A business I can get behind

So I finally decided that I'm going to open a small online store selling things that would be useful in the dorm rooms. I'm working on a list of items right now, and now I need to find vendors. This will not be fun, but it's necessary. I figure the people I'm targeting with this blog would be likely to buy some of these things, and since I'll be going for low margin high turnover (VERY risky for a small business) I'll need to get word out. However, with low overhead, I won't be out too fast if it fails, since I'm not paying any sort of monthly fee. My goal is to make $5 in the first month, $20 in the second month, and $60 in the third. I think this is all plausible, and that's profit numbers.

Any tips? Anyone out there know a good way to find vendors. I know Neville from his financial blog has houseofrave.com and he doesn't even keep most of that stuff in stock, just handles the orders. Maybe I'll try to ask him how he got his vendors in line. Ha, he runs one of the most popular financial blogs out there, and I want him to answer my question...think he'll respond.

Well that's all for now, just wanted to let everyone know what I'm up to. Short one. Hopefully next time I post I'll have some sort of store going.

Experiment 2: Can you make money on Lottery Tickets?

This one was for 7-7-07. I'm still working on Experiment 1, but I was reading Neville's Financial Blog (www.nevblog.com) and I saw an experiment he had (http://www.nevblog.com/2005/03/lottery-experiment-itch-to-scratch.html)

I decided to try my own experiment in honor of the date. I went to a local grocery store and purchased one type of lottery ticket, all at this one business. I spent $53 on one type of $1 ticket alone.

I also bought a "7-7-07" ticket, just because I had to. I then purchased one each of the other $1 games, and 3 other $5 games. I scratched off all the tickets, and just as Neville indicated, it is not as much fun to scratch off all these tickets as you would think. Before midnight struck, I finished scratching all the tickets. I won mostly $1 prizes, with the big winner being $10. I was disappointed; a few of my friends did this with me and the rule was: if any of us hit it big and won $1000+ they would pay the others to make them even for the day.

So in the end, I spent $77 on lottery tickets on 7-7-07. Gotta be lucky right? Wrong. I ended up winning $32 back from the money, which was ok because I was ready to lose all $77.

The Winners

So when all was said and done, I spent $45 on entertainment. Since we did this in lieu of going to the track to bet on horses, or the casino, I consider this a win. I will get $32 back; if I had gone to one of those places, I probably would have lost all $77, since the $32 would have been regambled.

$1 Winners:12
$5 Winners:2
$10 Winners:1
Total Winnings:$32
Total Spent: $77
Win/Loss: -$45
Entertainment Cost:$45
Net Gain/Loss:$0

Ok, so that might be stretching it, but the first numbers are right. Here's my conclusion: You can do this experiment, and unless you get lucky, you will lose about 3 dollars of every 4 spent. If it's worth it, do it, if you feel lucky, go for it. I was just doing this because I couldn't make it to the casino or track.


By the way, I was told by my friend who used to cash lotto tickets "Scratch off the ticket to show the little box with four numbers in it, it makes it easier and faster for the cashier to cash it"


Enjoy the rest of your weekend!