You've got to be able to sell it

OK. The phone rings. The caller got my number off the internet. (Never bothered to go to the website and read anything) "Is it true that for $25,000 you can set me up with my own profitable perfume line?"

I respond, "How are you going to sell your (notice I say YOUR!) perfume?"

"You don't do that?"

"Sorry. It's your deal, you have to sell it."

I suggest a trip to my website and a little reading. After all, if you're prepared to spend $25,000 for something you don't understand, paying a few dollars and doing some reading to gain understanding seems reasonable (to me).

But they won't. They need it all done for them -- along with a guarantee that their money will double or triple or more. And that $25,000? I can only imagine the trouble we would both be in if, at this point, they wrote me a check and I cashed it.

Publicity for perfume launches tries to make it LOOK like magic. Celebrity X woke up one morning with this great idea for a perfume, made a few calls to their agent, and the next thing you know, there was the bottle with their name on it in Macy's.

Perfume can make money. It can, in some instances, make a lot of money. But putting a perfume -- and a "perfume deal" -- together requires all that boreing planning work that goes into any successful promotion -- or perfume.

And the first question must always be, "How are we going to sell it?"