by: Geoff Ficke

10 Bullet Point Options for Bootstrapping Your Small Business or Consumer Product Opportunity

Almost every small or micro-business, entrepreneur or inventor faces a harsh financial reality when starting out. They have little or no access to venture capital, financing or grant money. The funding source that is realistically available to them is family, friends and their own ability to bootstrap their business.

Bootstrapping a business is not glamorous, but it is the most useful, and practical method to grow a new business or product that is available to any driven entrepreneur. This is the technique I utilized to start my first business many years ago. If the strategy is successfully executed it can quickly lead to doors opening to investors and funding options.

In my Consumer Product Development and Marketing Consulting firm I review hundreds of new business and product concepts every year. Only a tiny fraction has full funding out of the gate. The vast majority spend a great deal of time and energy seeking investment tranches which will never develop. I am always amazed that they do not bootstrap their ideas in order to gain early sales traction.

The following are 10 Bullet Point Option tips that can be utilized to Bootstrap a new business or self-employment opportunity. They can be adapted and customized to fit a vast array of circumstances, consumer products and services.

1. Turn your hobby or passion into a business. If you love to bake, or sew, for instance, customize products for local church events, fund raisers, special events (retirements, jubilees, weddings, etc.).

2. Bring the product or service to the client/consumer. People are busy. Offer convenience and a quality product or service delivered to the client’s place of work or home. A man with a pick-up truck, a tool box and a ladder is a potential successful small businessman.

3. Support each successful step forward with free, local Publicity. Use a PR template (there are hundreds of samples on my website www.DuquesaMarketing.com). Circulate the releases to local media, weekly papers, social groups and churches. This is FREE!

4. Use local fairs, home shows, festivals and civic events to sell and showcase your products. A woman we worked with started in this manner selling her line of organic Bath, Body Care and Aromatherapy products. Within 30 months her line was carried by a regional department store.

5. Mall kiosks are an amazing, affordable vehicle to expose and leverage sales of your Consumer Product or Business Service. We have seen clients start by offering a line of Gift items on one cart, expand to more and then jump into traditional retail distribution.

6. Personalize products: In a world of impersonal mass production, people enjoy goods or services that offer intimacy, uniqueness. A past client built a wonderful income by creating personalized Baby and Infant items like bags, blankets, sleepers, etc.

7. Sample, sample, sample! If your product is good, and you believe in the item and yourself, demonstrate and sample relentlessly. A couple we consulted for were passionate about their Gourmet Sauces and Marinades. They built their business by attending every art and foodie event possible and constantly sampling their products while generating sales with value packs and on-site sale coupons.

8. Pre-sell. This is a technique we use every year to launch under-funded clients. Build prototypes or production quality samples, fully packaged and take orders before you build expensive inventory.  Big box retailers have the ability to buy on the local level and love to do so, if you offer a well-conceived prototype for them to review.

9. Make yourself the “authority” on the space you want to enter. Properly managed social media, publicity, small print advertorials and compelling web-sites are only a few tools available to create stronger bona-fides.

10. Network, Network, Network! Every person you know or meet is a potential client for a good or service you might be able to produce. Brand yourself and your product and professionally let others know about your business, and ask about theirs.

We have Bootstrapped businesses in Cosmetics, Fragrance, Toys, Oral Care, Fashion, Jewelry, Juvenile Products, Hardware, Gifts, Foods and Drinks, Sporting Goods, Pet Products and many more categories. A number of these businesses were able to gain sales traction and leverage into traditional retail distribution. Consider this technique as the realistic and
practical way to be the tortoise and win success slowly.

by: Geoff Ficke

Words Used to Present Your Business Proposition Must be Carefully Chosen

This week I was forwarded a Business Plan from a Venture Capital principal for whom I perform consulting services. This gentleman had read the elevator pitch for the product and had initial interest in the proposition. He requested that I review the document in detail and mark up the key points that would be of much, or of no interest to his firm and make a recommendation as to the viability of the project.

The plan was dedicated to a funding effort for a new line of cell phone accessories. The concept and early stage physical execution was in good order and would seem to have much upside potential. The commercial attractiveness of the products was apparent and there seemed to be a nice Unique Selling Proposition available for the taking if all elements of the plan could be executed properly.

Something vexed me, however, as I began to re-read and markup the Business Plan. I was uncomfortable with phrases that were used to describe the line of products. And, because I became sidetracked by the grammar and phrasing I was reading, I began to question the plan’s assumptions much more critically.

Words matter and they can be helpful, or hurtful in any situation, whether in life, romantically, or professionally in business. In this case the terms used to describe what seemed like a nice opportunity for Venture Capital investment lifted a cloud over the enterprise in my mind.

A word that is a negative in many business contexts is “cheap”. Cheap denotes inferior. Cheap implies poorly made. The word cheap was used numeroustimes in the Business Plan I was reviewing. A far better word than cheap is inexpensive, or affordable. Another word with baggage is “buy”. It is always deemed better to make a purchase than to buy an item or service.

“Offer” is a better word choice than “sell”. The 40 foot Hatteras Yacht is offered at $75,000 is so much more resonant to the eye and ear than the 75 foot Hatteras Yacht is for sale at $75,000. People like to purchase. They resent being sold.

There are numerous examples of words that can be substituted for terms such as cheap, sell, or buy and thus confer a more positive commercial  experience. The way words are used is indicative of the level of professionalism that a party brings to a transaction.

Often, owing to distance, or time constraints, or purposefully placed professional barriers, the two or more parties participating in business collaborations do not physically meet, at least initially. Words used in e-mails, phone calls, Business Plans or correspondence are all that each party has to take the measure of each other. Choose words carefully. They can make, or break, your opportunity.

Duquesa Marketing

www.duquesamarketing.com

Press Release

For Immediate Release

Contact:  Geoff Ficke

859-567-1609

gficke@msn.com

Geoff Ficke to Be Interviewed on Sirius Satellite Radio The Good Life Show (Dial LIME Ch. 1) on February 22nd at 10:30am PT 1:30pm ET

Duquesa Marketing Founder and Expert to Discuss How to Create Entrepreneurial Opportunities During a Tough Economy

Florence, KY  Nancy Ficke, General Manager, announced today that her Branding and Product Development firm Duquesa Marketing has scheduled another in a series of national radio interviews for Company President and Founder Geoff Ficke.

“Geoff Ficke will appear on Sirius Satellite Radio (Dial LIME Ch. 1) The Good Life Show with Host Jesse Dylan February 22nd at 10:30am pacific time / 1:30pm eastern time”, said Mrs Ficke. “The discussion will be about the opportunity to take hold of your life and career options by exploring Entrepreneurial opportunities that people find around themselves in their hobbies, homes or jobs”.

“We work with hundreds of inventors, small and micro-businesses and entrepreneurs every year”, said Alexis Bruning, V.P. of New Business Development at Duquesa Marketing. “Many of these people carve out successful enterprises by capitalizing on things they experience in their environment. This is a topic that Geoff is passionate about and is always happy to share with an audience”.

Duquesa Marketing has assisted numerous individuals and enterprises start and expand Consumer Product opportunities over the past four decades. The award winning firm has vast experience in all Sales and distribution channels in the United States and internationally.

by: Geoff Ficke

Business Plan Mills Turn Out Documents That Are Expensive–and—Mostly Useless to Entrepreneurs!

The Business Plan, and the process involved in crafting these essential documents, is one of the most maligned areas in all of small business. Many start-up firms and entrepreneurs reflexively believe that a plan of some sort is crucial to developing their project. They proceed to download internet templates and fill in the blanks with half vetted due diligence and guesstimates. Others retain reputed business plan writers to craft their documents from incomplete guidance they provide. In both cases, the plans are useless at best, and often harmful to the project.

In its simplest definition a Business Plan is a series of assumptions that are well qualified, well quantified and well narrated. No more. No less.

Assumptions are the skeleton of the plan. Realistic assumptions that can support revenue and financial projections are mandatory. The only way to verify your assumptions is by doing the best possible job of researching every element of the product category, competition and trends in the space you seek to enter. This can be easily accomplished but not by taking the shortcuts we see in almost every amateur plan new review. The homework, preparation and detail that professionals provide is what makes a quality Business Plan work and drives the reader at investment and funding sources to want to read and learn more about an opportunity.

Well qualified assumptions are supported by hard data that can withstand the harshest scrutiny. How did you support the market penetration for year one, two and three that you project? How did you project annual sales turnover? What schedule are you using to define expenses? These are just a few of the assumptions that must be made, then qualified in order to present an exciting, well supported strategy.

The ability to quantify numerical projections is another chasm that most amateur plan writers cannot overcome. Investors are number skeptics. They will hold the most brutal light to the assumptions used to create the income statements, cash flows and balance sheets provided to support the financial underpinnings of the plan. The key to quantifying a Business Plan starts with knowing (really knowing, not guessing) the dead net cost of the good or service you are seeking to offer. We almost never see this type of specificity in amateur plans and this sinks the whole edifice.

In order to produce a well narrated plan you will need excellent writing and communication skills. There are many excellent copy writers that purport to produce professional Business Plans. Unless they understand the process involved in crafting a series of assumptions that can be well qualified, quantified and narrated, they will most assuredly produce a document that falls short of the needed mark. Good writing as opposed to good Business Plan writing is as similar as Karl Marx and Ayn Rand. Your product story should be brisk, interesting (without gratuitous cheerleading) and make the reader want to learn more.

Just this week I was presented a Business Plan by a very enthusiastic entrepreneur. He had developed a vanity organizer product that almost every woman would find useful. I was keen on the product. Then I read the Business Plan.

The document was 77 pages (before exhibits). Too long! The assumptions seemed shaky. I quizzed the gentleman and he advised that he had paid $3500 to have the plan professionally written. I advised that it was very well written from a grammatical standpoint. It just would not stand investment scrutiny.

For instance, the Cost of Goods number was not realistic. I asked how they had agreed on the stated number. Had the author created a Bill of Materials? The owner did not know what a Bill of Materials was. Had the author organized 3D CAD art? Release Packets? Contacted a number of factories? Gotten mass production costing? Figured freight, customs, duties and local in-country freight? None of these queries could be answered. Their Cost of Goods was a guess.

When Cost of Goods is not known to the fifth decimal point for each penny of materiel involved in producing a product every single number beneath this line is wrong. The Business Plan is of no use. This entrepreneurs $3500 had been wasted.

Do not take shortcuts. Perform more, not less due diligence. If your project has value, and you believe it is worth investment consideration, give it the support it deserves. You would not buy a house with a leaky foundation. Likewise, investors, licensors, venture capital and strategic alliances will not touch leaky Business Plan propositions.

by: Geoff Ficke

Converting an Idea to Income Is a Process That Requires Planting and Fertilization, Not Hope and Dreaming

Under the category of inexperienced blind hope, a surprising number of people that approach my Consumer Product Development group with a new business idea want us to find someone who will buy the concept in its undeveloped form. This always amazes, even after so many years of hearing these vapid elevator pitches. A person has an idea, they have performed little or no due diligence, and they believe it has commercial value. Daffy!

Behind every existing product, service or successful business there was originally an idea. In order to achieve any level of viability and ultimately market success, the idea was planted and fertilized with work, research, investment (money and sweat), strategizing, and so many other necessary layers of work product that confirm the concepts usefulness or lack thereof.

A person that attempts to peddle an idea without conducting necessary due diligence is immediately obviated as a wastrel. Ideas are a dime a dozen, actually they are worth 10 cents less than a dime. The reasons so few people become successful entrepreneurs, even though most people dream of entrepreneurial conquests, is that they are dreamers not doers.

I recently took a call from a supposed entrepreneur who was looking for someone to buy his toy idea. In response to my qualifying probes he was entirely negative. He did not have patent filings. He did not have 3D CAD art. He did not have, or worse, want to build rough prototypes, so, of course, he was never going to have production quality prototypes. Without 3D CAD art and prototypes he was never going to discover manufacturing protocols and Cost of Goods.

In short, he was the ultimate dreamer. Many of these poseurs are serial stalkers of investment, partners and/or licensing relationships. They troll the internet endlessly looking for a home for their get-rich-schemes. The time and effort that could be devoted to productive due diligence is wasted on blind hopes and dreams.

I have counseled clients, students and prospective entrepreneurs for many years to avoid taking shortcuts at all costs. Resources are more easily found and utilized today than ever before. Many, many years ago, when I launched my first product there was no e-mail, internet, cell-phone, Software, Google or WikiPedia. Heck, there weren’t even fax machines or FedEx. Every step of the process was slower and more arduous than today.

The ease and availability of contemporary resource tools makes the launching of a new Consumer Product or Small Business a much simpler process. An idea which is not accompanied by at least a smattering of supporting design and data is a non-starter. Worse it brands the presenter as an amateur.

Let’s assume you are shopping for shoes. If you visited a shoe store, and the store only had pictures of shoes, but none to try on, how would you react? Of course, you can buy shoes on-line, but typically you know the brand, style and size you need and search for an on-line match at a price. When in a store, you want to touch and feel the products you seek. It is the same with venture capital and licensees.

The market is flush with opportunities for investment. Money always seeks the most market ready products. You have no chance to compete for seed monies or licensing unless your project is fully vetted. A successful entrepreneur always plants and fertilizes their work product to maximize chances of achieving a great result.

by: Geoff Ficke

Adopt a Pre-Sell Strategy to Drive Interest in Your Project Before Seeking to Attract Investment Funding

Recently I met with a prospective client who presented my Consumer Product Marketing and Branding Consulting firm with an overview of his project, its development status and needs. The opportunity seemed to have legs until we reached the point in the discussion where funding took center stage. I listened as this entrepreneur, with great passion and skill, pitched his reasoning and support data for a funding round that he felt necessary to move ahead.

I took the “devil’s advocate” approach that any project faces when seeking investment from angels, investors, venture capital or partners. My questions were the standard fare that I have heard professional investment groups pose time and time again. As the cross examination continued the passionate, confident entrepreneur began to wither.

The simplest question that I asked, and one that is always of paramount interest to investors: “Do you have Purchase Orders”, drew a telling lack of response. This very smart presenter had never considered the question and the possibilities that a positive response would have for his proposed enterprise.

Purchase Orders from target customers, stores, distributors and wholesalers indicate what we call a “Proof of Product Life”. Entrepreneurs are always excited about their product or service. They have reams of documentation that they   include in their Business Plan to attempt to impress investors with the promise they offer. Focus Groups results are nice. Orders and successful test markets, no matter how small are much more valuable.

How can an inventor, entrepreneur or small business generate sales orders before receiving an adequate funding round? The prospective client I was meeting for the first time asked exactly this question. I then described several Bootstrapping and Pre-Sell strategies that he had never considered.

We often utilize a Bootstrapping Pre-Sell plan for clients. This is done without going to the expense of an inventory build out. We have a host of vendors that work with us to create Production Quality product prototypes, CAD Art, Release Packets, Point-of-Purchase display, Sales Collateral, Web-Sites, Attorney’s, Social Media, Video Production and much more that we use to generate Purchase Orders from Trade Shows, EXPO’s, showrooms and on-line sales. These vendors know that once sales traction is achieved they will have a long term relationship with a happy new client. They are more than willing to hand craft a display or sign unit carton or brochure for minimal cost.

Recently we attended a large Trade Show in Hong Kong with a client to launch a new Skin Care regimen. We attended with four dozen Production Quality prototype samples fully dressed with graphic packaging. Our display vendor hand cut three Point-of-Purchase displays. The booth display visuals, video loop, Sales Collateral, Product Folios and Distributor Contracts were one-off produced just for the show. The product performance demonstration was spectacular and the stand was swamped with interested Asian distributors. We have concluded deals for exclusive territory sales of the line with nine firms. Pre-Selling works!

With these agreements and the initial Purchase Orders they have generated we are organizing International Bank Letters of Credit to fund the initial full inventory build and provide working capital. Investors are now keen to review the opportunity and, with this type of “Product Proof of Life” successfully achieved, they have less leverage in negotiations.

A successful Pre-Sell campaign in the American market can lead to securing investment, but also Partnering, Licensing, Receivable Finance or Factoring options for funding operations and growth. We have utilized Factoring for many years for our own businesses and clients. Sales orders open doors.

Next month we will attend a Jewelry trade show and a Men’s Fashion trade show with client products that will be launched utilizing a Bootstrap Pre-Sell campaign. More prospective entrepreneurs should utilize this strategy. The process involved in successfully winning a funding round is beyond the pale for most startups. Meeting an investor with a plump order book creates an entirely different leveling of the playing field. Take advantage of this inexpensive, simpler strategy to launch your product.

by: Geoff Ficke

5 Tips for Small Businesses and Start-ups to Use To Appear Bigger than They Really Are

For many years I have worked almost exclusively with entrepreneurs, inventors and small businesses seeking to start, or grow a business against daunting odds and competitive disadvantages. We specialize in Consumer Products, packaged goods that are marketed in every category and sales channel. Despite the deck seemingly being so stacked against these micro-enterprises it is amazing how many succeed.

One of the lessons we counsel and preach is the importance of acting and presenting the business to consumers and merchants as being more solid and substantial than it in reality is. No one wants to do business with a firm that appears to be struggling. People smell weakness. They are attracted to success.

One of our goals for clients is to be able to meet key decision makers in a specific category and open doors that seem closed to most fledgling start-ups. In order to achieve this we must have the client act like the puffer fish and blow themselves up to appear bigger and stronger than they are. How can this be accomplished?

The edifice that is presented as the core of the business can be inflated with creativity and a bit of illusion. It is essential that entrepreneur’s utilize every tool available to level the playing field as much as possible. Here are 5 ways to embellish the appearance of strength for of a start-up.

1.  Have a professional, original, customized Branding Strategy. Colors, icons, lyrical Branding Statements and graphics that work as one are crucial in differentiating the Company and its products and services from competitors, large and small.

2.  Your place of business and mailing address speak volumes about your firm and product. Most start-ups cannot afford an office in Beverly Hills, or London. They can rent a mail box service in a prestigious zip code. For meetings, there are impressive offices with secretarial services that can be secured by the hour or half-day.

3.  Put some effort and diligence into building and editing your web-site. The only thing worse than not having a web-site is having a mass market template that screams “unprofessional”. Currently, there are an endless number of do-it-yourself templates available to guide construction of a web-site. The construction is not as important as the content. Do not take shortcuts on content.

4.  Sales collateral stays with the prospective buyer, consumer or merchant long after you physically vacate the premises. Make your brochures, business cards and samples first class.

5.  Use production quality prototypes to pre-sell your product at trade shows, fairs and to investors. We typically pre-sell every project we are engaged to manage for our clients. We do not want them investing in building inventory until we have secured orders, letters of intent and confirmation from key industry decision makers that the product on offer is desirable and commercial. Production quality prototypes are the key to gaining this crucial proof of product life.

We have utilized this simple menu to enhance any number of start-up businesses that we have introduced as Managing Consultants. It works for every category of Consumer Product including Toys, Gourmet Foods, Cosmetics, Fragrance, Aromatherapy, Hardware, Pet Products, DIY, Jewelry and many more. These are tools that are invaluable when bootstrapping an under-funded business, product or service.

by: Geoff Ficke

The Most Under-Utilized Resource Entrepreneurs Neglect to Take Advantage of Is Local Universities 

Inventors, Entrepreneurs, Artisans and Small Businesses are very often bereft of funds needed to secure professional help that would be beneficial in leveraging their projects to success. Lawyers, Engineers, Graphic Artists, Logistics Specialists, Packaging Designers, Web-site Masters, Marketing Consultants and many other qualified experts are much needed but difficult to afford for those starting a new enterprise. This is understandable but there are other sources for obtaining qualified help. 

We refer many under-funded prospective Entrepreneur’s to the nearest major University. Colleges are places of learning, often fully funded by taxpayers. There are many areas of study in each university’s core curriculum. Business schools, Design colleges, art programs, marketing majors, Engineering departments, etc. house a motivated, ambitious horde of students seeking to gain practical experience in their field of study. 

College Deans and Professors are often a wonderful source of inspiration when approached by small businesses and inventors seeking guidance. They will often assign a student, or team of students to assist on a project. Not only is this resume building experience invaluable for the undergraduate but it often leads to internships or post-graduate employment for those who successfully complete the assigned project. 

Many Universities have become very active in a commercialization process that they call “Technology Transfer”. When a school discovers a new technology, product or science that can be perfected in their facilities, they are being very aggressive in commercializing the process and attempting to create recurring income streams. We are currently involved with several major Universities in this type of product development and the concept is growing rapidly as colleges seek to leverage the invaluable resources that are housed in their intellectual property facilities. Technology Transfer can work for many more inventors. 

One of the fastest growing areas of study in Business Schools is Entrepreneurship. I have been a mentor, lecturer and Fellow at several colleges in this program. At some schools the course in Entrepreneurial Studies has become a capstone course, essential to complete before becoming eligible for receipt of a degree. These courses are often available as laboratories for inventors and small businesses wishing to perfect a Business Plan, create a Sales Model, customize a Marketing Strategy or design a Production Quality Prototype.   

These courses can be very useful. They are free for those willing to pursue the assets they can offer. Actually, most Professors love to match students with real world projects as opposed to an abstract fantasy project that the student designs on their own. 

On any number of occasions my Consumer Product Development and Marketing Consulting firm has mated entrepreneurial projects with students eager to obtain real world experience. We have done this with Gourmet Food (Nutrition Science), Footwear (Fashion Design), Skin Care and Aromatherapy (Marketing and Chemistry), DIY Product (Engineering), Packaging (Graphic Arts) and more. 

Obviously, it is preferable to utilize the most qualified, experienced talent available if it can be afforded. Students do not have an extensive body of work that can be tapped to quickly solve problems. However, what they lack in experience, they can make up for in energy and hunger. 

The job of a professional consultant or service provider is to save the client time, money and mistakes. If the client has limited monies available pursuit of assistance from a motivated student can provide a reasonable alternative. Many Small Business people often root for the local schools sports teams. It can be much more satisfying to use the college academic departments as part of your own team.

by: Geoff Ficke

What Is 3-F Funding and Why Do Entrepreneurs Need to Understand the Vetting Process for Securing Funding? 

Many years ago, when I was a young, ambitious, aspiring entrepreneur I was imbued with the conceit that venture capitalists, investment banks or angel investors would fall over themselves to invest in my first project. I was passionate about my product. I quickly discovered that investors were decidedly not.  

Though disappointed at my lack of success in securing the sought after funding, I was able to learn a lesson that has been a truism in my entrepreneurial career, and one I share frequently with prospective clients in my Consumer Product Branding, Product Development, Marketing and Funding Consulting group. Simply stated the lesson is this: Start-up funding for almost all enterprises is 3-F funding. It comes from Friends, Family or Fools. 

I am approached almost daily by aspiring Inventors and Entrepreneurs seeking a funding round for their proposed new project. They ask and I respond that this type of funding, and in the relatively small amounts requested, comes from Friends, Family or Fools. This adage is to Venture Capital as “Going, Going, Gone” is to baseball or “Hooah” is the 82^nd Airborne Dvision. 

Most start-up business opportunities do not qualify for an initial investment round because they cannot stand the vetting process applied by sophisticated investors. There are many reasons for this barrier to entry. The amount that can be justified by the Business Plan is too small for consideration. The plan itself is not compelling. The inventor or entrepreneur is not compelling owing to their background or history. There is a lack of due diligence that is easily recognized in the strategy proposed. 

I regularly find myself counseling prospective small business owners that if failure to secure a funding round will kill their project, then the project probably should die. It is the successful entrepreneur’s responsibility to find a way to overcome every obstacle placed in their path, including raising seed money from unorthodox sources. If this roadblock proves fatal, then the owner is not driven, passionate, creative or clever enough to succeed in the endeavor. 

Are their funding alternatives? Yes. Many projects can be bootstrapped utilizing very limited funds and a great deal of leverage. Strategic alliances can be developed for many projects. Many projects are proposed on large scale launch and distribution strategies that can be downsized, localized and then regionalized as sales traction occurs. Money is always available for funding projects that demonstrate sales traction, and, most crucially, re-orders! Receivable funding and factoring are methods we utilize often to finance client growth.

Recently I consulted with a young man who was developing a juvenile Toy product line. He presented me with a plan that was built on a $750,000 funding requirement. As I vetted his Business Plan assumptions, I deduced, and he agreed, that he really needed about $100,000 to develop, Brand and Pre-Sell the line. I laid out a Gantt Chart for the project and detailed how this could happen and options for funding, after he had received orders from retailers. He had never considered Pre-Selling. We always consider a Pre-Sell strategy for new product launches. 

The $100,000 stumped my Toy entrepreneur. He did not want to ask Friends or Family for support. This is understandable. He did not want to take equity out of his home, also understandable. He wanted me to reach out to my investment sources. I replied, “Why would a stranger invest in the product if you are not willing to invest in yourself, and Family or Friends do not believe in the Toys and you”? I received no response.

 Starting a business or launching a new product or service has never been easy. It is not meant to be. The successful entrepreneur is a valued minority. Most prospective entrepreneurs do not have the ability to overcome obstacles that the markets place in the way of their progress. This culling of the herd, or “Survival of the Fittest”, is the reason that so many people want to operate a small business but so few actually accomplish the feat. Funding, or lack thereof, is the canard that most failed entrepreneurs posit as the reason they are held back. Sourcing seed money from Friends, Family or Fools must be considered as the “alpha” resource to go to first.

Duquesa Marketing, Inc.

www.duquesamarketing.com

Press Release

For Immediate Release

December 20, 2011

Contact:  Geoff Ficke

859-567-1609

gficke@msn.com

Geoff Ficke to Be Interviewed on WDRC 1360 AM Talk of Connecticut Radio Show on December 21, 2011 at 11:20amET

Duquesa Marketing Founder and Expert to Discuss How to Create Entrepreneurial Opportunities During a Tough Economy 

Florence, KY  Nancy Ficke, General Manager, announced today that her Branding and Product Development firm Duquesa Marketing has scheduled another in a series of national radio interviews for Company President and Founder Geoff Ficke. 

“Geoff Ficke will appear on WDRC Mary Jones Show 1360 AM Talk of Connecticut radio show with Host Mary Jones December 21st at 11:20am eastern time”, said Mrs Ficke. “The discussion will be about the opportunity to take hold of your life and career options by exploring Entrepreneurial opportunities that people find around themselves in their hobbies, homes or jobs”. 

“We work with hundreds of inventors, small and micro-businesses and entrepreneurs every year”, said Alexis Bruning, V.P. of New Business Development at Duquesa Marketing. “Many of these people carve out successful enterprises by capitalizing on things they experience in their environment. This is a topic that Geoff is passionate about and is always happy to share with an audience”. 

Duquesa Marketing has assisted numerous individuals and enterprises start and expand Consumer Product opportunities over the past four decades. The award winning firm has vast experience in all Sales and distribution channels in the United States and internationally.