As I was "cruising the discussuion boards" this morn this post caused me to stop and remember HOW I got 3 of my biggest business hits;

A little background first;
When I got out of college I took a job with a big corp and after seeing people in their 50's getting "laid-off" and replaced by younger people at a fraction of the salary (I was one of these)...I decided I was going to start my own biz no matter what it took.

I spent a year hunting down every "biz-op" I could find and finally found a product I felt I could sell....gave my notice and started and never looked back.

I had a lot of energy in those days and built my biz up to 17 employees and hundreds of customers all paying me a monthly fee (for my burglar alarm service) Then I sold it and moved to the mountains of Colorado.

I enjoy finding new products or finding ways of changing old products or services so they're more profitable. I ALWAYS keep my "eyes open" and I'm also VERY CURIOUS and I ask a lot of questions. I've trained my mind to see if there's a better way of doing something.
Here's 3 of my "winners" and how I created them;

1) When "Photo Business Cards" came out in '82 I jumped in and bought a "distributorship. I thought they could really help business people BUT I soon found that even in an affluent area like Aspen,CO I had a rough time selling them. They didn't want to pay $250/1000 when they were paying $25/M...so, I was almost ready to give up until one eve, while watching a video movie, I had a batch of Photo Cards on the coffee table right next to the empty plastic case the video came in.

I accidently placed a photo card on the case...then I placed 2 more on the case and suddenly realized that 3 would fit perfectly and WHALA!...IT HIT ME!

"Why not place these cards on Video Rental Cases that would be in different people homes every night...setting on tv's or coffee tables and, because Photos attract people, they would be SEEN by a "Captive" audience and provide great exposure to the biznesses on the cases.

I put together a sample and went to see a video store who agreed to let me provide him with free cases (with my Cards on them)

I then put together a presentation and went to see bizness people and when they saw their Photo Cards would be a "Tool" to get people into their bizness...they bought.

2) I was at a Chamber of Comm lunch when someone asked "How many in the room owned a Fax machine?"

Almost every hand went up. It so happened that I was sitting with 2 restaurant owners...so the thought came to me to ask them a question, "Hey Tom! Why don't you put your "Daily Specials" on a Fax Sheet and Fax them to local people?"

He responded with, "Great idea Don! Why don't YOU put it together and I'll be your first account. So, I made up a sample sheet...found out how to get local Fax #'s and went to see local bizness people who readily signed on my "Fax Bulletin" service.

3) I received a flyer that told about an upcoming seminar on "How To Find Out What Your Business Is Worth". Since my wife had an Antique Shop, I thought we should go. When I called to register, the clerk told me it would be held in a small classrm and asked that I call a day before to see if there were any changes in the location.

I called a day before and she told me the meeting had been moved to the Main Lunchroom because 188 people signed up. When we got there, I asked a few bizness owners I knew if they were planning on selling their biz. They all said, "No! Just thought it would be nice to know WHAT my biz is worth!"

I then ralized what drew these biz owners here... ...it's called CURIOSITY!

These people were CURIOUS about HOW MUCH their biz is worth.

WHALA! I then became VERY INTERESTED in this, not only for my own use...but as a possible "Info Product" I could put together and promote.

As I was doing my research I got another "flash". Why don't I put a program "On Disk" so biz owners could "Instantly" find out what their biz is worth just by plugging in numbers from their Profit & Loss & Balance Sheets? They could find out in MINUTES instead of having to read a 80 page report

I found a local programmer who created the program for me and my "BIZ-WORTH VALU-DISK" was born.

I created a promotion package for it and went about selling hundreds of Disks. In fact, I'm still selling it on one of my websites if you would like to see the "Sales Letter" I created to sell it.

Click on the Link below and I hope this message is NOT viewed as an "Ad" but as a way of my showing an example of what this Thread is about.

Thanks for letting me share this and I hope some of you are inspired about it...because ideas are all around you...you just have to be aware and when you do get something...TAKE THE STEPS to put it into action!

Don Alm

> Hi Sandy!

> Thanks for sharing that story! It's true,
> you can accidentally stumble upon potential
> opportunities, but even when they stumble
> upon them, not everyone will recognize them!

> Another example of finding business
> opportunities is solving problems which you
> might encounter in your everyday life or at
> work.... There are several examples of
> this....

> My favorite one is the story of Liquid
> Paper. It's an inspiration.... :)

> In 1951, Bette Nesmith was working as an
> executive secretary, when she developed a
> liquid for her own use to cover mistakes she
> made while typing.

> When her colleagues found out about this,
> they asked her to sell them the liquid too.
> She originally called it "Mistake
> Out."

> By 1956, Bette Nesmith started the
> "Mistake Out" company in her
> kitchen. Everything was done by hand, from
> mixing the fluid to bottling it. She then
> changed the name to "Liquid
> Paper."

> Sales reached 100 sales a month by 1958, and
> she started sending out press releases.

> To make a long story short, the demand for
> Liquid Paper just grew and grew, as
> secretaries everywhere demanded it. Bette
> Nesmith ended up becoming a very rich woman.

> This demonstrates another way of finding
> business opportunities.... By finding a way
> to solve problems that you encounter at home
> or at work.

> Hmmm.... I could also go on about the story
> of the creation of cat litter here too....
> :) That also came about from someone solving
> one of their own problems in the home....

> If you have a problem, and use a bit of
> experimentation and creativity, who knows
> what you might come up with? :)

> And that's not it. There are also several
> more techniques for finding business
> opportunities....

> I personally find this topic quite an
> exciting one.... Knowing, and thinking
> deeply about this topic can lead to great
> profits if you apply it! Though I'm
> interested in hearing the thoughts of others
> too....

> Thanks Sandy, that was a great (and quite
> entertaining) story you linked to! :)

> - Dien




My Biz-Worth Valudisk