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As entrepreneurs, we've built the following successful
careers:
Professional Modeling
$90 / hr w/ twin sister
Professional Singers
salary details withheld
Sales (chocolates and holiday decor)
$30 - $100 / hr
In sales, we earned a 400% return on our investment in chocolates,
getting back four times our money. Our $10 investment in
chocolotes turned into $40; our $100 turned into $400.
We learned
how to turn $1000 into $4000, $10,000 into $40,000,
$100,000 into $400,000, and $1,000,000 into $4,000,000
buy selling chocolates. Here's how:
We purchased namebrand chocolate bars such as
Hershey, Nestle, Reese's, etc., when stores had them on
sale
at four for a dollar. The candy bars cost
us only 25 cents each,
but most people know the regular retail price is 75 cents.
So we
went door-to-door telling the people we were raising money
for summer camp - which we were. They were usually happy to have
an excuse
to buy a chocolate bar. We learned to show up with
both my
sister and I holding a box of chocolates, so our customers
would buy
at least one from each of us. Sometimes we could
sell five
candy bars to one person. Sometimes people would just
give us a
donation. Our biggest donation was $20. Someone else
gave us $15.
Another venture began in December of 2007: creating &
selling
holiday decor which resulted in a 1000% return on our investment:
Our investment was returned one tenfold.
Our $2 investment turned into $20 profit, $45 turned into
$450.
This investment return is better than our chocolate sales.
How? Cedar boughs, holly and ivy grow on our property.
Wreath forms and holiday bows bought at thriftsores for 50% off
cost us under $2 to make each item but
resulted in about $20 return.
We made these items at home, and sold them door-to-door.
When the customers asked how much, we would say it
was by
donation. This allowed the customer to set the price, and made it
possible for low- income people to have a beautiful wreath. A
couple customers bought two wreaths for $25 each, one customer
paid $30 for one wreath, but most people paid $15-20. A couple
people paid $10 for their wreath. The wreaths were fun to make
and beautiful. Scroll down a bit and you will see
us with some of
our wreaths.
From the money we earned, we bought two steel string guitars
at
Goodwill for $100 each. They sound great and we're
using them
to make a music video. We bought the video camera
at Walgreen's
for $100 with money we earned from the wreath sales.
When the
music video is complete, we'll upload it to youtube.com,
and send
out the weblink to places we're auditioning to... like
America's Got
Talent!
So far, our best investment has been in
real estate where our $11,000
has resulted in about $120,000 in equity. How'd we do it? We
bought the cheapest house in town, created
beautiful landscaping,
and designed the rehab for the house. Once we finish the rehab,
we'll still have about $100,000 so we should
just sell it as is, save
ourselves the
headache, and walk off with the $100,000. It's difficult
to do though
because the property has 360 degree views of the
mountains,
the sea, the sunrise and the sunset, as is within walking
distance to stores,
restaurants, the library, downtown, offers a short
ferry ride to Canada,
and is on the busline connecting as far away as
Seattle and
beyond, for just a few dollars. So we may do the rehab
in two small phases costing $30,000 each.
We may take a loan against the house - which is paid for
-
so we can have the $100,000 AND also keep the property.
This is called
"having your cake and eating it too". We'd pay
about $500 a month for 30 years. But we could use this money
to buy another property in full, with no extra loans.
Another option is to take out a loan, fix up the house,
and rent it out.
The tenants' rent would pay back the loan in five to ten
years, and
we'd have an awesome house. We'd keep a chunk of change to
use
as a downpayment
on another property, fix that up, and rent that out.
By the time we finish our education, we'll have over a million
dollars
in assets,
so this seems to be the way to go - real estate investment.
We are also working on recording our first CD,
and expect this to be our greatest money-maker yet.
Click on the links to the left to see our song
lyrics and music video.
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