We asked nine successful investors, self-made millionaires and advisors at The Oracles to share their ideas on how to turn $100 into $1 million.
1. ‘Invest in something you love.’
“It’s difficult to acquire wealth. You either have to save diligently, make a lot of money on a business deal or invest. Creating real security requires saving a lot more than you think. It’s also expensive to continue growing a business after it’s successful.
That’s why I’d invest. Find a solid group of people you trust and combine your $100 with theirs to make an educated and solid, yet aggressive, investment. Invest in what you know — and have a vision for it.
You can even invest emotionally. With real estate, for example, I always pick somewhere I would live if everything went bad. Whatever approach you choose, pick something you love. I believe that if you love something, you’ll be good at it.”
—Bethenny Frankel, founder of Skinnygirl, cast member of “The Real Housewives of New York City,” New York Times best-selling author and guest judge on “Shark Tank.”
2. ‘Buy and sell items from garage sales.’
“Go to garage sales and look for underpriced items like action figures or stuffed animals. Then search eBay’s ‘sold’ listings to see what they’re worth. If there’s a large enough price difference, buy it and sell it on eBay for a profit. Use the rest of your $100 to cover transportation and shipping costs.
(You might be thinking: But Gary, that won’t make $1 million! And you’re probably right. But if you try hard enough, you can make, at the very least, $100,000.)
Then comes the hard part. You have to save what you made. When I was in my 20s, I didn’t go on vacation or buy fancy things. I saved my money instead. And by the time I was in my 30s, I had hundreds of thousands of dollars. Then I invested those hundreds of thousands — and they made millions. You just have to be patient.”
—Gary Vaynerchuk, founder and CEO of VaynerX; New York Times best-selling author of “Crushing It!”
3. ‘Improve and invest in yourself.’
“Of course, there are people who have invested in an opportunity at the right time and made a fortune. Had you invested $100 in Bitcoin in 2010, you would’ve done well. But to me, that’s like playing the lottery.
A more reliable way to get rich with just $100 is to invest it in a course, book, audio program or event that will help you improve yourself. Spend it on developing new skills, gaining knowledge and making powerful connections. When you invest in yourself, you can’t lose.”
—Grant Cardone, sales expert who built a $750 million real estate empire and New York Times best-selling author.
4. ‘Learn a high-income skill.’
“If you don’t have money to start a business, then don’t start a business. Instead, spend your $100 on books and training to learn a skill that will make you $10,000 per month or more.
Choose a high-income skill that helps organizations bring in revenue, such as copywriting, marketing or sales. You can learn them relatively quickly and they’re transferable across many industries.
Once you make enough money, you can turn your side hustle into a full-time job. Then, scale and invest your profits. That’s how you build real wealth. If you’re persistent and good at what you do, you’ll get there. But it won’t happen overnight, so take baby steps.”
—Dan Lok, global educator, best-selling author of “Unlock It!” and founder of Closers.com.
5. ‘Write an e-book.’
“Six years ago, I hired someone for $100 to design my first e-book, ‘Crush The CPA Exam Study Guide.’ It only took about a week to create — and all I had to do was write the copy. It’s been selling on autopilot ever since, and I’ve made at least $100,000 as a result. It was shockingly easy.
Use your knowledge and resources to write a book. Then, pay a designer from a global freelancing platform (e.g., Upwork) $100 to make it look nice and incentive people to sell it for you through an affiliate marketing program. Simply contact the websites that show up in Google when you search for your e-book topic (e.g., type in ‘best CPA study guides’).
Offer to pay them a commission for any sales they send to you. When you leverage their traffic and the trust they have built with their audience, you don’t even have to build a website.”
—Bryce Welker, CEO of online education company Crush Empire and founder of Crush The CPA Exam.
6. ‘Buy a multimillion-dollar business with other peoples’ money.′
“You don’t even need $100 if you’re willing to buy an established business. Many baby boomers are looking for someone trustworthy to take over their multimillion-dollar businesses so that they can retire. It’s common to negotiate a deal where you pay just 30% of the purchase price at closing.
Financial institutions that specialize in acquisitions will lend you the down payment regardless of your credit because they can use the business assets as collateral. You get the business with no money down and pay the remaining 70% over time using earnings from the business.
You don’t even need relevant experience — you just need to find a business that has been around for five or 10 years. The owner will mentor you through the transition, and you can give an expert equity to manage the business for you.
Why doesn’t everyone do this? Because starting the next Uber or Facebook seems sexier than buying professional services or businesses (e.g., in construction or plumbing). But with this approach, you get to skip the struggles that cause 90% of startups to fail.”
—Moran Pober, founder and CEO of Acquisitions.com and former partner at Wekix.com and ABD Assets.
7. ‘Build a personal brand.’
“Entrepreneurship is the sexy thing that everyone wants to be involved in today. You can make millions by building your own brand as an influencer or business. But anyone can have a voice, thanks to social media, so it’s not easy to get heard above the noise.
With so many brands pushing online offers, building a trustworthy one is the secret to success. To do that, you need a clear statement that defines your mission and how it helps others. This message should be based on how you solved your own problems.
People will only follow you if they understand why you do what you do and if they identify with your mission. Film a video explaining your story, then invest $100 in Facebook ads to get it in front of people who are like you and may be in your situation.”
—Torben Platzer, founder and CEO of personal branding agency TPA Media GmbH, founder of business education program SELFMADE and host of the German podcast “SELFMADE.”
8. ‘Start a business on Amazon.’
“I would invest $100 in business education. Start with free online content from proven business leaders, then read every book you can get from the ones that resonate with you.
Next, find a product that you can buy on Alibaba.com for 10% to 30% of what you can sell it for on Amazon. To find products that sell well, look for those with a ‘Best Sellers Rank’ between one and 5,000 in the high-level categories.
Save, hustle or borrow to get another $500 to buy your inventory. Try different marketing strategies to sell the product — starting with social media, online advertising and content marketing. Then stop doing what isn’t working and start doing what is working.
To grow your business, focus on increasing the profit margin and the quantity you sell. Eventually, you want to own the brand so you have a valuable asset that produces wealth.”
—Matt Clark, co-founder and chairman of Amazing.com and co-creator of Amazing Selling Machine.
9. ‘Launch a coaching business.’
“I’ve built two seven-figure businesses from nothing and helped others reach similar success. While I had more than $100 to start, it wasn’t much more.
Once you’ve invested your $100 in developing skills that make you an expert, you can build a coaching, consulting or mentoring business in your area of expertise.
This model is popular for many reasons: It’s fast, effective and requires minimal investment because the only cost is your time. When you’ve made some money from your business, invest the profits in Facebook ads to get more clients.
If you’re good at what you do, you can grow that investment into tens of thousands of dollars. To exceed the million-dollar mark, automate some of the coaching and hire other coaches to work for you.”
—Rudy Mawer, founder and CEO of ROI Machines and RudyMawer.com, Facebook marketing and ad expert, who built a multimillion-dollar business by age 26.
