Life Is Crap? Entrepreneur Capitalizes On The Fact

Everyone who is actually inhaling and exhaling on a regular basis knows it. Life is crap. Sometimes, despite our best efforts, we end up in the soup. Anyone over two has already learned to expect the unexpected. (Actually, it starts long before you reach two, but Mom takes care of it. It’s part of her crappy life.)

So, what’s a person to do? Paul Wheeler believes the only answer is laughter. The whole focus of his company — predictably named Life is Crap — is to take the inevitable, put it up front and visible and laugh it off. “It’s our mission,” says Wheeler of his Manchester, Vt., company. Together with his partner, Ken Lefevre, they have successful brought the company to the marketplace.

“Everything we do revolves around the idea that crap happens and that laughter is the cure.”

That means the message shows up on T-shirts, caps —anywhere an individual can make a statement on the way things are in this troubled world. The company is now expanding into checks that give folks a frequent opportunity to reflect on the vagaries of life and apply their sense of humor. “We’ve seen what works, now we’re scaling up. We’re always looking for ways to expand.” Always within the boundaries of the basic concept, he adds. That careful attention to sticking to initial principles has turned Life is Crap into a $10 million dollar enterprise.

If you ended up with a bad split in the bowling alley, there it is—a shirt showing the ball rolling easily between the two widely separated pins. Out of wine? Lament the fact with a public display of the empty glass. The bicycle depicted crashing into the pile of dirt at the bottom of the hill? It has happened to all of us. Wheeler and crew simply take the universal hazards of everyday living and put them out there where everyone can laugh along. The company customizes such items as magnets, books, calendars, shirt, caps, towels, hoodies, key rings, shot glasses, beer steins, decals, greeting cards, page a day calendars items— any desired surface that will accommodate an image.

Looking at the irritations of life might seem like a negative approach, but those who retail his products don’t seem to mind, Wheeler has found. No one has ever complained. Of course, that means finding the best outlets for Life is Crap merchandise. Someone lacking the sense of humor to appreciate the products, obviously, isn’t the one to present them to his purchasing public, Wheeler has found. The bah-humbuggers who refuse to find humor in life are to be avoided. And there are, believe it or not, some “crap” areas that don’t translate well to the buying public.

There have been some bombs along the learning curve. The company thought that politics was a logical target for its kind of humor and found that, in fact, no serious person of any political persuasion wanted anyone publicly poking fun at their well-known areas of crap. That venture was a failed effort that cost time and money, he said.

Another spot too sensitive to subject it to humor, the company found, is the current economy. No merchant wanted his customers reminded that times are tough. The popular idea of what’s funny changes with time and events, Life is Crap has found, but there is always plenty of grist for its mill in just the ongoing, everlasting irritations that humans endure. The company expects to continue to thrive on items that make the enduring easier.

The whole road to success, Wheeler said, has been a process of trial and error. When the group started, they were up against the same basic questions each new small business faces. How to put their ideas into concrete products. How to find the best business model to meet their goals. How to allocate the existing resources most effectively. Where to find the most effective market outlets. They spent a year in development.

To date, the company has developed some 500 images, licensed them and marketed through over 1100 stores. As the small business got a toe hold in the market, the next logical step was putting the goods online, he said. “We buy back product from the manufacturer and sell it online. We’ve done well and have seen it grow. Now we are focused on getting traffic to our site.”

The basic concept for Life is Crap requires employees who are in tune, he said. The group is small—just five employees—but they comprise the gamut of artistic and business savvy that is making Life is Crap a growing concern. Being constantly alert to possibilities has contributed to the growing of the company’s product lines. Pure serendipity, in fact, had a hand in bringing designer checks into the fold. Wheeler, et al, met the owner of Carousel Checks during a trade show. There was an exchange of ideas and voila! Another licensing arrangement was born.

In 2012, the company will be focused in building and expanding our direct to consumer internet business. New products to be launched include several other related sub-brands: Life is Poop — for infants, Life is Ruff for dog lovers, Old Life is Crap for Senior Citizens, College Life is Crap for College Students and Life is Beer — for BEER LOVERS.

The fact that life is crappy is not likely to end soon. There is always the bird overhead looking for a place to unload. That bodes well for Wheeler and Life is Crap as they look for new targets for their brand of humor.

The Future Of Apple Without Steve Jobs

What does the future of Apple look like without Steve Jobs? Analysts are predicting a very bright future.

Today, Apple is worth $377.83 billion dollars. Share prices are fluctuating between $401 – $409.  It is the largest company in the world and new products are in development.  The iTV, which is currently in the prototype stage, could revolutionize the television industry and it could add billions of dollars to the worth of Apple.

Gene Munster, analyst for Piper Jaffray, a $400 million dollar investment company, says “We believe that of the estimated 220 million flat panel TVs sold in 2012, 48% or 106 million units will be internet-connected, of which Apple could sell 1.4 million units,” Munster wrote. “We believe an Apple Television could add $2.5 billion or 2% to revenue in 2012, $4.0 billion or 3% in 2013 and $6.0 billion in 2014.”

Will that make investing in Apple now a good investment? David Zeiler writes an interesting article: Why Apple Stock Is Headed for $500 – And Beyond. The momentum behind Apple seems to be growing past the loss of it’s founder, Steve Jobs.

A recent book called “Steve Jobs,” by Walter Isaacson, clearly reveals the thinking that has been driving the success of the company for years. Steve’s out of the box, creative thinking has gotten the masses to use computers in a new way. From the launch of the MacIntosh in 1984, to the recent launch of the Ipad2, his products provided us with the next generation of technology.

Designing products with ease of use has been Steve Job’s philosophy. Thank goodness, because the masses are not tech geeks. His artistic sense of design, minimalistic lifestyle and obsessive attention to detail are the fuel behind the products we have come to love and use daily.

From his high school part-time job working at Hewlett-Packard, Steve Jobs found one mentor after the next to teach him about technology, product creating, business structure and relationships. Although not always the best at relationships, his demand for perfection and his drive for great product creation triumphed.

There is a future for Apple because of Steve Jobs. His vision and creative thinking will truly be missed, but his contributions to the world will benefit generation after generation.

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Related Company Valuations – October 31, 2011

 

Apple Inc.	377.68B
Microsoft Corporation	225.50B
IBM	218.78B
Google Inc.	193.01B
Oracle Corporation	166.52B
Intel Corporation	129.99B
Verizon Communications…	105.09B
Amazon.com, Inc.	97.32B
Hewlett-Packard Company	53.35B
Dell Inc.	29.15B

 

1984 Launch of the Macintosh

 
Coolchecks.net, the best place to order checks.

Strategic Business Plans Pay Off

Any business starts with an idea. Ideas are then put down on paper, discussed with esteemed partners and friends or at least mulled over in your own mind. Work begins to put the business strategy into production.

Small business plans are created in the same way large business create their plans. In fact, looking at the development of  large companies is helpful to the small business owner. Modeling the success strategies they use can help you take your business to the next level.

Molycorp Inc.

For example, the story behind the scenes of the well publicized Molycorp, Inc. gives small business owners key strategies to emulate. Making a paper profit of $2.3 billion dollars in less than three years, Molycorp Inc. made some strategic business plans.

Molycorp Minerals LLC was formed in 2008 by a group of investors. Two critical players  in this LLC are  Mark S. Kristoff,  CEO of Trayxs, (which provides financial services for the mining, metals and minerals industries) and Dr. Ross R. Bhappu, of  Resource Capital Funds  (focused on investing exclusively in the mining and minerals industry).

These two individuals have expert, inside knowledge of the mining industry. When Mr. Kristoff was just 12 years old, his father, who worked as an executive at the mine,  gave him a tour of the Mountain Pass rare earth mine in California, one of the largest rare earth mines in North America.   Dr. Bhappu’s father was also an executive at the mine which was then owned by a Union Oil company. In 2005, the company was  acquired by Chevron.

Mr. Kristoff and Dr. Bhappu developed an interest in buying the Mountain Pass mine  in 2005.  In 2008, Chevron sold the mine to their LLC because they promised to keep the existing employees and to revitalize the unproductive mine. It had been inactive since 2002. Mr. Mark Smith, former President of Mining for Chevron  was lured away from Chevron to become the new CEO of Molycorp Inc.

Investment Strategies

In the beginning, there were four principal investors in the company, Resource Capital Funds, Pegasus Capital Advisors, Traxys  and Goldman Sachs. In 2009, Goldman Sachs sold their shares of the company because the economy was in such turmoil.

Demand Exceeds Supply

Molycorp Inc. invested  $80 million into upgrading the mining equipment and facility. Currently producing 3,000 tons per year, their next goal is to produce 20,000 tons. Leaders have predicted that this will double in production by 2014. With China recently announcing that they are limiting the export of rare earth materials,  demand (predicted to be 190,1000 tons in 2014) is now exceeding the supply (170,000 tons).  Cerium oxide rose in price from $6,000 to $71,000. Ianthanum oxide rose from $8,400 to $73,000.

Production of Green Technologies

The rare earth minerals that will come from this mine are used in many green earth technologies like wind turbines and hybrid cars. They are also used in electronics, plasma and LCD televisions and the widely popular Apple Ipad.

The combination of the world events and good strategic business planning by the Molycorp, Inc. leaders have caused, “one of the fastest windfalls in private-equity history.” (Wall Street Journal).

Small Business Plans

For small business owners, the key strategies that created this success were familiarity and expertise with the product line, choosing products that are in demand, effectively using global trade news to make plans, hard work, passionate leaders and the ability to communicate their business plans to key investors. Definitely a good model for small business owners to emulate.

Women In Business Success Story – Scentsy

A group of about forty women were delighted to hear an entrepreneur success story at a recent “Women In Business,”  luncheon in Layton, Utah. Two women who seemed like your next door neighbors, spoke about how they created a product that is now being sold by over 35,000 business consultants in the United States and bringing in revenues over $100 million annually.

Kara Egan and her sister-in-law Colette Gunnell,  shared their story of creating a simple product that would bring many people pleasure. They created a wickless candle that was warmed by a low wattage light bulb. With many different scents for people they decided to name their company “Scentsy.”

Kara and her family were struggling financially because of her husband’s health problems. After watching an Oprah show on Millionaire Moms, Kara became determined that there must be something she could do to help her family. If regular people like the people she saw on the Oprah show can create products, then why couldn’t she do that too?

After watching a neighbor melt some of her old scented candles in an old pot pouri burner, Kara got the idea to create scented flameless candles. She got on the phone with her sister-in-law and asked her if she would go into business with her.  Colette said, YES!

Building your own company from scratch is not without challenges, but these two women conquered them with their determination and ingenuity. One important strategy they used was to make sure they knew about all the products currently available that were similar to theirs. They bought many of these products and did tests on them. Repeatedly testing existing products and then creating a new product seemed to be the correct formula for their eventual success.

After manufacturing the products on their own and developing enough product for people to purchase, they started selling at local trade shows. It was at one of these trade shows that they met Orville Thompson and his wife Heidi. During one of the breaks at the long convention,  Heidi took some of Scentsy bars home to share with her family. Her family and friends enjoyed them so much and that got Heidi’s husband’s  attention.

Orville could see the business potential in this new product.  He talked to Kara and Colette about helping them take their business to the next level and they listened.  It was the contact that they made with Orville Thompson that began the transformation of their business from a local business to a nationwide business.

Orville and Heidi Thompson bought the entire company from Kara and Colette, who are now Scentsy consultants, on May 1, 2004.  They decided to market the flameless candles through direct marketing which opened up a new team of sales  people. The Scentsy products are manufactured in Meridian, Idaho where there are over 500 employees.

The two mothers, Kara and Colette, that created Scentsy are heroes to many women who strive to build successful businesses. Their determination, creativity and desire paid off for them as well has thousands of other Scentsy consultants. An entrepreneur’s dream come true. Congratulations!

The Value of Scarcity and Uniqueness in Business

Auctions can bring hefty prices for unique, rare items. Recently, a manual typewriter fetched the amount of $254,000.

Why the astronomical price? You may wonder about this because living in the digital age, who needs a typewriter?

Possibly similar to the sale of one of Michael Jackson’s glove, this memorabilia belonged to Cormac McCarthy, American fiction writer. From this humble looking typewriter, McCarthy typed more than 5 million words over a period of 50 years.

Cormac McCarthy, born in 1933, is an American novelist and playwright sometimes compared to Faulkner. Six of his novels were made into films. Well known for his 2007, Pulitzer prize winning, work of fiction called, “The Road.”

In 2008, McCarthy was awarded the Pen/Saul Bellow Award for Achievement in American Fiction. His work was recognized for qualities of excellence, ambition and scale of achievement during his writing career. This places him in the highest ranks of American literature.

People predicted his typewriter may go for $18K or so. Those predictions were far below the price it received. The large sum of money was donated to a scientific research organization, the Santa Fe Institute.

The qualities of uniqueness combined with scarcity can drive up the value of an item exponentially. With many competing businesses in similar niches popping up all over the web, thousands will collapse and a few will prosper. It seems to be a natural cycle of business.

If you want your Internet business to prosper, ask yourself if you have something to offer people that is both unique and scarce. The more you can meet this criteria, the better your business will do. What can you bring to the table that is different from every other company? Opportunities to create new, unique products are endless.

The entrepreneur in us sees opportunities everywhere we look, but many people see only problems everywhere they look. The entrepreneur in us is more concerned with discriminating between opportunities than he or she is with failing to see the opportunities. ~Michael Gerber

Basic Affiliate Marketing Tips

Affiliate marketing? People look at you quizzically when you tell them that is what you do to make money. Most people have no idea of what affiliate marketing is. They just can’t wrap their minds around the idea even when you explain it to them.

Most will ask how they would start affiliate marketing and how they would choose a product to promote?  This is a common question that has an easy answer. Research your desired niche products and see what kind of demand is there. Use the Google keyword tool to choose a niche that has a lot of monthly searches – over 40,000 searches a month is good enough to get started. Make sure you have enough interest in providing your customers with as much helpful information as you can. If you have no interest, you can still promote the products, it just won’t be as fun.

Next, you will need to apply to become an affiliate through an affiliate marketing company. There are several major affiliate companies that are very highly recommended. One is Clickbank, which offers thousands of information products that people can download after purchase. Some of these products are software products that have a recurring charge and hence brings you a monthly payment without getting a new customer. Other products are solutions to various health problems. Some will teach you to learn a new skill. Some will actually tell you what the best selling products are.

A second company to check out is Google Affiliate Network. Google has combined their affiliate network payment schedule with their Adsense payments. So if you are already getting money from Adsense this is a good fit for you.

Google has thousands of merchants. When you log in to their site, they’ll give you statistics that are important to understand. There is a figure called EPC – and this means earnings per click. There is a 3 month EPC and a 7 day EPC. You’ll see that the higher the numbers, the better chances you have of selling their products. They list these statistics for each merchant. They also show you the merchant’s payout rank. So you’ll be able to see which merchants are paying the most to affiliates. Choose your merchants wisely with help from these statistics.

A third company to check out is Shareasale. They have hundreds of merchants with thousands of products. They will deposit your earnings directly to your checking account on the same day every month. Shareasale is run by Brian Littleton, who is experienced in every aspect of ecommerce. Shareasale has many merchants to choose from and they provide easy ways to make an web page that will display products on your site. They also have some video selling options available.

Affiliate marketing is challenging, but worth all the effort you put into it. You can be your own boss and set your own working hours. Be warned though, you’ll probably work twice as hard as you ever have worked. That’s what happens when you get to follow your passions. It hardly seems like work.

Create a Business Plan

A business plan is a formal statement written when a person or a team in an organization wants to reach a goal and it states what your ambitions are for the company in the future. It is possible to hire a professional to do the business plan or you can write it all yourself. Describe what your business is about right now and what you want it to become in the future. All business owners have visions and ideas about their businesses. Creating a business plan will make those dreams become more concrete.

Some things that are essential to be included in your business plan:

Your business – Your business name, the business address, phone number, email address, and website name with the URL. Don’t forget to write your name as the owner and list other owners if there are any.

Business description – State here how you came up with the idea of creating your business. Describe each section of your business. Write a summary about your business and make it interesting so as to get the attention of prospective investors. You can site reasons why you need the money for your business. Mention your competitors as well. You can list supplies you use for your business and what you do on a daily basis.

Products or services offered – Be specific in writing how your business operates. Explain how you market your products or services.

Personnel – Who are the people working for you and how many employees are there? What are their roles and responsibilities in the company. The same thing applies if you are the only person running your business. State your role and how you run your business.

Your plan – If you want the financial aid of a lender or are planning to apply for a loan from the Small Business Administration, keep in mind that a business plan is required to acquire the financing. Your business plan is crucial for the success of your business.

Financial Data – Write down how much money you want to borrow for your business and how are you going to spend the money. An explanation of the expected profit and loss should be included. Also document how much money you earn monthly and your personal financial statement. Include your expected revenue in your business. Attach some supporting documents that you think will be helpful to the success of your business plan. For the investors, this data is the most important part of the business plan.

A business plan is the map of your journey to success. Coming up with a good business plan is not easily done overnight. It is a task that needs effort and time on your part. Some business owners neglect preparing a business plan until the night before their meeting with the bank. You can guess the results of those actions.

Be creative but make a realistic business plan. If you haven’t written one yet, now is the time to start.

Ebay’s Largest Store Owner

Have you ever wondered who owns the biggest ebay store? The powerseller, Buy, has 867,112 successful transactions and is listed on eBay as the largest store there. Upon further research through the help of Google Maps, you can see that the address listed for this seller is in California and is located in the buy.com building.

The powerseller, Buy,  is actually a  leading e-commerce company that has been in business over 10 years and has over 11 million customers.

They carry millions of products in categories ranging from sporting goods, computer hardware and software, cellular, electronics, movies, music, books and more.

At their website, they even list their most searched for items: 16GB Flash Drive, 1tB external hard drive, 32gb flash drive, Cordless phone, Ipod touch, Micro SD Card, USB flash drive, cordless phones, external hard drive, iphone, iphone 3g,iphone 3gs, ipod classic, ipod nano, micro sd,  microsd, netbook, netbooks, nintendo ds, ps3 refurbished,  sansa sd card, sdhc, slingbox, webcam, wii, wireless router,zune, zune hd.

The www.buy.com website is ranked by Alexa.com, a web monitoring site, as number 238 in the United States. The lowest numbers indicate the most popular sites. There are some bad reviews about this site on Alexa, but eBay seems to have nothing but positive feedback for them. Apparently their customer service is outsourced to India which causes problems for United States customers.

Buy.com has been listed by Internet Retailer as one of the top 100 retailers on the internet. Apparently the top 100 retailers are responsible for 55.3% of retail web sales.

Amazon.com is the leading retailer on the net with $19.2 billion dollars in sales. Internet retail selling is here to stay. People are becoming more and more comfortable ordering online. How comfortable are you with online ordering?

View Buy’s Ebay Listings

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