Hey everyone!

I will probably find it difficult to write for the next few days for two reasons:

1) The watercooling kit installation didn’t go exactly to plan and leaked everywhere when I first turned it on. I’m dead certain I installed it all correctly and there weren’t any visible problems with the parts. The water did leak over my motherboard and graphics card, but only the water pump was plugged into the power supply, so hopefully if I can stop the leaks and completely dry and water out then my computer should be alright.

I’m currently writing on my mums work (school) laptop… thank god I can still access the net!

2) This coming Tuesday I have to be up at Wollongong uni in the morning to enrol etc. So since my car has been out of action for the last month or so - since it too decided to die and needs a completely new motor) - my options were to either catch a bus up on Monday or try get a lift. I’ve been driving around town and to my part-time job every now and then in the ford (one of 2 cars we’ve got), but since it isn’t insured for a driver under 25, the parents won’t let me drive it to the Gong.

But luckily Tristan is moving up to the Gong on Sunday into an apartment with two friends John and Lauren (who happen to be a couple). So he’s kindly giving me a lift up there on Sunday morning. I’ll help out with their moving and stay at my sisters’ place for a few nights and probably head back on a bus on the Tuesday arvo or Wednesday morning.

lol, so there’s my current dilemmas. I probably won’t be able to get that idea out in 7 days as I mentioned before. Oh well, I don’t think anyone will steal it by the time I get a chance to get working on it again.

If you don’t hear from me for a few days, I’m still kicking, but probably on my sisters’ dialup

Nathan Waters
Why does it always happen to me?!

I’m switching to water… watercooling!

Having been running a computer business for almost the past 2 years, I have access to any PC part at wholesale prices and without GST (as, of course, I claim my computer as a business requirement). So I can get things pretty cheap even though I’ve probably spent $2000+ on my current beast. (specs below)

What has been happening in the last few months is that the chipset fan on the Asus A8N-E has been playing up. And what I have been having to do each day I turn the computer back on is get down on my hands and knees and manually try and spin the chipset fan. But today, it just didn’t want to start spinning.

That seems to be a big problem with many technology manufacturers these days in that they spend all this money and research into creating the product quickly, but put little money into some of the most important parts… such as the cooling! If Asus had of spent $2 instead of $0.50 or less on the chipset fan, then there would be many less failures. Overheating can easily fry parts, so it’s a pretty big issue.

Having feared this day when the chipset fan just wouldn’t spin, I had bought a complete watercooling kit a few weeks before ready to install.

So today I have my computer spread out across the dining table with bits and pieces everywhere.

Currently it looks like I’ll only have to do a small little mod with a hack saw to get everything to fit in, so hopefully I’ll be finished by tomorrow and have a nice, quiet beast which I can leave on 24/7. Having watercooling will also allow me to overclock the system at a later date when I find it to be lagging a bit. Though the speed is fine at the moment, so I’ll continue my general computing activities, browsing the net and playing the occasional game… all on a beast suitable for constant high-end gaming, video editing and graphics work. Meh, it’s all good!

The specs:

AMD Athlon 64 3200+
Asus A8N-E
Corsair TWINX 1GB DDR RAM
ELSA 6600GT
2 x 160GB Seagate HDDs
Pioneer 109 DVD-RW
LG DVD-ROM
FDD
LG 17″ LCD 8ms
Thermaltake Shark w/440W TruePower Antec PSU
…and now an Asetek WaterChill CPU/CGA/Chipset watercooling kit

Nathan Waters
High Tech all the way!

If you found my blog through the YoungEntrepreneur.com forums, you’ll have probably seen my sig (signature - see below) which I’ve been recently using as a little bit of advertising for this blog.

Blog: www.nathanwaters.com | Age: 18 | Just Starting: Yes | Total Current Projects: 5 | Total Unique Ideas: 20+

Now, I’m hoping what got you interested in following the link is the fact that I am “Just Starting” and with “20+ Total Unique Ideas”.

How have I managed to come up with so many business ideas?

Well, it’s a little difficult to explain, and could well come down to some brain/mental ability I have to see most opportunities.

To me, I’m lucky as the ideas seem to flow and find me naturally without me needing to sit down and slave away with a pen and paper trying to come up with the next big idea.

However for those of you that require a little more effort to find that idea, here’s my advice:

1. Find A Passion

Find an industry or area which you are passionate about, not solely because it has great profit potential. Usually this industry will be something which you enjoy doing whether there is money involved or not, and in most cases the passion starts as a hobby. So if you don’t have a hobby, find one!

My hobby/passion is technology. So this includes anything computerised: gadgets, the Internet, everything! And so it isn’t surprising that most of the ideas in my notepads and currently being implemented (and soon to be implemented) are all technology related and online-based.

Immerse yourself in your passion and ideas will be knocking at your door.

I’m an Internetaholic, spending at least 4 hours a day on the net. While this is most likely bad for my health, I see it as being enjoyable, informational, entertaining and again, can also spur those ideas.

Today for instance, I stumbled across a video done by someone who was trying to sell a Google Adsense product, by explaining how they make $11,000+ per month from Adsense. I found it interesting, so watched it. The information wasn’t very useful as it contained things I already knew, but it mentioned keywords and how some keywords can fetch up to $40 per click. Now for some odd reason, this sparked an idea in my head related to keywords, which I managed to write a full A4 page on by simply jotting down the idea and briefly how it would work.

2. Target A Market Which You Know

Another strong area in which I have found business opportunities and created ideas in is the education and student markets.

Why? Because I am a student and have been so for the past 12+ years of my life.

I feel I know what students are after and can spot gaps in the market where a business opportunity can fit-in nicely.

So, target markets which you are familiar with, and in most cases these markets will be ones which you are actually currently in or have been apart of within the last few years. This doesn’t have to be a direct link, if you have a close relationship with your grand parents, then it is quite possible that you know the senior market a lot better than most other young aspiring entrepreneurs.

3. Read, Talk And Speak To Everyone

The very first thing I would do is join a community forum of like-minded people. (see my list of favourite forums and resources). In my case, these forums are those for young entrepreneurs.

Depending on your hobby or passion, I would also join a community forum for these too. For many years I heavily participated in a technology forum called Austech.info which more or less created my passion for technology and gave me the knowledge I have today in computers and the Internet.

Read anything on the forums which interest you and don’t be afraid to ask questions or interact. The same applies with blogs. Read as many blogs you can and interact by leaving comments.

I have found that many times in reading a forum or blog post and then going to reply, I suddenly come up with an awesome business idea related to some kind of issue mentioned in the forum thread or blog post. Probably selfishly, when this comes up I tend not to reveal the idea in my reply, instead printing out the thread and jotting down the idea for future work/implementation. (well I don’t want to be literally giving away good ideas!)

You will find that being involved in these forums you’ll also make friends, with whom you’ll share ideas and come up with new ones while talking via IM.

Also remember that the world isn’t all online (yet). Talk and mingle with those in the real world and ideas will again come naturally.

You can even go so far as to ask people what a certain group is after that isn’t currently being supplied by a business. When I was looking for some more ideas targeted at senior citizens, I actually asked both my grandmothers if they had any ideas and actually came up with 2 or 3 ideas.

4. Continually Be On The Lookout

I’m always on the lookout for anything which could allow for a business opportunity.

Listen and lookout for any sort of need or problem which someone may have. Once you find this, then it is usually simple to think of a solution which can then be turned into a business idea, which can then be turned into a real business.

Just be careful that it doesn’t over-run your life (as it can if you’re on the lookout 24/7)

5. Notepad = MUST HAVE

As I mentioned in a previous post about the importance of keeping an ideas notepad… it is a VITAL necessity for when that idea does come to you. So get one. It doesn’t have to be fancy, just practical.

I hoped this post helps you begin, or expand your ability to create great business ideas!

The idea is the easy part, it’s the part of bringing it to life which is the hardest. Good luck!

If anyone has any additional ways in which they find business ideas and would like to share them, please post a comment.

Blog Carnival Backlinks:

http://www.jimestill.com/2006/05/blog-carnival-of-entrpreneurship.html

Nathan Waters
I wouldn’t say I’m an evil genius

The last few minutes were interesting… and yet again disappointing.

Last week I received a call from a guy at the ATO (Australian Tax Office), saying that my name had come up on the screen for a routine checkup.

At first I was worried that I’d done something wrong, which is pretty easy to do with all the gibberish surrounding the Australian tax system. Though I then thought I’d make use of the opportunity and jot down a heap of questions to ask which included:

1) What tax requirements are needed for online business and especially revenue from advertising? (in a partnership situation)
2) Are online earnings monitored?
3) DIY Super? … what did I need to do?
4) When doing a service (computer repair, installation etc), is it alright to print out a blank invoice and write in the details?
5) Mention that the ATO website and articles should be written in plain english… since I had trouble understanding it all and yet knew more about tax and the processes that most people at a tax seminar (which I attended) - and these people were aged 40 and over and had been running businesses for at least 3 years

And so today he was supposed to visit. So I cleaned up my room (business HQ) and spare room (work room).

Well he didn’t arrive and instead called. The checkup was basically just one to make sure that I kept all my records etc. So here I am saying “yep” to all these questions, and on the occasional one having no clue as to what it meant. I did ask what he meant every now and then and he explained it reasonably well. But again I felt frustrated at how I didn’t know the little things such as that I need to keep track of stock, bank accounts and keep a depreciation chart etc.

All these things should be simple and easy to do IF ONLY SOMEONE OR SOMETHING HAD TAUGHT ME!

Now I’m a quick learner as you can see in my resume I came dux in years 8, 9, 10 and 11. When I first started this computer business, blueyeT systems, I read through the entire ATO website… which I can tell you now is a bloody difficult thing to do. I wanted to know everything I needed to and how to do it. But did the ATO website or any website I could find do that? … NO.

These tax people and it seems anything to do with government and business is written in gibberish which only lawyers can understand!

Why not put these things into plain english, people will then know what to do, will then be more enticed to startup their own business… which equals more GST and other taxes for the government and a stronger, more healthy economy.

One of my big problems is that because I just couldn’t find any useful information in books or on the internet, with simple step-by-step guides on running a business in Australia, I then turned to my parents for some answers. Though the thing is that they are both teachers and apart from the one tutoring business, Kumon, which dad ran 5 or more years ago, they both have no clue on business requirements etc.

I remember I once asked dad when filling out a BAS (Business Activity Statement) to report GST, what the difference was between capital and non-capital purchases and which one I needed to put down my purchases in. I mustn’t have got the right answer because all my initial BAS statements showed only non-capital (which I now understand to be purchases which were bought for the purpose of resale). So when I went to the tax man at tax-time, I then had to go back through all the records and workout which purchases were capital (those bought to run the business) and which weren’t.

It’s difficult to get answers about how to run a business by 40+ year old people who are just not on the same wavelength. I remember even walking into my bank (*cough* Commonwealth Bank sux *cough*) and asking for information on setting up a business account (this was at 17 which comparing to many young entrepreneurs is a late start). The lady literally said to me that I was too young to be thinking about starting a business account. She took me into one of the rooms and began explaining the account and all the details, but the way she explained it to me was horrible. Not once did she explain what terms meant and continued non-stop rambling on in gibberish. I think she was basically doing this to alienate and shoo me away.

What I probably should have done is when first starting the business, I should have gone to see a tax accountant (tax-man) and asked him a few questions to basically find out what I needed to do. The problem with this was that the tax-man our family uses is a half-hour drive away (and this was when I was still on my Learner license), and I wasn’t too keen on talking to a 50-year old guy who would talk gibberish and make no sense, someone who wouldn’t be amused with telling a 17-year old how to run a business… and worst of all the $100+ fee per hour! I’m also a very good self-learner - hell, I self-learnt my entire software design and development course in years 11 and 12 due to a teacher who wasn’t interested in actually teaching the stuff - so I’d actually prefer to read in a book or online how to run a business.

So that’s my dilemma. Did I manage to ask the above questions? Nope, the guy seemed more interested in quickly finishing the call and enjoying a 5-star lunch somewhere.

Hopefully in time I’ll learn everything that is required in running a business both online and offline. And hopefully with a few ideas I have created as a result of this experience, I will be able to help other people (both young and old) in similar situations.

Nathan Waters
Hating tax and gibberish

As you may have noted in my last post, I briefly mentioned that an idea I’m working on to hopefully help me out with uni costs this year while I get a few ‘real’ (i.e. those that don’t involve a complete site dedicated to selling ad space) ideas going, with partner Tristan.

Well I was originally thinking of creating a static site and manually adding ‘pixels’ etc, but I thought “hell there must be one of the MDHP scripts out there for free”. Well there is: Rent A Patch.

I downloaded the script, installed it and wow! This thing has an admin backend, an automatic upload and co-ordinate position manager for buyers and also complete and automated PayPal for buyers. Although one thing it doesn’t have which I would have liked is the ability for buyers to login and change their pic, details, link etc.

So at this stage what I plan to do is use bits and pieces from this script to build my idea (which for the cynics out there, is not a MDHP copy-cat). Although, again I have little to no PHP skills, but hopefully it should be alright, if not I can always resort back to the manual idea which should still be alright. My goal now is to get this completed in the next 7 days, then have about 2 weeks to promote it and hopefully attract some buyers. For the first month of launch I’ll be offering a special discount (possibly even sell space for free)… so keep an eye on any updates!

EDIT: Well I’ve been having a couple of solid hours tinkering around in the code, and with my knowledge of PHP… it aint gonna happen!

The modifications would be very simple if I had a basic understanding. So I think what I’ll do is go back to static pages and manual work, although just shove a small uploader in there, and maybe test out a little bit of the PayPal integration. Then if I get a few sales I can hit rentacoder.com again and get someone to make it all automatic. Then if even more sales come I can again find a coder (hopefully someone at uni) to add these additional features I have in mind.

I was briefly running through some numbers in my head and if I can make only 2 sales a week, then I will basically cover my uni accommodation. If Tristan decides/wants to put in half the work at a later date, then only 4 sales will be needed a week. If we managed to have 6 sales a week (i.e. basically 1 per day), then that would cover my on-campus rent, plus give me an extra $86 spending/savings/reinvestment money per week… which ultimately would allow myself to focus spare time on business projects and not have to work part-time for peanuts.

Nathan Waters
Taking pixels to the next level