I have a good friend who started the business of selling second-hand cars.

At the end of the year, he said this to me:

“Patric, I think I’ve spend a million to start and manage this business and at the end of the year, I hardly make much money for all of the risks and money I’ve spent.”

Well, luckily, he did not make any lost.

But the fact is… many people actually lose money to start a business and worst still, end up with a lot of stress. I’m not surprise you know of few who are in that shoe. Might as well work in a job than becoming a business owner.

And that’s the reality.

But the good news is, with today’s advance technology and new marketing channels, there are many opportunities to start a business UNCONVENTIONALLY.

If you want to be profitable in a business, these are the three principles you must abide:

1. Who’s paying you? – If you’re going to receive money, SOMEONE’s going to pay you. Do you know who will be your customers? You have to understand the characteristics of your customers so that you know where to find them and ‘talk’ the way they want to communicate.

2. What’s your offer? - In a business, there must be an ‘exchange’. They give you money, you give them… so what do you give them? Hint: This should be your PRODUCT.

3. What is your business platform? - Like my friend, his business platform is his second-hand car showroom. That’s where business is made. There must be a platform how you ‘meet’ with your prospects and where they can buy from you.

As you can see, there’s really nothing complex about this. Understand the business model first, not the tactics or techniques.

And if you’re smart, you’ll start a business that is:

1. Low cost – forget about taking out 50K or a million to start a business because that’s CONVENTIONAL where you’re not truly leveraging on technology and new marketing channels today. If you’re wondering, my defination of low cost is just a couple of hundreds or less to get started.

2. Unconstrained – Having a restaurant is a constrain business because you can only sell to people who walk-in to eat and limited by the numbers of tables you have.

3. Money In First – Don’t be in a business where you’re only to be paid 60 or 90 days later because it’ll drain your cashflow out. Make sure you get paid on the spot or in advance.

4. Minimal Process – Ideally, you want to have an automated business but that would be too idealistic. But it’s not hard to have a semi-automated business that does not require your attention all of the time.
 
5. High Profit – When you have high profit, you could sell less (which means work less). Let’s say you’re selling selling widget A for $50 with a 10% profit margin and I’m selling widget B for $50 but I have 90% profit margin. Which means, you have to sell 9 widget A just to make the same amount of money as me, so theoretically, you have to work 9 times harder.

And besides, with slim profit, your competitors can easily know you off.

Let me introduce to you, ‘infopreneuring’. The first time I’ve heard this concept is from Robert Allen (no, it’s not from one of your favorite internet marketing gurus who are actually rookies compare to Robert).

Following the 3 principles of business success, I’ll first find people who are seeking for the right information to solve their ‘how to’ problems. How to catch a fish, how to get a hot date with a girl, how to learn Thai kickboxing, how to do scrapbooking, how to draw with pencil and the list goes on.

Next, I’ll create the offer, which is the information itself in the most suitable format (book, CD, DVD, digital download, etc) based on the price I’m asking for.

Finally, I’ll determine the platform to sell my info-product and my favorite one is by using the internet. Setup a webpage, present the offer on it and start driving traffic to my webpage.

When you start doing this, you’ll never go into conventional business unless there’s a really good reason to do so.:-)

All the best,

Patric Chan
www.youchandoit.com

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