/entg/ Entrepeneurship General

how much cars fit in that parking garage?
is it outside or under the earth?

>2 an hour
Gna take a while before you break even lol

Just use degenerate ads like Jow Forums does. Problem solved.

>POS Systems
What does this involve? Selling & installing POS systems to small businesses?

Basically right now you've got 3 tiers of filament printers
>$0-180
>$210-360
>$1500+

>$0-180
It's literally all DIY no name chinkshit half clones of real printers, occasionally theres a decent one in the mix
You should avoid this zone unless you have no money or are already rather well versed in 3d printing
>$210-360
This is where the most hobby level printers hang out, everything from the monoprice mini to the CR-10
Its actually pretty hard to buy a bad printer from that range unless you over pay for chink shit
I would personally recommend either the Creality ender3, which according to /3dpg/ is the absolute meme machine of the year and you really wont find a better one outside of the CR-10(mostly for the bigger bed it actually doesnt have a lot of the features the ender does), or the MP mini2, it's small but you can catch it in sale for as low as $188 and it's as plug and play as possible in the hobby
>$1500+
This is "professional" quality printing, these are ultimakers and industrial machines
I can't really speak on these too much because I just run 2 ender's and a MP mini but overall the ultimakers are suppos to be some of the absolute best on the market despite their relatively small print beds

As far as your actual question goes
I would recommend the ender 3 unless you really need the extra 3 or so inches on the printing area
The ender 3 has a few more features(alt ough I have no idea what they are that's just what everyone that has both says), it's cheaper, and the community for it is larger so theres more mods available for sale or to print, it's also completely open source unlike most of the high dollar printers so you can buy any cheap replacement parts or use any free slicer software

Now I have a few questions/entg/
Last night my single person business plan turned into a 3 part partnership, I was initially against it but they ended up showing genuine interest and were 100% willing to put up cash on the spot to grab some specific specialty equipment so use decided to roll with it
Does anyone have any experience with LLCs? Is there a better structure for a small agricultural business? How do I shit test these guys to see if they're even actually for real? And how in the fuck do I do taxes for a business?

Need advice on dropshipping things online with image copyrights. Worried someone will sue us for using their images of the product for the purpose of online resale.

How do I go about setting up vending machines? Just ask local businesses if I can put one in there? How do I sell the idea to them?

Absolutely indebted to you sir thanks for the info. I would like to get an expensive printer later on but for now I'll take your advice and look into the printer you suggested thanks a mil.
Checked
No experience with llcs but definitely you will need to draw up contracts even if you really trust these guys. Talk to a small biz lawyer if possible unless you have a lawyer already. Look online and do some research because sometimes you can find these guys to council you initially for free if your city has a program. I vaguely remember coming across this in my research 2 years ago. Taxes you can get QuickBooks, or an accountant. You may even be able to pirate QuickBooks online. I knownwhat have an app that walk you through things. LLC you will have to go through your city and file papers and pay a fee. Pretty steep if you're in CA. But like 100 bucks in other states. Hope it helps somewhat. Thanks agaiin

Do you mean that the pictures OF the items are copyrighted or do you mean that the items contain copyrighted images (IE band t-shirts etc).

I've been selling copies of some copyrighted/trademarked items for years. Other things of equal character have been taken down within a week (on ebay). It all depends on how strictly a certain brand enforce their rights.

smallbusiness.chron.com/establishment-let-put-up-vending-machine-20422.html

healthyvending.com/guides/how-to-start-a-vending-machine-business/

foodtruckempire.com/how-to/the-pitch/

Here are some links since have no experience. Be wary of people trying to sell you guides and stuff. Maybe there are forums too. Try these first. They're just a few google searched results.

As those threads are the only thing of value on this board, I'd like to share/get some feedback on a couple of ideas I had.

I have a nice and warm rent free storage space of about 60m2. My plan is to fill this space with shit and make a relative who happens to live nearby and is unemployed to take care of preparing/shipping orders. For that reason I am searching for items for resale that are relatively high-priced and do not need a lot of space.
I am not trying to become rich, I just want to make money on the side and yeah... basically make 50k for a WRX Sti.

My gf thinks selling seeds and shit is a nice idea, while I agree as urban gardening is booming, I am not convinced in the work that is involved in that aka sending thousands of letters with seeds for the sake of making a couple of cents per order.
My initial idea was mtg displays and boosters. I am not keen opening packs in order to sell the nice cards individually, but from what I can tell the competition (here in Germany) seems to be pretty strong. Apparently it has to make enough money to maintain a lot games stores and should as a result be profitable without a store and personel to run, I kind of doubt though that it is worth the effort.
My second idea is customizing chucks, have unknown artists / art students create unique designs in limited quantaties like once per size or something like that and sell those for 300€+. I found that there are several shops online doing basically that only not limited and for less money, so I am not sure this is going anywhere.

My last idea is flipping collector's editions of video games. I got some experience in that regard, I know what is probably going to sell well thus increase in price but I don't have (yet) is a wholeseller that is willing to send me larger amounts of those items.

What do you think? Do you know products that are like 0 effort and in demand?

I mean that the pictures themselves are copyrighted. Here's what I mean,

I code my e-commerce website from scratch. If I'm dropshipping items, then I want to be able to use the existing images of the items that the original vendor has. The reason for this is if I can't use the original images, then I have to buy the items before selling them (and thus hold inventory), and I also have to have someone (labor) take high quality photos of each item I purchase. But some people get hit with $7,000, $8,000 copyright citations just because they are using the original vendors images. They pay companies to use reverse image lookups and will not reduce charges. Also AFAIK unfortunately unlike patents copyrights are international, so I cannot get by through regional differences

Tell me your thoughts / ways around this. There must be a way to avoid this or the whole purpose of dropshipping is defeated. I guess it helps to use a site like e-Bay because you're shielded from copyright liability the same way, but what if I want to make my own website?

That's what I guessed. I suggest you do external linking through some image host, thereby giving you deniability. You could also do anonymous whois of the site, thereby obfuscating your identity. You could also try to figure out which of these companies are litigation-happy, and which aren't. IE Chanel has armies of lawyers, Dr Oetker does not.

automatic gate and payment system would be interesting to know how much they cost and which kind of system that is.

shouldn't there also be a 24/7 support in case the power is off and people can't leave or the payment system is fucked?

Anyone give that ebook guide a go? I already have Scrivener and was thinking of writing guidebooks for some software topics. Mostly QA, backend infrastructure and project management.

I like the idea of getting started with vending machines

Thanks for this advice, where did you learn about this? Any resources on e-commerce you can suggest that actually deal with these kinds of practical issues? Or is it almost all inside the industry / networking?

Btw I should say I'm actually most interested in dropshipping from a site like JD.Com, not a US based brand. Any advice on that situation? Would not be selling in US markets (thinking Republic of Georga)

My pleasure. My knowledge comes from basic common sense derived from making a living online in about 20 different fields (but still not getting rich) for about 20 years now.

>jd.com
>georgia
I would have no concern at all regarding the copyrights then. Just put it up there and scale it up. In the unlikely event that you get into trouble, just go with the flow. If you still are concerned, just put a macro in Photoshop that flips all your images horizontally + rename them. That should put Google Reverse Image Search out of the equation.

Need help if anyone has experience with authority sites

Been thinking of something to build instead of my usual research today. Do you think Jow Forums would go for bitcoin settled options contracts? I could definitely build a platform for that. Think bitmex except with even more insane amounts of faggotry.

Should mention too, since contracts are bitcoin settled the options could be for ANYTHING. Wanna gamble on $TSLA but don't/can't transfer funds to a broker? Just use bitcoin.

Although dealing with the SEC might be a bitch and a half though.

Reselling wise I always shill the special edition shoes but you have to constantly be on the lookout for them and keep up with trends. It's not difficult or anything you just have to actively look for new releases and artist collabs and see what's worth it. Use sneakernews and hypebeast. Ignore rapper/nig shoes because they release every week. Stick to artist collabs, anime shoes, Japanese and Korean releases.
Also you could grow microgreens and sell to restaurants. There are tons of youtube videos about this. If you have the space I don't think it's too expensive.
I clicked on it and have it open in a tab but haven't read through the whole thing. From what I've seen it's literally step by stepson how to publish and market it. Lots of steps though.

searching for products to dropship sucks, even at break even the price is too inflated so there's no demand for an overpriced product

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How about a web comic about a cute autistic girl, to spread autism awareness? Can that be monetized if it gains popularity?

Any of you guys get a real estate liscence and do it on evenings/weekends as a second job? I do t think I'd mind going on house tours with people after my day job and it would get me out of the house and talking to people.

Yeah seems pretty comprehensive. I think I'll give it a go and report back in one of these threads, already have a lot of material written.

I'm sure it could be monetized with no issue from the beginning
However, i am reminded of a similar book, maybe a series actually, about a young autistic girl and her exploits
you should probably look into that first

>"entrepreneurship"
>so here's how you be a slumlord
lol

My boss does this. He is a terrible manager tho. Lol im sure it's pretty good sounds chill too. You should go for it everyone says you can make good money. Do t know any info I can share though sorry.
Hey good luck! Yeah let us know how it goes hope you find something lucrative
:^)

Germany? Carbon fiber aftermarket parts for popular cars. Easy to make once you get the hang of it. Can even take custom orders. Not huge space wise, medium overhead.

Someone bigger in Austria did that and had to shut this year.
But I am not sure exactly why.

Fidget spinners

Paid for my third house

They we're probably doing it wring, or had to hire designers and trying to make bodykits.

The key is to mimic exact specifications of factory plastic/metal parts and reproduce but in carbon fiber. Do some surveys and see which popular car has the most interest for this. If someone made cheap CF parts for E36-E90 3-series they would be a rich man

Thanks for the encouragement. I think I need to start just taking some leaps and trying things out. Are some of you guys also interested in this? I'm not sure if it'll work out for me, but for the time being I'd be willing to post any information I find.

Nice hustle dude

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Yeah of course dude. I'd do it but I like to have my weekends now to work on my ebooks and run my errands. Talking to people in a nice house and maybe having snacks sounds breddy good.

Interested in slum lording.. aren't ATMs a big scam? When I was a kid, some guy my dad was friends with tried to get into them and lost his fucking house.

I can manage ur shit user. Do u pay?

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How? Did he stop paying his mortgage? Original OP bought the machines, stocked with his own cash, had them put in nightclubs and stuff to rip off drunk people. He said he does fairly well. I think it's different in other countries but here in America you can have 3rd party atms.

So is there a dedicated forum to this kind of stuff? Maybe like a subplebbit or an actual forum?

Anyway, I'm a basic bitch by Jow Forumseng/ standards (firewood, handyman, various drugs, etc - and broke) but I'm gonna be a regular henceforth and really want to step the fuck up. Is getting a contractors license a good idea? One interesting endeavor, imo, is getting into growing gourmet mushrooms and selling to local restaurants. I live near pdx, and have been growing mushies for awhile, so maybe it's actually and finally worth pursuing. Another half baked idea I had the other day was pirating, printing and self binding textbooks and selling them to university kiddos at a substantially lowered price compared to the real deal. Anyway, just wanted to bring a fair share to table before asking too much.

I don't care if it's not 'passive' so much (right now anyway) I just need money and hate other people making my schedule.

Is dropshopping seriously still a thing? How is that not oversatured by pajeet and his friends? And mr robo hand, how do you actually marke the ebooks? I've always thought that's a total joke of a way to make money given the existence and prevelance of pirating (thankfully).

Let's get a real forum though, I just spent 5 solid minutes solving captchas.

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There is fastlane

>microgreens
fuck why am I not doing this, I already garden and it goes hand-in-fucking-hand with the gourmet shrooms idea

nobody copy me if you live in my area pls

also, Jow Forumseng, like bizenga.. bazinga lmao

Hey guys, I'm trying to write a business plan. The operational section is really throwing me for a loop since I don't really have the time to put in to be at an office and shit. I still have my full time job and I really can't afford AT ALL to quit it. I have no savings, only debt.

>pirating, printing and self binding textbook

This is not a bad idea, I know of some people that do it, but let other people do the "pirating". You are just a service provider that accepts their PDFs .

You can get excellent printers from bankruptcy auctions. Consider getting service contracts for them as well. Then we are talking about CBC binding or a cool device like the Sterling Digibinder youtube.com/watch?v=8bJwitJJSnQ

could i get a no bs link or reliable information about what affiliate marketing is? Someone on Jow Forums said I should look into it before the thread pruned. I'm on youtube anyway, I sort of get what they're saying. It's just very wishy washy, pictures of dudes in their lambos and what not. I don't care about being rich, I just want to pay my school loans off. I owe over 120k still

damn I was originally looking at just getting a cheap used $30 or so brother laser printer via goodwill but this would be dope.

my only concern is getting busted, not sure how I'd safely advertise w/o getting the ban hammer irl.

can you link? couldn't find the right site

well, you need to have the students locate their copyrighted material themselves. Then upload it to your service. There are "safe harbor" clauses for service providers. It is not your job to police your users.

IF you wish to sell the copyrighted material yourself, just go to Aspkin.com and find people that sell Paypals etc. Then send the books anonymously through UPS.

Course literature could have 1000 pages or more. CBC bind can handle up to 800 pages. Above that you need to punch the pages and put in binders .The Perfect Paperback type that you use the Sterling Digibinder for has a capacity of maybe 500 - 600 pages.

The key to this game is cheap costs per copy and printing speed. What you need are "production printers". Some Konica Bizhub versions print 22 pages a minute. Some print 75. That makes one hell of a difference. You also want to read up on "toner chips". Those enable you to refill toner and sometimes bring down printing costs to a fifth of a cent per page. If you sell a 1000 page course literature book for $100 and you pay peanuts for printing + postage, then we are talking about real profits.

My idea of the process was more:
>find essential texts that are pretty pricey (like James Stewart's Calculus, 1000th edition)
>download relevant books from libgen
>print, bind
>post ads around local school

But I like your idea of keeping it legal :-)

>CBC bind
Hypothetically, If it exceeded 800 pages, I'd probably just divide into seperate volumes and charge more, or look into binders. But at any rate, I don't have the money for a digibind, and the lower overhead of a simple laser printer is appealing given I have no actual customers as of now. This means binding it by hand like this guy: youtube.com/watch?v=LdeKG4xz0uQ

Of course it'd be ideal to start advertising online with a real industrial printer like the digibind asap. The brother printer's can print around 10k pages off a $30 cartridge, which isn't too shabby, but pales in comparison to that Sterling beast. I'll definately look into sourcing one, maybe it's worth the overhead immediately, I'm just skeptical about it given I don't have any sales lined up currently.

And thanks for the info. Searching around, there are certainly a lot pdf printing and binding service providers out there.. I don't know how I'd differentiate myself if I plan to sell nationally not just locally..

>how to differentiate myself

Well, you have one or two guys online that are really cheap and will let you print "anything". But none as cheap as somebody that has the ability to use a toner chip to "crack" a toner and refill it.

> 10k pages off a $30 cartridge,
That is probably at 5% coverage. Most actual texts are between 10-15% actually, so that means 5000 pages at $30. Then labor costs are quite high. Paper punching is notorious to "not work" automatically, so that is a time consuming manual job.

I'm working on that it's very slowly coming along, keep visiting /entg/ to keep updated with this thread and the future forum.

>I'm working on that
what did (you) mean by that?

Pirate and make a pdf copy and put on usb sticks instead. A lot easier can get 10 for 40 bucks on ebay. Probably more for less GB.

On the ebooks im just copying all my shit down digitally first and then looking into inputting in the software. Boomers might buy it and if people find it they might purchase it. Not getting too serious about it but it could be passive small income to just get my feet wet. If I wrote like 100 books over the course of a few years I could make okay passive cash. Ya never know.

wait waht? and just sell the usb sticks? my potential customers were all the people I've met a local college that "had to have a physical copy, can't learn off a screen".. Do people actually by USB sticks just for a pdf?

yeah I like the ebook potential, if nobody buys it, whatever, but if they do the income scales so well and it has massive upside potential, just hard to find a good niche

From what I understand you just advertise other people's products through your link. If someone clicks your link and purchases that item you get a percentage of the item sold. My understanding is stuff like clickbank. You shill someone's product on other websites and forums and drop your link.

I hate that fastlane is full of people who seem way dumber than me but make way more money and live a way better life just 'hustling'

and it's all just so mystical, I guess my balls are closer to talc pebbles than steel boulders cuz some of these guys make insane leaps.

Idk it just sounded a lot easier than book binding. I mean I'm sure you could fit multiple books maybe on the usb? I also just assumed most students use laptops. It's just my brainlet 2 cents. The other user sounded like he knows his stuff better though.

I'm that other user. I sell USB sticks and I sell printed copies too. People want different things, and sometimes they want both. As long as it makes me a buck, I will sell it

>way dumber than me and makes more money
Welcome to life my friend
Lol iktf

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Ok, so I’ve been thinking of something lately that may work and also fail miserably - a cellphone (and maybe certain electronic) repair business. It’s very simple and easy work that could easily make you a few hundred per day.

I work at a cellphone store and I can’t tell you how many times people come in with broken phones, screens in particular (with simple issues I know how to fix) that are willing to pay money to get them fixed, yet cannot be done at our store because we don’t have the means to do so.

I’ve had people offer me $100 dollars to fix their phones but I can’t because I don’t want to get fired. But I’m thinking about saying fuck it, starting up a *small* gig where I drive to people to fix their shit and then eventually open a small shop of some sort where I do it.

Obviously it’s a very competitive market but I’ll market to boomers and millennials in a certain way that will hopefully drive traffic. Has anyone done this type of work or do you know anyone that does?

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I just hadn't really seen it such high concentrations before.. jesus. At least it's motivational.

You're very kind to be helping a potential direct competitor in such a candid manner. Maybe I'll just middleman for you at my campus until I can afford one of those beasts you mentioned lmao.
Is there a word for the uneasy yearning an aspiring "entreprenure" feels as they wait in what seems to be a living purgatory with no sign of escaping it? Like you're just waiting for an idea or a sequence of events that may never come.

I payed 30 to get a battery replacement. I didn't have the tools to do it. And I needed it done. I called 3 places only one was willing to take the chance and use the battery I had already prepurchased.

>mushrooms and microgreens
Hey fuck off we're full
Seriously though I just started a rack of micros and I've got 3 restaurants and a market excited before I cut the first stalk
The key is being the first one or at least the flashiest talker, any random jagoff can grow micros, it takes real effort to sell them, especially if you're the first because absolutely no one will know what they are
Mushrooms, especially "gourmet", are a fucking cakewalk all the way around you just have to learn the grow cycles to time your harvests properly

>potential direct competitor
It's a big world and I have some unique angles + experience. Chances are I will never lose a buck due to me telling the world about this. If you are close to an American uni and can sell this locally, I am not in any position to compete with you, so best of luck to you. I am doing my stuff from coffeeshops in SEA. IF I were in your position I would get a colour production printer and the Sterling Digibinder and make perfect copies of books (yes, there are actual print master files in PDF format for some of them to be found). Sell them as originals and undercutting the lowest priced seller with 10%

> living purgatory
Well, that purgatory CAN be the state of analysis paralysis. Over-thinking while waiting for something to happen.

Typo lmao “I’ve been working on it “

what state r u in? pls no pdx, OR.. Is the microgreens thing really oversatured? I assume not if no one knows what they are..

>mushrooms
yeah I've been growing these puppies for years, just never really had the space available to expand out until now, but I can see the grow cycles being very important when you have buyers that need them on select dates.

lol ok but what do you mean by that? getting a Jow Forums elites forum set up? I want a premium membership if so for toasting in this epic bred b4hand. And no captchas on your site pls for the love of god

Yeah again the digi would be awhile off, but then again I've got school for awhile longer so maybe I can make it happen. Thanks for being a gold mine for some seriously esoteric stuff.

and I don't think I'm overthinking much, I try to have as big of an "attack surface" on this as i can and throw everything and the kitchen sink into an ideas.txt file, but it's nothing original.. yet?

Simple shit. I bought a screen for my coworkers phone and just had him pay me for it and then an extra 30 for the “”””labor””””. It took me all of 10 minutes to do during break at my job here.

I figured if I do that multiple times with random people who I will obviously charge way more than $30, I’ll be set to make a lot more.

I gotta make a “trendy and hip” setting to attract the NPCs and to make more money

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>I try to have as big of an "attack surface" on this as i can and throw everything and the kitchen sink

Sounds good. IMHO, try ONE thing out of those things you are planning and see if you can make a tiny amount of money from it. Not a lot. Just 10-100 bucks. See if something "sticks". Good luck in all your endeavours.

Manufacture and sell different items to oil and gas industry. I'm an engineer and my partner works in China. We specialize in injection molding so we just make our own products to sell. Kinda fun.

Alabama
There arent very many for profit farms out there, theres a handful of hobbyists but the market is very open, unless you live in the same neighborhood as one of the YouTube guys
The big money is in grocery stores, obviously, but they can be really tricky to get into

Tileanon here. I work about 30 hours a week laying tiles in kitchens and bathrooms. I'll make about $75k this year.

I would say I'm happy but this work is really fucking up my spine. People preach about body posture but you can only do so much. The trades will damage your back and joints.

So I'm currently getting my real estate license and seeing if that gives me an exit.

So how'd you get your first customers lined up - just cold calling or what? What's your overhead so far? And do you plan on farming straight through the winter? I'm going to be setting up an indoor room here soon, hopefully there's no YouTube Chad looming over me already.

I know a guy who runs a real estate Jow Forums very half assed, I've been thinking about getting a liscense to help out. What do you even do, just give tours of houses and get some fat commission? Anything else they do?

I've always hated doing tile for the reasons you mentioned. Most trades, really.

Hey, I was just thinking about this earlier in the thread. Did some digging this afternoon and it seems like a bit of a hassle to get up and running.
If your buddy is a broker/you have connections with people you've worked with, that's a huge advantage and you should do it 100%. When you get a license, you're only a "salesperson", and you aren't allowed to work for yourself legally. You need to work for a broker.
It seems like it can be pretty hard to find a broker to let you set up shop with them if you're planning on being part time, because a full time person would probably bring in more money for them. Also, you need a few years working for someone else before you qualify for a broker's license.
With the classes, exam fee, license fee, and maybe fees to your broker to "rent" your desk/office i think it would be in the $1-5k area to get going, being conservative.
This is all a bit of a bummer because I wasn't hoping for a second desk job working at some company.
A lot of people seem to work with a partner or team when they're part time where you all split commission but can fill in for when others are at their other job or otherwise not available. Seems like a situation where getting in with the right people is pretty key at the start. I'm gonna keep looking into this stuff, if you guys would like to chat about it more here that would be cool.

Damn its nice seeing ENTG threads becoming popular again. I saw an IMG thread the other day and it got me curious has anyone here ever tried blogging as a source of income? The thread had some pretty good advice about getting started but I was curious if anyone here knew of any good bots to help grow your follower numbers. So far this guide has helped me find more mainstream ones, but I'm sure there have to be some that are overlooked yet work well.

bluleadz.com/blog/best-free-social-media-management-tools

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I know a woman that owns a restuarant and a friend of mines aunt has a booth at a farmers market, I got some names and info from them and called them
2 were intrigued, the other I just happened to be talking to my dad about it while we were in a restuarant and it cir around to the head chef and he came out to talk about it
My set up is indoors actually, it's easier overall to keep them in the right temp and humidity range
I'm currently $270 deep, if my boys are for real that's going to go up quite a bit here in the week or so either the legal fees to set up the LLC or whatever we go with

Interesting user, thanks for the response. Hopefully the guy I know is a broker, he's an older guy who basically just bought out the (very small) town's real estate business, and all he really does with it forward customers to the big leagues for a commission, but I KNOW he could be making a lot more of it, I just don't have the gall to hard dick myself into that spot but maybe I'll go for it.

>Damn its nice seeing ENTG threads becoming popular again.
pretty sure there's a 100% correlation with btc dying and these threads thriving lmao. I haven't tried blogging, other then getting skeleton's on wordpress, but my interest in emacs org mode has rekindled the blogging idea. I'll check that thread and link out, thanks.

And if you haven't used org mode, maybe look into it for blogging. IMHO emacs is GOAT so org is definately worth learning for it's own sake, not just blogging.

>$270
finally something I can afford, thanks user. what's the breakdown of that $270? mostly lighting, I assume, followed by soil, trays then seeds?

Anyone have tips on instagram? I've realized that my future career field has very little exposure on instagram from US posters but seems heavily promoted from other parts of the world. Getting followers isn't a problem since all my peers and I go to school for this very field (plus the alumni network is heavily involved). I'm thinking of just promoting on a general basis (like facts, how to's, news, etc) and soon expand into advertising products for it (maybe building my own products after graduating in a couple years). What do you think?

brabantfarms.com/grow-your-own/
It's about half of what he recommends to get started, he wants you to start with 2 shelves for some reason but you can grow 9 trays on one shelf I really dont need that much growspace right now
I definitely recommend watching his videos as well, it's what actually sent me over the edge to buy, everyone else was actually rather vague about the whole process or wanted you to pay $300 for a fucking college course on greens

If he owns the place he should be a broker. There has to be a broker there for you to do anything, so it's probably him. On the other hand, I think you may be able to refer people without being a broker, so he could very well be just getting those referral bucks.
I'd check into your state's laws about licenses. You may be able to work with him referring people away for a year or two until you're eligible for the broker exam, then get that license and start closing the deals yourself.