I’ve just finished reading a fascinating and highly informative book called “Celebrity Authors’ Secrets: The World’s Greatest Living Authors Reveal How They Sell Millions of Books.” by Stephanie J Hale. The book takes the form of a series of interviews with some of the worlds best selling authors – everyone from Jeffrey Archer, Bernard Cornwall and Barbara Taylor Bradford, right through to non fiction authors like Brian Tracey and Sharon Lechter. In it, they share the secrets of their writing and book marketing success. If you have any interest in writing a best seller of your own, I can thoroughly recommend it.

I mention the book for another reason though. – what a great model to follow for someone who wants to write an interesting and useful book for the first time:

1. Choose a subject which people are eager to find out more about.
2. Interview experts in the field
3. Write up the interviews
4. Top and tail the book.

There’s a bit more to it than that of course, but provided you persuade the right interviewees to take part, ask the right questions, and record the answers, you’ll be a long way down the road of having a finished book. And it will be one that people want to read and can benefit from.

If you want to order a copy of Stephanie’s book you can get it at Amazon.

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 on the run up to Christmas.

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!

There’s no doubt that ordinary folk are prepared to challenge themselves physically like never before, but not everyone want to run a marathon or complete an iron man challenge. The Great Urban Race is designed for people who want a fun physical challenge, combined with a bit of brain exercise.

The race was created by Joe Reynolds, a former cross-country athlete. Teams of racers travel somewhere between four to eight miles, solve twelve clues and complete exciting mental and physical challenges. Racers are allowed to travel only on foot or by public transit. Teams may not use any form of private transportation.

Take a look at the race website if this interests you. This is a US based company with races taking place in many cities. It looks like something which could work equally well here.

www.greaturbanrace.com

So you’re looking for the perfect business idea for you. Here are three places to start your search:

1. Frustrations – What frustrations or problems do you have? If you are suffering, the chances are that others are too. Develop a solution and you have a business with a ready-made market.

2. Passions – What are you passionate about? If you’re passionate you’re probably enthusiastic and knowledgeable too. That’s a great start to any business venture.

3. Possessions – What do you own? The things you already own could form the basis of a successful business, whether that’s by using them as tools, selling them and re-stocking or renting them out.

So what business ideas are lurking within your frustrations, passions and possessions? The great thing is that you will have a unique combination of these three factors to work with.

I’m old enough to remember when air tickets were a single price, irrespective of when you booked. More recently, it became the ‘done thing’ to wait until the last minute to grab a bargain. But that’s all changed gain now, and the economics of it became subject of an academic study recently.

Professor Claudio Piga, an economics expert from Keele University, claims the best time to book seats is 10 days before take-off. He looked at fares offered by Ryanair at different times of the year and whether making last-minute bookings meant customers were more likely to get better deals. The study showed Ryanair tends to increase prices by 50 to 75 per cent a few days before a flight. Ten days prior to departure is the optimum time to book in most cases.