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Hello and welcome to The How-To Lyceum™.... I'm your community manager/host, Old Nikko*. I'm a business consultant and serial entrepreneur in real life, and have been running The Entrepreneur Community Network, ECN™, dedicated to entrepreneurs everywhere, since 1999. Way back, when I was first looking to start an on-line extension to one of my B&M businesses, like many other folks, I struggled to find the right methods. I knew there were a lot of people like me out there, as many people readily appreciate the power of the internet as a business medium... but, they really struggle to find the right ideas and accurate information that will allow them to tap into it. I stopped searching for 'the one big idea' when I realized that I had already found it... Providing an information resource for those folks just like me, looking for "real" business information and idea—and ways to make more money. As my new 'community network managership' grew, I became ever–increasingly disenchanted with the same old BS, scams, and cons, and the many "biz-guru's" online - who try to pass off worthless "biz-info-garbage" as so-called "legitimate business information" - and I soon began championing the cause of genuine legitimate business info - and telling it like it REALLY is - with no punches pulled. I also wanted to get the message across to those new to The How-To Lyceum community that the Internet is not some magical, mystical place where real-world business and ethical principles just don't apply. There is no such thing as a free lunch. The Internet just provides one way of reaching huge numbers of people relatively inexpensively. You still need to work, and work d*mn hard to make a difference in this (or any other) business of 'legitimate business information' and consulting. The sooner people wake up to - and accept the realities of - life and "real world" business, the better off we'll all be. Find a Profitable Business
The object of this site is help you find an idea for a profitable
business. You'll find hundreds of examples of people who started small
businesses, usually with little money, and created a part-time or
full-time income.
Before you start looking for business ideas, it's helpful to have a clear vision of what you wish to achieve with your business. There are many ways to make money, but if you know all your objectives, it will make your search easier. Some of the businesses described make products and some provide a service. Some are conventional and some are strange. But they all share the common feature of satisfying a human desire. Not a need, but a desire or want. You have a much better chance of success if you offer people what they want instead of what they need. Even though tap water fills a basic need, it's virtually free. However, if you distill that same water and put it in a bottle, people will pay for the perceived, but not always real, better purity and taste. And should that bottled water come from a spring in another country, you can charge an even higher price. So if you deal with commodity products like food or clothing make sure you provide secondary benefits in addition to filling the primary need. Unlike water, perfume is strictly desire over need. It was first used to mask the odor of burning animal flesh during animal sacrifices to the gods. And except for the occasional BBQ mishap, most of us don't conduct animal sacrifices anymore. But we prefer the smell of flowers to our own body chemistry and will pay a high price for it. In fact, the price people will pay for nonessential products like perfume is only limited by their desire and their bank account. It's no wonder the perfume business is so much more profitable than the water business. And if you don't want your business to stink, keep your focus simple. Find a product or service which a certain group is willing and capable of buying. Create a marketing message to let the people in that group know why they should buy from you. If they like the benefits you offer and you manage your cash flow, you'll probably be successful. The basic operations of business are simple, often not easy to carry out, but simple. Finally, a word about the age of the site's content. The information, a lot of it, is from sources over 50 years old. (Some updated and re-written, some "modernized" and the rest as it was in original form - because perfection is hard to edit!) But it would be a mistake to disregard it simply because it wasn't written yesterday. Technology and fashions change, but people don't. Six thousand years ago Egyptians were wearing cosmetics in much the same way and for the same reasons as we do today. So if you can satisfy human desires related to health, popularity, security, beauty, comfort, free time, or entertainment, an idea that worked a thousand years ago can still work today. So, that is my simple mission... To cut through the BS, misinformation, hype, scams, cons, and such - and give you the *real deal*: What to expect when it comes to starting and running a business (online or off), what works, what doesn't, and everything in between - with a little help from my friends! I hope that you find your membership in
The How-To Lyceum both informative, and useful. *NB: "Old Nikko" is a pseudonym adopted for personal reasons. Enjoy -- and learn if you can.
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| "We are dream-enablers.... not dream merchants nor dream stealers.... helping the dreamers achieve their dreams." We are: The Entrepreneur Community Network™ |
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"Dream Enabler" |
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