Question Featured On: Episode 2 - #AskRussellAnything

Number one, the best way to find out if your idea is going to work, go to a market and make sure someone’s selling something similar already. We are in a marketplace that is not brand new. It’s mature. There are few markets that are untapped, and usually untapped ones are because there’s no money and people stop trying to tap into them.

So for you, you gotta understand that if I can find somebody that’s selling something similar, not the same product. If you read the Expert Secrets book, you know the difference between a red ocean and blue ocean. You still need to create your own blue ocean, but are there a red ocean right now, selling something similar. If there’s not a red ocean anywhere, it means the fish and shark have disappeared. So I need to make sure I can find a red ocean and then I try to create my own blue ocean inside. That’s number one.

Number two, I always tell people you need to make sure you hit a market that has two things, number one, they have to be willing to give money. So they’re willing to do it. Number two, they have to be able. So willing and able, two things. So willing means I would love to give you money. Does that market like to give people money? Do non-profits like to give people money for education? I’m not sure. My guess is most non-profits, keep their profits. Is that right? So I don’t think that they’re willing. Not willing to spend money, especially non-profits. So that’d be my one concern.

Number two is, are they able? If they’re a broke non-profit and you’re trying to help them raise money, they’re probably not able either. So I would be concerned about that, but you can take those same skills and you could go and you could create something for a business that is in profit, make some money, and then give money to that non-profit.

I know we had a couple questions about non-profits. We’ll be able to answer those when we get there, but the biggest thing is a lot of time I do charity work and give money to different organizations and things like that. Because I love them, I care about them, I serve people for free, I do a lot of stuff like that because I love it and I care about the market. Not so much because I want to make it in business. If I want to make it in business I want to find a hot market. What’s the three step form, if you read Expert Secrets?

Find a hot market, ask them what they want, then give it to them. That’s what I’m looking for and then I can donate the money that I make, parts of it, or I can serve, give time, things like that to charities. Also, I’m not sure this is true or not, but I think it is. If you do charity work for people, a lot of times that can be a tax write off. Let’s say you normally charge $10,000 an hour for consulting. You can go and work for free for a charity and you can actually write it off. And you get that as the thing, I believe. Is that true?

I’m not an accountant or an attorney, don’t trust me. This is not legal, nor financial advice, but if you’re wondering, that’s kind of it. Does that work, is that good you guys? Can I drop the mic. I’m going to drop it.