A New Paradigm for the Design, Innovation, Marketing, and Business Model for Your Product

This is a video of a groundbreaking presentation by Seth Godin that will push how you think about your product's development through marketing, design, production, and delivery further than it has gone in years.  Once you begin to let Godin's ideas about these issues start to permeate your skull, there's no turning back.  You are on your way towards something other than mediocrity.  When trying to develop a new product and get it on the market, mediocrity could be your worst enemy.  You might have a product for the masses--but your approach to alerting them to it and delivering it to them will likely need to be anything but average, run-of-the-mill, mediocre.  You need Seth Godin's ideas on your side.  Enjoy.

Offshore Sourcing: An Ever-Shifting Landscape, Part II

While small businesses enjoy a number of advantages over big business, this is not always the case.  Sourcing and supply chains, two parts of small businesses which routinely fall to the corners of the radar screen, are two areas that can't be ignored.  Your business will depend on them.

New clients often ask us which countries we operate in.  I usually tell them that we have experience in many throughout Asia and a few other parts of the world.  But, most of the business we are doing these days is taking place in China.  Why?  Many people have read or heard that lower prices can be found in other countries, such as the Philippines, Vietnam, Indonesia, etc.  We judge where to source for a given project based on not only what that project needs, but also what a country's manufacturing base has to offer.  China, as we all know, has quite a bit to offer these days.  For the small business beginning offshore sourcing, China offers a lot more than just low prices. 

I wrote a post entitled Sourcing: An Ever-Shifting Landscape, Part I back in December, which discussed Vietnam's entry into the WTO and the recent boom in apparel manufacturing the country has enjoyed because of the quotas placed by the US government on certain apparel items coming in from China.  Vietnam will no doubt become more important on the international trade scene in the coming decade.  But that doesn't mean there won't be bumps in the road.

A recent article by the National Retail Federation gives a nice follow up to this in an article Monitoring Has Chilling Effect on Vietnam Trade, and discusses the results of the US government's decision to "monitor" and possibly take issue with Vietnam's apparel exports because of anti-dumping (trade policy used by importing governments to counteract dumping or the export of goods below cost, for example by imposing duties or negotiating price increases).  Several large US retailers that were sourcing apparel products from Vietnam have practically ceased their orders and are placing them with factories in other countries because of this possibility.  Anti-dumping measures can have brutal and unpredictable consequences on a company's supply chain. 

In this situation, a small business with a much simpler supply chain, involving one or a few factories in Vietnam, would be at great risk.  Although large corporations with extensive supply chains in multiple countries will still lose some time in moving production elsewhere, they can react to these trade policy developments more quickly because they have vendors in other countries, more money, and more manpower to throw at the issue.  The small company that is beginning offshore sourcing usually only sources from one country.  Someone moving to Vietnam right away because they offered the lowest hard costs would now be facing a situation which could potentially threaten the entire supply chain and business.  Even if they rushed to find sources in other countries to mitigate the risk, it would take months of lead time to find the right source, create and review samples, set up production, etc.

Although trade relations between China and the US are certainly still experiencing bumps in the road, it is likely that these bumps will be far less dramatic than those for countries newly emerging onto the international trade landscape.  Cost is important.  But so is risk.  For pure risk purposes and the small business starting offshore operations, more stable trade relations is highly advantageous.   It is certainly a reason why much of what we do today is in China.  When our clients grow to a critical point and have stabilized their operations, then we can begin looking at other countries for new opportunities.  

Example of a Simple, and Amazing Innovation

Since making a verbal commitment to myself that I would fill this blog with multimedia (my success ratio on verbal self-commitments like this is about 58%), I am blown away about how easy it has been to have my last three posts involve just that--multimedia.  More great fodder for an interesting topic, found in video format...

The video entitled "Clothes Hangers" demonstrates, what I think to be, an amazing, yet wonderfully simple innovation on an ubiquitous, household concept: the closet and hanger.  I would love to have this in my home.  But, it demonstrates the power of someone taking a common item, asking "what do I not like about this and how could it be better?".  I can't speak to whether that was actually the concept development process that designer, Daniel To, went through.  But, in my experience, this is often a simplified form of the thought process that people go through when developing simple, but highly effective innovations to existing concepts and products.  If you're looking for product ideas, perhaps you can walk around your home or office and ask that question.  If you come up with something like this, I'll buy it. 

 

What Does a $3.5 Million Violin Have to do With Product Packaging?

It's amazing what context does for our judgments of the value of something.  As humans, we like to process information by placing it into categories.  This helps us to make order of the world and is often one of the fundamental factors behind our occasionally amazing ability to make great snap decisions, as well as our habit of falling victim to stereotypes and judging books by their covers, so to speak.   

This phenomenon plays out everyday and is nothing new, except when drastic situations illuminate the power of it in our daily lives.  The Washington Post did a fascinating experiment, in which a world-class violinist named Joshua Bell performed as a street musician in a Washington DC metro station.  Bell played  his $3.5 million violin, built in 1713, for 43 minutes in the morning during rush hour, as 1,097 people passed by.  As you can see in the video, no one really took notice, and he only made approximately $30.  Perhaps all of these people had more important things to do, and were running off to spend our tax dollars instead of listening to beautiful music.  Or, maybe without the concert hall, tuxedo, and fanfare, we rarely know something is great unless all the packaging is there to affirm it.

This reminds me of my recent conversation with Barbara Carey in which she discussed pricing a product based upon it's perceived value, and the importance of packaging in raising the awareness of that perceived value of your product.  We've all seen it out there--products which seem to be the exact same as their cheaper, generic counterparts, but are packaged in much more attractive packaging and sell for a 30%-50%, or more, mark-up.  Perhaps I could dress in a tuxedo and play Stairway to Heaven on my guitar in a concert hall that charges $200 a head?  Who's with me?

I believe brands are built on solid product (hence me abandoning my aforementioned "Stairway" plan).  But at the point of purchase, people probably won't think your product is great, unless your packaging provides the tuxedo, concert hall, and fanfare that your target market is looking for.  Think about the stores you shop in, that skin cream you bought, or any number of sports cars on the market which possess the same engines as your family sedan.  All are geared to indicate to you the value that the company selling the item wants you to believe you are getting--to give you an experience by creating the context.  Whether a given company or product delivers on that, that is another story.

Major companies test their packaging routinely, and often find that sales increase substantially when they hit upon the right combination for their target market.  You can't just put lipstick on the pig, and put poor, low end products in high end packaging.  This will only erode your customers' confidence.  But, if you're product is geared to provide something great in value to a particular market, you need to provide all the context that will turn their heads and get them to focus in on what is truly amazing about your product. 

Quality Control: A Visual Explanation

This post marks the first in a few categories for me.  First, it is my first attempt to take the bull (web 2.0) by the horns and communicate visually, not just in words.  This will mark the first of many posts in which I intend to bombard you with more stimulating content--audio, video, images, etc.  Fox News...watch out. 

This is also the first time I am using Comic Life from Apple, the program which has allowed me to create "Adventures in Quality Control", which you see below.  I can't take credit for the idea for this masterpiece.  I got the idea from Guy Kawasaki's How to Change the World: A Practical Blog for Impractical People. 

These photos show only a small fraction of the kinds of quality assurance tests that are performed on various products.  Here you'll see a drop test, bake test, freeze test, pull test, and pass the manager test (this last one is not a formal test).  The client has laid out with the manufacturer how these products will be tested, what constitutes major defects and minor defects, the AQL (Acceptable Quality Level), and other details depending on the specific product. 

This particular factory, Guidelink, is a manufacturer of toys, models, and a few other lines, and is an outstanding operation in regard to all the facets one might go and inspect an overseas partner for.  Jackie, the head manager, has decades of experience and ran the show at this factory and several others.  He was kind enough to show us around and explain his operations. 

Interview With Barbara Carey, Part III: Working with Buyers, Team Members, and Other Third Parties

Without further ado, here is the third and final part of my interview with Barbara Carey.  Again, you can learn more about her by visiting her blog or checking out the launch of her new program: The Carey Formula.

Part III
Working with Buyers, Team Members, and Other Third Parties

A:  So when you needed to find out whether stretch velveteen was good enough, did you find that out by putting it in front of people?

B: Yup.  When I have a question, I ask.  I survey.  You’ll want to ask your end user, customer, retailer, lots of people in different categories.  I mass market, so I need to appeal to the masses.  For these reasons, I always try and develop a relationship with the buyer I’m working with.  I typically close my deal with my buyer before I even go see them for the first time.  When I go see them, I usually feel I’m there as a courtesy call to pick up paper.  I do it that way because I believe in being a person that does what they say they’re going to do.  I pick up the phone.  I tell the buyer what I’m going to do and get off the phone very quickly.  A month later, I follow up with them and say “remember what I said I was going to do?  I just did it.”  And then I do it again and again.  And pretty soon, over a period of the product development process, which might be 6 or 8 months, I’ve become a person who does what I say I’m going to do.  And, the buyer has seen this whole series of accomplishments with you and they want to do business with you. 

A:  What about bringing in people to help you during this process?  Can you talk about how you surround yourself with people that can do certain things better than you?

B:  I surround myself with people that can do things I can’t.  I’ve got an excellent CFO.  I’ve got an excellent Operations Manager.  Basically, we are a sales and marketing office, a great designer, and a wonderful marketing coordinator.  We farm out everything else as a virtual company.  I don’t need to be in the warehousing industry or the manufacturing industry, so we have contract warehousing and manufacturing companies.  So throughout my life, I’ve been on this hunt to find great resources, and that’s what my CD library is all about.  It’s a collection of all these people and pieces that you need to make this whole thing work and keep very low overhead.

A:  That’s one of the messages that came strongly out of your book: keep costs low.  A lot of people go out and spend a lot of money on things that aren’t necessary when they’re starting a business…

B:  Business cards.  What a waste of money!  And, what a wonderful opportunity to get someone to email you instead.  Now you have this relationship of communication going back and forth.  Information can be the same way.  That’s the whole thing behind the book and web presence that I’m launching:  Access to information at an affordable price.  And it’s not just the book—it’s a whole business binder including how to price your product, cash flow and inventory management, and more—like the NOLO Press on how to start your business. 

A:  Turning to the subject of manufacturing overseas, what are some of the lessons you’ve learned along the way in this area.

B:  One, I, personally, don’t need to go overseas.  Two, use a third party quality control inspector.  Three, analyze how your communication process is going with your overseas supplier.  If they’re not responsive or don’t seem to put in much effort, that can be a big problem.  But they can do amazing things overseas.  I can get a book printed over there and sent here, even with the added shipping time, faster than I can get it printed and sent to me with a company here in the US.  A US manufacturer will make a book for me in 6 weeks.  A Chinese manufacturer can do it in 4 days. 

Also, you need to check references and do your due diligence.  If there are red flags, chances are they’ll become problems later.  Usually, where there is smoke, there’s fire. 

A:  What about dealing with problems that come up?

B:  Problems always come up in every area of the business.  I’m a problem solver.  That’s my job and I’m good at it.  You need to be a problem solver in business.  You need to maintain your professional composure.  I work with my vendors.  I’m not going to tear them apart when they make a mistake, because in the end they’ll love to work with my company.  I can be challenging, but I treat them fairly.  But you have to know that there isn’t anything you can’t solve or overcome.  Problems seem much smaller when you live that way. 

When I was building my Hairagami business, I had a vendor that didn’t do the things they said they were going to do.  And I had an order I needed to fulfill.  I was dumb in the first place to leave myself at their mercy.  You need to have a second source.  The order was supposed to ship and I hadn’t even seen a production sample for approval yet.  But, I didn’t freak out.  I went back to my buyer and told him that I had a challenge and I wanted to see if he could work with me.  I’m willing to compromise to figure these things out.  And that buyer was wonderful and so polite in helping me figure the situation out.  Part of his motivation for being that way was that he respected me because he already knew me as a person that does what I say I’m going to do. 

Interview With Barbara Carey, Part II: Pricing Your Product

Here is Part 2 of 3 from my interview with Barbara Carey.  There is some very insightful info about pricing and testing your product on the market.  Enjoy.

Part II
Pricing Your Product

A:  Touching on the point of selling your product before you manufacture it, I have worked with several people that have taken orders from customers but were not aware of the time it was going to take to develop and manufacture the product, and they realized they promised on something they couldn’t deliver. 

B:  Hey, the article you wrote for our newsletter on obtaining manufacturing quotes and schedules is an excellent remedy for that.  Reference it here (Thanks Barbara, I will: Obtaining Cost Estimates From Manufacturers).

And in thinking about manufacturing, getting quotes, and setting your price points, it all starts with the perceived value of your product.  You want to get that up as high as possible and you use your packaging to help with that.  You have a product.  It delivers a promise.  What is that promise’s value?  In terms of Hairagami, it was great because it wasn’t a hair clip that you look at and think “this is a piece of plastic made for a dollar and then some”.  Hairagami makes a new hair style which saved you a trip to the hair salon.  That’s worth fifty dollars.  So then, when I can sell it at $14.95, it doesn’t just save you fifty dollars once, but each time you might go to the salon.  And, it saves you time because you don’t have to go to the salon.  It saves you time and money!  So, start with your perceived value of your product and your packaging should convey all those key messages that bring your perceived value up.  Talk to a few manufacturers or experts to get some cost feedback for your analysis.  Then, do a marketing survey to see if your target customers would buy at this price or that price.  And, ask the likelihood that they would buy it?  I ask these questions many different ways until I hit what I think might fit with the key price points.  Retail has price points $14.99, $7.99, $9.99, etc.  You don’t price your product at $16.75.  You have to think about where your product fits into one of these categories where a potential customer will see that at that price, the perceived value is much higher and the ‘cup runneth over’.  Rich Jr.’s item was very inexpensive to make, approximately $2.  I don’t remember exactly.  He sold it for approximately $6.50, and there was a nice sized margin in between.  Size matters!  And we thought, “gee, we sell it at $6.25, they could price it at $12.50.  But the retail price point that’s going to move a lot is at the under-$10 threshold, or $9.95.  So we tried a couple of different price points at retail and the $9.95 point sold three times as much, just because of that little change below $10.

A:  When you test different price points, how do you make sure you aren’t cannibalizing sales of your product in another channel? 

B:  You guard against that by doing a small test with somebody who might be in a different channel.  You might keep your main channel at the optimal price point, but you might experiment a little at a specialty retail store or a resort.  You can try different price points that way and still protect your channels.

A:  So you’re always testing, surveying, etc.?

B: Even when your product is more mature in it’s life cycle, you still are going to want to test your price points.

A:  How do you deal with deciding whether to go with your perfect vision of the best product you can possibly design or to go with something that is just good enough to sell at your chosen price point?  Many inventors fall in love with their products and develop the most amazing, high-quality item they can conceive of.  Then, they go get manufacturing quotes and realize that they are way out of the ballpark when it comes to making their margins.   

B:  That’s not good…

A:  Right, so how do you make sure you don’t run into that problem?

B:  That’s why you need to start with the perceived value and then you need to make a product that you can make a big margin with and give the retailer a margin they can make money on.  You have to ask what price the end user will buy it for.  Ask the retailer what price they need to buy it for to make money.  And, find a price you can have it made for so that you can make money.  That’s why I look for products that have a high-perceived value and are relatively low in cost. 

A:  So when you thought of Hairagami and had to decide what kind of fabric to use, how did you decide what would be cost effective and still deliver?

B:  I didn’t have the money to afford velvet to hit the margin that I needed.  So I used stretch velveteen and that was good enough and didn’t change my margin either.  Also, this was a product that I needed a large packaging insert to explain what the product could do.  But I didn’t have the retail shelf space to accomplish that.  So I created a package in which there was a pop-out map concept.  The paper unfolded, opened up, and gave a great display of “let me tell you about my product”.  So you have to think of creative ways to accomplish what you need cost-effectively.

Interview With Barbara Carey: A Woman With Something To Teach You About Successful Products and Business

Recently, I had the pleasure of talking at length with one of the most successful people I know of when it comes to taking products to market. Barbara Carey is one of a kind.  She is a very charismatic woman and I never knew an interview could be so fun and interesting.  Who knew how important chugging beer and being incorrigible could be to learning how to commercialize a product? 

Barbara spoke to me about how she blossomed from a young woman struggling to get her business going, to a tremendous success as an inventor and entrepreneur.  In the process, she has become a master at taking products to market successfully.  She has commercialized over 100 products.  For anyone interested in building a business or getting their idea or product out there, this woman has something to teach you.  She taught me a lot, and I'm in the business. 

We covered some of the psychological and behavioral aspects involved in getting your product out there, and getting a business going.  But, Barbara also offered great, practical strategies about pricing your product, selling it, and building your business in general.  She's launching the The Carey Formula, which consists of a book, resources on CDs, and more.  Because the interview had so much useful info, I will post the entire dialogue, split into three parts.  Bottomline, for those interested in getting a product on the market or building your business, this is information that will help you:

Part I
Getting Your Product to Market:  Passion, Persistence, and Perspective

A:  How did you determine what you were going to put into your book?  Was it based on the other kinds of information you already saw out there in other books and programs? 

B:  I didn’t look at what was out there already.  I’ve read a lot of business books and knew that my experience was unique and I wanted to dig deep into my soul and answer the questions that I get whenever I give speeches or people call me up, they say “gee, you’re an overnight success, how did you do it?”  Because when you read about me, typically it’s about one of the successes I’ve had, but there’s a lot that goes on behind the scenes, and I wanted to give them the real story.  The truth is, I’m not an overnight success.  But the trick is that I always knew who I was.  And I really wanted to give my readers an experience.  Right at the beginning of the book, I talk about “the two P’s”, Passion and Persistence; they are common threads throughout the entire book. 

A:  I’ve come across a lot of articles and books about business and successful people and many of them have put forth the common idea that those two things (passion and persistence) are undoubtedly the most important factors that determine success.

B: Absolutely.

A:  It’s one of the softer, fuzzier subjects, which people tend to think of abstractly, but it’s so important.

B:  It’s also important that we, as people, evolve.  Our businesses evolve.  It’s so important as human beings to remember that we have the ability to be open and receive information, learn, and turn on a dime.  This is a huge advantage for a small company.  You don’t have to take your decision through the company’s board of directors.  I call these fax machine decisions.  Sometimes you’re standing around the fax with your co-workers, and a fax comes through, and you have to make a decision.  You have to be nimble and you can when you’re small.  As a small company, you have to use a different set of weaponry, like speed and flexibility, than the big companies. 

A:  Let’s talk about decision-making for a second.  In making a decision on the spot, for someone who is starting out in the process, you never have perfect information and you never have all the information.  So how do you ‘wing it’?  How much do you need to know before you go forward?  And the emotional process that goes along with that?

B:  It’s hard.  You can only make the best decision you can at the time.  I collect as much data/information about that decision as I can.  I might go to people who I respect and bounce ideas off of them.  And finally, I weigh my gut instinct.  You take all of those things into account.  And you also have to know that sometimes, with some issues, you’re gut instinct is not the way to go.  Sometimes, the way I feel people will receive a key message, is not in fact the way the masses do.  So I talk about this in the book—I do a lot of surveys.  Whether you are sending out surveys through friends of friends, or more formally, you have to try and get a feel for the masses.  And, depending on how big the decision is, that’s how much research and thought you put behind it.  I’m consistently asking people questions and for feedback.  That’s a part of my success.  I don’t just charge ahead according to what I think.  But I try to open myself up to receive outside information as much as I can.  You want to learn as much as you can about your customers, end users, key influencers, and stakeholders, in the process.

A:  What would be the different steps someone would take with the Carey Formula—the book, the CDs, where would they start?  Where would they go from there?

B:  First, most companies, large and small, keep this information a secret.  I never had it in my DNA to withhold information.  When I competed in the hair product business, a lot of other inventors would come to me and say “how do I get my hair product to market?”  I would tell them, not only how to do it, but give them a phone number at a particular store and a buyer’s contact info.  I love connecting people like that.

But, my golden rule, is to sell your product first!  There’s a key example in my book, when I was very young, when I learned the power of this as I started my first business, pre-teen years.  It was a social security card business.  I went door-to-door and sold little cards to people with their social security numbers on them.  I sold out fast and when I went back to get my next order, I found out it was going to take 3 weeks.  But, I did have one card left and I used that to go around in the mean time and pre-sell my next order.  It turned out that people were very willing to do this.  Thus, my Carey Formula started at that very young age.  Of course, I didn’t really realize it as a young child.  But, as an adult, when I went to take my first product to market, I did not have the money to purchase my first order of inventory up-front.  So, I remembered my days of pre-selling social security cards based on showing one item that I made. 

I have a funny story.  One secret to my success is called ‘Perspective’.  So there’s Passion, Persistence, and Perspective.  Perspective is about the fact that I’m a thinker.  I constantly think about what I have learned in my life and how I can apply it to what I’m doing now.  When I was 16, I had visions of summers in Santa Cruz—cute boys and suntans were my thing.  But my parents had a hard time keeping me in school because, although I love to learn, I wanted to learn outside the four walls of a classroom.  That summer, my dad told me that I had a lot of potential but I was “incorrigible”.  And I didn’t know exactly what that word meant.  I thought it sounded like it had to do with encouragement.  So I said, “thanks dad”.  Instead of going to Santa Cruz, cute boys and suntans, he sent me to St. Louis, Missouri to baby sit my six little cousins all summer for $1 an hour.  At the time, I didn’t know I could have just as much fun in St. Louis as I could in Santa Cruz. 

The first day I came into the neighborhood, I decided that I was going to meet some friends and went door-to-door and said “Hi, I’m Barbie Kraft.  I’m incorrigible, but I have a lot of potential and I need to learn new behavior.  Do you have any teenage girls here?”  That night I had about nine teenage girls come to my house and sleep over.  We all sat together and talked about our dreams and I said, “you know girls…we’re all the same.  Do you know what you all are?  You’re all incorrigible just like me!”  They asked what the word meant and I told them “It means you have a lot of potential”.  So that summer, we all ran around with these badges of “incorrigibility”. 

I also learned “new behavior”, because that was the summer I learned to chug beer.  We would go to bars and I would approach men and say, “I bet you five dollars I can chug a beer faster than you.”  They took me on, and I beat them.  I thought to myself “this is a great way to make money”.  And, I wanted to make more, so I tried doing it 7 times in one night, but that didn’t end pretty.  So I tried a different approach.  “I bet you fifty dollars I can chug a beer faster than you”.  No one wanted to take me on for fifty dollars.  So I tried again, but with different approaches—test in pennies, spend in dollars, right?  So I said, “hey, I bet you twenty-five dollars I can chug a beer faster than you”, and they took me on.  So it was my very first lesson in price elasticity.  The point is: ‘Perspective’. When I first began selling my Hairagami product, I couldn’t make my commercial work.  I started at $19.95, but it didn’t sell very well.  Then, I remembered my beer chugging days.  Although instinct might tell someone to charge more money for their product because they are not selling enough of them, I realized I needed to sell my product for less money and get our call volume up.  So I charged $14.95, and it took off.  So the summer that I learned “new behavior” provided me an important perspective on how to approach this question that came up with my business.  In the end, everything that you do is the sum total of who you are.  When you are in a hard situation, use your perspective to call upon those key experiences in your life, no matter what they are, to help you understand the situation, make decisions, and go forward. 

A:  How would you deal with fear in those situations, such as approaching men in a bar and challenging them to drinking contests?  Or, in a professional situation, approaching a buyer for a major retail chain that will be key to your product’s success?  How do you deal with the fears that come up in these situations?

B:  I’m just like anyone else and I’ve had many of the same fears as anyone else. My father talked to me at a very early age about fear and we made a deal not to be controlled by it.  Sure, I was a little afraid approaching people, whether to challenge them to chug beers or ask them to place an order for my product, but I realized that I can’t control someone else’s reactions anyways.  I can control the choice to try and approach them and ask for the order or to chug beer. 

A:  It’s amazing how we often spend time concocting fears in our minds and reasons why a person will reject our requests, and we get a completely different reaction from what we expected, when we actually approach them. 

B:  This happens almost 100% of the time.  It’s amazing.  I worry just like anyone else worries, but usually someone’s reaction is a lot different than what I thought it was going to be.

A: And, your intention with the book was to bring these emotional aspects together with all of the tips, strategies, and lessons you’ve learned professionally to create a platform for people to launch from?

B:  It took me 25 years to develop all of these contacts and this story about one girl, who started with nothing and learned how to get where I am now through passion, persistence, and perspective.  I think it’s important to not only hear other people’s stories for motivational purposes, but to provide a roadmap on how to get there.  One of the secrets in the roadmap that I want to share with people is, if you can make one prototype of your product and get an order from that, there are many manufacturers out there that are willing to make that product for you and ship it.  And I’m not talking about a guaranteed sale order, in which your customer can ship any items back to you that don’t sell.  I’m talking about getting a real order and having a great chance of finding a manufacturer who will want to work with you. 

And, you don’t have to go out and get investors or financing.  Let’s talk about that for a second.  There are a lot of entrepreneurs out there who want to be their own boss, but they bring investors in and all of a sudden, they are working for someone else.  Why not be your own boss and have own your company?  And banks, they only want to deal with people who already have money, not with people who need money.  The Carey Formula is for anyone who wants to take a product to market or build a business, but will be specifically beneficial to people who are cutting their teeth in the business with a simple product or idea.  Starting this way is a great way to learn, make money, and then move on to more complex products if you want to.