In his book The Boron Letters, Gary Halbert writes about one of the lessons he teaches on selling. He asks his students, ‘If you and I both owned a hamburger stand and we were in a contest to sell the most hamburgers, what advantages would you most like to have on your side?’
The answers are predictable — the best meat, the best location, the lowest prices. Gary tells his students they can have all these advantages, but the advantage he wants will ensure that he whips the pants off them. What does he want? A starving crowd.
If you are looking for a new idea to start a business, ask yourself this simple question: what product or service will give me a starving crowd? Your aim as an entrepreneur should be to develop a product or service that people want. Success and profits will come much more easily if you leverage an existing demand, rather than trying to sell something that people aren’t interested in.
You must go fishing where the fish are. Develop a product for profitability. The best way to develop a venture is to find a market with money that has an unfilled need, then create a product or service that fills that need’s gap. One of my favourite examples is also incredibly simple: the hammer. You wouldn’t give a hammer a second thought today, but imagine what a revolution it was when it was invented. Imagine how much easier it became to join two pieces of wood together or hang a picture on a wall. These are the specific uses that a hammer is designed for. Without these a hammer is useless, and it came about because somebody asked, ‘What would be an easier way to hang a picture on a wall?’
What can you come up with that fills a specific need?
HEY, did you know i’m running a contest while I am away…
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To overcome a fear of failure, you must realise that there really is no such thing as failure. Success and failure are merely perceptions. Something that might look like a failure at the moment is only another step to your eventual success, or even the success itself.
Take the story of the now famous and hugely successful Post-it note. The adhesive used in Post-it notes was invented in 1968 by 3M researcher Spencer Silver. He was attempting to design a strong adhesive, but he actually ‘failed’ and the adhesive he developed was very weak. Dr Silver tried unsuccessfully for five years to find a use for his new adhesive. Arthur Fry, a new-product development researcher, attended one of Silver’s seminars, and he was intrigued by the strange adhesive. During his spare time Arthur Fry sang in a church choir, and it annoyed him that the bookmark in his hymn book would always fall out when he stood up to sing. One day he realised that he had found the perfect use for Dr Silver’s glue — it could be used to make a bookmark!
The original Post-it notes were used as bookmarks, and the remainder were shown to the 3M marketing department, but they rejected them as useless (a failure). Arthur Fry gave them to his secretary to dispose of, but she instead found what is now the classic use for them. Fry told her to distribute the remaining notes to all the executive secretaries in the 3M offices. When they ran out, she was inundated with calls for more. These calls were passed on to the marketing department, who finally got the idea. Initial prototypes were available in 1977, and by 1981, after a large sampling campaign, the product had been introduced around the world.
Everyone now knows and uses Post-it notes. This is a classic tale of a failure turned into a success. Post-it notes have been developed in a range of colours and designs for a variety of uses, and they can be found in offices, schools and homes all around the world.
HEY, did you know i’m running a contest while I am away…
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For those of you playing along at home, you’d know that I am off to the USA for a 3 week vacation on Wednesday.
So, in an effort to ensure the blog doesn’t go unloved I have scheduled a series of posts with excerpts from my book ‘How To Turn Your Million Dollar Idea Into a Reality’ to magically appear over the next 3 or so weeks.
These posts will cover:
- There’s No Such Thing As Failure
- Want Profitable Ideas? Become A Fisherman.
- Building On Other People’s Ideas
- Finding your USP
- Why Are You Going Into Business?
- Creating Systems To Meet Your Goals
- …and much much more
so keep an eye out, and subscribe to the rss feed…
PLUS, i’m going to run a contest while I am away…
| MARCH MADNESS CONTEST
Firstly, here is what is up for grabs…
- A signed copy of my book, which these excerpts come from - ‘How To Turn Your Million Dollar Idea Into A Reality’ [valued at AU$29.95]
- Unleashing The Power Of Publicity Audio CD - Interview with Pete Williams & Dale Beaumont [valued at AU$27.95]
- Business Essentials Audio CD - Interview with Pete Williams (May 07) [valued at AU$27.95]
- Why We Want You To Be Rich Book - Robert Kiyosaki & Donal Trump [valued at AU$29.95]
- and… A Hand Crafted Pen Crafted From The Authentic Timber of the Melbourne Cricket Ground[valued at AU$189.95]
- Total Value: AU$ 305.75
There are two prize packs to be won.
To Enter:
1. Post a ‘review’ of one of these up-and-comming book excerpt posts on your blog, with a link back to the relevant post on my blog. Does that make sense ? I’ll see the link or the trackback.
2. Include an email address in your post unless your whois information is correct.
3. Promise to give a review of the entire book on your blog once you have received it and read it.
4. I’ll randonly draw the 2 winners when I get back after April 18 2008.
It’s that easy!
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Also, here is my loose schedule… if anyones interested in catching up for a beer or 3 shoot me an email.
March 26 til March 31 -Los Angeles (celebrity spotting for Fleur)
April 1 til April 3 - San Deigo (the vacation part)
April 4 til April 8 - San Antonio for the NCAA Final Four (this is my part of the trip)
April 9 til April 11 - Las Vegas (spending the $100 Fleur won on the weekend in a charity raffle)
April 11 til April 13 - Sacremento (visitng family)
April 14 til April 16 - San Franciscor
