Funny that. The economy effecting things. THAT was the excuse used by every Dot Bomb.

They never blamed their lack of management skills - as if spending $500,000 to have Rod Stewart entertain at their private office staff only after work Friday party had anything to do with their collapse. Or installing private ten pin bowling lanes in the office. Or buying brand new luxury cars for all. Or huge mahogany desks. All while never having actually made a penny. All while never actually selling anything the customer wanted.

No. It was none of that. It was the economy.

Got news for ya... if ya can't make money while the economy is good you ain't gonna make it while the economy is bad.

Anyways. A quick check of some of my offline activities sees an INCREASE in business. Have recently launched another business which has been profitable from the get go.

What's interesting about this new business is... it is a "luxury" business. It does NOT cater to a NEED. It caters to a WANT that most people cannot bring themselves to spend money on.

Go back thirty years. No-one but the wealthy payed someone to mow their lawn. Everyone did it themselves. These days, however, people do not mow their lawn. They pay someone else to do it.

My new business is along the same lines. No it is not lawnmowing. But it is something MOST people do themselves.

Who cares about most people? Not I. I am only interested in those who WANT my service.

I am a realist about it too. I do not expect to have 100 customers a week. A few new and regular customers a week will do nicely. The profits add up.

Is our economy any better than yours?

I doubt it. Seems economies are pretty much the same the world over for western countries. Our stock market took a hit when the bubble burst. Our dollar is WEAK and that makes imports very expensive. We live in a country the size of the US but with the population of LA. A vast array of infrastructure has to be supported by that small population. (Yes. I know Canada has a larger land area and only marginal larger population.)

My point?

Who knows. When I start it could end up anywhere.

Oh. Now I kinda remember. The economy silly. Bah humbug. I refuse to participate in a bad economy - I won't let it dictate my spending habits or restrict my business. I will be pro-active. New customer acquisition numbers slowing? Do more marketing.

Get it. It's how YOU react that will ultimately tell how your business goes. Dennis' examples are good. Here's one of my own...

There are two Chemists in my town (a chemist is a pharmacy and you may know it as a drug store). There are more than two... but I'm talking about these two in the example.

Anyway. One of the chemists is a client of one of my businesses. The other is not. The client chemist is not nearby anything. If you did a feasability study before openning up you would not open a chemist there. All customers have to go out of their way to go their - including old people.

The other chemist is near three banks and a couple of charity stores - both types of "business" are frequented by old people in vast numbers.

The chemist who is not my client... the one near the banks... will not spend a single penny on his business. His business is dying a slow death.

The out of the way chemist does spend money on his business. He spends it to make his staff look well groomed, on the appearance of his store, on counter top promotions, on window promotions, etc. His business is booming and once planning permission comes through he will be taking over the vacant store next door and expanding into it.

One is thinking and thus action restrictive. The other is thinking and thus acting expansive. The economy is the same for both. They sell the same products. One has a location advantage and squanders it. The other has a location dis-advantage and does not see it.

Will there be fluctuations in your business from month to month?

Yep. That's the nature of business. And sometimes you cannot even figure out why the fluctuation happened. Could be holidays (vacations), certain local events, rents and home taxes go up and the bill arrives, electricity reading and billing month, or even Sun spots. Way to many reasons to always pin point months with lower performance numbers. Just except it happens, plan for it by socking some of your profits away, and move on.

Michael Ross

The new business I mentioned was written about in The Great Ideas Letter. The test results - the ads we ran and everything about how we did it - will be revealed in an upcoming issue. Subscribe to read all about it.


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