If you watch TV, you may have come across a show called Shark Tank, on the show people pitch their ideas of how to expand their business to 4 investors who listen to them, to see if they would invest in the business. One of the investors is Lori Greiner who specializes in products that have a mass appeal and help people’s lives, much of what is changing the attitude from why would I want it to I can not live without it. The process to have an idea and go all the way to selling it is what the book Invent It, Sell It, Bank It! by Lori Greiner, Random House, NY, 2014.

Ultimately, it is people who will make it all work. You have a great idea or invented something, as you go through the processes, people will judge you whether they want to work with and for you. If you come across as someone they do not, but do anyways when it comes to the pressure points of the business, will they go the extra mile? not usually. They will tell you the reasons why it can not be done in the time frame you are thinking of. If you had come across a person they want to do business with, when problems occur and they will occur, they will try to ensure there are no NOs, just How Can I? meet your deadlines. The time to build the relationships is before disaster happens and when disaster happens – people will work together to fit a solution to the problem. Part of the relationship building is make the people you work with feel valued and part of the team; show your appreciation for what they do and explain why something is a special request or a rush for you – understanding is a key.

Lori Greiner specializes in products that are made for the mass of people and are easily demonstrable she has great knowledge of how home shopping channels work and types of items that work better on them. You have your product made and it would work at the QVC what do you do? The selling part is the visuals – the consumer can see the physical proof it is better than the other options. The questions of its uniqueness, the need for it, good price point, market want it, affordable and manageable come into factor for those are which you will show on TV, The TV offers tremendous reach, instant sales, free marketing and advertising, free market research and instant customer feedback. There is a process to get on the air – the good news is the shopping networks need the next big thing and a good product is a good product. There is a difference between retail stores and home shopping – in retail sales packaging is going to help you sell; in home shopping packaging does little for you. When you pitch to home shopping – be passionate, show your product come to life and be appealing as hope your product will be. TV is visual which means people need to fall in love with you and your product. TV also shows if you are not sincere or you have to be genuine. The emphasis is always the product’s features and benefits. All the things you product does and why the consumer needs to have it.

Linking to dividend producing stocks,

If you watch TV, you may have come across a show called Shark Tank, on the show people pitch their ideas of how to expand their business to 4 investors who listen to them, to see if they would invest in the business. One of the investors is Lori Greiner who specializes in products that have a mass appeal and help people’s lives, much of what is changing the attitude from why would I want it to I can not live without it. The process to have an idea and go all the way to selling it is what the book Invent It, Sell It, Bank It! by Lori Greiner, Random House, NY, 2014.

After inventing something, you will likely explore getting it patented. The reasons are most business copy someone else, they sell it better or cheaper because they copy. If you have a patent it is possible to sue and collect money from the copycats. The patent laws were changed and it is worthwhile to patent sooner than later. When you get time to sell to retailers – sue the copycats and many retailers will go with you because you have the patent. Another reason to have a patent is the patent has value, you may not be the one to take something to market – you can licence it or sell to someone else and receive a royalty on each sale.

Pitching your idea to investors and retailers will be something you need to get good at. The perfect pitch means its is precise, concise and enthusiastic.

1. The first sentence should be short as possible but highlighting 3 top selling features.

2. Buyers hear many pitches and since they are still in business they are smart, savvy and expert at summing up a product’s potential at a quick glance. Use humour to engage the buyer. Your body language will be read, the person wants to do business with you for your product and with you the person – they want to know you know what you are doing.

3. Lori is big on enthusiasm. When you love your product, people see that and then they wonder why you love it so much, and start to see what you see.

4. You will be asked questions – answer them. You cannot over prepare for pitch. You will need to know your numbers down pat. If you do not know, do not lie, tell them you will get back to them. Attitude will be what the pitchers are looking at, as well as how well you know your business and what could change. Part of what you are pitching is yourself, a buyer may love the product, but not you and since you are the one who has to work with the buyer, you need to show you can work with and for the buyer. Remember most of the time, he/she has other options try to make it easy for both them and you to say yes to working together.

If you decide you want to manufacturer the idea, there are more hurdles to cross and it means you decided not to allow someone else to do it. Your early editions maybe local, but in today’s world some of it will be away from the local area, it will depend on what items your product is made from. The biggest driver is upholding your standards of quality and safety while keeping your price point to a level consumer will buy it.

The first thing will be to look to companies which manufacturer something similar to yours. They have experience, the machines and likely produce a variety of product lines. It would wonderful for you to tour the factories, but hiring a representative also works well. Manufacturers typically ask for 20-30% down with the rest due upon shipping. Once it is shipped it is yours, it needs to be inspected to accept, fix or reject before shipping.

Once the product is made it needs to be packaged – more decisions to be made. If it going to be on a retail shelf, it will have to “sell” itself or stand out. If this is not your strength, ensure you have good designers otherwise it will show. A good idea is for you to have a finalized sample, your supplier to have one and that is the standard the rest of the production has to make. Similar to every industry once the item goes into production, there will be hiccups along the way. The packaging has to meet government regulations as well as your shippers expectations.

Linking to dividend paying stocks, Lori Grenier’s book outlines many of the processes involved for companies. In today’s column financing and manufacturing, there are many moving parts and all of them are presales or no revenues coming in. You need to access money to manufacturer to sell, which is why there is many things that can go wrong or go right and make everything worthwhile. By buying shares in a company which already makes a profit in consumer goods, it is easier. The companies go through the processes and part of the reason they can make profits is the systems they have in place which were built up and tried over the years. Understanding the process allows you to pick the best company.

There are more questions than answers, till the next time – to raising questions

If you watch TV, you may have come across a show called Shark Tank, on the show people pitch their ideas of how to expand their business to 4 investors who listen to them, to see if they would invest in the business. One of the investors is Lori Greiner who specializes in products that have a mass appeal and help people’s lives, much of what is changing the attitude from why would I want it to I can not live without it. The process to have an idea and go all the way to selling it is what the book Invent It, Sell It, Bank It! by Lori Greiner, Random House, NY, 2014.

In part one, you have a great idea or an invention, the next step is what will you do with it? If the idea is something that can be sold at a store, you will begin the process of making the item. The good news is every year the process becomes easier for new inventors, however there is vast difference between a little knowledge and professionals. The world of 3D Printers, CAD design, inventors workshops, are all available to help. Take your time because the idea is in your head and you will be asked many questions. Along the way take the proper legal measures as well as learn from the professionals you are dealing with.

Once the working model is up, before taking the next big step, ensure there are willing people to pay for what you have invented or do market research. Your research will focus on 3 aspects:

1. who is the competition? what is similar? who makes them? who buys them? and how well do they sell?

2.If you have a product based on the consumer market how is it doing? what are the trends? how are consumers pocket books?

3. You have to test your invention. Do people like it, recognize the usefulness and are willing to buy?

To get the feedback necessary – the research needs to ask people you do not know. If you ask your friends – they want to support you. If you ask strangers they give better answers.

The willingness to buy is a key and at what price? how do people value your product? If you ask a large cross section of people, you will see trends emerging.

Once again there more ways to do the research from Social Media or Facebook. Part of the appeal of Facebook is people talking to people, but all the data is captured which enables you to check out the information. For example Graph Search will tell you where people live that have indicated an interest in your product. You can then refine your searches to what else in general those people like.  In terms of survey SurveyMonkey is a useful service and can easily be targeted for information.

Depending on where you live – many neighbourhoods have festivals and you can buy a table for relatively low cost and test your ideas. Pop up stores is an idea as you continue to move along. From all your research – you should have a reasonable idea of the people who would pay for it and at what price. Those are tough questions and you will need to take advice and ensure you make a reasonable profit.

To get funding to make the product – some will come from your pocketbook or line of credit. As friends and family will be interested in what you are doing, they are a source. After that – you will need a Business Plan – it explains to somebody who does not know you or your product – what is your product? how and where you are going to make it? how you are going to sell it? your assessment of the competition? why yours is better? how much money you are going to need to start and run it in the near and long term?

In your business plan – remember there will be addition costs. if you do not mention them or talk about them; experienced people will think you are too naïve. If you are reasonably successful, you will have to move from the basement or den, that adds costs? Addition costs brings risks of being stuck with overhead, it needs to be stored and someone needs to pay for it. What are the new ideas you are working on?

Financing or raising capital – first it will be yours and your family, then the circle will get wider. If you raise from friends, try to keep it relatively small and under the assumption there will be a long payback. Otherwise you will lose the connection. Banks are a source of funding; government small business loans; many towns and cities have economic development office try them; contests like Shark Tank or local Shark Tank – if some communities where people had success they operate a venture fund for local people and they are able to try to gain funding.

Linking to dividend paying stocks, those familiar with buying companies will be familiar with companies issuing shares – each time a business plan is filed and sent out to all the shareholders – both perspective and existing shareholders. Business plans in general do not change but the wording often does. If the business plans says we will be ethical, it means you will be judge harshly if you are not. All business plans contain a SWOT (strengths, weakness, opportunities, and threats) analysis. This is where people can agree or disagree with the company. For example many companies say their strength is their people, but they seem to have a revolving door of personnel, it is really a strength? The longer you hold your shares, the more exposed to financing you will become.

There are more questions than answers, till the next time – to raising questions

you watch TV, you may have come across a show called Shark Tank, on the show people pitch their ideas of how to expand their business to 4 investors who listen to them, to see if they would invest in the business. One of the investors is Lori Greiner who specializes in products that have a mass appeal and help people’s lives, much of what is changing the attitude from why would I want it to I can not live without it. The process to have an idea and go all the way to selling it is what the book Invent It, Sell It, Bank It! by Lori Greiner, Random House, NY, 2014. The book is helpful as a consumer and wherever you are in the chain of transactions – most of us work in one sector or the other. If nothing else, there are different skill sets or focuses needed as you move from inventor to selling the items, although anyone can learn them. Ms. Greiner’s book has a number of chapter and the first one deals with people who invent.

If you are curious, you can be an inventor. The 6 essential characteristics are passion, confidence, drive and determination, organizational skills, self-sufficiency and independence; charisma and showmanship and some money to do. Each of the characteristics are necessary, but also will need balance to work and share with others. Remember while invention is wonderful, you should remember to enjoy yourself and have fun because this will help you concentrate on your strengths and get help with your weaknesses.

You have an idea that you wish to make money from, it is good you have an idea, next you will want to have some idea from a financial point of view is a hero or zero. Hero meaning has the possibility of making lots of money, zero because it may only appeal to 10 people on the planet and you have to find those 10 people. The guideline to know where the product is include 9 questions.

1, What is my Product?  Need 2 sentences to describe it. That will help in the naming.

2. Does it Solve a Problem?  what solution and who experiences the problem?

3. Is It Unique? with the internet it should not be hard to figure out. Remember better is not unique, will people pay extra to buy better? if yes who? if not – what price are they willing to pay?

4. Is it something People will Need or Want? If you create to people’s needs, when the economy goes through its cycles, you will be better protected – they need it for their living or it is consider a necessity.

5. Is it Demonstrable? Your customers will have to get or understand your product as soon as they see it. If they need to read the instructions ask yourself when was the last time you read the manual for something you bought?

6. How Do I Make it? Your invention needs to be put together with what materials? from where? what is the size of the product that somebody needs to display to sell?

7. Who is Your Target Market? Whenever possible invent for the masses. The broader the audience, the better chance of making sales. You can always target niche markets.

8. Is it Safe? if it is not, safety regulations will stop you.

9. Is it a Consumable? Does the product need to be replaced on a continuing basis – if you gain sales, you should have repeat sales to build from.

Linking to dividend paying stocks, all products in all sized companies go through the same checklists. Generally we believe the larger companies will tend to get it right, but that is the reason for Movies having part 2, part 3, part 4, etc.  If you take your product or idea through the lists, you will see there are many moving parts, many questions that need answers, many directions to go it for there is more than one answer to the questions. If you buy a dividend paying stock, they get it right more than wrong on a regular basis. The companies develop systems in place which can get the idea to a product and onto a shelf for the consumer to buy. If you are still working on your invention you want to profit from the dividend producing companies until you reach the stage where you can show the world.

There are more questions than answers, till the next time – to raising questions

On the way to work last week, one of the sidewalks of a building was being washed. There is construction both on the road and down the street on new buildings, which means the sidewalk gets dirty. The person had hosed down the sidewalk and now the water was travelling to its lowest point or following the rules of gravity. Sidewalks when they are built have a cut between the two pieces of concrete to allow the water to flow to the cuts and onto the street. After a time of use the sidewalk will not drain perfectly and water will collect in small pools waiting for the shoe of a pedestrian to move it along the way. The impact of the shoe will exploded the small pools and the water will move along to be drained or may even come back to wait for the next shoe. Often times there is concrete on one side or a building abutting against the sidewalk and occasionally there is grass to help absorb the water to lessen the volume of water going down the drains into the underground pipes which take the water to be cleaned and end up into the river or bay.

Linking to dividend paying stocks, a little thing is linked to something else which is linked to something else which keeps up alive. Relating the example to stocks, by buying a dividend paying stocks because it makes a profit and can afford to pay a dividend, that is linked to either a monopoly or maintaining a large enough market share to be profitable in all types of economies. If you own one of the these types of stocks, whether the price of the shares goes up or down, does not matter as much, as long as the company earns a profit and can pay its dividend. Your idea is to buy and hold the shares for a few years or longer, for the longer you own them the greater their value. Profitable stocks tend to trade a higher multiples than non profitable stocks.

There are more questions than answers, till the next time – to raising questions

The book A Hole in the Bottom of the Sea by Joel Achenbach, Simon & Schuster, NY, 2011 is the engineers side of the story of the BP Oil Gusher in the Gulf Coast. There were many things to learn, some of the lessons were very expensive, but lessons are to be learned. One of the lessons is in most accidents there is usually not one smoking gun. Generally the people are well paid; the crew will be a blend of experienced people who have been through the ringer or many different situations. Also there will be eager, newer people who depend more on technology for the perfect answer but all are just trying to do their jobs. In the case of the BP Oil Gusher, the well exploded and a variety of things that were expected to happen did not happen. It was expected some fail safe procedures would allow for any disaster to happen but the systems would be able to control it. In this this case, since the normal things did not work, engineering solutions had to be figured out which meant working on the bottom of the sea with mechanical devices. The engineers tried many different ideas, through the government – many of the best scientists working for the government were working on possible solutions. In the end, after months of ideas and tries, the well was capped.

Linking to dividend paying stocks, one thing that quickly becomes noticeable is even though the science can be worked on by many, those that have the solution implemented are those that have developed relationships before the disaster happened. When disasters happen both the company and government must reach out to contain and bring things back under control. It is entirely possible to get to know other people in the community through the many conferences and conventions – people need to attend to meet and see if they could work with the person in government or the private sector. Relationships and trust are keys to solving the normal problems which happen. In the case of BP there was for many months an us and them way of thinking. The President of the US put some of the best scientists of the government on the problem, however few had relationships with BP people which meant an us and them situation. Bridges need to be part of the solution before the disasters happen even if it is to understand what policies and procedures the government tends to follow. It is better to work with than against the government.

Working against the government will send the price of shares on a roller coaster because the senior members of government  will comment on what was happening. With the comments, he rest of the world would try to breakdown what is said, to see what that means if there could be money made. If a relationship has been made, the comments can be more helpful.

There are more questions than answers, till the next time – to raising questions

Whenever an event happens there are a multiple methods to look at what has happened. On the news the human side or the human story is the first story and it should be for news involves people. After the people side is the corporate effect, did a company benefit or not benefit from the news. After becomes the analysis side from engineers, disaster recovery people and all the other people involved. The book A Hole in the Bottom of the Sea by Joel Achenbach, Simon & Schuster, NY, 2011 is the engineers side of the story of the BP Oil Gusher in the Gulf Coast. There were many things to learn, some of the lessons were very expensive, but lessons to be learned.  Some of the lessons to be learned are Take care of the little things. Pay attention to the stuff that does not quite make sense. Do not ignore those anomalies and hope they will go away of their own volition. Respect the rules. Follow proper procedures. Do not ignore low probability, high consequence scenarios. Hope for the best, but plan for the worst.

The BP Oil Gusher story is interesting of many levels including why it is almost impossible to keep things secret anymore. Many of us tend to believe government because they generally have our best interests at hand, although similar to any organization downplaying what is going on is usually done, which means we are healthy sceptics. In the case of BP, there were people with access to NASA images and monitor oil spills. For the rest of us, that is good because as much as owning oil stocks are good, in the back of your mind we know no company is perfect. What we expect is every year they do better at their jobs. People outside of the oil industry help monitor the oil industry is a good thing. The story is interesting because as much as undersea drilling is a technical marvel, when something goes wrong, no one really knew how to fix it. The systems were designed, the policies were designed to have fail safe and backup fail safe but they did not work. The proposals which were offered ranged from outrageous to redrill, all of which took time. And the clock is ticking and no one really knows, but everyday someone else was thinking about another method the environment we live in is connected and the oil needed to be stopped sooner than later.

Linking to dividend paying stocks, BP earned and has earned billions of dollars for its shareholders, at the time of the oil spill, the stock price (rightfully) went down and the cost of the clean up kept rising. The pressures on everyone in the system were great and the well was eventually drilled to stop the oil from leaking into the Gulf. It has taken BP a number of years to return to  a stabilized dividend paying company, including selling of some of its assets. When big events happen, as a shareholder, you loyalty can remain to the company but lower your stock holdings for a period of months. You can buy back at lower prices. Big negative events means a time of exit, sooner than later, but the underlying reason for the company to exist means you can repurchase in the months to come and then continue to earn dividends.

There are more questions than answers, till then next time – to raising questions

Every industrial city has a Frederick Street, if we look back to the industrial age there was a transition from a economy based on agriculture to one on manufacturing and the most exciting aspect was a steel mill. The steel allowed for rails to be made for the railway, steel for automobiles and buildings. It was an era which is celebrated in the accomplishments of industry. The down side of the era was for a long time, the pollution or excess materials which accompanies the industrialization was considered a by product of the great age. If the smokestack is pumping out smoke, jobs are being created and that is a good thing. As the economy goes up and down, in many areas of the country that is still a good thing. If the economy has moved to a more service based, that attitude has changed. In the book Frederick Street, Life and Death on Canada’s Love Canal by Maude Barlow and Elizabeth May, HarperCollins, Toronto, 2000.  The book outlines the steel industry in Sydney, Nova Scotia and for a long time – given the area was very dependent on the steel mill, what the steel mill did or did not do was accepted by most people. The by-products that was dumped into ponds, hopefully the oceans would clean it (it does not), and the air pollution caused those living closest to the plant to have high cancer rates and lower life expectancy than those living further from the plant. The big issue is who should clean up the pollution, given the large expense and cleaning up the pollution does not necessarily make money for the steel mill. It can create spinoff jobs, it can create better living conditions, longer lives but it does not directly make money for the mill and the mill was never very profitable anyways.

The mill was located where it was because of the abundance of raw material (inexpensive to transport) to make the steel in the first place. The authors detail the number of grants from the government to assist in the operations, which should mean the government is partly responsible for the clean up. However, if you think about 25 to 50 years ago, many people did not know the affects of chemicals or if they did know they did not know how to clean it up. Solutions of leave it alone but do not add more and bury it (out of sight, out of mind); dig the mess up and treat it somewhere else (someone else’s problem) or burn it (however that has it is own problems – dispersing the material over a wider area is not the best solution). Just a few years ago and years for waiting for the steel plant to close and the senior levels of government disagreeing on who should pay and how much? what should be the cap? in the end it was a 50 – 50 ratio. A cement like material was poured into the ponds to thicken it. Then a tarp over the harder material, dirt was put on top and now the old ponds are a green space for the community to enjoy.

A lesson to be learned is while everyone in government will say there should be something done, actually getting it done is a huge task. An interesting story was in one of the homes, stuff was coming through the basement. To clean it up, the building people asked the government what precautions would they need to do the work, the government supplied the answer. It was interesting, those in charge of compensation allowed people to live in the homes, but contractors needed high protection to do the work. Insurance whether it is government or private never want to set a precedent or offer higher claims.

Linking to dividend paying stocks, often times because of their history, dividend paying stocks are involved with pollution and what should you do? When politicians talk jobs, jobs and jobs, that does not mean pollution and its effects are at the highest priority levels. However many of workers are now in service sector which means they do not see the pollution aspects just the wage aspect of jobs, jobs, jobs. For companies there is a balancing act to be a good citizen for their employees and shareholders live in the community and making money for their employees and shareholders. Every year there seems inventions of how to minimize pollution and that is a good thing. The issue often is money – there never seems enough for the company to pay and if you can not pay, sending the issue through the courts will help delay things for someone else to make the final decision.

There are more questions than answers, till the next time – to raising questions

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle is known around the world as the creator of the fictional character Sherlock Holmes – one of the best detectives in the world. Mr. Holmes through wit and observation would see what others missed. He uses deductive reasoning which is combined with forensic science to solve the problems. The reasoning is the interesting part because he reasons if x is observed, then likely y is true because to observe x something must have happened. All people do reasoning, most of us are not at Sherlock’s level nor do we care to be. However we all do reasoning on a regular basis whether it is on family members or people we meet on a semi regular basis. In the book The True Crime Files of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, edited by Stephen Hines, Berkley Prime Crime, NY, 2001- the author must have been sent hundreds of true crime files and ask for his advice, he reacted to a couple of files. Why only a couple, we do not know, but two in particular were reacted to. The method was to write articles in the newspaper for the newspaper of the day were similar to the function of the internet today. People read the papers and sent letters to the editor offering their views of what is happening or if there is a miscarriage of justice.

Linking to dividend paying stocks, each of us focuses on a different facet of the economy, there is no right and wrong part. After we achieve the level where we have savings, then investments come. It easier if you stick closer to the area in which you make a living or are passionate about because there is where you will tend to spend more time learning. Investing is taking what you know and seeing it in the marketplace – does it make money? if I invested would I make money? what is reasonable in the sectors that I am interested in relative to the overall markets. Just the knowledge of the sector you are involved with will allow you to make deductive reasoning. The homework is the forensic science aspect – using balance sheets and income statements. To make it easier to narrow the field start with the companies making profits and returning dividends to the shareholders. When the market goes down, the dividends still are deposited to your account. When the market rises, the profits the company makes allows for the price to continue to rise. In investing there is many choices, keeping and growing your money is the best choice and until interest rates rise, dividend stocks have been a great vehicle for your investments.

There are more questions than answers, till the next time – to raising questions.