How to Give Away Others’ Products to Make Money
If you're new to MovingFromMeToWe.com, you may want to subscribe to our RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!
We all love freebies – right? What if you could give away others’ products to the “market”of people you know best? Sweeter still, what if you gave them a greater voice in improving products they use? And here’s the profitable punch line. What if you could launch a business, backed, in part, by partnering with the makers of those products?
Can’t get much sweeter than that. Aliza Freud left a lucrative corporate job with a respected company to do just that, and perhaps so an you. Increasingly companies seek candid feedback from customers, especially since customers can create such “conversations” online whether the firms approve them or not. Freud’s business creates online communities for companies to involve women in designing or modifying products.
Want to adapt Aliza’s “Me2We” business model to become a popular place for your favorite kind of consumers, perhaps empowering people like you? Hear this interview with the founder of SheSpeaks.
To become an entrepreneur for the first time while honing a trailblazing business model is a big bet on one’s acumen. To hasten her success Aliza uses a Me2We approach:
• Crafts an award-winning business model where all players accomplish more together than they could on their own. Participation helps the product providers, the recipients of the freebies and her firm.
• Benefits from a powerful mentor at her previous firm, American Express, in ways that expand that mentor’s options.
• Leverages her strong reputation with the vendors and clients with whom she worked in her past job. Strong enough that several agreed to partner with her in this new venture.
• Uses her deep experience in two core competencies (financial, research software) that are vital for her business. People employing multiple talents are especially valuable partners.
• Establishes a financial cushion of comfort, saving money before making the leap to entrepreneurship.
• “Free” is contagious news to share, so people will, especially when one’s feedback is public.
As consumers Aliza’s business model enables us to test-drive new products (for free) in exchange for our honest opinions and reviews. (Proctor and Gamble offers a variation of this opportunity, but, of course, it is “only” for their products.) After you join SheSpeaks, you fill out questionnaire. That way SheSpeaks can send you products to test that match your interests. You are sent an email, asking if you’d like to try a product and, if you agree, it is mailed to you, You provide your honest opinion about it on their site.
Also find discussion boards to compare your view with others who’ve have tested the same products. Later, reviewers get a preview of how their opinions have influenced changes in it. Over 30,000 women from across the country have already signed up.
Have a passionate interest that others share? Perhaps you might launch your version of this business to raise the bar of what they are able to buy?
January 26th, 2008 at 2:27 pm
Tapping into consumer enthusiasm in a genuine way, is the wave of the future for marketers. Kudos to SheSpeaks for being on the forefront. Will keep my eye on this one!