How do you find a starving crowd ?

I have found "starving crowds" in "chat" rms, discussion boards or specifically Targeted NewsGroups...as far as the Internet goes.

But...I've found most of my "starving crowds" in real life as I go about my "regular" activities.
For example....here's how I discovered one of many of my "starving crowds" and what I did to create a product to satisfy their "hunger".

A few yrs ago my wife had a retail Antique Shop. One day we received a flyer from the community college informing us of an upcoming seminar about, "How To Find Out What Your Business Is Worth".

I told my wife about it and we both agreed that it would be "interesting" to find out HOW to put a "price" on our business....for curiosity and information in case we ever wanted to sell it.

When I called and registered, the girl told me the seminar would be held in a small classrm off the main lunchrm but, just to make sure...call a day before.

So...it came a day before the seminar and I called and asked if there was any change in the location. The girl said, "Heavens yes! We've had to move it to the Main Lunchrm because there's 187 people signed up.

WELL...THIS perked my "entrepreneurial ears" up.

Before the session was to start I went around and asked a few business owners WHY they had come. Almost all of them said, "For curiosity!" or "Interested in knowing how to value a business for possible use later"...a couple told me, "SO I can tell my brother (dad) what my biz is worth (EGO)"

So...we went thru the session. I learned a lot, got a Manual to take home. Checked the Internet to see who was selling "Valuation" products. Found some products selling for $500 up to $2000 that looked like you had to be an accountant to understand them.

Then I called up a retired "Business Appraisor" and asked him if he would help me create a software program that would be easy to use, fast and didn't take a CPA to understand.

With this info at hand....I found a programmer who wrote a program for me...I created a website...created a "marketing" program and was "off to the races" with a new product for my "niche" market (starving crowd)...."Small Business Owners who wanted to know what their business is worth and didn't want to hire an appraisor or use software that took a cpa to understand".

I called the program, "BIZWORTH"...set up a website called VALUDISK.com and proceeded to sell the heck out of the thing.

And all because my "entrepreneurial ears" were awake and alert.

DOn Alm

> What the whole starving crowd thingy is
> about is
> to find the starving crowd before you pick
> or
> develop the product/service for them. Don't
> know
> what your product or service is, but who
> wants it?
> who needs it? where on the internet would
> that
> kind of person hang out?




How To Value Any Small Business