Police in the US said that a woman they dubbed a real-life “cleaning fairy”, broke into a house and a left a bill for the housework she did. According to police, the woman entered the residence while homeowner Mallory Bush slept, did some light cleaning and then left a bill for $75 on a napkin before leaving. Unfortunately for the “cleaning fairy,” crime didn’t pay and she was arrested. 

Now obviously you can’t go breaking into houses. Nor can you force work or products on people and then charge them. But if you can find a way to ethically give your potential customers a ‘free sample’ of what you sell or what you do, it could be a great source of new business. I’ve experimented with this by giving away free books, and people really seem to appreciate it and respond well.

Groove Book

Brian and Julie Whiteman founded photo sharing and printing app GrooveBook in 2012. A year later they appeared on Shark Tank, the American version of Dragons Den and in November 2014, announced a deal to sell to Shutterfly for $14.5 Million after attracting over a million subscribers. I mention it for three reasons. 

Anyone who tells you there’s no such thing as ‘Get-Rich-Quick’ hasn’t heard the story of GrooveBook.

It’s a demonstration of the power of something we’re always going on about here – monthly subscription marketing.

It’s a great concept and a great product, delivery of which isn’t available here in the UK yet.

So something to learn from, take inspiration from and maybe even copy perhaps?

www.groovebook.com

Today’s National Day

NATIONAL HELP DAY!

PUBLISHERS NOTICE

Dear Streewise Customer,

Take a look at this betting slip from 27th October 2020

As you’ll see, it’s a £10 bet which brought in £309.45. With what I’m writing
to you about today, days like this are commonplace.

Want to find out how to cash in on this for yourself? Take a look HERE.

Heck, there’s absolutely nothing for you to do. All the bets are sent straight
to you..

Kind Regards

John Harrison 
Streetwise Publications Ltd

www.streetwisenews.com/FMWS

Sometimes a product becomes so commonplace in its generic form that we stop thinking about it at all, and the humble tea bag falls into that category. In recent years, tea companies have really gone out on a limb (well not really) by creating round, triangular and pyramid shaped bags, but now a Taiwan company really has done something different.

Charm Villa has created tea bags designed to look like a goldfish. When placed in hot water, the colours of the leaves in the tea bag show through and resemble the patterns of goldfish scales. It’s a novelty of course, but it does serve to differentiate the companies tea bags from everything else on the market.

If you’re in a market where nobody really thinks about the physical characteristics of the product, you could gain a big competitive advantage by creating something which is cosmetically fresh while serving essentially the same function.

Become A Micro-Tasker

Making some extra money from home, or indeed becoming full time self-employed, need not always mean starting your own business. If you have a skill or series of skills, sites like www.fiverr.com offer you the opportunity to market yourself to individuals and companies looking to outsource some of their requirements.

So what sort of work can you get on Fivver? Well copywriting, editing, design work, computer programming, cover creation, survey filling and data entry are just a few of the categories on offer. There are literally hundreds of different opportunities and there’s no reason why you should stick to just one. Some micro taskers do this full time and can easily clear several hundred pounds a week. Bear in mind that there are no set up costs or long term commitments. You can do everything from home.

Whether you’re looking for a full time opportunity of a bit of spare cash, this has to be worth a look.

Today’s National Day

NATIONAL ESPRESSO DAY!

PUBLISHERS NOTICE

www.streetwisenews.com/89P

Las Vegas has long been known as a place where people go to get married, but there’s a new growth sector in town – divorce party planning.

The newly divorced are no longer content to let the event slip by, marked only by bickering, recrimination and lawyers fees, and are celebrating in style instead. I just read of one divorce party planner who takes the newly divorced ‘bride’ into the desert with her friends where she gets to let loose on her wedding dress with a machine gun!

With almost half of weddings ending in divorce, the market is huge and totally untapped in the UK. Not everyone wants to celebrate a divorce, but I can see it becoming more popular and socially acceptable in the years to come.

So here’s a question for you – what kind of events and activities could you arrange for the newly divorced? It doesn’t have to be as ‘negative’ as the destruction of a wedding dress but there are certainly plenty of woman who would welcome the opportunity for a bit of creative destruction.

The T Shirt Millionaires

We’ve written here in the past about Teespring, an online company that takes all the hassle out of designing, producing and marketing your own T Shirts. The company is going from strength to strength and sold 6 million shirts last year, all created by site users. According to the company, hundreds of people have made in excess of $100,000 from the T shirt trade via Teespring, and at least ten have become millionaires.

The way that it works is that Teespring handles everything including online display, payment, manufacturing and shipping. You simply supply the ideas and assist with sending potential customers to the site in return for a pre-agreed slice of the revenue.

Businesses don’t get much more simple or risk-free to set up than this. There’s very little to lose by giving it a try.

Today’s National Day

NATIONAL MONOPOLY DAY!

PUBLISHERS NOTICE

www.streetwisenews.com/89P

My daughter sometimes photographs her food and then uploads it to Instagram and other social media. I thought she was mad, but apparently a lot people are doing it, and one restaurant has decided to make the whole thing a lot more professional. South Africa’s El Burro restaurant has installed a device that enables customers to take professional style Instagram shots of their food. It’s a lighting set-up which allows smart phone users to get top class photo’s of the food they’re about to eat. 

The people behind the idea are the Wi-Fi network providers used by the restaurant, who want to showcase what can be achieved using their system, but this has to be a good idea for the restaurant too. If you can get customers uploading enticing photographs of the food on offer, then that has to be good for business. Many Instagram users have hundreds of followers. What a great way to get a free advertisement out to a lot of people.

Is this an idea you could use? Is there a way you could encourage your smartphone-owning customers to upload pictures of your product to their Instagram followers or other social networks? Running a competition might provide the necessary impetus.

The Anger Relief Centre

Ever felt like just smashing something? Then you need to go to the Smash Happy House Stress and Anger Relief Centre where you can do it in safety and with the owners blessing. The company offer a range of destructive options including beer bottles, bar glasses and coffee cups. You can even beat up a mannequin with a baseball bat.

Customers include war veterans, stroppy teenagers, angry parents and heartbroken lovers. Everyone is given safety equipment and then left to create havoc. The company offer birthday and party packages and expect an upturn in business next year.

It’s perhaps needless to say that this is in America, but couldn’t the same thing work here? If Americans enjoy, or get relief from smashing things up, I’m sure people would here too. There could be serious money to be made… and it sounds like fun!

Today’s National Day

NATIONAL PRINCESS DAY!

PUBLISHERS NOTICE

www.streetwisenews.com/89P

There seems to be a blueprint for female fashion models that is rarely broken – very tall, very skinny, very bland.  What makes this rather strange, in my view, is that only a very tiny minority of the people who the fashions are aimed at, conform to the same blueprint.  I think the market is crying out for something a bit more realistic and representative, which is where London based Anti -Agency comes in. 

The agency actively selects models who defy the industry standard, preferring individualism and personality over the supposed perfect shape.  The founders claim they employ people who are “too cool to be models”.  Many of the models represented by the agency are young students and artists who are looking to break into the creative industries.  By using models that better represent consumers the agency has secured work from well-known brands such as Uniqlo, ASOS, Urban Outfitters, Toni & Guy and Liberty of London.

There are two things here: 

1. Could there be a second career for you as a model? Anti -Agency isn’t the only one to realise that the market is becoming increasingly interested in seeing the ‘real’ people in clothes they’re being invited to buy. 

2.  There’s a message here for other industries.  Following the accepted route is just one road to success.  There are usually opportunities to be successful doing something completely different from the crowd.

Stinky Boyz

Stinky Boyz is a personal hygiene product company based in Atlanta, Georgia. Back in the mid 1990’s , the founder Marie Gelin noticed the battle her sister was having to get her son to shower and wash. As a mother of daughters, the difference was stark. Gelin decided to do something about it and created a sports based range of soaps and cleansing products. The business was a success and went from strength to strength. 

There are two things to take from this I think. Firstly, successful businesses are often based on personal problems or experiences. So give some thought to yours. And secondly, contrary to what the politically correct might tell you, it’s worth giving some thought to the big differences between the sexes. Men and woman…boys and girls…are not the same. They have vastly different needs, wants and pre-dispositions, and there are often successful businesses to be had within these differences.

Today’s National Day

NATIONAL FAST FOOD DAY!

PUBLISHERS NOTICE

 www.streetwisenews.com/wizard