Opportunities All Around Us - Some Ideas For Inspiration

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May 11, 2013
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In this article I share some simple, low cost ideas which anyone can apply to any niche, use to start a web business or add to your existing business.
Each year there are hundreds of events, county shows, county fetes and other niche topic events happening all over the UK and abroad.
What I like about these events is finding little information products as you will discover later in this article.
Lat weekend was the Historic Commercial Vehicle Run in Brighton and as I mentioned in my last weekly email I would be attending and looking for product ideas. Yes, ideas for potential products or mini automated sites I can setup.
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I love going to events like this and speaking to people, learning about their lives, learning what they do and if they earn a living from these types of events.
The more you speak to people about their business the more you learn. The more talking you do with people at these events you realise they are so passionate about their hobby that money doesn’t come into it. It just happens.
Do what you love first, then see if you can make money from it.
It’s a fact that some of the most successful sites I’ve worked on were hobby businesses that boomed into full scale websites.
Find your passion and the money will come.
There are opportunities all around us but we see and act upon them differently. Tweet this!

Example

I recently spoke to a business owner who needed £10k for a piece of equipment to expand his business. However he would need more staff and time to focus on this one project and right now he was just too busy managing everything else. It’s a project he wants to do but until he finds the capital he can’t progress it.
This conversation came after an hour consultation where we looked at making changes in his business.

The Opportunity

This is where I instantly saw an opportunity and asked if he would sell me his stock at wholesale price. I could buy the piece of equipment with an agreement of only selling his brands. This little project within his business could really be a business on its own.
His company would still be seen as I would only buy his stock. I would get to use the companies existing brand and reputation so my side business would have instant credibility. It’s a win win for both parties. Business man A gets to see his project started (and make money from selling me stock) and I get a little business of my own up and running with little investment. Yes there is risk but there’s already a business selling great products so I know the market exists.
Hopefully you get the idea. A conversation about business and sharing ideas turned into us discussing a potential business idea.

Product Ideas

Yes there are product ideas all around us. The hard part is spotting them and then turning the ideas into revenue. The revenue part is easier once you can filter out the projects which are easier to complete.
When you attend events you soon realise there are hundreds of enthusiast in one area who all have an interest in the same topic and they are usually interested in buying related products.
While walking around looking at the cars I instantly began thinking about any websites where these enthusiast hang out.
Here some product ideas I thought of:
  • Information blog explaining all the cars. Revenue from Adsense and affiliates sales. Use the blog as a base for building leads and selling related products.
  • How to DVDs – any type of restoration product either in DVD or videos behind a membership site. Revenue – from DVD sales and membership fees
  • Audio interviews with vehicle owners – This would work well with the blog. Revenue could come from advertising and selling the audios.
  • YouTube channel with interviews – Similar to the audio interviews you could do videos interviews. Start an online TV show about the niche and attend all the events. Perfect for someone who wants to travel and is passionate about the topic.

No Magic Bullet

The ideas above are all simple to start with little cost and could easily position you as the authority in this niche.
There’s nothing new here (I know), I’m not looking for the next big idea. Fair enough, they might not make you rich (I’m not aiming for that) but they could easily produce a little extra automated income once you build up a following.
The above ideas could easily be applied to any niche.

The Product I Found

Now this is what I like to find at these types of events. This flyer was posted on a camper van window. This product caught my attention in the first 5 mins and I wanted to speak to the owner but he wasn’t around.
Here’s a picture of the flyer selling an information product.
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A picture selling a 35 page booklet.
Is that it! – I hear you say.
Yes that’s it! This little gem has potential. It’s in the 8th season of publication. On the flyer It says “they regret there is a charge of £7 to cover stationary”. So a £7 product for sale with hundreds of buyers around with money to spend on their hobby.
As the product owner wasn’t around on the day I’ve since spoken to him and ordered my booklet. I already know exactly what I plan to do with this product if I can get the owners permission. More on this later.
Will this product be successful?
I don’t know that but I do know that:
  • it’s easier to turn this product into digital format.
  • I could complete this project in under a week.
  • I could automate sales.
  • I would never have to carry any stock.
  • I could sell this products every day without any extra time or work in managing sales.
If you would like to see some more photos from the day I posted them here on Google+.
I'm David Frosdick a content marketer & course creator. I spend my days working with OptimizePress, coaching clients, producing online courses, digital products and generally seeing what's working online with marketing. Thanks for visiting my blog and feel free to contact me if you have any questions.

Written by

David Frosdick

I'm David a content marketer & digital product creator. I spend my days learning about marketing, testing new ideas and working with business owners to improve internal processes and automate what they can. Feel free to contact me if you want to chat.