From Idea to Sale in Under Seven Days

One of the best features of on-demand is the quick speed to market.  A few weeks ago, I had an idea for a new brand called Railroad Threads - a line of apparel for railroad enthusiasts - and within seven days I had made my first sale.  Here is the story.

One evening, while drinking a few beers with a good friend of mine, we started discussing funny ideas for t-shirts related to the hobby of railfanning and railroading.  (Talk about a niche market!)  After about an hour or two of brainstorming, we had over 50 different ideas.  I had originally thought about going to a silk screening company to have some samples made and attempt to sell them through an online store.  However, there is no guarantee that my favorite design would be what other people would like. 

So before spending several hundred dollars buying inventory, I decided to instead invest $12 in a domain name and open a store on Zazzle for free.  Using Photoshop, the designs were created and uploaded to the Zazzle system.  With all the products ready to go, I then created a basic website at http://www.railroadthreads.com/ with links to the products on Zazzle.  I also created a Facebook page and Twitter account to help spread the word.  The total time investment was about 4 days (or just over 30 hours) and $12.  By day 6, I had already broken even on my investment.

This is the power of on-demand.  Literally, in one long weekend, you can go from idea to full scale business.  What are you waiting for?

To learn how to build your own on-demand business, pick up a copy of the book “Business in Minutes – How To Profit From the On-Demand Revolution” at Amazon.com.