More Tea Vicar?

What Really Makes Money
27th February 2009

Hi,

My mother-in-law, Giuliana, is a bit of a closet home entrepreneur...

Before you groan, I can assure you this isn't the beginning of some Les Dawson-inspired and politically-incorrect joke. You see she's been quietly figuring out ways of making money from home for years... way before I even started writing What Really Makes Money...

She's used her home for filming...

She's rented spare rooms to tenants...

She's even taught Japanese ladies how to make English
afternoon teas...

And it's this last project that has blossomed into something very exciting. You see, putting on these afternoon tea demonstrations is fun but hardly scalable - I mean she can probably only get half a dozen people at once. This limits her income potential.

So she decided to put everything she knows about English afternoon tea into a book. Initially she did a small print run, selling mainly to her Japanese ladies. So immediately she was increasing the average sale from the same clients.

For example, say she made £20 per customer, she was then able to add a potential £10 to each transaction with a book sale. Of course, not every demo attendee bought a book - so let's say she was converting around 50% to buy.

That would average out at an extra £5 per client or a 25% increase in average sale.

What makes this even more compelling is that it's not a hard sell at all. These Japanese ladies are interested in the subject - enough to make the effort and investment to join the demonstration. In marketing terms they are what's known as highly qualified names. Now, how hard do you think you'd have to try and sell a book on the subject? Not hard at all!

If you've ever bought anything on Amazon, then you'll know that the website will suggest complimentary purchases of what other people have bought along with that particular item.

Same idea, different medium.

When you make a commitment to buy something - no matter how small - you are then predisposed at that point to make further purchases. So all you need do is think about what you could offer as an upsell. As long as it is complimentary, you could see anything from a 5- 50% response.

After selling out of her stock, Giuliana has now increased her print run and has been working hard at identifying all the outlets, both online and offline, who would take the book.

And get this - in a few weeks she has managed to persuade individual Waterstones and other major stores to stock her book! After signing up with a wholesale distributor, she simply wrote a simple press release, sent it to individual bookstores and then followed up with a phone call and where appropriate visited the individual stores.

It proves that with a bit of get up and go and passion for a subject, it is possible to get a foot in the door of even the hyper-competitive book market.

What's more our very own Amazon Queen, Sharon Fussell (she of Sold Dispatch Now fame), gave Giuliana a few pointers of how she could list her book on the online marketplace. And that leads me nicely to this. . .

With Mother's Day coming up on 22nd March, what better gift than a copy of Afternoon Teas Made Simple! ;-)

Giuliana has been an absolute star recently helping out with Elle and Belle and I promised that I would share her story with others. So just as a favour to me, please just click on the link and take a look at the book.

Afternoon Tea at Home Made Simple

Now the £11.99 book that appears in the above link is the correct edition. There are some rather unscrupulous sellers on the site claiming to have copies slightly cheaper but they do not exist! Giuliana has personally signed these editions - she?s marked it as Like New, collectible to make it stand out (they are of course new).

Although I am totally biased, I really do think this is a great book and put together extremely well. This turned out to be something of a family affair. Heloise organised the printing and you'll even find some of my photographs in there!

So if you fancy a wonderful pressie for Mother's Day, Easter or simply want a rollicking good read about the history of classic English Afternoon Teas with all the recipes you need, then check it out.

So what else can we learn from this example of home-grown enterprise?

First, always look close to home for inspiration. There's no point in trying out new and unfamiliar ways of making money when often the real potential is close to hand. I'm not going to bang on about Amazon or eBay, but you know there's money in your home to be unlocked, so why not spend this weekend doing a bit of a Spring clean?

Look at your existing skills, passions and experience. Is there anything that you could transfer into a business or income generating venture?

And if you already have a business, no mater how small, focus on what you already have.

I was at a meeting with other business owner earlier this week. It was a roundtable event where everyone pitched in with their ideas and experiences of how to 'survive and thrive" in the downturn.

Inevitably, it came to my turn to sum up my advice to others...

Don't be distracted by what's going on 'out there', instead focus on what you have. If you have products/services that aren't working, cut them and switch the energy and resources to those areas of your business that are important. Now is the time to listen hard to your existing customers and target market us saying - find out what they want (instead of what you think they need) and make sure you reflect this in all your communications.

Best regards

Nick

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