Is a drop-shipping business really a form of passive income? I’m starting to think not. Here’s why: a passive income stream is supposed to require work to setup, then minimum ongoing maintenance to collect profits. A drop-shipping business requires constant inventory updates, order processing and shipment verification/confirmation. And if the drop-ship supplier runs out of the products you’ve already sold, that leads to refunds and headaches. In other words, a drop-shipping business is missing the “minimum ongoing maintenance” aspect of a passive income stream.

As I continue to setup the new vending business, I’m seeing the differences between it and my designer fragrance business. Now if I just promoted affiliate links, then the fragrance business would become passive. I’d only need to monitor my marketing efforts and click-thru rates. But designer fragrances are not a niche enough market. So after almost two years in business, I may have to retire SmellRealGood. Either that or find a niche in the fragrance business that hasn’t been exploited yet.

fragrance business · offline business · online business · passive income · vending business

The tenant finally has a new, working water heater. Hooray. The contractor was even did a temporary fix for the basement door, without me asking, which makes me happy. As long as he can respond to my calls timely, I will be using him for every repair I need. Turns out that he also is a landlord himself, so I’ll be milking him for lots of advice/tips, for sure.

After speaking to a good friend of mine, I’m going to give this landlording business a chance. It is passive income after all, and I don’t really want to give that up. I feel I have a good tenant, so as long as the property is decent, I should be okay. I think my rant yesterday was a result of momentary insanity caused by frustration. So let’s see.

On the vending business front, I’m in the process of signing up with a charity, and then I’m going to hire a locating service to place the machine so I don’t have to pay a commission every month. The service charges only $31 and they offer a money back guarantee with results within a week of ordering. They’ll even relocate for free if I get kicked out within 90 days for any reason.

On the perfume business front, I’m closing my Paypal account. They have instituted a new “policy” where they can hold your funds for whatever amount of time they please. The letter states that it is not because I did anything wrong, but because they want to implement a new policy to “protect” me. I received this information after receiving a new order for almost $100 from a new client through the iOffer.com store. So guess what? I told them, with a selection of choice words, that I don’t need to use their service anymore. So I instructed them to refund the transaction to the buyer and close my account. In the meantime, the buyer paid me via Google Checkout (with NO problems whatsoever, of course), and I’ll be processing the order today. It’s so nice to have a choice with payment processors.

passive income · Paypal sucks ass · perfume business · real estate rentals · vending business

The upgrade to the shopping cart went better than expected. However, I forgot to include a requirement in the terms, so I’m going to have my coder do one more task for a small additional fee. Once that’s completed (by Friday), I’ll be able to upload products and start directing my current customers to my site. I can’t wait to show the world the final product.

I got that third property under contract for a potential wholesale deal, and I’m still dealing with title issues on the wacky property. At this moment, I have four properties under contract: two are short sales, and the other two are “traditional” wholesale deals. I first shortsale that I’ve been working on for about three months just requested the interior BPO, so it’s almost there. This one has the potential for a 20K profit. So I just need to be a little more patient.

I got to meet with a group of Philly wholesalers last week, and it was awesome. One of the wholesalers invited one of his mentors/partners as a guest speaker. This guy has done everything in Philly from wholesaling, to rehab flips, to subject-to. He shared a lot of good information, and even gave us a tips on what he would’ve done differently if he knew then what he knows now. It was very enlightening, and I can’t wait for the next meeting.

Designer fragrance business · networking · real estate wholesaling

Fragrances: I thought my “professional looking” fragrance website would be up and running by now, but it’s not. I believe part of the problem is that I picked a bad shopping cart software package, then I selected a vendor who has revealed (after starting the project), that he’s never installed this particular shopping cart before. He just created a sample for me to see that he could at least do the basics. The problem with that is my project requires more than the basics. The only thing working is the Paypal module. I can’t import products or categories, and I can’t insert them manually either. Which has now given me great pause. While the site I created myself wasn’t the prettiest, it worked perfectly, and was easy to update. Now I’m thinking that I should’ve just left my creation in place, and hire someone to make it beautiful instead of hiring someone to do the opposite.

Real estate investing: One of my wholesale deals has run into a snag. I already knew it would have issues with liens, but the title report reveals that the liens are A LOT bigger than what the seller said (big surprise). There’s a tax lien of $16K, and a water bill lien of $25K (no, that’s not a typo). I’ve emailed the seller with no response so I’ll call her today. Thank goodness I have three more in the pipeline, because I have a feeling this one won’t work out.

elance · perfume business · real estate wholesaling business · wholesale properties

Here are quick updates on what’s going on with my ventures this week:

• Real estate – I got another wholesale property under contract Wednesday, and I’m meeting with a seller to get another one under contract tonight. This will keep me on track to meet my goal of wholesaling at least one property a month. Two of the properties are shortsale/wholesale deals, and the other two are “traditional” wholesale deals.
• Mobile notary service – I had two more appointments for notary service this week, which is okay. I’m still working on the automation of marketing this business. I contacted a targeted publication for classified ad rates, so I should have an answer soon. One of my old friends is also moving back to Philly, and she wants to be a notary. So I may have her replace me, and just run the business without having to run around notarizing stuff. We’ll see.
• Designer fragrances – Today is the day that I select an eLance vendor to install the shopping cart software for my designer fragrance website. I’m selecting someone from overseas, which makes me a bit nervous, but I expect everything will work out. I originally planned to install it myself, but after two failed attempts, I realized my time was better spent doing other things.

That’s it for now, gotta get back to work

business activity updates · Designer fragrance business · mobile notary public business · real estate wholesaling business