Wednesday Mar 28th, 2007: Issue #786
Why do so many people seem to have more hope than sense?
I’m referring to people who blindly start businesses, often sinking their entire life savings into the project, with no idea what they are doing.
It is said that 90% of business startups fail in their first year - but that statistic is massively swayed by those who should never have been allowed to waste their time and money in the first place.
Well researched and considered businesses have a far greater chance of success.
I’m thinking along these lines because I see an endless number of people who open shops in bad locations, with poor stock, against strong competition and no unique selling point. Invariably, they fail.
Anyone with half a brain can predict their imminent demise from the first day they open their doors - and yet there is a line of people ready to step in and take their place.
Have they never heard of market research? Have they not considered checking out the competition? Have they not asked themselves why someone would walk to the wrong end of a narrow street to buy their overpriced goods when a chain store on the High Street sells the same things at a lower cost?
At what point in the process of becoming a fledgling entrepreneur do these people have their common sense surgically removed?
And it isn’t just shops.
People start businesses online every day with no idea what their outcome is likely to be. They build websites about subjects that nobody is interested in. They create products that have no market. And even if they do manage to find a popular subject and create a potentially profitable product, they expect their customers to find them.
You may not lose your life savings by creating failed online businesses, but you will come out of the process convinced that ‘this online malarky is all a scam’. And that is a pity, because it is totally wrong.
The key to success online and off is to do your research before you commit to anything. Understand who your potential customers are, what they want. what their needs are, what their problems are and where you have to go to find them. Armed with all that you will be far more likely to one of the 10% who win rather that in the 90% whose hopes outweigh their outcomes.
#~#~#
What is it with curtain shops?
The other day I mentioned the problems I had with one shop. Now I’ve had a run-in with another!
We visited a store yesterday who claimed to offer a ‘free making’ service. That sounded good and we spent time choosing a nice fabric that was priced at £20 per meter. As our windows are 4.75 meters by 2 meters and you need double the quantity, that works out to £380 ($760).
I accept that lining and a few extras would make the total a bit higher, but when we sat down with the ‘advisor’ (a girl who barely knew how to work the till) she calculated the total cost to be £780 ($1560)!
When I queried it and pointed out that the fabric was less than half that and that ‘free making’ should not be costing so much, she pointed out that, true, the store doesn’t charge for the making of the curtains, but they do add an ‘administration’ cost.
Now I don’t know about you, but that that just strikes me as dishonest.
I said so, and we walked out.
Only to find almost the same fabric in John Lewis ( a quality department store here in the UK). Their advisor, who did seem to be fully trained, calculated the all-inclusive, fully hand made price (including the lining and extras) at £314 ($628).
It certainly pays to shop around!
#~#~#
I’m itching to give away some free advertising on the Kickstart forum.
On Friday I’ll choose three posts that I think deserve to be rewarded. They can be thread starters or replies - serious, informative or fun. The only rule is that they must have appealed to me!
Each of the three lucky posters will get a coupon code that will allow them to place an ad on the top of the forum for a week - absolutely free!
There are already some very serious contenders, but there is still plenty of time to post something new that catches my eye . Judging will take place around noon (UK time) on Friday.
See you in the forum!
http://kickstarttodayforum.com/
#~#~#
On Monday I told you a little about William Charlwood’s excellent new ebook. ‘$7 Dollar Selling’. (I wonder if he has realized that the title contains a redundancy and correctly reads as ’seven dollar dollar selling’ - or am I just being pedantic?)
As I said then, this is one book that everyone who bought the original $7 Scripts report from Jonathan Leger really needs to own, It is the perfect companion volume as it explains in great detail exactly HOW to go about selling $7 reports.
But I think I did William and his book rather a disservice.
You see, this ultra cheap volume (yes, it is also $7) is MUCH more than ‘just’ about selling $7 reports.
It is an easy-to-understand explanation of how you can sell virtually anything online. There are 23 different methods described - including 12 ways that you can start an online business without a website - and six ways to make money online even if you have no money at all to start with!
William is a very clear writer and he makes it all very easy to follow, but that doesn’t mean this is a book exclusively for beginners. Far from it. There are ideas discussed in ‘$7 Dollar Selling’ that every online entrepreneur can learn from. I know I did!
http://www.urlnex.us/7dollarselling/
#~#~#
A few people wrote to me on Monday to ask where they can get the original $7 Scripts and report by Jonathan Leger that I mentioned.
Actually, now is an even better time to get them that Monday would have been because Jonathan has just released version 2.4 which significantly adds to the security and functionality of the scripts.
Here is the link to my original review and recommendation: http://www.kickstartdaily.com/blog/index.php?/archives/353-7-Secrets-Review-and-Recommendation.html
#~#~#
______________________________________________________
An Inspirational Thought
_______________________________________________________
Everything.
Every little blade of grass
Every raindrop on the glass
Every tiny grain of sand
Every line on every hand
Every feather on every bird
Every book and every word
Every snowflake
Every leaf
Every thought, idea, belief
Every friend and every love
Every hawk and every dove
Every worry, every joy
Every newborn girl and boy
Every breath of cool fresh air
Every moment that we share
Everything the world can give
Makes this life so good to live.
[This is another of those lovely poems that I enjoy, but have no idea who to credit. I've tried Googling it but came up empty. If you know who wrote this poem, please let me know so I can give due credit.]
###############################################
Who do you know who would love Kickstart Today?
Don’t keep it to yourself - send them to
http://www.kickstartdaily.com today!
###############################################
_______________________________________________________
The Quote of the Day
_______________________________________________________
Christopher Morely said,
“There are three ingredients in the good life: learning, earning and yearning.”
_______________________________________________________
Today’s Power Thought
_______________________________________________________
I was going to talk about starting out in Internet marketing today, but for one thing William Charlwood’s book, mentioned above, will give you a good primer of that subject, and for another, I have a report on the subject planned.
So let’s broaden the topic out a bit today and look at the reasons why you may not be as successful as you would like - on the Internet or off it.
It boils down to one question that I must ask you - and that you must ask yourself every day:
“What is your primary self-limiting belief?”
Read it again, “What is your primary self-limiting belief?”
You see, in the main the only thing that holds us back from success at anything is the nagging self-doubt that sabotages us.
As soon as we start to believe that we can’t do something, we just have to prove it.
And believe me, we ALL have self-limiting beliefs! Loads of them.
Just as we can’t effectively work on more than one task or goal at a time, we can’t deal with reversing more than one self-limiting belief either. That’s why the question asked what your primary one is.
What is the number one reason that you don’t think that you can succeed?
* Is it lack of experience?
* Fear of failure?
* Fear of success?
* Lack of money?
* Lack of self belief?
* A conviction that you are unlucky?
* A belief that you are doomed to fail?
* A feeling that others will disapprove?
There are hundreds of other things that can hold you back. What is yours?
Before you do anything else, take time to yourself to really ponder that question. What is your primary self-limiting belief.
Asking yourself that question isn’t a comfortable experience. It can be downright painful. But it is vital to know what you are up against.
When you are sure you know what your problem is, you can then start to deal with it. By bringing it out in the open you will know exactly what you have to tackle and can start to devise life, education or business strategies to get past that hurdle.
Self-limiting beliefs are painful hurdles in your road. But like the hurdles that athletes jump over, they are far more flimsy than they look. When you learn to develop a strong enough belief that they are unreal, you can easily kick them out of the way.
Then your road to success will be clear.
And that goes for whatever you do in life whether it is online or off.
_______________________________________________________
Fascinating Facts
_______________________________________________________
Andrew Carnegie was one of the richest men in America. One of his pet foibles was that he felt that cash was beneath him, so refused to ever carry any.
Mr Carnegie hadn’t reckoned on the practicalities of life because on a visit to London, he was ejected from a train by the guard for failing to pay for a ticket - and not having the cash to pay the collector.