There’s a lot of buzz this week surrounding Facebook’s Initial Public Offering, and for good reason. Facebook has become another in a growing list of companies that are making millionaires out of every day people who happened to be there in the beginning. Pay attention because there are more doors opening daily. You just have to know where to look.
I’ve spent years helping start-ups, not only with web design, but with planning and consulting. Over the years, I’ve learned several ways to get in early on start-ups like Facebook and I have ownership in a lot of companies. Below is some of what I’ve put into practice.
Earn Shares Socially
One of the really easy ways to get in on the ground floor is to earn shares in a company by way of social media promotion. My busy schedule and lack of time has kept me from making one of my ideas a reality, but thankfully, someone else has done it instead. The idea was to create a site that brings new start-ups together with social marketers to generate buzz for the start-up in exchange for stake in the company that the social marketers would split. Wahooly is trying to do just that. This week, they opened up in beta to 20,000 users and 4 start-ups, promising to pair them up in the relationship I envisioned. This will be one to watch for sure.
Zurker offers what I wish Facebook or Twitter had in the early years. Basically, they’re doing for themselves what Wahooly offers to do, just without the middle man. Zurker is a start-up social network that aims to compete directly with Facebook for your updates and daily loyalty. In an effort to grow their user base virally, they’re offering vShares for referrals. Unlike actual stock shares or options, vShares are a virtual representation of your right to equity in the company if they ever get big enough. You have to have a little faith here, but the payout may be worth it.
Become An Owner In A Product
When you go offline and walk into a store, have you ever wondered who invented the product you just bought? One of my favorite new companies in recent years is Quirky. It’s a platform for inventors, thinkers, and designers to see their ideas and designs come to life in the form of real-world products. Quirky guides the invention process all the way through to a completed product that they then get on the shelves of big box stores like Target and Bed Bath & Beyond. Right now, those stores and others have products on the shelves that I’m getting checks for about every month. If you are creative, check it out but like other ways to earn, be ready to wait a while for that first notable check.
Other Ways To Earn
If you’re in a position to do it, consider taking shares instead of (or as part of) payment for goods and services. Web developers, printers, artists, and anyone who can help growing (and sometimes broke) start-ups save a few bucks can often walk away with shares that have the potential for millions of dollars down the road.
This is better when you really believe in the company and its future, but can be a good idea even if you don’t. A great example is David Choe, the graffiti artist who could be worth $200 million when Facebooks IPO hits. In 2005, when Facebook was still limited to students and relatively a small player, Choe came in to create art and opted for a small stake in the company rather than payment. Even though he reportedly didn’t think much of the Facebook concept, he’s going to reap substantial rewards from its success.
Many companies will pay (in options, often) for your expertise as well. If you can call yourself an expert in anything, leverage your unique experience and knowledge and offer to consult for a related company in exchange for shares or options. The more you help, the more your shares may be worth in the end and everyone wins.
The Waiting Game
Taking ownership in a product or start-up will not make anyone rich over night. David Choe, mentioned above, was once homeless between his work for Facebook and the great position he’s in today. Employees of Google spent years working hard before becoming IPO millionaires. If you need the money now, do things that will earn you money, but if you opt for shares in a company, be prepared to wait for years before your ship comes in.
Conclusions
Even the busiest of people end up with free time spent chatting or playing games on Facebook. If you had an free hour every day (after work and family, of course), would you give it up for a small chance that it could turn into a large profit one day? If so, try some of the things above and report back in a few years.
Are you doing any of this already or is there anything I missed? I’d love to hear your input in the comments below.
As I filled up my gas tank the other day, I was saddened that the reliably cheapest gas station near my office had gone up ten cents since my last refill and people were still lined up waiting for an open pump. This was not a good sign. Sure enough, prices had gone up all over town. Some people are calling it a fuel crisis, but whatever it is, it’s getting expensive. With prices expected to go up considerably more through the beginning of summer, there are ways to save a lot of money on your fuel spending that you might not be aware of.
While some people drive around looking for the cheapest gas, even going as far as using their passenger as a price spotter, I’ve found a better way. It’s more efficient, less frustrating, and the bottom line is that it will save more money. I check my GasBuddy iPhone app before I even start the car. The GasBuddy app is available for the Android and Windows smartphones, too. If you don’t have a smartphone, you can look up the best prices near you on GasBuddy.com. Depending on the size of your tank, you could save $2 to $5 right at the pump. Personally, I like the app over the site. It’s very compact and simple. In no time, I have the closest prices and don’t even need to be near a computer.
GasBuddy.com has a ton of fuel-related tools and information on the website, too. One frightening example is the US Gas Prices Heat Map, which shows the gas prices as colors on a US map. Clearly California’s higher gas tax has a visible impact on the prices in that state.
Shop Online First
I’ve found myself wanting to buy things in stores (especially electronic gadgety goodness) because I could have those things right away even if it was cheaper to buy online. More than ever, buying online can save you a few bucks compared to driving to the mall and back. Sometimes it’s just cheaper and these days, what you buy online often arrives pretty quickly in your mailbox. Have it shipped to your work and you won’t have to drive to UPS, FedEX, or your post office to pick up a missed delivery.
Sure, some stuff is cheaper in the store, so the gas savings realized by shopping online aren’t really a savings, but is it in stock? I don’t know how many times I’ve driven to the store with a specific need, only to find it was out of stock. Shop online for the best price and call the store to verify stock of those needed items before heading out. The fastest, thus my favorite, online shopping is Amazon.com, eBay, and a simple Google search. I’ll have another post up soon on ways to save money shopping online at various sites, so watch for that.
Plan Your Driving
Above, I pointed out the benefit of knowing if something is in stock before driving to buy it. This helps because it reduces unnecessary driving. Another way to cut down on wasted miles is to plan out your trips. Obviously, if you have to visit two different places in North Phoenix this weekend and one in South Phoenix, you’re probably already planning to make both North Phoenix stops while on that side of town, but are you thinking this way for smaller trips? Maybe you can get shopping done near the place you get your hair cut. Is a your bank in the same store? Plan your activities and get things done more efficiently. Not only will this save you gas, but it will save you time and put less wear on your car.
Know Your Fuel Efficiency
When you bought your car, I’m sure it indicated the Miles Per Gallon as a range, rather than just a solid number. This is because there are ways to get the most mileage out of your car. You may have heard a few tales of fuel efficiency already. They range from making only right-hand turns (which Myth Busters even tested) to the speed at which you drive. One of the more widely known factors in fuel consumption is highway versus city street driving. Try different things and figure out what works for you. If you want to make it easy, try a tool like EconoDriver, which monitors your driving and fuel consumption and tells you how you’re doing.
More Ways To Save Money On Gas
I’m sure there’s even more ways to save money on your gas that I haven’t covered here. The best way to find them is to think about things you do that involve driving and any other factors that contribute to your use of or spending on gas. I’d love to hear any tips you have on saving your gas money. If you have one, share it in the comments.
This is a sponsored post written by me on behalf of RecycleMobilePhones.co.uk. All opinions are 100% mine.
The mobile phone market is just nuts. Every time you turn around, there’s a new phone launching that promises to be faster, sleeker, cooler, or smarter than the phone you have now, and half the time, it is. Sometimes, we even let our geek lust get to us and run out and buy the latest and greatest phone, often leaving our old phone to collect dust in a drawer. Those of us ambitious enough might even try our luck at ebay, but there’s a better way.
RecycleMobilePhones.co.uk is a site that makes it easy for you to not only find out what you can get for your old mobile phone, but it makes the whole mobile phone recycling process pretty easy.
Why You Should Recycle Your Mobile Phone
There are a number of things you can do with an old phone when you upgrade to a new one. You could give the old phone to a friend or family member or turn it in at some mobile phone stores to be recycled. You try an online classified ad site like Craigs List or an auction site like ebay to get some money out of the phone, but you never know what you’ll get for it or if it will sell at all. I’ve done both with very mixed results. The number one reason to try a site like this is to know how much you’ll get for your old phone and that it will sell without having to worry about it. You also can avoid worrying about someone actually paying after the phone is purchased. When you sell to one of these companies, payment is usually pretty quick.
How Does It Work
The process is about as simple as you might expect it to be. You start out by searching for your phone with the prominent search box on the home page. This is a predictive search, which means that it starts bringing back suggested phones as you type. I love this because you can find my phone faster, especially if it’s one whose spelling you are unsure of. Once you’ve searched for and found your phone, you get a list of potential buyers. These are mobile phone recycling companies like Mazuma Mobile that will make you an offer for your phone. This offer is usually in a cash amount, but may also be in trade-in points or some other virtual currency or vouchers. The list defaults to showing the highest values at the top. Select a buyer and you get forwarded out to their site to initiate the sale. Just confirm the phone you’re selling and they’ll usually provide you with a means to ship it to them for free. Send it out and wait for the delivery confirmation and payment.
The steps to get your phone sold are pretty straight forward and simple, but there’s one boring step I’d suggest as well. Like many sites, these sites have terms and conditions you need to agree to in order to sell your phone. This is a transaction involving money, usually, and depending on the phone, it could be a decent amount of money. You should always read through the terms before agreeing to them.
Conclusions
RecycleMobilePhones.co.uk is a very clean site. It’s put together well and is incredibly easy to use. The trade-off is that there’s just one or two teeny tiny features I didn’t find that might be nice like the ability to sort search results by clicking a column header. The up side is that the search is so well done that sorting is really not needed, anyway. While I don’t know of every mobile phone buying site out there, RecycleMobilePhones.co.uk seems to have lined up enough of them to get the job done and the amount I could get for my iPhone seems more than reasonable. In short, I give the site two thumbs up and would certainly use it if the opportunity presented itself (and you know it will). Book mark it and you’ll have the perfect solution for your old phone next time you upgrade.
