Financing - How are you coming up with the money? Share your plans

[Matt Cheney]

This is probably the most difficult challenge for me. I'm not well-off, I own a business that breaks even, my credit stinks and I don't have any rich relatives.

I came up with a plan last night that just may work. The stock market is in the dumps, and investors are looking for new vehicles. I find an investor that can cover my living expenses in NYC, my family financial contribution and day care. In return, I pay him a fixed percentage of any money I earn over a set time period.

The idea is that he's betting on my future success. By spending six months with the worlds smartest marketer, the chances of me earning a good living increase dramatically. And if one of my ideas takes off, the investor makes out like a bandit.

The downside is that I have to give away future earnings that could be 10-100x the amount I borrowed. Another potential downside is that the investor may never re-coup his investment. I'm willing to risk a bunch of money I don't have, I just hope I find someone who believes I'm a worthy investment.

What are some of your ideas? How creative are you willing to get? What are you willing to give up? How are you making it happen?

[SusanVillasLewis]

Outside of the loss of income, has anyone actually calculated the cost? I'm thinking (providing I could get roomies) I could do this on a budget of $1K a month. Which would mean I wouldn't actually get to go to NY for a lot of fun things or go home ... at all. But the actual cost of doing it doesn't seem like that much. Am I totally off? (Because now would be the time for me to realize it. :-)

The money isn't the problem for me as much as the loss of 401K contributions, health insurance and time away from family. If it wasn't for the distance, there wouldn't be any question of being able to manage it for me. Aargh!

[Paul Pettengill]

You should be able to get Cobra for health insurance, and I'd definitely recommend that route. You don't want to be without health insurance and get sick, that would make your lost 401k look tiny.

Decent site offering Cobra
http://www.cobrainsurance.com/

Wiki on Cobra
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Consolidated_Omnibus_Budget_Reconcilia...

[Dave Kaiser]

This IS New York you are talking about. I think your estimate of $1K per month is low.

A few years ago I worked in Washington, D.C. I moved there from Florida and had anticipated the expenses for my family. Boy was my estimate LOW.

Expenses in big cities are high, and of course New York is one of the highest. I'm estimating minimum expenses of around $1,500 a month, and that is probably low.

[SusanVillasLewis]

Agreed. I live in a big city and while it's way more reasonable than NYC, things can still get expensive. However, I have no intention of being in New York City. I'm looking at Yonkers to live. Found a house there, three bedrooms with a yard, for $1400 a month. With roomies, that makes housing quite reasonable. Adding in utilities, etc. and I figure $600 a month a piece. $7 a week to take the train to Hastings, $5 a week for gas for other trips. And if I can't eat on $80 a week, I am one pathetically spoiled American. That makes $1k a month. I can only assume the high numbers others are coming up with are based on NYC apt rents rather than the more reasonably priced suburbs.

[Bob]

Since it's only 6 months, I think credit cards are a viable way of financing this. Very often you can get cards with low introductory rates for the first few months of even a year. I don't know how this is going with the current economy though.

Another tactic is to rack up a balance and then transfer the balance on a balance transfer offer that gives you a low or 0% rate for an initial period.

Not a great long term strategy but for only 6 months it's probably viable.

[Lincoln]

Lines of credit, bootstrapping, coupons, and couch surfing. we should actually think about this now and get something started. A type of fund that we can tap into before we get our feet under us. I know this is bein presumptuous, but its better to be safe than sorry.

[Mike]

Matt,

I had been thinking about something similar as far as investment from an "investor" of sorts. After thinking this Through I am of the mind that we could get a few of us to share some "meager" accommodations and live on the cheap for 6 months.

A little pooling together can go a long way... I am hopeful that after selection we all can get the group together and see who is game for it.

Just my 2 or 3 cents

[Jack Storey]

If we can get at least four people in on this who are selected (assuming they are willing) then we could make it a decently affordable trip. I mean, no sushi or anything, but we can rent something to sleep in, etc. Right now I'm all about sleeping in my car, eating whatever I can, and figuring out the rest as I go; there isn't enough time to come up with the finances traditionally so...I think banding together is going to be the only way to make it possible (if you're not already rich.)

[James D Kirk]

Like the rest of you, a lot of thoughts concerning the real world financing of this apprenticeship has been coursing through my head as well. Being an online developer with a wide range of experiences, my creativity tends to run in all things web/Internet related. Here's a series of thoughts that just might help more than one (or four) of us:

1. Most all of us applying have online presence. Either with our own blogs, web sites, various social media presence, etc. This all translates to advertising inventory.
2. We all know at minimum, 150 other people closely. Likely into the 1000's as it relates to online social contacts.
3. Whether you get chosen as an apprentice or not, clearly you are interested in seeing Seth's program succeed and the participants be able to make it to and through. So, what if,
4. Everyone in this Ning network, and all those that are applying (or should apply ;) ) agreed to "donate" ad units to the "cause"? Again, those ad units could be on your own sites/blogs or others you have control/influence with. Personally, I run a server and host sites for family and friends all the time. I alone (and I am sure I am not alone in this aspect) have roughly a dozen or so sites that have tons of ad inventory that could be donated.
5. Administering something like this would be as easy as setting up an install of OpenX ad server and the code to place ad units across this Tribe of Alternate-MBA supporters would be easy to install.
6. Next, all of us would not only place ad units in the sites they influence, but also make the pitch to those friends, family and associates that have online sites/presence. "Hey, could you put up one more ad unit on your site? This is the cause, why its important, and what you'll get out of it" (and what they would get is exposure into the ad network we're creating here, for a very reasonable rate"
7. Finally, anyone that was interested in supporting the cause could purchase some display ads, and have them appear across this network we're proposing.

Clearly, for something like this to work a lot of transparency would be required. The "recipients" would need to be open about their needs, costs associated, etc. But this could all be set up online and administered there. The operation could almost act as a foundation that provided grants to the participants that needed assistance with the necessities associated with participation.

What do those that do not get chosen to participate get out of helping with this proposed financial aid (if you will)? My hopes will be that the actual folks chosen as apprentices will be very open and communicative of what is happening during the 6 months. With the understanding that Seth has already indicated he doesn't want to set up a telecommute scenario, and there will likely be certain bits of info he'll not want made public, there will still be a lot that the participants should be able to share with the rest of us.

And to me, that would be worth the effort of setting all this up in order to help them make it to and through Seth Godin's Alternate MBA program!

[Lincoln]

James, I think this is a great idea. I was thinking about something very similar to this when I came across http://www.milliondollarhomepage.com/. The story behind the website was that a college student paid off his tuition, earning more than $1 million in revenue by selling 1 million pixels of internet ad space for $1 a piece.

In fact, I believe theres an open source script that lets you sell ad space on your website.

You can find more information on Pixel advertising at http://www.diyfundraising.com/What_is_Pixel_Advertising_.html.

Part of the proceeds could go to a notable charitable foundation such as Acumen.

I've experimented with similar fundraising methods working with Voluntary Health Agencies in the past, with very good success.

Lets run with this!

[James D Kirk]

The concept is sound. The biggest hurdle to overcome is that there is some real value being offered. Like yourself, I'd heard about the Million dollar home page, though, I never took to it because it did nothing to create a tribe, and offered nothing back.

By creating an ad network of our own, however, we can reasonably expect the "sell" to be that much easier. Just tell people that it is to help support the program of making attendance to Seth Godin's apprenticeship possible, that they will get quality ad impressions, and why would someone not want to participate. Especially if the pricing is reasonable?

Count me in!

[SusanVillasLewis]

Hmmm. The ad units thing got me thinking. I don't have enough readership on any of my blogs to do much. But maybe Seth could add a "charity" on Squidoo as a fund for everyone. I'd be happy to set some of my lenses (ones that actually make money :-) or make a new series of them to add money to that pot. I'd suggest that everyone in the group would have to do so as well. I know I could get a few of my fellow lensmasters to do so if they knew I was getting the money.