My 17 Year Old Daughter's Car Broke Down

Greetings Group,

I have a plea for help and have posted this at another forum.

What a mess it was! My 17 year old college daughter was stranded in the middle of nowhere, late at night, miles from home and not a phone within 5 miles.

When she finally did call home she was exhausted, crying and scared to death.

"Dad, my car started smoking and then it locked up and I almost got hit by a BIG truck. My car won't start, I've got class tomorrow and I have to go to work the next day. WHAT AM I GOING TO DO?"

After calming her down, and finding out where she was broke down, I made the long drive north.

It was very dark when I got there and quite desolet. Kind of scary. The first thing I did when I got there, was give my daughter the biggest hug she ever got. Then I went to looking under the hood.

After looking under the hood with my mini mag light, there was fluid everywhere. So I knew right then, that her car could not be fixed by me, but needed to go to a mechanic's $$$hop.

Closing the hood, I got out the tow strap and began the long tow home. TWO HOURS later, we pull into the driveway.

The next morning I got back under the hood to take a closer look. I still could not determine what needed to be repaired. All I knew was that my daughter's repair bill was going to be high.

I made some calls to local mechanics I know personally. I wished I hadn't. "Woody, you are looking at close to $600.

Being that my daughter goes to college twice a week and works part time 4 days a week, her vehicle being broke down has brought her to the point of quitting.

Do you remember those days?

I've told her that this problem can and will be solved and not to give up. I told her I would go online and sell items on ebay or craigslist to try and help her out.

After much brain storming and trying to figure out what I could sell, I realized that I could offer my home study course to help offset my daughter's car repair bill.

So I appeal to the Seeds of Wisdom group for help. If you would like to help a 17 year old college kid, who works part time to pay her tutition, books, car insurance and car payment, get her transportation up and running, so she can keep going to school and working, I will exchange your $20 donation for a copy of my home study course.

Just go to Paypal and send the $20 to [email protected] and mark it as "Donation For Car Repair".

When we receive an email from Paypal, I will email you later in the day with the home study course attached in a pdf formatted file.

Thanks for all your help.
Woody Quiñones

Woody, $600 is not that large of an amount, why not just pay her bill to repair car and set her up on a payment plan to pay you back?

[Ankesh]

Why? Whats the purpose?

It maybe that you just tried a tactic some marketers use - give any Reason to discount a product and sell it. But the reason was just not good enough.

There were some instant red flags raised that made your reason not powerful enough.

Giving a discount on your product to help your daughter out:

1. de-values your product (especially when just recently you asked for $50 to just review it) (also what about people who paid you $200 to buy the course?)

2. doesn't teach your daughter anything at all (because it is your product and you are doing all the work)

3. You can yourself give the money to your daughter - why ask 30 people to pay $20?

These are all the objections that came to my mind.

--

Ok I think your post was a tactic. But I'm not 100% sure now that I read your post again. (The objections did come to my mind - whether it was a tactic or not...)

Is it a tactic or a real plea for help?

I just cringed when I read that.

It's obvious that this wasn't about a "lesson" for Woody's daughter.

I'm sure he thought long and hard about posting this but sometimes people take desperate measures when they don't have cash available and need it badly as I'm sure the case is here.

Who of us hasn't been there?

Still, I think it was the wrong approach, especially after doing everyone a "favor" a couple weeks ago by offering his course for $50.

Some people here that bought it are going to be pissed! Just as I'm sure the people who spent $200 were pissed when it was offered for $50 which I assumed was just another "I need some cash badly" attempt.

I'm not trying to be hard on Woody here, but if I were him, I'd be asking the powers that be to remove this post to avoid future embarrasment like on http://www.friendsinbusiness.com/boa.../120242#120242

Just some advice for Woody....

If a $600 situation puts your life in a bind, it might be time to start looking in a new direction and for a new business.

Again, not trying to be hard on you, just realistic.

Jim

We have all had our backs against the wall when in comes to money, especially at the age of 17!

So instead of selling your report for less than its value, maybe it would be a better "LIFE LESSON" for your daughter if she had to create some of that dough herself.

Your report and 10 page preview seem to be well laid out.
Maybe your report will be the same and will teach folks how to put dough in their pockets.

So here is my idea to not only help your daughter today, but help her for a lifetime. (if you give someone a fish, you feed them for a day, if you teach someone how to fish you feed them for a lifetime! (or however that saying goes))
................................

With her back against the wall, have her follow your program and produce the mugs so she can pay for it herself.
Heck she is in a college town, I don't think that it would be hard to set it up.

She will make the money and then some for her pockets.
How long will it take her at her job to make 2-3K working part-time 2 days per week?

If you help her on the first one, she may just set up another one of 2 of the deals that will allow her more dough than her regular job and allow her to concentrate on her education full-time right now!

Teaching your daughter how to fish right now with your guidance, could be the best bet for her in her current hurdle.
(It doesn't hurt that you have her full attention at the moment as her back is against the wall)
I bet she could even barter the repair for an ad on a mug!!
Everything after that is dough int the bank for your daughter.



Teens are a tough breed, I remember being one, and dread my own children becoming teens.

It is not often a parent has the upperhand on a know-it-all-teen (sorry woody if your daughter isn't a know-it-al, just recalling my own youth)

This could truly be your way in, and your opp to show your daughter how life is in the real world.

Instead of showing how how to beg, show her how to make in on her own!

Best of luck,
Jason

The different mechanics I spoke to all told me that the cost of the repairs could be around $600 or more. Being that she has a little car and the engine sits sideways, her vehicle cannot be worked on easily. ( Special Note to self. Do not buy a Hyundai )

Not knowing how much more I decided to put up my home study course and take a loss to help her get back on the road quickly.

I don't have to offer the study course. It's just the quickest thing that came to mind that I could sell to help her out. That was my only intention. You can read more into it if you want. I do not care.

As for my daughter being out late, she was on her way home from school when she broke down. She carries a full class load and works part time and has no more hours in the day to do anything else.

Woody Quinones

Some interesting points and ideas...

Mr. Stoft is among a growing group of teenagers who are creating their own slice of capitalism, one sale at a time. Part of the reason is that households with teenagers typically have 35 consumer electronic products, on average, compared with 24 products at homes with no teenagers, said Joe Bates, director of research for the Consumer Electronics Association, based in Arlington, Va. In the 1980s, he said, the typical household had four or five such devices.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/18/bu...rssnyt&emc=rss

Hyundai vehicles by the way are Great vehicles for “Chatteling” as there are many Good models...

Hyundai and Every other model out there...

That you can Buy Low and Sell High.

The Key Thing with Investing in Vehicles is that they Must be Well maintained which Unfortunately Many Don't!

Years ago, I Bought and Drove vehicles for 6 months to 18 months for FREE.

And then Sold them for Very Good Money!

The Solution to Success....

I Joint Ventured with a Smart Mechanic who just Loved fixing them...

Phil

Woody,

I don't think I "read more into it" I think your situation is quite obvious.

No way of saying it without sounding like a jerk so I'll just go ahead and be the jerk....

If you had the money to fix the car, you would have never made that offer.

Nothing wrong with not having the cash - we've all been there.

But you made it sound like this was about helping your daughter and not about helping you. You need to get the car fixed, not her.

Also, you mentioned that $20 was selling your book "at a loss" ?!?!?! Huh?

It's an ebook - ANY money you get for it is pure profit.

What you actually ended up doing here was to devalue it by a substantial amount.

Do you honestly think that anyone who reads your post will ever consider buying it for $200 now? Or even the $50 that you had it at last week?

I offered to review it for you a couple of weeks ago when you were asking for reviews and I think you know that I had no intention of ever using it. My offer was to try to help you out and nothing other than that.

I tried to explain that to you but you insisted that if I wanted to review it for you that I should pay the $50 for it. WTF?

I was offering you a couple hours of my time (that doesn't come cheap BTW) for nothing in return and you thought I should pay you for the privledge?

It became real obvious to me at that point that it wasn't the review you were after, it was the $50

Same thing this time around.

I think you need a lesson in "values", both monitarely and personal.

Jim

I can relate personal experience to this as well.
Here is my story....

I have a "car guy buddy" that wanted to make more money.
I offered him an opp that would have made us partners of sorts...
I offered to purchase a vehicle, my cash, for $400.
My detailing experience, his mechanical know how and we could flip this this for for a $1k profit after parts.

He was not interested as he didn't want to "mess around with chump change"

So I did it myself to show him!

I bought the same suspected vehicle that I spoke of, and offered him $200 to fix what was wrong with it. (Of coarse I didn't tell him it was the same deal I offered him a part of)
He jumped all over it and it was done sooner than he promised.
( I suspect he stayed up all night working on it to collect the $200)

As you could imagine. I showed him the strategy again and we are "Now" partners of sorts!

He worked his tail off for $200 while he could have made $500 for the same labor.



Our agreement is this.....
He has nice vehicles that he drives in the summer time and like to drive junk in the winter so it doesn't damage his primary vehicles.

I bought another vehicle for him to drive in the winter for a touch under $500 4 years ago.
The last three springs we have agreed to keep reinvesting our profits.
Without getting technical about our agreement percentages, 3 winters later, he is driving an $6,000 vehicle that I own more than half of. all on that same $500 investment.

Just goes to show there are several ways to make a buck without panhandeling.
Jason

Imagine if someone could set-up a Car Buying and Mechanic Network throughout North America without having to be in Any particular Location based on a similar Joint Venture concept.

Mobile/Online Chatteling expandable into all kinds of Niche Networks and Locations.

Who knows...

Maybe Chatteling Agents standing by...

Phil