Rohail Rizvi

I have a huge amount of expenses I have to cover in the next few weeks. The main one of course being funding my current project. I need to come up with at least $500 to keep that running. In addition to that, I may be making a trip to California for a couple weeks and tickets for that run at about $300-$400. As for now, however, my main focus is to come up with the $500 for this project. So I’m giving myself 15 days to come up with $500 without any type of formal work. Here are the primary ways I’m looking to achieve this funding:

• Fix computers (Halo Tech Squad).
• Adsense (www.mesosource.blogspot.com)
• Possibly sell on my new Shopify site.

So, I have until June 27th to come up with that amount. I know I don’t have a wide range of sources at this point, but I’m confident I’ll be able to come up with it.

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It seems like they just keep going higher everyday. I just filled up my 20-gallon tank for a whopping $50, the highest it’s ever cost me. Well, I’m not exactly paying for it, but still. The highest price in the U.S. according to www.gaspricewatch.com is $3.69 per gallon at Chula Vista, CA. The lowest is $2.43 at Ozark, MO. The national average is $2.85.

The debate over rising gas prices is on-going and somewhat over-emphasized among the other political issues at stake these days. The war on Iraq, the recent tax-cut to the wealthy, or even the alleged scandal in the Haditha deaths seem to be less talked about than rising gas prices. Perhaps it’s true that people really only worry about things when it hurts their pockets.

I’m curious as to know how gas prices are where you live and how you plan to cut back if that’s the case.

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That’s right. I walked right into the boss’s office and told him I’m resigning. Well it didn’t quite go like that. I told him I wouldn’t be able to work anymore and he says fine. Then I ask for resignation papers to sign so I can make it official and all of a sudden he starts cursing at me saying he doesn’t have resignation papers. I tell him I’m not trying to make him upset, I just want to make things official. He remains the crybaby that he is and puts on his headset claiming he “has to take a call.” Hilarious. Truth is, I didn’t like the ethics of the company. I found out that they were featured on NBC 10 investigators and subsequently quit as I didn’t like the idea that I might be working for a company that steals people’s money. In fact they have a picture of my former boss online at the NBC website where a former client comes in to get his money back and is subsequently faced with my former boss calling in the cops claiming the client was trying to steal his money. What scum.

On the other hand, I now have much more time to work on my ventures. The first thing I want to do is hold a couple entrepreneurial experiments, if you will. Now the first one is more of an attempt at an actual business. I am starting a spyware removal service and will first try to get clients in my neighborhood and if things go well I will expand to other nearby neighborhoods. I think a fair share of people with computers have problems with spyware and have no clue how to get it out. Further, considering how annoying spyware is, I’m pretty sure people are willing to fork over some dollars to get rid of the problem.

Now my second experiment some of you are going to laugh at. Quite simply, I’ll be attempting to pick up women. Yes, now you may think that I’m doing this for my own benefit (somewhat true), but I think doing this could help my communication skills and confidence in an enormous way. There are so many tricks and trades to communication when it comes to approaching women and much of it (not all of it) can be applied to communications I may have in the business world some day. Concepts like mirroring and social proof are all part of communication and I want to master this. And who knows I might even get a few numbers (or more) in the process. Stay tuned, this blog is about to get a little more interesting.

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Sometimes we fear things and we don’t even know it. Whether it’s running for class president, starting a new club at college, or starting a new business, certain things- whether it be the fear of failure or uncertainty in our abilities- things hold us back. But I’ve learned that the best thing one can do is to just take the leap. I know it sounds ambiguous, but that’s all there really is to it. If you believe you can be a success at something, you just have to go for it. Often times our brains are hard wired to think negatively, and so it is important to overcome this automatic connection by continually reinforcing positive thinking patterns. And by doing this it makes it easier to take the leap, which is exactly what I am doing.
Now the summer is officially here and I’m ready to take bigger leaps this time. I have a full time job now at a consulting company, which, as much as you may disagree with having “entrepreneur” and “job” in the same sentence, is proving to be a very valuable experience for me. I’m talking with vice presidents from JPMorgan, SEO specialists, consultants, and a wide range of professionals pulling in six-figure salaries everyday. I am confident that my time at the company will prove invaluable. Many of the people who I work with are highly experienced in the business world with people boasting PhD’s in business from presitigious schools such as Columbia. I’m proving myself valuable at the company and look to create as many contacts as possible.

Now most college kids working at my job might be working there to save up for a down payment on a car or such. Myself- I’m saving this money to fund my next big project. It’s a risk, I know, but it’s one I’m going to take because I truly believe this project has huge potential to become something big. I think it solves a huge problem and has a large enough audience to be a success. So stay tuned, you’ll want to.

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Just two more final exams to go and then I’m on summer break for a good three months

I just wanted to point out a link I came across today. Yahoo! has a few pieces startups as well as bootstrapping your business. It’s located right here: http://biz.yahoo.com/special/smallbiz06.html

An update on my stocks: I was unfortunate in the beginning as to have bought in at competely the wrong time. I was waiting for a pullback on the stocks that I was watching, but they kept going up every single day. So in an attempt to buy before the price got too high, I got in right before my stocks began to go down. They’ve been down for a good two weeks now. However, they’re starting to show signs of coming back especially right before earnings. One of the reasons for this bad timing incident is that I’ve learned institutions try to put out bad news before earnings so as to make the stocks dip right before earnings so they can get in cheap and make a huge profit. Nevertheless, I still believe I got in at the prices I felt were good and so there is still a lot of room for price growth IMHO. One thing to mention is that the stocks I own are extremely volatile as all of them are small-cap, but this is where I feel I can make the most gains with enough research and safety analysis. In the long-run, I believe these stocks will be flying high.

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Being a student these days can be really hard on your pocket. Recent state budget cuts may cause tuition at Rutgers to go up $5000 next year. We already have the 5th most expensive public university tuition on top of that. Hopefully the recent rallying in Trenton and the petition will help lower that amount, but it’s pretty much inevitable that tuition is going to rise. Add to that the fact that federal loans will be going up to around 6.8% fixed from 4.75% variable come June. Anyone else feeling the heat?

Also, I’m thinking about quitting my new summer job as I’m debating whether or not to work on my ventures full time. Not only that, but the job also sucks. I might be getting my own office next week with a computer and all. Neverthless, office work is not in my favor. I’d rather do something more challenging that gives me a sense of self-worth, not stapling 7000 pieces of paper. We’ll see how that goes. I’m giving it one more week.

Further, I’ve just started the process of working on a new project. I’m working with Ryan Glasgow, President of www.pixeltorch.com. I’ll keep you posted on that. In addition, earnings reports are on the way so look out for an update on my stocks and how they are doing. Drew Industries reports tomorrow at 11:00am.

That’s it for now. Feel free to leave comments as it’s always a pleasure reading them.

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So Bender Trust is over. It was actually pretty interesting to get to wear the shoes of an investment analyst. I worked on our 7-page report for a good six to seven hours. Of course, I did the majority of the work but whatever. In the end, we did a damn good job. I thought Mr. Francfort was pretty impressed with our report and very intrigued by the company we chose. With a bit more knowledge about the industry, I think I’d be an excellent analyst in all honesty. Let’s see if I choose to go down that road. Not sure when we find out the results of the competition. One thing though–it was ridiculous the number of people that didn’t even bother to dress up for the competition. You’re finance majors for God’s sake. Myself and the people in my group were the only ones really dressed up. Oh well. Better to be overdressed than underdressed I say.

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Bender Trust starts at 9:30 tonight. I’m just putting on the finishing touches of the report right now. It looks pretty good so far. I think we’ll do well. Look for another post tonight to see how it went.

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I just got back from tonight’s Bender Trust meeting (http://www.libor.rutgers.edu/bender.html). Bender Trust is an event held as part of the Little Investment Bankers of Rutgers (LIBOR) organization at my University. The competition, if you will, consists of picking a stock and presenting it to Bender Trust portfolio manager Mr. Francfort, expressing why you think the company is of value. I hear Mr. Francfort likes to tear the participants apart in terms of the questions he asks them, so my group is very motivated to know our pick (Middleby, Nasdaq: MIDD) the best we can. Another thing I noticed was how many of the participants were very well-versed in a multitude of industries trading in the stock market. I realize that my group and I are only freshman where as the rest of the participants are Juniors and Seniors. Nevertheless, I realize that if I really want to know how the market works I am going to have to follow it everyday. So, from now on I will wake up at 8:30am every weekday morning to catch the opening bell and perhaps catch the closing bell if I can. Also, I’ve added many books to my reading list for this summer. These include:

Think and Grow Rich

The Little Book that Beats the Market by Joel Greenblatt

New Venture Creation by Jeffry A. Timmons

Losing my Virginity by Richard Branson

Reads by various authors including:

Buffett

Graham

Ben Franklin

Bill Miller

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As you can see, being a student let alone being an early entrepreneur takes a huge toll on the wallet. Although this is true, obviously I still see college as a worthwhile investment. Nevertheless, we all have had times as students where we’ve had to go on the cheap. So I’m curious as to know, what are some of the cheapest things you or someone you know has done to get by?

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