How do I want my life to be in the coming years? I feel very privileged to be able to think about this. I’m very grateful! 🙂
Business
I want to expand my rings. I want to be #1. At least #2 if not #1. I want to have more styles than other brands, so that my customers don’t ever have to shop other brands. I want to have a great following, because we are an awesome brand providing awesome products and customer support.
I want to expand to Canada. Possibly UK and Germany. (Currently the monthly google searches on silicone wedding rings and qalo are: 190, 90, and 40, compared to 14,000 in USA)
I estimate selling 300 rings a day by end of 2016. That’s about $2.2MM revenue, and $1.53MM profit. Pre tax. Maybe $1.1MM take home.
I will expand to more brands and product lines:
Travel Towels – estimated to bring in $10K profit per month the first year, then $30K per month in 2016
Period Panties – estimated to bring in $10K profit per month the first year, then $60K per month in 2017.
Umbrella and rain boots, or bedding – estimated to bring in $20K profit per mont the first year, then $40K per month in 2017.
If I launch all these projects successfully, I can expect $256K per month (profit) in 2017, which is about $3MM. Probably $2MM take home.
Hard to visualize right now..but other people have done it. Other people have done better than this even.
I need to get 2 successful projects going, then I can be more confident about my ability to thrive in this business model.
The silicone rings are a relatively easy one. I’m lucky to have it as my first product. I think for the future products I’ll need to learn more about marketing.
In fact, if I do more aggressive marketing right now, and bring lots of traffic to my listing (once I have more ring variations), there’s no reason why I wouldn’t get to ranking #2, selling 60 men’s rings per day, and 40 women’s rings per day. (That’s $42K profit per month).
Adventures and Lifestyle
I like living here in Vancouver, especially in the summer. I like visiting Victoria too. The weather is perfect, the standard of living is bar none. Most of my friends are here.
I don’t have a great desire right now to vagabond.
But I bet when the rainy season starts, I’ll want to get out of here. The question is, where and how long and why?
I want to get stimulated. I want to be with other entrepreneurs. I want to be with adventurous minds, bright minds, big minds, unusual minds. Why? Because they help me expand. If they are having bigger or similar success, I want to absorb it. I want to learn from them. I want to become more successful. I want to be on that team that knows what’s going on and what’s to come.
I’ve been saying that I want to vagabond, travelling from place to place every 3 to 6 months. But really, I’m not sure if I truly want that still. At least, not yet. I want to build my business. I want to grow it. I can live in Asia for half a year if it helps with my business. Otherwise, it’s a big hassle to move, settle, learn the language, and make new friends.
I think I’d rather go on a vacation for 3 to 4 weeks, and the rest of the time, be around people I want to be influenced by. Plus spending some time with mom and dad.
The new friends I want to make the most are successful entrepreneurs. The young backpackers are not that interesting to me to befriend.
So where are these entrepreneurs? I think they are scattered all over the world, and they are mostly lonely. People like Chris Gutherie, Brian Leyede, Matt Clark, Jason Fladlien….how did they find one another?
1. I think they do attend social gathering / meetups
2. I think they have accomplished things. Having achieved success makes you more credible and lends you respect.
A quick research showed that Chiang Mai is a great place to be. Cheap cost of living, great weather. BUT, I save more living with mom, and Chiang Mai is far from Southern Thailand! It’s hard to get to the islands from there.
The entrepreneur scene doesn’t seem very bustling to be honest. Vancouver is quite bustling in comparison. Maybe it’s because those that are in Thailand are not like the ones in Vancouver; they are more seasoned, subdued, and know what they’re doing?
Top 5 Entrepreneur Cities:
Top 5: Best cities to live as a bootstrapping young entrepreneur
Comparison between cost of living in Chiang Mai and Davao City:
http://www.numbeo.com/cost-of-living/compare_cities.jsp?country1=Philippines&city1=Davao&country2=Thailand&city2=Chiang+Mai
The really focused entrepreneurs, the really successful ones, probably aren’t playing around in Asia. They are probably busy networking and raising capitals in the US.
Who am I? Where do I belong?
I’ve been having the messiest sleep cycles and the most distracted days. I don’t know who I am. I think I may have an identity crisis.
It’s a good thing though. The main reason for having this “crisis” is because I’m making money now! How great is that! I get to play in a new league, I think.
Health
Family
Friends
I want new friends, because my current top friends are either away or are just not the best influence:
Cyndi – away in New York. One of my few funny friends, who is also kind, generous, reliable. She is quite great.
Nicole – dumb, unambitious, and delusional. Fusses about the smallest things. Boring. I know she is kind, generous, reliable, and not very judging. Those are the only reasons why I keep her around right now. She has been going no where in life and done nothing the past 5 years.
Vanessa and Anthony – kind, nice, steady, generous, reliable. Sometimes very funny. A bit boring sometimes, not very wild. Has very uncool friends for the most part. I like Karolina and Victor though. I like that Vanessa is driven and going upward in life too.
Cat – never thought she’d be a top friend of mine. She is not a bad friend. She can be boring for the most part, but she can say some wise things sometimes. Also she is not judging. I like that she is working towards her goal.
Summer – not really a top friend, but a good friend. She is generous, pretty sincere, and keeps in touch. Just that she talks about herself a lot and she is so cliche often times. Her comments are so predictable. She seems so fake even when she isn’t.
Deeann – kind, sincere, and sometimes funny. She is a bit gossipy but overall a good friend. Sometimes she seems overly polite and I don’t get her.
Lea – not yet a good friend but probably will be down the road. She is very sweet. Sincere, and sometimes funny. Her typing is horrendous….we don’t know why yet. She seems reserved, but sometimes she’ll do something unexpected, like starting a Seattle support group.
Midori – could be a good friend.
Ty – would love to be his friend. Dunno why he never was interested in being my friend. He is funny, creative, and we are in many ways so similar. We both like sci-fi, we both like parkour (the idea of it anyway), and we both like brain stuff.
Ryan – funny, smart, creative. Could be annoyingly self-centred, but also sexy. Too sexy to be a friend.
Norm – nice to have as a friend. Smart, and has curbed many annoying traits. He is not very judging now, and rather positive, and rather considerate. He is a top friend, but, he recently got a gf so he might fall off the radar.
Angela – nice, but never could be a good friend. She is missing something. Also, she is prettier/younger which makes me feel ugly.
Boyfriend and Sex