How to Grow (Very) Rich in Tough Economic Times

Let’s say you own a business and you’re trying to decide what kinds of products you should be developing. Or, you’re a copywriter trying to select the clients and projects most likely to make you a bundle over the next year or so.

Right off the bat, you know it isn’t going to be easy. Just take a look around…

The U.S. economy has ground to a standstill and the stock market is stuck in quicksand.

The credit markets have dried up and even our largest banks are teetering on the brink of disaster.

The equity in your home — most people’s #1 source of savings and wealth — is dwindling by the day. And despite the steady stream of pro-dollar B.S. flowing from the Fed, the value of your money is tanking, too.

The number of unemployed Americans is heading toward Depression-era levels, and personal and corporate bankruptcies are setting all-time record highs with each passing month.

Gasoline, natural gas, and electricity prices are sky-high and roaring higher, and every trip to the grocery store costs you more than the last one did.

Consumer confidence is cratering… prospects and customers are curtailing discretionary purchases and beginning to watch every penny as if it were their last… and retail sales at all but discount stores are plunging.

And if all that isn’t enough cause for concern, the president continues to pitch tax and regulatory disasters, plus health care and other spending schemes that have proven historically to be recipes for financial catastrophe.

Sorry, Boobalah, but them’s the cards you’ve been dealt.

What’s that you say? “This article isn’t for me. I’m not in the U.S. I live in one of the hundreds of other countries on the Early to Rise subscription list.”

Uh — sorry to break it to you, my foreign friend, but with America on the ropes… with Eurozone economies slowing, stock markets softening, and inflation rising… and with Asian nations fighting their own inflation demons and Pacific Rim stocks swooning as much as 60 percent so far this year… these ain’t exactly high times for you, either.

So — given the fact that we’re all marketers here — what do you do to make max money these days?

What kinds of products should businesses be launching?

Answer that one question and you stand an excellent chance of getting through this with a stronger business and greater wealth than you have now. Get it wrong, and you’d better learn to love eating beans three times a day.

That question has been at the top of my mind lately. Maybe my thoughts could help you.

Right now, for example, I see five big areas of opportunity for entrepreneurs, business owners, and marketing folk…

Opportunity #1
Anything that helps consumers or companies live better for less

Products and services, for example, that…

Improve gas mileage, help reduce the number of miles we need to drive each week, shrink utility bills, ease the pain we’re feeling at the grocery store check-out counter, and, of course, minimize our taxes and insurance premiums.

Reduce what we pay for education or to care for aging parents… minimize medical or legal bills… allow us to buy the best for the same or less than we’re paying now for second- or third-best.

Help older people live better on a fixed income, guiding them to higher-yielding investments, getting more out of Social Security and Medicare, and making every dollar go farther.

Help businesses reduce costs and also find new operating efficiencies that improve productivity and shore up their bottom lines.

Opportunity #2
Things that help make consumers or businesses make more money

Products and services that help prospects…

Augment income or replace a lost job: work-at-home opportunities… entrepreneurial and home-based businesses… online business opportunities… multi-level marketing opportunities… investment courses, software, and products designed to do well in a stagflationary environment… anything that helps employed people get a raise or helps jobless folks find an employer.

Survive and thrive in a troubled real estate market: to sell a home or limit the financial damage that comes with foreclosure… or to profit as home foreclosures mount and home prices continue to plunge…

Harness the profit potential of excess debt: debt collection services, products to help consumers fend off debt collectors, credit counseling/debt reduction services and bankruptcy help spring to mind…

Sell more products for less: anything that helps companies increase sales revenues and reduce costs, thus increasing ROI, profits, and market share.

Opportunity #3
Little luxuries and guilty pleasures

Did you know that the entire global make-up industry was founded during the Great Depression?

It’s true! When money’s tight and jobs are hanging by a thread, inexpensive products that offer us a sense of normalcy… help us connect emotionally with “the good old days”… boost our self-esteem or hope… give us pleasure or a few moments of respite from worry and want… tend to sell like hotcakes.

Opportunity #4
Products and services for the richest one-quarter of one percent

You won’t see Warren Buffet, Bill Gates, or Al Gore in a breadline anytime soon. High-net-worth folks have money to burn even in tough times.

So, even in tough times, being in the business of selling things to the super-rich can be very, very profitable. The rich and filthy rich will still be spending good money on fashion, jewelry, antiques, art, travel, high-end estates, exotic cars, yachts, private jets, and more.

Opportunity #5
Products we all need, no matter what

No matter how tough things get, we still fall in love, have sex, have babies. We all still have to eat and drink… still have medical needs… and, of course, we all, eventually, unfortunately, still croak — and products that help us do these things well and cheaply tend to be stagflation-proof.

What have I left out? Probably a ton of stuff!

So chime in. Let’s hear your ideas for growing rich no matter what happens next in the economy: AskETR@ETRFeedback.com.

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