Finding Clues

Georgette Heyer had her first novel published at 19 years of age in 1921. She’s considered a pioneer in historical and Regency Romance.

And more than eight decades later, Salman Khan started an Internet tutoring service. The Kahn Academy was available free of charge to users in 2006.

Test your fact-gathering skills by answering the following question:
Heyer and Khan both found their niches in the same way. Can you figure out what that way was?
 

  Answer 

The information on Heyer is not as easy to find, depending upon which websites you go to, as is the information on how the Khan Academy got its start.

Heyer made up a bedtime story one night to read to her little brother, and that’s how she discovered her talent for writing.

Khan and Hager were both inspired to pursue their particular talents because they were problem-solving or tending to children and their needs.

Faulty Market Research
Despite producing line of top-quality greeting cards, and receiving excellent feedback, a new publisher discovered that her black-and-white photo greeting cards with custom written in elegiac verse were not selling.

Lesson: Unless people buy samples of a test product, positive survey responses, may often be meaningless.

View or Print Finding Your Niche index.

FYN Extract Index 2011-02-24  128 KB

Raking in Casino Cash:

Casino gaming and handicrafts are probably the two
busine sses that come to mind when the general public thinks
of indigenous entrepreneurs. The lucrative casino gaming
industry is most often associated with the Native American culture. However, the perception that all tribes have amassed tremendous wealth is misleading.

Some tribes, like the Seminoles of Florida, have amassed a fortune, and other tribes across the United States are responsible for contributing millions of dollars for their state’s income tax base, benefiting non-Native American people and businesses in the areas surrounding the casinos. Consider: in California, of the 14,500 people employed in the industry, only 10 percent are Indians.

Depending on the area of the United States, entrepreneurial pursuits and success for Native Americans varies widely. For example, the Oyate Lakota on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota is no longer the poorest in the country. There are now about 300 businesses, and 100 more enterprises since a community development fund was started that focuses on providing small and micro business loans, along with training and financial literacy education.

The fund has created 750 jobs, according to the organization’s website. Still, there is a long way to go because unemployment on the reservation is 70 percent.

In general, the Native American gaming industry is often bogged down in governmental red tape and controversy. It’s an enterprise that requires high levels of capital investment. If the casino is located in a remote area and difficult to get to, then customers and revenues will be poor. Indian casinos have gone out of business.

Many Native American tribes in the region known as the Great Basin, which includes the Sierra Nevada and many of the Western states, don’t have the economic or geographic opportunities that their counterparts in other parts of the United States may have. For instance, in the Great Basin region, long harsh winters rule out a year-round tourism industry. According to an anthropology expert, you can drive through Wyoming for hundreds of miles and all you’ll see is prairie; you’ll never come across a town. These factors make it difficult to build industries.

Lesson: Myths about business success can be found in every culture. Misinformation about the successful nature of specific groups of people and industries usually occurs because the general public never fully researches the facts.

References:
http://www.cniga.com/facts/History_of_CA_Gaming_Part_3.pdfhttp://www.lakotafunds.org/index.html
www.indiangaming.org/info/pr/press-releases-2009/NIGA_08_Econ_Impact_Report.pdf.

National Indian Gaming Commission
http://www.nigc.gov/

California Nations Indian Gaming Association
http://www.cniga.com/facts/research_detail.php?id=8

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https://nichecreativity.com/the-midwest-book-review/

Native Americans Buy Pop Culture Empire
Doing business with people from around the world involves
the study of their culture and customs, but it is a process which
may be overlooked.

For example, a lot of businesspeople may be unfamiliar with
the communication style that characterizes many Native
Americans in the business world. Humor*, short and to the
point is a major aspect, as is the observation of silence and a
tendency to refrain from talking when interacting with strangers.
Avoiding eye contact is another feature of Indian language skills.

*When the Seminole tribe purchased the Hard Rock Café business empire several years ago, the Seminole vice chairman stated at a New York press conference, “Our ancestors sold Manhattan for trinkets. Today, with the acquisition of the Hard Rock Café, we’re going to buy Manhattan back, one hamburger at a time.”

Lesson: Not learning about the characteristics and culture of entrepreneurs from different cultures can lead to costly miscommunications.

Reference
Hoag, Christina. Seminole Tribe Buys the Hard Rock Business Empire. The Miami Herald, December 7, 2006.

The spectacular success of the hip-hop superstar in the 1990s,
his loss of a massive fortune and his current activities in
the entrepreneurial world seems baffling, even
astonishing, to many people.

M. C. Hammer is a frequent lecturer at Harvard, Oxford,
Wharton, and Stanford on new social media.

A successful entrepreneur and innovator in the high-tech
and social networking industry, M.C. Hammer’s activities in
the high-techch industry aren’t so astonishing when you factor
in the principal of Foresight.

When YouTube was just starting out, in the early 1990s, Burrell
did some investigating and decided that the web and new
technology would revolutionize the business landscape and
allow him greater control over his artistic talent, and
he quickly joined the Internet. Despite the ups and downs that followed, he persevered.

According to the Johnson O’Connor Research Foundation, they define foresight for their clients as follows:  “Foresight, an aptitude for seeing possibilities, can help one determine the best approach to goal setting….they [people who score high] tend to have a sense of vision that can help them see beyond obstacles to complete professional or educational objectives.”

We use starting a business as an example of a situation in which it would likely be extremely helpful to have scored high, to be able to persevere towards something desirable, to set the distant goal (in this case) of totally and successfully reinventing oneself after a major setback. However, from a research study standpoint, we don’t actually know that entrepreneurs literally all score high…”

References
Oprah. (2011, February 3).What Ever Happened to MC Hammer, Bo Derek, &  Pam Grier?
http://www.oprah.com/showinfo/Whatever-Happened-To-MC-Hammer-Bo-Derek-and-Pam-Grier

O’Connor, J. (1948). The Unique Individual. Human Engineering Laboratory Inc. Boston.
Important Note: The Johnson O’Connor Foundation has continued to conduct and refine their extensive research on aptitudes since this material was first published.

America Invades British Shores—That was the headline on ABC news in 2010. Well, an invasion of sorts. You see, Kraft Foods had just announced the purchase of England’s Cadbury chocolates and the British people yelled treason.

Insider Secrets: Famous Food Products & What You Should Know If You are Considering Entering the Industry.

If you’ve ever had an American chocolate bar (versus English chocolates) you would understand British concern. The manufacturing formulas differ significantly and there is a great fear that there will be tampering with a traditional homegrown product.

I’ve just received a candy shipment from Canadian Favorite Foods and munched my way through a foreign version of M&Ms called Smarties;  a coffee and chocolate-covered wafer (thumbs way up), and a peppermint-covered confection sampled (merely for research purposes, you understand).

Wow! The taste of the chocolate is completely different; it’s hard to describe so I’ll just keep munching until I can come up with the correct adjectives. I also ordered Kerrs clear mints reportedly prized by choir members in this country because they clear the throat and enable one to belt out a tune more clearly. I don’t know about that and my neighbors will probably be gratified that I won’t test in that area.

Meanwhile, did you know that the Special K cereal produced in theUnited Statestastes completely different from the Canadian version? Exactly what the difference is unclear because the recipes are a trade secret.

The U.S. version of Coke is made with corn syrup but in Canada it’s made from sugar, and if you have ever had the latter you wouldn’t want to drink the former.

Heinz ketchup is manufactured from tomato paste stateside but the Canadian version is produced using fresh tomatoes. Boy, are we being gypped!

Food formulas differ from country to country and change all the time; at a mind boggling rate. If you’re planning on starting a food-based business that depends on the addition of a product already produced by other company refer to the first sentence in this paragraph. Many times the taste of the altered product is completely different. In Finding Your Niche, the chapter entitled Great Idea Now What? mentions this issue and gives examples of problems that have cropped up.

Finally, I have figured out how to describe my samples: the taste is pure, clear and sharp. Presumably it’s the absence of artificial ingredients. I have just learned that Laura Secord has an exclusive license to market chocolates created for the four Sex and the City 2 characters outside the U.S.
I don’t watch the show but a have a hunch that I’ll be doing more research overseas.

Update: If manufacturing is driven by labor costs and low prices for ingredients what changes have taken place since this post was first written?

References

Canadian Favourites.com
 http://www.canadianfavourites.com/

Canadian Favorite Lifesavers
http://tinyurl.com/ln33h7s

Life Savers takes business to Canada over sugar costs
Chicago Tribune
http://tinyurl.com/ljxuo8x
Comment – 9/3/2010
“The manufacturing formulas differ significantly and there is a great fear that there will be tampering with a traditional homegrown product.”
I have to agree that the manufacturing processes in America is way different to those in the UK which may be a concern to loyal patrons of Cadbury foods.

California Job Journal feature article  about Finding Your Niche.
JobJournal.com 

Tech Bite
“…It’s hard to get mice and rats to make phone calls.”
[For the purposes of scientific study…]
Harvard lecturer Dr. Devra Davis presents a riveting presentation
with safety tips for consumers about the confusion over fact versus fiction in the U.S. and overseas. The talk took place at Georgetown University September 23, 2010. Maine Legislator, Andrea Borland, and former director of the University of Pittsburg Cancer Institute, and Herbert Herberman M.D., also recount their experiences on the issue.

References
http://www.environmentalhealthtrust.org/

Book TV Program/Cell Phone Industry
Search | C-SPAN.org