If I can't start a successful business, should I just buy one?

[Get Right]

Tried for 3 years...empty handed still.

It took me 4 years post TMF to really see any money and I had built 7+ companies prior.

What am I gonna do, keep trying till I'm 80 years old?

Why not? Fastlane is a mindset. When you get it dialed in you can do it forever.

Fustrating if you don't have any customers.

You haven't provided value to anybody yet. You must be selling something nobody wants. I had this happen with a line of dog houses...they were awesome, I marketed the crap out of them but nobody bought (wanted) them.

If customers are already there, then it is easier.

Bingo! Find a raving market, find a need of that market, make a product to fulfill that need...in that order.

I have been stuck in mom's basement because of this.

Good point. Remember to thank your mom! That's very nice of her.

Wrapping up my post here: I don't think you are too far from where you want to be. There are a few mindset changes you need to make (hinted above). Once you "see" a little more clearly the path will emerge. Good luck and hit me up if you need any help!

 

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[Ddowns46]

I am starting to accept the fact that I just suck at getting a business off the ground. I have tried businesses where I spend months developing a product and run ads and...crickets. I have also tried extremely low investment businesses like T-shirts because I realized how much a waste of time and expensive with the trials of building your own from scratch. Even the T-shirt thing, I ran the ads...and crickets.

So it seems to have any success on Facebook Ads (what I have been really trying to hone in on) you need initial data set in order for the facebook website conversion ad to work. They say so themselves. But if I can never get the initial data set, then I can never leverage the power of facebook.

On top of the facebook pixel funnel is View Content. Easy enough to get. I run a traffic ad with interest based targeting. I get enough View Contents (data) in just a couple of days for facebook to use. Create New Ad to Optimize for View Content. Since this ad is optimized for VC Conversion, I see a lower cost per view content. So the next part of the funnel is to get the Add to Cart to fire. Based on what I read, with enough View Contents, eventually some people will ATC. Then you get the initial ATC data set. Then optimize for that that and slowly move down the last part of the funnel until you can optimize for purchases. This is where you are suppose to be making bank.

But...nobody is ATC, so I always get stuck here. Because I can never get initial data set I'm stuck. I keep thinking it is a product problem, but then I see other ecommerce websites selling shirts or products in my opinion worse than mine. If people can see value in their products, how can they not in mine? they literally have nothing different. Examples are checking sales rank on on Amazon for T-shirt designs, they are obviously selling. Ecommerce selling websites showing their numbers and their store, profiting. These are not assumptions.

Retargeting ads are run as well, but cost is like 2x more and no sales either.

Also reading blog posts on facebook ads that say the best strategies are lookalike audiences, but you need an initial customer set...F*ck me.

Just recently, I have looked at websites that sell ecommerce businesses. Like Shopify Exchange, and decided to creep on their websites and kind of shocked how these businesses even get sales, they look terrible. I mean the websites don't look any better than mine. They just look like generic aliexpress dropship and they are claiming profit of $3k a month LOL. If they didn't show me their numbers, I would assume all these websites get $0 sales.

Facebook targeting seems no brainer, but I got nothing. I have a T-shirt with a Cat that is lifting weights. Seems easy enough...target people that like Cats and Must also match Weight Lifting. I have tried generic cat lover and generic fitness and have also gotten granular to cat magazines/rescue shelters & fitness icons, fitness brands. Interest that only that subset of people would truly like and...Nothing.

My advice to you is dont worry about ads, facebook targeting, or what service to build your website with- dont concern yourself one bit about what the most efficient way to communicate to your potential customers is. Trust me that you aren’t there yet. All that stuff comes later.

My advice is to focus literally all of your entrepreneurial effort toward finding problems. Join forums that center around hobbies that you enjoy. Start tuning your ear to hear problems that people complain about regularly. Keep a notebook and start documenting your findings. Dont bog yourself down with figuring out how to solve the issue, just find the issues. With enough practice you will start walking through life constantly aware of the painpoints around you that are just begging to be solved. No painpoint is too crazy to write down at this stage. And no painpoint is too small.

Next start thinking about what the impact would be if you solved each issue. Would it ‘impact millions’? Would people be compelled to purchase your offering because the alternative is to continue dealing with whatever issue your product solves? Discard the ideas that dont.

Then start narrowing down which ideas are realistic. Everyone wishes their car would get 10,000 miles a gallon because the prices of gas sucks. But i would bet a signed dollar that you dont have the solution to that problem. Remove the outlandish ideas from your list.

Hopefully by now your list is whittled down to a few that seem like they might be possible. Start reaching out to people that might have the knowledge to steer you toward a solution. If its an app, talk to a software guy about how it would be done. If its a mechanical device, reach ou to a mechanical engineer.

From there your efforts should transition to building your solution. You might need to invest time in learning the skills required to develop the solution. Only after you have built a minimally viable solution to a painpoint should you start worrying about how to tell people about it (marketing).

 

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[Get Right]

This in an excerpt from a post I like about a gentlemen entering the T-shirt business (I know this is just one of your attempts). It shows what reality looks like (not the fake businesses for sale with ridiculous asks and misleading numbers).

I learned it wasn’t as easy as I thought. I couldn’t just make a shirt and advertise it. Twenty-one failures proved that. I tried selling shirts to dog lovers, coffee lovers, hot sauce lovers, lawyers and more. It would have been easy to quit after so many failures. I wasn’t ready to quit yet.

Finally on the 22nd campaign I had a winning design. It was stupidly simple. It was just a cute message I found on Instagram and targeted toward pediatric nurses. It took less than five minutes to create it in Photoshop. Once I ran the ad, I had a sale before I spent $10.

After the campaign ended seven days later, I had sold 17 shirts. I spent $81.72 on ads and earned $112.25 for a profit of $30.53. It wasn’t a huge profit, but it was a successful campaign, finally. It took a few more failures before I had another successful design – it sold 32 shirts.

21 failures on a simple T-shirt. This is the work nobody usually talks about. Those 21 campaigns cost him a lot of money also. Factor in the $30.53 profit and he is WAY in the hole.

This is why I come back to focusing on your mental game. Ask better questions in better markets and leave this money-chasing T-shirt stuff to the rookies.

 

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[biophase]

Many business start without having any email lists or data. The main thing that you don't seem to get yet is that nobody wanted the product that you were selling. It's as simple as that. You point to all the stores for sale on Shopify's site and you don't understand how they are making money. Are these stores tricking everyone into buying their things?

You are still confused on what value is. You say your tshirts provide value, but the market is saying no. I'm not a cat person, so if you gave me your tshirt I'd probably use it to dry off my car. Is that value? No.

However, if someone likes your cat tshirt and proudly wears it out, then it is of value to that person. You haven't found that person yet OR that person doesn't exist.

The market is never wrong, it is the market, it's never confusing, you just don't understand it yet.

 

[Longinus]

If you can't start a successful business (self limiting belief btw), what makes you think you can run one?

 

[MJ DeMarco]

I've marked this NOTABLE because it is a great example of why people never succeed.

Notice how what's going on in someone's head AFFECTS the business selection and its execution.

Notice how @MakeMoreMoves has an excuse for everything, or a reason why such "given advice" is to be discounted.

Notice how things are tried, but not really committed to.

Notice how money, and quick results is the priority, not a legitimate value skew based on relative value.

Observe and learn.

 

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[MJ DeMarco]

You're money chasing.

No mention of product, no mention of value attributes, no mention of value skew, no mention of value arrays, no USP, no solution oriented position.... just "I want to make $5K through digital market" -- the product comes before the business-model, you don't take a business-model and plug a product into it. That's run of the mill "IM" and bro-marketing, IOW, money chasing.

So yes, maybe you should look into buying a business that has already verified a demand for their offering beyond "I spent $10K in FB ads and made $12K in sales and $200 in profit..."

But this solves only ONE problem...

What if the new problem is: "I just bought a business and it has had declining sales for 9 straight months, what should I do! I paid $X thousands for it and haven't broken even yet!"

 

[waveman]

Here's another perspective: If you look at successful entrepreneurs, it doesn't matter whether they buy a business (successful or failing) or start one. They always make money at the end of things. Two examples I know off the top of my head:

Correct me if I'm wrong on this one: MJ sold off his company in the early 2000s. The new owners ended up running it into the ground and it started failing hard. MJ bought it back and turned it back around.

Other example: I had the pleasure of meeting a very, very wealthy woman in my country (Margaret Hirsch, owner of an appliance chain store called Hirsch's here). She got into a huge debt (I'm not sure how much but I think it was to the tune of millions). She eventually made that money back and started getting much, much higher profits.

I believe this is because of the mindsets and skills they develop around wealth, money and value. Their circumstances or situations they get into are irrelevant- because they've learned the right approaches to make money no matter what. Trying to buy a successful business and expecting it to carry itself is kind of like putting a band-aid on a bullet wound (no offense to you), because eventually your skills and decision-making are going to come to the surface and affect how well your business is doing.

I'm not trying to be a critic here, downplay your attempts or anything, but do take a step back. Without mentioning other businesses, people, or customers, write down everything you think you're having trouble with when getting into business. Ideas, being unique, etc etc. From there see if you can tie it in to how you think about money, and value.

Make sure you're developing the right mindsets by continuously reading books/stories of successful entrepreneurs. They usually all say the same things, so see what's common between them.

 

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[SquatchMan]

$5k/month profit through ecommerce store through digital ads

You're money chasing.

Your whole post talked about getting ads to try and get people to buy a t-shrt with a design on it. Not on building something that people actually want/need.

Find a problem -> Solve it. The problem could even be that the competition sucks and provides zero value.

$5k/month isn't that much money either.

 

[Fotis]

Instead of going directly for the sale, why don't you put them in a list and promote your shirts from there?

Facebook (and other social media) can go loco anytime and ban your account - not gonna happen with your very own email list.

Plus, most people aren't ready to buy immediately. Depending on the industry, they might need as many as 30 viewings of your offer. Again, your life would be easier with an email list.

A few more thoughts:

1) Many direct response companies, take a loss in the front end and make a profit in the back end.

Perhaps you could offer a really irresistible offer that would either earn you 0$ or even cost you dollars, just to make sure that your product is good. Then, when you have buyers, upsell them more shirts or other relevant products to recoup your loss.

If they aren't willing to buy, then you need to rework your product or rethink how you approach prospects

2) Talking about prospects, you say:

"I have a T-shirt with a Cat that is lifting weights. Seems easy enough...target people that like Cats and Must also match Weight Lifting. "

Bzt.

Wrong.

Liking =//= buying.

I think fb has a choice to target people who have spend money in the past, right? If yes, target buyers. It didn't make sense to me when I began learning marketing ("but if they have already bought a t-shirt, they probably don't need another one!") but I was wrong.

If you can find it, read chapter 6 of "The Boron Letters" by Gary halbert. It will help you understand what type of people you go after. You might have to read it a couple times, but it's worth it.

3) I've bought 3 cat t-shirts from teeturtle.com

Wanna know what's the best t-shirt to sell me? Another cat t-shirt.

For your weightlifting cat example, a great way to make some sales is to find stores that sell similar shirts...ask them if they're willing to promote your product...and offer them a huge percentage of the profits.

Why?

Again, you wanna make sure that people actually want your t-shirt. No point wasting your money on FB ads, trying to sell people something they don't want.

***

Anyway, those were my 2000000000 cents

 

[W. Sabria]

I was really excited out this thread when I first read the subject line. I have been thinking about this a lot; having gone through extended and rigorous licensing processes for my automotive business (when we first started and then again when we relocated) and also seeing lots of new local restaurants that spend months doing ambitious build-outs (of a leased spaces) and ultimately not getting their certificate of occupancy for 12-18 months -- losing a lot of momentum and money along the way. I now think there is a lot to be said for buying a "turn-key" business (under the right conditions) in order to avoid all the pain, time and money -- spent and lost -- getting something new off the ground.

Unfortunately, I found the thread to be a big disappointment. Like @SquatchMan said, this is just "money chasing." @MakeMoreMoves, sorry to say, you're not looking to start a business, you're looking for a cheap magic trick -- focused on smoke and mirrors. Facebook ads aren't hard to figure out, bro. Have you considered it's not the ads that don't work, but the product that doesn't work?

Sorry if I'm being harsh. I've seen lots of long-time members go on rants here. I hope I'm not becoming just as cynical. I love MJ's books and I love his message. To be connected with others that "get it" is awesome. But clearly there are lots of users that say they get it, but don't really.

I'm still very new to this forum, but I hope I find some truly valuable conversations in here soon. I didn't come here to point and laugh or "face-palm" all day.

 

[ZCP]

Seems you have all the answers then. Surely I wouldn't suggest a path that I had already walked or had helped others walk as well.

You've owned multiple businesses both on and offline. You've bought and sold businesses. You are currently running several now. Even your school age kids are running several.

In your vast experience, the ONLY way to get to $5k/mo is to be online w/ Facebook ads or have $200k for a grocery store.

To sum up your thread: to be successful, completely ignore all advice given, especially if given by people who have already done what you are trying to do.

 

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[Longinus]

Oh..Longinus. You changed your profile pic. So you have seen all my posts haha

Call it a trap. Thing is, all the people who patted you on the shoulder and gave you advice of gold, still didn't get through you.

You're only in your early 20s. 3 years is nothing. It can cost you 3 more years, or even 6 more years and that's ok. Simply buying another company won't solve your problem. If you really want to spend your money on something, keep an eye on the market section of this forum and get some decent coaching.

 

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[ZCP]

based on what you have said ...... buy a small business and learn to run it. try to build it into a sellable asset. you will learn a shit ton. you may also discover a need to fill.

check out @Greg R posts in the last few months to see if this is sound advice.

 

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[CROJosh]

This is a bad thing? Here?

I'm a money chaser. Happy to go head to head with anyone who wants to disparage that.

"Money-chasing" isn't a slight against money but describing someone who is prioritizing events over processes instead of finding solutions to problems for their market. My point was that he's trying to get his monthly nut, not get rich overnight.

 

[S.Y.]

Tried for 3 years...empty handed still.

Tried?? Have you tried or were you fully committed for 3 years? There is a big difference here.

I read your OP. Aside from venting your frustrations, you spoke mainly about ads. What about the product(s) you have been offering?

You took months to develop products. But have you researched - prior to developing the products - the people that will need them? If yes, have you reached out to some of them and offered your stuffs for free in exchange for feedbacks?

What have you concretely done that makes you conclude you can't get a business off the ground?

The reason I have this mentality is that I have read many case studies. The looked at their products and it might be that I am not their target demographic, but I see nothing of value in their offering let alone a USP. But they are making sales based on my research. So when you tell me that I got in with the mentality of trying to get people to buy a T-shirt with a design, you are telling me that I am not offering value?

I mean just because I go in with this mentality, doesn't mean my product is void of value. So if I created oh I don't know a product that helps people better walk, but go in with the mentality of trying to get people to buy this walking-assisted product, now it contains no value? T- shirt designs provide value by having a person resonate with it. How about all the case studies of people selling T-shirt designs in the hundreds every month? People want T-shirts with designs.

If they are making sales, people are seeing value in their offering. You won't spend money to get something that you know will not bring you any benefits, would you?

T-shirt designs provide value, sure. I agree. But the ones you are offering:
...are not providing enough value
...for people you were/are targeting
...to pay for them at the price you are asking.
If you think I am wrong, show me the sales you made?

I had a jewelry store on Shopify targeting a specific niche. So, jewelry provides value. Many pay a lot of money to have them. But I barely made any sales, despite selling at lower prices than many other stores, who were bringing it a decent profit. You can say:
- I wasn't providing enough value
- I wasn't giving enough guarantee
- I wasn't reaching the right people to have a profit
- I wasn't reaching people enough
- I didnt have an optimized website
Regardless, my offering was not valuable enough - relative to existing offers - to the people visiting my sites to buy. Period.

I mean take look at these: All Listings | Ecommerce Websites & Businesses for Sale | Buy and Sell Online Sites

These definitely look like money chasing ventures, but they are obviously making sales? I mean technically you can logic it both ways right?

Money-Chasing Mentality - You are just trying to get people to buy your T-shirt designs with Ads, you are a money chaser
Value Mentality - You are creating T-shirt designs that resonate with the consumer that aligns with their worldview and therefore provide value.

But at the end of it, both are just selling T-shirt designs.

No. No. NO. Taking your example:
- Money-Chasing Mentality: the focus is on your products. You are saying "I have this, you guys come buy it. And by the way, I don't care what you like. Just buy this"
- Value Mentality: the focus is on people. You are saying: "Hey I know you guys value T designs. Tell me what you like, and I will deliver it. I know you don't know me yet, so here the guarantee I give you.". Or maybe you go further and find what things people should look at to buy designs. You give that content for free.

The end result is design sold. The approach and the things you do... vastly different.

If you don't get the nuance. You are in for a lot of trouble.

 

[ZCP]

One final thing, think about going back through this thread and reading it from our perspective. Trying to help you. Have already been down this path and know it is possible.

Open you mind. Your limiting beliefs and assumptions make you come across as a know it all jackass.

Quit finding excuses and quit giving up after trying something for 5 minutes or looking in one place.

If you want $10k/mo, open your mind. Provide value or find the cash flowing investment. Even better, do both.

 

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[ZCP]

What is your end goal? Let's start there.

 

[CROJosh]

To anyone saying he's money-chasing, ease up; he's looking for 5K/month not a milli by December.

@MakeMoreMoves Tip: In ecom, you don't run ads for sales, you run ads for information. The return on your ad spend comes from lifetime value of the customer. To raise this you need a safety net that catches prospects when they bounce or get distracted and a plan for when they come back and say either yes or no (upsell,downsell,sidesell, just give them options). Setup email automation and remind them you're awesome, sales is about followup more than persuasion. Ecom works, don't go buy someone else's headache before you tune this a little more.

 

[MTF]

If you want to buy a business, read this book: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B078SQFQX7/?tag=tff-amazonparser-20

Buying a profitable business may seem like a shortcut, but it's still difficult. If you buy the right business and the owner offers post-sale support and teaches you how to run it properly (or stays as a consultant), it can be a good opportunity to learn. If not, you may lose a lot of money.

 

[Get Right]

The market just never seems to find any value in anything I produce.

Back to the mindset thing. This sentence is backwards. The market comes first. For instance, I know there is a shortage of new houses in my area...so I built a business to provide those houses. This is MUCH different than "I'm building a house, I hope somebody likes/buys it!"

Another way to look at it: You set up a booth at a popular beach. Would you rather sell your famous homemade ice cream or $3 cheapo sunglasses like the other 3 vendors? Which has Scale and Control?

I challenge you to change your way of thinking. That is what is holding you back.

 

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[ZCP]

do both.

buy a business that is making a little money. improve it. sell it. ...... hell of a lot to learn there. great experience. start an INSIDERS thread. tag me in it. we'll come help.

while doing that, work on your own business. get customers. find a market. improve a product. get it up and going. go through MJ's steps in Unscripted . maybe keep that going in this thread.

both will help you improve your mindset. both will give you experience. both give you fastlane avenues.

staying where you are is not an option. get to work.

 

[ZCP]

Ok, let's switch it up. Where have you looked for businesses?

As just one example, my kids took the profits from one business and put about $4k into a vending route we found on Craigslist. They work a half day one Saturday every 4 to 6 weeks and clear about $500 profit per month. Even after paying $100 for someone to drive one of them around because they are not old enough to drive.

Time to shed these limiting beliefs. Switch 'why can't I' to 'how can I'.

 

[WJK]

Just because you buy a business, it doesn't mean you'll be successful. Yes, you must have to have a business that has good market potential. Your skills are as important.

I know when I sell out, the buyers have a very high chance of failing. (I make it look too easy.) I see that kind of situation all the time. The successful businessman sells or dies, and the next guy kills the business.

Your T-shirts idea is a pretty crowded field. Your competition is Walmart. They sell them for $8.00+/-. How can you make a profit? In general, it takes at least a $20 item or sale to even start to break even. And it takes a lot of those $20 sales...

 

[ZCP]

buy a non internet business. hit craigslist and the local ads. you want $x/mo, right. start getting portions of $x.

get out of 'this world is keeping me down' spiral. start making progress.

 

[Fastlane Liam]

And at no point did you mention the PRODUCT

 

[SquatchMan]

The reason I have this mentality is that I have read many case studies. The looked at their products and it might be that I am not their target demographic, but I see nothing of value in their offering let alone a USP. But they are making sales based on my research. So when you tell me that I got in with the mentality of trying to get people to buy a T-shirt with a design, you are telling me that I am not offering value?

I mean just because I go in with this mentality, doesn't mean my product is void of value. So if I created oh I don't know a product that helps people better walk, but go in with the mentality of trying to get people to buy this walking-assisted product, now it contains no value? T- shirt designs provide value by having a person resonate with it. How about all the case studies of people selling T-shirt designs in the hundreds every month? People want T-shirts with designs.

Look at Shopify Exchange, I mean I look all of those and I see like no value at all. But they still making money. The problem is that see people going in with the mentality of no value and can become successful.

Yeah I know $5k/month isn't much. But I still haven't gotten to it.

Sure, you can be successful. It's just a constant uphill battle for not a large payoff. I know because I've done a business that sold a commodity product (t-shirts with custom designs have a substantial amount of fungibility) using advertising (Google Shopping). I don't recommend it.

You're fighting over a tiny amount of customers with a bunch of other competition selling the same stuff. It's a miserable business model.

If you want a counterexample look at some of the INSIDERS progress threads where people are literally begging the owner for the product.

That's the kind of business I want to be in.
-------
Just buy a t-shirt business that makes $3k/month though. Report how it goes. It'd be an interesting case study.

 

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[S.Y.]

But there is no incentive for a Money-Chaser to not care what somebody likes. Even if someone is a money-chaser, there is incentive for him/her to make a good product that provides value because those are the ones that sell and make money. I guess it was for this reason that I never saw money chasing as bad, because you are incentivized to create value. If you don't, then you won't make money.

Back to the basic T-shirt example, I made that design because I thought people would actually like it and see value in it. I didn't just arbitrarily stick random designs on it and blast ads. I didn't go, oh let me just make this design and blast ads and say "Oh who cares if they like it?"

I really don't think anyone in the world money chaser or not creates products intentionally that do not provide value. All the products that don't sell are created by people with the assumption that they provide value.

My view on this is difficult to articulate.

Would I be doing everything I am doing just for charity? Just to add value without a potential to make money? No. One of whys is financial independence, for me and my son. Which implies $.

I learned along the way that shifting my mentality from going after money to going after value is the best way to achieve it.

When I subscribed to this forum, I was a pure money chaser. Just looking for ways to make value. Two things happened in a few months that made me switch to focusing on finding ways to offer value.

Since then, the way I see things, the ideas I find, the way I think about ideas changed. And that doesn't mean I don't pay attention to the potential of making profit. I do. But this is no longer my primary filter.

But that's me.

At the end, it comes down to whether you give people things they perceive of value. Be it because of the products itself or the way you market it.

 

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[Real Deal Denver]

Many business start without having any email lists or data. The main thing that you don't seem to get yet is that nobody wanted the product that you were selling. It's as simple as that. You point to all the stores for sale on Shopify's site and you don't understand how they are making money. Are these stores tricking everyone into buying their things?

You are still confused on what value is. You say your tshirts provide value, but the market is saying no. I'm not a cat person, so if you gave me your tshirt I'd probably use it to dry off my car. Is that value? No.

However, if someone likes your cat tshirt and proudly wears it out, then it is of value to that person. You haven't found that person yet OR that person doesn't exist.

The market is never wrong, it is the market, it's never confusing, you just don't understand it yet.

^^^ THIS!

The market is never wrong. Marketing 101 through 701 combined in that one statement.

So you had a tshirt of a cat lifting weights? And you can't figure out why it didn't sell? I can. It's dumb. I'm not a cat person, but I know many people that are, and they think cats are cute and clever. Sometimes funny in their own innocent way. There you go - those are the attributes cat lovers love. Lifting weights makes, um, no sense.

So, knowing rule #1 - the market is never wrong - drop it and move on.

If you're hung up on cats, I vaguely remember a porn cartoon about cats. This is the most unexciting and uninteresting kind of porn I can imagine, so I don't have any input to how that movie went. BUT I do remember seeing the female cats that looked very seductive, and the male "star" cat, wearing a fedora with one fang hanging out - not two, just one - with a smirk on his face. I remember that because I study and appreciate art. That was from maybe 30-40 years ago, but I still remember it. I thought it was clever to use cats as the characters instead of people.

So there you go. You can make a "pimp" type cat with a fedora, flipping a coin in one hand, and resting his other hand on his hip - saying "Whaz Up?" Now, I wouldn't buy that, but I think it would be ten times more interesting than your design of a cat lifting weights. Cat lovers are weird people - that might just hit a nerve with them and they might buy it. At least it makes "some" sense.

Get OVER a product that doesn't launch. The market is NEVER wrong.

I've had things I've done in business that didn't sell - and I've done them on purpose. Rather than have someone decide IF they like a product or not, I'd rather have them CHOOSE which product they like the best. Having something really cheap makes other things look better -and having something really high priced makes other things look like more of a bargain. Psychology 201.

How do I know all this stuff? I put MYSELF in the place of the customer, and try to figure out why I like, or don't like something. Then I fix it. You could have a series of cat images - one running - one high jumping - one going over a ski lift - and THEN maybe your weight lifting cat MIGHT fit in.

But if it doesn't - after a good healthy trial run - take it behind the barn and SHOOT it. Then, move on.

Not enough of the world loves cats. How about horses? I'm not a horse person, but I like horses 100 times more than I like cats. Now that I think about it - who DOESN'T love horses? Nobody!

Foooood for thought. So much good advice here. You just have to break that "first love" connection with your idea and let it die. But, I would try the "series" of cats Olympics thing first, before giving up.



Found it - Fritz the Cat (1972)

 

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[GoGetter24]

To anyone saying he's money-chasing

This is a bad thing? Here?

I'm a money chaser. Happy to go head to head with anyone who wants to disparage that.