0816_TOEFL-Test-and-Score-Manual-1997

Develop and Launch New Products and Services ● 121
She designs elaborate rosaries and dramatic necklaces made with
African trade beads and chunky, rare semiprecious stones. One of her special
rosaries was presented to Pope John Paul II. “When I’m in my studio,
I’m just so centered,” said Bacon. “It’s all about the beads. They have traveled
continents to get to me.”
Check out her work on her web site, www.sallywrightbacon.com, and
visit Oodles in Orford, New Hampshire.
Here are some tips for turning your hobby into a small business:
• Look for others who share your passion and connect with them to see
what they are doing.
• Attend a hobby or craft trade show to check out the trends and
competition.
• Subscribe to magazines and newsletters that cover your hobby.
• Find out if you can rent the publication’s or web site’s e-mail list. Do a
test mailing to promote your best product.
• Start small. Don’t quit your job.
• Check with your accountant about the IRS rules on tax deductions for
hobbies versus businesses. If you don’t make any money doing what
you love, it’s not a business.
GREAT
Become an Exclusive Importer
B
IDEA
eing first to introduce a unique product to the United
States is one of the best ways to establish a successful
small business. This was the strategy used by Mara Seibert and Lenore Rice,
two former high-powered Wall Street players who traded in their briefcases
for a New Jersey warehouse full of handmade Italian terra-cotta pottery.
Mara Seibert was on the fast track as a mergers and acquisitions specialist
at Chase Manhattan Bank, structuring big leveraged buyouts and
hostile corporate takeovers during the 1980s.
Tax attorney Lenore Rice was working as a Wall Street lawyer during
the 1980s mergers and acquisitions boom. Tired of the rat race, Seibert
and Rice opted to quit their jobs to stay home with their young children.