Want to Make Money? No Problem!

“Problems are only opportunities in work clothes.”- Henry J. Kaiser

I’ve often heard people complain that they wish they could earn more money or start their own business, but they don’t know which field to get involved in. Some would-be entrepreneurs sit by the wayside and never fulfill their business dreams because they think they don’t have any special skills to offer to the marketplace.

The reality is that you don’t have to have any unique talents to start your own business. T. Harv Eker, bestselling author of Secrets of the Millionaire Mind, defines an entrepreneur as “someone who solves problems for people at a profit.”

Therefore if you can first identify existing problems, and then figure out the solutions to get rid of those problems, then it won’t be hard for you to generate profitable business ideas.

What’s the easiest way to find problems that you can turn into money-making ideas?

Start with yourself! Have you ever faced a difficulty and responded “why doesn’t somebody do so-and-so about it?” Maybe that ‘somebody’ should be you. If you are having difficulties in this area, other people may be too. If you can fix the problem for many people, then you may very well have hit upon a cash cow.

Years ago when I wanted to establish an artistic line of tourist wear, I was completely frustrated in trying to find information that would help me to be successful in the business.

I remember saying to myself “I wish there was one place that I could go to get all the information I need on making money.” Twelve years later, recognizing that this is a problem for many people, I have started to create the financial education service that I had envisioned.

What if you don’t have any pressing problems that can inspire money-making solutions?

Take a careful look around your surroundings- in your community, the workplace, at school or church. Can you identify any major issues which people constantly complain about? Can you pinpoint any situations where the presence of something or the lack of something else causes people to feel severe discomfort or even pain?

Anthony Robbins, peak performance guru and author of Awaken the Giant Within, explains that people’s primary motivators are pleasure and pain. “Everything you and I do, we do either out of our need to avoid pain and our desire to gain pleasure,” Robbins confirms.

Understanding the forces that motivate and control buyer behaviour can be crucial in the success of any money-making venture. The avoidance of pain can actually be a stronger impetus that the search for pleasure; in fact most people will pay almost anything for products and services that can remove their painful problems.

Look for where the pain exists, and then figure out a marketable solution to offer to the public.

Here are some obvious examples of businesses that were spawned out of problems: route taxis abound where there are no regular bus routes; people shop and run errands for elderly persons who can’t get around; and informal school buses help busy parents with their children’s transportation.

If you solve a big enough problem for a whole lot of people, you can actually make a fortune.

In the 1950’s, Bette Nesmith Graham, was a secretary with a huge problem. It was hard to correct typing mistakes with a pencil eraser on the new electric typewriters. Graham tried using white paint to remove errors, and it worked perfectly.

She placed the paint in bottles and gave to other desperate secretaries. Soon, Graham was producing thousands of bottles of ‘Liquid Paper.’ In 1979, she sold her company to the Gillette Corporation for US$47.5 million.

So if you need a business idea, let your motto be, ‘No problem!’, and get creative at finding and marketing solutions.

(c) 2008 Cherryl Hanson Simpson

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