Last night I was watching a video on Youtube of a motivational speaker. He’s on stage with probably 500 people listening intently.

His job is to motivate people. And I have so much respect to these people because not everyone is gifted to encourage people like they do.

Fact is, without motivation we won’t accomplish great things. No doubt, we all need motivation. Often I only see these speakers motivate but they don’t teach people what exact steps to take.

You see, if a person is confused at paikot-ikot lang sa buhay nya and then you motivate him, what will happen to him?

You now have a motivated confused person.

Paikot-ikot pa din. Mas mabilis lang. Still, he’s not going anywhere.

Long time ago, when I’m still a “corporate slave” working in Libis, I always talk to my wife about starting a business. During dinner ang bukang bibig ko e “negosyo”, “negosyo”, at “negosyo.”

Kinakausap ko sya pero alam mo sa isip nya “Hay nako. Negosyo na naman.” LOL. She’s just listening to me because she loves me and she has to. Naiinis na sya since I really have no direction.

I’m a motivated confused person.

Now kung confused ka, the question is…”Saan ka nga ba magsisimula?”

Here’s my advice. I said it in my past emails but I’ll keep saying it again and again.

“Think Inside The Box.”

Start with yourself. Ask yourself what skills, experience, knowledge, education, or combination of it that you can bring to the table. What resources (money, network, equipment, etc.) ang magagamit mo sa negosyo.

I lost Millions of Pesos when I was starting.

Why?

Because instead of “thinking inside the box” and knowing myself, I let the media tell me what business to start. I allowed other people to tell me what to launch. They dictate where I should go instead of me deciding where I want to go.

Not their fault but mine.

That’s why today, I want you to ask yourself, dig deeper, and know yourself better. Simply doing that you’ll dramatically increase your chance of succeeding in business.

Here’s what you need to do:

1. Buy a pen and a small notebook. Small enough to carry it around.
2. Every morning or during lunch time, go to a place where you can think. Mauna ka ng mag-lunch sa officemates mo if necessary.
3. List down all business ideas that you have.
4. Write down your thoughts on each business that you’re thinking to start. What do you like about this business? What resources do you need? Do you need partners? How much time do you need to spend each day? What do you know about this business? How are you going to sell your products or services?Ask more questions to really understand the business.
5. Then, list down all skills, experiences, resources, education, or knowledge that you have.
6. Ask yourself, which business fits me well?

Do this every day for the next 7 days and after that I believe you’ll have more clear understanding about each business you have in mind.

May mga negosyong, obvious na hindi tama para sayo.

I have more thinking process in my “First Steps To Freedom” course.

Click here to know more

In my last blog post, I shared to you how I started my online business selling e-books. Ang negosyong nagpalaya sa akin sa pagiging empleyado. Read the story here.

Today, I want to share to you “3 trade secrets” about this Internet business and how I sold 24 Million Pesos of e-books in the last 36 months.

Trade secret #1: People will give you money if you help them save time.

People are willing to spend money on e-book not only because of the information it contains but it saves them time.

Instead of them wasting their precious time searching the web, they would rather pay someone else (that’s you) to do all the research for them. That’s why if you go to amazon.com, you’ll find over 4,900 books about “Time Management.”

That’s one of the trade secrets in this business. You’re not simply giving people information but you’re in a business of helping people find a solution to their problem fast.

Trade Secret #2: People will give you money if you give them specific solution.

My success in this business didn’t happen overnight. I had a lot of failures too. Maraming hirap, takot, luha, at sakripisyo ang dinaanan ko.

But I didn’t give up on my dream of owning a business. And through the years, I discovered “the secret sauce”, the kind of information that people are willing to pay for and the easiest to sell.

Ang pinaka-madaling ibenta are “How To” information.

Topics like…

“How To Get Out Of Debt”
“How To Improve Writing Skills”
“How To Train Your Dog”
“How To Become A Better Speaker”
“How To Study The Bible”

Because this kind of information is a solution to a specific problem. Mas specific ang problem at solution mas malaki ang pwede mong i-charge for your e-book.

Some of the best-selling books of all time are how-to and self-help titles. Dale Carnegie’s How to Win Friends and Influence People, in print since 1936, has sold 50 million copies.

Since its publication in 1970, Richard Bolles’ “What Color Is Your Parachute?” has spent 288 weeks on the New York Times best-seller list and has sold more than 8 million copies.

Last week, I typed the words “how to” into Google. The search returned 1.87 billion results. That’s right … 1.87 billion … not million.

People are hungry for information and if you apply what I’ve been teaching you, you can easily sell e-books for $7 to $47 and create as short as 15 pages.

No doubt, malaki ang kikitain mo sa negyosyong ito. Big enough para makapag-quit ka sa trabaho mo or makauwi ka na sa Pilipinas kung OFW ka.

Trade Secret #3: People pay more for this “in-demand” topics.

If you’ll ask me “Jon, ano bang magandang topic for my first e-book?” Here’s the third trade secret for you.

Start with these Top 10 In-demand Topics or Categories:

1. Saving and Making Money
2. Saving Time
3. Sex and Relationships
4. Investing and Trading
5. Collecting – Collectors are one of the hungriest markets out there.
6. Hobbies
7. Marketing
8. Small Business Advice
9. Self-help
10. Pets

It’s almost guaranteed that you’ll sell a lot of e-books if they’re in any of these in-demand topics.

Why? Because even before the Internet, a lot of people are already buying this kind of information from a local bookstore.

Obviously, now with the Internet, you have more potential customers. Mas maraming customers, mas malaki ang kikitain mo.

Remember, sa Internet, kahit nasaan sila, pwede silang bumili sayo.

I have customers from over 100 countries.

Can you imagine the opportunity it can give you?