Speed Dating

Speed Dating. Ahhh yes, many of you will have heard of this before and others wont have a clue. Basically Speed dating is where you get 10 guys and 10 girls and give them 30 second each with a member of the opposite sex (or same sex, depending on the demographic you think will be most lucrative). Yes my friends, people will pay for the opportunity to woo/ interact with potential mates.

This is an ideal one for all you meddling women out there who like to get involved with other poeople's lives at the office by offering 'advice' to John-the-lonely-geek-guy-from-IT on how to talk to women at a bar and not to repel them. Now, the odds are that you are not the cupid that you think you are, just because you are married this doesn't mean you are authority on the situation. Stop lying to yourself, and getting John's hopes up in the process. Instead you should put together a speed dating event where John can have the time of his life by speaking to loads of women as if he actually had a chance. Right, this is how it goes down...

You sort out a location, preferably a bar of some sort, to be honest this isn't entirely necessary it would just help to have a location where people can drink freely before the games begin and be relatively relaxed (it would also help if you can dim the lights as some of the attendee's may be aesthetically challenged). So you are going to need to do a little negotiating with the local pub owner, tell 'em you will bring in a couple of drinkers on a day that wouldnt normally bring in much cash and "the-job's-a-good'n". Or if you cant do that look for a quirky location, if you are trying to appeal to geeks host it in a library/ museum... what ever, use your knogin. (I was told that a couple held one in a park that went really well, think they had a BBQ or something, I like BBQ's).

Once you have got the location sorted, you need to get about 10-15 Guys and Girls (preferablly with chairs that face each other) then you give them 30 seconds, a minute, two minutes... whatever, just make it short - some subjects to discuss (incase they are too stupid to come up with anything) and score cards so people can keep track of people they liked. (You might also want to consider some drinks! - i can't stress enough how important the drinks thing is, people will have more fun if they are alittle tipsy and think the night was great even if things fell apart,) and POW your off! People will begin falling in love and putting cash in your pocket. Nice ;)

I will leave the target market up to you, there is wide selection of demographics you can appeal to in your quest for cash... Mingers/ Time poor but wealthy/ black people/ Russians/ Goths and weirdoes. At the end of the day there needs to be some kind of theme to attract similar people, some kind of USP to ensure that people come to your event and don't go to another one. Just pick one you think you understand/ make money from and attack!

Getting the word out is important, jump onto mySpace and facebook, print flyers, send out emails, put notices up in corner-shop windows, print off some (decent looking) flyers (i'd make some for women and some for men, but that does mean more costs), hand them out down the pub/ at work and talk about it to everyone! Leave flyers on busses! whatever it takes to get people on the list.

...and now, what you have all been waiting for... the figures!

When pricing things it's always important to remeber that people dont buy Products they buy Benefits! So men will think they are going to have the prime opportunity to get laid and women will think that is is a chance to meet mister right. They might be right, who knows, either way capitalise on this!

I reckon if you live in London, you have got a decent location and concept you could charge about £15 a ticket that means if you have got 10 guys and 10 girls thats gonna bring in a revenue of about £300

Don't be afraid to haggle on the tickets, its much better to sell a ticket £5 when you were hoping for £15 and get some money in your pocket rather then getting nothing, but make sure that you are going to turn over a profit what ever the case is.
To maximise on your investment there are a couple of things that you could do...

a) % of Drinks - do a deal with the bar ask for a percentage of the drinks, its surprising how many bars that go for this because they are desperate to be bring in in money on a Tuesday night.

b) Sponsorship - do a deal with the local restaurant, get them to pay you to mention them on your flyers and say that you are going to tell everyone to eat there after your event in exchange for some free finger food and a little bit of cash.

c) Cash for connects - at the end of the event people will have marked their score cards, get them to hand them into you so you can have a look at who likes who, get people to pay you for telling them if they have any matches within a certain time. For example Barry and Karen both gave each other 8/10 and both ticked the box saying they would like to see more of each other. For £2 You will let them know if they have had any matches after three weeks and for £5 they will be emailed within 24 hours. (you can see a score card by clicking here.)

here is what i worked out as a potential revenue...

£300 tickets sales
£100 sponsorship
£90 drinks - (based on you getting £1.50/ drink and everone has 3)
£55 - connects - (based on 5 people want 24 hour turn around everyone else 3 weeks)
£545 - total

... £545 should make a good dent in the rent and once you have a couple of Speed Dating nights you can easily expand by inviting more people or holding events more frequently and POW ur in the money!

To make this project really work your going to need good people skills; you need to convince people that its worth them coming to see the selection of potential lovers that you are going to provide at a reasonable cost, is more valuable then a night in watching Top Gear/ Sex In the City, if you can do that you could make a decent amount of money every now and then. Just remeber to keep the prices of this 'fair' and to make sure that people have fun, which should be too hard if they are drinking!

Now go make some money!
This is defiantly worth a try if you have got the time.

Make money from iPhones!

The basic idea is to buy iPhones unlock them and sell them on.

(Please note. This article is mainly directed at people here in the UK, but i have made some effort to include America where i could be bothered.)

The iPhone doesn't need much of an introduction, its an amazing device and its had more than it fare share of hype/ media attention. There is no way possible way you couldn't know about it, especially if you have got a TV, access to the internet and/or friends, you would have to be a serious loser to not have heard about it.
In case you are that ONE, LONELY person who doesn't know about it, its a touch screen, mobile phone made by the good folks at Apple.

Right here's where the money is... While the iPhone is an amazing device with loads of features packed into a sleek design, its locked on to certain networks depending on its geographic location, that means if you live in England, its locked on to o2, if you live in some parts of the US its locked onto AT&T and so-on.. for most people this is a real pain, it means if you want an iPhone you have to be on that particular network and be locked into extortionate price plans which can last 18 months! (which is a long time for us here in England as we are used to 12 Month contracts) and pay-as-you-go people don't get a look in. There have been a couple of people who have looked into the costs of an iPhone, both in the US and UK. It could also prove to be annoying if you live in an area where the particular network in question has a poor signal. (not to mention you can't give it some one an iPhone as a gift). So obviously there are alot of people who want to cut the (in some people's opinion...) GREEDY mobile phone networks out of the deal in favour of their preferred mobile phone network and price plan. To do this the phone will need to be unlocked.

Successfully unlocking the iPhone is relatively simple for those that know how, way back when, this would have been a challenging process but thats all changed now, you dont have to be a tech-genious any more! even mac users can do it!

All you need to do is download the relevant software (here's one for both PC / Mac) and watch one of the millions of videos on youtube that break it down for you...


Mac



PC


(you could watch a few videos before you give it a go.)

Once you have done all of this you will have an unlocked iPhone which means you can put any sim card (apart from a 3G sim card here in the uk) into it and it will work! POW!

Right, now the figures. Basically you will need to get your hands onto iPhones that haven't been unlocked and then unlock them - which will open up the customer base from people who want to be on the iPhone tarrif, to everyone else. There are two main choices to choose from when buying and iPhone 8Gb (£169 - if you can find it) and 16Gb (£329) if you buy them from an official retailer (Carphone Warehouse, o2 and of course... Apple) UK.
If you know anyone who can 'acquire' such objects for you at a discounted rate then i would say it might be worth giving them a call and seeing what prices they have to offer.

When selling the iPhone, obviously the easiest place to sell it is going to be on ebay where the 8 Gb (unlocked) model fetches roughly £250 + p&p (usually about £10, well i guess you could get away with charging £15) and the 16 Gb (unlocked) £380 + p&p, which means that you could make a potential of £80 profit off the 8 Gb and £50 from the 16 Gb, for 10 mins work! Well i suppose you would have to actually go and get the iPhone from the store and then take it to the post office once sold but either way, lets face it, its not hard work. If you could do three a-week you would be earning £150-£240, which should get you a few drinks at the Pub :)

I'll admit that you are not going to get rich off of this but you'll make a decent bit of cash and you can do a couple more things to ensure you get the sale and generate that extra revenue...

a) This probably goes without saying but keep your iPhone BOX FRESH!!!! nobody will want to buy an iPhone that has been carved up! leave it in the box with all the wrapping attached.

b) Add bits to the sale - everyone likes the feeling of getting a good deal, so to make people feel they are getting that little bit more out of the deal and convince people to buy your iPhone, not somebody else's you could throw in a few cheaply bought accessories. Phone cases, belt clips, screen protectors (they are really good), extra charges or whatever. Have a look on ebay at the 'Completed Listings', to get a idea of how to maximise on your ROI.

c) Ensure the final date for the auction of your iPhone (or any other product your going to sell on ebay for that matter) in the evening on a pay-day (or atleast the end of the week), when people want to treat themselves and have the money to spend, that way people will be willing to part with that extra cash and bid up until the dying seconds of the auction.

d) Don't be afraid to promote you listing, mention it on you blog, myspace, facebook, email friends, what ever it takes to get the word out so people know they can buy it.

e) If you are going to buy a couple of iPhones i suggest that you have a go at haggling and save a bit on the initial investment, (this should be obvious but i thought i would mention it anyway).


...and finally... f) Gold Plating. Thats right! To ensure you get 'top Dollar' for your iPhone you could gold plate it! Gold plated iPhones can sell for up to £10,000, so it might be worth looking into.

Ok, lets talk Pro's and Cons, as im trying to be objective.


_CON'S_
- Don't fuck up unlocking your iPhone, because if you do you will be left with an expensive paper weight.
- If you are flat broke, i guess this isn't going to be an option for you as your going to need a bit of cash to be able to purchase a new iPhone. To get this project up and running you are going to need at least £170 cash and personally i would want to 3 at a time.
- If apple release a new iPhone while you are holding quite a bit of stock, you could be in the shitter, but things wont be too bad because Apple products do seem to hold value quite well after a new release.
- Unless you are resourceful you might find it hard to find iPhones for £169 because o2 claims that its sold out of the 8 Gb model, but i doubt that.


_PRO's_

- Good return on Investment
- Simple process to repeat
- you will get to play with iphones!


Personally i think this idea is a go-er.

The Introduction

Welcome to Victory In The Face Of Defeat.

This blog for everybody out there who wants to make a little bit of money on the side.

Mothers, College students, Bus drivers, Social workers, Chefs. Men, women and children of all ages (well maybe not all ages, but you know what I mean... 15 and up... yeh?). Regardless of Race, (skin) Colour or Creed (and in some cases Location), if you want to make a bit of money on the side you will find ideas here on how to do it.

Every now and then im going to post new ideas, which you can make happen at home, with very little investment, some ideas are going to appeal more to some people than others and some ideas are going to require more graft than others, but if you are a remotely competent person (?) you will be able to make at least one of these ideas happen. Its true, some of you will be too stupid to get some of these ideas off the ground and others lazy, but if you are serious about making money that might not necessarily be "on the books", then keep following the updates (add the link to your bookmark and or the RSS feed).

Im going to give you the concept, a couple of notes on how to get started and highlight a few of the pitfalls that might challenge you along the way. Some of these ideas will be obvious, some will be random but the main criteria for the projects are...

a) Simple to run
b) Cheap to start
c) Plausibly legal

The reason I set up this blog is partly for fun/ to keep me busy but mostly because im tired of people i know complaining about being broke, so i set up this blog to give people ideas on how to make money and stop complaining. Most of these ideas wont make you rich, but some will be scaleable (make more money with more work/effort, in time). At the very least i hope you will be inspired and/or motivated to make some thing happen!

In short... If you can put a doughnut in your mouth, you will be able to make money from one (or more) of these ideas.

(While reading always remember that you get out, what you put in and "If it don't make money, it don't make sense!")


Regards

P