Thinking Small Can Make You Rich

Mike Cayelli Story

http://cuff-daddy.com/

Learn How To Make $2,000 in One Single Day

Think small. That was the basic starting point for Mike Cayelli when he decided to open an online retail business two years ago. With a tiny house, little capital to invest, and only "spare time" to devote to the project, Cayelli knew his big dream had to stay manageable. The Washington (D.C.) entrepreneur still hasn't quit his day job, but he's projecting $500,000 in sales this year for his company, Cuff Daddy.



You have a full-time job. Why start your own company?

About two years ago, I was working for [a hardware chain] as a manager in the regional professional contractor division. I still work there, in fact. But there was some reorganization going on, and I became concerned about my future. So I wanted to hedge my bets by starting my own company.

How did you settle on becoming an online retailer?

I wanted to emulate my cousin, who's been enormously successful selling mobile phone accessories online. He imports products from Asia and realizes a substantial profit margin. I also wanted to do something purely on the Internet so I could keep working at my "real job" and develop the company in my spare time.

Your major concern was finding a niche product that was physically small. Why?

Well, we had a small house that I planned to use as headquarters. So I needed inventory that I could store in a footlocker, have my wife ship out of a home office, and haul around in a car instead of a truck or trailer. As for shipping, about 90% of our orders can be mailed first-class with two stamps in a .13-cent padded envelope.

How did you settle on cuff links?

It was not easy. I spent several months looking at things like buttons, watchbands, shoe laces, and collar stays. Every time I thought of a small, niche product I'd write it down on a scrap of paper and shove it into my pocket to research later.

I wanted a product that could produce high sales volume and a high profit margin. I didn't want something that sold one unit per week. So when I got an interesting idea, I would search for it on eBay and run it through a research tool called Andale. For $7.95 a month, you subscribe to this Web site and you can get diagnostic information about any product's online sales volume and average selling price.

One morning about 6 a.m., I stumbled onto some cuff links for sale on eBay and noticed there was tremendous action on that listing. I ran upstairs and woke up my wife and told her I'd found the right product.

Once you zeroed in on a product, you had to find suppliers. What was that process like?

Again, I went to the Internet. I found two great places that help you source products overseas. One is Global Sources, and the other is called Alibaba.

I looked through thousands of vendors that are listed on these sites, found products I was interested in, e-mailed the manufacturers, and got them to send me samples. I never even had to pick up the phone.

When I put the first samples up for sale at eBay and they sold extremely quickly, I knew I was onto something. We wound up with six regular vendors based in China, Hong Kong, and India that provide us with a product line that we buy for between $1 and $6 a pair and sell for $15 to $55 a pair.

How much money did it take to start the company?

We started very small with a $500 investment, though it felt like a lot because I was worried about losing my job, and my wife was home taking care of our two little boys. We used that money to buy 100 pairs of cuff links. The minute I felt comfortable that they'd all sell, and we could reinvest the money we made, we doubled that order. Sales were quick right from the start, so we started adding more products pretty fast.

What about the cost of establishing a Web site or online store?

We didn't do that right away. For the first nine month, we sold strictly through a store we set up on eBay. We wanted to have minimal startup costs, and we only had five products. With that small a product line, if you open a Web site you're going to look like a joke.

By the time we were selling about 50 items, we figured we were ready to establish our own Web site. We outsourced the development to a friend who charged us $500. We host it on Yahoo!Stores because they have virtually no down time, it's easy to use, and they offer good metrics, so I can analyze things like who is buying our products and who are our repeat customers. I can also see how well things like coupon promotions work.

What's been the toughest part for you?

The marketing is really hard, and I still haven't gotten good at it. I could have a cure for cancer, and nobody would know about it because it's very, very difficult to get the word out. We've paid people to do search engine optimization for us, but it hasn't really helped.

We got completely burned once by a salesman who took us for $1,000 for a marketing product that was useless. We are doing some pay-per-click campaigns with Google and Yahoo! now that seem to be working a bit better, and we're also going to start an e-mail marketing campaign, so we'll see how that goes. But overall, I was surprised by how much the barriers for starting a company have come down. I was lucky that my cousin shared his recipe for success with me, and now I'm trying to do the same thing. I'm mentoring a guy I work with who's also starting a company thinking small: He's selling fishing lures.

You'll Be Shocked To Find Out How Much Eyeglasses Really Cost

Murray Wells Story

http://www.glassesdirect.co.uk

Learn How To Make $2000 in One Single Day

Murray Wells was studying at the West of England University in Bristol when he discovered he needed reading glasses.



So he visited his nearest high street optician but was appalled when he found that his new metal frames, ‘essentially some wire and two pieces of glass’ cost £150.

"I was managing on a student loan and £150 was a fortune – half a month's rent. I just couldn't understand why my glasses were so expensive, and my curiosity led me to investigate further."

He began to call manufacturers, opticians and industry insiders but he was met with a ‘wall of silence’.

But then a disgruntled employee at a laboratory in the north of England gave him the lowdown.

“He talked me through the industry,” says Murray Wells. “And it turned out that my £150 pair of glasses probably only cost about seven pounds to make.”

Murray Wells was supposed to be hammering the books in preparation for his finals but instead found himself immersed in the glasses industry.

He learnt about optometrical testing, how the frames are made and the lenses are cut.

He discovered that the market is around 70 per cent controlled by just four high street retailers: Vision Express, Boots, Dolland & Aitchison and Specsavers.

But, most significantly, he leant that he could make glasses for a fraction of the price that they were being sold on the high street.

Murray Wells enlisted the help of some students at his university who helped him build the website and design the logo.

He then used the final instalment of his student loan and some money from his father to establish Glassesdirect.co.uk, they began trading in September 2004.

Manufacturers were initially reluctant to endanger their relationships with high street opticians but eventually they relented.

In a year Glasses Direct had sold 22,000 pairs of spectacles and Murray Wells believes that this has saved UK consumers an estimated £2m.

“People generally can't believe our Glasses Direct prices,” he says. “As the high street shops are maintaining retail prices at 10 to 20 times the cost price.

“What I'm giving people is choice, and they are delighted,” he says. “An average pair of glasses is manufactured for less than £7, so I charge just over double. Even with advertising and overheads, I still make a profit.”

His business has gone from strength to strength and he now employs 17 staff and turnover is around the £1m mark.

“It’s all been a bit of a whirlwind,” he admits. “But I have always been determined to get very big, very fast”.

To aid this expansion Glasses Direct are now seeking investment from Venture Capitalists, however he says that they are also seeking him.

“It’s been a lot easier than I ever thought it would be,” he says. “We’ve literally been getting new calls from potential investors every day. It’s wonderful and we’re in a very enviable position to choose who we want to work with.”

It’s not just a decision who to take money from. Murray Wells knows the next move is crucial.

“It’s not only about the investment, we need someone who will be helpful at board level and is experienced in dealing with big organisations, large marketing campaigns and has e-commerce expertise.”

Talks are ongoing, but Murray Wells expects a deal to be struck soon and says press reports of raising £5m “aren’t far off”.

A large bulk of the money will be spent on marketing.

“We’ve made massive strides but still only occupy 1% of a £1.7bn industry so we’re really still just a drop in the ocean. I want to move as quickly as possible as we know it’s only a matter of time before competitive entry occurs.”

The big players in the optical industry appear to have accepted Glassesdirect.co.uk is here to stay too – even if they’re not happy about it.

“They’ve changed tack a little and aren’t rubbishing us in the press as much as they were,” says Murray Wells.

Murray Wells remains undeterred by the high street’s desire to stamp him out, but is looking to shake off the David vs. Goliath tag.

“As well as marketing ourselves to the mass market we’re in talks with several major retail organisations and expect to announce a number of partnerships by the start of 2006.”

Subsequently, Murray Wells is strapping himself in for another 100mph 12 months and expects turnover to triple to £3m, and reach £10m by 2008.

Test-Driving Your Dream Job

Brian Kruth Story

http://www.vocationvacations.com/

The Super Power Affiliate System

Just one year ago, David Ryan was an international banker with HSBC. He had done stints in Bahrain, China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Turkey, and London over the course of 17 years. However, by the time Ryan had landed in New York City two and a half years ago, he says, "the buzz for me was gone." Exciting as a two-decade spin around the globe once was, Ryan says, his chosen profession was simply, "not as exciting as it had been."



Ryan entered into what he calls, "a pretty long period of reflection" regarding his career path and future. Like many suffering from job ennui, Ryan was ready to do something new, the question was how to do it. Having nursed a lifelong love of dogs, Ryan realized that he was interested in potentially moving in that direction but was unsure of how exactly he could turn his passion into a sustainable career.
Enter a two-year-old Portland (Ore.)-based company called Vocation Vacations, a business that gives people the opportunity to "test drive" their dream jobs. Creating temporary but intense mentor/apprenticeship experiences, Vocation Vacations enlists professionals from a variety of fields -- everything from winemakers and makeup artists to architects and sword makers -- and pairs them with people who fantasize about leaving their day jobs and want spend a few days in a profession that they had previously thought beyond their reach.

Last April, Ryan signed up to do a two-and-a-half-day vocation working with a doggie day-care provider in Massachusetts. The following month, he spent three days working with a dog trainer in Oregon. Fairly quickly, Ryan figured out that he preferred training to day care and was confident that he could start his own business in the field.

Moreover, Ryan says the experience helped him to realize that he didn't have to abandon the skills he developed as a banker. Rather, he says: "It became obvious to me that there were a lot of kennels and trainers that were very good with animals, but business was not their specialty."

In June, Ryan resigned from HSBC and enrolled in a dog-training school in Missouri for five months to get certified. In January, he launched Beyond Dog Training in Rye, N. H. "It really sounds weird," he says. "But that two- to three-day experience has really been a lynchpin."

Vocation Vacations was started by Brian Kurth in 2004 after he made the leap from unhappy employee to dream-job entrepreneur. At the time, Kurth says he was burnt out working for Ameritech in Chicago and logging in three hour commutes.

"I didn't hate corporate life, or my job or my boss," he says. "But I hated the lifestyle. I wanted to do something more fulfilling. I was tired of going to dinner parties [where] people would talk about their exciting lives as architects or photographers and I worked at the phone company. People's heads hit their spaghetti plates when I told them. Nobody cared, and neither did I."

So in 2000, Kurth quit his job. In quick succession, he worked for a dot-com, got laid off when the economy imploded, and then sold his house and spent six months driving across the country, eventually settling in Portland. That city didn't have much in the way of industry and was in the midst of a recession, so he ended up working on a vineyard doing product marketing and sales for a family winery. Kurth found that there was something immeasurably rewarding about stepping outside of his routine and trying something new. Inspired, he came up with the concept and business plan for Vocation Vacations.

The idea is relatively simple. Participants pay anywhere from a few hundred dollars to a few thousand (transportation, lodging, etc., aren't included) to experience life as, say, a chocolatier, a fashion designer, or a race-car driver. The time spent immersed in their fantasy job allows them to get a 360-degree perspective without the risk of quitting their own jobs or investing heavily in a new career.

Laura Thomas says she's "miserable" in her job as a business-operations developer for a government contractor in Alexandria, Va. "My boss knows I'm not happy, and he's looking for something else [for me at the company], but there isn't a lot of opportunity for growth."

Not quite ready to quit altogether, Thomas recently took a turn through Vocation Vacations, shadowing a hotel concierge and a hotel general manager for two days. "It was really great. I got to be completely immersed in the environment. I got to see the good, the bad, and the ugly." And best of all, she says: "I really got to see it firsthand before taking the plunge and quitting my job."

Kurth, something of a dream-job rainmaker, has created a niche industry built on the hopes and aspirations of people like Thomas. Catering to the unhappily employed, Kurth has discovered an untapped market. Indeed, according to a survey by the Conference Board, a management and marketplace information nonprofit agency based in New York, less than half of all Americans say they're satisfied with their jobs. Taken in 2002, the survey reveals the highest level of discontent since they first conducted the study in 1995 -- with job satisfaction dropping from 60.9% then to 47.2% presently.

To date, Vocations Vacations has placed hundreds of people in the U.S. and Britain in occupations ranging from brewmaster and art-gallery director to music producer and cattle rancher. "We're on our way to thousands," says Kurth. The company has doubled the number of its available mentors to 500, with another 40 to 50 new possibilities in the works in such fields as Broadway producer, meteorologist, and zookeeper.

Kurth attributes much of his success to listening to prospective clients and addressing their areas of interest with relevant mentors and programs. Recently, there has been a growing demand and interest in marine biology, aquarium managers, and voiceovers. However, Kurth says there's a limit to the types of career vocations he will pursue. For instance, he says he recently turned down an offer from a pornography producer who wanted to become a mentor.

Kurth himself is expanding his own dream. He just signed a deal with Warner Books for a how-to vocational lifestyle book. On April 27, the Travel Channel is debuting a new series based on his "vocationers" called This Job's a Trip, chronicling the vacationing adventures of his clients. Kurth is also working on what he calls "ancillary products," such as DVDs, T-shirts, and a possible magazine. He says his expansion is all based on the "vacationing" lifestyle -- no longer daydreaming but living the dream.

Just ask David Ryan, who has had to hire additional trainers for his fast-growing business. "I get a lot of broad smiles when I tell people that I went from a million-a-year banker to a dog guy," he says. No doubt he's smiling back, all the way to the bank.

The Simple Money Making Secret of Online Millionaires

James Sorelly Story

http://www.poweraffiliatesystem.com

The traditional way to identify new business opportunities is to find the biggest market you can, then figure out what it needs that you can sell. Leading twentieth-century companies all serve fundamental human needs on a worldwide basis by manufacturing and distributing physical goods.



More modern equivalents include some of the first generation of successful Internet companies, such as Expedia, Yahoo or eBay. Each of these firms started as a small venture that attempted to use the Internet to make a targeted market more efficient. They make money by making their chosen products or information easier to access or more affordable for their customers. All of these companies have grown to become huge corporations, but their approach to identifying and building new businesses based on Internet efficiency is still visible today for you.

Traditionally, improving business efficiency was a job only for high-priced management consultants. Today things have changed in favor of the individual entrepreneur especially when it comes to fixing business inefficiencies that result from poor distribution of information. This change is because of the Internet arrival. Improving the flow of commerce by improving the sharing of information between businesses and their customers can help you create an Efficiency Millionaire business.

The cornerstone of any entrepreneur´s success is faith. To build your own business into a million-dollar success story, you must believe in your ability to offer a superior product or service to your audience. You have faith in your friends, your family, your religion – why not have faith in yourself for a change, too?

If you have faith in yourself and develop a strong action plan you can put one foot in front of the other and execute that plan.

Online Logo Creating Business Is Booming

Morgan Lynch Story

http://www.logoworks.com

Google Options Makes Masseuse a Multimillionaire



Sarah Hawley, a 10-year public-relations veteran, was moving from a job at a large agency to launch her own business, Mockingbird PR, out of her home in Gilbert, Ariz. She soon discovered that her experience bringing in clients wasn't enough. Appearances mattered too.

"Freelancing without a logo or Web site or identity really hurt me going up against agencies or even small boutique firms," she says. "If I went to pitch business to someone, I would give them my proposal. But if they wanted to check me out, there was no image to put in front of them. I had to do something to be more professional. I was committed, but I looked like someone just doing it on the side."

It was time to get a logo. More than just printing up business cards, a logo can create the kind of brand identity that becomes instantly recognizable to customers and also communicates that this is a serious business. Hawley analyzed a few different logo vendors and decided upon Logoworks.com, a five-year-old online provider of logo services for small businesses based in Lindon, Utah.

"I liked that their designers were spread out [across the country]," she says. "So none of the designs looked the same, and they weren't influencing each other." She also liked the ease of the process and the turnaround time. But most importantly, she really liked the cost. Hawley chose the firm's Platinum Package, which gave her 10 designs to choose from and unlimited revisions for $600 -- a fraction of the cost of getting a logo from an agency, which can start at $5,000.

But until recently, distinctive, well-designed logos were the province of large companies. Extremely costly and time-consuming to produce, they were for the most part out of reach of small businesses. Logoworks was launched specifically to address the needs of small businesses and offer them high-quality logo design solutions at an affordable price.

The company got its start when Morgan Lynch, Logoworks' CEO, was working in software development for an insurance company. He was in charge of rebranding the company, and found the experience frustrating and expensive. "We ended up spending a lot of money on agencies, designers, etc.," he says. "Hundreds of thousands of dollars and a few years later…they came up with [something] I thought was O.K., [but] I wasn't really excited about it."

In 2001, after investing millions in building software and a design platform to do what he calls the heavy lifting, Lynch launched Logoworks.com. "We took a lot of the processes -- the meetings, the relaying of information between what businesses were looking for and graphic designers, what images they wanted, what colors -- and put it all online," says Lynch. "It's very efficient and eliminates the inefficiencies in the real world -- and we can do it at a fraction of the cost."

It works like this: Customers fill out an online form providing information that will be incorporated into the designs, such as color and style preferences, type of business or product, and how the logo will be used. Next, they choose from among package options, with prices ranging from $299 to $1,499. The packages are based on number of designs, as well as the option to create stationery and Web sites.

Based on these selections, initial design concepts are made and returned within three days. Next comes the revision process, and then the design is finalized. Although the process is Web-based, at every step along the way a customer can consult with his or her personal-account manager.

Logoworks.com is another example of how the Internet is dramatically changing the landscape for small businesses. In this case, it allows them to have a logo worthy of a multinational corporation at a reasonable cost. "Small businesses are waking up and saying they too can have a great brand," says Lynch. "Ten to 15 years ago, it would have been cost prohibitive and unattainable for [them]. They can look like a national chain even if the business is only two people working out of their home."

To date, Lynch says the company has come up with 45,000 logos. While the company doesn't disclose sales figures, Lynch says the firm's sales have increased 100% each year since its launch five years ago. While the majority of the company's clients are based in the U.S., Lynch says that about 10% to 20% of their business comes from overseas businesses that want a Western marketing look. Currently the company is plowing profits back into more R&D and software development to expand their capabilities and offerings.

Last year, the company got some bad publicity when a couple of its designers were accused of stealing others' logos. Following the accusation, Logoworks.com issued a statement saying it has fired the designers and taken steps to ensure such a situation wouldn't be repeated in the future.

Still, the company says 98% of their customers are satisfied with their experience. In her case, Sarah Hawley says the decision to get a logo really kicked her business up a notch. "I had a client in Atlanta, and they were skeptical about how committed I was," she says. "Once I put a logo in front of them, it registered with them that this was not some fly-by-night thing -- it was a full-time job. I was able to show them a professional image, and they're now a full-time client.

Moreover, Hawley recently returned to Logoworks to have them design her stationery letterhead. Clearly, first impressions for a small business can make a big impact on the bottom line.