Fortunately my parents funds held out until I was 13 years old. When I was in Jr. High school; I discovered a small wholesale house called Oriental Trading Company where a person could by trinket items really cheep by the dozen.  I invested about $1.20 or so to buy a dozen Moon Goons: some little plastic dolls that were covered with fur and had really cute hats. I took the dolls to school; gave them to two of the most popular girls in the school for free: but with one stipulation. They had to show them to their friends; and at least pretend to really like them.

A fad was born. Soon everyone in the school (a relatively large Jr. High School) had to have not one…not two…but as many different Moon Goons as they could afford. You see, they came in lots of different colors and styles; and lots of kids wanted to have them all. Every day after school, I would ride the bus downtown to buy a gross or two of Moon Goons. This lasted until the school authorities put the kabosh to things; but not before I had netted over $200.00 (in 1969).

Well, once you get started, I guess it's kind of hard to stop. We organized a few carnivals and other things; and everything went along ok, until I got a real job at 15. This really kind of slowed me down for a year or so, because I was too busy making $1.60 per hour to try anything else new.

I moved up in the business world; and was soon earning $2.10 per hour; when I tried something else new in my spare time. My father owned a business where there was a carpet-cleaning machine. One of my side jobs  was to clean carpets at this business.   I tried putting an ad in the want ads for carpet cleaning really cheep. I borrowed the machine one night; took my first carpet-cleaning job; and ended up doing the house across the street as well. I made $50.00 in one night (this would have normally taken about a week at my regular job).

I soon quit my job to clean carpets full time. Unfortunately, I didn't get new jobs as easy as the first ones that I had gotten. I was making no money at all; and starting to need money pretty badly.

Out of necessity, I started trying everything I could to get business. I ran newspaper ads that no one called me from. I put fliers on doors for hours and hours. I went door to door asking for work. During this whole process, I learned many important things. I spent a lot of time at the library reading every book available on writing advertising. I read a huge number of books and articles on other business subjects. But the main thing that I did was to spend almost every waking moment thinking about what I was doing; and trying to come up with ways to do it better.

As I went through college, I kept cleaning carpets; but got kind of distracted with other non-business type things too. I finally did finish though; and again I got a real job. After working at this for awhile, I met some college students who needed work. We started the carpet cleaning business up again for them; and within several years, had built up this business to about a dozen employees. I had again left my real job to do this full time; and continued building this business for about five years.

There were many lessons from this business. One is never go into a low margin business (one that relies on higher volume and less money on each sale) unless it is going to be really really big. There were too many small, unusual, and unforeseen expenses that would eat up small margins fast. I found that I would be working harder than anyone else; and earning less per hour than my employees. It was always some little thing (or combination of little things) that would cause this. The little things just keep on coming up all of the time though.

I tried raising prices; re-structuring all different areas of this business; and squeezing out little savings here and there to make things work better. It ultimately did improve; but I wanted more money than I would probably ever get from this kind of business.

On the side, I had been buying up small rental properties; fixing them up; and renting them out or re-selling them. I decided to get a Real Estate license; so that I could keep the commissions whenever I would buy a house. I found however that selling rental properties brought me more money than cleaning carpets and watching over a bunch of employees. So, I sold the carpet cleaning business for about a years income; used the money to buy rental properties; and started selling Real Estate full time.

The rental properties worked ok; and I found that there was a niche within the Real Estate market that no one was really servicing well at the time. It was the market for small investment properties.

I talked with knowledgeable Realtors; and was told by several that no one could make money at it. I really respected these people; and held back on going into it full blast for several months. As I worked with this market though; I found out that these experts had it all wrong. No one was servicing this market effectively; there were many properties that needed to be bought and sold each year.  Even though the commissions were small; the number of transactions could be exceptionally high if handled properly.

Remember what I said about avoiding a low margin business? Well, this was low margins for the Real Estate. But commissions on Real Estate were generally high enough; my overhead could be kept low enough; and without heavy-duty competition; my number of sales could be high enough; that I was soon out-earning all of the people that had given me my much-valued advice.

What I had done was the classic business model: find a market that is un-served or poorly served; find a way to effectively service the market; and fill the need. The margins here didn't need to be as high; because my expenses could be kept low. But more important, if a system for marketing these properties could be put into place: a very large number of transactions could be finalized (and commission checks taken to the bank). By looking at this job as a business, I was able to earn more money than the president of the United States. I didn't get a jet or anything; but it was still pretty good by my standards.

I kept putting my extra money and time into rental properties; and was forced to learn another business the hard way (at least at first). It all seemed so easy. You buy a property that rents for more money than the payment and what you expect the costs to be; and keep the left over. Do it over and over again; and you end up with lots of money. This only works though with the help of good employees; more knowledge of construction than I had; and a whole bunch of other small things going right as well. There were a number of times that we lost money year after year on different properties; because one part or another of the whole system was not working properly.

I started analyzing tax returns for my customers. My college degree was in accounting; and by working with the rental property portion of their tax returns, I could let them know which properties they made the most money on; and which ones they should sell. This made some sense for me, because I would get properties to work on selling this way. The real benefit to me though was that I could learn what really made this type of business work well or fail.

There was nothing real complex about most of this. The people who managed their properties without paying attention to the small expenses lost lots of money. The people who were more hands on; and more attentive to details did ok. There was a lot more to it than this; some properties (just like some businesses) are doomed to failure from the start. After a while I could just look at a property knowing the price or value; and know if it would make money or not.

I also watched many many people go bankrupt during a several year period when the rental market was soft. If there was any weakness in their business when the market was good, the problems accelerated dramatically  when other things started to go wrong. The overhead was often the killer. Expenses would get out of control; which would cause the maintenance on the building to get neglected because there wasn't enough money temporarily; which would turn into higher vacancies; which would leave less money for expenses…. and on it went is this ugly downward spiral.

Because I was working with so many property investors; I started to manage property for other people as well. This meant more employees; more office and technology things to oversee; and after a while; more government inspectors to deal with. It wasn't that we were doing anything wrong or anything; but we were big enough to chase around after looking for things that we might miss. A new level of overhead and small expenses that eat up  profits had been attained.

I had learned enough from all of the time and thought that had gone into the carpet cleaning business; and from watching other people manage their own small businesses; that I was able to avoid many problems this time through. I was still making plenty of money; but I was making as much in selling property (with 20% of my time), as I was in managing the business (which seemed to take 80% of my time). It was a lot of fun in it's own way I guess; but I knew that the profits would not be the same in managing as could be attained from concentrated sales work on my part.

Selling this business was one of the easiest sales I ever made. I called two people who I thought would be interested; told them each the price; and they both wanted to own it. I picked the person who I thought would do the best; worked out the details; and finalized the sale. I made some real good money this time; paid off most of my mortgages; and went back to selling in the same market that I had been in all along.

I perfected systems for marketing this type of property more and more; made lots of money; and learned more about other businesses along the way. Soon I was doing the same thing over and over again. And although I was making more money than I needed; I was still looking for something more satisfying.

The business that I choose was the one that you are looking into now. There are a number of reasons why it should not work; but many more why it should if operated properly. This is not a business that will need to try to compete with Wall Mart or anyone like that.  It has solid margins; a strongly interested market; and a poorly organized distribution system.

For the last year, I have been traveling the country; meeting as many people as possible in this industry; and trying to work out a system of effectively marketing African goods. I have tried a dozen things that I now know have little chance of working well; and have found out which businesses in this industry are profitable; and which are not. I have figured out where a large percentage of the market is; what factors are most important to them in making a buying decision; and what methods are most effective for getting the products into their hands. I have also determined products that work; and products that will probably never work well.

I have been to Africa three times. Have met many of the artisans who make the products; and have determined much of what is important in putting the entire process together. I have made associations with many Africans and non-Africans alike; and have worked out the best prices possible at this point for many of the goods. Each month, there are additional items that the price can be dropped on; and new items that can be added.

I have met with and talked at length with a larger number of African storeowners than probably anyone else in the Country. They have told me the things that have worked well for them; and the things that have failed. I have learned the types of products that sell; and the ones that don't. The things that sell best in one part of the country; and the things that sell best in others.

I hope that you will join with me in this today. I have nothing to gain by your failure; and everything to gain by your success. We have a number of items that will sell well; and bring you in potentially substantial profits. We have the supply channels in place; and are continuing to improve them every day. This means your costs will go down instead of up most of the time.

This business will work well for you if you can keep your expenses low; and your sales high. It's not a whole lot more complicated than that. I will make it my job to help you with both.

The competition generally has high overhead; and this keeps the prices high. You can have lower prices and expenses than your competition. This will not only bring existing customers to you; but will bring many new people into the market as well. Many people love these products; but have not been able to own them for themselves due to lack of availability. Some people who are exposed to the products; have only seen high prices which have kept them out of the market. If you spend time on the Internet looking for these products, you will quickly see what I mean.

I will show you ways to run your business without the expense and overhead of a traditional storefront. You may ultimately find yourself able to make more profits with a traditional store; but for now I will show you how to find buyers for the products while you keep your expenses as low as possible.

I will keep you updated of new products at all times. We bring in new products every month. We have both containers and air shipments coming to the US on a regular basis. We also have a large number of other African vendors coming to us with their goods as well. We work with a number of seasoned and store owners who not only know the market for these goods better than anyone else; but direct us in the right direction as well.

These assets are yours at no real charge. Your success = our success; and we need to get the information that you need to you every bit as much as you need to receive it. You can join us at no cost at all. You can also join and receive from $100.00 to $1,000.00 worth of goods (whatever fits best into your budget) for under half price if you like. You can start a new future with many of the steps towards success already made for you. You can know many of the things that have not worked elsewhere; and avoid many of the mistakes that you would otherwise have to learn the expensive way.

Probably best of all, you will be helping many disadvantaged people in Africa at the same time. Every time someone buys one of these products; people in Africa are helped with jobs. The more that we do, the more people are helped who often need food and medicine to survive.
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