Friday, January 29, 2010

Indie Careers Part 2: DJing


So folks, as I already mentioned in an earlier post this time Indie Careers will be about DJing.
Last Saturday I had a blast DJing at a party I organized. Even though I won't name any figures, I can say that when I counted the money I was grinning from ear to ear.
So how come? How do you get there, what do you need, and most importantly: How much is in there?

First things first: Before you start, you'll have to invest quite a bit in equipment. Depending on how much money and time you want to spend you choose one of these:
1. Vinyl all the way
+ style, coolness
+ Vinyl moves
+ little technology
- records are expensive
- old records are hard to find and may not be in best shape
+/- you have learn the art and craft of mixing

Needed: 2 turntables, mixer, records
Costs: try ebay for used equipment, about 300-500€, roughly 1-15€/record
You'll need at least 60 records to even start thinking about mixing live

2. CD DJs
Well, I did never like them very much, it's way to expensive and you cannot handle them that good. I won't elaborate on this. Buy something else. Really.

3. Mp3 all the way
By far the cheapest and easiest solution. You'll need a laptop (which you most likely already have), some usb mixer and a soundcard with at least 4 mono-output-channels.
You then just need software (Traktor is pretty good) and mp3s.
+ Easy to handle (BPM Counter and a lot of software-tweaks help you)
+ You should have enough mp3s already, or you can buy them for 1€/track
+ even old songs sound great
+ cheap
+ good for transport (you can pack a bag and have everything you need)
- no style
- no real skill needed
- have to rely on software and pcs

Needed: Laptop, soundcard, mixer, mp3s
Costs: for 100€ you can buy a used soundcard and mixer, another 50 for the software

4. Mp3-Vinyl Hybrid
Commonly used by a lot of DJs today
+ you can bring your whole record collection along
+ all vinyl moves
- you have to rely on software
- very expensive initial costs

Needed: See 1.vinyl all the way + software and hardware
Costs: See 1. + 200 to 500€ for the soft and hardware

How long until you rock the crowd? Depends, but you will practice your butt off for at least half a year before you have decent skills. Mp3 DJing however does not require much skill, roughly a month and you know how to do it. Of course you should know a thing or two about music, if you play an instrument - good for you, it will be a lot easier then.
How to get the first gig? Talk to people, record a mixtape and give it to friends, either start playing everything from birthday to bar mizwa or befriend some other DJ who might let you play as a support or opener for him. Or: Throw your own party - organizing a party can be tough and stressful, but it will pay out sooner or later.

If you just DJ, you can expect either nothing when you start (although you shouldn't play too many unpaid gigs) or something between 50 and 150 € (maybe somewhat lower, depending on circumstances).
However, if you organize the party there can be up to 1000 bucks in for you (100,200 are easy to make). Depending on how much people are willing to pay for your party, and how many show up, of course. Speaking of which: At the beginning only your friends, and friends of friends, will show up. The more popular you are, the better, and if at some point you are some Richie Hawtin or so, expect to see a whole lot of people you don't know.

The good thing about DJing is: People do not get bored of you too quick. If you're in a band, well try playing the same show month after month at the same place - won't work. However, if you play a similar set month after month at the same spot people will love you for that. I know it sounds weird first, but think about - don't you go to your favorite club for exactly the same reason? The best thing about it: You get free drinks, and no one cares if you're getting tipsy while earning money.

In a nutshell

Knowledge needed? 3/5
Getting started? 3/5
Salary? 4/5

Saturday, January 23, 2010

DJing




So guys, actually this was meant to be another Indie Careers post, but I have to promote myself a little bit first.
I'm DJing tonight in Hofheim near Frankfurt - anyone who likes disco and electronic music is highly welcome :)
Entry: 3€

You may ask yourself if DJing or party planning is such a lucrative thing that I had to post it here. Actually it is.
In some future posts I will explain how much money you can make with partying. It's not that much compared with time and money you have to spend before actually earning some, but still it's sort of cool to earn your cash that way.

Thursday, January 21, 2010

Never listen to what others tell you

This is now something that's not only business related, but more of general thought.
Everyday people feel the need to mock someone or something, mostly because they can't do any better. Or they don't know any better. Either way, it's the same: Most people have average lives, like average music and films, fill up their spare time with average spare time activities and so on.
Average people always tend to mock others who step out of their average world.
Maybe I have to go into greater detail to prove my point:
I was a nerd, long before being a nerd was cool (in my opinion being a nerd never actually became cool, I believe in a conspiracy of VICE magazine and the horn-rimmed glasses industry, but that's another story). However, when I was a kid, most kids my age had taken an interest in sports or cartoons or other pointless kids stuff. For some reason I was fascinated by computers (yeah, I know) and wanted to learn everything about my pc and how it worked and how to build it myself, etc. Time went by and by the time I was 14 I was obliged to take an internship (my school made everyone do that). So since I could choose where to go I headed off for a two-weeks internship in my hometowns' local pc store. It was awful. I wasn't allowed to do anything on a pc, even though I was easily able to repair each and every one them. My "boss" always said something like: "You don't know knothing, you would just break it blabla I'm a giant dickhead" (I can't remember the exact words). Years later, I was repairing pcs for money and the store went bankrupt - put that in your pipe and smoke it Mr. Schmidt!
Another example: As I turned 16 I was given the chance to play bass in a band. The thing was: I didn't know how to play bass. I didn't even own a damn bass! But well my band mates showed me more or less what I had to play and like 2 months after that we were about to have our first paid gig (looking back, I can't really tell why anyone would have paid to see us - our music just sucked). When I told my friends, some we're really making fun of me, saying that I could never play live and that I didn't know how to play bass because I had never taken any bass classes and so on.
Well, I don't think many people can tell that they had their first paid gig before even knowing how to play their instrument - until this day, guess who didn't play in front of an audience.
My last example: Last summer I was really feeling down. I didn't know what to do, and I was broke because I didn't have a job and you know - usual stuff.
While I was hanging around in a café I met this guy, who said he needed a website for his company. Instantly I offered my services and said that I would take care of this. Just guess now. Yeah right, I never really designed a website before. When I told people, that I had charged that guy like 300 bucks for something I still couldn't do, they laughed at me telling me that I couldn't do a thing like that. Turns out I could. I took some time and spent endless hours in front of my computer screen reading and watching youtube how-to-videos until I was able to present that guy a website he still digs. And I continued designing websites.
Bottom line: There will always be people in your way, that don't approve of what you do, or how you do it. Taking advice from someone is never a bad thing, but don't let people change you and your ideas. My idea for starting this blog was mainly my fascination with unusual ways to earn money. As soon as you start something unique, something different, people will stand in your way. But you should never listen to those.
Looking back, I do not regret anything I did, I had a blast playing live without having a clue what I was doing, and I also enjoyed taking on a job I had never done before - things like this give you a whole lot of confidence. Like nike puts it: Just do it. Don't think too much about it. Do what you love, and have a great time while doing it. Always remember: Average people only have average fun.

“If I’m going to sing like someone else, then I don’t need to sing at all.” – Billie Holiday

Monday, January 18, 2010

Book review: Freakonomics (Steven Levitt & Stephen Dubner)


Of course, every hard working indie business man has to take a break once in while, put away the financial times and take some time off. And since most of us use the train and tube, for almost the same reason that cityboys in london do, we spend a whole lot of time sitting and waiting, and from now on reading - Freakonomics of course !
I just got this as a christmas present (a great one, by the way) and can highly recommend it to everyone interested in a different approach to economics (which applies to all of us, of course).
So what it is all about? The main head behind Freakonomics is Steven D. Levitt, a professor of economics at the University of Chicago, who has a wide interest in most things usual professors care very little about. Long story short: Throughout the book he uses the methods and techniques commonly used in the field of economics (e.g. regression analysis and statistics), combined with exceptional thoughts and observations about common day phenomons.
Just to give a short teaser: Do you know why drug dealers, although they earn a lot of money still live with their moms? Or what sumo wrestlers and school teachers have in common?

I promise you have a great time, and if you like crazy statistics (be prepared for drug dealer accounting and a statistic that shows why people steal bagels) you will definitely want to read this one. Don't worry, it's not written for economists only.

Friday, January 8, 2010

What the heck is a market gap anyway?

From time to time I always hear my mostly non-economist friends complaning about wanting to be rich (they mostly do this when they're broke). The fun thing is that always the next sentence is something like this: "It could be so easy if only I could find a market gap..."

Unfortunately, most people tend to get the idea of a market gap wrong:
Finding a market gap has actually little to do with luck, and a whole lot to do with statistics and observation. You can be very creative, but you don't have to.
The most interestig question now: how do I find a market gap? Funnily, this is something you may hear VERY briefly in marketing 101 , and it seems that most people either don't know much about it, or they don't want to share their knowledge. Just look at this wikipedia entry:

"A market opportunity emerges if a product or a service, based on either one technology or several, fulfills the need(s) of a (preferably increasing) market better than the competition and better than substitution-technologies within the given environmental frame (e.g. society, politics, legislation, etc.). [...] "

OK... What? You see what I mean. As I mentioned above, this is typically one aspect of marketing. Against common belief, large companys do not have a research department with a bunch of crazy scientists hanging around and doing all kinds of experiments and occasionaly finding something that is worth selling. It's actually more like this example:
Assume you are the head of marketing of a big company that produces sanitary products. You notice, that since your son reached puberty his skin is full of pimples. You think about, why your company doesn't provide a decent product that helps him with this problem. So you go to the research guys and explain them that you need a product that helps your son get rid of his problem. See? No big mystery. Just some observation. Maybe this example is not the best, but it should have prepared you for an in-depth analysis of how to spot market gaps.

As I think, there are basically three types of market gaps, and if you know them, you easily are able to find some yourself (but be aware: not every market gap turns out to be lucrative)

1. Create a new product
Most people would define a market gap this way. Something that doesn't exist yet.
Creating a new product or service involves heavy research, observation and a tiny bit of creativity. To begin with: Think about what you really need or miss in life. Just recently I found something that fitted one thing I really needed badly:
Suppose you are on a first date, and of course you are kinda nervous because your date is overwhelmingly beautiful, but still you're hanging in there, being suave as hell and then just as you tell your best story, which is actually more of an average story but you try to compensate it with heavy gesturing, she is immediately turned off. Why? Well, in the heat of moment you must have sweated like a danish cartoonist in mecca, and she saw that unpleasent body reaction through the armpits of your shirt.
A lot of people in that situation would really love something to prevent this. As I recently went to my local grocery store I found a kind of pad, which you could put in your shirt so that the sweat doesn't get through. That is how you create a new product and therefore fill up a market gap. However, just as I told before, you should do some research whether or not that product is already out on the market (maybe you just missed it?).

2. Improving a product or service that already exists
Sometimes you can just improve an already existing product and fill up a market gap. Examples? Just look at the iPhone. What is so new about it? It has a touch screen, can be used as an mp3 player and you can access the net - wow, big deal, back in 2006 my motorola A925 could already do this. So why does everyone praise that apple phone, but the same people kept laughing at me back then for heaving such a big cell phone (which is really interesting, because the iPhone for that matter is gigantic, too)? Apple sure does know how to promote a product and make it look "sexy", so the coolness factor has been dramatically improved, as well as the whole user interface and pc/mac sync. However, one reason the A925 failed, sure was that at time it was freakishly expensive to hit the net with your phone.
So we learn: Even though a product exists, there is almost always room for improvement. If there is a need for improvement, even some minor adjustments like design, you can hit the market with a better version of that product or service.
Of course an improvement does not have to be technical or designwise - a smaller price is a big improvement in most markets. That's why as soon as something new turns out to be cool, a whole bunch of replicas appear and try to get customers who can't afford the original product.

3. Introduce a given product to a new market
Ever wondered what your hometown is missing? If you know something: congratulations, you just found another market gap! For example, Hollister just opened a store in Frankfurt.
Turns out, that there was a giant amount of people who really likes that stuff (honestly, Hollister just sucks. I mean really, who buys that crap?) but just couldn't get it nearby. And I bet if someone introduces Dunkin' Donuts to Frankfurt, he or she will make a fortune (i like donuts). Of course franchising sucks, because it's way too expensive and regulated and shit, but still I hope you get my point.
Does someone in your town offer yoga classes? No? Where do people, who want to take yoga classes go then? This kind of market gap works best for services that are either frequently used ( a gym, private tutoring, a pizza place, supermarkets), meaning people can't afford to lose much time time travelling to get that service/ product (who would drive 1h to the gym, if he could apply to one that is only a 5min walk away?) or for services that are maybe just needed once, but should not be far away to make you feel safe (most craftsmen abuse this dilemma: where do you go when you're tv is broke? or your car? you're very likely to stay local. And what about computer problems? Does your hometown provide any computer services? No? If you know something about PCs, you could be that guy!).

I hope I could give you a rough idea about how to find a market gap. As you see, it's no big secret after all.

Saturday, January 2, 2010

Indie Careers Part 1: Teaching


That's the classic. Teaching can be really sexy - just look at the pic (yeah cheap eyecatcher... seems to work though).
Most people don't really get the potentitial teaching has businesswise, but I'm sure you young indie entrepreneur do:
You need almost no money to start off and it's easy to get customers.
First you should think about what you want to teach, I just narrowed it down to three possibilities:

1. Private Tuition
The worse the school system in your country, the better your chances of getting hired as a private tutor for students.
The salary is not great, but it's better than most jobs you could get at that stage, plus the work environment is warm and you can sit (don't take these for granted!). Expected salary would be something about 10 - 15 €/hour in most european countrys. (maybe someone tells me how much it's elsewhere?)
If you've been at school, you must have learned something that you could pass on, so the required knowledge for this field is not very high - just pick a few subjects that you think you're good at and give it a shot (you might even consider tutoring something you really sucked at back then: I did this with 10th grade math, which I almost flunked - turns out some years later I knew the trick and that kiddo I tutored rocked his math test).
If at this point you are still unsure, think about how great it is to be a teacher.
Just remember "Dead Poets Society" and picture yourself giving some little man advice on love, and the meaning of life while helping out with the homework (Damn, how good was Dead Poets Society?). Aristoteles did it, Robin Williams did it, and you could do it too.
Extra Bonus: If you're good, you not only get paid, but it's very likely you get cookies, too ( screw you - cookies rule!)
I did tutor myself during the last years at school, and I really liked it. I think in my high times I gave about 10 h/week - so you see there is potential in there if you know how to get customers and manage your time.
Talking about customers, the easiest way to get any is to place an ad in your local newspaper - costs are about 5 bucks, but it's really worth it - if your lucky you get more customers than you could possibly handle, whick is very rare in the beginning of every business).

Short key facts:
Knowledge needed? 1/5
Getting started? 1/5
Salary? 1/5 or 2/5 depending who you tutor

I kind of lost myself here, but there some other potential fields for teachers I want to mention:
2. Teaching an instrument
If you play an instrument, consider yourself lucky. Basically everything I said before applies also here - it might be more difficult to get customers, but you can easily double the salary.
However, you really should know something about music, but if you do teaching beginners is no big deal. It may be hard to get enough customers right away, so the combination of 1 and 2 might do the trick to increase your personal cash flows.

3. Teaching something special
This is by far the most difficult field to start in. I have no experience here, but I do know some people are able to live off it pretty good. If you are really good at something most people know almost nothing about (i.e. mandarin chinese or python programming) you could teach that. It's very hard to get customers, but if you do they will pay you ridiculously high sums of money because they need your knowledge.

This was just a short introduction on how to get started. So what do you think? Does a career in teaching suit you?

How to get started

Nobody of us is born a business genius. I wasn't and I suppose you weren't either.
Someone who has never cared for business, economics, self employment and so on may find it hard to get started. I have currently read about two girls who were thinking about opening some sort of goa-indian style store (yeah whatever). You could tell from that article two things:
1. The girls had not the slightest idea of running a business.
2. If they really open that store, they are very likely to fail

Now you might think: Hey, wait a minute, wasn't this blog all about making money without great effort? Wrong. Being self-employed, and most of my advises rely on that, is rarely effortless.
I named it indie guide, because I like the do-it-yourself idea of indie music and how everyone is able to be part of it. But nevertheless, the typical indie career as, say, a musician doesn't just happen over night. You need to practice your ass of on an instrument, then practice with your band mates, play gigs, record and so on. So being an indie rock star is pretty cool, but it involves work nevertheless. That's how the indie guide is meant.
The bad news first: You need some basic knowledge about business and economics.
The good news: It's really not that much, and once it grabs you, it may even be interesting.

So I made up my mind, and here are some potential first steps for you:
-Learn how the economy works. Understand how big companys earn their money (try to understand their business).
-Keep yourself up-to-date with trends, and think about how they can affect you and potential business plans (important, this means any trend whether it is climate change or people in western countries becoming more and more overweight)
-read the paper daily or constantly check some news and ecomony related websites (RSS feeds will help keeping you up-to-date)

Remember: Don't take things to seriously. Maybe most important of all:
Never value money other than as a tool to make more money - the only problem money can solve is debt. There are so many things that make life worth living - keep your eyes and mind open and you will see.

So this is the beginning


Hello out there!
My name's Vitti, and I started this blog to share my passion for unusual ways to make money.
I chose the name indie guide to money making because I want this blog to be a guide for everyone who is interested in ways to make money, while having a shitload of fun.
I have a wide interest in (young) enterpreneurship, the stock market and unusual marketing methods. Of course, I also have other interest, therefore some basic background on my person:
I am an economic student aged 20, living in the german business capital Frankfurt.
I am addicted to most american TV-series, I bought my first stocks when I was 11 and I have a passion for music (sometimes I DJ, which is cool because I make money that way).
My last job was viral marketing for blackberry and some other sources income include teaching and design/webdesign. Besides, I'm currently planning on starting a little marketing company.
I think I could tell you a thing or two about making money, and if you can too feel free to contact me or leave a comment - I would really dig that.
I hope you enjoy my little blog!

Just a basic statement: Everything I describe here is totally legal, but often enough pretty risky. Always keep that in mind.