Taking Shortcuts in Order to Secure Investment Funds Is the Pursuit of Fools Gold and Insures Failure
by: Geoff Ficke
Just today, on a single Linked-In group I visit, I have seen at least five naked pitches seeking funding for a new consumer product, concept or invention. This occurs ... Views: 1316
How a Pre-Sell Campaign Will Mitigate Financial Risk and
Confirm Market Acceptance for New Consumer Products
by: Geoff Ficke
Our Consumer Product Development and Marketing Consulting firm typically works with two types of clients. One is a startup requiring total support and guidance from ... Views: 1239
by: Geoff Ficke
College Campuses Are Amazing Resources for Entrepreneurs to Utilize When Launching a Business
Recently I read about a new cosmetic product that was launched on a college campus. This bootstrapped product was taking advantage of a resource that can be available to all, but ... Views: 1089
by: Geoff Ficke
Drop the Dreams and Establish Solid Goals and Plans
In Order to Succeed in Start-up Business
Recently I watched a television show which featured Inventions, Small Business Start-ups and Entrepreneurship as central program topics. A panel of experts reviewed product ... Views: 1162
by: Geoff Ficke
Consider the Menu of Services a Project Will Require
Before Interviewing Professional Consultants
Google the word “Consultant” and millions of links immediately pop on to your computer screen. Refine the search term and a smaller, but still massive army of sites will ... Views: 1014
by: Geoff Ficke
Sourcing and Defining Volume Pricing Is an Absolute Must for Aspiring Consumer Product Entrepreneurs
I have been mentoring a young female entrepreneur for several months. She is not a client of my Consumer Product Branding and Marketing Consulting firm. This earnest lady ... Views: 1195
by: Geoff Ficke
Brand Extension Can Be a Key to Growing and Evolving a Consumer Product Line or Service
Switzerland is the couture watch capital of the world. A visit to Geneva and its surrounding cantons exposes the traveler to the hundreds of exotic watch brands made in this famous ... Views: 2182
by: Geoff Ficke
A “Wanna Be” Entrepreneur in Reality Is a“Wantrepreneur” and Will Never Be Successful
Very few of the hundreds of Consumer Product projects that my Branding and Marketing Consulting firm review each year ever go much beyond the talking stage. Talk is cheap. Dreamers dream. ... Views: 1460
by: Geoff Ficke
The 5 Absolutely Essential Personal Traits Needed to Become a Successful Entrepreneur
I am often asked by media interviewers, prospective entrepreneurs and college students I mentor to identify the most important qualities that are present in successful small business ... Views: 1528
by: Geoff Ficke
The Most Useful Funding Technique for Funding a Business Startup Is the Oldest: Bootstrapping
My Consumer Product Development and Marketing Consulting firm is approached almost daily by entrepreneurs seeking to launch a new enterprise. For many of these aspiring business ... Views: 1277
by: Geoff Ficke
Consumer Product Market Penetration is Much Easier If Exclusivity Is Key to the Lines Branding Strategy
Recently I had the opportunity to visit and work several Trade Shows while on an extended business trip through Europe. One was a huge Beauty Product expo in Italy, ... Views: 1769
by: Geoff Ficke
Consumer Product Marketing Success Depends Much More on Being First and Executing than Simply Being First
Recently I had the opportunity to review a new beverage concept submitted for consideration by an entrepreneur. This young chap had collected reams of information, ... Views: 1049
by: Geoff Ficke
10 Bullet Point Options for Bootstrapping Your Small Business or Consumer Product Opportunity
Almost every small or micro-business, entrepreneur or inventor faces a harsh financial reality when starting out. They have little or no access to venture capital, financing or ... Views: 2601
by: Geoff Ficke
Words Used to Present Your Business Proposition Must be Carefully Chosen
This week I was forwarded a Business Plan from a Venture Capital principal for whom I perform consulting services. This gentleman had read the elevator pitch for the product and had initial interest in ... Views: 1254
by: Geoff Ficke
Business Plan Mills Turn Out Documents That Are
Expensive--and—Mostly Useless to Entrepreneurs!
The Business Plan, and the process involved in crafting these essential documents, is one of the most maligned areas in all of small business. Many start-up firms and ... Views: 1298
by: Geoff Ficke
Converting an Idea to Income Is a Process That Requires Planting and Fertilization, Not Hope and Dreaming
Under the category of inexperienced blind hope, a surprising number of people that approach my Consumer Product Development group with a new business idea want us to ... Views: 1280
by: Geoff Ficke
5 Tips for Small Businesses and Start-ups to Use
To Appear Bigger than They Really Are
For many years I have worked almost exclusively with entrepreneurs, inventors and small businesses seeking to start, or grow a business against daunting odds and competitive ... Views: 1231
by: Geoff Ficke
Adopt a Pre-Sell Strategy to Drive Interest in Your Project
Before Seeking to Attract Investment Funding
Recently I met with a prospective client who presented my Consumer Product
Marketing and Branding Consulting firm with an overview of his project, its development ... Views: 2090
by:Geoff Ficke
The Most Under-Utilized Resource Entrepreneurs Neglect to Take Advantage of Is Local Universities
Inventors, Entrepreneurs, Artisans and Small Businesses are very often bereft of funds needed to secure professional help that would be beneficial in leveraging their projects ... Views: 1308
by: Geoff Ficke
What Is 3-F Funding and Why Do Entrepreneurs Need to Understand the Vetting Process for Securing Funding?
Many years ago, when I was a young, ambitious, aspiring entrepreneur I was imbued with the conceit that venture capitalists, investment banks or angel investors would ... Views: 1733
5 Questions That Must Be Answered Before Attempting to Fund or Launch Your Consumer Product
I am constantly amazed at the naivety of first time entrepreneurs and inventors when it comes to the due diligence they must conduct in order to get their idea, concept or prototype to market. Even ... Views: 1281
by: Geoff Ficke
Customizing Products and Services Presents Entrepreneurs a Great Way to Bootstrap a Business
We live in a world where mass production and scalability have enabled consumers around the world the opportunity to enjoy a wider range of Consumer Products and Services than ever ... Views: 1435
by: Geoff Ficke
Why Is Laser-Like Focus So Crucial and Yet So Difficult for Entrepreneurs to Maintain
When we work with small businesses, entrepreneurs and inventors in our Consumer Product Marketing and Branding Consulting group we constantly find ourselves using and reinforcing the ... Views: 1416
by: Geoff Ficke
The Old Adage “You Get What You Pay For” Is Especially Important to Service Providers in Today’s Economy
The 19th century British essayist John Ruskin once presciently stated, “There is scarcely a thing in the world that some man cannot make a little worse, and sell a ... Views: 1360
by: Geoff Ficke
One Mans Junk Creates Another Mans Fortune - Similar Opportunities Exist Almost Everywhere for the Ambitious
In 1989 a Canadian college dropout named Brian Scudamore stopped at a McDonalds to grab a cheeseburger. While waiting for his food order he noticed a dented, beat up ... Views: 1693
by: Geoff Ficke
How a Simple Box Concept Changed World Trade And Fostered the Rise of a 3rd World Middle Class
For almost 4000 years the methodology used to ship finished goods, raw materials and minerals between distant points on the globe did not change. A transport ship pulled into a ... Views: 1430
by: Geoff Ficke
Want to Kill a New Business Opportunity? Avoid These 5 Often Repeated Mistakes
I review new Business Opportunities for a living. My Consumer Product Development and Marketing Consulting firm is besieged with presentations, Executive Summaries, product prototypes and ... Views: 1071
by: Geoff Ficke
The Importance of Focus Groups and Their Alternatives
To Consumer Product Marketers and Entrepreneurs
My Consumer Product Development and Marketing Consulting firm offers a variety of services to clients. One that we frequently utilize, and is often misunderstood is the ... Views: 2265
by: Geoff Ficke
Unique Small Businesses Have Become Highly Desirable to Multi-National Companies
For over 50 years Estee Lauder has been the pre-eminent luxury Cosmetic, Fragrance and Skin Care Company in the Beauty Product world. Since the founding of the firm by Mrs. Lauder in the early ... Views: 1343
by: Geoff Ficke
Having a “Better Mousetrap” Is Not Enough to Propel a New Consumer Product to Success
This past week I reviewed a new Skin Care concept. My Product Development and Consumer Product Marketing Consulting firm reviews hundreds of projects in numerous categories each year. Many ... Views: 1125
by: Geoff Ficke
A Case Study in Very Bright Successful People Making Really Bad Product Marketing Decisions
As my readers know I run a Consumer Product Development and Marketing Consulting Company. We review hundreds of Inventions, Innovations and New Product Concepts each year. These are ... Views: 1307
by: Geoff Ficke
A Great Example of Building a Successful Start-up
Gift Marketing Business from a Nice Personal Habit
Recently my Consumer Product Development and Marketing Consulting firm was engaged by a client seeking to leverage a Small Business opportunity from a personal habit she ... Views: 1137
by: Geoff Ficke
In a Jobless Economic Recovery Why Not Create Your Own Job?
These are troubling economic times in the United States and in Europe. Even the least informed citizen instinctively understands this fact. Government debt is piling up, countries are bankrupt, companies are ... Views: 1498
Why Are Immigrants So Successful as Entrepreneurs While Fewer & Fewer Americans Even Try?
This week I had a Speaking Engagement scheduled in Jackson, TN. Upon arrival I settled into my hotel and it being early evening I asked the front desk attendant what restaurants he would recommend for ... Views: 1649
by: Geoff Ficke
The Nearly Forgotten Fashion Pioneer Who Changed the Way Women Dressed
Mention the name Chanel and virtually every woman, and most men immediately have a mental picture of the famous logo, eponymous boutiques, couture fashion and famous Fragrances created several ... Views: 3062
by: Geoff Ficke
Before Asking Others to Invest in Your Project Prepare to Answer the Question That Always Comes
Recently I reviewed a Business Plan that was submitted with a goal of raising a $2 million angel funding round. The product was a Hair Care Accessory that had real commercial ... Views: 1073
Make Color & Style Indispensible Elements to Sell More Products
Have you never visited a Williams Sonoma store? Notice how the toaster they sell for $300 per unit is always displayed so prominently. Have you ever asked yourself who needs a $300 toaster when a perfectly acceptable bread ... Views: 1263
by: Geoff Ficke
The Simple Mundane Product Invention that Changed a Sport and Created a Fortune
When I was a young boy growing up in Kentucky almost every town of any size had a drug store, a dry goods store, a grocer, a gas station and a billiards parlor.
At any time of the day local men ... Views: 1778
by: Geoff Ficke
Why Don’t Business Schools Produce more Entrepreneurs?
For most of my life I have been a serial Entrepreneur. Even as a kid growing up I knew I wanted to control my own destiny. In order to be free and self-supporting I was constantly seeking opportunity in every way ... Views: 1199
by: Geoff Ficke
An Example of Remora Marketing That Launched the
National Chain Drug Store Boom
Before the middle of the 20th century there were no national chain drug stores. The neighborhood pharmacy was typically owned by a local druggist. There were multi-door local groups of stores ... Views: 1913
by: Geoff Ficke
The Cincinnati Native Who Created the Pet Food Industry in the Mid-19th Century
Since the domestication of the dog some 10,000 years ago, man’s best friend enjoyed a very limited diet of table scraps, grains and scrounged bits and pieces scoured from fields and city streets ... Views: 1300
by: Geoff Ficke
Time Is Never on the Entrepreneur’s Side
In the early 1960’s, when the Rolling Stones were trying to become successful as a “blues band”, their first commercially successful recording was a ballad called “Time is on my side”. For the Rolling Stones time certainly has been ... Views: 1103
by: Geoff Ficke
The Pioneer of Personal Success Literature Should Be Required Reading for Today’s Leaders
When I was a young chap just out of college in 1969 and about to start a business career I was very fortunate to have had a mentor. This gentleman was a successful manufacturer in ... Views: 1796
by: Geoff Ficke
The 5 Personal Traits Essential for Achieving Entrepreneurial Success
I have worked with Entrepreneurs, Inventors and businesses large and small all over the world in my career as a Consumer Product Development and Marketing Consultant. For every 20 opportunities we review, ... Views: 1209
by: Geoff Ficke
The Simple Wisdom We Learn from Studying Ancient Greek Rhetorical Form Chiasmus
The ancient Greeks perfected and gifted to us the unique rhetorical form known as chiasmus. Simply stated, chiasmus is a figure of speech in which two phrases are inverted to display a ... Views: 1268
by: Geoff Ficke
Business Should Offer More than Just a Product They Should Try to Offer a Buying Experience
The hugely successful entrepreneur Debbi Fields was once asked what it felt like to be a winner in the cookie business; she replied, “I never felt like I was in the cookie business. ... Views: 1139
by: Geoff Ficke
Classic French Milled Soap Offers a Lesson in Creating
A Proprietary Marketing Niche for Common Products
One of the most difficult realities an aspiring Consumer Product Marketer must confront is how to present their Brand as a fresh, original, worthwhile counter-offering ... Views: 1983
by: Geoff Ficke
Making a Minor Product Usage Change Can Propel Major Sales Advances
In the middle of the 20th century pre-packaged foods and mixes were not as ubiquitous as they are today. Typically, a middle class home had a housewife present and preparing her families meals from scratch. ... Views: 1267
by: Geoff Ficke
A Simple 20-Step Test That Will Confirm Whether or Not a Product Development Project Is Market-Ready
For almost four decades my Consulting firm has worked with entrepreneur’s to design, develop, package, Brand, Market and Sell a vast range of Consumer Products. Our job is ... Views: 1285
by: Geoff Ficke
4 Crucial Elements to Include in Your Consumer Product Branding Strategy
When I started to Market Consumer Products 40 years ago the term “Branding” was one I never heard. The term was not one that enjoyed the currency it enjoys today. In the years since formal Branding ... Views: 1447