SOWPub Small Business Forums - The Product Development Hotline

I see so many new people coming online this year. Everybody wants to cash in on Internet Marketing. Many will spend the first year jumping from various MLM opportunities. How many will make it? I don't know.

Ten years ago my wife and I sold everything we had to get out of Nova Scotia. We didn't have much. Wasn't really a big loss. It was me -- I convinced her.

Myself and 8 others were laid off from a small company. The recession was taking it's toll. The Business Manager came to me and said, "Steve, I like your work. I wish I could promise to offer your job back to you in three or four months. Truth is -- business is bad, and we are selling off some of our interests. I can't guarantee I will be able to call you back."

My wife, Crystal, was working for a manufacturing company on "work share." Work share is a plan where you work two or three days a week, and then draw unemployment insurance for the other couple of days. It is a gov't incentive to keep people employed with companies who could no longer offer full time work.

One evening I said to Crystal, "Other then family and friends, there isn't anything here for us. I've lived in other provinces. I KNOW there is a better place."

I got to tell you -- it is impossible to look for OTHER opportunities when you can barely keep a roof over your head. I always wanted to start my own business, but what was the chance of that happening?

Eleven years ago, Crytal, my son Tom and I wound up in Prince George, BC. The amount of unions in BC means labor is at a premium price. Not so in Nova Scotia. We found that we could have folks build hand made quilts in Nova Scotia, and sell them in BC for 3x the cost. By taking advantage of the economic differences, I could make $1000 a sale, without actually having to do any work myself. Not too bad, is it?

No -- I missed the boat on that one. When we couldn't get quilts made fast enough I thought some of these MLM opportunities would fill in the gap. We tried diet cookies, Amway and Herbal Life. We couldn't generate the same success we had with the hand made quilts.

We stayed in Prince George for one year and then moved to Calgary. I hadn't forgotten about my plan to run my own business, but putting a roof over our head took center stage. A few years later some friends were selling their 386 computer. I said to Crystal, "Let's buy it. I bet I can figure out a way to make money with it." I wasn't going to let a little fact like I didn't know how to use a computer stand in my way.

Over the last few years I've met some people who have dramatically altered, and helped shape the way I view business. People like Gordon Alexander, Marty Foley, Dr. Paul Hartunian and Bob Serling. The newsletter Bob put out over three years ago called "Reverse Marketing" was a BIG help in learning how to generate profit from my website.

I'm sure some of you will remember. Many web sites at that time were like huge collections of links. Mine was too. Although I could not afford Bob's $500 per hour consulting fee, the advice in his free Reverse Marketing Newsletter really helped me focus. Bob's response to web sites that were large collections of links was, "If you're not making any money from it... why would you want to do that?"

So without a collection of outside links, visitors had fewer choices. Read my articles, participate in my forum, or hire me to develop your website OR leave. (he-he) Sure, many leave -- but the point is I don't invite them to leave by supplying a large collections of outside links. This has resulted in more sales.

Another example I know of, is about a business person who was consulting with Bob who said they wanted to DOUBLE their income. Bob looked over their offers and said "OK, double your price."

The business person did. It created a greater perceived value in their offers and more then doubled their income.

The two KEY points to running a successful business is the development of your own products, goods and services. That's why I did OK selling quilts, although I didn't understand why. I didn't make the quilts, but selling them was MY business.

The second KEY point is knowing where to get the knowledge and help to create the first. You need resources.

I just finished building a new website for Bob. The focus is on a free mailing list you can subscribe to that "is specifically designed to help you do more business. Sell your products or services to other members, cut business deals together, get tips from your peers, and get referrals for all the services necessary to develop and market your products." It will also feature "Lab Rants" which will be articles from Bob designed to help you create your own products.

I have benefitted in the past from Bob's advice, and I fully expect to do so again. I joined the list. It's free right now, so I thought I would share this resource with you.

Best Regards,
Steve MacLellan

product-lab.com