Neville's Financial Blog

I noticed sometime in early 2008 that I was starting to get a little chunky around the sides. I would suck in my stomach in front of the mirror and it no longer showed the muscles underneath like it used to.

Problem: I was getting fatter.

Another Problem: I was always being lazy (although at the time I never dreamed it had anything to do with food).

I don't remember a period since college where I didn't regularly get lots of physical activity or regularly go to the gym....so this wasn't the problem.

One day my mom gave me a 5 pound bag of Clementine's no one at home was eating. I took them to Austin with me. They're like mini oranges that you can easily peel. I LOVED THEM!

I liked them a lot, but would eat maybe one or two a day. I then read Steve Pavlina's 30-day raw diet experiment where he would eat only raw foods like fruits and vegetables. I had no intention of emulating this, but I was amazed at the sheer quantity of fruit he would eat. Instead of two Clementine's, he would eat 8 or 10. Instead of one banana a day, he would eat 10+.

For some reason I just didn't think of eating that many....sounds stupid, but true. I've never seen anyone eat THAT much fruit before.

So taking a cue from that I decided to up my fruit intake because I've always loved fruits. I ate pretty much the same junk I used to, but now with a whole lot more fruit. Slowly and slowly I started eating more and more, to the point where lunch was pretty much just grapes, apples, avocados, oranges etc.

Now of course I still craved heavier foods from time to time and would allow myself to pig out McDonald's (I still love McDonald's), but for the most part I was eating a lot less of everything else, and a lot more fruits.

During this time I started gaining an affinity for fruits and stopped craving junk food as much. Through the day I would snack on fruit and it felt great. The cool thing about eating that way is you don't have to really watch what you eat. Pig out an all the fruit you want.

For dinner I decided that I wasn't eating terribly unhealthy anymore, but my portions were out of control. To combat this I simply used a small plate, almost like a tea saucer to eat dinner on. I would try stacking my food sky high, but that little plate wouldn't hold much. I allowed myself to return for as many servings, but that tiny plate had to be used. I quickly found myself eating drastically less food yet being equally satisfied, simply because I didn't have much on the plate. I also stopped getting that over-stuffed "food baby" feeling after dinner.

I was still eating a bunch of junk, so I decided to not buy anything in a box. Well, I would still eat pasta or rice every night, and I suppose pasta and sauce comes in a box/bottle, but that was the extent of it. I stopped buying cookies, chips, soups, snacks or anything like that....and the transition really wasn't that hard.

I would still eat junk at a party or when it was available somewhere, but I wouldn't keep it in the house. I would also go to the grocery with one of those small hand-carts you carry instead of a rolling shopping cart. I physically wouldn't have space to put a bottle of Coke or any other non-essential item.

(I admit....I have a weak spot for Ramen Noodles every once in a while).

Some very in-shape friends also told me that roughly once a week to PIG OUT on all the bad food I could get my hands on.....and pig out I did! I would hit up the McDonald's value menu with a vengeance! Be careful though, when you eat all that junk food, you tend to crave even more junk food the next few days. It's oddly addicting.

There were two VERY noticeable side effects to my new eating habits:

1. I saved a lot of money on groceries.
2. I felt WAY better (More on this later).

I never realized how cheap most produce is. You fill a basket with everything from the produce section and you're looking at a pretty cheap grocery bill. It was an unexpected benefit.

The really crazy benefit was the way I felt after a few days of eating like this. Previously I would wake up, go to the office (two steps away from my bedroom) and sluggishly start working. Prior to that I'd usually hit the snooze button 10 times. I was sort of productive, but I always had "Fog Brain." Fog Brain is not really a tired or lazy sensation, it's just a not-as-clear-as-I-could-be sensation (which results in being somewhat lethargic).

Now I finally understand what a lot of people talk about when they start eating better and getting "better mental clarity." It sounds like some hippy peace/love crap, but it works. I was more aware, willing to work longer and had better clarity....I also slept better, but more noticeable was I woke up in the morning with greater ease. I'm not saying everyday I'd hop out of bed with enthusiasm, but waking up was MUCH easier....working out was MUCH easier...and working through problems and issues seemed MUCH easier.

I sincerely wish I had discovered this in college.

I literally cannot explain how much clearer everything seemed when I ate well for extended periods of time. The benefit was immense.

So those benefits were great, but the changes physically were the most fun. I had always worked out, so I would get larger muscles, but my body fat pretty much remained constant due to my horrendous eating habits and love of fast food. Now my body fat was shrinking, and while my muscles remained relatively constant, I could see them better. Especially around the waist and chest.

A few times a month I took a shirtless picture of myself in a flexed and un-flexed pose (These pics are from Feb. 2008 till July 2008) in order to gauge my progress.

Here are the UN-FLEXED pics. Me just standing in a relaxed pose in front of the camera (Click image for full size):

Here are the FLEXED pics. Tensing the body to show muscles better. The difference from the 1st picture to the last picture is relatively dramatic (Click image for full size):

Here are both the images above put next to each other (Click image for full size):

None of the pics have been Photoshopped (except cropping). Some things learned from taking these pics:

• Flexing vs. not-flexing looks incredibly different.
• It REALLLLLY depends on how much you just ate. Waking up in the morning I would look great, but after a big meal I'd look much fatter in the picture.
• The camera is deceiving.

During this time I didn't take any vitamins, supplements, protein shakes or any type of physical fitness product. I simply ate less "bad stuff" through moderation and a lot more "good" food.

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RE-CAP OF THINGS I DID:
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Eating habits:

• Used a hand-carry basket instead of rolling cart at the grocery.
• Didn't buy anything that comes in a box or can (small exceptions for pasta and dinner ingredients).
• Started using a small plate for everything. Took as many servings of food as I wanted, but on a tiny plate or bowl. This drastically helped cut down on over eating. If you go to a buffet, use a small salad plate to take your food.
• Once a week pigged out on whatever I wanted. This quickly showed me how lethargic bad food makes you feel in comparison with the good food.
• Started eating a lot more fruits and vegetables.
  

Exercise Habits:

• Instead of driving to gym, biked to gym.
• Joined a rock climbing gym and ditched the boring regular weight-lifting gym.
• When still at boring gym, took spinning classes regularly.
  

Motivation:
Originally I liked the benefit of losing body fat and looking ripped, but that superficial goal didn't last long. Eventually I started to slip back into bad eating habits since the motivation to "be ripped" wasn't strong enough.

The thing that got me back into eating properly is the obvious difference in my mental clarity, being unbelievably more productive than before and waking up with much greater ease. The changes to physicality are just a happy side benefit.


Unexpected benefits:
I'm quite sure NO ONE wants to hear this, but taking a poop is a much more pleasant experience when eating well (did I just say that)?? Everything comes out quicker and is a lot easier to clean up. I suppose less time spent in the bathroom can also be considered a productivity benefit :-)


Naysayers:
I've never heard so much conflicting advice about a subject like working out and health. No matter what you do for exercise or diet there will always be some conflicting opinion, study, blah blah blah...

Whatever. Just eat well. Your body is much stronger than you might expect. If you eat 3 bananas in one day you won't die of a sugar overdose, or if you don't eat steak everyday you won't start losing mass amounts of muscle. You'll be fine.


Drawbacks:

• Getting past that first "hump" of cravings for heavy foods.
• Self control when you're at a party with unlimited food.
• The first few days can be a little rough....that's why I slowly started eating better, the "transition" was nearly non-existent that way.

Sticking To It:
Since I originally took all those pictures and started this (roughly Feb. 2008) I've slipped in and out of good/bad eating habits a few times. Generally holidays and vacations help you eat a bunch of crap, and it's a little difficult to slip back into the good habits again.

Fortunately you do this a couple of times, and the "bad" binges get shorter and shorter. The quality of work and productivity is so much higher when you're eating clean, that it almost seems silly to eat bad stuff. But don't worry, you're supposed to shock your system once a week and eat horribly, so that makes it fun!

Happy eating!
-Nev

Labels: Health, Money Experiments, motivation, Personal

So I'm just chillin when I get this text message from my buddy Tim Sykes:

...instead of just emailing him back, thought I'd make a post about it.

I didn't speak with him on the phone about this, and have no idea what he'll be presenting on The Today Show, so I thought I'd make my own criteria based on what I THINK he is requesting.

I'm presuming he's asking how a person of average ability can make $100 in 24 hours in a legal way without many resources, specialized knowledge or abilities.

Remember, you can see how much money you will make by evaluating the amount of service you give to others. Since $100 is a small sum of money, these are all usually small-scale jobs that only provide a marginally important service.

So here we go:

1.) Selling bottled water
I'll start with this example simply because I've proven this can make money in The Bottled Water Experiment and Part Deux. If you don't partner with a homeless guy like I did, the profits could easily be $100 on a good day. In one of the undocumented attempts of this experiment Barry The Bum made $60 by himself in one day, and would have made $100 profit if half the money didn't go to me.

2.) Painting curb addresses
I pseudo-tried painting curbs and found out it wasn't all that hard. It may take some trial and error testing at first, but in a day a person can easily make much more than $100 in a day. In fact one of the readers of this blog (a college student) makes $80,000/year doing this very thing. At $25/house making $100 in a day should be simple.

3.) Manual labor for a store
I've personally seen and spoken to bums on the street who do this from time to time: help out a store in exchange for cash. Often stores with have a very messy back-room area or trash area in the back. If you're willing to clean this area up, the store manager wouldn't mind hiring you for a small fee. Usually the bums I've seen get these small jobs are employed to break down boxes that are being sent for trash or recycling. Glamorous? No. But asking around at a few local businesses if they can part with $100 in exchange for your services can work. Keep in mind they're going to want to pay you low as possible, lower than $8/hour.

4.) Selling goods from your state surplus store
When something gets confiscated or lost at a state building or airport, it all ends up at your state Surplus Store. I did an experiment to see if I could sell confiscated stuff from the airport and it worked. Selling these goods over eBay obviously wasn't a one day affair, but perhaps you could get lucky, find some good stuff and sell it at a pawn shop or flea market.

5.) Pawn or Ebay your stuff
Self explanatory. You got junk, trade it for around market price for cash or PayPal funds. This isn't really "making" money, so I'm not sure if this will qualify for Tim's list.

6.) Power washing driveways and houses
I've also actually performed this a long time ago (unfortunately it went undocumented). I borrowed a power washer from a friend, rolled it around a neighborhood and asked people if they wanted their driveway power washed. My only cost was $2 worth of gasoline, and you can power wash a driveway for $45, and a house for well over $100.

7.) Mow lawns.
This one's pretty obvious.

8.) General help wanted post
Post an ad on Craigslist in the "Gigs" section or alike saying something along the lines of, "Hard working, general help for one day. Will do anything (legal) for 8 hours. Price $100." I've seen posts like this on Craigslist, and based on my experiences from finding ANYTHING on Craigslist, it's highly likely you can find someone who needs some general help for the day.

If you have some special talents, abilities or skilled set of knowledge, you probably stand an even better chance of #8 working. If you know how to setup Quickbooks for a business, or are good with computers etc. you can post those qualifications (and command a higher price).

9.) Experiments on college campuses
Go to the psychology building of many college campuses and scout for flyers boasting "get paid for research." I used to participate in these experiments if I had some free time. They usually pay between $10 and $25 for an hour or two of your time. This suggestion is more wishful thinking than the others. Yes, it COUULLDD make $100, but it's unlikely you'll make more than $30 in a day (if you are even lucky enough to catch an experiment taking place on a certain day).

10.) Bum it....creatively
I've always wanted to try this out, and would LOVE to see it done. Make a big ass card board sign that says "NEED $100 FOR (insert purpose here)" and then draw one of those fundraiser thermometers next to it. Stand on corner and basically fly the sign like bums do.

I never give money to bums, but would probably toss a few bucks someone's way if they had a sign that said "Need $120 more for rent" and showed their progress through the day. Whenever someone gives you money, use a Sharpie to bump up the amount on the sign. After the bottled water experiment I got to know a lot of bums and see who gives what at the street corners, and sincerely think this suggestion could make $100 quicker and with much more ease than any other suggestion! Artist rendering of what it might look like:

Anyhow, there you go Tim; my suggestions for how anyone could make $100 in a day.
-Nev

Labels: business ideas, Money Experiments

Perusing Digg I found this article on Yahoo that lists the agencies that sell all the confiscated stuff at airport security lines. The majority of the confiscated items are knives or other sharp objects like box cutters and scissors.

I noticed my local government agency that sells all these items back to the public called the Texas Surplus Store was not even 5 miles away from where I live, so I paid them a quick visit. I wasn't sure what I'd find there.

I went there and it was a large warehouse with some airport confiscated stuff in the front, and a giant warehouse full of furniture, industrial machinery, cop car parts and other random stuff. Everything there was either retired government equipment, foreclosed items, defaulted loan items or seized property....all at super discounted prices. This government agency gets all the stuff, and it's their purpose is to get rid of it quickly. It reminded me of a big pawn shop, except much cheaper.

Ever lost your sunglasses in a city or state building or airport? If no one steals them first, they end up here...for $1 a piece!

FYI, if you lost your $200 titanium Maui Jim sunglasses in the Austin airport a little while ago....I just bought them, for $1.00!

Had a pocketknife, box cutter, nail clippers or scissors confiscated at the airport? You can buy them back here for about $0.25 to $1/piece. There's big tubs full of THOUSANDS of them.

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So the reason I went here was to see if any money can be made from these items by reselling them on eBay. Something that caught my eye were these big bags of assorted pocket knives for $10. I couldn't count how many each bag had inside, but it was a lot. So as a little money experiment I bought a $10 bag of knives plus one Leatherman Micra pocketknife for $5 (just to get more keyword searches on eBay).

I counted all the knives, and it turns out I got 74 knives for $10. The extra Leatherman knife made it 75 knives total.

I took some pictures of the knives for the eBay auction, and I found out it's actually a pretty boring process trying to open up 75 pocket knives, so I just opened up some of the larger ones for a more dramatic picture effect. There were actually some very high quality knives in there, I was impressed.

Then I went ahead and stuck the whole lot of 75 knives on eBay with a $10 minimum bid and flat $10.95 shipping charge. :
eBay Auction 170168750293

I also went ahead and made a quick video of the knives, slapped it on YouTube and posted it in the auction:



In a few days I'll see how much this $15 experiment returns!

-----UPDATE 11-20-2007-----
The eBay auction bid up to $26.55 + $10.95 shipping for a total of $37.50.

It cost me:
$10 purchase price
$12 shipping
$1 fees
-----
Total costs: $23.00
Bought for: $37.50
-----
Total Profit for Experiment: $14.50

Labels: Money Experiments

When I first started House Of Rave I was in high school and going to college soon. I didn't have the space to store inventory or the money to buy it.

To solve this I used a drop-shipping business model where I sell stuff, but send the order elsewhere to be fulfilled. This worked very well because I could concentrate on the marketing aspects and not worry about inventory.

Managing inventory is very difficult and generally incurs lots of over head costs. I'd rather leave this to the pro's and focus on what I'm good at. However since I've never kept inventory myself, I decided I wanted to give it a try. So I decided to perform an inventory experiment with a cheap, small and convenient product.

Temporary Tattoos.

If you go to Google and search 'Barbed Wire Tattoo', HouseOfRave comes up on the first two image results:

The images take you to the barbed wire tattoo page.
Those pictures were taken by me about two years ago when I was doing some product photos. I put a temporary tattoo on my roommates arm and took these photos to show what the product would look like when used. Since then they've jumped to the top of the image results for people typing in 'Barbed Wire Tattoo' and 'Barbed Wire Armband' and other various searches.

The search results vary from time to time, but I get a lot of searches for those keywords coming to HoR. However since I've switched suppliers, the new supplier doesn't carry temporary tattoos, so I was forced to pull those items. However I still wanted to capitalize on the traffic the tattoo pages and images were pulling in. My new supplier offered to carry the product, but this was an optimal product to try something with.

So the Tattoo Inventory Experiment was born. I basically bought a bunch of temporary tattoos from the manufacturer of them and send them out from my house.
Since the tattoos are extremely light and thin, I can keep tons of them without a lot of space. They also sell for over a dollar a piece plus shipping, but cost me only a few cents each.

My 'warehouse' is an old shoe box, my 'storage racks' are just labeled envelopes, and my 'shipping department' is a box of envelopes and some stamps. Basically a mini-business in a box!

So when I get an order which includes a temporary tattoo, I simply write out the customers address on the envelope, insert the tattoo, slap on a stamp and send it from the mailbox at my house.

Getting into the real nitty-gritty numbers of the order costs:

--Cost per tattoo: $0.20
--Cost per envelope: $0.02
--Cost per Stamp: $0.39
--Total Cost for One Tattoo Shipped: $0.61

HoR automatically adds a standard shipping fee to the price of the tattoo, so usually people order other items plus a tattoo. Perhaps I should make it really cheap if someone orders only the tattoos. This way I can entice more buyers who simply want the tattoo and nothing else from the site.

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The next step was uploading all the new tattoos to House Of Rave and create product photos. This went relatively quickly since it's all the same type of product. Photoshop editing took the longest.

All the final tattoo images can be seen on the temporary tattoo page.

Setting up this whole thing took me about one day. The total cost for everything was $60. So far I've already sent out a few tattoos via this method. It's not the most professional way of sending a product (the tattoos arrive to the customer in a hand-written envelope with no packing slip) but it's just a small experiment. Of the 200+ tattoos I have in 'the warehouse' I only need to sell about 30 or 50 of them to break even.

Managing my 'warehouse' in a shoebox is easy, but if I had larger products and THOUSANDS of them, it would be a nightmare!

Labels: eCommerce, house of rave, inventory control, Money Experiments

When I was in high school, EVERYONE had started a "Web design company" at one point.

It's such a simple way of making money that seems to have been lost in all the talk of "AJAX" and "user generated content." Web design is simple. You make a website, someone pays you...done.

A lot of people are caught up in this Web 2.0 mentality crap where you create a massively popular social website or widget, then start making money somewhere down the line. The chances of success in this case are astronomically slim. People also get caught up trying to start some lame business which I think Ramit explains very nicely.

I have never learned how to program or even fully use HTML, but thanks to Frontpage, Dreamweaver, Wordpress etc. you don't really have to know too much detail. Any kid with some simple web design experience can make good money like this.

I used to utilize a guerilla marketing method for web design, and it would bring in pretty good cash for a relatively simple service. Nowadays with content management systems, CSS and all that other dynamic content stuff, it's easier than ever.

Here is an example of what I would do:

1.) Find restaurants /businesses with no webpage. CitySearch.com is a great place to start. I generally focused on restaurants at the time.

2.) Scope out the restaurant and obtain one of their menu's.

3.) Buy a domain name with the restaurants name in it.

4.) Design and host their website, including their full menu and some pictures, information about the restaurant etc..

5.) When finished with the website (They still don't even know I've done this)...Contact the person in charge of the restaurant.

6.) Give them the one line sales pitch......"If you like www.TheirWebsite.com, pay me $XXX.XX and $XX.XX for hosting."

Charging $15/month for hosting would often make me more money than the actual webpage over a few years.

7.) COLLECT CASH.

Designing an entire custom webpage for someone who may not buy is just crazy, so to streamline the process I made a templated page that could be outfitted with a different name for each different restaurant. Just change the name, contact info, opening/closing times etc. and I was done.

Nowadays you can go to

www.TemplateMonster.com and just pick out a fantastically designed web page specific to your field (Real estate, restaurants...) for less than $50 and outfit it with the business name and content....EASY! Like this...

THE BEST PART is this method can be used with mechanic shops, restaurants, lawyers, law firms, dentists, doctors, retail stores, real estate agents...you name it. MOST small businesses don't always need a crazily complicated website. They often just want SOME online presence to state their location, contact information, rates, menu, open hours and such.

This way of getting web design contracts is MUCH easier than putting out ads on Craigslist or hunting for business....because the webpage is ALREADY made, meaning the buyer sees it, likes most of it...and only minor changes are generally made.....and if they want more changes, then you charge them accordingly. You can upsell services such as search engine optimization, hosting, custom design, changes. This method of selling also doesn't require you to have an established portfolio of websites.

If the owner totally rejects the offer, ohh well....the only thing lost was $9 for the domain name and a few hours of work (if even). I'd say I had over an 80% success rate selling websites like this.

Essentially this is very simple web design, but it's ACTIVE SELLING rather than passive.

-----------------------

Instead of trying to jump straight to opening an online retail store or some other scheme to make money online, this is a GREAT way for someone young or old to get started, and you will learn tons along the way.

Labels: eCommerce, Money Experiments

I’m in Vegas right now, and looking for some sort of money experiment to perform.

I’ll give it a $200 budget (Courtesy of Interest.com)

There’s tons of little gambling experiments I can do, but I want something relatively unique or fun.

-Two spins of $100 on black?
-Couple pulls of the high stakes slots machines?
-200 $1 slot machine pulls?
-Sports bet?
-Quick go at the high stakes tables?
-?????

I need ideas!

Labels: Money Experiments

I've spent thousands upon thousands of dollars on speeding tickets, parking tickets, defensive driving, deferred adjudication etc. over the years...pretty much wasted money.

I've heard a million different people tell me about ways to weasel out of a ticket, and with the latest ticket I got this week, I'm going to give it a try.

I was caught doing 15 mph over the limit in a speed trap, meaning one officer clocked my speed, then another one pulled me over.


What I've heard over and over but without any FIRST PERSON EVIDENCE is that you contest the ticket, and if the officers don't show, the ticket is dismissed. I've heard this is typically what lawyers do to get tickets dismissed...if the officer shows up for the hearing, they reschedule up to three times until the officer is unavailable on one of the three occasions. I figure

I could give this a try instead of immediately having to pay $300+ for the deferred adjudication process. If I'm not completely mistaken, this is the way I think the Texas traffic system works:

I'll test my luck with this because there were TWO officers involved....meaning if both don't show up, the ticket gets dismissed......I think.

I've already taken defensive driving once this year, so my only option is doing deferred adjudication which means not getting a ticket for 6-12 months....or else you pay for BOTH tickets. You still have to pay a fee for the "privilege" of going on D.A. and another fee when you complete it.

One of my concerns is knowing how the officers have shown up. Do I wait in the courtroom, wait till I see them both, then just leave? The court isn't far from me, so I might go do a little recon work first and sit in on some trials, maybe speak to a few lawyers about their methods.

I want to find out once and for all if this is actually a viable (although time consuming) method of getting a ticket dismissed!

Labels: Money Experiments

I've seen people do this all day, charge up to $40 per painting and do whole neighborhoods:
Re-painting the address numbers on curbs of houses.

I always thought this was a cool and easy way to make some extra money, but I've never given it a try. So in some spare time this week I bought some plastic stencils (About $8) and some black/white outdoor spray paint (About $10) and decided to see how hard it could be.

I took the materials outside and gave it a rough shot on some newspaper:

It was a little messy, and I had to end up cutting the stencils apart, but my first painting came out alright. Not perfect, but alright.

I then started using tape to seal any loose areas of the stencils together, and I successfully made a semi-neat spray of the numbers. This isn't hard stuff, but it takes a little trial and error testing.

I've seen lots of neighborhoods around Austin where I couldn't find a house because of the lack of address numbers, think of what would happen if a police car or ambulance couldn't find your house number.

Perhaps in the next few weeks I'll give this a shot. I tried it out on some old curbage at my apartment complex, and it turned out decent....very rough....but nothing a little practice won't clean up.

This would be an awesome way to make a good $100+ a day for a couple of high school kids or Boy Scouts. I think I'd actually like to try it myself though. I haven't had any door-to-door selling experience in over 4 years, and I kind of want to do it again.

It seems everyone nowadays is talking about "Making money doing nothing" .....which is great....but making money from good old manual labor is sometimes very rewarding!

Labels: Events, Money Experiments

Over the years I've become pretty good at search engine optimization.

I proved this in my last google experiment where I successfully dominated the keyword "Starbucks Liquor." To get where I am, I continously do Google Experiments...just to stay up-to-date.

The challenge is to get ranked high on common and saught-after keywords such as "Business". I've become an expert at ranking #1 in less common keywords, thanks to this I've never had to pay for advertising on some of my businesses. That has always been a HUGE money saver.

To further hone my knowledge of how Google works, I am doing another experiment. For some reason I want to pick on Herb Kelleher, the founder of Southwest Airlines. I met the guy as seen here:

I detailed how I met him in this post about a corporate governance conference.

My goal for this experiment is to see if NevBlog can place #1 when someone Googles in the keyword "Herb Kelleher" or "Founder of Southwest Airlines"

I'll be timing this experiment, and hopefully I will learn something new along the way.
-Nev

Labels: Money Experiments

Traffic has been such a problematic phenomenon in this country, but there have been few steps to prevent it. I want to change that.

I have long been interested in a project to get rid of useless traffic buildup on a stretch of I-35 that causes all the traffic by Downtown Austin. I've had a proposal and demonstration ready for years, but never carried through with it. I'm not doing this as a money-making venture just yet, it's just something that interests me. If it works, who knows what may follow.

A quick synopsis of the experiment:

Traffic is usually "stop and go" during rush hour, causing slowdowns, unnecessary gas usage and frustration. It generally looks something like:










The Solution:
As one car stops, the car behind it stops and so forth, creating a "Traffic Wave." To "eat" this traffic wave, simply place a slower moving vehicle that leaves plenty of space in front of it in all lanes, much like large trucks do. This effectively regulates the speed of traffic and eliminates the "stop and go" action. It also allows time for the traffic wave to be eaten. The regulating cars should theoretically create smoothly flowing lines of traffic behind them.

I got permission to take a couple of pictures and observe I-35 from three adjacent buildings: The Marriott, the Austin Municipal Water Works building and The Crowne Plaza Hotel.

All three buildings had great views of I-35, but the Marriot and Crowne Plaza offered the best view of the particular sections that cause the most buildup:

The best part about this little trip was the free stuff. Both the Crowne Plaza and Marriott were hosting business events, so I walked in like I belonged, grabbed some free food and a bottle of Sprite and walked out. I had a free lunch that day.

You can view a more complete proposal at:
http://www.nevblog.com/images/traffic/i35.html
Credit must be given to William Beaty for research and animations. Original Work

I will further pursue this experiment in my spare time. I've already done the experiment with friends and IT WORKS. Now I have to videotape it in action and convince law makers to pass legislation on it.
-----------------------------------------------

On a more financial note,
I've started trying to build up my spending account for next week as it will be pretty expensive. I plan to do a lot of wining/dining, boating, 6th-Streeting, 4th-Streeting and traveling that weekend. I've gone into super-cheap mode in order to have sufficient funds available for the weekend.

Labels: Money Experiments

The Alamo Apprentice event held by my Texas Entrepreneurs team, the Profiteers, went even better than expected.

We sold out the entire theater in no time and maxed it out till the fire code allowed, and set a RECORD IN FOOD/DRINK sales! We also sold movie prop bags for $8 each which sold out in no time also. The SouthPark Singalong was a HUGE success thanks to our great team.

The entire point of the Alamo Apprentice competition was to maximize our revenue, and we did that with flying colors over the opposing team. The lowest grossing waiter at our event sold 1/3rd MORE food and drink than the ENTIRE staff at the opposing teams event held yesterday!

Needless to say, I think our team won. We also had a very vibrant team which provided tons of great footage for the Alamo Apprentice movie being shown on April 30th. I turned myself into a walking billboard to advertise the event, and wore an afro wig just to gain more attention, but in the end it didn't matter since we already had a sold out show.

This event provided real life experience (and tons of fun) that cannot be taught in a classroom. Texas Entrepreneurs will get 50% of the revenue generated from our event. The other team has to wash dishes.

Checkout a small video of our event. (Download Here. 2.4 MB). Warning: There is some foul language in the video. You had to be there to understand how much fun the audience was having!

Labels: Events, Money Experiments

I'm involved with a group called Texas Entrepreneurs which is hosting an event: The Alamo Apprentice.

The owner of the Alamo Drafthouse (A highly successful chain of movie theaters that serve food/drinks during movies), Tim League, is acting as "The Donald" and each team is overlooked by either "Caryn" or "George"

Texas Entrepreneurs has split up into two groups, each with the goal of making more money in one night than the other. All meetings, events, boardroom meetings and shows are filmed at all times. There will be a movie made out of this and will show at the Alamo Drafthouse on April 30th.

I am on the team: The Profiteers

Our event is tomorrow. We will be hosting a SouthPark Movie Singalong (the craziest things make the most money at the Alamo Drafthouse). We are expecting a full house. Profits will come from ticket sales, props sales(for use during the movie), drink sales and food sales.

Yesterday, the opposing team (Dishwasher Productions) held their event which featured live music, comedians and a movie. We decided to sabotage them.
We scored 20 free pizzas from Gumby's Pizza, 250 wings from Plucker's, and gave out all the free food any ticket-holder could eat! This effectively reduced their food sales. Ruthless.

Today is our big event!

Labels: Events, Money Experiments

Purpose of Experiment: To prove my make money with no money business ideas can work.

Hypothesis: It is possible to take less than $10 in startup capital and make money.

Experiment: Buy a 24-pack of bottled water and sell it on the side of the road. Possibly utilize the labor of pan-handlers.

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Step 1:
I went to my local H.E.B. grocery store the previous night of the experiment and purchased a 24-pack of Dasani water for $5.99.



I put the water in the fridge overnight to let it chill.




Step 2:
Quick Research.
On the way to a party, I stopped to ask a bum what would happen if I sold water by the highway alongside other bums, and it didn't seem like a pretty picture. He told me, "You are a rich college student, and the guy at the corner is trying to get a meal, the hungry guy won't be too happy with you."

To get around this, I wanted to partner with one of the regular bums who knows the in's and out's of panhandling. I made an agreement to meet at 3:00pm with this guy, William Austin to sell bottled water with me. I told him whether we sold all the water or not, I would give him $10 for his help.

The picture didn't come out so well, but in person he was all smiles and very jovial.

I also didn't want to get arrested or fined. A few nights ago I stopped to ask two very courteous police officers what they would do if they saw me selling water without a permit. One replied, "I can't speak for every officer, but personally I wouldn't bother you unless you start causing problems."

So I now had a partner and no real threat of legal action. The experiment was on for 3:00pm on Sunday Afternoon!


Step 3:
An hour before the experiment I bought two bags of ice for $1.29 each. I packed the ice and water into a cooler.



I could only fit 15 bottles in my cooler, so I improvised and put the remaining 8 bottles directly into the ice bags with ice. I then double wrapped them with clean garbage bags for easy carrying.




Step 4:
Withdrew $20 in case I needed change and to pay my partner.


Step 5:
I made this nifty "Water $1" t-shirt by taking on old shirt, turning it inside out (it had a logo on the front) and using a permanent marker to write on it.

I had a feeling this little gimmick would work very well.


Step 6:
Went out to go SELL SOME WATER. I went to look for William Austin at 3:00pm by the local Blockbuster like we agreed. When he didn't show up I asked another bum to show me where he lived. I found him under a bridge, red-eyed and looking extremely tired. He hardly remembered who I was and said he had to cancel on me.



Step 7:
A bit disappointed, I went alone to the highly trafficked intersection of I-35 and Riverside Drive. There I met a bum named Barry:

I've seen Barry before. He is one of the bums that holds funny signs like, "I gave up caviar for Lent" and "I need new wheels for my limo"

I told Barry about my water experiment, and promised to give him $10 for an hour of his time/expertise, regardless of how many bottles he sold. He was more than happy to help. We shook on the deal and became instant business partners!



Step 8:
START SELLING. Barry knew a little about water selling. He told me to hold three bottles at once and start walking down the idle lanes of traffic yelling "Water Water!" Barry put the "Water $1" shirt on and started selling water like a champ! I stood on a different corner in my plain clothes and started selling. My first sale came within 6 seconds of starting (and it was a $2.00 sale!)





In less than 30 mintues we sold all 24 bottles.

Click HERE to see a video of Barry in action. (1 MB video)

Click HERE to see our progress after about 25 minutes. (1.5 MB video)



Step 9:
Tabulate results:


BOTTLES SOLD:
Me: 14 Bottles
Barry: 10 Bottles

So to make a better profit, one would need to: Preferably perform the experiment by themselves, buy cheaper water, buy only one bag of ice instead of two, buy more than 24 bottles.


CONCLUSION: Selling bottled water can be much more lucrative than sitting on your couch on a lazy afternoon!



UPDATE: Bottled Water Experiment Part 2

Labels: Money Experiments