businesses locally.

Once the site was ranking and getting leads I would contact the businesses to try and sell them the website or the leads hopefully getting them into a bidding war. (If the sites didn't sell I would place ads on them and try and sell products from them)

I would do this several times until I had the money to move onto larger projects.

[Clinton]

I have had to start from broke ( and homeless). If that happened today there would be three top priorities

1. Build capital
2. Build capital
3. Build capital

Do whatever work you need to do to build capital, and be a slave to capital because it's really cool when the tables turn and capital starts to work for you.

[MrP]

If you went broke tomorrow...

I'm broke today

I've built one site that's started making money though - it's up to around £5 a month through Adsense now...

Another 4 months and I should get my first ever £60 payout - yay! happy days

[jamesuk]

I'm broke today

I've built one site that's started making money though - it's up to around £5 a month through Adsense now...

Another 4 months and I should get my first ever £60 payout - yay! happy days

Interesting Clinton. Do you mind sharing how you did that when you were obviously starting from such a difficult place?

[meathead1234]

I haven't gone broke just yet as I've always been careful to diversify my revenue streams once I had the cash.

I started:

- Offering services to build up a small bankroll
- Buying small sites
- Improving the sites/selling them to build up a bigger bankroll
- Buying bigger sites
- Diversifying revenue across various niches and business models (no more than 25% from one source).

If you're starting from scratch, I think it's important to do something you are good at/find interesting - too many people do something they aren't very good at (say, writing articles) and then never get anywhere as they get bored of it too easily.

[Andy]

James,

You are right, Masterson does make it sound too easy. His plan sounds too easy because it IS to easy. That said, your question is a good one. As for myself, I don't have to wait until tomorrow to be broke :-).

Services are a good way to earn fast cash, if you have any sort of ability there is always someone looking for a bargain. A lot depends on what your needs are and when you need it. (Are you looking at being homeless tomorrow?)


Clinton,

You mentioned "build capital" but HOW would you build capital?

Andy

[tke71709]

You mentioned "build capital" but HOW would you build capital?

ANY way you can. Work at Tesco's, do freelance writing, get some Fiverr gigs.

People don't want to do shitty jobs, they consider them beneath them, that's a shitty attitude in my books. You do WHATEVER you need to do to survive and prosper (within ethical boundaries).