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So you have entrepreneurial spirit and an uncompromising drive, but you have yet to settle on a particular product to make your passion. You’re not alone. Identifying a winning product is often the obstacle that blocks even the most resourceful business minds.
Allow me to share a method that can make all the difference. As I outline in my book, Act Now! How I Turn Ideas into Million-Dollar Products, the key to finding a product is conducting a relentless search. Start by scouring magazines and newspapers for variations of products that show up in multiples. That is your evidence they have a market.
At the same time, the goal is to find a gem that does not yet enjoy mainstream appeal but has the potential to do so. The search will likely be time consuming but it also will train you to be discerning about an ultimate selection.
In addition, make time to attend trade shows where innovative ideas often flow under the radar. In most cases, a business card showing some relation to the industry is good enough for admission. Once inside, stay away from the showy, center-aisle booths and focus instead on the perimeter rows. That is where the unheralded items, or “unknown goodies,” as I like to call them, can be found. This is the type of product ripe for an infomercial deal or sale to the shopping channel of your choice.
I’d like to add a valuable anecdote about how products can inspire other products. Tempted years ago by an advertisement for a Tempur-Pedic mattress — while regularly struggling to sleep — I paid the $2,200 price to see what all the rage was about. Of course, the NASA-engineered memory foam was the real deal and made converts out of millions, including me.
I discovered details about the material by cutting into my mattress. That gave me the idea to replicate the memory foam as a mattress “topper” that could be placed atop a mattress of any size. The key was charging just $200 for the topper, not $2,200, which opened this product up to a huge market. Called the True Sleeper memory foam topper, the product is now one of my top-five most profitable.
So remember to be relentless in your product search and don’t get discouraged — get determined!
