MommyMillionaire

The Story Of Tyler Perry--How Far Would You Go For A Dream?

Mommy Millionaire asks “How Far Will You Go For a Dream?”

Visit www.mommymillionaire.com to learn more about Kim.

Tyler Perry is a star, with a hot new movie (Why Did I Get Married?), a series on TV (House of  Payne), and a line-up of successful theater productions. But it wasn’t too long ago that his life could have been qualified as a complete failure by most people. His story is the testimony to how powerful a dream can be, and what kind of  heroic journey dreams can lead us on in an effort to realize them. Besides being an artistic hero, Tyler Perry is also a testimony to the power of recognizing an underserved niche in the marketplace, and going after that niche, regardless of how much opposition you can encounter. There are countless underserved niches in the market ready to
be exploited, and only those who are visionary enough to see them, and courageous enough to follow their dreams to reach them, can lead us on to a wider understanding and greater opportunity. But getting there is no easy process for the leader who pushes us to that new frontier. As you’ll see from Tyler Perry’s story, being a leader often requires enduring hardship, risk and sacrifice beyond what any of us could anticipate. But as I like to say, there is no reward without risk, and the greater the risk, the greater the reward.

I remember the first time I heard of Tyler Perry. It was in 2002 and I was staying with family in Atlanta, where a very rough video was stuck into the VCR of a theater production Perry had recently staged in Atlanta, titled Medea Goes to Jail. I had never heard of Perry before, and looking at the almost amateur quality of the video I was watching I thought ‘who really cares!’ That is, until I started laughing hysterically. Perry was taking aim at his own social community and delivering biting commentary and politically-incorrect humor that was both shocking and hilarious. I couldn’t believe what I was seeing and I instantly thought this guy was a genius with brass balls who had the guts to say things no traditional studio or theater company would touch. The only city ready for this message at the time was Atlanta, which is increasingly becoming what I like to euphemistically refer to as “The Black New York,” where music moguls and creative artists come together to form a melting-pot of defining black culture. Even at this time, Perry’s personal story was legendary, even to the suburban white folk who were sitting around laughing hysterically at this grainy video. And everybody there regarded him with respect.

Perry was raised dirt-poor in New Orleans, where he was reportedly physically abused as a child. He undertook the exercise of writing letters to himself about the anger and pain he suffered as a child as a means to exorcise himself of these negative influences. These letters turned into his first play “I Know I’ve Been Saved.” After saving $12,000, he moved to Atlanta for the purpose of  staging it. But this isn’t a
story of overnight success. Perry spent 6 full years in Atlanta, writing and staging productions, which all failed, leaving him homeless and penniless.

At the beginning, unable to afford traditional theaters, Perry staged his productions in unconventional venues that were linked to the black community, referred to as the “chitlin’ circuit,” and these people, outside of any traditional Hollywood or NY demographic, are what made him. His dedication to this core constituency has not wavered even today. Even though he’s become a Hollywood darling, Perry refuses to
relinquish one iota of creative control over any of his projects, insuring that his vision of humorously commenting on
this overlooked cultural niche remains true and unwatered down. It’s safe to bet that five years ago, nobody in Hollywood or NY could have been convinced of the financial viability of a homeless man staging acerbic plays about the foibles of  a marginalized black community in “chitlin’ circuit” venues. Since then, as of March 2005, Perry’s work has been reported to have earned him over $75 million. (Today’s most marginalized community—one falsely considered to be divested of power or
influence—is moms. I’m on my own journey to fix that.)

Which brings me to another artist I think is in the midst of this same journey, literally on “The Road” to who his own new success and doing whatever it takes along the way to get there, despite the sorry state of today’s music market: Brian Vander Ark http://www.myspace.com/brianvanderark. I know that I--as a consumer—am frustrated with the lack of quality music variety available in traditional media sources. MTV has essentially stopped playing videos except for the usual suspects, or those new artists with a quirky video concept that makes for better TV than just good music. Finding new voices outside of the standard products that mainstream radio is used to selling is getting harder every day. As an entrepreneur, I look at the mainstream music industry as a market ready to be transformed by a few inspired dreamers on their own quest to write great songs for vast audiences that have been marginalized, without being forced to compromise their vision to do it.

Brian is one of those people. After having enjoyed mega-success as the lead singer and principal songwriter for The Verve Pipe, which, thanks to the band’s big hit “The Freshmen” ended up selling more than 3 million albums worldwide, he’s back on a
mission to write great music that is an inspiration to me and should be millions of others. His songwriting skills are better than ever, focusing his inspired gifts for storytelling on life’s successes and failures, relationships and faith, shining light into the corners of real personal experience with his poignant and transforming lyrics and melodies, that can’t help but lift me up every time I hear them.

In 2005, Brian, determined to make music on his own terms, sold all his possessions and hit the road to play wherever anybody would pay him, from traditional music venues to people’s living rooms—all in attempt to fund his next album’s production and release. His latest CD, Angel, Put Your Face On, delivers just that: great songwriting combined with incredible musical production, earning my 10 year old son’s “favorite artist” status. The road trip has been successful enough that Brian is
getting ready to go into the studio to record his newest album in November. But you’ll probably never hear Brian on MTV, just like I never saw Tyler Perry in traditional media. I redisovered Brian in my church on a Sunday, where he came to play three songs acoustically solo, just like I had to discover Perry on grainy video tape, a play produced by a penniless artist who was singularly committed to producing art that was true to his own vision—no matter the cost. Just like Perry, you probably won't see Brian in traditional music channels of distribution for another couple of years, when he imposes his talent and vision on the rest of us, dragging the music industry along by the strength of his dream to produce real music that matters for the rest of us. Only then, unfortunately, after suffering financially like Perry and every one else before him, will his dream and singular talent be recognized and vindicated.

How far would you go for a dream? Would you spend your last dime and suffer homelessness? Join the discussion on the www.mommymillionaire.com message board. Do you have to lose everything in order to succeed? Do you know people who have given up on the brink of success because they gave into pressures from people and society that told them they were failures?

You can also check out there my recent answers to questions from readers about trademarks, patents and profit margins.

Copyright 2007, Kim Lavine. This article can not be reproduced on the web or otherwise without the written permission of Kim Lavine.

Kim is the President and Founder of Green Daisy, Inc—a lifestyle brand focused on balancing life with love ™--and the best selling author of Mommy Millionaire.
http://www.mommymillionaire.com   

Kim has appeared on The Today Show, Rachel Ray, NBC & ABC news, CNN, CNBC's "The Big Idea" with Donny Deutsch, NPR, Oprah & Friends Radio Network, LifetimeTV.com, and has been featured in USA Today, Country Living, Guideposts, Women's World, and American Baby to name a few. Kim is on a mission to encourage
women to follow their dreams, inspiring them with hope, honesty and faith.

Kim’s book has been called by Publisher’s Weekly in a Starred Review: “A top-notch, how-to guide on launching a business. Lavine’s human and authoritative story make this one of the most engaging and useful resources available for readers hoping
to convert their passion into a healthy company…a rare gem.” USA Today says ““Mommy Millionaire is loaded with resources for a fledgling business person…armed with a good idea and boundless energy.” Barbara De Angelis, PH.D.—#1 New York Times Bestselling Author says, “Mommy Millionaire is an inspiring gift and road map to success for anyone who’s ever had a dream.”

"Everything begins with a search for something better--a dream,
an idea, the courage to face a challenge, and the passion to get it done.
You can do it.
Believe in yourself.
Change the rules.
Join the revolution."
From MOMMY MILLIONAIRE, by Kim Lavine

Calculating Profit Margins

Today I'm answering a question off the www.mommymillionaire.com Message Board. If you want to ask me your own question, visit www.mommymillionaire.com and post it.

Kim, I am going to sell my product wholesale to retailers.  I need to know what is a reasonable profit percent for me. 56%  77% or 108%
example: my cost $3.00,  wholesale $ 5.75, profit $ 2.75,  profit %=91.
I don't want to work this hard for no profit but I also don't want to make the wholesale so high that the retailer can't get their keystone.
What % should I expect to work for?
Thanks, your message board has been a big help as well as the book.

Hi June,

This is a great question and I do answer it in detail in my book MOMMY MILLIONAIRE.

To be honest, your profit margin seems really slim. I don't know if you've adequately evaluated your COGS or Cost of Goods Sold to include miscellaneous costs like EDI or Electronic Data Interchange or even the cost of carrying any loans you may have taken out to fund your business. I'm not sure if you're selling to small retail or big retail, but other costs you may or may not have anticipated include advertising co-op (this is money big retailers ask you to contribute to feature your product in their sales circulars), Point-of-Purchase displays, damages (every big retailer will try and negotiate a percentage from 1% to 5% off wholesale cost for the inevitable damaged merchandise) or even shipping costs, which can be very significant.

There is no standard mark-up or profit margin percentage. It varies widely by industry and product. Some plastic injection molding companies are making single digit profit margins, while I know of some small electronic manufacturers who are working on 1000% margins. However, what will ultimately determine your profit margin is this: What is the consumer willing to pay for your product. Too many people start with their costs and add on percentages to arrive at what they need to make, regardless of whether anybody is willing to buy the product at that price.

My advice is, sharpen your pencil, look at your COGS sold again, adding on every possible charge you can think of, and see if you can make money selling it at a price a consumer is willing to pay. Remember, as your product goes into wider distribution your COGS goes down because of Economy of Scale, so you may have to be satisfied with making less than you want at the beginning in exchange for getting your product out there.

Good Luck & God Bless,

Kim Lavine

Kim is the President and Founder of Green Daisy, Inc—a lifestyle brand focused on balancing life with love ™--and the best selling author of Mommy Millionaire. Kim has appeared on The Today Show, Rachel Ray, NBC & ABC news, CNN, CNBC's "The Big Idea" with Donny Deutsch, NPR, Oprah & Friends Radio Network, LifetimeTV.com, and has been featured in USA Today, Country Living, Guideposts, Women's World, and American Baby to name a few. Kim is on a mission to encourage women to follow their dreams, inspiring them with hope, honesty and faith.

Kim’s book has been called by Publisher’s Weekly in a Starred Review: “A top-notch, how-to guide on launching a business. Lavine’s human and authoritative story make this one of the most engaging and useful resources available for readers hoping to convert their passion into a healthy company…a rare gem.” USA Today says ““Mommy Millionaire is loaded with resources for a fledgling business person…armed with a good idea and boundless energy.” Barbara De Angelis, PH.D.—#1 New York Times Bestselling Author says, “Mommy Millionaire is an inspiring gift and road map to success for anyone who’s ever had a dream.”

"Everything begins with a search for something better--a dream, an idea, the
courage to face a challenge, and the passion to get it done.
You can do it.
Believe in yourself.
Change the rules.
Join the revolution."
From MOMMY MILLIONAIRE, by Kim Lavine

The Mommy Millionaire Virus

I heard a comment this month that entrepreneurialism is a viral condition. The idea is that all you need to do is come in contact with someone who’s mind has opened up to entrepreneurial opportunity, to catch that virus—which I’ll define here as the condition of seeing opportunity all around you. I know this is true in my life. Just knowing that my Millionaire Mentors took an idea from start-up to a successful exit strategy in nine years seemed to give me insight, or maybe the permission, into believing that I could do it too. It was as if a door had opened in a room that I had become accustomed to living in my whole life—get a job, a career, buy the big house and SUV—to reveal a whole other part of a house that I had never seen before, with bigger rooms and lots more light. Suddenly I saw the possibility of so much more freedom and satisfaction in my life by becoming an entrepreneur.

I saw an example of this at my speaking engagement this week at a conference on entrepreneurship at E2Detroit www.e2Detroit.com. A male student was there as an employee of Barnes & Noble for the purpose of selling my book during my book signing. He was a physics major, with a heady interest in theoretical physics as it related to time, yet after hearing my speech, he came up to me to tell me two ideas he had for products, one which could possibly revolutionize the way we look at and use energy in our own homes. After hearing his second great idea, I had to stop him and ask him if had seriously evaluated the opportunity. Example, what was the cost for creating his revolutionary home energy-generating system, what was the Return on Investment (ROI) for the homeowner, meaning how long would it take to recover the cost of installing the system in through energy savings. Essentially, I was asking him, have you evaluated the opportunity completely by writing a business plan?

If entrepreneurialism is a virus, then the cure has got to be in a Business Plan.

Getting the virus comes from seeing opportunity in an idea. Curing the virus requires writing a Business Plan and forcing yourself to answer all the questions that go along with turning that great idea into a reality.

Which brings me to a question posted on the www.MommyMillionaire.com Message Board this week about Business Plans and prototypes. Christine wrote to me to ask about the best way to write a business plan. There are lots of different business plan templates out there, but you can visit www.mommymillionaire.com where you can download my preferred version for starting out on the Templates page. When you’re writing your Business Plan, the message is “don’t get overwhelmed.” This is not going to happen overnight. It can take you weeks to complete the research necessary just to adequately evaluate your COGS or Cost of Goods Sold. Building a Cash Flow Spreadsheet, and providing the rest of the required financial documents for obtaining funding, can take you additional weeks. I go into this in detail in my book MOMMY MILLIONAIRE, so if you need additional guidance on writing your business plan and obtaining funding, pick up a copy today and read it.

Christine was primarily concerned about writing a business plan that would satisfy a potential angel investor. Angel investors are sophisticated investors licensed by the SEC or Securities and Exchange Commission to make investments in small to mid-size companies for the purpose of capturing returns of typically 30% on their investment, as well as to stimulate economic growth in their communities. Writing a business plan that will satisfy sophisticated private equity investors is going to require help from additional sources, particularly your local Small Business Development Center. I tell you how to locate your local office of the SBDC in my book, and online at www.mommymillionaire.com on the Templates Page. The question, as brought to my attention today by a friend who emailed me an article in the NY Times on raising capital for women-owned businesses is this: Would you really be willing to trade control of your company for money to fund its growth from angel investors?

Besides Christine struggling with her Business Plan, she admitted being stuck on creating a prototype, which is a dilemma a lot of entrepreneurs encounter. I address the prototype question in a separate topic on the www.mommymillionaire.com Forum, so log on today if you want to read it. However what needs to be emphasized here again is the necessity for at least a Nondisclosure Agreement, or a Provisional Patent Application while you talk to various individuals in your beginning stages of creating your prototype or taking it to market. Christine talks about her dealing with an individual who refuses to sign one, and asks for advice. My advice would be this: don’t ever give anyone proprietary information about your great idea or product without them first signing an NDA, unless you’ve got a Provisional Patent Application in place. A PPA costs under $100, is only 3 pages long, and gives you patent-pending protection in the marketplace for a year while you investigate these prototype issues. I know it’s hard to hold your line—even I’ve trusted people with confidential or proprietary information, when I thought there was serious opportunity with a good-faith intent to move forward. Not one of these opportunities has delivered any results—all the good-faith intent disappeared the minute I gave them my information--and I’ve learned to regret each instance.

In the end, there are no easy answers to difficult problems. Just take your time and do the work that is necessary to evaluate the opportunity before you give it away. There is just no short-cut around writing the business plan.

What do you think about the question of the day? Would you really be willing to trade control of your company for money to fund its growth from angel investors? Join the www.mommymillionaire.com forum on the Message Board and let me know.

Copyright 2007: Kim Lavine

Kim is the President and Founder of Green Daisy, Inc—a lifestyle brand focused on balancing life with love ™--and the best selling author of Mommy Millionaire. Kim has appeared on The Today Show, Rachel Ray, NBC & ABC news, CNN, CNBC's "The Big Idea" with Donny Deutsch, NPR, Oprah & Friends Radio Network, LifetimeTV.com, and has been featured in USA Today, Country Living, Guideposts, Women's World, and American Baby to name a few. Kim is on a mission to encourage women to follow their dreams, inspiring them with hope, honesty and faith.

Kim’s book has been called by Publisher’s Weekly in a Starred Review: “A top-notch, how-to guide on launching a business. Lavine’s human and authoritative story make this one of the most engaging and useful resources available for readers hoping to convert their passion into a healthy company…a rare gem.” USA Today says ““Mommy Millionaire is loaded with resources for a fledgling business person…armed with a good idea and boundless energy.” Barbara De Angelis, PH.D.—#1 New York Times Bestselling Author says, “Mommy Millionaire is an inspiring gift and road map to success for anyone who’s ever had a dream.” 

"Everything begins with a search for something better--a dream, an idea, the
courage to face a challenge, and the passion to get it done.
You can do it.
Believe in yourself.
Change the rules.
Join the revolution."
From MOMMY MILLIONAIRE, by Kim Lavine

WWMMD? How Do I Register to Attend A Tradeshow?

Today I'm answering a question from the www.mommymillionaire.com Message Board, from a reader who wants to know the best way to prepare for and attend her first tradeshow. To learn more, pick up my book MOMMY MILLIONAIRE http://www.amazon.com/Mommy-Millionaire-Kitchen-Million-Dollars/dp/0312354576, where I discuss the tradeshow process in detail, including how to create the perfect booth display, how to get the most publicity, and how to create order forms.

Hey Kim,

    I would like to go to a trade show and get the "lay of the land" so to speak. You must be a "business" to register as a guest. What is the easiest route to take for this? Should I get a business name and Tax ID #? Talked to a girl at AmericasMart and she said I could get a guest pass, just to email my business info and the names of myself and partner. Didn't want to look stupid and ask exactly what info she needed. If there is some way I'll need to register as an official business...I guess now may be a good time. Have a prototype, filing a provisional patent, in process of looking for a manufacturer. Also,  Isn't there a website that lists all the trade shows, places held, venues etc... I'd like to go to one by the end of the year. Thanks for all you do sister!!!
Sharon

Hi Sharon,

If you're thinking of starting a business and you're at a prototype process, I would recommend you go ahead and make the leap and get your State Tax ID number. This is very easy to get. Go to your state's website and click around until you find the Dept of Revenue, where you will no doubt find a link to filing this form online. (All states are slightly different.) Your State Tax Id--sometimes called a Reseller's Certificate--is like a Social Security number for your business, and the state will track your revenues and the amount of sales tax you will owe on those revenues with your State Tax ID, under which you will also file an annual or quarterly tax return. You will also be required to get a Federal Tax ID number as well, or EIN. (I would recommend you pick up my book MOMMY MILLIONAIRE to read in detail the requirements of taxes, local, state and federal registrations, and business entities.)

To attend AmericasMart—the nation’s largest tradeshow venue www.americasmart.com --as a Buyer, you typically need to provide a copy of your State Tax ID, a business card, and a copy of a check from your business's checking account. AmericasMart is the absolute best market to attend, so if you can make it there, do it. Otherwise visit http://www.tradeshowweek.com to find a listing of all tradeshows.

Good Luck & God Bless

Kim Lavine

Kim is the President and Founder of Green Daisy, Inc—a lifestyle brand focused on balancing life with love ™--and the best selling author of Mommy Millionaire. Kim has appeared on The Today Show, Rachel Ray, NBC & ABC news, CNN, CNBC's "The Big Idea" with Donny Deutsch, NPR, Oprah & Friends Radio Network, LifetimeTV.com, and has been featured in USA Today, Country Living, Guideposts, Women's World, and American Baby to name a few. Kim is on a mission to encourage women to follow their dreams, inspiring them with hope, honesty and faith.

Kim’s book has been called by Publisher’s Weekly in a Starred Review: “A top-notch, how-to guide on launching a business. Lavine’s human and authoritative story make this one of the most engaging and useful resources available for readers hoping to convert their passion into a healthy company…a rare gem.” USA Today says ““Mommy Millionaire is loaded with resources for a fledgling business person…armed with a good idea and boundless energy.” Barbara De Angelis, PH.D.—#1 New York Times Bestselling Author says, “Mommy Millionaire is an inspiring gift and road map to success for anyone who’s ever had a dream.”