Struggling with starting a business

Questions and Comments
#21

A business is when you:

  1. Find a market with a problem… a market big enough to be worth doing.
  2. Find/Build/whatever a solution for that problem
  3. Tell the prospective customers, wherever they are, about your solution.
  4. Can sell (closing) the deals to convert leads into customers
  5. Can deliver the solution to the customers profitably and scalably
  6. Build systems to get new customers AND deliver the value while using less and less of your time.

Many people stop halfway through 5 and rarely get to 6, but without those parts, you haven’t got a business, you’re self-employed and still trade time for dollars. The other parts are what make it a business.

4 Likes
#22

And also what’s your goals?

Do you wanna make 10K/month and chill in Bali or do you want a 10M exit?

If your goal is like making 10-30K/month literally just gain a high-paying skillset like Sales, Coding, Copywriting, eCom and bam you’ll get there easily

Tbh everyone wants that sexy Entrepreneur title while not understanding what it entails. Sometimes getting a high paying career is more lucrative with way less headache.

There’s so many paths to wealth and being the CEO might not be you and that’s okay.

But if you are serious about Entrepreneurship and starting a Business with Employees that you could eventually sell for a 7-8 figure exit.

You gotta play the game differently and Think in terms of strategy, systems, people and leverage.

Strategy - What business will you run? Who’s the competitors? Whats the size of the market? Is it a growing market? What problems are we solving? Are we B2C or B2B? Are we selling a Product or Service? How can we sell it?

Systems - What internal systems do I have to build to make it possible? What tools do I use to keep track of profits and metrics?

People - What relationships do I need to build? Who do I need on my team? Who do I need to hire?

Leverage - Do I need to raise Capital? How can I use software to make things more efficient? How do I use my capital so that everytime I spend 1 dollar it gives me 10?

Anyways I’d suggest reading the Book the One Thing by Gary Keller and Ready, Fire, Aim by Michael Masterson

6 Likes
#23

OOH. Best book on this is Your Next Five Moves by Patrick Bet David.

Literally the most perfect book you can read rn. Will help you find yourself, learn the effective strategies you need and more importantly…

How to Think.

You have to learn how to think. Because your not thinking like a business owner rn your just thinking like a dude who just wants to make money doing this quick hack. Lol.

The dudes like @Hoppa who have businesses will absolutely smoke you because he knows how to think. Thats literally your only job as a business owner. Is think, solve problems and delegate it to your employees.

4 Likes
#24

Your not gonna Win in business by just working hard, thats legit for broke people.

In university I have a 4.0 and I studied like 2-3 hrs for a test maximum.

Change your approach and technique and strategy. Understand why would someone pay you X for your product or service? Its usually cause thats because of Value they see compared to the money they are letting go.

Value is anything that helps them save more time, do something better, experience something, feel something, solves their problem, makes their life easier, gives them status, power, health, respect, women, more wealth, security, comfort.

Your job is to communicate that Value and find the sweet spot where Value is higher than the money they’re letting go of.

Its legit hella easy. Once you know how to think, it just turns into a video game bro.

2 Likes
#25

Delivering value is always the what, the how is what’s different from your offering vs someone elses.

A few weeks ago I was in my office when my wife started shouting from the kitchen for me to come help… I thought my daughter might have been injured, but instead I discovered that our water heater had exploded… steam and boiling water were spraying out, the kitchen was flooding, and it was a mess.

I got the water shut off, and needed a plumber ASAP.

Turning a wrench is a how.
Draining the old tank and putting a new one in is a how.
etc…

Getting us back to a non-explodey tank and water switched back on is the what. I didn’t care how it was done (well, I still watched, as it was interesting…) but the value he delivered was the restoration of our water.

If I didn’t need that what, he could be the best wrench-turning tank-lugging dude on the planet, and I wouldn’t care. Find a problem, a painful problem… the more painful it is, the more you can charge.

The what is what the customer pays for, not the how. Aromatherapy, tarot cards, etc… those are all hows… you need to find a what that those methods can be used to solve.

5 Likes
#26

Also, don’t take business criticisms personally. I haven’t verified the statistic, but a commonly cited one is what… 90%? of businesses fail within the first 5 years…
If ~90% of new businesses need the same kind of advice to be successful, then any one single person hearing it shouldn’t take it personally. It’s just part of business.

It’s better to be told that your idea isn’t likely to make it before you spend years and $$$$ investing in it, as then you still have those resources available to pivot to something else.

Getting clear on what you want is vital too… a lifestyle business is a different approach than shooting for a 7-figure exit.

4 Likes
#27

Also look into the Unsexy businesses cause those are the businesses that make bank everyday of the week.

The more I think about it… I completely agree with Peter Thiels philosophy on Competition…

We would rather get married to the sexiest possible business making 10K/month instead of an unsexy Toilet Paper selling business that does 500K/month cause it sounds much cooler lolol

Our business is not us. Eliminate your emotions and passions from it

4 Likes
#28

Some food for thought: Jeff Bezos.

Everyone thinks Amazon? Right?

Amazon lost him 1B last year bro.

Nobody thinks Amazon Web Services (AWS) which made him 32B.

Amazon operates at such a tiny profit margin. I think like 1%

AWS operates at 40% margins.

AWS is in government contracting. Lol. But AWS is unsexy.

4 Likes
#29

Indeed! Platforms are powerful. The more you can position yourself to be the way someone else does what they want, how they get what they want, the more profit can be generated.

2 Likes
#30

I used to do this, lol.

I sent you some advice in PM, cheers.

4 Likes
#31

Thank You Everyone! :pray:

#32

How did you figure out how to do that? Trial and error?

#33

@vivekarora83
It’s about getting into that level which make it challenging. Imagine you don’t have the money and keep on affirming, “I am rich” but you’re mind is stuck on the lack and you end up nothing.

I already have a business of my own but the courage to expand it is absent. What I learned here the How is not important but how you get into the flow is, then what you need to know will come next.

You’re right about the Emperor, HOM, but you have to trust and believe that it will work. Those titles has a level of difficulty and need some time to work. If you already have the attributes to run a business (experienced) that titles will enhance it.

To illustrate, I didn’t like the idea of studying accounting - prior to this I been running EOG, RICH and keep entertaining myself with local businesses in which I am not very familiar with. I remember finding myself on a bookstore purchasing a Managerial financial book. And actually enjoying reading it. Flipping pages on my planner I can see all the things I did that I thought was impossible.

I trust the process to work all the time though I remember having failures that lead to better ventures.

RICH is my catalyst, EOG is a foundation. HOM makes you blend in on the upper class.

Don’t ever make the mistake that failures is the only reason to give up. It could be a way of leaving those heavy baggages of yours so you can start a real business.

#34

This is a top notch, no-frills plan

Also since I just joined this amazing community, I cannot send you DM. Would you mind linking me to those networking groups which you recommend?

1 Like
#35

Lots of learning, and finally trial and error. I’m located in Finland, there simply are not enough interests for example. So I had to adjust to the local conditions. The whole FB adult aged audience here is 2,2 million(might be different now, but the size is tiny compared to English speaking world).

2 Likes