“Opportunities are never lost; someone will take the one you miss.”
Happy 4th of July. I love the entrepreneurial spirit of this country! The end of this blog, turned out very different from how I started out… so here goes…
Are you the hardest working person on the planet? Probably not, as I said yesterday, there’s always someone smarter, prettier, or more clever than you. That’s just a tough love reality check. That means in small business there is always another business that stays open longer and carries more inventory. So how the heck is your business still open?
Because the internet has made it one great big playground!
We were once restricted to a “local area” as far as we were willing to pay for a newspaper ad… Now it’s a different game. I was a leader at fundraisers in high school. I sold everything AND sold a lot. I often thought, if I can sell this at my high school, why can’t I sell at the neighboring schools. They are all individual markets. Well… it could have been done by visiting each school. NOW however, you can visit each school electronically! That’s how small the world has gotten due to the internet.
I remember doing a research paper for a marketing class, waaaaay back around 1992. I came across a magazine article that stated, shopping of the future will be done by remote control with over 500 channels, including something like a “pots and pans” channel. Well, it wasn’t exactly right, but darn near if you can get to a “pots and pans” page via your smart phone and order…
That article was one of the most breathtaking things I’ve ever read. (Dang, I’m a marketing geek). But, it made me think. I could really imagine something like a “pots and pans” channel. It was exciting and I could hardly wait!
Now imagine if you could create a “T” shirt that said “May the 4th Be With You”. Yeah, you’ve seen it before. What happens when we add the word “Grade” – have you ever seen a “May the 4th Grade Be With You” T shirt? NOW YOU HAVE.
I was just making up this blog post. Trying to figure out how to explain what an opportunity is or how a missed one can make a difference and this “May the 4th Grade” thing popped in my head.
I looked it up… in 2008 4.2 million babies were born. Sheeh. That’s a pretty big market. This shirt can be promoted for back to school, birthdays, holidays, and you guessed it, around May 4th. Every year, there will be an entirely new group of 4th graders. Then of course you have teachers of 4th graders. It goes on and on… how do you find this group?
Facebook.
Target 4th grade teachers. Search for parents of elementary school age kids. Or how about the old fashion way… go to your elementary school and sell to them directly, make it a fundraiser… PS: I just bought MaytheFourthGradeBeWithYou.com (it just goes here) and Maythe4thGrade.com (goes to the T shirt).
All I’m saying is missed opportunities happen all the time. I just found this one.
PS: if you love my post, give it a “like”!
Action Step
1- Think creatively about your business. What do your competitors do that you don’t, how can you improve on that? What inventory are you carrying that you can convert to drop shipping (such as my “May the 4th Grade” shirt. Create your own “pots and pans” channel moment!
2- Install my free app! (SmallBusinessClubApp.com)
Listen to Episode #122 of the Two Minute Commute audio blog Podcast
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