Who wants to be a millionaire?
Follow those who have done it.
Mimic their success.
Perform a business autopsy on Fastlane success and you’ll find the same common denominators … the Fastlane Commandments.
Lets dissect the process.
Here we have Sandy Stein who at age 52 (an airline flight attendant) who invented accessorized key clasps to help women avoid losing their keys in their purses. The product is called Finders Key Purse. Within four months of launching the invention, Stein’s company reached had $1 million in sales; at the eight-month mark, more than one million units were sold. Expected 2010 earnings are estimated to be about about $6.5 million.
The Fastlane Anatomy…
The Process
In Sandy’s interview, you see nothing but process. Excerpts from the article are posted here:
I pretty much wiped out our entire savings account to order the FKPs. But I couldn’t afford to have items on backorder, because I wanted to have the credibility necessary for repeat orders.
I hired my nanny, Alicia, to be a shipper – she had worked with Alex since he was a baby. She told me that she didn’t know what to do as a shipper, and I told her that I didn’t know what to do as a President, so we would learn together!
The Headwinds
But the more I heard “no,” the more determined I was to make this happen.
Fastlane Commandments:
The Commandment of Need:
Sandy saw a need, or specifically, an inconvenience. How many times am I going to lose my keys at the bottom of my purse? A simple life’s nuance turned into a Fastlane road. If the product is good enough, people will talk about it and take a big chunk out of your marketing budget.
I learned a long time ago that there is no better marketing tool than to have a great product and women who talk about it and share it with others. Up to this point our marketing has been strictly word of mouth.
The Commandment of Entry:
The time to market on this product was over 6 months. Nope, Sandy didn’t download and install WordPress and voila, she was in business.
The Commandment of Control:
She maintained control over her company and her process, despite recommendations to “sell” the concept to other companies. She also focused on wholesale (through reps) instead of retail. She also leverages WEAK ENTRY by allowing others to sell her product.
We only sell wholesale. Our reps are allowed to sell on the Internet, retail, and/or wholesale. By giving them lots of choices, we give ourselves that much more opportunity to make sales.
Our sales reps have made working with us a hobby, a part-time job or a full-time job depending on their needs – they make as little as $10 a month or as much as $9,000 a month, depending on what they want to do with their time. And all of this from one tiny little keychain.
The Commandment of Scale:
How many women could use a product like this? Scale is inherent in the solution to which solves the pain-point. Within 8 months, Sandy’s company sold more than 1 million units.
I initially ordered 300,000 units.
The Commandment of Time:
Obviously I don’t have the operational details of this business, but with one product that is mass produced, I’d imagine automation would be easier than most business that require significant human resources or engineering. I’d bet Sandy makes money with the simple passage of time, regardless if her day is spent staying home and knitting, or laying out at the beach.
The Take Away…
Sometimes Fastlane ideas aren’t born of legend, but born of simple nuances in life. Sandy is a great example of seeing something that was an issue, and seizing on the opportunity. Yes folks, “get rich quick” exists when it follows the 5 Fastlane Commandments and mixes it, into months of process.
Cheers,
MJ
And Stop The Prostitution of Monday Through Friday!
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