Cleaned up the scooter and checked everything out...

I gave the scooter a bath and sprayed it down with some make shiny stuff and it looks pretty good. My friend and I took off the plastics and everything looked pretty good, so we taped of a cracked rubber boot and put it back together. Adding a little Sea Foam to the tank took care of a small top end bogging so the scoot was good to go.

I placed the ad for $475 (really nice 49cc scooters are going for $800 to $1100 or so here) and within fifteen minutes of the ad going public, I got two calls. Which is strange since the same ad placed last week got no interest, except from the scam bots. One of the callers was going to come see it today but called and said he'd be late and we agreed upon a new time. Twenty minutes after the time, he shows up.

We talked for a bit and I told him all of the known issues; remember, this is not a new scooter, but for the money, he agreed it was fine. He took it for a spin around the neighborhood and as he was pulling up to the driveway, he had 'that grin'. I knew he was going to buy it, which he did, for $455.

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My first buy...

So, time to clean it up and do a little maintenance.

I purchased the scooter today!

After deciding to buy the scooter for my business idea, the owner and I had to coordinate our schedules. Today was the first day I was able to meet up with him. He had offered to deliver it, but had just bought a topper for his truck and the scooter would not fit.

I thought the scooter would fit in our van but when I went out to check it out, I decided that if it fit, it would be a very tight fit. Hoping for the best, I headed out to pick the scooter up.

When I got there, the owner rode the scooter to the van and I caught a whiff of that two stroke exhaust. That smell instantly transports me back to the 70's and watching my two older brothers ride up or ride away ontheir dirt bikes.

And that sound. I had no idea the sound of a two stroke engine would make such an impression but it is seriously awesome. I had read a while ago from Skurtergruven (too bad he doesn't update anymore) about how fun his new 110cc two stroke was. Now I know.

The scooter needs a little work, but nothing serious, so far. Hopefully when I do some maintenance this weekend, I won't find anything but I'm optimistic I won't.

It runs pretty well, actually, it was a suprise how quickly it carried me. It got up to 35mph (indicated) in no time and had plenty of throttle left. It stops excellently, so the brakes are fine. The guages work, they have really cool indiglo needles, very cool.

So, no pictures tonight, but I will take many tomorrow. Then this weekend, after I get some work done to it, we will see how well it cleans up. Then it's off to craigslist.....at quite a bit more than the $120 I paid for it!

Got funding, time to add inventory...

Like the title says, I have the modest amount of money needed to get this $100 Business started, so tomorrow I'm going to take a look at my first potential buy.

I'm kind of psyched, actually. It will be fun. And hopefully profitable. Like $350 percent profitable. Which will fund deal number two and on and on and etc.

Resisting temptation, supply and demand...

Well, I'm going to possibly make my first purchase with the business this Saturday and I am really looking forward to it. But, it's going to be rough. What's rough is checking Craigslist and seeing bona fide awesome potential deals that I'm not going to be able to get. I found a post for two Honda scooters, complete, for $50.

Excuse me if you aren't into scooters but that is a screaming good deal, no matter how it would turn out. That is a 'can't lose deal'. Every deal will have some risk, but that;s about as low chance as I can ever hope to find.

I was thinking about my business plan and I think I have actually come up with a pretty good idea using some pretty sound business rules.

I am buying low and selling high, but that's not what I meant. I am taking items from a low demand area, my home area and expanding the market exponentially so therefore, the items will draw a much larger audience and will sell for more (or I lose $100...)

Thanks for reading. I'm off to do more research.

So, what's the deal?

Well, like the title of the blog says, this is about the business I am starting with only $100 dollars. No way, most would say. Might as well not even try, many would say. Well, maybe, but I think I have a good idea, so I'm going to give it a try.

So, what's the idea? Well, I could spend a few minutes and come up with some big paragraph full of ridiculous big vocabulary business speak, but, honestly, I hate that.

Basically, here's the deal: I'm going to use the internet to find good local deals and then either resell the deals locally or nationally using the internet. I am going to use a 2:1 ratio; ie, if it won't make double what I pay for it, I won't take it.

That's not a business, everyone does that...or can do that, or may do that. True, but there's a couple of things that might help me make a decent part time business out of this idea.

Namely, I plan on buying niche market items in the general market and then selling them to the niche market. Say what?

Ok, here's what I am planning on doing. I like scooters and mopeds. I even think old school minibikes are cool...impratical, but cool. I also like small motorcycles, the ones that most people dismiss as beginner bikes. Did you know there are thousands of websites, clubs and events, specifically for these things? There are and the owners of these scooters, mopeds and minibikes are every bit as fanatical as Harley owners.

So, by finding unwanted motorbikes, and then finding them homes with people that want them, everyone is happy.

But, here's a problem, I suck at haggling. I find no joy in talking someone down to pennies of what they were asking. So, I found a way around that, too. They tell me what they want for it and I take it or leave it.

For example, I have an appoinment to go see a small 49cc scooter, titled and running that the owner wants to sell for $100. Any search of Craigslist shows several 49cc scooters from $200 and up. So, pay $100 and sell for $200. That works for me.

Obstacles to my idea? Well, obviously, I probably won't be able to do this full time (yet) but that's perfectly fine for me. I imagine this will be a decent part time income without too many hours (I'm thinking 4 a week) doing something I really sort of like to do.

I am sure that pretty soon, I'll have to buy a business license. Not sure how much that will be, but it can't be that much...famous last words, I know.

But, long term, I have some ideas of where this could go. I can see this taking off and moving into scooter repair, scooter reselling and parts reselling at a retail type space. But that's going to be a while and is honestly nothing but a dream at this point.

But, it's nice to dream, isn't it?

And we are off!

Welcome. As the title of my blog says, I am going to try something either brilliantly brilliant, or I'm going to lose $100. Stay tuned, more to come very soon.