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Introduction

Welcome to the Million Dollar Business Brainstorm!

You should already have gained access to the video portion of this course. As you work your way through the video, be sure to keep this manual at your fingertips. It includes checklists and worksheets that you can use to help you brainstorm, research and develop your million dollar business idea!

What we suggest you do next is print this manual out. You’ll want to have hard copies of the checklists and other tools so that you complete them as you move through the course. These tools will be invaluable as you brainstorm and develop your million-dollar idea! Now you didn’t take this course merely out of curiosity, right? You’re taking it because you really do want to develop a seven-figure business idea. And that’s why I suggest you start getting into the right mindset. Simply put, if you don’t believe that you can make seven figures… you won’t.

Back in 1997, actor Jim Carrey told Oprah that there was a time when he was dirt poor. He didn’t have acting jobs. He didn’t have his foot in the door. So every night he’d visualize people he admired complimenting him on his acting work. And then he wrote himself a check for $10 million, which he post-dated to three years later.

Of course Carrey didn’t just stick with visualizing. He also worked hard. He knocked on doors, he hustled acting jobs, and honed his craft. Then one day he landed the lead in “Dumb and Dumber” – and about a month before his post-dated check would expire, Carrey received a real $10 million check.

Amazing, right? It happened because Carrey believed he could do it… and he took all the action necessary to make it happen.

That’s what we want you to do right now. Write yourself a post-dated check for $1 million or any other amount you’d like. And then do everything in your power to make it happen.

So here we go…

One solid idea. One intense weekend. One million dollars!

Let’s get started…

Module 1:

Overview of the 48 Hour Million Dollar Brainstorm

Since Module 1 is the introduction to the course, you’re off the hook – there’s nothing for you to work on in this module.

However, your mission – should you choose to accept it – is to get ready to complete the rest of the workbook. So go grab yourself a coffee, walk the dog, kiss the family goodbye for a few hours, and block out any distractions. That’s because you’re going to want to give this workbook your full and focused attention beginning in the next module.

You see, the upcoming checklists and planning sheets aren’t just “busy work.” These are the exact tools that countless other entrepreneurs have used to hatch their big ideas. Don’t be fooled by their simplicity. These tools have the capacity to unlock your genius. So use them – I think you’ll be surprised by the results!

Module 2: Accelerated Brainstorming and Research

Worksheet 1: Brainstorming Potential Markets

If you don’t yet have an idea for a potential business, then you need to take a few minutes to do some brainstorming.

Answer the following questions to help you complete this brainstorming. Write down as many answers as possible for each question…

What are your interests?
What are your hobbies?
What are your problems?
What types of things do you like to buy when you have extra money?
What topics could you talk about for hours?
What types of sites have you bookmarked in your web browser?
What types of topics do you often search for in the search engines?
Where do you like to go on vacation?
How do you like to spend your free time?
What activities make you happy every time you do them?
What have you always wanted to do?
What classes did you enjoy in college (or what classes would you like to take now)?
What types of products do you wish you could have?
What are your friends and family interested in?
What problems do your friends and family have?
What topics do your friends and family often talk about?
Watch or read the news on a site like the BBC or CNN. What prospective niches
do you see?

Go to a site like LiveScience and read the top stories – what prospective markets catch your eye?

List at least 10-20 other markets that you haven’t mentioned anywhere else:

Worksheet 2:

Refining Your Idea

Print this page off and write down your findings as you work your way through the “research” portion of this process…

List the top five Amazon bestsellers in your market (this includes physical products, books and digital products – everything):

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Introduction

It doesn’t matter what you’re selling. It doesn’t matter where you’re selling it. Chances are, your customers have a lot of options. Problem is, all this competition makes your products, services and your business as a whole virtually invisible in the marketplace.

That’s not a good thing.

Imagine for this for a moment... You’re standing on a crowded street in a big city like New York. You’re looking for a friend. He tells you he’ll be wearing a dark suit.

Guess what?

It’s the middle of the work week, and all the men on the street are wearing dark suits down there in the business district. Your eyes scan over thousands of suit-clad men.

Your friend is invisible in this crowd.

That’s what your product is like in the busy marketplace.

Even people who’re looking specific solutions can’t find you, because your products just blend in with the rest of the products. You’re like a guy in a suit standing on a busy street full of other guys in suits.

So how do you make yourself stand out?

Well, if you’re a guy in a dark suit, you put on a bright yellow suit and go stand on a platform with a bullhorn. That ought to attract the attention you need.

If you’re a business owner, however, then the key is to develop a powerful branding strategy which:

Sets you apart from your competitors. Gives your prospects a strong reason to buy your products and services. Cements loyalty to turn one-time customers into lifelong repeat buyers. Boosts sales and revenue over the long-term.

And that’s exactly what you’ll discover how to do inside this course, Let’s get started…

Module 1:

Overview of the Bulletproof Branding Course…

Since we’re just getting started, Module 1 doesn’t have any planning sheets or checklists for you to complete.

But that doesn’t mean you don’t have an assignment. Your assignment is to grab your favorite beverage, sit back and continue on with the course… because things are about to get really interesting!

Module 2: The DNA of Branding

You just discovered that branding is really about conveying a feeling to your prospects and customers. However, until you actually start examining brands for yourself, this concept may not seem all that clear to you.

As such, for this module we’d like you to go through and really look at some of the most popular brands in the world. Below you’ll find a few suggestions to get you started. However, you can do this exercise with any brand – so if you’re living in a place where the following brands aren’t familiar, then choose your own brands and complete the worksheet.

What you’ll do is deconstruct three brands.

Here are our suggestions:

Mountain Dew (http://mountaindew.com) Aunt Jemima (http://www.auntjemima.com) Porsche (http://porsche.com)

Then answer the following questions about the brand:

1. What is the logo?

2. What colors are used in the logo?

3. What colors are used on the website?

4. What is the slogan?

5. What kinds of photos are used on the site?

6. What “flavor” is the text? (E.G., Is it professional? Conversational and friendly?

Educational? Full of slang? How would you describe it?

7. Based on what you know of the brand (including just based on what you see on the website), who is their target market? What are their ages? Gender? Where do they live?

What do they like to do? What is their income bracket?

8. Based on the logo, slogan, colors and everything else you see on the site, describe the overall “feeling” you get. In other words, what feeling is the overall brand trying to convey?

9. Do you think the brand is conveying the right message? If not, what feeling do you think it should be conveying?

10. If you were hired to rebrand this product, what would you do? How would you change the look and feel of the logo, slogan and overall branding?

Module 3:

Dissecting Your Brand

Note: Since we introduced the concepts in this module, we’ve inserted the related planning sheets here. However, you’ll want to wait until you watch the next module before you actually complete the following planning sheets.

Once you have a good understanding of developing your brand, then be sure to return to complete these planning sheets.

Overall Branding Planning Sheet

1. What kinds of feelings would you like your customers to feel when they’re using your product?

List as many as you can think of below:

2. Check out your top 10 competitors.

Now list what their brands are conveying:

Brand Feeling Conveyed

3. Now list your top three choices as to what feeling you’d like YOUR brand to convey.

4. Finally, draft a few ideas regarding how to convey this feeling throughout our business. This includes:

What kind of logo would convey this feeling?

What colors convey this feeling?

What sorts of illustrations convey this feeling?

What font face best convey this feeling?

What style of content conveys this feeling (e.g., conversational, warm, friendly, educational, plain-spoken, etc)?

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Introduction to the Manual

Welcome to the Shoestring Startups video training course!

You should already have gained access to the video portion of this course. As you work your way through the videos, be sure to keep this manual at your fingertips. That’s because this manual includes checklists and worksheets that you can use to help you create a business budget and raise funds you need.

So if you’re watching the videos and want to pause to complete a worksheet or checklist, just scroll to the end of the appropriate module here in the manual to find the tools. Now, the first thing we suggest you do is print off this manual. That way, you can follow along with the manual as you watch the video training. And better yet, printing off the course makes it even easier for you to use the included planning sheets and checklist. Secondly, you should register for the other two training courses in this series if you haven’t already done so.

This includes:

1. Million Dollar Business Brainstorm, which shows you how to brainstorm, develop and test a business idea in as little as 48 hours from now.

2. Bulletproof Branding, which shows you how to develop and refine a powerful branding strategy that will allow you to stand heads and shoulders above your competitors. You won’t want to miss this exciting course!

Bulletproof Branding – Click Here

Million Dollar Brainstorm – Click Here

Once you’ve registered for them, then print out this manual and let’s get started…

Module 1

Introduction: Kick Starting Your Dreams

Since we’re just kicking things off, you don’t have any planning sheets or checklists to complete for Module 1.

However, there are still two things that I want you to do:

1. Realize that you don’t need deep pockets or a huge infusion of cash to start up your business. Many big companies (both online and offline) started with very little cash. Many of these businesses started in someone’s living room or even dorm room – and all they had was an idea. If these business owners did it, you can too. And you’ll have a great story to tell the reporters someday about how you started with very little and bootstrapped your way to success.

2. Get ready for the rest of this course. Walk the dog. Pour yourself a beverage. Turn off your phone. Lock the door. And then get ready to devour all the tips and strategies you’re about to learn. If you haven’t already done so, print off this manual so that you can follow along and complete the planning sheets and checklists at the end of each module.

Ready? Then move on to the next module…

Module 2

Creating the Right Headspace for Success

We covered two things in this module:

1. Completing tasks in order of importance, which means focusing on those tasks which are most likely to get you your first customer.

2. Setting aside your fears and perfectionist tendencies to move forward. You can use the following planning sheets to help you with both of those points. Creating and Ranking Your To Do List

The first thing you need to do when starting up your business is to figure out what all you need to do to get it off the ground. Obviously, we don’t know what kind of business you’re creating, so we can’t just hand over a ready-made to do list to you.

However, what we can do is help you brainstorm. And that’s exactly what we’ve done below, by listing some of the more common tasks required to get a business off the ground. Start with these tasks and check off the ones that are appropriate to your business. Then set aside as much time as is needed to list the rest of the tasks you need to do which are specific to your business.

1. Check the tasks which are applicable to your business, and/or cross off the ones that aren’t applicable:

Purchase or lease necessary equipment
Develop an overall business plan.
Develop a detailed marketing plan.
Choose a name for your business.
Have an attorney research trademarks.
Register your business name (where applicable).
Register your trademark(s).
Get a business license.
Decide on your business structure for tax purposes
Complete the paperwork required to set up your business structure.
Set up financial accounts for your business
Choose a payment processor.
Complete the paperwork required to set up your payment processor.
Buy a domain name.
Buy webhosting.
Design your site (hire someone to design your site).
Enlist lawyer to write the “terms of service,” for your site.
Create content for your site or hire someone to create the content.
Set up a mailing list.
Set up a blog.
Enlist an attorney to draw up other necessary legal documentation
Develop a brand (slogan, logo, positioning, etc)
Develop packaging for your product.
Create your product (or hire someone to create it for you).
Develop a fulfillment strategy.
Create ads to sell your product or service.
Place ads to sell your product or service.
Develop a social media strategy
Implement a pay per click advertising campaign.
Create and distribute press releases.
Buy advertising on niche relevant sites.
Buy advertising through offline channels
Build relationships with prospective joint venture partners.
Find and recruit affiliates.
Hire an affiliate manager.
Create your business cards.
Create your business signage Create and implement other advertising campaigns

2. List all the other tasks you need to complete in order to launch your business:

3. Now rank all of these tasks in order of importance. Remember, you’re ranking them according to which tasks put you closer to getting your first customer. So, for example, setting up an order-taking website is more important than doing your business cards.

Recognizing and Overcoming Fear

As you discovered, sometimes disguises itself in socially acceptable practices, such as perfectionism. But fear is fear, and it will hold you back from getting your business off the ground. And even if you don’t feel like you’re holding onto any fear, if you’re procrastinating, engaging in perfectionism, second-guessing yourself or doing anything else to hinder your business launch, it’s probably fear.

The first step to overcoming fear is to shine a light on the fear. That is, acknowledge it. That’s because fear is a bit like a cockroach – if you shine a light on it, it scurries away. So that’s what this exercise is about… shining a light on your fears. Simply complete the following sentences and exercises in order to uncover issues that may be holding you back. List as many answers as possible for the fill-in-the-blank questions.