No Money. No Problem!

no money. no problem. Craig Zuber

If you’re deep in the trenches of the business battleﬁeld, you might believe—likemany other business owners—that lack of money is one of the biggest obstaclesholding you back from success.After all, it takes money to make money, right?WRONG. It does NOT take money to make money. That’s one of the biggestexcuses in the world.

What is does take to make anythinghappen in business, including makingmoney, is a combination of self-education,creativity, negotiation skills, and mostimportantly, TENACITY:Self-Education.Creativity.Negotiation.Tenacity.

If you pay attention to what’s going on around you, create your ownopportunities, and apply the tenacity to see your plans through, you can ﬁndcreative ways to make money every day, no matter where you are.Not convinced?Then let me tell you a story and walk you through the same lesson I gave mysix year old son during a family vacation in Mexico.During the course of one highly enjoyable day at the beach, he and I started outwith empty pockets and ended up with pockets full of silver jewelry and a cashproﬁt.

It all started with sharks.

It all startedwith sharks.We were vacationing in Cabo San Lucas - a biggroup of friends and family all having a wonderfultime. Every morning, my son Zac and I hadbreakfast on the beach together, just the two of us,man-to-man.If you’ve never been to Mexico, you may not knowthat beaches in the resort towns there are morethan sand and surf and bikinis—they are MAJORmarketplaces. Anything and everything you canpossibly think of to sell is being peddled there. Thiswas Zac’s first experience with Mexico’s finestbeach vendors and he was awestruck.Now there are two things my son is crazy about:airplanes and sharks. So the first morning when hesaw his first shark tooth necklace he quickly fell inlove with it and asked me to buy it for him.I figured, why not?

The second morning, he found a different shark tooth necklace he likedeven more, along with a shark “tattoo,” and I bought him those as well.

On the third day, it was time for thespending spree to stop.He wanted yet another necklace, but this time I explained that unless he couldpay for it himself, he wasn’t going to get another necklace.Zac was frustrated because he knew he didn’t have any money. So instead ofgetting angry with him, I decided this could be an ideal opportunity to teach hima real life lesson.Even though he’s only six, Zac is very bright and full of energy. I asked him if hecould think of any way to come up with some money to pay for another necklace.He thought hard for a while but was stumped.

It all startedwith sharks.THE INCENTIVE:Zac wanted another shark tooth necklace, andhe wanted it BAD.THE OBSTACLE:Zac didn’t have any money. How can a kid buy ashark tooth necklace without any money?THE CHALLENGE:Could I ﬁnd a way to show him how to make orﬁnd enough money to get another necklace inthe few hours we had left to spend at the beach?THE PROPOSITION:“Zac, if you really want that necklace, payattention and watch Daddy very closely over thenext few hours. I’m going to show you how toget it. I’ll teach you what to do and explain why Iam doing what I am doing, every step of the way.In the end you will learn how money is made—and you’ll get that shark tooth necklace!”

Gather data and information.

Self-Education.I started by educating myself and putting together the facts. From a few trips totown over the preceding days I had learned that pieces of silver jewelry andsouvenirs were selling in town for about $4.50 each.On the beach, prices were higher. I noticed that silver was in high demand amongtourists there and that people on the beach were willing to pay as much as $40 for anecklace and bracelet set.I paid close attention to how each vendor acted and reacted throughout themorning by experimenting with speciﬁc low-ball offers and seeing how much theywhere willing to haggle or negotiate down on their prices. I paid especially closeattention to the most popular vendors, who happened to be the people sellingsilver.Gradually, an idea came to me ...

Developingthe Business Plan.My business plan was to choose one of thesilver vendors, purchase his inventory atwholesale pricing, and then resell the silver toeveryone around us at a bargain price theycould not resist.

The lesson begins. Negotiation.

Negotiation - Part One.A particular vendor who had visited us many times on the beach over the pastcouple of days seemed to be having a bad day. He made several unsuccessfulpasses back and forth near where Zac and I were sitting, and as the sun gothigher, the temperature began to climb. Afternoons on Cabo beaches can beunbearably HOT and it was clear we were in for a scorcher.“Pay attention,” I said to Zac, “the lesson is about to begin.”

I approached the vendor and started a conversation.“Wouldn’t you like to get out of this heat and be back home with your family?” Isuggested. He replied, “Yes, but I haven’t made any sales today. I can’t leaveyet.”This was powerful information for me to negotiate with! I now knew what hewanted—to get home out of the heat. And I also knew what was standing in hisway—he needed to make some sales and was getting anxious that he wouldn’tbe able to.I offered to buy the vendor’s entire inventory on the spot and asked him what hewould charge. “$375.00,” was his answer.I laughed and said that was crazy, but I asked him to tell me how many pieces hehad in his case. He stopped, knelt down and started to count. The total came to42 pieces.

My Offer: $150.00for everything.Here’s how I came up with thatnumber:• In town, silver was selling at $4.50per piece.• Based on that knowledge, Iestimated that the vendors’ wholesalecost for their product was probablyaround $3.00 per piece.• My vendor had 42 pieces. If he hadpaid $3.00 per piece then hiswholesale cost for the lot came to$126.00.• I was offering him $150.00 for thechance to earn a quick $24.00 proﬁtand get out of the sun.

No Dice. Part Two.

Negotiation - Part Two.The vendor turned me down flat and went on his way. Thirty minutes later hereturned, still with no sales for the day, and offered me his entire inventory for$275.00. He was definitely heading in the right direction, but still far from my$150.00 offer.“No dice.” I said.“I am offering an opportunity for you to get out of the heat, be with your family,purchase new sellable inventory, and make a profit. How can you lose?”But the vendor laughed at me and left again.

About 30 minutes later he came back, this time making acounter-offer of $185.00 for everything.At this point, I KNEW he was going to end up selling to me for $150.00—he justwasn’t ready to do it quite yet. “No way,” I insisted. “$150.00 or nothing.”He argued and waved his hands around and showed me how ﬁnely-made hispieces were. He spread them out to make sure I could see the quantity and thequality I’d be getting.“They might be great, but you’re not selling any of them today, are you?” I said.

Going accordingto plan.By this time, people on the beach wereenjoying the spectacle of our hagglingback and forth. What’s even better is thatthey could all clearly see what great stuffhe had. The buzz started to build.At this point you’re probably wondering,where was this $150 coming from?My money was back at the hotel, whichwas a bit of a trek from the beach. And Ireally wanted to show Zac that I couldachieve my objective without using any ofour own money.So I took my business plan to an investor.

Lining up the capital.

One of my friends had been watching this sceneplay out all morning.I asked him to loan me $150, which I would pay back after reselling thesilver. I offered him the 42 pieces of silver as security and made it clear thatthere was VERY LITTLE RISK for him because even if I didn’t sell $150worth of product, I did have the money to repay him back in my hotel room.He had nothing to lose, and was getting some good entertainment in theprocess.He handed me the cash.

Mission Accomplished!

I showed the cash to the vendor,and this time he said yes!It was GO TIME!While he was individually bagging up all of his pieces, I started broadcastingthe news that I had quality silver jewelry for sale at much less than what theother beach vendors were charging.The word spread fast up and down the beach and even to the pool area atthe nearest hotel. I was quickly surrounded by eager customers.Within 15 minutes, we exceeded our sales goals.

The sales resultsand breakdown:10 pieces @ $10 each = $10010 pieces @ $5 each = $504 pieces together @ $10 set = $103 pieces together @ $5 set = $527 Pieces SOLD @ $165.00

Win/Win/Win: • $15.00 proﬁt in 15 minutes without using any of my own money. • Zac got his shark tooth necklace for $8.00. • We paid back the investor $150.00 plus two cervezas and a mojito as interest. • We still had 15 pieces of silver left over.Even better yet—the vendor beneﬁted by selling his entire inventory in oneshot and going home early on a blistering hot day.

The 4 steps to success.

STEP ONE: SELF-EDUCATIONGet the Facts!The vendor wasn’t having any success selling his products that day. It was hot out.The silver jewelry in town was less expensive than what the beach vendors wereattempting to sell it for. The beach vendor needed better inventory. The beach vendorwanted to be at home with his family.

STEP TWO: CREATIVITYInvent a Plan!Purchase a silver jewelry vendor’s entire inventory for approximately 35 cents on thedollar and resell it quickly to all of the surrounding tourists at a substantial discountfrom the vendor’s market value.

STEP THREE: NEGOTIATIONLeverage the Facts for a Win/Win Deal.Everybody won on this one.The vendor made a small proﬁt, escaped the heat, made enough to purchase newsellable inventory, and went home early to spend time with his family.Our customers, the tourists, won because they were able to purchase silver jewelry ata substantial discount.Our investor got his money back, three drinks, and a few hours of entertainment.Zac got his shark tooth necklace, a nice gift for his mom, and souvenirs for his friendsand teacher back home.I made $15 and had a blast.But what matters most to me was the chance to teach my young son a life-changinglesson and spend priceless time together on a day neither of us will ever forget.

STEP FOUR: TENACITY“No” is only temporary!When someone tells you “no,” that doesn’t mean the story is over. “No” is only goodfor about ﬁve minutes or so. “No” is a temporary answer that allows you to ask morequestions and provide more facts. The beach vendor told me “no” multiple times overthe negotiations, but in the end he said YES to everything we asked for.

The Whole Point.

No Excuses!Having no money is no excuse for notgoing after what you really want! If it’sreally important to you, you CAN ﬁnda way.Go get it—PERIOD.Dont ever let someone tell you cant dosomething, or that it will never work.Anybody who says that is only trying tojustify their own failures by keeping youfrom doing better than they did.

The next time you run up against an obstacle thatfeels like a brick wall, remember that brick wallsappear for a reason, and that reason is NOT to keepus out!They appear in our lives to give us the chance toprove how badly we want something and howcommitted we are to getting it.

read more lessons from the business battlefield at: www.craigzuber.com

No Money. No Problem!

by Craig Zuber on Dec 08, 2011

Accessibility

Categories

Tags

Upload Details

Usage Rights

Statistics

No Money. No Problem! — Webinar Transcript