DawgTalkers.net Forums DawgTalk Everything Else... Business Idea's

Its advice, really good advice. He said that you may think its easy and the path is simple as ABC but it is so much more complex. He is trying to let you know that you should do some sound research before you throw your money at something that you fell in love with that won't make you any money.

i've done my research.

i'm still doing research.

thats why we're going there FIRST before we start buying up stuff.

If i fail, i fail. i've never been cautious in anything i've done in my life.

ain't dead or broke yet.

Swish I already tried to exit the discussion gracefully, but you really seem to want to pile it on me for some reason, so I think it is fair that I at least briefly explain why I said what I said.

First of all, what you are attempting is really complex! Just think about the accounting nightmare. This is a whole different level than doing your personal taxes. I don't know what business structure you are going to use, but any one of them will add a significant amount of complexity (moreso if you incorporate than if you used an LLC for example. With that being said, you'll probably have to incorporate.)

Then you have to get into real estate tax law. And whatever other businesses you get yourself into. Uncle Sam wants their cut. Ohio will want their cut, assuming you live here more than six months of the year. You're going to have to figure out all these taxes in whatever country and municipality your investment is actually in. Maybe there will be bribes and such too. I really don't know, and from what I gather, neither do you.

It seems like you take personal offense when I say that you are in over your head. It is not a personal critique. You are in over your head, lol. I would be too. I imagine Lurker would be as well, and he strikes me as a highly intelligent person. Man, for being in the military and for wanting to be in the top .001% with your $350mm yacht, you sure get rattled by my brash way of writing. You need to get over these minor perceived slights because nobody gives a about winning arguments on the internet.

You want to pick quotes from me and ignore the rest of what I say? You know, I can do it too. How about this: "Investments, I'm gonna say 50k min, 25/25 bro, uhh, just in case anything happens. I mean we could really start off with the 30 or 40k, umm, but, when you, I'm thinking 50k might be the minimum. For some reason I just got a feeling." This is from your 'In progress steps' from your business plan video.

Now I'm sure (or I really, really hope) that you have this broken down more specifically. But then again, Lurker asked you some pretty basic questions about what your competition is doing, if you are going to have employees, and how you might pay your taxes and you said that's too much and that it was a quick way to get discouraged! Except those questions were not too much. You should have a good idea about these things before you go and drop 30k on your business. I think you are like many other new entrepreneurs with illusions of grandeur but without a solid plan on how to actually get there.

Hey, you keep saying I'm being negative-- I might as well deliver

edit your post. don't want you getting banned bro. got a cuss word in there.

It's happening. First step is recon. if we don't like the area, or the feeling isn't there, it isn't happening.

you can call it illusions or whatever.

and the end of the day, if the business doesn't work, how many people on this board will be able to say they have a house in Congo? or Africa period?

none.

I don't get discouraged. about anything.

If you told me you wanted to go over to Iraq and single handily try to change that country to be profitable, all these other dudes will be like "you're dumb, blah blah blah"

you know what i'd say? "f the haters, cause they too much of a punk to take a leap of faith. if that's your dream, follow it".

I had a response for Lurker, but at the end of the day...for what?

he would've been the same dude telling bill gates and steve jobs they were full of crap and wouldn't make it when they dropped out of college and started microsoft.

Sometimes you just have to DO something.

if it fails, bro, it FAILS. i'm not taking out any loans. it's straight cash. so what? it's just money. then i'll just try something else. my family doesn't suffer one bit if this tanks. the only thing i'mma cry about is the fact that i could've used that bread on a down payment for a Corvette or something. big whoop.

if i gotta pay taxes.....so what? i already know i gotta pay taxes. was that suppose to scare me? is the IRS some boogyman underneath my bed?

I take everything negative personally. it's just what i do. People said i wasn't gonna make it in the military. i bottled that angered and joined, and THRIVED. people said i couldn't get bad(hot)females. pfft... got a hot german wife now, who's pissed by the way cause my ex's are still on facebook. people said i wouldn't make it in war. made it 4 different times. people said don't get out the military cause the economy is bad. well, sure isn't bad for me personally. people said i wasn't smart. I'm not, but i still busted out a 3.8 gpa this semester.

people are saying i ain't gonna make this business, in africa or if i decide to start here in the states. so far i'm batting a thousand on all the other crap people said i can't or wasn't gonna make it in.

I'll be alright.

I'm sure you would be the only one on the board who has a house in Africa but I don't find that in and of itself to be all that cool. I'd rather have a 2nd residence somewhere that I'd actually enjoy going to. Probably Vegas (I'm a decent enough poker player.) Not Africa.

Bill Gates and Steve Jobs: "The fact that some geniuses were laughed at does not imply that all who are laughed at are geniuses. They laughed at Columbus, they laughed at Fulton, they laughed at the Wright brothers. But they also laughed at Bozo the Clown."

Just so you know, I'm not calling you Bozo the Clown. I don't think of you like that.

I am in a good spot in life but I have made a lot of mistakes along the way. Like when you were talking about how much it would suck to make 35-40k/year while complaining about how much you hate your job on facebook? We both know enough people like that. How about being twice as smart as those people, working twice as hard, and losing 35-40k? Been there, done that (ok, not quite that much, but it really sucks to work hard on something and go backwards.)

The reason I'm so harsh is I don't want to see it happen to you. Oh and making 35-40k a year isn't so bad. If you start off with as much money as you are implying you have, at 29 years old, invest well and keep costs reasonable, you can live pretty damn well and retire a rich man. Exponential growth is a wonderful thing. I know that's not where you want to go in life and that's fine. I'm just saying that for some of the others who are reading this thread, it's not such a bad thing.

It's just money? Come on man, you have a family. It's one thing to put everything you have into a business and see it fail. It's another to not adequately prepare yourself and have it fail. The latter is unacceptable.

The thing about taxes wasn't about paying your taxes, although with the number of institutions that will want their cut, maybe it should be. It was more about the complexity of having a business that operates in a different country. Do your research and get a good accountant. The point was that is just a side issue that doesn't even have anything to do with running the business itself (I really do think it will get very complicated.)

i got plenty of money in the savings. just from my own bread.

my wife is pulling right around 60k a year.

yes, we won't suffer. if those two things don't happen, i wouldn't be doing this.

personally i think having a home in Africa is awesome. so that's relative. you don't. it's cool. we all have our taste.

if i ended up only making 75-80k a year, all well. if i don't get that yacht, all well. but that's what i'm aiming for.

some people's dreams are to be a firefighter. thats awesome, seriously. we need people like that.

my dream is to drink corona's on a monday morning in St. Tropez France while watching everybody complain about the monday's on Facebook, as a relatively young guy. I'm 27. i got the drive, the energy.

that's why i said man. money hasn't been an issue. i have the bread. if i had to take out a loan, no way would i start by going overseas. But this has been burning inside me for years. i HAVE to try it bro. HAVE to.

That's cool man-- I respect that. I wish more people had your level of drive and motivation. I hope you make millions off this.

Thanks. hopefully so.

thanks for this.

how much does a property management firm typically charge?

Please respond to me because honestly I think you are naive and have absolutely no clue what you are doing. When I don't know something I research it, or ask someone smarter then me who has done it for advice. Why? because they can help lead me in the right direction. On Monday I was at a Google Startup Grind event watching a young lady named Tanisha talk about her startup, which raised over 5 million dollars in 2 months and created a 80 million company in 28 months.(I will also add that she is a black lesbian, which is pretty much impossible to get Venture Captilist funding) Why? Why would I do something like that because unlike you I want to learn. Whatever she says is gold because she has done it. I seek out feedback, the good, the bad and the ugly, why? it makes my product better. Every question that someone has, I need to have an answer for, if I can't answer the question then I am not ready because that question might end up costing my business more time, money, effort. Every decision must be thought of, every action needs to be focused, every purchase or money spent needs to be give me the best return on the financial investment.

I was talking to some random guy on LinkedIn asking him to take my survey who also is doing a startup and he sent me 5 messages telling me to "look at this, instead of that", "make sure you use this program, instead of that program" why? Because he is going/went down the same path that I am and the things that he learned he WANTS to share with me to HELP ME. He wanted to save me headace because he went through it. This is would people do, we are not self centered, me me me people.

I tried to give you helpful advice but somehow it hurt your feelings, grow up, business is hard, its hard path, if it was easy everyone would do it. I am only sharing information that I wish somoene would have shared with me in the beginning. Why? Because I want you to succeed, I could be like the rest of the people reading this post, laugh and ignore it. However, you need to grow up and stop taking the easy way out because your business will fail. You can't just throw money at something and expect it to grow or succede. I went through a start up incubator and spent 4 days with 25 other startups and we ripped our business apart and rebuilt them. I competed with 50ish people and had to pitch our ideas, and they all asked questions trying to picking me apart. I was sharing this information with you to help you.

Why are you even asking us? This is the wrong place to ask it? Why not a real estate forum, or an international real estate forum. Think about this for a second. You are on DawgTalkerss asking for help and advice about an international real estate company in a 3rd world company which you already admitted that you want to use immoral practices so you can get an advantage on the locals. Do you actually think that anyone on this board will be able to help you? Like do you really feel that someone here has income properties that they rent out to peope in 3rd world countries?

so you think this is the only place i asked for help?

the only place......just this one. DT. not any forums, or doing my own research, or talking to people that live in Africa.

nah...just DT.

explain to me again why you call yourself being helpful? Cause now i'm not upset, i'm laughing. your post sounds like your the one who got your feelings hurt.

i dunno why you felt the need to mention she was a black lesbian.

I'm not a black lesbian. doesn't really apply to me.

you sound like you're chick just broke up with you, and you decided to rant out on me. it's ok, if you need a shoulder to cry on, i'm here for you. we'll get through this together.

if you want to help, then leave all that "you don't know what you're doing" out of that.

and the "throw money at it" and "easy way out"? lol what? who said this was suppose to be easy?

Chill dude. it'll be ok.

You really need to stop taking this advice so personally. There is a lot of really good stuff in this thread IMO. I've owned my own business for 8+ years now and there is some very, very good advice here.

Lurker (who I do know personally) is doing a very nice job in getting his business off the ground from what I have seen. He has some great advice that you should really be listening to.

ok.

i'm seriously wondering why i'm getting so much crap for simply asking people to leave the negativity out of the post.

that's all i asked. yet y'all acting like i just tried to hit on y'all wives at the bar after you went to the bathroom.

i know i put a lot of y'all in defensive positions cause of my posting style.

but am i really asking to much when i say to leave the "you have no idea what you're doing" and "you're in over your head" comments out?

i mean, does it really help to stroke your ego to make it known you're smarter than me? if so then carry on. you want your ego stroke Lurker? tell me i'm an idiot, and what i need to do to not be an idiot.

everybody can join in. i'm use to it on here.

you know what...i'm tired of getting ganged up on in every thread on EE.

My first post I gave you some questions and you shelled up like a 5 year old and said


I asked you questions hoping that you have thought aboout some them, if you hadn't then hopefully that would have sparked something inside of you to want to research those queustions which would help you in your business.

Please think out side the box a little bit for me.

Again, I research everything in life, and minorities have a very low success of getting Venture Capitalist funding. Very low, like 1-5% low, and the fact that she is a woman which have very low success of getting VC funding and she is openly gay which makes her impossible to get funding and guess what she raised over 5 million in 2 months. Raising that much money that fast is very hard to do. I said that because she is a person who from a VC standpoint can't get funding.

like a 5 year old. you're right bro. you got it.

I am just giving you advice, I don't want nothing in return, Do you remember when you wanted some advice on starting a website. What happen i sent you a PM where to start, why did i do that? to help someone I don't have an ego. It just doesn't make sense that you are throwing money at something with new true direction, and then start going Verstial Dog on us and attack people.

you're right again bro. you got it.

Swish, I can tell you, with absolute sincerity, that Lurker is a great guy who is definitely trying to help you out. I'm sure if you met him in person you would agree.

None of the comments, IMO, on here are to "gang up on you" or "put you down", but rather to make sure you are crossing your t's and dotting your i's. There is a lot to think about when doing something like this, and input, though it may seem negative, is always good. I commend you for trying to do something you seem extremely passionate about - go for it! But you asked for advice, it was given (sometimes a little harshly) and you need to soak it all in IMO.

I have a great idea for an app. Just don't know where to start. I would need the help of MLB, NFL, NBA, and the NHL.

Swish, Just a random thought...

Have you considered the cannabis industry here in the USA?

Some pioneers are already killing it out here. Others, not so much (Washington). If you're willing to deal with headaches overseas, you can handle Uncle Sam's limbo status on the weed.

Oregon and Alaska are just going online. California will be soon.

Hey Swish, what ever came of this? I'm guessing based on a few of your recent posts that this got canceled or postponed. Is this still something you're going to do?

we swapped it out to cars since the real estate market went up.

only sent two over there. the shipping cost......ugh.

Wow - that's a volatile real estate market to switch that fast in 2 months.

As for the cars - what kind? Years ago - like, 15-20 years ago - we had some Arabs from Toledo that would buy LTD's, Crown Vics, Pontiac Parisiennes (I can't even spell that one anymore)......and obviously, they were picking them up anywhere they could - not just from our dealership - all dealerships.

They paid crazy money for them, then shipped them to the middle east.

well the housing market wasn't that low when we got solid information. most people with money in that region were buying houses equivalent on 100k and up. i wanted to do a "trial run" on that, but not on 100k house. i can't drop cash on that.

however, i can drop straight cash on cars.

So we bought a Benz 350 for about 14k, got it detailed, shipped it for 2k to my boy's dad. it sold for 20k, which was a very big surprise, as i'm still in the american mind frame of "africans aint go no money".

so we sent a 5 series last week and are waiting for it to hit the port and his dad to sell it.

i was a bit pissed though, cause when i shipped my truck to europe, i paid 1700, but it's 2k to the Congo for a car, even with a VAT form.

what i WANT to do, is start sending honda's over. people with good money want luxury cars over there, but the region has a shortage of vehicles in general, so i think the business would be more expansive if we provide affordable cars to the commoners(sounds bad saying that, but you know what i mean).

right now we're just taking shots. like i said, i have plenty of cash so i don't care if it doesn't work or not, but i wanna try SOMETHING until i finish getting my degree, and am actually education on the stuff i want to do.

the problem is(not a problem really) is that if this works, then we have to register as a business here, since if we send more cars over in bulk, the shipping rate is cheaper. but we have to register as a business here and in the congo.

like i said, trial runs, just testing it out. i got free cash, so why not.

the whole purpose of this is to NOT take out any loans to fund this, for right now. i don't want to be in debt like other people when their ideas tank.

Avoiding debt is general a good practice but it can be very hard to avoid when you're in the growth phase of a business. Right now you're just sending a car or two over so I would argue that any debt in your business right now raises red flags. But if you wanted to grow your business to send say 50 cars a month then it would probably require some outside investing.

Right now many cars are you shipping a month? Even if you're only shipping one Benz a month (or any car you buy for 14k and sell for 4k profit) you're at a respectable cap rate.

we've only shipped two so far. one just recently got shipped. the first one we already profited from it.

yea i figured it will probably come down to getting a loan, but i was hoping that we might avoid that if we get the snowball effect from these cars.

we're sending one at a time, but with the profits, we can start sending two at a time, than 3, 4, and so on.