My strange dream and now plan!

[Double to a million]

Hi everyone and happy new year, if i have put anything I shouldn't have on here please let me know.

Firstly a little about me, I am a 34 year old mother of 4 living in Leeds. I am a house wife and my partner works full time. We are just a normal happy family, we make ends meet and have a holiday every year but are not rich but we do ok like most other families. I used to work as an estate agent before I had my kids and my partner works in sales. I am not special, I do not have any amazing qualifications, and I am not super intelligent but I am very strong willed and if I set myself a task I will always see it through to the end!

Anyway enough about me and back to my post. I had the most vivid dream the other night which started my thinking and planning. The dream would take too long to my write on here but I am going to start a blog shortly (might need some pointers how to set one up!) and will write it all down on there.

The dream in short form involved me starting with £20 and ended up over a million pounds for charity! In my dream lots of people got on board and helped, the media were involved and in my dream there was a very happy ending.

Now back down to earth and the real world I know I may come across mad but I have a plan! I am going to start with £20 of my own money (was a Christmas present to me from my nan) and I am going to use the money to get to a million for charity. I know there will be plenty of people who doubt that this is possible but I have time and energy on my side. It might take me 10 years, I might only get to £40, I might get hit by a bus, who knows in this life but if you don't try you will never know.

I have researched on the Internet my plans to double from £20 to the million mark which actually brought me to this site. The doubling is going to work like this
£20, £40, £80, £160, £320, £640, £1280, £2560, £5000 ( to keep it simple), £10000, £20000, £40000, £80000, £160000, £320000, £640000, £1280000

I am going to need lots of help, whether it be advice, maybe do some business and more than anything moral support! The main thing that I ask is please be supportive of me and my plan, I know not all people are going to like the plan but I really think it will do me the world of good making new friends and contacts and seeing if I can make this work! Plus it might give some budding entrepreneurs some ideas for themselves (if I can make something work anyone can).

Whatever money I make will go to charity and maybe towards a foundation to helping new business startups? The only money I would make for myself would be anything over and above the million pound target, nothing else.

Thoughts?

 

[B&H Digital]

What would you be doing to double this money?

It sounds like a really bizarre plan that you may think will be easier that it is, but like you said, you seem strong willed and determined, so who knows?

Wish you all the best

 

[Paul_Rosser]

So whats the plan ?

How are you going to go about the first step of turning the £20 into £40 ?

 

[VSpy1]

Sounds great and I wish you well..... I would also wonder how you plan to double your money - especially as the amounts get larger..

 

[Double to a million]

Thank you for the replies so far. Again I will be documenting everything on a blog when I get round to doing it (probably when the kids are back at school).

On that I will show what I have bought and from where and where I sold the items. I am not just looking at buying and selling though, there are lots of other ways to make money

In regards to where I am up to at present I have just bought a job lot of 5 second hand vacuum cleaners from a seller on gumtree. Currently cleaning them up in my kitchen and have someone coming to buy one tonight for £20 so will have my stake money back and 4 hoovers left so the £40 targets in sight!

The thing that I can't get my head around at the minute is the tax side of things. Will have to have a chat with an accountant.

 

[Billmccallum]

where will the money be kept? who will account for it? what kind of vehicle will you use for the foundation, CIC, Co. Ltd by Guarantee, charity?

I used to work for a youth enterprise agency and would be interested in helping... I know its a long shot, but I'm a sucker for the underdog.

 

[mobious]

easy, 16 lucky guesses on red or black roulette wheel

 

[Double to a million]

In regards where will the money be kept, it will be in my pretend heinze baked beans tin!! But seriously I would be happy for an independent party to keep hold of the money. Maybe the ukbusinessforums themselves could do that? Just a thought. In regards to vehicle I will be using my own to start with and storage wise I can use a space in my partners works warehouse. In regards to the other items I will need an accountant, again an indeed one would be best.

Like the roulette wheel option, 2 problems though 1. Im not lucky at all. 2. There is no pride in winning the money against making it

 

[Double to a million]

And billmccallum thank you for the offer of help, that would be fantastic. And the best bets are always on the underdogs! X

 

[Billmccallum]

In regards where will the money be kept, it will be in my pretend heinze baked beans tin!! But seriously I would be happy for an independent party to keep hold of the money. Maybe the ukbusinessforums themselves could do that? Just a thought. In regards to vehicle I will be using my own to start with and storage wise I can use a space in my partners works warehouse. In regards to the other items I will need an accountant, again an indeed one would be best.

Like the roulette wheel option, 2 problems though 1. Im not lucky at all. 2. There is no pride in winning the money against making it

If you are planning a charitable adventure, you need to ensure that everything is legal and has a clear audit trail, to cover both yourself and those who support you, a bank account that needs two independent signatures is the best way forward.

As for vehicle, I didn't mean transport (apologies for confusing you) I meant a corporate body of some kind a company limited by guarantee is probably your best option if you plan to raise funds by buying and selling things (a charity cannot trade in the normal way that one would expect).

Although you could do this as a community organisation (with or without a constitution) rather than a corporate body, the way you are perceived by the wider community can hinge on how you set it up.

Without some form of structure, it will be you raising money, nobody will know or be assured that it is actually charitable and it could mean you are responsible for tax liabilites from making profit.

 

[Double to a million]

Ok so first hurdle to get over or around!! Which way would you suggest to do it bill?

 

[Billmccallum]

Ok so first hurdle to get over or around!! Which way would you suggest to do it bill?

Which way to go depends very much on what you want to achieve, both short term and long term.

From the outset, I would go for a company limited by guarantee, with very specific objects which relate to the charitable activity (you can always add an additional element to cover any trading activity).

Finding like-minded people to join you would be useful, as one person you will have difficulty in developing in the longer term.

One key issue is to formulate what you want to do with the money when you do raise it? Your unique selling point is going to be that you are selling stuff to raise money for charitable objectives, so you need to be clear what those objectives are and that they are in fact charitable.

Feel free to PM if you need help.

Bill

 

[1starsbaby]

This sounds very much like the Midas Method by Stuart Goldsmith......if it was easy we'd all be doubling up to a million but it gets much harder as the sums increase and you can easily lose the original stake whilst trying to "double" up. I looked into it a few years ago, you need an incredible amount of self-will and commitment not to spend any of the money along the way! and Goldsmith makes his millions by selling the idea to others... However......
I wish you every success and you never know, sometimes dreams do come true

 

[drdes]

Great idea!

Here are the steps you need to take:

1. Decide on charity or charities that will share the £1m (and the %).
2. Set up a legal structure whereby (a) you take NO money out for yourself (no wages, salary etc..) and (b) that protects the money such that it going to the charities is assured.
3. Start figuring out how you are going to do it - if you dont know, here is how I would do it - sit and think of 16 things you will do - one for each "double" - selling your hoovers, cake sale, marathon/fun run etc.. as you get closer to the £1m, your endeavours will need to be "bigger"! (Too late for me to think of too many but others may have better ideas). I am sure UKBF could easily come in at Double 4 where we could all raise £320 for you to do something entertaining on the forum (before the jokes come - keep it clean people!) - I'm sure the mods could sticky this if properly set up (not sure of T&Cs here but will defer)

At the same time, start your blog and set up a facebook/twitter page (free and pretty easy). As you double up and the numbers get bigger, you should start attracting local media and if you get towards the end, national too!

Also set up a just giving page (or one of the others - make sure its one with a low commission)

I think its very doable if you set your mind to it.

 

[killerdog]

I also read an intresting book many years ago, it was called 'How to stop working and make millions' (that isnt a joke, I brought that book).
One thing stuck with me from it, if I had £1 and doubled it every day, I would have £1million in 3 weeks.
Altough turning £1 into £2 or £50 in to £100 could be easy, what happens at the £5000 mark, or £250,000, £500,000?
How do you double that amount and would you be willing to spend/gamble that much?

 

[CKG]

Compounding modest sums of capital over time at an above average rate of return is what business is all about really.

If the op doubled her money once every 12 months at a rate of 100% the target would be hit in around 16 years.

If the avergae person just saved £2K a year and compounded it at 30% they'd have a pretty useful stash of cash inside a decade and a couple of mill inside 20 years.

It's doable if you want it enough.

 

[James Greg]

Plan is supper and i hope you can true your strange dream. Best of luck