Anyone who’s undergone any sales training will be familiar with the idea of the puppy dog sale. In case you’re unfamiliar with it, here’s how it works:

A customer is in a pet shop with a child who is begging for a puppy. Not at all sure this is such a great idea, or perhaps not sure if this particular puppy is the right fit, the customer will not commit to the purchase. The salesperson then plays his Ace.

He offers to let them take the puppy home for a few days, assuring the parent that the puppy can be returned, no questions asked, if they decide they don’t want to keep it. How could you refuse? Of course, the child falls in love with the new pet, and there’s no way it’s going to be returned. Sold!

It’s an idea which can be applied to the sale of many products. Get the product into your customers hands on a trial basis and there’s every chance that they will keep it.

That could be because they find it’s just what they want, or because they form an emotional attachment to it (as with a pet). Either a sale is made or you’re not much worse off if the customer decides to return the product.

Give some thought to whether this is something you can apply to your business. Making it completely risk and obligation free for your customer to try out the product in their own home is a very powerful technique. It won’t apply to everything, but where it does, you should use it.

Selling The Unsavoury

Not every product is attractive in either appearance or function. Many fall into the yucky-but-necessary category. So how do you go about selling them? The makers of Naposure, a saline product designed to wash out a mucus laden nose, (apologies if your eating!) faced just this problem.

Their solution was to soften the whole thing by using attractive children in the advertisements, demonstrating the product. The cute and funny videos they made seemed to do the trick of making an unglamorous product visually attractive to the target market.

It’s a trick that toilet paper manufacturers have used for decades of course. What Labrador puppies have to do with the quality and effectiveness of Andrex is anyone’s guess, but they serve the function of making the product attractive, while very subtly conveying the benefits.

Perhaps if your product lacks a little glamour, you could think about making it more attractive and appealing by associating it in customers minds with something more acceptable. Something to give some thought to.

As an aside, I just discovered that toilet paper was first marketed in the United States just 150 years ago, and up until that point in time, everyone made ‘alternative arrangements’. Just give some thought to that the next time you’re bemoaning the fact that some modern day luxury you’ve become accustomed to isn’t working quite the way it should! 

Today’s National Day

NATIONAL BIKE TO WORK  DAY!

PUBLISHERS NOTICE

  Dear Streetwise Customer,

    If you were to design a money-making strategy from scratch to take advantage of the circumstances we’re currently experiencing, here is exactly what you’d come up with – a business where…

 . You can work exclusively from home and never have to leave   
   the house

 . As long as you have a computer with internet access, you’re in 
   business  

. The method behind it doesn’t just cope with turmoil and
   uncertainty…it positively thrives on it.

. You can get started and be making money in days rather than 
   weeks or months.

 . Start-up costs are virtually zero.

  How do I know this is perfect for now? 

  Because the guy who developed it is something of a recluse. He started ‘self-isolating’ years ago before it became a thing, and has run this business from the top of a French mountain, from a remote Swedish farm and from the wilds of northern Scotland…  

  He didn’t have to self-isolate…he just chose to!

  If you find yourself having to live and work a little more remotely in the coming weeks and months…or even if you just like the idea of doing that…then this is perfect for you.  

 Take a look now and respond today. In every crisis, there are opportunities. Even if you’ve looked at doing something like this before and decided against, think again. Now is the time.

 Click HERE for more information

Kind Regards

P.S Uncertain and volatile times are precisely when this works best.
         What other opportunity can you say that about?

www.streetwisenews.com/wizard

I returned from a holiday in a large hotel and I was struck by how much waste there must be from the breakfast and dinner buffets. Dan Blake noted this too back in 2010 and decided to do something about it.

The result was an eco-friendly business with has been named one of the ‘Top 25 Most Promising Social Ventures in America’. EcoScraps takes the waste from ‘All-You-Can-Eat’ Buffets and turns it into a sustainable compost mix.

The business has proved highly profitable and diverts 20 tons of food waste a day from local landfills.

Obviously this is a locally based business – it involved physically picking up the waste – so here’s the question… Who will be first to take this up and run with it in the UK? You’ll have to be quick, I like the idea of this one myself!

Climbing Profits

I’m sure you’re well aware of the fact that health and fitness products are big business. Getting fitter and losing weight are high on the priority list of a lot of people at the moment, and as a result there are hundreds of fitness related machine’s, gadget’s and gizmo’s on the market.

A lot of them are poorly designed, executed and a made, but we recently came across something new which could have a longer life and more appeal than average.

MtEverClimb is a continuous rope climbing machine that (as the name suggests) simulates rope climbing – an activity with long term proven benefits with regard to strength, endurance and cardio vascular training.

The device appears to be very robustly built – it would need to be as it’s endorsed by the Pittsburgh Steelers American football team – and as far as I know, isn’t yet available in the UK.

Could it be the next big thing in UK gym’s? If so, who will introduce it to them. Perhaps something for an ambitious entrepreneur to investigate. 

Today’s National Day

NATIONAL DECENCY DAY!

PUBLISHERS NOTICE

  Dear Streetwise Customer,

    If you were to design a money-making strategy from scratch to take advantage of the circumstances we’re currently experiencing, here is exactly what you’d come up with – a business where…

 . You can work exclusively from home and never have to leave   
   the house

 . As long as you have a computer with internet access, you’re in 
   business  

. The method behind it doesn’t just cope with turmoil and
   uncertainty…it positively thrives on it.

. You can get started and be making money in days rather than 
   weeks or months.

 . Start-up costs are virtually zero.

  How do I know this is perfect for now? 

  Because the guy who developed it is something of a recluse. He started ‘self-isolating’ years ago before it became a thing, and has run this business from the top of a French mountain, from a remote Swedish farm and from the wilds of northern Scotland…  

  He didn’t have to self-isolate…he just chose to!

  If you find yourself having to live and work a little more remotely in the coming weeks and months…or even if you just like the idea of doing that…then this is perfect for you.  

 Take a look now and respond today. In every crisis, there are opportunities. Even if you’ve looked at doing something like this before and decided against, think again. Now is the time.

 Click HERE for more information

Kind Regards

P.S Uncertain and volatile times are precisely when this works best.
         What other opportunity can you say that about?

www.streetwisenews.com/wizard

When Linda Katz was learning how to make a website, she set up a tongue-in-cheek site to sell tumbleweed. Being a farmer in Texas, she had an over-abundance of the stuff growing wild.

And then a funny thing happened – people started buying it. A single tumbleweed sells for between $15 and $25 depending on size. Not bad for an unwanted weed.

I’m not suggesting you start selling tumbleweed, but I am suggesting you use this as a mental springboard. People will often pay good money for something which others regard as a waste product or a nuisance.

Do you have access to anything in your life or business which you are currently throwing away or destroying, but which others might be persuaded to buy?

Filling The Gaps

The internet has created a number of opportunities for individuals and businesses to make money by helping companies to profitably dispose of their spare capacity.

Companies like Lastminute.com were set up on that premise. The growth of mobile phone apps has created even more opportunities to do the same thing.

Yum Table is a mobile app which connects hungry diners with spare tables and special deals at a location near them. If a participating restaurant has either a spare table or cancellation they can have it listed on the app and find a paying customer quickly.

In one sense, plane seats and empty tables are very similar. They have to be filled within a short time frame or the opportunity to sell them is lost forever. Yum Table attempts to do for restaurant tables what Lastminute did for plane seats.

Might this be something you could emulate or copy? Is there some other product or service category crying out for someone to come in and deal with the spare capacity problem? Something to give some thought to.

Today’s National Day

NATIONAL PARENT’S  DAY!

PUBLISHERS NOTICE

  Dear Streetwise Customer,

    If you were to design a money-making strategy from scratch to take advantage of the circumstances we’re currently experiencing, here is exactly what you’d come up with – a business where…

 . You can work exclusively from home and never have to leave   
   the house

 . As long as you have a computer with internet access, you’re in 
   business  

. The method behind it doesn’t just cope with turmoil and
   uncertainty…it positively thrives on it.

. You can get started and be making money in days rather than 
   weeks or months.

 . Start-up costs are virtually zero.

  How do I know this is perfect for now? 

  Because the guy who developed it is something of a recluse. He started ‘self-isolating’ years ago before it became a thing, and has run this business from the top of a French mountain, from a remote Swedish farm and from the wilds of northern Scotland…  

  He didn’t have to self-isolate…he just chose to!

  If you find yourself having to live and work a little more remotely in the coming weeks and months…or even if you just like the idea of doing that…then this is perfect for you.  

 Take a look now and respond today. In every crisis, there are opportunities. Even if you’ve looked at doing something like this before and decided against, think again. Now is the time.

 Click HERE for more information

Kind Regards

P.S Uncertain and volatile times are precisely when this works best.
         What other opportunity can you say that about?

www.streetwisenews.com/wizard

I’ve always held the view that business plans can be a monumental waste of time, and it seems that the academic world may be catching up – or at least part of it.

Steve Blank is a serial entrepreneur, turned business school professor. He argues that entrepreneurship is about getting out into the world and doing it, rather than researching and writing about it. Blank says that business plan classes and competitions are ‘dead in the water’ for new ventures.

My take on this is that creating a detailed business plan is often used as a device for procrastination by would-be entrepreneurs. And even the best thought out plan is pretty useless if you take your product or service to market, and nobody buys it. It’s a bit like designing a car that will handle perfectly at 70mph without firstly ensuring that you have a means of making it start.

I’ve heard the correct sequence of events described in a number of ways, but probably the best is this…Ready, Fire, Aim. Test your ideas out in the real world as quickly as possible. You can do detailed planning later once you know you have something with potential. Don’t waste time planning diligently for something which may prove to be a non-starter.

Décor to Door

As we’ve discussed here before, businesses employing self employed agents to sell products direct to end users in their home, are enjoying a bit of a boom at the moment. We’re all familiar with the Avon’s and Bettaware’s of this world, but the concept is now being adopted by companies selling products at far higher price points.

Décor to Door uses a self employed representative system, but the product is home décor and furnishing. Independent representatives earn commissions by presenting the company’s products in a party plan setting.

This an American company and I’m not aware of anyone doing anything similar here yet. Might this be an operation you could emulate, perhaps partnering with a traditional furniture retailer? Or is there some other product category which would lend itself to the direct sales treatment?

Today’s National Day

NATIONAL JOIN HANDS DAY!

PUBLISHERS NOTICE

  Dear Streetwise Customer,

    If you were to design a money-making strategy from scratch to take advantage of the circumstances we’re currently experiencing, here is exactly what you’d come up with – a business where…

 . You can work exclusively from home and never have to leave   
   the house

 . As long as you have a computer with internet access, you’re in 
   business  

. The method behind it doesn’t just cope with turmoil and
   uncertainty…it positively thrives on it.

. You can get started and be making money in days rather than 
   weeks or months.

 . Start-up costs are virtually zero.

  How do I know this is perfect for now? 

  Because the guy who developed it is something of a recluse. He started ‘self-isolating’ years ago before it became a thing, and has run this business from the top of a French mountain, from a remote Swedish farm and from the wilds of northern Scotland…  

  He didn’t have to self-isolate…he just chose to!

  If you find yourself having to live and work a little more remotely in the coming weeks and months…or even if you just like the idea of doing that…then this is perfect for you.  

 Take a look now and respond today. In every crisis, there are opportunities. Even if you’ve looked at doing something like this before and decided against, think again. Now is the time.

 Click HERE for more information

Kind Regards

P.S Uncertain and volatile times are precisely when this works best.
         What other opportunity can you say that about?

www.streetwisenews.com/wizard

So you don’t have children, but your friends or relatives do. You have to buy them Christmas and birthday presents, that’s where NeverMissGift comes in.

Site users register and then answer a few questions about the child they’re buying for, including age, gender and their budget. Any number of children can be added to a user’s profile, and NeverMissGift sends an email shortly before a birthday or special occasion comes up.

The company recommends its top gifts matching the child’s profile and customers who are happy with the selection don’t have  to do anything-the gift is automatically sent to them or the intended recipient. The company also offer personalised wrapping for those choosing to send the gift straight to the child.

This is a US based service. Could the same service work here in the UK? I see no reason why not. Thinking more widely, could there be a gap in the market for a service designed to solve other gift buying problems-men buying for their wives or girlfriends for example? Something to think about.

I’ll Have Vows With That

Speaking as someone who got married in Las Vegas, I’m probably the last person to comment on the wedding plans of other people. But even I would draw the line at what’s going on in Hong Kong, where you can now get married in your local Macdonalds.

In the West this would be seen as tacky, but Hong Kong is different. Many people there look on it with a sense of nostalgia relating to their student days, whereas here or in the United States it’s generally perceived to be a bit downmarket and certainly not suitable for the most important day of your life.

There are a couple of lessons and ideas to take from this. The first is that we can’t just assume that a business, service or project can be lifted wholesale and set running in another environment or culture. Things may be viewed in a completely different way there, so it’s important to do some research first.

And the second lesson is that it’s worth taking a hard look at the wedding market, wherever you are. Tastes and practices are changing which means that there are new opportunities opening up all the time. People spend small fortunes on their wedding. It would be nice to figure out a way to get hold of a share.

Today’s National Day

NATIONAL BEVERAGE DAY!

PUBLISHERS NOTICE

Dear Streetwise Customer,

Imagine sitting down this afternoon and tapping out a simple letter. It takes you perhaps a couple of hours to get it right…

And Then Over The Next Few Years It Brings In Over £5 Million. 

Pure fantasy? 

Not at all. I’ve done it. I’ll even show you the letter. And I’ve written lots of others just like it, although they weren’t all quite as successful as that one.  

But Even So, Many Of Them Landed Thousands Of Pounds In My Bank Account Within Days, and Hundreds of Thousands Within Weeks. 

Like to learn how to do the same?

Well there has really Never Been A Better Time for three reasons… 

1. These letters bring in serious money when times are tough – and they don’t come much tougher than they are right now.

2. These letters are even more powerful when the world is relying on the internet for its requirements, just like it is right now.

3. You probably have some free time available to learn how to do this at the moment.

Allow me to show you, for more details CLICK HERE

This is an exciting and realistic alternative to the gloom which is all around us today – an escape route. It’s an alternative that can quickly see you banking more than enough money to see yourself and your family right through this current crisis and then into uncharted financial success when all this is over.

This comes with a 100% cast iron 90 day money back guarantee. There is absolutely no risk to you to take a look.

Kind Regards

www.streetwisenews.com/OLR