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How Test Your Service Business

Continuation from yesterday…..(How To Test Your New Product or Product Idea)

Once you have completed all of the steps above, you will have a fairly good idea if your product is ready for mass market. If it is, move into full scale business development model. If you are still not sure or if the product is not performing very well, don’t give up.  Keep playing around with your product and sales channels until all options are exhausted.

Service Business:

Service businesses are a little bit different. Depending on the kind of service business you are trying to offer, only a small investment might be necessary. That is unless you are trying to open up a physical location such as a hair salon or perhaps a spa.  Plus, they are much easier to setup.  And if you already have experience in the field, chances are, it is likely that you will already have everything needed to get it going.  Fast.  Just pick a business name, register your business with local authorities and get to work.

If that is the case, sales and marketing become your primary concerns. To get traction fast, follow these steps…

  1. Advertise your business in yellow pages. Plus, find what publications (newspapers and magazines) serve your target market audience in your area and advertise with them. Don’t be cheap. Put together a great introductory offer to attract new customers. Something that blows the competition out of the water. That should get the traffic in the door.
  2. Create a professional looking website as outlined in “Online Business” section.
  3. Tell everyone in your sphere of influence about what you are doing. Offer them and their referrals a once in a lifetime deal to get new business in the door.
  4. When not working or servicing clients, spend the rest of your time on generating new business.

Generally speaking and depending on what kind of a service business you have, it will take some time to build a clientele base. Yet, after completing the steps above you should have a fairly good understanding if your service business has a future. If you are getting traction, keep moving forward. If not, either adjust immediately by trying different approaches and marketing strategies or shut it down.

Food Business:

Another popular category is food related. Whether you would like to open your own restaurant, run a catering company or sell millions of peanut butter infused hot dogs, the idea is the same. Start small, test, adjust and figure out if you have a legitimate business on your hands. That means not trying to open up a restaurant or buying $500,000 worth of catering equipment or renting a large warehouse to set up your hot dog manufacturing facility. Remember, one step at a time.

  1. Find out if people actually like what you are trying to sell. Just because your mother thinks that your secret meat loaf is the best thing since the Regan administration, doesn’t mean that others will pay for it.  Start small and test. See if your friends and family will be willing to buy your “food products”. See if you are getting repeat orders.  See what kind of a feedback you are getting. Are you getting referrals, are people asking for your recipe, do people love your food, etc…?
  2. If you are getting great response in step #1, it is time to expand to local fairs, farmers markets and online. Plus, you can begin to approach local mom and pop restaurants to see if they would be interested in getting daily or weekly deliveries of the food items you are trying to sell.  Repeat business is a must.

The steps above will help you determine if people love your cooking or your food items. If they do, you are free to move to the next stage. If you are unable to get traction it might be time to adjust your recipe until you do or it might be time to shift to your next idea.

To Be Continued Tomorrow...(Why Am I Seeing This On  A Financial Website?)

Z30

How Test Your Service Business Google

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How To Test Your New Product or Product Idea

business_ideas

Continuation from Friday…….(How To Build A Minimally Viable Product)

Once you campaign is up running you should track it very carefuly, adjusting it along the way. When optimized, it will give you an idea if your business can be successful and/or profitable. If it is, move on to full scale business development. If it is not, keep one important thing in mind. Oftentimes, it takes months of constantly adjusting your product offerings and marketing campaigns before you hit the pay dirt. A lot of people tend to give up right before that happens. DO NOT abandon your project at this state, until and unless, you are 100% sure that you have exhausted all possible options.

Product Centric Business:

If you have a prototype product you would like to sell, the time to develop it into a working concept is now.  Attempt to create a working version, no matter the cost. If nothing else, this process will give you a full understanding of what it takes and how much it will cost to put your product together. Once completed, attempt to test it in every possible way in order to determine what types of failure(s) your product is susceptible to.  If not much develops, try to understand if you product can be manufactured in large numbers and at a price that will be accepted by its eventual customer base. A price that will also yield a profit for you.

If you are lucky enough to successfully get to this point, it is time to roll up your sleeves and start the sales cycle. Yet, unless your product is absolutely amazing or unique, don’t try to hit the ball out of the park. That means you shouldn’t approach Walmart or Costco in an attempt to sell 10 Million units. It doesn’t work that way. Most large retailers and distributors won’t even bother talking to new merchants such as yourself.  In majority of the cases, they will require a multi-year track record and an income statement showing millions of revenue before they will even bother to let you into their parking lot.

In other words, start small. I would suggest the following multi-tier approach…..

  1. Develop your own product website and sell direct. You can follow the steps outlined in the “Online Business” section above or develop your own store in a matter of minutes. There many websites services out there that can help you do just that. To the point where you can have your own store, shopping cart and credit card processing service in a matter of minutes. Shopify.com is one of the most popular services in the space.
  2. Open your own storefronts on Amazon.com and Ebay.com. While it will take you a few hours to set them up, both platforms will bring hundreds of millions of potential buyers to your product. If nothing else, it will give you an idea if your product has mass appeal.
  3. Depending on what your product is, attempt to find physical retailers in your city that carry similar product lines. Mom and pop shops would be your best bets as large corporate chains are unlikely to place your products in their stores. Approach them and ask if they would be willing to attempt to sell your product. In order to see if there is a demand.  A major selling point for you might be leaving you merchandise behind on consignment basis as opposed to trying to sell it outright. It would be great way to develop initial relationships with local merchants as many more businesses will take a risk on such an offer.
  4. If your product permits, try selling it at local fairs, swap meets and flea markets. Again, it will help you determine if your product can be sold and/or if it has mass appeal.

Once you have completed all of the steps above, you will have a fairly good idea if your product is ready for mass market. If it is, move into full scale business development model. If you are still not sure or if the product is not performing very well, don’t give up. Keep playing around with your product and sales channels until all options are exhausted.

To Be Continued Tomorrow…...(Why Am I Seeing This On A Financial Website?)

Z31

How To Test Your New Product or Product Idea  Google

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How Care Triggers Stress

How To Avoid Stress

Continuation from last week…..(How Desires Trigger Stress)

What you don’t realize is that most of such desires trigger various STRESS energies within your being.  They do so through a hidden veil of failure. If you think about it, very few of your daily desires come to a fruition.  Perhaps less than 1%.  The rest are associated with failure.

Allow me to illustrate. If a beautiful woman or a handsome man walk by you an automatic desire to possess them will appear in your realm of consciousness. Yet, as it does, your mind will automatically (most of the time) shift into the state of failure by suggesting that you are not …….nice enough, rich enough, good looking enough, successful enough, etc….to be with such a person.  In other words, you own mind will throw your entire being under a bus. Into a bin of failure.

Guess what happens thereafter? That’s right, your mind will go into overdrive by thinking that you need to be MORE successful, make more money, work out more and so forth. All just to be on the “presumed” equal footing with the person you have just desired a few seconds ago. Yet, that desire to be something MORE will bring a tremendous amount of STRESS into your life. Why? Because to your mind, you own being is never good enough. You are always on that treadmill chasing this fad or that idea, without realizing a simple truth.

That your own mind or thought processes are destroying you from the inside out. That desires your mind generates bring a constant state of activity into your realm of consciousness.  And activity and STRESS go hand in hand.  On a flip side, if you are aware of how this entire process works, you would be able to prevent all desires from manifesting within your mind. Leading to a STRESS free existence.

Care: Care for things works in a very similar fashion. Yet, an important distinction should be made first. The care we are talking about has nothing to do with care for your loved ones.  This section concentrates on care for physical things, vested interests and preconceived outcome.

A strong desire for certain things or interests will lead you to care a little too much about certain outcomes.  What happens is, your mind takes most of your desires and project well into the future.  Suggesting that you will be able to achieve them all.  However, that rarely happens. Most desires remain desires as your mind continues to play cunning tricks on your being.  What’s worst, since you care way too much about certain outcomes, when they don’t develop, your mind automatically dumps your entire being into that same bin on failure. Bringing a substantial amount of STRESS along for the ride.

In other words, since you cared way too much about a certain outcomes, when such outcomes are not achieved, STRESS energies enter the picture.

For example, that is one of the primary reasons as to why so few people can lose weight and keep it off.  In essence, they care a little too much about the outcome.  Before they even begin the process, the mind projects the state of success well into the future. Instead of concentrating on the work that needs to be done, their mind concentrates on the final outcome.  An obese woman might begin thinking how she will lose 120 lbs over the next 6 months, buy a red bikini and automatically grab the attention of many good looking men.  She then begins to care a little too much about this particular outcome. With it, her life will be amazing, without it, it will be an absolute failure. A life not worth living.

The problem is, it is incredibly difficult to lose that much weight over such a short period of time. While the first 20 lbs might be easy, the rest of the weight will require an immense effort.  Yet, if she is like most people, her mind will not be ready for it. Remember, her mind had already shifted to the state where success is achieved. It is living in a fantasy world. Yet, when the reality hits and our subject begins to fail in her ambitious pursuit, the mind will immediately shift into the state of failure.  And that will bring massive amounts of STRESS into her life by confirming two things 1. That she is a failure and 2. That she will never be able to have the life that she wants.

That’s how cunning the mind is. If left unchecked it will destroy you from the inside out. In this particular case, as we become aware of the mind inner workings we can begin to understand how desire and care work. How they bring STESS into our realm of consciousness.  Then, by turning them off we can eliminate STRESS from our daily lives.

To Be Continued Tomorrow…..(Why Am I Seeing This On  A Financial Site?)

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How Care Triggers Stress Google

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The Hunt For Tenbaggers

Book Cover

Continuation from Friday...(A Few More Rules For Finding Tenbaggers)

RULE #10: Sit Out or Get Ready To Go Short When the Time Is Right

Finally, at certain times you will find yourself in extreme overvaluation bubbles. Similar to those at 2000 and 2007 tops. It highly probable that you will not be able to find any potential Tenbaggers at general undervaluation levels in such environments. When that happens, it would be an opportune time to get ready for a bear raid on individual stocks or the overall market. If nothing else, it would be prudent to stay out of the way.

Today’s market environment, in August of 2014, presents us with a perfect illustration of that. Due to its overall extreme valuation levels, I am unable to find a single stock issue that would satisfy all of the requirements above. That’s right, not a single stock that I would invest in as a potential Tenbagger as most stocks have been driven to unsustainable valuation levels. This tells me a few things. First, the market is overvalued and in a bubble. Second, if I have any remaining long positions I should consider liquidating them now or as soon as the market breaks down (technical bear confirmation).  Finally, I should consider going short if my investment strategy allows it.

Clue #10: If you are unable to find any potential Tenbaggers at undervalued levels, the overall stock market is likely to be in a bubble. Be prepared to exit your long positions and to go short at a moment’s notice.

Conclusion: If you are to follow the steps above it is highly probable that you will not be able to find more than 10 individual stock issues, at any one time, that satisfy all of your requirements. When you do find them, make it your business to learn everything you possibly can about the underlying business and its stock price. From the fundamental, technical and mathematical perspectives. It will make all the difference between investing in a stock that does well and a stock that goes up 10X or more within a relatively short period of time. When all of your requirements are satisfied and you are confident that the underlying stock will outperform the market by a large margin……..buy as much stock as your diversification strategy allows.

And that’s all there is to it.

This book will now be edited. It should be available over the next 30 days or so. 

Z30

The Hunt For Tenbaggers Google

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Most Bears Capitulate…..Markets To Surge Higher?

daily chart August 29 2014

8/29/2014 – An up day with the Dow Jones up 19 points (+0.11%) and the Nasdaq up 22 points (+0.50%). 

Yep, it’s official, even the perma bears are throwing in the towel.  Real stock correction going to blindside us: Pro 

“The day we’re going to get a real correction is when we stop parading people … saying a correction is coming, people like me who have been wrong. If we finish strong today, I’m going to ditch my notion of a correction.”

-The rest of the article is an all out Bull Party predicting a massive stock market rally towards the end of the year.

Wow, what a bear. One more day and he is out. And while traditional financial media calls these people bears, I call them weaklings. Yet, for a big move down to occur, this psychological setup cannot appear in any other fashion.

I have said it before and I will say it again. Two things. First, the stock market has been accumulating massive amounts of energy since December 31st, 2013. This energy is pointing towards a massive move (up or down) in the very near future. Second, there are no bears left. Everyone is incredibly bullish on this market and very few (if any) people expect any sort of a correction. Let alone a crash. The question is…..who is right? The majority or a few “retarded” bears that are crazy enough to maintain their stance.

If you would be interested in receiving a direct answer to this question, please CLICK HERE

(***Please Note: Due to my obligations to my Subscribers I am unable to provide you with more exact forecasts. In fact, I am being “Wishy Washy” at best with my FREE daily updates here. If you would be interested in exact forecasts, dates, times and precise daily coverage, please Click Here). Daily Stock Market Update. August 29th, 2014 InvestWithAlex.com

Did you enjoy this article? If so, please share our blog with your friends as we try to get traction. Gratitude!!!

Most Bears Capitulate…..Markets To Surge Higher? Google

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How To Build A Minimally Viable Product

idea validation

Continuation from yesterday…..(How To Validate Your Business Idea With Crowdfunding)

Example: Develop a detailed presentation for your Pet Smart Phone.  Concentrate on outlining all of its benefits and features.  If at all possible, build a working model and produce a video.  Once ready, find a crowdfunding platform that satisfies all your needs. Post your project on the site and promote it in order to see what kind of a response you will get. Go to work and deliver on all of the promises made during this process.

Until now we have concentrate on steps that were, more or less, free.  Where your time and efforts were the only real requirements.  Yet, if you were to follow the steps above you would be able to ascertain a fairly good idea if your product or service was legitimate.  If it wasn’t you would have to go back to the drawing board and then repeat the process outlined here for your new or adjusted idea. More importantly, if your product, service or idea passed the steps above with flying colors, it would be an opportune time to move on to the Idea Validation Level #2.   Assuming you would like to continue on with developing your idea.

Level #2: An In-Depth Idea Scan

This is where the proverbial tires hit the pavement. In addition to your time commitment, some sort of a monetary commitment will be necessary at this stage. This is where you will develop a working sample of your product or service and attempt to sell it in a real world environment.   And while most people will make a big deal out of it, it doesn’t have to be. In fact, a minimally viable product is all that you are trying to accomplish at this stage.  Build it fast, build it cheap and ship.

“Real Artists Ship”
-Steve Jobs

Let’s now take a quick look at a number of different business models to see how you can implement this step with rapid speed and effectiveness.  Just remember, all you are trying to do is determine if you have a viable product or service on your hands.

Online Businesses:

Buy a domain and a web hosting package for your business. Setup a WordPress site and begin to develop your website. Total time and monetary investment…..about 1 hour and $70/year. I would recommend using Bluehost.com if you decide to go this route.  If your web project requires a customized solution I would recommend hiring programmers from either Russia or India to build your site on the cheap. You can easily find such programmers on freelancing sites such as Elance.com

Thereafter, develop a minimally viable website for your product or service as fast possible and begin to promote it. The entire process should not take more than 30 days. Unless you are working on something truly unique.  Once ready, begin selling your product directly to your target audience to see what kind of a response you generate.

It also important to note that since your website will be a brand new one; you shouldn’t expect too much traffic. If any at all. If that is the case, you should rely primarily on Google Adwords or Facebook Ads to drive highly relevant leads to your product or service offering.  If you are not familiar with developing ad campaigns on these platforms I would recommend doing a lot of research into the area before committing a single dollar.

To Be Continued Tomorrow…..(Why Am I Seeing This On A Financial Website?)

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How To Build A Minimally Viable Product Google

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A Few More Rules For Finding Tenbaggers

Continuation from yesterday……(Rules For Trading Tenbaggers).

RULE #7: Buy Fast Growing Companies After Market Corrections

If we look at all of the above companies and try to identify one trait that worked 95-100% of the time, this would it. Every one of our stocks sold off during bear market legs of 2000-2002 and 2007-2009. Most of the time at X multiple to the market.  Meaning, their declines were at times more, sometimes a lot more than the overall market. Suggesting that their eventual bounces would be more significant as well.

Further, once the market corrections were over, it was time to buy. Most of our stocks had their largest 500-2,000% run ups during bull legs of 2002-2007 and 2009-2014. Or right after bear market legs terminated at their respective bottoms.   Perhaps Warren Buffett had said it best, “Be fearful when others are greedy and greedy when others are fearful.”  Buy at the bottom.

Clue #7: This strategy is about as foolproof as it can get. By buying at the bottom of a bear cycle, you ensure good entry points and subsequent massive gains in your potential Tenbaggers.

RULE #8: Secular Bull or Bear Markets are Not Very Relevant:

All of the stocks above had their massive run ups during a secular bear market of 2000-2017. Proving, without a shadow of a doubt, that individual stocks can increase in value even in the hardest of times. Assuming their underlying businesses are performing well.  And while it is helpful and more profitable to have a bull market at your back, it is not a requirement.  There will be many stocks that go up 10X or more under all market conditions.

With that said and as was suggested above, all investors must be on a lookout for fast developing bear market legs that tend to appear in secular bear markets. For instance, 2000-2002, 2007-2009 and 2014-2017. It is at this time that most stocks go though their corrections. Giving us an opportunity to 1. Liquidate our long positions.  2. Go short and 3. Load up on multiple Tenbaggers at give away prices at the bottom of the decline.

Clue #8: Don’t pay attention to bull or bear markets. Instead, concentrate on avoiding bear market legs in secular bear markets. Load up on your favorite Tenbagger stocks when selloffs terminate.

RULE #9: At Least Some Diversification is Required.

While the Tenbaggers in this book offer a high rate of return, it comes with a side of extra risk associated with new product introductions, restructurings, growth, etc…. As such, it would be prudent not to bet all of your chips on one or two potential Tenbaggers.  Yet, a wide diversification here is impossible since you will not be able to find many stocks that satisfy all of your Tenbagger requirements. You can go about solving this issue in one of two ways.

First, simple add Tenbaggers to your overall well diversified portfolio. While they will have a net positive impact, they impact might not be as great is if you were concentrating on Tenbaggers alone.  Which brings us to option number two.   In this case you would develop a portfolio of no more than 10 Tenbaggers while concentrating your attention entirely on overseeing their progress.

Clue #9: Do not bet all of your money on 1-2 potential Tenbaggers as such stocks are inherently more risky and unpredictable. Instead, concentrate on developing one of two diversification strategies that appeal to you the most.

To Be Continued On Monday……

Z30

A Few More Rules For Finding Tenbaggers  Google

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The Stock Market Is Going Up Forever…..Right?

daily chart August 28 2014

8/28/2014 – A down day with the Dow Jones down 42 points (-0.25%) and the Nasdaq down 12 points (-0.26%).

If you would like to find out where the market is going next, you don’t have to look further than this gem of market wisdom….Why you can’t lose if you invest in equities  

Here are some highlights of this “Markets are going higher forever no matter what” fluff piece.

  • If markets go up, they win. If they go down, central banks repeat again how they won’t do anything unless they are convinced the “recovery” is here to stay, and on such utterances markets resume their upward trajectory. So again investors win. It’s a no-brainer.
  • We have nothing to fear except fear itself: never a more accurate saying than it is today about Western central banks. 

Sheer stupidity. This only made sense after I have learned that the author of the above nonsense stems from academia as opposed to any sensible applicable discipline. Nevertheless, there is an important lesson here. His view is shared by most of the investors out there. And we all know how well that worked out in the past.

This conclusion is further supported by my mathematical and timing work. It clearly shows a severe bear market between 2014-2017. In fact, when it starts it will very quickly retrace most of the gains accrued over the last few years.  If you would be interested in learning when the bear market of 2014-2017 will start (to the day) and its internal composition, please CLICK HERE

(***Please Note: Due to my obligations to my Subscribers I am unable to provide you with more exact forecasts. In fact, I am being “Wishy Washy” at best with my FREE daily updates here. If you would be interested in exact forecasts, dates, times and precise daily coverage, please Click Here). Daily Stock Market Update. August 28th, 2014 InvestWithAlex.com

Did you enjoy this article? If so, please share our blog with your friends as we try to get traction. Gratitude!!!

The Stock Market Is Going Up Forever…..Right? Google