Money-Making ideas are EVERYWHERE!

Hi Don,

Thanks for another great post!

Here's one thing which LEAPED out at me from your post....

> So...because my business philosophy has
> always been, "Get the Orders
> FIRST...then worry about fulfilling
> later"....I was NOW in the
> "fulfillment stage"!

In my experience, GETTING the orders tends to be the "harder" part. Fulfilment is easy (relatively speaking)!

I think getting the orders first makes a heck of a lot of sense....

Recently I was thumbing through my copy of Benjamin Suarez's book, "7 Steps To Freedom II" (a "must have" book on direct response marketing). I was looking at a different section, but stumbled on his section on "dry testing"... I've read it before, but I read it again (because it's good stuff)....

"Dry testing" means asking for orders BEFORE you have the product ready.... This way, you can check if there's any demand for it BEFORE you go through the time and expense of creating the product....

Dry testing is natural for a SERVICE (like the deck renewal biz idea), however dry testing for a PRODUCT is generally illegal. However, Ben Suarez gives two ways you can legally dry-test a product.... He says they are:[*]'You do not ask the customer to send any money. You simply use the words "reserve my product," or other words which make it clear that you do not and may not have the product.'[*]'You add copy to the order form which says, "If enough people do not order, we reserve the right to cancel all orders and refund your money."'

(From "7 Steps To Freedom II" p. 2-201.)

Don, I think your philosophy to "Get the orders FIRST" is a powerful philosophy, thanks for sharing it!

- Dien Rice