New guy in the neighborhood

russb

Hey everyone!
I am the new guy around here, but not for too long. My name Russ and I am an aspiring entrepreneur. I am currently a Staff Sergeant in the US Air Force with 2 years left to serve. Since I was a kid, I always had this obsession with working for myself. I tried working minimum wage, then the military, but nothing has really given me the freedom and adaptability that entrepreneurship gives you.
My goals are financial freedom with passive income by the time I am 35, which is 10 years from now. I want to stop working entirely (or mostly) and live life according to me by then. I think 10 years is an attainable goal.
I am working on my first startup, which is a "Santa Letter"-esque business. That`s the closest thing I can figure it to be. Anyway, I don`t expect millions and I doing this for fun and for the experience. Mainly to learn without large risk. It`s based off something from my past, that I feel I can capitalize on that worked!
I hope to get to know some of you down the road, and learn from what the community has to offer here. I am excited about taking my life back and making something of my own. Thanks!

stonesledge

Hi Russ,
 
Welcome to SUN. I hope that you reach your Goal.How will your business work? What type of letters will you be offering? I would love to hear more.
 
Erin

russb

Hey  Erin!
I tried to message you about more info on my endeavor, but I seem to get some "SERVER ERROR in `/NET_ROOT` Application" message on all the PCs I try on. Weird.
Russ

Christina

Hi and welcome Russ I was having a similar problem with my messages earlier. I sent an email about it, so hopefully will hear something on it soon.
In the meantime, feel free to post more information about your business, here.

russb

Well, my business comes from an old trick my mom used when I was a kid, especially in the last quarter of the year. Knowing well that I believed in Santa then, and the fact that I was admittedly not the greatest behaving kid too, she would have a letter sent to the house from the North Pole that warned me of my actions. Now, it wasn`t a mean letter, and in fact it actually made me think of the consequences (which then was not getting something under the tree!). It usually opened up with something official sounding, another paragraph describing what I did wrong and the consequences of being on the "naught list", and the last one was full of positive reinforcement for change.
 
My business is designed to provide parents, like my mom, customized letters like those I used to receive as a kid It is a fun little educational dive into entrepreneurship, but also something I believe can be useful for parents that subscribe into the spirit of Santa with their children. The traditional Santa letters do quite well, most smaller companies offering letters for $10 and selling anywhere between 3,000 and 5,000 letters a year. I think I can achieve those same numbers, if not more. I have some aces in my pocket as far as reaching my target market that I hope to capitalize on too.
 
I rambled on, but that is gist of what I am planning on getting into. I am separating from the military in the next couple years and would like to transition to entrepreneurship instead of working for someone else. Right now I am in the logistics phase of my business, and hope to up and running next year.
 
Thanks for listening!