Can you be blunt and tell me if its possible to make some money publishing e-books? It appeals to me it could be interesting and it sounds as though it could run its self for short spells.

Yes, it’s perfectly possible to make money publishing ebooks. For example the company 37signals claims to have sold over 20,000 copies of of their ebook Getting Real. At $19 per copy that’s made them at least $380,000.

However 37signals are very well know in their niche and have an excellent reputation, so don’t expect to be able to duplicate that level of income without putting in a lot of work. At the other end of the scale I do know of several authors who sell a modest 10-50 copies of their ebooks per month with books priced between $10 and $100 each making them between $100 and $5,000 per month. I suspect that most ebook authors are earning between $1 and $2,000 per month for each ebook they’ve published.

How much money you can make will be determined by two main factors:

• your ability to market your ebooks - without access to customers you won’t make a penny, no matter how good your ebook is;
• how many ebooks you write - many authors make the mistake of only publishing one.

and several other factors, such as the payment options you offer and price you charge for it.

As the reader rightly points out, one of the benefits of selling ebooks over the Internet is that once you have written the book (and put some effort into marketing it) the business can be left to run itself whilst you take a short break or (better yet) spend time writing the next ebook.

If you’re interested in starting a business selling ebooks, check out my free guide to starting an ebook business and post any questions in the forum.

Asking John:
Do you have a business question you would like me to answer? If so you can Ask John or or you can ask on the forums where you’ll get both my input and that of your fellow entrepreneurs.

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In another post we will look at how to find an Angel, and how to impress them so much that they will make an investment in your company. But before we do any of that, it is perhaps worth ensuring that you are not laughed out of the room when you approach this particular source of funding.

These guys are serious about money, and having the perfect package will give you confidence when it is time to step up and tell your story. So this post is all about making sure it is worth your while approaching an Angel.

If you can say yes to all of these questions about your company, then you have a strong case for investment from an Angel.

1. Is your product selling, right now? If it isn’t, why would they invest?
2. Have you got a rock solid management team? Even if it is just you?
3. Can you sell? Sales make bottom line.
4. Does your company compel people to buy? In other words, do your customers buy from you for strong reasons? Is there an angle that people can’t resist?
5. Is your product so different that it will take sales from your competitors? In other words, will your product or service be so different that it will potentially disrupt the industry?
6. Is your business likely to make millions one day? Don’t forget that Angels are using their money. ROI is more than important, it’s necessary.
7. Have people already invested in your company? If they have, you have earned credibility.
8. Is there a clear exit strategy? Can you see an IPO in the future, or an acquisition?
9. Can you offer transparency? In other words, can you demonstrate how you will communicate regular updates to investors?
10. Have you or anyone on your team made successful companies before?

I think that last point hammers home how Angels really want to be able to invest serious money into serious prospects. If you don’t quite understand this concept, think Dragons’ Den, or any of the other shows where people try and gain investment.

You don’t have to answer ‘yes’ to all of these to be successful. However, the more boxes you can tick, metaphorically speaking, the better the chances you have.

Angels can and do invest, but only if they see a realistic company with real potential. Spend some time on these questions and see if they work for your company. If they don’t, make them work, or find plausible reasons why not (after all, this may be your first company). But it is pointless to try and ‘find an Angel Investor’ without doing this kind of homework.

We’ll look at finding your Angel in a future post.

This is a guest post by Sahail Ashraf, a freelance writer living in Devon, England. His blog can be found at http://www.smarthomeworker.com.

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When you go every week, you feel great about yourself and the gym. But eventually you’ll get busy and miss a week, you’ll pay, but you’ll blame yourself alone. Unlike the usual situation where you pay for a gym you’re not going to, your instinct is not to cancel your membership; instead it’s to redouble your commitment.

That stopped me in my tracks! Sure I’ve previously written about opening a gym, but I’d never considered anything as radical as offering free gym membership. Is it even possible? How could you go about starting a gym that offered free membership? How would the business survive, let alone make a profit, when you remove its main source of revenue? I’ve been thinking about it ever since.

I have to admit it’s been a really fun intellectual exercise. At first I wasn’t sure if or how a gym offering free membership could be a viable business, but the more I think about it the more I’m convinced it could be a very successful (and therefore profitable) business.

Why offer free gym membership?

When you first consider it, offering free gym membership seems to be quite a stupid idea - after all the gym membership fee is the primary revenue stream for a gym. So why would you offer it for free? Well if you look at most gyms they have two problems that they regularly need to overcome:

• keeping existing members - the reality is most people stop attending the gym within the first two months of their membership as a result many do not renew their membership;
• acquiring new members - it costs money to market to and acquire new members.

As a result most gyms are continually trying to find new customers, just to replace the customers they are losing - never mind finding new members in order to grow their revenue and increase profits. This means that membership and joining fees need to be pitched at a level that covers the ongoing cost of finding and signing up new members and the high cost of membership puts off many of potential members.

But what if membership was free? Now everyone can afford to join. It’s much easier to convert a prospect into a customer when the price is FREE and it’s much easier to generate a regular stream of prospects when the price is FREE. In short FREE resolves the two problems mentioned above. The downside however is that you now have a new problem - how to generate any revenue.

So how would I go about opening a gym that offers free membership?

To open a gym that offers free membership and make it work as a profitable business would mean re-thinking the typical gym. As membership is free you will now need to generate revenue by selling other products and services to the members. In short the gym becomes a retail outlet and the gym owner/staff retailers. So what can you sell to the members? Here’s some thoughts:

• clothes and equipment - sports/training clothing and equipment, you can increase the profitability of this by selling your own brand and/or using it as a marketing opportunity i.e. “John’s Gym”;
• sports supplements - the sports supplements market is massive, well in excess of £1 Billion per year and many gym members spend hundreds of pounds per month on supplements;
• personal training - I suspect that if membership is free, more people would pay for personal training;
• charging personal trainers for access to the members - if membership is free you could potentially capture the majority of the local market, you can then charge personal trainers a monthly fee for the right to market themselves to the members;
• running classes and courses - again with free membership you’re going to have more members and hence more people to sell classes to.
• selling ready prepared food - many people going to the gym are trying to eat a healthy diet, few places cater for them so why not offer suitable meals/takeaways.

I’m sure there are many, many more possibilities and those are just some of the ones that occurred to me. But to make any of them work you need to ensure that the members regularly attend the gym, so free membership would need to be conditional on attending the gym at least once per week - failure to do so resulting in either a charge to retain your membership or withdrawal of your membership - the membership being offered to the next person on the waiting list.

Does this work financially? I think it could. If we assume that using the traditional gym business model membership would be £40 per month and there are 4 weeks in each month. To cover the membership fees you need to generate the equivalent of £10 per week from each member. However as membership is free you’ll probably have a lot more members than you would otherwise have had, say twice as many members. Your costs however are unlikely to have increased by much, if at all, so instead you only need to generate an average of £5 per member per week. If you charge members a no show fee and manage to sell something to the members that do show up you should be able to generate an average of £5 per member per week - and if just 25% of members fail to show up every week the no show fees will largely cover your running costs (assuming that the traditional model had a gross profit of 50%).

But what if you’ve already started a gym?

If you’ve already gone through the process of opening a gym and the business is already up and running then you’ve no doubt begun to experience the problems mentioned above. The trouble is having already invested your capital, designed the gym and signed up paying members you may not be able to afford to make such a radical change to the business model. So instead I’d suggest that you consider adopting a version of the freemium business model. Perhaps offering free membership which allows members to use the gym during off peak hours and restricting access to premium members only at peak times. You can then use one or more of the strategies mentioned above to create a revenue stream from these free members.

In both cases the free membership could well prove such a compelling offer that you capture members from other local gyms, shrinking their membership levels to the point that they are no longer financially viable, thus eliminating your competition.

Useful books:

• Free: The Future of a Radical Price by Chris Anderson - an explanation of FREE as a pricing strategy.
• Gym Biz: Starting And Running Your Own Gym For Profit by Lou Ravelle - and excellent guide to opening a gym.

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Who

Start any marketing or sales campaign with a definition of the target audience. Make sure you understand precisely who they are, what motivates them, what they worry about and where they find the money to buy products or services like yours. Be absolutely specific about how they measure success and what time frame is used in their buying process. Are you providing instant gratification, or is a slower return on investment acceptable?

Why

• What is the problem that you are solving?

• How is the “pain” that your target audience is feeling in their lives or businesses expressed?

• What terminology do they use?

• Is there a financial element?

What

What is it in your offer that solves their problem – and how does it provide a solution that works for them and their lives or business?

Differentiate

The last and most important element. Your target audience will often have many possible solutions to their “pain” – if the problem is “Need transport every day” and you are selling one brand of cars, then you have to compete against all the other people selling cars. And you have to compete against buses and trains.

Make sure that your audience understands precisely:

• How your offer solves their problem.

• How your differentiators make you a better value or more satisfying solution to the problem than the potential alternatives.

  • How does your offer deal with their pragmatic, analytical, stated requirements?

  • How do you meet their financial / budget needs?

  • What about the emotional factors in their buying process?

This was a guest post by Paul Fileman of SPS who are a national team of proven senior management professionals, passionate about working to help businesses achieve their next level of development and performance. Whether they are facing market changes, financial problems, people/skills issues, or are preparing a major project, they offer dedicated support from a multi-disciplined team of experts.

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• No related posts

Immutable Facts

The people you are selling to:

• Want to work with people who are certain about their capabilities;

• Want to work with and learn from an authority on a subject;

• Are looking for someone confident about the results they offer;

• Are silently begging for leadership.

Client Attraction

• Have total conviction about what you do.

• Express that conviction in a way that makes the prospect feel confident about your abilities.

You are not selling.

You are working to convince prospects to become dissatisfied with alternative methods of achieving their outcome (or whatever it is that they want and could use your help with).

You are:

• Building trust;

• Showing authority on your topic;

• Expressing your capability about the results they will get with you;

It is all in your way of being.

Health Warnings

• Do not become overzealous – you risk sending prospects running in the other direction. Be yourself, but speak with conviction and certainty.

• Never, ever, tell a prospect you can do something that you cannot, just to close the sale. You will sacrifice your integrity and reputation.

This was a guest post by Paul Fileman of SPS who are a national team of proven senior management professionals, passionate about working to help businesses achieve their next level of development and performance. Whether they are facing market changes, financial problems, people/skills issues, or are preparing a major project, they offer dedicated support from a multi-disciplined team of experts.

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Can you suggest and iPhone business ideas?

Which struck a chord with me as I spent a couple of days last week discussing with a friend the business opportunities presented by Apple’s iPhone. In particular we felt that the ability to rapidly reach a large number of potential buyers through Apple’s AppStore presented a good opportunity for the right software or collection of software applications to do well. So what sort of software could you develop?

• Games - as mobile computing power increases there’s a growing demand for games on devices like the iPhone.
• Business applications - From todo lists to contact management software.
• Organisational software - Diaries, more todo lists, training journals and so on.
• Entertainment - Simple novelty applications like iFart have apparently had massive numbers of sales.
• Useful tools - Such as using the GPS to track routes for runners and bikers.

There’s also a growing number of software houses that develop bespoke software specifically targeting iPhones (and other mobile phones with a similar level of functionality). The software is often commissioned by companies trying to make their services available to mobile Internet users.

However if developing software doesn’t excite you, here’s some other iPhone business ideas:

• Take a look at the popular 3rd party add-ons for the iPod and develop a version for the iPhone.
• Provide a service to import a library of music onto an iPhone (like HungryPod).
• Repair iPhones or trade in broken iPhones like others have done with broken iPods,

I’m sure there are many more, if you’ve got any suggestions feel free to add them to the comments below.

Asking John:
Do you have a business question you would like me to answer? If so you can Ask John or or you can ask on the forums where you’ll get both my input and that of your fellow entrepreneurs.

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How can I go about finding the best business ideas? Especially as most business ideas out there don’t fit the new rules of business.

The idea that the rules of business have changed isn’t new, it’s a popular story that the business press just loves to peddle out every few years. The reality however is far more mundane, today the rules of business remain the same as the rules of business yesterday, and the day before yesterday and the day before that and so on. In fact the basic rule for business success has never changed:

You need to give people what they want, at a price they can afford, and you need to deliver it at a lower cost than you sell it for.

At the heart of it business is that simple.

So what about the best business ideas?

Well the best business ideas are those that satisfy that simple rule. If you’ve not sure if your business idea does that ask yourself the following questions:

1. Is there an easily identifiable group of people that want your product? As always you can substitute product for service and vice versa.
2. How much will it cost you to provide the product?
3. How much will you have sell your product for in order to cover your costs and make sufficient profit to provide a reasonable return on investment for the owner of the business?
4. Can the people that want your product afford to pay that price?

If you can honestly answer yes to questions one and four then you have a viable business idea. If you can also explain why a customer would buy from you and not a competitor then you have a good business idea. If you reach that stage and you’re passionate about the business idea then you have probably found the best business idea for you and I explained in The Best Business Ideas the best idea for you will depend on who you are and the skills, experience and contacts that you have.

But what are the best new business ideas?

I wouldn’t worry about trying to identify the best new business ideas. The reality is that most new business ideas fail. It’s a much better investment of your time, energy and cash to pursue a proven business idea rather than a new one.

How about the best small business ideas?

It rather depends on your definition of a small business. However I’d suggest the best small business ideas are those that are proven for example, most of what you’ll find on the average small town high street - the cafe/coffee shop, sandwich bar, clothes shop, etc. Alternately if you have (or can acquire) the relevant skills then many of the service businesses such as consulting, web design, hair dressing, catering, etc.

Asking John:
Do you have a business question you would like me to answer? If so you can Ask John or or you can ask on the forums where you’ll get both my input and that of your fellow entrepreneurs.

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How much does it cost to start a business in the UK?

Unfortunately  asking "how much does it cost to start up a business" is like asking "how long is a piece of string". There is no simple, one size fits all answer. However there are a number of typical business start-up costs that you can expect to factor in to the start up cost of a business:

• the cost of acquiring the business, or franchise (should you choose to buy either an existing business or a franchise);
• the cost of premises and associated fees;
• the cost of fitting out a shop or equipping an office;
• legal fees;
• sufficient working capital which should include:
• at least six months of marketing;
• at least six months salary for staff (including a basic salary for yourself);
• at least six months work of lease payments;
• an allowance for the cost of stock to cover any difference between when the customer pays you and you pay your supplier;
• six months worth of loan repayments;
• the costs of setting up phone lines, buying uniforms and other materials required;
• a contingency fund for unexpected costs (there will be some).

Once you have determined what each of these costs are you’ll be able to add it all up to determine your overall business start-up cost. For many traditional (i.e. retail/high street) businesses the cost to start a business will run to around £50,000-£200,000. In contrast many service or online businesses can be started with less than £5,000. If even that sounds too high, or you’re trying to minimise your start up cost for a business you might like to read: How To Start A Business With No Money.

Useful books:

• How Much Does It Cost To Start A New Business?

Asking John:
Do you have a business question you would like me to answer? If so you can Ask John or or you can ask on the forums where you’ll get both my input and that of your fellow entrepreneurs.

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They are bad businesses.

Why are they bad businesses? Usually for one or more of the following reasons:

• there is no demand for the product;
• the business cannot service the demand profitably;
• the business cannot communicate it’s offering to it’s target customers;
• insufficient capital;
• the entrepreneur or team does not have the right skills.

In short starting the business was a bad idea. Instead the entrepreneur should have started a business that had a chance of working.

How To Start A New Business (That Can Succeed)

Like John Mullins, the author of The New Business Road Test, I believe that entrepreneurs should road test their business idea as early as possible. The traditional way to start a business is to spend days, weeks, months or even years on a detailed business plan and product specification trying to get everything 100% (or as close to as possible) before starting the business. I think that’s sheer lunacy. The reality is that until you start trading with your customers you won’t really know what they want or whether your product satisfies their needs.

Having learned through experience that this approach doesn’t work, I now start and run my own businesses on the principle of "fail fast, fail cheap". I strongly advice other entrepreneurs to do so to.

So what does "fail fast, fail cheap" mean?

To me the principle of fail fast, fail cheap means that I don’t worry about creating the perfect product/business instead I focus on creating a sample/prototype as cheaply as possible which can then be used to test the market. Get this prototype in front of paying customers and let them tell you what’s right, what’s wrong and what’s irrelevant. Then using their feedback adapt the business/product. Keep repeating this cycle until your customers tell you the business/product is perfect.

Starting a new business this way acknowledges that you will make mistakes (fail) along the way, but by expecting these failures and minimising the cost of them you stand the best chance of correcting the mistakes before your start-up capital runs out - allowing you to create a successful business.

And if your business idea turns out to be a bad idea, by failing cheaply you’ll avoid losing all your money and might even have enough left to pursue another (hopefully better) business idea.

But what about registering a company, building a website, getting business cards etc?

Prove the business idea works first. Only once that’s done should you about getting all the "trappings" of a business. Otherwise you’re just wasting your money.

Useful books:

• The New Business Road Test: What Entrepreneurs and Executives Should Do Before Writing a Business Plan - focuses on testing the business idea before diving right in.
• Start Your Business: Week by Week - a introduction to the basics of starting a business.
• The Small Business Start-up Workbook: A Step-by-step Guide to Starting the Business You’ve Dreamed of
• Spare Room Start Up: How to Start a Business from Home

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Is there a local market (demand) and can you make a living from it?

With the average wedding costing claimed to be as high as £25,000 and the wedding industry estimated to be worth around £35 Billion wedding planning is clearly a potentially lucrative market to tap into. And with typical fees running from around £40 for venue searches to 20% of the wedding budget (a £5,000 fee in the case of the average wedding) for a full planning service you could make a very good living as a wedding planner. However how much of this market you can tap into will depend on where you live (how affluent is the area) and how many potential customers you have access to (how many people live within the distance that you are prepared to travel).

Skills

When it comes to wedding planning there are no qualifications that you need to have - anyone can set themselves up in business as a wedding planner. However I would only suggest pursuing the business idea if you’re an organised person as the customers will be relying on you to ensure their wedding day is special and entrusting you with thousands of pounds of their money to do so. You’ll need good people skills too.

You can however acquire some qualifications in wedding planning, but I’m not sure if these are formally recognised or just a way to make money from you - make sure you find out before you part with your money.

Marketing

Look for related businesses to partner with, in particular speak to local: venues, cake suppliers, caterers, wedding photographers, wedding dress/accessory shops, jewellers, chocolate fountain suppliers and anyone else who will come into contact with potential customers. Plus you’ll need to build a relationship with all of these suppliers in order to deliver the service. Make sure you are polite, friendly and professional with ALL of these suppliers your success will depend on maintaining a good relationship with them and if you upset it could lose you future business. Once you’ve established contact with them, stay in contact work hard to build a good relationship, ideally you want them to hand out your card, flyer or best of all personally recommend you.

Wedding Fayres are an obvious place to start, but rather than paying for a stand (no doubt relatively expensive) try to get hold of a list of who is exhibiting and start networking with them - then see if you can get their permission to feature your card/leaflet on their stand or in their give aways. Try to find something of value to them that you can offer in return. Get this right and most of the stands/exhibitors at the fayre could be marketing you. At very least attend the fayre and network with the exhibitors.

As I recall requests for marriage licenses are public documents, so it might be worth a visit the local registrars to get the list of marriage licenses currently requested. You can then market to those people - it’s far more cost effective to send out 100 highly targeted mailshots than thousands of untargeted ones.

Finally don’t forget to tell everyone you know that you’ve started this business! I’ve picked up business that’d I’d never have expected through friends and family.

Capital

The initial startup cost of a wedding planning business is fairly low. You’ll need a mobile phone and Internet access, but you probably already have those. You’ll also need to get some marketing materials (business cards, flyers and website) designed and printed/developed. You can probably get all of that for less than £200, however do remember that these create your professional image so you might like to spend more (but try to stay under £1000). Ideally look for good value but don’t compromise on quality.

Given the importance of the day (to the happy couple) I’d strongly recommend taking out whatever insurance is available, both for your business and for their wedding.

Your start-up capital requirement will then be in the region of £200 - £2,000 largely depending on whether you already have access to a computer and mobile telephone.

On a final note, many wedding planners sell themselves on their personal service (i.e. Janes Wedding Planning) yet don’t have a single picture of "Jane" on the website and contain very little information about who "Jane" is. Your customer is buying your service, so tell them who you are!

Some potentially useful books:

• Start Your Own Wedding Consultant Business
• Wedding Planning and Management: Consultancy for Diverse Clients
• How to Start a Home-Based Wedding Planning Business
• How to Open and Operate a Financially Successful Wedding Consultant and Planning Business
• How to Start a Wedding Planning Business

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