Today I watched one of my guilty pleasures I recently discovered: Guiliana and Bill, a reality show with “The Apprentice” winner Bill Rancic and his wife, Guiliana, host on E! News. While Guiliana planned a night out with her girlfriends, Bill, who was spending time with his nieces decided to teach them about entrepreneurship.

They were planning to make friendship bracelets for free for Guiliana, but Bill saw that they were “on to something,” so he told them they should charge for them.

So the first question is, are you doing something for free that you could get paid for? I talk to so many people who are frustrated, not making any money, and don’t even consider what they are good at that they could get paid for right now.

Next Bill had the girls make a list of what it was going to cost them in materials and labor, and then they had to decide how much profit they wanted to make. (If you’re online, you’ll still have the cost of producing an ebook cover, CD graphic, and maybe a banner for your website etc.)

Do you have a great idea that makes sense from a profit standpoint? Figure out what your costs are and how much profit you need to make.

Ask yourself, “Is it a great product?” Normally you want to test the market, but in this case they didn’t do any research; Bill thought it was a great idea and was willing to help them. I suggest doing the research and if you don’t know how, find a mentor or coach who can teach it to you.

Let’s go on….Next he told the girls they had to not only have a great idea, but they had to produce high-quality finished product. Have you ever tried to make a product and skimped on the artwork design or some other aspect of the product?

Well don’t!

Next it got a little sticky, because the girls lost focus and started playing with balloons which frustrated Bill, who was yelling at them to FOCUS! But they got them done.

Do you have focus and stick-to-it-ness? You’ll need it to be successful.

And could you find a mentor? Someone who knows how to do what you want to do that can walk you through the process? These girls aren’t even teenagers, but they made a huge profit (relatively speaking) right out of the gate because they had a very knowledgeable mentor who believed in them and what they were doing and was there to help them succeed.

Then could you test the market? In this case, Bill made the introduction for them. But they had to show up with the goods, which they did.

Next, after the bracelets were made, Bill opened doors for them so they could sell them, which they did.

Do you know a potential great joint-venture partner? Or do you know someone who could introduce you to someone who knows people who want what it is you are selling?

And finally, they went out for ice cream, which was their reward for a job well done (on top of the $100 they made!)

How could you reward yourself for taking action following through and making something happen?

Have you ever heard the saying “Success leaves clues?” Well, there are a lot of clues in this story. If you follow them, you’ll succeed!

Ellen Violette is a recognized eBook expert and the creator of the The Quick-Start 3-Day eBook Authoring Program and eBook Profit Marketing Secrets. She’s also the creator of the Virtual eBook Expo.

In addition, she’s an author and co-author of Sell More eBooks with world renown Internet marketer, Jim Edwards and a Grammy-nominated songwriter. Her other ebooks include The eBook Journal for Authoring Success, and The Moving Cure, How To Organize Your Move To Save Time, Money & Your Sanity.

For 9 free secret ebook tips to making money online and a complimentary subscription to the highly acclaimed eBook Profit Secrets Newsletter (Value $147) go to www.theebookcoach.com and opt in on the upper right hand- side of the page.

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This entry was posted on Sunday, September 6th, 2009 at 8:45 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.