Archive for February, 2006

In my last post I explained how people think “backwards”
when it comes to starting a business. And this reason
is most responsible for their subsequent failure.

Today I am going to show you how to do it correctly
(At least how I do it). I will show you the formula that
has been proven fool-proof for finding the right niche
for you and what products to offer that people will come
asking to buy them from you.

Have you ever heard of the saying:

“Supply and Demand”?

Well, I like to see this concept a little differently!

“Demand and Supply”!

Which means, find the hidden demand first (problem)
and then supply the solution.

By implementing this strategy, you minimize the hardest
part of doing business; “Selling”

What is better?

To try and “sell” a product to a bunch of people or Let the 
people that want your product come and buy it from you?

Here is an example to help you understand this principle:

a) If you stand in the middle of a starving crowd with a loaf
of bread in your hands, people will be begging you to
sell them some bread.

b) But if you have a bread in your hands and walk down the
streets of Hollywood shouting:

“Bread!!”

“Fresh Bread”

“5 cents a slice”

do you think people will buy from you?

You want to position yourself like in example (a) if you
want to guarantee success. And you want to keep that
in mind when you start your research.

First, drop all thoughts and clear your mind of everything
you know about business.

Now think of the general category of a business you would
enjoy working with. If you have a hobby that excites you
it is a good place to start. Even though it is not a requirement
choosing something you are familiar with and you enjoy, will
keep you pushing during hard times to make it work.
General categories can be: gardening, sport cars,
pets, martial arts, parties, etc

Pick something very general that you enjoy working with.

Next you need to find people that share this same interest
and tap into their thoughts and problems to create a more
specialized group of people with similar problems.

No, you will not need any camouflage and wiretaps to find
out what you need.

The internet is a great research tool that allows you to
find everything you need to know, just by using your
computer.  The offline and the online world work very 
much alike. They offer societies, cultures, groups, communities
and many gathering places for discussions and help requests.

You can find an active group about virtually anything you can
imagine on the internet. You can search for:

-Discussion forums
-Groups
-Blogs
-Newsgroups etc

Here is some resources to help you find communities and identify
problems:

http://www.forumer.com/directory.html
http://www.forumsplace.com/directory
http://www.big-boards.com/
http://forumfind.com/?c=31
http://forum.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=messageboard.categories
http://groups.google.com/

After you find groups related to your main category, you should
start identifying repeated problems these specific groups are facing.
Any question posted on these boards, are potential money makers
for you.

One of the easiest way to create an infoproduct and to collect
a number of questions tightly targetted to a specific group,research
and provide answers to those questions, compile the information
to a deliverable format (i.e. ebook) and you are done. Then you go
back and sell it to those people that needed the answers in the
first place.

Another thing you need to look at, is the present demand for
the particular niche market you have chosen. And this is fairly
easy to determine on the internet by analysing the volume of
searches a specific keyword receives per month.

Find out if the market you have chosen has a good amount
of searches each month for its main keywords:
http://inventory.overture.com/d/searchinventory/suggestion/

I would look for markets with over 25000 searches using
the tool above.

After you determine the niche market and the nature of the
product you are going to create (I will focus on information
products), you can either create the product yourself
or outsource it. You can easily find experts that are willing to
create your product professionally for much cheaper than you
think.

You can go ahead and start your research now. In my next
post I will tell you where to find people to create your products for you
for really cheap and I will tell you how to do it for optimum
results…

Stay Tuned! and dont forget to post a comment if you have a
question or a suggestion related to this topic.

Your Partner in Success,
Socrates Socratous

Posted by: Socrates Socratous

You want to start a busines but you have no idea
what to sell, to whom and why!
You don’t know what to do first and how to do it…

Most people start their business backwards. Or
the ones that havent even started doing business
are thinking about starting one …backwards!

You are probably asking yourself right now:

“What in the world is Socrates talking about?”

Let me explain…

Most people find a product (or even spend a fortune
creating one), most commonly
something they think people are gonna go crazy
about, then go and spend a truckload of money
trying to market this “interesting product” only
to find out they are not making enough to even
cover their expenses.

Some other people are “still” trying to figure out
the next big thing that is gonna take the world “by
a storm” and make them multi-millionaires! They
have better chances winning the lottery than that…
But honestly, I think people that belong to this group,
are just lazy and like to “hallucinate” on their commute home
from their 9-5 J.O.B. They know that the chances
of inventing the next lightbulb are zero to none, but
they like to comfort themselves with the idea.
Even worse, they don’t ever do anything towards
financial independence and they often complain how
they dont like their jobs, getting paid too little, etc…
These are the kind of people that would complain
they never won the lottery

…when they never played!

What I mean by “most people start doing business
backwards” is that they start by finding the product
and then try to market it, whereas the correct way to
do it is by finding the market (customers) and
then be figuring out what product to sell to that market.
Instead of trying to convince people how they need to
buy your product, you sell to people that are looking to
buy a product!

Got it?

People DON’T BUY PRODUCTS!

They buy SOLUTIONS to THEIR PROBLEMS!

So you thinking everybody is going to “need” a certain product
is irrelevant. You thinking that people will not buy a certain
product because of price, color, size, functionality, etc is also
irrelevant. You wanting and thinking will not change what
people will actually exchange their hard earned cash for.
You may be right or …wrong. That is what I mean by irrelevant.
And it is not like flipping a coin. Statistically people are wrong most
of the times.

So, what do you do to be right?

What do you do, to pick the right product, and offer it to
the right market and collect the money?

You dont want to sell ice to the eskimoes,
You want to sell bread to the hungry!

But you need to find the hungry first, and then sell
them the bread.

How do you find your hungry-starving market and
what to sell to them?

I think I gave you enough food for thought till next time.
Stay tuned for my next post where I will answer this
question…

Posted by: Socrates Socratous

Finally getting around to installing a blogging system…

Posted by: Socrates Socratous