Category Archives: General Business

Mar 28 2012

The Ultimate Book

Here’s my idea of the day. You can have it for free. If you make millions from it, don’t worry about sending me royalties.

I was watching Leo Laporte talk about Audible.com on TWiT.tv and thought about how I like audio books, but I don’t spend a lot of time where they could be played and I can pay attention to them. This is why I typically read a book instead of listening to it.

I’ve checked out a few cool books on my iPad for my son to both read and listen to. The audio follows the words on the pages. It’s a great way to show him what each word sounds like as he is learning to read.

What if we had adult versions of this? We could listen to a book in our cars, then read them while we’re waiting for a Dr.’s appointment or sitting at a cafe. Both the audio and the words in print would be synched across all of our devices, similar to Kindle and iBooks.

I would love this and be willing to pay a little more for one of these ultimate book.

Just a thought. Take it and run with it… please.

Aug 10 2011

The Top 10 ‘Branded’ iPhone Apps

The Street recently published an excellent article on branded iPhone apps. Here is an excerpt:

While tons of Fortune 500 companies are scrambling to create an Apple iPhone app that helps promote their brand, the effort doesn’t always pay off.

More than 80% of apps put out by major consumer and health care brands are downloaded less than 1,000 times, according to a new study released by Deloitte. And only 1% of these so-called branded apps are downloaded more than a million times.

The majority of these fail to gain traction because they simply aren’t noticed, the report said. Many brands just aren’t spending the resources they need to actively market their apps in a crowded environment — passively posting an app and hoping for the best just won’t do.

Read the rest of the article, including the Top 10 Branded Apps

Aug 24 2010

2 Life-Changing Products (VIDEO)

I’m not sure why we’re not hearing more about what you are about to see. It could be that the ideas presented are large threats to the energy companies we’re so dependent on. Regardless to the reasoning, I think that these ideas need to spread faster than the Bed Intruder Song or CeeLo Green’s F**K You video.

The first video you are about to see was sent to me today from a fantastic company named PSFK. They send me new ideas every morning via their newsletter, which I highly recommend subscribing to. This video shows a scientist who makes turning our discarded plastic trash into oil look easy.

Hopefully I’m not the only one who can imagine the enormous potential. It may change the way we view garbage as well as the way we view oil production. Working for a plastic company, this could change the way I view our products.

Next, I’m sharing a video with you showing an idea that can rid us of our dependence on oil. The video was originally aired on the CBS show, 60 Minutes, in February. I am amazed by how little I’ve heard of it since then. I believe this to be one of the most substantial breakthroughs of my lifetime and hope that it lives up to what its creators are saying about it.

Consider the possibilities of a world where the Bloom Box and the Plastic-to-Oil Machine become widely used around the world. This is a world that I cannot wait to live in.

Aug 19 2010

Ruralsourcing – An Amazing Concept

Closed Store

Closed Store

In recent travels to the Midwest, I’ve painfully noticed the toll of the recent resurgence in urbanization as well as the current recession in the United States. The empty buildings and houses made many of the small towns I grew up around seem ghostly. I have a lot of family and friends that continue to live in these rural areas and I hate to think they’d be forced to move while the cities seem to be getting bigger and bigger.

From time to time, I think about ways to help rural areas. Many of these towns were once supported by the previously lucrative agriculture industry, then moved to the previously lucrative manufacturing plants. Now many of the plants have shut down or scaled back on their labor requirements. The concept of working virtually came to my mind, but I didn’t bother exploring it much. I have doubts on the success of this general idea to drive growth in rural areas without anything further driving it. However, I was pleasantly surprised to read this article on ruralsourcing today from my friends at PSFK.

The idea of ruralsourcing is simple. Instead of outsourcing jobs to lower-cost workers in a different country, send them to rural areas of our own country to save money. Typically, these rural areas have a lower cost of living than their urban counterparts and hence receive lower salaries.

The article shows Onshore Technology Services and CrossUSA as companies that provide ruralsourcing solutions. They recruit workers from mid-sized cities with lower living costs and train them to handle jobs for their clients.

The benefit for companies to hire these lower cost workers may be that additional element needed to help drive working virtually in the Midwest. Now, people who enjoy living in areas where crime rates are lower, 5:00 traffic jams are unheard of, and wildlife is more abundant have additional resources to help them find the right job. As these people earn more money, they spend more money in their local communities and these towns have a new hope for coming back to life.

Rural Living

Rural Living

Feb 28 2009

Direct Selling from an Industry Insider

There are four types of direct selling businesses out there. One type offers a good product. One type offers a group of good products. One type offers an entertaining way to demonstrate and sell products, and one type offers a group of good products that can be sold and demonstrated in an entertaining way.

As for the first one, I think that Xango, Tahitian Noni, and XELR8, fit here. They are what I call “one trick ponies.” They offer a great product, but little else. I think that they are great for people who love the product and want to get it at a discount. I think that it would be extremely difficult to make substantial money with this business for an extended amount of time. Once the novelty of this product wears off, you are left with little else.

The second one is like Avon, Herbalife, Usana, Arbonne and a bunch more. They offer a group of good products. These businesses are good for those looking for a discount and offer the ability for someone to make a substantial amount of money for an extended time. They only problem that I see with these businesses is that it is more difficult to find customers. These are your typical MLM / Direct Selling / One-to-One sales businesses. Some of these businesses offer parties, but I don’t count them in the group below because you are not really demonstrating anything. You are showing off products, but not how to use them because most people can figure them out easily.

The third type of business is like Pampered Chef and Cutco Knives. They have an entertaining way to sell and demonstrate products, the party. The party allows you to find customers and recruits faster than the one-to-one selling alone. The problem with these businesses, in my opinion, is that the products are not as popular any more and they are durable, meaning that they do not need to be replenished. Plus, they seem overpriced and commoditized. Then again, most direct sales products are.

The last type is the best in my opinion. These are the BeautiControl, Tupperware, and BodyShop at Home type businesses. Tupperware isn’t a great fit in this category, but they do offer products that are popular and an entertaining party. However, their products are also durable, overpriced and commoditized like Pampered Chef’s products. BeautiControl is my favorite because the products are excellent, consumable, they are rare in certain areas, and they offer the spa party. The BodyShop also offers the spa party, but I don’t think that the products are as good.

The Spa Party is a great way to sell products in direct selling, because it is easy to convince women to come to a party to relax and be pampered. At the party, you can also demonstrate skin care products, which are a huge success with the Baby Boomers right now. The products are consumable, so the customers will be calling you to ask for more. The party is so popular that your guests will want to book their own spa parties.

Another great thing about direct selling companies that offer a party is that you can still sell the products in a one-to-one fashion, like you do with Avon and etc.

Lastly, if you are choosing a direct selling company to work for, please note that most of them offer similar compensation plans. Even Avon has a multi-level compensation plan. You get paid virtually the same way in each company. Most importantly, pick a company where you enjoy the products. If all else fails, you still get the discount. It’s much easier to sell a product that you enjoy. You can use your own stories about the products and people will know that you are speaking from the heart and not “faking it.”

Those are my 10 cents on the subject. Fell free to comment or ask questions. I happen to have a little experience in the industry.