Smart investment plan

Investment : The action or process of investing money for profit or material result. 
Assuming this as your interpretation of the word "investment", here is my answer. 

I am 18 and have invested money in starting my own conference franchise.
I started this because I

1. Wanted to learn about NLP, cloud computing etc which were discussed in the conference and I could not find resources. I thought the best way to learn was to learn from experts.
2. love starting my own ventures.
3. Wanted to learn about investing money and entrepreneurship.

Note : ₹ - Rupees.

How to start?

1. Divide your savings and allot a little amount for this.
2. Catch the pulse of people around you. People of my age, here in India, are crazy about programming and startups. Amount spent - 0
3. Decide the theme of the event/conference. Amount spent - 0
4. Start a campaign online. Make posters and a good looking website and start publicizing it on relevant Facebook pages/groups. This step will attract both audience and sponsors. Amount spent - 0
5. Contact speakers and specialists in that area. Try hard to get an expert speaker, convince him/her and sell your idea. Once a good speaker is confirmed, use his/her name to call others. If you are knowledgeable about any of the topics you are dealing with, try your hand at speaking at the event.Amount spent - ₹ 0 to 15 ( < $0.5 on telephone)
6. Decide a tentative venue. This can be your local community hall, a conference hall or a school/college. Talk to the management and promise them that you will pay the advance in a month. (Given that there are 2 more months for the event).Amount spent - 0
7. Strike a deal with a company which might be interested in sponsoring the event. Although a sponsorship is not required, even a penny in sponsorship can reduce your expenses and come handy to avoid risks. Amount spent - ₹ 100 - 200 for travelling. Use public transport only.
8. Fix a reasonable amount for passes, passes must be affordable by audience and also must not be cheap. Audience tend to look down at events, whose passes are sold for low prices, so decide accordingly.
9. Start selling tickets using CC avenue or other payment gateways. They offer service at just 1.25% as commission  on tickets/items sold and Zero setup fee.Amount spent - ₹0
10. Make the campaign aggressive and sell at least 15 passes. This amount will be help you start finalizing your venue. 
11. If you decide to change the venue, change it. Inform people who bought the passes about the same. Pay the money they paid for the passes to finalize the venue.
12. Start visiting workplaces/schools/universities where you might find your potential audience and sell your idea again.

Once you have sold tickets, the only areas where you must have spent money were travelling, phone calls and venue. Any money you get by selling passes after all these payments are profits.

Once the event starts, surprise your audience with goodies, prizes and/or free lunch. This will create a good will among them so that they become loyal to your event, after the event.

 The advantage with this idea is that you spend a paltry mount and anything you earn is a profit.

So, in fact, an investment of  ₹ 500  and some dedication can give you profits ranging from ₹ 50,000 to ₹ 5,00,000.

If you loved organizing, you can continue this every year and expand.

What have you learnt?

1.  The basics of multiplying money.
2. The basics of event management.
3. If you are also interested in the topics discussed in your event, you can learn a  lot from the speakers.
4. Entrepreneurship.

PS: I loved doing this and I am using this money to start another venture. Although this is a very good career option, I personally see this as fun and I am  not considering a career in event management.  However, I am still continuing the franchise.