3 Skills Wannabe Entrepreneurs Should Learn During Quarantine

With the recent covid-19 outbreak, governments all over the world have decided to put their countries on lockdown. It's sad, I know, but it' frees up a lot of time for wannabe entrepreneurs like you and I to learn some new skills and invest in ourselves. On that note, here are some skills which could help you find your next breakthrough once you've gotten the hang of it.

1. Copywriting

Probably the most sought after skill on this list, copywriting is the art of using words to turn viewers into sales. It taps onto buyer psychology and uses specific terms and techniques to persuade them to buy. Copywriting can be learnt through Youtube videos or books. Some books I would recommend for copywriting - The 'Copywriter's handbook' and 'The Wizard of Ads'. 

 

The reason why copywriting is so sought after is because it is required in almost all businesses. Sales are the blood of the business and with the rise of social media, more and more businesses are going to be needing copywriters to connect with their audiences.

2. Social media advertising

As mentioned in the previous point, social media is on a rapid rise. I also mentioned that customers are the blood of a company. Hence, companies will need social media marketers to increase their sales and customer base. Social media marketing, just like copywriting can be learnt through Youtube(many things can) and books. Most of the time, such advertising is paid and is used to get sales, likes or follows for the company.

Social media marketing is in high demand right now is due to the mind-blowing amount of people it can reach. Every eyeball is a potential sale which is why companies pay top-dollar for social media marketers/agencies. 

3. Digital media design

Digital media design also has been gaining popularity because it's(you guessed it) essential for social media ads and posts. This skill involves photoshop, web design and video editing, where you can help to produce and edit some of the company's digital media. This skill, like all skills, can again be learnt through Youtube and books. Such a skill can also be used for more lighthearted purposes like for mocking or teasing family and friends or freelancing and mocking and teasing other people's friends. 

All these skills work hand in hand in a company an each one has their strengths and weaknesses. You don't have to be able to do all three, just pick one that you thoroughly enjoy and follow it down the rabbit hole. Keep in mind however, that Youtube can only teach you so much. Eventually, you will have to go out and give it a try. 

Flipping - The Most Traditional Side Hustle

On my chase for a million dollars, I recently stumbled upon a whole new industry - flipping. Flipping in the financial world has nothing to do with gymnastics, although that may be a great idea for another time. Flipping, in its simplest form is buying low and selling high. I dug a little more and found that these few items are what 'flippers' usually look out for.

Shoes

Shoes and other hypebeast product seem to be an incredible way to make large sums of money flipping. Apparently, watching out for 'drops' as the community calls it and pouncing on them would allow you to flip products for 10x or even 20x the price! These products do well and sell like pancakes because of their brands and their limited quantities. Hence, it is an extremely competitive market to enter and you have to know your craft to stand your ground against the seasoned hypebeasts.

Tech Products

Technology has become quite prevalent in recent years. Hence 'flippers' like to capitalize on this. They source for cheap IPhones, PS4s, IPads, IPods, Apple Watches and resell them on other platforms to make profit. However, such products are considered quite high ticket and hence come with a higher risk. But with this, the potential to make more money is also higher. Tech products are a safe bet, as demand for them is evergreen. Even older models of the IPhone(6,7 or 8) still sell pretty decently.

Concert tickets

This one is pretty self-explanatory. The ticket reselling industry is insanely inflated(alliteration) due to the 'fangirls' and 'fanguys' willing to give their kidneys and first born child to see their favorite artists in real life. Because of this, people spend hours waiting for ticket releases and snatch them all up, knowing that they are sure to sell(of course the artists or performers have to have a certain level of fame). 

I know that's not how real tickets look like, but I needed an image

These hoggers then go to platforms like Ebay, Facebook Marketplace, craigslist and Carousell(if you're from Singapore) to auction off these tickets for sky high prices and make crazy amounts of profits. 

That's all folks! I know this was a slightly shorter article. I don't have as much knowledge on the subject and I'm only beginning to scratch the surface. I will venture more and share more if I find anything interesting!

Is Dropshipping a Scam?

I shared a little about dropshipping in my origin story, so I felt it'd only be natural for me to share my experiences on it and elaborate more on whether you should or shouldn't proceed with dropshipping.

What is dropshipping?

A dropshipping store basically acts as a middle man between the supplier and the customer. The customer makes an order, and you simply get the supplier to send the product straight to them, never having to see the actual product. 

The reason the suppliers are willing to sell you the products for incredibly low prices is because you will be doing the marketing and promotion of the product. And that is where the bulk of your spending is going to go to. 

A little background: 

I started dropshipping a little over a year ago and managed to generate about $3,000 in revenue but ended up with a net loss of $1,000. Despite this, If I had to, I would do it all again(with better cash flow management this time). 

The internet is riddled with dropshipping courses and 'gurus' trying to snatch your money with their thousand dollar courses. And no, I didn't buy any of these courses. 

Because of how saturated the dropshipping industry is, there are hundreds of thousands of videos on Youtube teaching people like you and me about the A-Zs of dropshipping(btw you can find this for practically any online business model). Because of this, all my knowledge on dropshipping and online businesses was obtained through watching Youtube videos and reading blogs/articles. 

This led to me being able to make a sale almost every single day for a month, until I had some cash flow technical issues. 

Benefits of dropshipping

Dropshipping requires very little capital to begin with and you can decide to stop at any time, without being left with any excess supply which you can't seem to get rid of. This means that dropshipping has extremely low risks as compared to a traditional brick-and-mortar or E-commerce store. 

Downside of dropshipping

Because you have to do the advertisements and 'branding', the margins which you need with dropshpping products is disgustingly high($20-$30 for a $5-$10 product). When the product doesn't sell after you've put in hundreds or even thousands of dollars into advertising, you'll just have to suck it up and leave. On top of that, dropshipping has extremely long shipping times(3-5 weeks) as products are mainly shipped from China. Hence, customers will tend to lodge complaints and make your life miserable. 

If you've noticed, I'm quite heavily opposed to dropshipping. I can deal with the advertisements(which are constantly getting more expensive) but it's biggest downfall is the shipping times. Hence I would recommend a business model almost exactly the same as dropshipping, except it has faster shipping times - Print on Demand(POD).

Check out how to start a POD store here!

3 Ways to Live Below Your Means and Save More

Taking control of your finance may be the most important thing to do if you want to become a millionaire(eventually). The more you save/invest, the closer you are to having the 7-digit net worth you desire. On that note, here are some ways you can live WAY below your means.

1. Set a tight budget and commit

In order to save/invest responsibly, we need to know how much we're spending. To do this, simply set a budget for your monthly spending and stick to that like your life depended on it. When deciding on how much to spend each month, take into account your bills, daily necessities and meals. After accounting for all that, the rest of your money should go into saving and investing.

Because bills and other monthly expenditure should be pretty much the same each month(I will mention more about meals later in this article), your spending should never vary from month to month. This means whether your income increases or decreases, your spending should remain exactly the same each month. 

Having a fixed amount spent each month means that every additional dollar earned will be saved/invested. This adds up over time and will snowball into much more money than you may realize!

2. Don't spoil yourself

In my previous article, I mentioned the 'Don't be an idiot' rule, which states that every dollar spent is a dollar further away from making you a millionaire. Fight the urge to get that new game/shoe/phone that everyone's buzzing about and force yourself to save that money instead.

This doesn't just apply to new and fancy items! Even buying yourself some extra desert, or eating out at an expensive restaurant every week is spoiling yourself. An additional $10-$20 spent each week or each day doesn't seem like much but it adds up surprisingly quickly!

A general rule of thumb would be to ask yourself, 'Do I really need this?', or 'Will this bring me any financial returns in the future?'. If it doesn't, you're probably better off without it.

3. Increase your income

Now that you've set aside a specific amount which you can spend each month, let's work towards increasing how much you can save/invest.

Since your spending remains constant each month, every additional dollar you make will translate to more money saved/invested. Because of this, we want to work towards getting the amount of money we invest each month to $4,800 which is what we calculated to be the average amount needed to be invested in the S&P 500 each month for the next 10 years to achieve a 2 comma status.


Once you've got a stable income, look for some more ways to increase your income. Here are some off the top of my head!

- Starting a business

Invest some of your money to create a business which will bring you significant returns on your investment! Do note, however, that a whopping 70% of businesses fail, but that shouldn't stop you from executing your million dollar idea!

- Stating a side hustle

This could be as simple as mowing the lawn or starting a dog walking/baby sitting business on the side. You could also try freelancing on websites like fiverr.com, upwork.com or freelancer.com. These websites allow you to sell your services to people who are already looking for the skillset which you possess!

- Working multiple jobs

We understand that working one job is tiring enough, but when you want to become a millionaire, you ave to constantly be on that grind! Look for some part-time work to supplement your day job and you'll see the extra cash rolling into your bank account in no time!

- Getting multiple income streams

This is a tricky one. After getting some money to invest, look into some of the best ways to get ROI(Returns on Investment). Maybe look into buying some real estate, getting some rental from tenants to supplement your income, or stocks and REITs(Real Estate Investment Trusts) to earn some dividends with your money. When you start doing this, you are making tour money work for you instead of doing it the other way around, generating yourself some passive income!

I hope you've enjoyed this post and have picked up and learned something from it. I'm always looking to learn more and improve too, so feel free to drop me an email or comment on this blog and share some other things I may have failed to mention and I'll be sure to reply ASAP!

3 Ways to Become a Millionaire in the Next 10 Years

As you guys know, I'm trying to become a millionaire in the next 10 years. How? Here's my action plan!

There are hundreds, or even millions of articles on how to become a millionaire. Most of them are flashy and attention-catching, but how many are actually feasible?

I've read quite a few of such articles as I'm sure many of you have, pouncing onto them as soon as it appears in my search results or Flipboard(or whatever I use to read), hoping it'll trigger something or help me find my 'big break'. Here, I'll share the information which I have gathered, and share some of my opinions on the way.

1. Saving AND Investing

Saving is something we've been taught from young. It's so heavily emphasized and yet it doesn't feel that effective. Ever heard of the '70/30 rule'? Basically, it states that you should spend 70% of your income and save AND invest 30% of that. My opinion? Screw that! 

Get familiar with this capitalist pig, you're gonna be seeing him a lot..I wasn't talking about the image

Although I agree that saving/investing 30% of your income may be a difficult task for most people, I think it's more than possible. Hence, I'm introducing a new rule, the 'Don't be an idiot' rule. The 'Don't be a idiot' rule goes as such. If you want to be a millionaire, don't go spending all your money on worthless crap, spoiling yourself with gaming consoles, computers, handbags and shoes. Each dollar you spend brings you further away from having 7-figures in your bank account.

Of course, this doesn't mean you should abandon your responsibilities and save/invest all your money either. It's important to strike a balance and spend frugally.

However, saving alone won't make you a millionaire, at least not in the next 10 years(unless you poop money). Enter investment. There are so many ways and means for us to invest, real estate, the stock market, businesses, but the simplest way in my opinion is to invest in the S&P 500. The S&P 500 has had an average of 9.8% in annualized returns in the past 90 years. Using these numbers, we would need to invest roughly $57,700 every year to become a millionaire in 10 years. That amounts to roughly $4,800 a month! 

2. Get a job/side hustle

As frustrating it is for aspiring entrepreneurs to hear, it couldn't be more true. Use the skills which you have to apply for a job. Be it a 9 to 5 or a freelancing job, we will need a lot of cash to start any form of investing. As stated earlier, a monthly investment of $4,800 each month would be needed to become a millionaire in the next 10 years(If you invest in the S&P 500)

Some jobs may not even pay that much, hence I would suggest getting a side hustle too. Do keep in mind that the $4,800 a month doesn't include paying your bills, buying your groceries and going to your emergency savings account. So a more reasonable income would be about $8,000 or $9,000 a month(depending on how much you spend). 

A side hustle can be anything that makes you money. For example, selling handmade crafts, reselling shoes, flipping items or freelancing. Anything that isn't classified as a 'job' would be a side hustle.

3. Starting a Business

A word of warning, this is a risky one. The world of business as massive and highly competitive. It's not as easy as most 'gurus' make it out to be. Speaking from experience, it's a difficult and dangerous path, which you will have to walk alone(at least at the beginning). I aim to be as honest as possible while writing my blog so I'll say that starting a business has not been profitable AT ALL for me. 

If you still want to start a business after hearing all that, here are some online business models which you can look up.(Most of my experience is about online businesses)
- E-Commerce
- Affiliate Marketing
- An Agency(selling services)
- A Blog



Starting a business will take a lot of time and money, but if it pays off, you may make yourself a millionaire in even less than 10 years. Do be careful and responsible with your money however, and you'll still need a job to supplement your business expenditure at the beginning, treat it as another form of investment.



Now, I understand that it may seem a little 'holier-than-thou' for me, an 18-year-old to be saying all these things and offering advice like I'm in a higher or better position. The truth is, I'm not. I'm just sharing and documenting what I've learnt and seen, compiling it into a little diary of sorts and sharing it with everyone who's following me on my journey. Feel free to comment and tell me what I should improve on, change and feel free to let me know of some other ways to make money!

My Origin Story

Hi! I’m Jingrui, some 18 year old Asian kid from Singapore. The reason I’m starting to write is because it was encouraged by some strangers on the internet, even though my father has been doing the same for years now. They said to begin with my origin story so here it goes.

I should begin by telling you that this blog is supposed to document my journey as an entrepreneur where I will be sharing my experiences as well as lessons which I have learnt along the way.

So my adventure began just last year when I went to work during the holidays. I got a contract for an office job which was the standard 9–5(8.30–5.30 in my case). Now, this was only a 3 month contract but it was the most boring, unfulfilling 3 months I had ever experienced. I hated it. Not because of the environment but because of the lack of accomplishment, the repetitive tasks which I had to perform everyday. I asked myself, ‘is this where I wanna be when I graduate?’, the answer was a clear, resounding 'NO!'.

And so, during these 3 months, I sourced the internet(after work of course, and sometimes during too XD), looking far and wide(I mostly just spent time watching ‘make money online’ Youtube videos) and I found a business model called ‘dropshipping’. Undoubtedly, I had no idea what this was but it intrigued me and I was hooked. I went deeper and deeper into the rabbit hole and devoured the free content available on the video-sharing website.




I eventually ended up launching my own Shopify store and making over $2,500(in sales, I did lose money overall, like a lot of money) through instagram and facebook ads. After that failure, I gave up for a while but I then decided to pick myself up and went to affiliate marketing where I promoted some products on Clickbank using Clickfunnels (I also learnt this from Youtube) and was referred to a course(One Funnel Away Challenge)by someone at Clickfunnels. Now I have something to keep me busy again and I hope it will take me to success.

I’m Jingrui and I hope that you have enjoyed my origin story. I will continue to write so please do join me on my journey to success. Also, feel free to comment and tell me what I can and should improve on! Ciao!

P.S. I've couldn't get the link for Millionaireby28, or 27, or 26, or 25, so I just went with 29