business ideas
Why Achieving Your Dreams is More Possible in Today's World Than Ever!
I've been thinking a lot lately about systems of old and how they use to hold us back from reaching for our dreams. For
instance, if you wanted to publish a book, you had to write a query letter and be at the mercy of sometimes limited thinking publishing companies.
Or if you wanted to make a film or documentary, you had to run around like a wild person and plead for a production company or studio to help bring your project to life.
In the case you were an innovator, you had to find distributors and try to convince them that your product was worthy.
Fast forward to late 2011 and now we have the ability to be our own publishers, our own production companies, and product distributors via our personal computers. Yeeehawww! Now that's a lot of power to hold!! The only thing that limits us is our outlook, creativity, and resourcefulness.
Let's take my three above scenarios to reveal what an amazing age we are living in...
1. Writing and publishing a book. The first step is to write your heart out. Second, is to create a simple blog or Website, open a Paypal or Google Checkout account, and learn how to post your book with link to purchase via Paypal or Google Checkout. Third, create e-book publisher accounts on Barnes and Noble, Amazon, and other key publishers. Once you've finished your book and edited it carefully, you can post it on your Website and/or within various online stores and advertise it via Google and social media. Done!
In the case that your e-book goes bananas and sells millions of copies, publishers will be knocking down your door. In today's world, chasing a publisher may take years...now we can do it ourselves! The secret is to just get your work out there and get eyeballs on it, rather than letting it sit on your computer hard drive until you're old and gray.
2. Make a movie. The same is true where movies and documentaries are concerned. Invest your time and effort into creating something that people will love. Give the world a teaser...and then sell your movie via iTunes or your savvy Website. You can even get creative and go after product placement deals within your movie...you'll just need to prove that potentially millions of eyeballs will see your flick. The sky is the limit!
3. Releasing a new product. The key is to fill a need for humanity. If you think your product idea has the ability to solve problems and/or inspire people, the only thing that limits you is your ability to promote it. Thanks to the Web, it is possible to launch a new product within moments once it's been produced.
Throughout my marketing career, I've learned that there are many amazing products out there...but...if the marketing effort isn't there...they tend to fade into oblivion. Beyond delivering innovative, high-quality products, we must find the right method for advertising and marketing. Once a product starts selling in masses, distributors will be knocking down the door to become a part of our visions.
As the new year approaches, think deeply on how you can improve the lives of others...follow your passions...and open your eyes to possibility! Looking for help in guiding your vision, I'd love to assist you...e-mail me at jen@projectbebold.com. Also, feel free to scroll down and comment below to share your ideas and thoughts!
Have a beautiful day!
Jen Engevik
Project BE Bold
The Renaissance Minimalist from 4-Hour Workweek by Timothy Ferris
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I am continuing to learn amazing principles for finding financial/life freedom within the pages of 4-Hour Workweek by Timothy Ferris. In Chapter 9, Income Autopilot I: Finding the Muse, he shares the story of an entrepreneur he knows who created an online source of income...his business generates $10,000 with the click of a few buttons and creative thought. Read closely for inspiration:
Douglas Price was waking up to another beautiful summer morning in his Brooklyn brownstone. First things first: coffee. The jet lag was minor, considering he had just returned from a two-week jaunt through the islands of Croatia. It was just one of six countries he had visited in the last 12 months. Japan was next on his agenda....
Two years earlier in June of 2004, I was in Doug's apartment checking e-mail...he was finally extricating himself from a venture-funded Internet start-up that had once been a cover story and his passion but now it was just a job...he made a decision -- enough complicated stuff. It was time to return to the basics.
He then created Prosoundeffects.com, launched in January of 2005 after one week of sales testing on e-bay, was designed to do one thing: give Doug lots of cash with minimal time investment...
(Ferris writes that Doug has access to a huge collection of) sound libraries and CDs that film producers, musicians, video game designers , and other audio professionals use to add hard-to-find sounds--whether the purr of a lemur or an exotic instrument--to their own creations. These are Doug's products, but he doesn't own them, as that would require a physical inventory and upfront cash. His business model is more elegant than that. Here is just one revenue stream:
1. A prospective customer sees his Pay-Per-Click (PPC) advertising on Google or other search engines and clicks through to his site, www.prosoundeffects.com.
2. The prospect orders a product for $325 (the average purchasing price) on a Yahoo shopping cart, and a PDF with all their billing and shipping information is automatically e-mailed to Doug.
3. Three times a week, Doug presses a single button in the Yahoo management page to charge all his customers' credit cards and put cash in his bank account. Then he saves the PDFs as Excel purchase orders and e-mails the purchase orders to the manufacturers of the CD libraries. Those companies mail the products to Doug's customers--this is called drop-shipping--and Doug pays the manufacturers as little as 45% of the retail price of the products up to 90 days later (net-90 terms).
Let's look at the mathematical beauty of his system for full effect.
For each $325 order at his cost of 55% off retail, Doug is entitled to $178.75. If we subtract 1% of the full retail price (1% of $325 = $3.25) for the Yahoo store transaction fee and 2.5% for the credit card processing fee (2.5$ of $325 = $8.13), Doug is left with a pretax profit of $167.38 for this one sale.
Multiply this by 10 (say he processes 10 orders at a time) and we have $1673 in profit for 30 minutes of work. Doug is making $3,347.60 per hour and purchases no products in advance. His initial start-up costs were $1,200 for the Webpage design, which he recouped in the first week. His Pay Per Click advertising costs approximately $700 per month and he pays Yahoo $99 per month for their hosting and shopping cart.
He works for less than two hours a week, often pulls in more than $10,000 per month, and there is no financial risk whatsoever. Now Doug spends his time making music, traveling and exploring new businesses for excitement. Prosoundeffects.com is not his end-all-be-all, but it has removed all financial concerns and freed his mind to focus on other things.
What would you do if you didn't have to think about money? If you follow the advice in this chapter, you will soon have to answer this question.
It's time to find your muse.
Another reason to buy this book!! If you are looking to stop being a slave to your heavy workload, there are ways to leap beyond it all. I shared the above story/scenario to get the wheels in your head churning.
I'm learning that one of the sure keys to bold living is automating our lives -- using our creative minds to figure out a way to offer something to the world in a way that allows for us to breathe, laugh and enjoy our lives.
Thanks for reading!!
More to come on my search for boldness tomorrow :-D
- Jen Engevik of Project BE Bold
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