Posted by Dave Gray Sat Aug 02, 2008 3:13 pm

An OBA partner wrote:

Thanks for the help in the missing customer issue.
I just received a email from *** stating that he cancelled out.

Hi,  
I did all the below, joined 4 TE's set up the free web site, spent hours upon hours going through things to make it work, all for nothing, so I cancelled out. I really wanted to make a go of it but after so much work I could not see a light at the end of the tunnel. Any way thanks for your help, and I hope you are making a $ out of it.
Cheers. 

I don't know what he hoped to achieve in two weeks? 

Dave replied:

So he gave up after two weeks.

Did he think that he could start from zero... set up a business of his own... learn everything he needs to know about his new business and the industry his business operates in... identify problems and develop ways to overcome challenges... learn how to provide solid value to his customers... and build a profitable, growing, self-sustaining business... in two weeks?

If it wasn't so absurd, it would be kind of sad, wouldn't it?

To me that's just one more example of someone who isn't quite ready to think as a business owner.

Can you imagine someone opening a restaurant or a jewelry store or an autobody shop... and then giving up after only two weeks?

Of course, it costs a lot more to open a restaurant or a jewelry store or an autobody shop... generally hundreds of thousands of dollars... so obviously anyone spending that kind of money (or borrowing that kind of money) probably wouldn't give up after just two weeks. They'd be much more determined to make sure their new business was set up properly... learn everything they need to know about their new business and the industry their business operates in... identify problems and develop ways to overcome challenges... learn how to provide solid value to their customers... and eventually build a profitable, growing, self-sustaining business... as any business owner should.

So why don't more people see their OBA business from the perspective of a business owner? Why don't more people recognize their OBA business as a real business that's capable of providing real security if they'll just treat it as a real business?

I believe it's because most people are locked into thinking from the perspective of a consumer.

A consumer looks at price and assigns relative value based on relative price. A consumer automatically assumes that an autobody shop that costs $200,000 is worth more as a business than an OBA business that was provided at no cost with the purchase of a $5 ebook.

A business person, on the other hand, looks beyond price and assigns relative value based on other factors, such as risk versus profit potential, the ability to increase profits by increasing leverage, available market size and potential for growth, the cost of customer acquisition relative to average profit per customer, and a variety of other considerations. A business person would not necessarily see an autobody shop that costs $200,000 as being worth more as a business than an OBA business. The business person would never overlook the fact that there's $200,000 worth of risk involved with the autobody shop... and since the vast majority of new businesses fail within the first 2 years, that risk is a very real consideration... so the business owner would look favorably on the OBA business purely for the lack of risk.

What about profit potential? With equal amounts of effort and advertising, the OBA business will be in profit sooner (perhaps years before the $200,000 investment in the autobody shop is even repaid) and will produce more profits than the autobody shop.

Ability to increase profits by increasing leverage? With an OBA business, every single $5 sale represents another potential increase in the leverage your business can profit from. Your very next customer might become OBA's most successful Business Owner... and benefit your business as he's building his own. In the autobody shop you'd need to hire employees, train them, insure them, pay employment taxes, and hope they don't steal from you or quit and go to work for one of your competitors.

Available market size? With an autobody shop you have (maybe) a few thousand people. More than that and someone will open another autobody shop just up the road. In your OBA business you have (literally) millions of people in hundreds of countries around the world.

Potential for market growth? In your OBA business, the market isn't just growing... it's exploding faster than any market in the entire history of mankind. With the autobody shop, in order to increase the size of your market, you'll need to burn down all the other autobody shops in your area. Good luck with that.

What about the cost of customer acquisition relative to average profit per customer? With an autobody shop, you could spend hundreds of dollars in advertising for every customer... and your potential for profit stops when the repair work is completed. Many OBA Business Owners spend no money to get customers... and the potential for profit is virtually unlimited on every new customer! So what's the average profit per customer in an autobody shop? The owner could tell you to the penny. Maybe it's a few hundred dollars... maybe less. What's the average profit per customer in an OBA business? Nobody knows! Why? Because some customers will continue to generate profits indefinitely! There are customers in my OBA business that I wouldn't sell for $300,000. I doubt that the owner of an autobody shop could say the same thing.

We could go on and on evaluating everything from workload to stress level to performance liability issues to you-name-it... and from a purely objective business perspective OBA will compare favorably every time.

So why would someone risk hundreds of thousands of dollars to start a restaurant or a jewelry store or an autobody shop when they could get an OBA business with no risk, no stress, and so much more potential?

Because they don't know anything about the OBA business. They think they have to invest a lot of money to have any chance to have a profitable business of their own.

And why aren't experienced business people lined up to start an OBA business?

They're starting to. Look around.

OBA is a very powerful and very unique business concept... and we're just now getting started. We've kept the entry threshhold low enough so that virtually anyone with a computer and Internet access can afford to start and build their own Internet-based business. At the same time, we've built in tremendous income potential... and we'll continue to increase that income potential beyond what any of us can now comprehend.

Because the entry threshhold is so low, many millions of people who can't afford to risk hundreds of thousands of dollars will decide that OBA is the vehicle they need to achieve their goals and provide the security they want for themselves and their loved ones.

And because the entry threshhold is so low, many of those people won't understand the incredible opportunity they have in their hands.

But some of them will. Some of them will recognize OBA as a real business and they'll lock in and they'll learn about their business and they'll overcome every obstacle... and they'll succeed.

And as the rest of the world's population begins to learn about the OBA business model, those people will become incredibly wealthy.

In fact, you can see some of their faces with their posts here in the OBC.

Your friend and partner,
Dave
_________________
It's not enough that we do our best; sometimes we have to do what's required.
Sir Winston Churchill