CONFUSED AND STUNNED – AWESOME! (Dan Miller)

Is now a time to try something new – perhaps something you’ve never done before?  Or should you sit out the “recession” and wait until “things get better.”

“The times when everyone is confused and stunned can present an enormous opportunity because no one’s really doing anything,” says Dell Computer founder Michael Dell.  “I think this is the time when the seeds of really successful new businesses will be created.”

Designer Kenneth Cole says, “When things are going well, people want to do what’s working and more of it.  It’s only in difficult times that people are open to creative alternatives.”

Mark Cuban, entrepreneur and owner of the Dallas Mavericks, points out that some of the greatest businesses were built in recessionary times.  “Money is easy to find in boom times, which leads to far too many businesses getting out of the gate that don’t deserve to be started.  When money is scarce, better ideas face less competition and better execution can lead to greater success.”

Whether it’s changing career paths or starting your own business, there’s never been a more opportune time than today.  July 1^st marks the beginning of the second half of 2010.  And what better time to claim your “independence” than on July 4^th.  Recognize you are in the driver’s seat, break ties with the mother country if necessary and begin your personal revolution. And remember, “things” get better when you get better.

IS THIS A SCAM? (Dan Miller)

At 48Days we field a lot of questions where readers want to know if something being promoted is a scam.  Just today someone wanted to know about a Robert Kiyosaki business idea.  The dictionary defines “scam” as to obtain money from somebody by dishonest means.

If someone asks you to send $4000 as a processing fee so he can release his uncle’s money from Nigeria and share the windfall with you, trust me, you’re being scammed.  But most ideas are not that easy to read.

If you see a training course to teach you how to write your own book and after spending $495 you didn’t get a deal from any major publisher, were you scammed?  If you spent $1250 for a windshield repair business and never even recaptured your investment, were you scammed?  What about if you went to an investment training seminar and then proceeded to lose your own capital?  If you purchased a business opportunity to do medical billing – which included you buying an expensive computer system, and then you found out the only key to success in this is being able to market and sell your services, were you scammed?

I have purchased thousands of dollars worth of seminars, workshops, training programs and business opportunity products over the years.  I consider this an integral part of my ongoing learning process.  Yes, I have a library of “millionaire” tapes that provided little useful information, “business opportunities” that consisted of photocopied government forms, teleclasses where there was too much background noise to hear the presenter, and hot cashew vending machines that quickly produced moldy products.

But I have never considered that I was scammed.

The real key is to see the learning that takes place for you in this process.  Not every college course offered any real value – but it was part of a larger process to help you clarify your best options.  I recently worked with a young couple who had just sent over $20,000 to an invention company that promised them wealth and fortune.  We know they will never see any return on the very ordinary ideas they submitted.  But my counsel to them is that some people are sitting in classrooms spending $20,000 a year hoping to get a good idea here and there, and some people are getting their “education” in other ways.  Either way, it’s a legitimate way to be moving toward the right idea for your ultimate success.

Bottom Line:  There’s less risk from getting “Scammed” than there is from doing nothing.

Happy Birthday – Hula Hoop (Dan Miller)

The Hula Hoop turns 50 this year – at least as we know it.  Actually, hoops were used as toys, being pushed along with sticks over 3,000 years ago in Egypt.  Native Americans used hoops as a target for teaching accuracy in hunting.  But then in 1957 Richard Knerr and Arthur Melin of Wham-O started marketing a lightweight plastic version of the Hula Hoop.  They sold over 100 million from January to October of 1958 at $1.98 each.

Knerr and Melin were not able to patent the Hula Hoop as it had been around for many years.  All they did was make it out of a new material and then market it well.  Which highlights a very important point.  I see people stuck in the “patenting” process – wasting time and money on what may be an insignificant part of their success.

Keep in mind, most people put too much emphasis on developing their product or idea, and not enough on Marketing.  If you have a new invention:

2% of your challenge – Protecting your Idea (Patent, Trademark, Copyright)

8% of your challenge – Is it a valid idea or product?

90% of your challenge – What is your Marketing Plan?

Most people spend too much initial time, energy and money protecting their idea rather than selling or marketing it.

Knerr and Melin did trademark the name Hula Hoop® and that became the recognized and requested name around the world.  What could you do with your idea – what could you do to tap into the viral power of the masses?  Remember the Pet Rock; the Frisbee?

Here’s more on Inventions and Patents

Ding Dong – Opportunity Calling (Dan Miller)

Is there a new opportunity right under your nose?

The first Avon lady was a man.  David H. McConnell was a big city bookseller.  In 1892, when the perfume he used to reward loyal customers proved more popular than his paperbacks, he dumped the books and began promoting only the perfumes.  McConnell’s next smart move was assembling a workforce composed entirely of housewives.  In contrast to the then prevalent door-to-door salesmen, Avon ladies made friends with their customers and were not the creepy blue-suede-shoe guys that most people expected to see knocking at their doors.  By recognizing his true market and how to best relate to his customers, McConnell made a fortune, and so did many of his Avon ladies.

How many businesses do you know of today that continue to do what they’ve always done, even in the face of a changing market?  If you sell appliances and a WalMart opens next door, you may find a shrinking opportunity to sell appliances but an exploding market to repair and service them.

If every yard you mow has a tree stump that needs to be removed, you may discover that rather than just being one more yard service, you have a unique opportunity in stump removal.

A couple of years ago, I worked with a gentleman who had been selling fabric to major apparel manufacturers.  He observed that any flaw in the fabric rolls caused it to be sold for scrap.  He quit his “normal” job, began buying and cutting the scrap fabric into squares to be used as rags.  Body shops, auto dealers, and parts stores demanded his product faster than he could produce it.  He got a contract with Dollar General to provide the rags packed in plastic bags.  He now employs seven neighborhood women to help him stay ahead of this unique opportunity that was right under his nose.

Our changing work environment is shrinking many of the old business and work opportunities.  Even Avon is finding resistance to the knocking on doors model as more and more people purchase on the Internet.  But with every change there is the equal seed of new opportunity.  The maker of Levi’s was an unsuccessful gold miner who recognized that the other miners needed more durable pants for their digging activities.

Where is the hidden opportunity in the changes being forced on you?

Maybe you’ll want to check out the 7000 people developing their ideas at 48Days.net?

FINDING YOUR POT OF GOLD (Dan Miller)

Gold was discovered in California in the spring of 1848.  By May of 1848 reports were flying that “there was more gold than all the people in California could take out in fifty years.”  28-year-old Samuel Brannan opened a small supply store at John Sutter’s Fort, right in the heart of the gold rush.  Brannan purchased a little vial of gold and traveled the hundred miles back to San Francisco.  As he stepped off the train, he swung his hat, waved the bottle and shouted, “Gold! Gold! Gold!  By the middle of June, three quarters of the male population had left town for the gold mines near Sutter’s Fort.

Brannan never looked for gold, but selling shovels, picks and supplies to the wide-eyed miners made him California’s first millionaire.  His store was selling as much as $5000 a day (about $140,000 in 2010 dollars) in goods to the miners.

Did all the miners find their “pot of gold?”  Not a chance.  Most of them wasted time and meager resources only to return to their original homes, poor and discouraged.

So where are you looking for income opportunities?  In the last ten years thousands of people jumped on the computer bandwagon, believing that programming, web design and software development were the only real sources of wealth.  As you know, not everyone going in this direction has become wealthy?  But are there associated opportunities with this area of focus – absolutely!

In the last ten years the number of massage therapists has quadrupled.  (Our massage therapist comes to our house every Friday afternoon.  People who work on computers all day are prime candidates for massage.

I have a friend here in Nashville who produced a red “panic button” that fits over any key on your computer keyboard.  She has now sold over 100,000 at $1.50 each.  A convent even ordered 10 PANIC buttons.

I have talented young musician friends who are not trying to be the next Alan Jackson but are generating significant income selling guitar straps, personalized drum sticks and a book on How to make it in the music industry.

Is it possible that in your own search for “gold” you are overlooking the opportunity to become a millionaire by selling picks and shovels?