When I started my first business a few years ago, it was sheer luck that I got in to an industry where there was potential for good profits.  I have learned how to evaluate an industry and I find there are certain signs to look for if you want an industry where you can make a lot of money.  Know that my definition of “a lot of money” is a potential 7 digits a year.
1. Don’t get in an industry dominated by sales people.

Example A: Restaurant owner. In my city of Toronto, there are over 7000 restaurants. Long hours, crazy partners, alcohol thieving staff, over 20% of food wasted, expensive renovations, overstaffing, and small profit margins are a few things I can think of.

Example B: Travel agents. Wow, I really feel sorry for people in this industry. Because of the Internet, their commissions have gotten smaller and smaller. Local travel agent clientele are mainly over 40 years of age and slowly dying out, whereas a 20-something is going to buy their tickets online.

Example C: Real-estate agent. I know there are some people that are doing really well in this industry, like my brother-in-law, but he started with a few million in cash and became an investor.  Also, if you’re an outgoing person and people have said to you “Wow, you would make a great real-estate agent”, then this is a job for you, but bear in mind it is not easy to grow a 7-figure business here.

2. If they’re rude, then it’s a good sign. This may not be entirely true, but it could be a clue for a great business.  If you call up a firm and find they have great customer service, then the industry is saturated, but if you find that they are rude and are making you feel like you’re not that important, then you may be onto something.  Also, if you are finding it really hard to get your question answered, then that could be another sign.

3. The harder it is, the better. Like number 2, here is another paradox; industries that are licensed scare a lot of people away, but take a closer look – profit margins could be really high.  You may be able to find someone with the license to practice and they may be looking for help in finding clients or closing deals.  Also, regulated industries usually have set fees, and if the loser in the crowd is still making 6 figures, then you know it is a gold mine.  Example: Accounting, offshore bank accounts, law, import-export, and bankruptcy.  Important note: Learn their rules of conduct before starting.

]]> http://www.findgl.com/2008/09/half-the-battle-is-the-industry-youre-in/feed/ 0 http://www.findgl.com/2008/09/open-letter-to-microsoft/ http://www.findgl.com/2008/09/open-letter-to-microsoft/#comments Tue, 09 Sep 2008 04:45:43 +0000 george http://www.findgl.com/?p=63

Microsoft is playing it so safe that they are dying slowly because of it. Vista is like acid rain eating away Microsoft’s reputation.  I remember thinking Windows 95 was the greatest back in the day.

So here it is boys, simple but effective:

1. Keep the aesthetic look and feel like Apple.  Hire designers to give everything a cool feel.

2. Give me a virtual operating system that allows me to view files from home at the workplace.  I would sacrifice a fluffy animal for this.

3. If you can partner up with Apple (I know, I know that’s crazy…is it??), Apple would love to be in the search engine game.

4. Clean up your email system, Hotmail is shit.

Rogers is suffering from the bad guy syndrome.  It seems like everyone in Toronto hates Rogers.  Wow, it’s amazing when I see this – they are doing such a good job sucking our wallets dry.  Their marketing is classic aggressive American.  This is a firm that would have a shot in the American market (they would be crazy to try – it’s a gravy train in Canada).

Rogers needs to spend advertising money on an image makeover.  Here is a simple but highly effective way to start; every time something bad happens on our evening telly, especially involving a kid and fluffy animals, the RSF (Rogers Special Foundation) will leap to the rescue flipping for the hospital bill, paying for treatments, buying skin grafts, etc.  This will pay dividends in the long term.  The goal here is to make people feel guilty about badmouthing their overcharged bill.  And then, we will change our city’s name from Toronto to Rogers’s City, and we will live happily ever after.

I took a few months of salsa dancing classes last year (2007), but what I really wanted was night club dance lessons.  I kept looking, but the closest thing I got was a room full of women dancing like they were in a music video, which I must say is quite intimidating.  7 million people in the GTA and no one was teaching club dancing.  I looked everywhere! Still nothing.

Every few months, I would do another search online just to see if I missed something, and then one day, there it was – a guy on Craigslist advertising club dance lessons. I sent an email, Jesse gave me a call, we set up a time, and a few days later I was in Jesse’s living room taking my first class.  I told Jesse he had no competitors and that this was a great idea.  I also noticed he did not assume the typical profile of an entrepreneur – he looked like a well-dressed paper pusher instead. I asked him what industry he came from and told me he had left the transportation industry.  “Wow”, I thought, “He gave up his 65K+ a year job to follow his dream”.

Jesse and I became friends almost immediately, because I really respect the fact that he is not a natural salesman, and is willing to learn and face his fears. He also takes my advice and runs with it – that is an important quality for success.  There is nothing worse than the lack of action.  Jesse has been teaching me for a few months now.  I am no John Travolta but there’s been a definite improvement.

Jesse’s plan: Create a website to sell online dance products (i.e. How to dance video files), grow his network of clientele to teach private dancing to, and slowly learn new skills.  Examples: getting comfortable to make a sales pitch on the phone, and the confidence to teach to a large group. He told me the other day, “George, I am always doing things that are making me uncomfortable, only then, I know I am being challenged and growing”.

Here are links to Jesse’s websites:

Pickup Dance – Night Club Dancing For Men

Rising Bean – Personal Development For Adventurous Living

Social Breakthrough – Attraction Workshops For Men

A few years ago, I put my hard-earned money and placed an ad no bigger than a business card in the Toronto yellow pages.  It set me back $1000 a month for a 12 month contract.  The women on the phone told me, “Our studies show that for every dollar you spend with us, you will get back three”.  Well, let’s just say my calculations showed for every dollar I spent, I got back maybe 50 cents.  Here’s what I learned:

1. Yellow pages is an old relic which will not be on this earth in 25 years. Maybe it will exist at your local museum.  Why?  Because their biggest readership (deleted) left are over 40 years of age.  Younger people go online from home, work, their iPhones or Blackberrys.

2. The green movement is not helping.  All those tree hugging people feel guilty looking at that hunk of paper (even if they clam it to be 134% recycled).

3. False Stats. Yellow pages owners or shareholders over the years made sure they were getting as much money out of their advertisement as possible, so they spent a lot of money on stats.  And I will bet it’s really out of date and pushing into the realm of fantasy.

4. Their reserve in cash will be sucked up very soon. This is not a low cost operation -  their sales people are highly paid and quite good.

5. Old school of thinking. I have a strong suspicion that the top people calling the shots today are my grandfather’s age.

6. There is a lot of pot smoking going on in the new idea department. A few years ago, they came to me with one of their new and great ideas.  A consumer picks up the phone, calls a special number, asks for “dentist” in a phone system, indicates the neighbourhood he is in, and the automatic message will tell him what dentists are listed.  At the time, I thought, “What a waste of a good sales person“.  In a few months, the idea was canned.  This is like 100 years ago putting a motor on a horse.

7. There online stats are sad. In the immigration industry, they told me “with great pride”, “We get 1000 visitors a month in your industries section“.  At the time, I was getting 1000 visitors a week on my site.  Today, I get that by the late afternoon.

So here I am taking shots at Yellow Pages so I will say this; I do still use them for my business listing.  I spend a few hundred a year with them and that’s all for most business needs.  I also use their online directory when looking for geo-targeted businesses and find it useful.  This is one product I thought of a lot over the years about, and can’t think of anything that would save them.  I think maybe they know this too and are holding on for dear life.

If you are going to use the yellow pages, there is one way it can work.  Go BIG, there is no medium ground here.  I do know a few business owners who do well by this method.  My hunch is that they double, maybe triple their investment.  I guess I have been spoiled by the search engines, because for all my investments online, I can make three to ten times my investment back.

A few more points:

1. Advertise with them if you have better competition under one of their listings.

2. Advertise if you can or if it’s appropriate under multiple listings.

3. This is a long shot – try to get them to start a new directory listing if your industry is up and coming.  Again, long shot.

4. The firm is really tight and in some ways a monopoly, but there is room to negotiate on price and placement.

5. Think out of the box.   I have one business owner who put an ad way in the back next to a government listing and gave a similar phone number.  His monthly bill for a small square ad is under $150 a month, and it’s doing really well for him.  Now, there’s more to be said about this, but maybe another time.

I had this fear when I was starting my business a few years ago – I needed to share my ideas with business owners to get some feedback.  However, I felt it was a double edged sword because the people I was going to share them with were in my industry or smart business owners who might take my ideas.  Well, there are a few things I learned:

1. Canada is asleep. When it comes to jumping on a bandwagon of a great idea, Canadian businesses seem to be a decade behind. My benchmark is pegged to (delete ‘the’) America and the UK.

2. Most people are all talk. The likelihood of you meeting an overly ambitious person who has the time to take your ideas and run with it is like being hit by lightning.

3. People have an overly magnified fear of being taken of advantage of. I have seen people argue over a few dollars over principle.  Every month, I have almost a half a dozen things that people are not holding up on their end.  This could be as small as a few dollars on our courier bill to a few hundred on an outstanding bill.  I pick my battles carefully.  I don’t waist energy arguing with people or have my staff waste time on it.  I accept this as part of life and business.

4.  But, if you still want to Dot the I’s and cross the T’s, here is a non-competitive, non-disclosure agreement you can have people sign if you are brainstorming with them.

]]> http://www.findgl.com/2008/09/i-have-a-great-idea-but-will-someone-steal-it/feed/ 0 http://www.findgl.com/2008/09/unconvential-rules-i-follow/ http://www.findgl.com/2008/09/unconvential-rules-i-follow/#comments Mon, 08 Sep 2008 21:37:50 +0000 george http://www.findgl.com/?p=26

With 50,000 years of human evolution I realize it’s all been said, so I keep an open mind; any one of my rules can get bumped or upgraded anytime.  Also this works for me and may or may not work for you.

1. Always underestimate.  If someone asks “How many staff do you have?” and you have 9 employees, 1 part-time contracted person, and a partner, one should say “I have 9 staff”, even if one is tempted to state 11. Over the years, I have found it tempting to overextend or overstate things; when I did overstate, I felt like I lied despite the justification.  A good friend once said, “You can’t put a price on a clear conscience“.

2. Do anonymous charity. Most people put nice photos on their wall of all the great things they did for their fellow man, planet, or fluffy animal (and if you’re really rich have your name on the east wing of a hospital or university). Personally, I do charity for selfish reasons.  I have found it to be a powerful formula for success because not all aspects of a person revolve around the bottom line.

3. When it comes to people, lower your expectations. This helps me from becoming disappointed or frustrated by others.

4. When asking a question or making a request, I expect NO. Don’t lack humility.  If your morning newspaper is soaked with water and the 11 year old paper boy told you NO to a new newspaper (one of many his pouch), remember it’s his right to tell you NO, even if he is wrong.

5. Don’t rely on your 9-5 job or let one thing dominate your business. I am always finding new streams of income.  A few years ago when I started my company, we first started with one service, then two, and so on.  Then I added PayPal feature on my sites.  I started renting out sites.  Finally, we bought a small building.  I get concerned if anything in my firm dominates more then 40% of our income because of the high risk.

6. 90% of my problems are my making. One of my favourite quotations is “I am an old man and have known a great many troubles, but most of them never happened.“  (Mark Twain)

7. I always have half a foot in fear. It is very easy to get caught in a routine of life.  To keep life interesting, I always challenge myself by learning new things or going to new places.  My biggest ongoing goal is always related to people and learning new skills to deal with humanity.  This usually requires looking within myself and shaving away my fears.