How to use the ‘profit branching’ technique
to spot profitable business ideas and opportunities other people can’t see
Welcome to the third installment in my series on idea and joint venture brokering.
Did you do the exercise from the last report where I told you to look out for upsells whenever you bought something? It’s eye opening isn’t it! In our every day life when we make a purchase there are often upsells (a product or service that compliments what we initially purchased) that we have never really noticed, or if we have noticed them we did not realise just how significant they are when you can spot them.
The reason I told you to look out for these upsells in your day-to-day life is because it will have begun a process which will change something inside of you. A process that, when harnessed properly, can make you money for the rest of your life.
This process is the ability to spot business ideas and opportunities that other people can’t see.
As I explained in the last report the reason people can’t see them is because their RAS has not been switched on to make them aware of these opportunities. It’s bad news for them, but great news for us!
You see business owners develop a kind of blinkered way of looking at their business. They are so focused on day-to-day running of the business that they miss just how easily they could grow their business with a little strategic thinking and the ability to spot the hidden profit centres laying in wait to be discovered in their business. We can make money by spotting these opportunities within other peoples businesses.
How do you spot them? Well that’s what we’re going to cover in this report…
I truly believe this is the greatest skill that any entrepreneur can develop.
Without question it is the skill that has made me the most money in my ventures because it helps me to see product ideas that no one else does, marketing strategies that make me stand out, joint venture opportunities other people miss and much more.
And now I am going to teach you how to harness the skill for yourself – without doing any real thinking!
What’s great about this skill is once it is harnessed you can see ideas to start a business everywhere, ideas to grow a business everywhere, ideas for products and inventions everywhere…heck this is the skill that the tv series Dragons Den is based around – new products and services do not come about without someone first spotting the opportunity and need for them.
Profit Branching
As I mentioned in the first report,not too long ago I walked into a shop selling home gym equipment and noticed he wasn’t selling fitness supplements like protein shakes or weight loss pills, which represented an opportunity for myself and him to profit from a partnership (if I had time). I connected this almost instantly in my head because of what I have been doing for years. Something I call ‘Profit Branching’.
Profit Branching is the process of connecting products and services with other products and services that compliment each other.
Here is an example of a Profit Branch I would have made for the Home Gym shop I went into. I wrote out the example on my whiteboard:
Others call this process ‘Mindmapping’. But I personally like the term Profit Branch for the way I use it because each of the ‘Branches’ represents an opportunity for me to profit.
Let me break down the Profit Branch above and then I’ll show you how to use Profit Branches combined with a free web site online to identify a never-ending amount of opportunities to make money. Sound good? Then let’s begin…
If you look at the centre of the Profit Branch I have put the word ‘Home Gym Equipment’. This is the Profit Trunk. The word or words that describe the niche market.
I then wrote down “branches” coming off the Profit Trunk that are different products or services that are sold in the home gym niche. Things like:
Yoga blocks
Exercise Balls
Punchbags
Weights
Multi Gym
Treadmills
Exercise Bikes
Elliptical Trainers
Squat Racks
Resistance Bands
Skipping Ropes
Floor Mats
Chin Up Bar
Now this was a very quick Profit Branch I knocked up in ten minutes just as a quick illustration. There are a hell of alot more products sold in the home gym niche but this will do for now.
Here is what I want you to understand….
Every single item on that list should be available to the shops customers. If this was a home gym web site then the items on this list should be available to the web sites customers either straight away or as an upsell or as a follow up promotion. Because if one of them is not they are losing out on potential profits.
The exciting thing is the shop or web site never need stock any of these items if they don’t wish to. They can promote someone else’s items for a commission of the sale.
Let’s take a look at a Profit Branch related to a shop/web site selling products to the golf market.
A golf web site or offline shop could sell:
Golf bags
Golf buggys
Golf shoes
Golf clubs
Golf clothes
Golf DVD’s
Golf eBooks
???????
Can you think of anything else a golf enthusiast would be interested in? Spend a couple of minutes wracking your brain before looking at the next screenshot …
Something I found (not thought of myself – more shortly) was golf holidays! A golf shop or web site could partner with a travel agents who supplies golf holidays and increase both of their profits by promoting the golf holidays for a commission.
What did you come up with? If you didn’t come up with anything, don’t worry, I cheated using an online tool! If you did come up with golf holidays that’s great and if you came up with something different that’s even better because it illustrates how easy this is when you know how.
My point is this…
A business can make more money by simply offering more products/services that their customer would be willing to buy. Most businesses do not realise:
1. The effect it could have on their business if they offered other related products/services
2. How easy it is these days to offer related products without ever having to own them or create them
3. The different types of products or services they could offer to their customers
But most importantly…
The vast majority of online and offline businesses NEVER make as much money from their customers as they could do!
YOU can make money by helping them do this.
So. How exactly do you make money from this? Well let’s walk through an example…
Broker Business Example
Want to know how I came up with the golf Profit Branch with extremely limited golf knowledge? Well one way, and it’s not the best but is free and and available to everyone, is to go to www.amazon.com or www.amazon.co.uk and simply search for the word “golf”
On the left hand side will be a list of golf items broken into departments:
All I did was wrote out “Golf” as my Profit Trunk (the word in the centre), drew a bubble around it and as I went through the departments made a note of each type of product I found. Please note we are not talking different brands of products, I am talking about the different type of products I came across. So golf clubs, golf balls, golf clothes etc. As I found a new product type I would draw a link from the Profit Trunk, write the word out with a bubble round it and that product would become a Profit Branch. Then I just carried on repeating the process. (I saw an advert for Golf Holidays at the bottom of Amazon).
Each of the Profit Branches I wrote down represents an opportunity.
Here’s how I could make money from them:
Online Example: Web site A sells golf clubs. Web site B sells a DVD on how to improve your golf swing. I connect Web Site A and B so Web Site A promoted the golf swing DVD and Web Site B promotes the golf clubs. I get paid a commission on the sales generated for bringing them together.
Offline Example: I walk into a golf shop and notice they haven’t got any golf DVD’s for sale. I ask them if they’d be interested in selling some as their customers would definately be interested in buying that kind of product. The shop owner says he’d be interested so I go out and get hold of some golf training DVD’s on wholesale. I start small with just 20 DVD’s. If they sell, I’ll get more.
Another thing I could do (in fact I have) is set up my own web site as a consultant that helps web sites increase their sales. I could get paid a consultancy fee for showing them how to increase their sales by partnering with sites who sell products/services their customers would also want to buy.
These are just three ways to profit from this skill, there are a lot more.
Are you starting to see how truly limitless the skill of being able to spot opportunity is? The vast majority of businesses offline and online are NOT offering their customers all that their customers would want to buy. You can figure this out by doing a simple search on Amazon for a keyword describing the niche and making a Profit Branch from your findings. Then you find what web sites and offline businesses are not offering all areas on the Profit Branch and help them to do so – whilst getting paid for it!
It’s easy, profitable and most importantly (in my eyes) it makes every day exciting because you never quite know what opportunities you may spot that could change your life!
That’s it for this weeks report. I want you to keep your eye out for these types of opportunities. When you buy something what else could be offered? This will train your mind to create connections automatically without having to use Amazon to manually find them. Simply ask yourself the questions:
“What else could be offered to customers at this stage?”
By the way, spotting opportunity can be used in all sorts of different scenarios. After last weeks report I received a fantastic email from a painter who got on my email list after hearing about me helping local businesses in Southampton with their online marketing….
“Hi Jon,
Thanks for your help, it’s very much appreciated. I decided to walk home being as it was such a lovely day, on the way back I noticed a building being refurbished that was ready to be painted externally so I went and offered them a price which they accepted and I start on Monday. I guess I had my RAS switched on! Lol. Shaun O Toole”
Would Shaun have noticed that opportunity if he had not been switched on by last weeks report? I doubt it. But now his RAS is switched on for spotting opportunity he will start to see it more and more. It’s like a muscle. And the more it develops the more opportunity for making money you will see.
Next week you are going to get a video that going into more detail on cool ways to set these kinds of deals up and how to get opportunities to come to you! There are ways to do it where you never need to to speak to anyone at all!