Ideas to expoit the difficult economic landscape...

[ideamaned]

Hello Everybody,

It seems that everywhere there is doom and gloom in the news, but creative, positive-minded people like us can always find opportunity in difficulty.

According to what I've read, some of the businesses that are doing well right now include auto reposessors, pawn shops, dollar stores, people that provide psychological counseling, video game retailers, and Walmart is doing well.

It seems that debt collectors should be doing well, but generally they are having a difficult time too - because people have no money to pay and there is nothing left to squeeze out of them. And this brings me to my idea on how to play a downward spiraling economy. (I think you all will find this interesting.)

I have an idea for a mall cart business that should do well in economically depressed areas and anywhere there is a sub-prime mortgage problem, including any communities that have experienced mass layoffs.

My product has 4 components:

1. A book about debt abandonment strategies for financially distressed consumers.
2. A quick-learn DVD video which explains the material in detail.
3. A 12 month subscription to my newsletter about the topic.
4. And the possibility of getting a free month of debt abandonment coaching.

From the way I see it, it's like the planets have all aligned perfectly to make my idea very compelling.

So many people are at the end of their rope financially and many are down to using their credit cards for their everyday expenses. At the same time, the credit card companies in many cases are now jacking up interest rates to the 30% area - even with customers who have never been late with a payment, and they are also chopping down those credit lines. What's going to happen next? Without further available credit, consumers in trouble are probably going to need to stop making their minimum payments. And then what? They get zapped with penalties and higher interest and they get thrown into a world of stress and anxiety as the notoriously nasty debt collection people begin calling.

There is one more additional problem for these people: the bankruptcy law changed on October 17th, 2005 and it is a law which is debtor-hostile. Many things were crafted into this law to purposefully make it more difficult for ordinary people to get a fresh start. It now costs between $1500 to $3000 to do a simple Chapter 7 bankruptcy. For people at the end of their rope, where are they going to get that money?

My information provides an alternative solution for getting a fresh start. I'll tell anyone who is interested about the clever details, but let's get to the meat and potatoes of it:

I am expecting to have a reseller cost of $20 per book/DVD unit. My suggestion will be to sell it for $45. After the customer takes the package home, they may strongly desire to have the one-on-one coaching that is a part of the offer. To get this coaching, they must send me 10 buyers who will buy direct from me. In this way I am hoping they will spread the word to their "circles of influence" on the web, to their far-flung relatives and friends, and maybe friends of friends. After these "super customers" send me 10 direct buyers, the reseller responsible for landing me that super customer will get a $50 commission. So there is the possibility of making up to $75 per sale.

The big question is how many units can a mall cart reseller move in a month? I'm hoping it will be 300 or 400 per month (or more). And my hope is that successful results will encourage the reseller to expand to other locations within their region.

Now, these locations don't really need to be in a mall. It could be an anywhere there is foot traffic - maybe at a convenience store? A gas station? Near a supermarket?

If it works and my reseller can expand, then the money potential becomes really good.

This is a quick hit type of business. It might only last a year or two.
Because it is not yet a proven concept, I will recommend that prospective resellers only commit themselves to one month of rent. You negotiate one month with an OPTION for 5 to 11 additional months on a month to month basis with no revenue sharing.

My expectation is that the resellers would be the leaders of their business and they would have staff to man their cart.

I am looking to launch in March. But I need to line-up my resellers by mid to late January.

I will be glad to debate matters here on this thread or leave me some mail.

Ed Ryder

[cwish001]

Hi Ed,

The question is why would people by from you. How would they know who Ed Ryder was and that he was trustworthy to get advise from. I think $45 is beyond the means of the target audiance for your program. What about modifying the program so that the cost is in smaller incremints and spread through time. My mall requires a two year rental contract minimum. What about giving away the book as a addon to a biweekly webnar series. Say for a low price of $15 dollars a month you get access to a biweekly webnair and in addition we provide this book as a study reference. It would be easy to sale many subscriptions to the webnair online and through community programs, resellers wouldn't have to rent out space, and you would have a residual income. I think it is a great idea but I think if your structured it differently you would have a more realistic chance.

-Corey

[ideamaned]

Thanks for the input Corey! You've got some interesting ideas.

Regarding the issues you raised:

1. Pricing.

You think $45 is too high. I, on the other hand, think it is a very good value for a number of reasons.

First - this material is hard-to-come-by information. People who are in trouble with debt are looking or hoping for some type of solution or way out.

There is bankruptcy, which ruins credit for a minimum of 10 years. It costs a lot of money to do bankruptcy. There are numerous hoops to jump through. If everything is not handled perfectly, the bankruptcy can be canceled and debt collection attacks will then resume. If anything is hidden such as assets or income, the bankruptcy filer is at risk for doing hard time in prison! And it is overall a difficult path out of a debt problem.

There are debt settlement companies. These have developed a reputation as being a bit of a scam. They promise to make your problem go away for like 50 cents on the dollar. Even if they didn't gouge their customers with "program fees" and had a successful conclusion, the debtor would still be required to pay tax on what they didn't pay, plus they would have damaged credit for at least 7 years.

With the method that I detail in my material, your credit is still ruined for at least 7 years, but you don't pay anything back and you don't get 1099-C forms telling you taxes are due on what you walked away from.

It is a faster way to get a fresh start compared to the other two methods. And in my view it is the cheapest.

People in trouble with debt absolutely need the advantage of education. My material teaches a great deal about their legal rights, along with stalling, thwarting and defeating debt collectors. By gaining this knowledge, the reader is likely to reap psychological benefits, which would include less stress and higher confidence, in addition to saving their money for their financial recovery instead of paying it to a debt collector opponent.

Frankly, for anybody in serious debt trouble, it would be foolish not to get their hands on the best information available on strategies for getting a fresh start.

2. Author credibility.

None of the big-time multi-millionaire debt/personal finance gurus know anything about debt abandonment. This is a topic that can't really be written about with authority unless the writer has gone through the gauntlet and actually waged a debt abandonment campaign. Can you imagine one of these millionaire gurus, sitting by their pool, working on their tan, and trying to write a book about this topic? I can't. Because there is so much to know.

I lived it. I know what I'm talking about. And if a potential buyer has hesitations about buying a product they think they need, but they have concerns about me being an unknown author, then that's when the person manning the cart steps in and closes the deal.

Background:

I made 2 or 3 bad decisions as the tech bubble was popping in 2000. I lost my fortune and got myself into overwhelming debt all at the same time. It was a sudden turn of events to go from having money to being wiped out and deep in debt. But sometimes that's just how life goes and you have to adapt to the circumstances.

Bankruptcy was unattractive to me. In trying to find a solution, I discovered the possibility of another way out that would get me to good credit 3 years sooner than bankruptcy, and I would get to keep all my stuff.

Once I had my full strategic plan in place detailing everything I was going to do as certain situations arose, I ceased payment on my unsecured debts and let things unravel. This was scary and stressful, because I didn't know if my plan was actually going to work!

Three months into the campaign, the collection efforts began to be turned over to third party debt collectors. This was when my defensive measures kicked in. And the things I was doing to tie them up worked! My confidence and knowledge grew as I progressed further down the path. At the 4 year mark I had made it to the statute of limitations for credit card debt in my state and had beaten back every single collection attempt made. I beat 33 collection agencies, including 3 litigation firms. Nobody sued me. I settled with no one. I paid nothing. The total cost for my debt abandonment campaign was just $212 (for certified mail). Exactly 7 years after I first ceased payment on my unsecured debt, my fico score reached 808.

My campaign was a success because I was clever and dangerous to those collection agencies. Almost all of them break the law. So I simply would identify their errors and quietly journalize everything while also disputing all of their claims. The facts of the matter were I knew the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act better than them. They would be screwing up and not even know it, or they would just assume I was clueless like everybody else and try to steamroll over my rights. If and when the appropriate time would arrive, I would reveal to them my legal case against them, and tell them to bug off or suffer the consequences. I whooped them every time with their own violations of the law!

Everything I did, everything I learned is in the book. It's a bit technical, so that is why there is a tutorial DVD as well. And the possibility of getting a month of coaching would be a great advantage to the reader.

It is so much information for such a reasonable price. They don't have to go to the school of hard knox to learn this stuff. I can bring them up to speed quick. Even if they decide this is not the path they want to take, the reader will still benefit by having a vastly improved awareness of their rights and bill collectors won't be able to push them around so easily anymore.

3. Mall rental negotiations.

The malls I have been in are having a hard time keeping tenants. Empty spaces are death for them. They need to have spaces filled. They need to have vibrancy.

When it comes to getting a mall cart rental deal, you are the boss, not them. You dictate the terms. If they don't like it, then you negotiate a little. But if the terms aren't right, then you find another mall or another location and you see if they are more willing to deal.

I would never agree to a 2 year lease for a mall cart business. That's crazy.

4. Chances for success.

I'm an optimistic optimist who always struggles to be a realistic optimist. Do you really think the mall cart/kiosk distribution method is not going to work? If a cart can just average 10 a day, they will be doing well. And I bet a good number of the retail associates in the mall will be the first customers.

Thanks for kicking this around with me

[1entrepreneur]

First - this material is hard-to-come-by information. People who are in trouble with debt are looking or hoping for some type of solution or way out.

Maybe the only way out is for them to live below their means whilst they pay off their debt.

[ideamaned]

Anybody else have any comments on this?

[JLeezer]

Maybe the only way out is for them to live below their means whilst they pay off their debt.

I second that. I am fully opposed to the whole concept of debt abandonment. They got themselves into the mess and they shouldn't expect to get to stick others with the bill. That's just childish.

Fear-based sales tactics are just wrong.

[ideamaned]

>>I second that. I am fully opposed to the whole concept of debt abandonment. They got themselves into the mess and they shouldn't expect to get to stick others with the bill. That's just childish.

Fear-based sales tactics are just wrong>>

I don't understand that fear-based sales tactics comment. Strange interpretation of my material

On the news tonight there was a story of how somebody else found a way out of their debts... they hung themselves. That was a young man, 24 years old. It's pretty sad that was all he could think of to get out.

[hugh009]

Not bragging but I have 34 years in the direct marketing business and I would take this product through Internet Marketing where I have focused my attention on for the last 9 years. Malls are not getting the traffic they use to get.

I was at an Interent Marketing workshop in Atlanta and met Mister X (they are always hyping the new Mister X!) Perry has done over $100,000,000 (yes you read that right!) in last 11 years on the Net. Drew Miles a former NYC lawyer gave up his law practice to teach about how to take advantage of the USA Tax Code.

It seems to me that your product would fit nicely in this Internet Mktg. niche and there you could write a Free E-report followed by marketing your package totally through the Net without the expense of physical packaging.

That is what I am doing with all the Internet products I am releasing for 2009!

Heck Perry has made millions teaching people how to become an ice cream vendor!

Hugh

[ideamaned]

Thanks Hugh!

Your idea of a free e-report has got my gears turning

I will ponder what you wrote.

Ed

[DebtFreeMe]

I do have to second the fact that your price point for your resellers is a bit too high in the medium that you're proposing. Also, selling this product in a mall setting may not go well. Malls are best suited to selling hard products (shoes, hats, nick knacks, etc.); you're actually selling information.

The Internet is the perfect place to sell information. If you can get your information targeted to the right customers on the Internet, your price points will be good. Along with that, your product will be digital which will lower costs, if your customer wants a hard copy sent then make that an option that costs a bit more for your shipping, handling, and time.

I don't personally agree with abandoning your debt, my wife and I worked for nearly 3 years to pay off $48,000 in debt we had run up. But, that's just my personal take.