Entrepreneur Tips From The Shark Tank

I watched Shark Tank last night and picked up a few entrepreneurial tips that I thought I would share with my fellow network marketers.  I don’t normally work on Sundays but that’s when the show was on and I do like the show.

Entrepreneur Tips from Kwame

The first guy up was from West Africa, Kwame Kuadey,  who grew up in such poor conditions that I can only imagine.  Of course, if you don’t know any better are you really missing out?  Kwame lost his job recently and was up before the sharks asking for $150,000 so that he could get his home based business off the ground.

Kwame’s company Gift Card Rescue.   Gift Card Rescue buys unused gift cards from consumers and resells the cards at a lower value.  Here is what I got from Kwame to take and use in business today or in the future:

Don’t let your past dictate your future.  Kwame grew up even poorer than I did but from what I could see, he doesn’t let anything stand in his way from getting what he wants. 

Use the bad economy in your favor.  Here is what I loved best about Kwame’s idea.  Not only does he help people to make money by selling their unused gift cards but he also helps people who want to purchase gift cards to save money.  I didn’t realize that there were so many gift cards purchased and a good percentage of those bought never get used.

From an environmental standpoint, I think his idea is also a winner – a business model that helps keep items from going to the landfill is okay in my book.

Apparently, I wasn’t the only one that saw some great characteristics of an entreprenuer in Kwame.  He came in asking for $150,000 for a 30% stake in his company and left with $200,000 and two sharks, Robert Herjavek and Keven O’Leary, to help his reach his full business potential and he only had to give up 50% of his company. 

Entrepreneurial Tips from Gina

Second up in the tank was Gina Controneo.  Gina’s mission is to spread positive messages to the world with your line of gifts and accessories.   Here is what I got from Gina:

Don’t let your passion for something cloud your business judgment.  It’s one thing to be passionate about what you are doing and to get joy from it but if you are in business for yourself, you also have to be realistic.   One thing that I noticed about Gina is that her passion is so great for what she does that even when she gave herself some boundaries, she ignored them.  She said on the show that at her last trade show if she didn’t make a profit selling her items, that she would stop putting more money into her business and move on but she managed to talk herself into keeping it up no matter the cost.

After looking at Gina’s line of product, none of the sharks wanted in.  The numbers just didn’t add up.  They thought she had a good idea but didn’t think it would make any real money. 

Entrepreneurial Tips from Dan

Next up was Dan Claffey with Coffee Brand Gifts. Dan is hoping to use people’s love of coffee to sell his products.  Here is what I got from Dan:

Check to see if you can trademark terms that you thought were already trademarked.  Dan was able to trademark terms like; espresso, java, and latte.  I would have thought those terms would have already been taken.

Ask for the sale.  Dan made a huge mistake in that he hasn’t gotten any written commitments from anyone to buy his products.  His thinking is that he will make the products first and then sell them.  And while I think that having all of your ducks in a row is a good thing, if no one buys your product after you have spent a ton of money making them, you will be left with a house full of teddy bears that no one wants.

One thing that I have learned in network marketing is that you don’t have to have everything perfect before you launch your business.  Make sure that you have a market that wants your product before you spend all of your time and money making everything perfect.

The sharks didn’t bite and Dan left without a deal.  I had a question for Dan.  It’s been my experience that the majority of people that drink coffee are adults.  How many adults really want a teddy bear with the word “Java” on it’s belly?

Entrepreneurial Tips from Amy and Allison

The last entrepreneurial tip that I got from the show was from Allison Costa and Amy Feldman.  And that was to get a patent on your product if possible.  They had a really good idea that I think will become a standard item to buy for anyone that buys a playpen for their kids.  They call it CoverPlay and it is a slip cover for playpens (I noticed that they call them play yards now.  Did some kid get offended about being put into a pen?  Just wondering.) 

The ladies went with Barbara Corcoran who offered a deal of $350,000 for 40% stake in the company.  I think they wanted to work with Barbara even before they stepped into the room and would have taken any deal that she offered.

That’s it for last night’s Shark Tank, I hope you got some good tips that you can use for your home based business to make it as successful as you want it to be.  If you would like to see the show for yourself you can catch it on ABC Sunday nights at 9pm ET.

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Amy Howard, August 31st 2009 | Tags: , , , ,
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Shark Tank

My husband decided that he would record a show for me.  Normally I don’t like it when he decides that he knows what I like mainly because he doesn’t always get it right.  It usually ends up being something that HE likes and would like to see me like it too.  Not a bad thing just an observation. 

Anyway, he recorded a new reality show that premiered last night on ABC called Shark Tank.  For the most part, I don’t like reality shows.  If you happen to love those kinds of shows, I am sorry but I just don’t like to get sucked up in all the drama that shows like that depict.  That being said, I am a marketer and an entrepreneur so I decided to give this show a try.

I have to say that I really, really like it.  Yes, there is a little drama but they do have to do that to get peoples attention these days.  So, the premise of the show is that entrepreneurs looking for venture capital go before five tough, mulit-millionaire tycoons and try to convince at least one of them to invest in their company for a percentage of that entrepreneurs company.

Who Are The Investors (A.K.A Sharks)

Barbara Corcoran – Is a real estate mogul who took a $1000 loan and turned it into a real estate empire worth 5 billion dollars and she did it in one of the toughest real estate areas of the US, Manhattan.  She is also the only woman on the show. 

Kevin Harrington – Known as the “King of Infomercials” is a genius at marketing products such as the Obama coin and the Rock N Roll Stepper and has made billions of dollars in sales.  Keven is the CEO of TVGoods.com. 

Robert Herjavek – Saw his fortune in technology.  His first company BRAK systems soon became a top provider of Internet security software in Canada, worth $100 million dollars.  Since then he has sold many internet companies to the tune of 350 million dollars

Daymond John – Is the founder, president and CEO of FUBU clothing line.  A true home based business owner, Daymond started his business in the home that he owned with his mother.  Today, he is regarded as one of the most sought after speakers in the fashion industry.

Kevin O’Leary – Is another true home based business entrepreneur who started a software business in his basement which he later sold for 3.7 billion dollars.

How It Works

So each weak entrepreneurs from across the country go before the Sharks and present their business products, concepts, properties and services in the hopes of convincing one of the investors (Sharks) to invest their own money in the concept.  From what I saw of last night’s show, that is no easy task.

Who Went Into The Tank

First up was Mr Todd from Mr todd’s Pies.  This guy struggled with his business in the beginning to where he lived in his car for 4 months when he was starting out.  He is very emotional about his business.  You can tell that he really loves what he does and it’s clear that he put’s out a great product. 

Here’s what I see.  Mr Todd runs a wholesale and a retail business selling his pies.  He plainly states that the majority of his business comes from one product his sweet potato pie but he seems pretty insistent on marketing all of his pie varieties.  He even is working on a deal with McDonalds that would have his sweet potato pie in front of just about everyone in the US.

The result – he got his money but he had to give up 50% of his company to get it. 

Next up – Darrin Johnsondeveloped a Bluetooth device that would be implanted into a person via surgery.  He presented his innovative device to the sharks and within just minutes all of them were out.  I have to tell you that I was breathing a sigh of relief because what he was prosposing was just plain freaky.  Having surgery to implant a device so that you could answer your cell phone without wearing an earpiece was too wierd for the tycoons.

What he did right. He saw a need in that people that use Bluetooth technology have to deal with some incoviences in that the devices don’t always stay in place but his solution was so drastic that I don’t see it being a solution anytime in the near future.

The result – thankfully there were no takers.

Third up is Kevin Flanneryfrom my own backyard of Cary, North Carolina.  He currently runs his business out of his home office that doubles as his little girls playroom.  His product called “WiSpots” is basically (I hope I have this right) a way to keep patients occupied while they are in the waiting room waiting to be seen by their doctor.  These little TV’s will have games for the kids, surveys, advertisements, a way to request educational information, surf the web, answer emails, etc. and it provides a revenue source for the doctors. And the pharmaceutical companies and other advertisers would be paying to have their ads on the device.

Here is the problem as I see it – I think that he has a great idea but it would take someone to sell the ad space and I don’t know of many doctor’s offices that have a marketing division.  Most people are already inundated with advertisements already and don’t particularly like being in waiting rooms, I just don’t see how his device would appeal to anyone but the kids for the games and they aren’t going to be the ones to buy whatever is being sold in those ads. 

The result – sorry to say that there wasn’t a shark willing to bite into his business idea.

That’s as far as I got in last night’s show.  What did you think of the show?  Let me know by leaving a comment.    Did you get any ideas about running your business from the show?  What would you have done differently from the contestants on the show?  Would you have invested in any of the ideas that the Sharks didn’t like?  I’d love to see what others thought of Shark Tank.

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Amy Howard, August 10th 2009 | Tags: , ,
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How To Invest In Your Network Marketing Business

A lot of people believe that network marketing is a business that increases in value over time.  In other words, a network marketing business isn’t worth anything until you have a large downline buying the products and recruiting people into the MLM Company. However, network marketing is just like every other business and as such it’s important to treat it as a business.

One of the sad statistics in the network marketing industry is that – Most network marketers will run out of cash flow in about 3 months and quit because they aren’t making the money they wanted to. 

Just like any other business, most home based businesses fail within their first two years of operation.  One of the keys to survival is investing in your network marketing business in order to create cash flow.  You have to know how to properly spend your MLM income.

What Serious Network Marketers Invest In

If you look at the successful network marketers, you will see that they ALL invest in at least two things:

Leads – it’s vital to your network marketing business to have people to talk to.  You will have to buy network marketing leads either with your time or with your money.
Training – successful people are always looking to improve themselves with more training.

You will probably notice that some of the top network marketers will also invest in other tools that help to bring in more revenue (internet marketing, predictive dialer, etc.).  But, these tools are only useful if you know how to use them (training) and you have the leads to put through them.

How Much To Invest In Your Network Marketing Business

I don’t care what MLM Company you are involved with; you will have expenses if you want YOUR business to grow.  Typical network marketing business expenses are:

Sign up fee
Auto-ship of MLM product
Phone
Leads
Training
MLM Meetings
Travel Expenses

Some of these expenses you can’t get away from but there are ways to limit how much you are spending in order to grow your network marketing business. 

For instance, there is always a sign up fee when you are joining a MLM Company but did you know that most MLM Companies have more than one sign up package available.  (I’m probably going to tick off a few heavy hitters by letting you know this MLM secret.  Oh well, I’m here to make a difference in YOUR business.  They will just have to get over it.)  Anyway, if you are looking to join a MLM Company, ask if there is a less expensive sign up package available.

Every MLM Company on the planet will want you to consume their MLM product/service on a monthly basis and will want you to be on auto-ship but does it make sense for YOUR network marketing business to be receiving product on a regular basis.  Look at what you are buying, are you using the MLM product, selling the MLM product, or are you stockpiling it in your garage>

You may have to have a telephone to operate your network marketing business, however, there are numerous options available today when it comes to using the telephone to grow your network marketing business.  There is VOIP, Skype, even a new thing called Magic Jack that can lower your monthly phone bill.  Find something that works well and works within your budget.

When it comes to training, there are a ton of options available.  You can go online and get loads of information on how to grow your MLM business.  You can go to the library or bookstore and get books on the subject of sales.  There are even a lot of training programs designed specifically for network marketers.  My suggestion is to look at what is available in your price range and go from there.  If you can’t afford to buy into a training program, then go to the library and get all of the books that you can on the subject of network marketing, sales, cold calling, closing, marketing, advertising, etc. and get busy reading.  Yes, it will take a LONG time to get all of the information that you need but at least it won’t break the bank.

If the idea of having to wade through a ton of information to get your training makes you want to stop before you get started or if you can afford to buy into a training program, check out the MLM training programs thoroughly.  Does it come with a guarantee, is the MLM training limited, how is the material delivered, etc.?  Find a program that works for YOU!

Some expenses you can totally eliminate.  For example, we are in network marketing and as such, we are supposed to be able to operate our business from home.  With that in mind, there really isn’t any reason to go to the local MLM Company meetings.  (This will probably tick off a few more heavy hitters but I don’t care.)  All the meetings are the same; the information is always the same, the only thing that may change is the person that delivers the message.  So, stop going to the meetings.

If the purpose of the meeting is to put your prospects in from of the information, but you don’t have any prospects at that meeting, then why do YOU have to be there?  In fact, couldn’t you have your prospects listen to a similar presentation over the phone using a free conference line?  That way no one has to spend money on gas getting to a briefing.

I hope that I have given you some ideas that you can take back and apply to your network marketing business.  it doesn’t really make sense to keep spending money on growing your home based business without getting any positive results.  Remember this is YOURnetwork marketing business not anyone else’s and you have to treat it like a business.  There are only 2 things that you MUST have in order to grow your network marketing business; leads and the training to close the sale.

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Amy Howard, August 5th 2009 | Tags: , , ,
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