Valentines Niche: Say It With Beer and Beef Jerky?

Valentine's Day sales don't measure up to Christmas, but for some businesses, the holiday is still pretty sweet.
On average, shoppers will spend about $126 each on loved ones this year, up 8.5 percent from 2011 and the highest amount in the past decade, according to the National Retail Federation's 2012 Valentine's Day Consumer Intentions and Actions survey. Total spending in the U.S. for the holiday is expected to reach $17.6 billion this year.
Roses and chocolate-covered anything aren't likely to cede their favored status, but some entrepreneurs are taking a chance on more unorthodox gifts -- from catering to men to creating offbeat products.
Here are three unconventional Valentine's Day bouquets and a look at their marketers:
Beef Jerky Bouquet
Jacksonville, Ore.
They say the fastest way to a man's heart is through his stomach, so you probably can't go too wrong with this beef-jerky bouquet from Gary West Smoked Meats. The bouquet of one dozen long-stem steak strips sells for $39 with no shipping fees.
Owner Paul Murdoch says Christmas still reigns supreme at Gary West Smoked Meats, but Valentine's Day is a close second.
Paul Murdoch, co-owner of the meat smoker, says a "couldn't hurt" philosophy was the key ingredient to his burgeoning Valentine's Day operation. A former employee suggested the idea of making seasonal bouquets using Gary West's jerky in 2007. Though skeptical at first, Murdoch says the marketing ploy proved to be a boon for the business. Christmas still reigns supreme in seasonal sales, but Valentine's Day is a close second -- accounting for about 5 percent of annual sales, which totaled $2 million last year. "Valentine's Day has become really significant," Murdoch says. "When we introduced this jerky bouquet, I didn't think it would do nearly as well as it has."
Many people might not consider a gift of beef jerky very romantic. But the quirkiness is part of the appeal. Fox News, Cosmopolitan and other media snapped up the story, and orders surged, Murdoch says. The company's targeted use of Facebook advertising has been especially effective. After the Cosmo piece, Murdoch realized that his core customer is women in relationships with men. "We'll use Facebook primarily because you can target that demographic so accurately," he says.
Beer Bouquet
Austin, Texas
OK, giving the guy or gal in your life a six-pack surely doesn't sound very special. But what if it's his or her favorite beer and it comes in a bucket that says Happy Valentine's Day with a big red heart scrawled on the side? This six-piece beer bouquet, which comes fully loaded with peanuts, a koozie and a bottle opener, is $54.99, plus shipping.
The Valentine's Day-themed beer bouquet comes with six beers, a koozie, a bag of peanuts and a bottle opener.
After working in consumer packaging and graphics, Josh Horowitz had something of an epiphany on a rooftop in New York City. Using votive candle holders and empty beer bottles, he made his first beer bouquet. After moving to Austin, Texas, in 2009, he launched Beer Bouquet, which sells football and seasonal-themed bouquets through the mail to 46 states. "It was a no brainer," Horowitz says. "Everyone has a favorite team and everyone has a favorite beer. Plus, there was no real go-to gift for guys, other than neck ties or a flask."
Last year, Valentine's Day accounted for roughly 25 percent of Beer Bouquet's sales of $75,000. Horowitz expects sales to ramp up this year, as he creates new bouquets with more snack foods like beef jerky and pretzels. He also plans a Groupon promotion for Father's Day, when he hopes to sell 5,000 bouquets.
Dirty Rotten Flowers
Los Angeles
Dirty Rotten Flowers co-founder Roman Sacke notes that many customers send his rough-hewn bouquets to ex-flames and bosses.
While nothing says, "I love you," like a dozen red roses, Roman Sacke wondered what receiving a dozen dying roses would say. So, he started Dirty Rotten Flowers to find out. The company sells three variations of the oh-so-tragic bouquet, starting at $25, plus shipping. The Valentine's Day bouquet called "I love you not" costs $27 and includes a tattered teddy bear holding a red heart that says, "I love you."
Sacke, who hails from the Czech Republic and now lives in Los Angeles, calls the bouquets "silly" and "fun" and says they're meant in jest. "Where I'm from people have a different sense of humor. They would like it," says Sacke. He notes that many customers send the bouquets to old bosses and ex-flames.
This "I love you not" bouquet comes with a tattered, unfortunate looking bear holding a heart that says "I love you."
Dirty Rotten Flowers is actually an offshoot of Sacke's more traditional floral business. Like John D. Rockefeller who found profitable uses for the byproducts of kerosene production, Sacke has found a way to make a little money from his unsold flower inventory. "In my regular flower shop, there were always so many leftovers that would just die," he says. "We began wondering what you do with them, other than composting." Sacke declined to discuss his financial results, but he did say that last year the company sold 300 to 400 rotten bouquets for Valentine's Day, which amounts to roughly $8,000 to $11,000. Not bad for dead flowers.
Diana Ransom is deputy editor of Entrepreneur.com.
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To Find Your Next Great Business Idea, Narrow Your Focus

image credits to shutterstock
When you’re just starting out in business, narrowing your target market can be difficult for fear you’ll be excluding part of your potential customer base.
But if you can clearly define a market and its needs upfront, you can tailor your product or service offerings narrowly to meet that demand and quickly gain more wallet share than your competitors.
Related: How to Target Your Message to Find Customers
What exactly does this mean?
1. You could be like the enterprising young woman in northern California who discovered a secondhand store’s almost hidden section of distinctive children’s clothes and toys. As it turned out, the store’s owners wanted out of what they saw as a dead-end business. The woman took over the lease and reoriented the entire operation to focus only on children’s products, turning a 1,200-square-foot “dead-end business” into an 800-square-foot startup that was profitable in six months and expanded into a new downtown location.
2. You could be like the mechanic who went through the lengthy and fairly expensive process of getting his auto dealer’s license so he could go to the local car auction to make bids, specifically on older model BMWs. He didn’t want to sell the whole cars, but rather to take them apart and create a line of aftermarket parts for BMW owners and mechanics.
3. You could be like the computer repair technician who decided to strike out on his own in the highly competitive field of information-technology services, only to discover a more specialized market that offered higher rates, more loyal customers and more referral business. That narrow market turned out to be Apple computers.
These examples illustrate a general truth about business opportunity: The true opportunity may not be apparent at the outset. Niches exist in every broad category, and your job as an entrepreneur is to figure out what they are and whether they offer a profitable business opportunity.
Related: Three Ways to Find an Edge in a Crowded Market
Looking at the marketplace this way could also change your thinking on the true nature of a startup. There’s no rule that says you must start from scratch, in your garage or the back bedroom of your house.
Simply walk or drive along any street and you’ll pass any number of businesses struggling to make ends meet because they aren’t selling what their market truly wants or needs. Like the owners of the dead-end secondhand store, they may not even know what their best-selling and highest profit items are -- or that those very specific items are sitting in a neglected section of their store or office.
Category leaders tend to be highly focused, and many times, that focus can appear too narrow. But companies with focus grow precisely because their niche is so distinctive. If you think this applies only to the small retail store or the Macintosh repairman, take a look at what BrandZ, a division of WPP, lists as the 10 most valuable brands in the world:
1. Apple
2. IBM
3. Google
4. McDonald’s
5. Microsoft
6. Coca-Cola
7. Marlboro
8. AT&T
9. Verizon
10. China Mobile
These companies have built their business on a single word: focus. In the case of top-ranked Apple, its greatest success has come from a single product, the iPhone.
Related: How to Maintain the Focus to Run a Business (Video)
So start to expand your focus by doing a more narrow analysis of your market and what people are buying -- or would buy if given the option. Don’t worry about the sales you might be missing by not offering everything to everybody. Your narrow focus could deliver more business than you can handle, producing higher-margin cash flow to enrich your bottom line.
The author is an Entrepreneur contributor. The opinions expressed are those of the writer.
Brad Sugars is the founder and chairman of ActionCOACH. As an entrepreneur, author and business coach, he has owned and operated more than two dozen companies including his main company, ActionCOACH, which has more than 1,000 offices in 34 countries.

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Startups Take on the Business of Education

When it comes to opportunities for entrepreneurs, the field of education has a decidedly steep learning curve.
"Education startups certainly have unique challenges," says Ariel Diaz of Boundless, a Boston-based startup that offers free online textbook replacements for college students. "The decision-making process in education is very convoluted, slow and complex."
But that environment hasn't discouraged entrepreneurs from approaching education with a variety of products and services. Given that for-profit education-related ventures are often viewed as suspect -- online-learning organizations like the University of Phoenix have come under state and federal investigation for potentially exploitative and fraudulent practices -- the key to making a go of an education startup is identifying market inefficiencies and challenges, but with an overriding focus on doing good.
Identifying a niche market
Sometimes, doing the right thing can have surprising beneficiaries. Judy Zimet found a niche in need of attention when she began Law Student Ally to provide one-on-one guidance to law students. Her service helps them achieve higher grades, obtain internships and improve their chances of landing a job once they graduate.
"This is no longer the world of Tom Cruise in ‘The Firm,' where huge signing bonuses and luxurious gifts are showered upon law school graduates enticing them to join prestigious big law firms," says Zimet, who is based in Scottsdale, Arizona.
"Today, big law firms are in a financial downturn along with the rest of the world. Consequently, although there are approximately 45,000 law school graduates a year, there are only 25,000 legal jobs available. To land a job, law students need more than a juris doctorate earned with average grades. With personal coaching, law students receive higher grades, maximize class and internship choices, and receive recognition through publicized works and awards."
Dealing with administrative challenges
Once you've found a problem to solve, you're likely to come up against another one -- the administrative element that plays a role in most any sort of educational system. Since, for instance, a school principal won't actually be using products such as study-aid software, entrepreneurs are compelled to devise particularly persuasive marketing strategies -- or try to circumvent administration altogether.
"Decision makers are often not the actual users of a particular product or service, similar to business IT decisions 10 years ago," says Boundless' Diaz. "This makes sales and distribution a significant challenge for startups who have to learn to navigate this. Some startups, including mine, are opting to go direct to students."
Getting the timing and marketing right
If you do decide to market to students directly, academic schedules can pose still more hurdles. While many products and services know no real "season," education entrepreneurs have to watch the calendar carefully to time marketing efforts and product rollouts.
"The school year is cyclical in nature," says Diaz. "It means that there are fewer opportunities to iterate on the product, and creates hard deadlines -- namely at the start of school year and semesters -- by which new releases need to be complete."
Entrepreneurs have responded with fresh marketing strategies, even for those education-related ventures that are a bit more traditional in nature. David Greenberg started Parliament Tutors three years ago. The New York-based company offers in-home and online tutoring to prepare students for all subjects, from kindergarten through high school, as well as tests like the SAT and MCAT.
Rather than advertising in education publications or making in-person pitches to students, parents and teachers, Greenberg opted to pursue a comprehensive social marketing strategy.
"Article marketing proved to be my niche,'" he says. "With each new article came more impressions, more traffic and more backlinks. We now have over 500 tutors operating in more than 20 states and 80 cities."
Ushering in the startup era of education?
Parliament Tutors' growth underscores an overriding dynamic of the education system. Some schools and taxpayers pump more money into programs and services only to see scholastic performance continue to erode. Others trim budgets and, with them, valuable programs and offerings. It's a volatile and very personal problem. Any entrepreneur with a solution that's not only cost-effective but also boosts students' grades and test scores will likely find an audience.
"Entrepreneurs love identifying the problem, innovating a solution and assessing the market opportunity," says Charles Matthews, executive director of the Center for Entrepreneurship Education and Research at the University of Cincinnati. "When it comes to matters of education, however, the deliverables are focused on the patchwork of constituents that constitute the education ecosystem -- students, parents, prospective employers and politicians. The bottom line is not just profit or loss, but your impact on society."
"Right now we are seeing a boom in educational costs and a simultaneous reduction in education effectiveness," adds Diaz. "This creates a huge opportunity to leverage the prevalence of technology and the availability of open content to dramatically revolutionize education. I believe we are entering a golden age of education startups, and that education as a whole will see more change in the next 10 years than in the previous 50."
Jeff Wuorio is a veteran freelance writer and author based in southern Maine. He writes about small-business management, marketing and technology issues.
This story originally appeared on Business on Main

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How Niche Players Can Compete Against Big Brands

Andy Katz-Mayfield (left) and Warby Parker co-founder Jeff Raider of the shaving startup Harry's.

If any company can prove that banking on a niche product can return a goldmine, it's Warby Parker.
But rather than designer eyewear for a fraction of the price, Warby Parker co-founder Jeff Raider recently set his sights on something even more niche: men's grooming. With the launch of his ecommerce-shaving-accoutrements store Harry's, Raider is planning on redefining the grooming market, much like he and his co-founders did with eyewear.

As with any highly-specific product or service, Raider had to find a way to angle his startup to standout. What could he change about the men's grooming industry that could make a difference in the eyes of customers? As it turns out, the way men interact with razors is as old as… well, facial hair.

So, Raider focused on offering a unique user experience at an affordable price -- think $2 blades, $10 handles and $8 shaving cream. Plus, it doesn't hurt that he added a socially conscious component -- donating a razor or dollar every time a pack of blades are purchased.

"We felt like we had to take a new approach in established markets to build our differentiated brands," says Raider. "Big name brands at times don't communicate directly with customers, and we've found customers like brands that care about them and exist to try to deliver a great experience."
While Harry's is just the latest niche brand to carve out a new concept in an established market, it isn't the first. Eco-friendly products brand The Honest Company is taking on Kimberly-Clark's HUGGIESwith its organic line.
TOMS shoes reshaped footwear with its socially-conscious model and Bonobos is making a name for itself in menswear with an emphasis on fit.

Related: College Entrepreneur Dives Into Niche Business

As a young entrepreneur looking to follow in the footsteps of these successful niche businesses, here are some tips on how to create your own demand by redefining the market:

Identify users' needs.

By disrupting an established market, entrepreneurs can gain knowledge pertaining to what is missing in the current offerings. Listen to consumers on social media and forums for complaints, demands and recommendations. Some of the best inspiration comes right from the horse's mouth, making it easy for you to discover untapped demand.

Make your product stand out.

If you want to create demand for your product or service, you've got to offer the world something they haven't seen before. Whether it's a new experience, a twist on a popular product or an added service, pinpoint the difference and shout it from the rooftops. Not only should you focus on value creation by identifying your unique-selling proposition but also treat your customers as people first, not dollar signs.

Related: Not Top Dog? 4 Ways to Project a Bigger Brand

Tell a story.

If you are positioning your product to disrupt an established market, chances are you have a distinct offering.  Great. Tell people about it. Consumers love a great story. By providing background information and a little narration, you can set yourself apart from every other company slinging the same product.

Get the word out.

Once you've created a distinguished product or service, manufacture more demand by generating buzz. One low-cost strategy is to build up your brand ambassadors -- the people that can't stop talking about your product. Ask for their feedback, give them sneak peeks into new offerings and provide incentives to spread the word.

Related link: How to Launch a Successful Brand Ambassador Initiative 

What strategies do you use to standout?

 Let us know your secret in the comments.The author is an Entrepreneur contributor. The opinions expressed are those of the writer.

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How To Force Yourself To Succeed

A lot of people look at the big names in this industry like they have some unbreakable, uncanny focus, and key success habits that the rest of us just can’t seem to grasp ourselves. I’ve worked with some of the biggest and the best, and I can say that this usually just isn’t so.
What they’ve learned how to do is to hack their own system to force themselves to succeed. And the good news is that you can easily do it too.

Let me explain a simple concept that you should put to use immediately if you want to start getting all the things you want for 2014 and beyond.

How To Force Yourself To Succeed

First, let’s consider the problem we all face. Most of us know exactly what we need to be doing. It’s the execution part we usually fail at. We all know what we need to do, it’s actually doing it that’s the problem! The guru’s, the 6 and 7 figure earners face this same challenge too. Here’s how they get around it.

They give themselves external pressure in order to get done what they know must get done. Yet, most people failing online try internal pressure, which rarely works. So how do they do this, and how can you do the exact same thing?

Well the main thought here is that you have to have real, external pressure to get done what you need to. For example:

A few weeks ago, I set up a Webinar with the CEO of LeadPages, Clay Collins. This was a live webinar with a live date and time. That is external pressure. I forced a deadline on myself. I have to get all my stuff ready for the webinar or the 600 people who registered will get a blank screen, I would look like an idiot, and Clay would never talk to me again.

Most of the time, I will put up the webinar registration page, and I will have nothing else prepared. The point is, putting up the page forces me to get stuff done. Otherwise, I’ll never get around to it. I’m like most people. I’m not a super disciplined person. Without the external pressure, I wouldn’t get anything done!

I know of others that throw live events. Same thing. People start buying tickets, purchasing airline tickets, and now they’ve GOT to get it done or they will ruin their reputation.
I know of huge product creators (I’m sure you’ve heard of a few of them) that will set up a Joint Venture page well before they’ve even created the product. They’ll notify their list about the launch coming on a set date.

Why?
Now their affiliate partners and their list, know when they’re going live. They’re arranging their schedule to promote for them. Their lists are amped up to check it out. It massively puts them under the gun to get it done. If they didn’t create this external pressure, the product would likely never see the light of day.

This should be a big ‘aha’ moment for some of you.
Because the next time you think somebody is better than you, is some kind of machine, likely they struggle just like you do to get things done. The only difference is they’re putting themselves externally under the gun to get it done.

So whatever you’re working on right now, start setting deadlines, and find a way like the above to make yourself externally accountable to get it done. Implementing this can mean the difference between making nothing this year to making 6-7 figures.
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Earn Big Bucks with Flights and Hotel Reservations

I’ve always said that it is better to spend your money on experiences than it is to spend your money on physical things. Don’t get me wrong. I like buying new toys as much as the next guy, but I find that I extract a lot more enjoyment when I travel. And I still want to find the best deal on flights and hotels.
Everyone is always searching for a bargain, so why not capitalize on that trend by joining a travel affiliate program? One such program is Travel Payouts, providing you with all sorts of tools to help your visitors find the best deals on flights and hotels. And then, you can earn a sizable commission. Let’s get started with today’s review and get a closer look into what Travel Payouts offers.
In short, Travel Payouts is a travel affiliate program. As you can imagine, what this means is that post an appropriate link or form to your website, blog, social network page or whatever other property you have on the web. When a visitor completes a sale, you earn a commission.

Travel Payouts provides search engines where visitors can look up the best prices for their travel needs. Jetradar handles all sorts of international flights between all sorts of international destinations, Hotellook scours through over 250,000 hotels in 205 countries to bring up the best prices, and Aviasales takes care of flights in Eastern Europe with offers from 728 airlines worldwide.
The travel industry is potentially very lucrative, but how much of the pie are you receiving? For each sale that you refer through Travel Payouts, you’ll earn up to 70% of the income that they receive.

The actual payout will vary, of course, but Travel Payouts says that the average payout for each airline ticket sold is $9 and each hotel reservation generates an average of $20 in commissions. Your mileage may vary (no pun intended), but some of the top partners earn thousands of dollars each month. This can be earned via your website, but also when you post links to their mobile apps. For the latter, you earn commissions on reservations made during the first year.
You also earn 5% of the income generated by any new partners that you refer to the affiliate program.
Unlike many other affiliate programs where you have to wait for approval or speak to an affiliate manager before getting started, approval with Travel Payouts is instant. You don’t even need to confirm your e-mail address. After registering for the affiliate program, you are directly immediately to the main dashboard.

Here, you’ll find all of your at a glance information about earnings. You get the vital data about visitors, searches, clicks, bookings, earnings, pending profit, click-thru rate, cost-per-click and so on. You also get detailed analysis of each submitted form, plus access to a myriad of reports.

Rather than simply providing you with a basic text link (which they also do), Travel Payouts offers a broad range of affiliate tools. You can embed a form like the one above on your website, customizing the colors and some other options. This way, visitors to your site can search for deals immediately and you can earn your commissions more quickly.

Some other tools include widget maps where visitors can see the lowest prices between destinations and even a white label option where you can brand the travel search engine yourself, as well as API and SDK for mobile apps. There are also a number of banners available, though they take on the appearance of forms. If you’d like, you can generate specific text links for specific destinations and tickets too. It’s all quite robust.
By default, you earn 70% of the income generated by all the flight ticket sales and hotel reservations that you refer through Travel Payouts, but if you register with special promo code JOHNCHOW, you will earn 90% of the revenue for your first three months. You will need to activate the promo before March 1 to be eligible. As long as you meet the minimum threshold of $50, monthly payouts are issued via your choice of Webmoney, Yandex, bank transfer, ePayments or Paypal.
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