Imagine you want to buy a new bicycle. There are hundreds of models to choose from, each with very different characteristics. Choose the wrong one and you can end up making an expensive mistake. That’s the scenario behind the launch of the London Bicycle Library.

The library is based on a double decker bus. The bus contains information and resource materials where visitors can research their choice, and also a wide selection of bicycles which they can try out, and even take home for a few days. If it’s a marriage made in heaven, they can order their own bike, direct from the manufacturers via the library.

One of the greatest fears – and one of the greatest barriers to making a sale – in any market, is the fear of making a mistake. Anything which allows the customers to try-before-they-buy will ultimately be rewarded with increased sales. So is there some way you could adapt or apply this concept to your business?

Grooming Is Booming

Speaking as someone whose personal grooming routine consists of a shower and a shave, this isn’t something I can empathise with, but the market for men’s grooming tools and products is booming. A recent report found double digit growth in some segments of the market.

Of all the advantages you can have when starting a new business, one of the most critical is a ‘following wind’. Yes, you can succeed in a mature market or even one that’s declining, but you’ll make it so much easier for yourself if you start out with the advantage of rapid growth of the market as a whole.

If you’re looking to go into a business with ‘real products’ you could do far worse than do some research into the market for men’s cosmetics. Research suggests that the market is set to continue to grow for some time yet. It might even get to me one day!

Today’s National Day   

NATIONAL WORK NAKED DAY!  

PUBLISHERS NOTICE

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John Harrison 

As you probably know, I have a property business and so spend a fair amount of time looking at property ad’s. Here’s something I’ve found. On the whole, the photography is appalling. It’s really quite amazing that an agent can be selling a property valued at hundreds of thousands of pounds, and yet they think it acceptable to present it via a few blurry iphone photographs, with no attempt to tidy up or find the best angles.

I’m not the world’s best photographer but always seem to be able to take attractive photographs of the properties we have for rent. It really isn’t hard, but you wouldn’t know it judged by the ‘it’ll do’ approach of many agents. There has to be an opening for someone to offer a photographic service to agents. You wouldn’t need expensive equipment – just a decent camera with a wide angle lens and some basic software to clean up your images.

If I was starting this business I’d contact a few agents and offer to re-photograph some of the properties they already had on their books, for free. From there, it should be fairly easy to sell them on the benefits of having better quality photo’s of what is the biggest purchase which most people will ever make.

Sale Or Return Business

Difficult economic times don’t just create problems, they generate opportunities too. One of those opportunities arises from the fact that suppliers are likely to be far more flexible in their approach – and far more open to ‘sale or return’ deals when times are tough.

If you can negotiate ‘sale or return’ deal with a wholesaler or other supplier, you start out with a huge advantage. You have no capital tied up in stock and no dead stock that you need to discount to dispose of. Anything you don’t sell simply goes back to the supplier.

One idea I saw recently was The Sale Or Return Mobile Unit. This is a mobile retail unit (or van to you and me!) which is stocked up with goods provided on a sale or return basis. There are two huge additional advantages to this approach – firstly there is no rent or rates to pay, and secondly the unit can be moved from location to location and stocked with merchandise to fit.

So one day it might be parked outside a football ground selling scarves, hats and football related items. The next day it could be parked near a busy retail area selling discounted clothes. The day after that, it could be packed motoring related products for a car show.

Get the idea? The key points are that everything is flexible, everything is sale or return and you can try out lots of different things without a great deal of cost or commitment.

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NATIONAL RANDOM ACT OF KINDNESS DAY!  

PUBLISHERS NOTICE

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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 you’re 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 customer’s minds with something more acceptable. Something o 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!

What’s New?

Almost every would-be entrepreneur I speak to is looking for something ‘new’…a product or service nobody has thought of before. But what exactly is ‘new’, and is this a realistic ambition?

In the early part of the twentieth century, long before the internet, The Boston Globe had an instant real time news feed product, backed by advertising. Breaking news was chalked up on huge boards and placed in the newsroom window which backed onto the street.

The news was usually conveyed by a headline (140 characters or less!) and behind it were paid advertisements. In addition telegraphed communications of boxing matches or football matches was shouted out by employees using loud hailers, round by round or play to an eager audience. Early multimedia in action!

Okay, it’s not quite Twitter, but the point I’m making is that the demand for news of events as they happened was always there, and there was a product to fill the demand. What’s available on the internet today is just a modern day manifestation of a product meeting the same demand.

Rather than looking for something completely new and unique, a more fruitful route to a lucrative business opportunity might be to look at what was popular in the past, and then how it can be given a modern twist. Technology changes, but underlying inbuilt human needs wants and desires do not.

Today’s National Day   

NATIONAL JUNK FOOD DAY!  

PUBLISHERS NOTICE

This Will Make You Money, Guaranteed 

Hello,

I know, I know – It’s very big claim in that subject line.

But this really is one of the few extra income ideas where I genuinely believe you can use the word ‘Guaranteed’!

Look, I don’t want to beat about the bush with this.

I’ve had many years experience with these types of systems and this is one I can strongly recommend. 

Take a look today: 

www.streetwisenews.com/variant6 

Best Wishes  

John Harrison