Hi Gordon,
Thanks for sharing that!
The book "Making It!" by E. Joseph Cossman and William A. Cohen (published in 1994) was the very first book I bought about entrepreneurship. (I would have bought a copy around 1995 - I still have my copy, and it's right now sitting in front of me...)
I feel the following are probably some of the biggest "take-aways" those who are studying Joe Cossman can come away with to turbo-charge their business ventures...
They are his ideas and experiences on what were later called "toll positions" (though Cossman doesn't seem to use that phrase)...
Instead, Cossman talks about ways to "protect your ideas," and also how to get "exclusive rights" to products. These are all examples of "toll positions" or of "toll booths"...
He applied these ideas too.
He got exclusive access to a product with his contract for "Fly Cake" with the manufacturers (the actual contract he used for Fly Cake is in "Making It!", pages 86-88).
He had effective exclusivity by buying the tooling for the spud gun... (A version of the "spud gun" story is in his book, "How I Made $1,000,000 in Mail Order," chapter 10...)
He used trademarks (such as for the "Ant Farm")...
Using these strategies cuts out your competition!
This is very valuable knowledge to know - even years later... The principles are still the same!
- Dien
Quote:
Originally Posted by GordonJ
Thanks Dien,
Oh, my. I had all that stuff as a kid. I loved the JOHNSON-SMITH Nolveties catalog.
Anyhow, Cossman. He actually sold the company to his brother in law, and it wasn't until Dan Kennedy, got involved via Guthy-Renker.
Well, it was a hot day in Indian Springs, where Cossman was and where Greg Renker met Bill Guthy at a club, racket ball, I think.
The magic happened when Dan Kennedy came in, and BOOM, Cossman made millions, Guthy-Renker exploded to astronomical heights.
Although he did OK in business, he became really wealthy selling courses from infomercials.
Selling the tools to the miners, if you will.
Gordon
And Guthy-Renker got rich, I believe, just off of all the stuff I bought from them, I was a cassette course addict.
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