SOWPub Small Business Forums  
 

Click Here to see the latest posts!

Ask any questions related to business / entrepreneurship / money-making / life
or share your success stories (and educational "failures")...

Sign up for the Hidden Business Ideas Letter Free edition, and receive a free report straight to your inbox: "Idea that works in a pandemic: Ordinary housewife makes $50,000 a month in her spare time, using a simple idea - and her driveway..."

NO BLATANT ADS PLEASE
Also, please no insults or personal attacks.
Feel free to link to your web site though at the end of your posts.

Stay up to date! Get email notifications or
get "new thread" feeds here

 

Go Back   SOWPub Small Business Forums > Main Category > SOWPub Business Forum
Register FAQ Members List Calendar Search Today's Posts Mark Forums Read

SOWPub Business Forum Seeds of Wisdom Forum

Reply
 
Thread Tools Display Modes
  #1  
Old December 11, 2017, 01:00 PM
GordonJ's Avatar
GordonJ GordonJ is offline
Administrator
 
Join Date: Aug 2006
Location: West Palm Beach, FL
Posts: 3,471
Default Open rant/rave to would be middlemen, TOLL boothers, JV partners, and opportunities..

This may be long winded, you have been forewarned. And, I will post quickly, meaning, check back, because this may take me all day to write, I've lost too many things recently, so best to post and edit.

So, big mistakes I've made; offering a one year program...just too long, too much time, and as some have found out, they can't keep their attention over a year, thus, that was eliminated from all my offers. Short term works, but I've seen too many starters get sidetracked by their life, things happening, and so on.

A brief rant about financial freedom. It is my opinion it takes 5 years for a married person with kids, or longer, to achieve financial freedom...get to the point where their money is earning their income. A single person or a couple who works together, sans kids, could get there in 2 years.

The catch? FOCUSED activity, or as I am wont to say, "Where your head goes, your body follows."

Now, of course, financial freedom is subjective, what it means to you will be different from what it means to other people. I'm reminded of a ship mate who stayed on his 36' sloop while we were in port, and though he did pay a slip space, he also worked for the harbor master and actually didn't pay any rent. He was able to pocket his Navy paychecks, which included our "Hazardous Duty Pay" (HA, for sitting on the beaches of Waikiki)...and he had a great time. Lots of adventures.

Another shipmate stayed with friends during our 90 days in port, he had a backpack and sleeping bag, and slept on floors and couches. Both of these guys saved their money and escaped the Navy with big wads of cash, as did I, from my chatteling.

We were all frugal with a purpose, mainly to save our money for after our Navy tours were done. Contrast that to the typical sailor who spent his paycheck on immediate pleasures. Not unlike most marketers who start getting a little ahead, they splurge and don't save.

The only secret to making money is, once you start making it, keep it and make it work for you. AH, that lesson goes in one ear and out the other.

But we've had recent discussions about TOLL POSITIONS. These give you control of a flow, sometimes in both directions as a toll booth on a bridge or a road will do, you have to pay coming and going.

We often refer to Harvey Brody, who wrote a lot about TOLLS, and demonstrates that through his product controls, most famously with ZOOM SPOUT OILER and PISTOL GRIP SPRAY CAN HOLDER.

On the SQ1, financial pictogrigm, here:
http://www.sowpub.com/gordon/financialpicto.gif

You see under sources, ownership...appreciation and USES, and you see leases, rights, rentals. Ed Barr made his fortune controlling Oil and Gas Leases he took over. Back in the day, his second billion, came from BLOCKBUSTER VIDEO, for renting movies...on top of his garbage fortunes (Wayne Huizenga).

Licensing is all about the use of rights.

IF you are considering a middle man operation, you better get good at communciation, on the phone, Internet. You don't have to meet people face to face, although that helps for LOCAL deals, but if you are not a people person, face to face, you need to be a good letter writer, email writer, and be able to talk on the phone. Having talked to many of you, an across the board assessment is, you need to WORK harder on this part.

The essence of Middlemen operations is an AGREEMENT. It helps to have an attorney, as long as you don't allow him to mess your deals up, read Robert Ringer for some good lessons on that. It might behoove you to take a class on business law or at the least watch some Youtube videos on contracts.

Agreements are reached via MUTUAL BENEFIT. Which is why I'm always harping on focusing on what YOU bring to the table, what you have to offer which helps the other guy.

So, in my opinion, you want to enter all deals, even enter into all thoughts about Joint Ventures, or deals, or getting good agreements in place is to be aware of how you can help the other guy win too. This is pretty much opposite of the Trump idea of deal making, where only he wins.

Don't lose, but create a position where there is something to be gained by doing the deal in the first place. Dien went into his Africa deal with someone who knew the people who could help it all take place, so his CONTACTS were an important player before he put his money into the venture.

Harvey Brody can pick up his phone and talk to the buyers of major chains, like Home Depot, because he developed the contacts, and they come easier when you offer your JV partner some on going profits which he can only get through you, which is what makes the TOLL position so powerful.

I like to watch small indie movies, and in one I just saw there was a discussion about ATTENTION span, and the premise was made that attention follows INTEREST. Which was why a teen age boy could spend hours playing his video games but couldn't read a book, or why the dad could lose hours in reading but couldn't last very long at the video game.

It wasn't their attention spans, it was their INTERESTS. I think one year is too much to ask people who are trying to start a business, their attention gets distracted because they lose interest, and in my opinion, it is because they haven't gotten any results.

Like 9 out of 10 of my shipmates, they couldn't delay their gratifcation and spent their pay on more immediate pleasures, while a few of us, put our money back for future use. I think most of you do not get results quick enough, and profits do not come at a rate fast enough to keep you interested.

Most of you have heard the story about Ben Suarez and Gary Halbert and Astrology. Ben hated the idea of selling astrology junk of any kind, Gary told him to sell what people wanted. After 5 years of struggling to build his business and not making money, Ben said, OK, and within months of his ASTROLOGY TODAY ads on the back of comic books he was raking in tens of thousands of dollars a month, and went on to build a big business....

SELLING WHAT PEOPLE WANTED TO BUY.

I think there are at least a couple of lessons there. A few months of selling something people wanted, wiped out 5 years of struggle, and some of you have been struggling that long too.

We like to talk about long term goals, like 5 years, medium goals like One year (the view from the rooftop)...90 days and 30 day goals.

Again, my opinion, if it take you more than 30 days to make a profit, you're overcomplicating your lives. Of course, if you want to have a new product, like a new coffee, or a new soft drink, or beer, it will take time to establish it...and a much longer time unless you are well funded.

MONEY to invest can be a shortcut for you, if it doesn't cost too much to get. If you can shoestring or bootstrap your business, and scale it up rapiedly from the profits, that would be a better way to go.

Continued on next post. gja

Last edited by GordonJ : December 11, 2017 at 02:16 PM.
Reply With Quote
  #2  
Old December 11, 2017, 02:35 PM
GordonJ's Avatar
GordonJ GordonJ is offline
Administrator
 
Join Date: Aug 2006
Location: West Palm Beach, FL
Posts: 3,471
Default Don't chase the money, let the money find you.

Unless it is very low hanging fruit and quick to pick, I don't advise chasing after quick money, but often, quick money finds you in the direct proportion of you offering what people want.

So what are some of the BIG problems, gleaned from 17 years of doing this forum and even before that?

#1. Not knowing what you want or why. But, as often as not I hear, I just want the money, the how is unimportant.

Just not true. Or else we'd all be doing MLM selling Amway like the triple diamonds at the top of the pyramid.

#2-Thinking you know what you want, you set up HUGE goals, big dreams and become calculator millionaires in no time. Some of you have been calculator millionaires for over a decade, while struggling to keep your house.

#3-NOT getting fast enough results, and as we have recently discussed, on the POA
http://www.sowpub.com/sq1/poa.php

That exits one, two and three are where so many of you get off the road on the way to your dream.

OK, so what can you do to get fast results? Well, it is pretty easy, if you are interested in a TOLL position, you can get started simply by learning easy to operate Joint Ventures via such web sites as WarriorPlus, ClickBank, Commission Junction and

https://makeawebsitehub.com/affiliat...ting-networks/

Lots of ideas there. Sure mostly affiliate sites, but it is a low cost intro into a Joint Venture, and could fund your more ambitious goals.

Also, it is my opinion, GOOD ENOUGH is better than perfection at the start up, or in other words, better to get shot out of the water than to rot at the dock as Burt Morgan would say.

You wouldn't belive me, but seriously there are more than a dozen people whom I've talked with, even counseled, who are sitting on their personal gold mines, who have yet to introduce a single product.

YES, if you think I'm talking about you, you are right, all dozen plus of you.

And there are others, who have done things, but abandon them. You need look no further than recent discussions to see that people HAD things for sale that other people wanted to buy, but they are gone and hard to reach.

There are at least 6 projects started, front ends developed, which have done nothing for those who spent a lot of TIME to create them, honestly, I'm at a loss to explain the why.

If anyone can shed light on this, please be my guest.

Now here is one more opinion, I think most people get lost, get defeated at the start. They set themselves up for failure at the GO square. They aim for Park Place and Boardwalk on the Monopoly but end up taking a railroad to a different destination.

HOW and WHY you choose a business or money making opprotunity goes as much toward your success as anything else. What you choose to do, is going to make or break you. Just as Ben Suarez struggled for 5 years trying, trying this, that and the other, trying to make money, it only happened after he had been persuaded to open his eyes to the reality of life, and sell what people wanted to buy.

Do people really want to buy your thing? Really? What proof do you have of that? I remember talking to a guy who wrote a report on making your own loofa sponges and I asked him WHO would want that, and his reply flooored me...he said everyone. Everyone would want to buy his report on growing gourds and turning them into loofas, never mind you could buy them at the Dollar Tree or drug stores for less money than it cost to get the seeds for the gourds.

But he was like so many inventors and creators I've spoken with. They've spent so much time inside their heads, dreaming these things up, so much time just knowing it is going to be the next big thing, they lose touch with reality. Want some reality? Check your bank account, that is as real as it gets.

So how do you become a money magnet? Well again, I told that Ben Suarez/Gary Halbert story for a reason, it is the example that money flows toward the person who has what people WANT.

Gary Halbert learned this lesson and made it a part of his marketing, offering what people wanted, not trying to convince them to buy...he was a great copywriter, not because he could sell ice to Eskimos (although he probably could have)...but he was brilliant at picking products people wanted, and then getting their juices flowing, like Beauty.

I have no interest in learning how to start a snow plowing business, as I'm looking out my window to the first snows coming down. If you are selling a manual on snow plowing, don't waste your ad dollars in FL. Sure, no one is that stupied, eh? But you'd be surprised on how often people try to PERSUADE, or INFLUENCE or use NLP, or hidden copywriting tricks to get people to buy...

Again, from Gary Halbert, build your hamburger stand in the middle of a starving crowd, (except for starving Vegans) and you are on your way.

Why is choosing the right opportunity so difficult? And why do so many get it so wrong?

Last edited by GordonJ : December 11, 2017 at 02:54 PM.
Reply With Quote
  #3  
Old December 12, 2017, 01:35 PM
Dien Rice Dien Rice is offline
Onwards and upwards!
 
Join Date: Aug 2006
Posts: 3,357
Default In 99.999999% of cases, not everybody wants your product...

Quote:
Originally Posted by GordonJ View Post
Do people really want to buy your thing? Really? What proof do you have of that? I remember talking to a guy who wrote a report on making your own loofa sponges and I asked him WHO would want that, and his reply flooored me...he said everyone. Everyone would want to buy his report on growing gourds and turning them into loofas, never mind you could buy them at the Dollar Tree or drug stores for less money than it cost to get the seeds for the gourds.

But he was like so many inventors and creators I've spoken with. They've spent so much time inside their heads, dreaming these things up, so much time just knowing it is going to be the next big thing, they lose touch with reality. Want some reality? Check your bank account, that is as real as it gets.
Hi Gordon,

Wow, what a great couple of posts!

I just wanted to share a saying I've heard or read somewhere...

It's the saying that... If you think everyone wants your product, then you haven't thought about who really wants your product deeply enough!

Now, it's true there are a few products that everyone does want... (A reliable, lead-free water supply springs to mind as an example!)

But it's not true for 99.999999% of products... Rather, those who think "everyone" wants it, in almost every case, simply hasn't thought about it hard enough... So they should give it more thought!

This is important, because if your promotions are not well-targeted, you're going to waste a lot of time and money promoting to people who don't want it.

Best wishes,

Dien
__________________
Reply With Quote
Reply


Thread Tools
Display Modes

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

vB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is Off
Forum Jump

Other recent posts on the forum...


Seeds of Wisdom Publishing (front page) | Seeds of Wisdom Business forum | Seeds of Wisdom Original Business Forum (Archive) | Hidden Unusual Business Ideas Newsletter | Hotsheet Profits | Persuade via Remote Influence | Affia Band | The Entrepreneur's Hotsheet | The SeedZine (Entrepreneurial Ezine)

Get the report on Harvey Brody's Answers to a Question-Oriented-Person


All times are GMT -4. The time now is 07:09 AM.


Powered by vBulletin Version 3.6.0
Copyright ©2000 - 2024, Jelsoft Enterprises Ltd.