Are creators really entrepreneurs?

Where creators stand on the pecking order of entrepreneurs has always been a controversial topic.

Of course, most creators will label themselves entrepreneurs because it makes them look good.

Yet those who create software or physical products often aren’t so free with the label. If you read here enough, you’ll think info products like courses are a sure-fire way to make you rich. The reality is the majority fail and the promise of easy money is saturating the market.

Writing threads on Twitter would once have made you stand out now everyone and their dog is doing it. You don’t know how many people are paying others to share their content under the covers. It’s a murkier world than you might think.

Mudslinging between different types of businesses isn’t interesting. The trend of creators starting software businesses is though. Many of them are doing a great job too. Here are three who are killing it:

• Sam King has built Flick.Tech
• Dickie Bush has built TypeShare
• Aadit Sheth has built The LinkedIn Carousel Generator

I’ll break down why this is happening.

Creator life is tough

I got my start as a creator and this idea everyone is swimming in passive income is a lie. Basic economics. If you’re making easy money then it will attract others who want to do the same. While you’re sipping pina Coladas on a beach in Bali, they’ll overtake you. Competitive advantages don’t last forever.

Creators are like professional athletes. Some maintain high quality for years and others have one season where they have their 15 seconds of fame before they fade into obscurity. You never know when your time in the spotlight will be up.

This is why there’s a constant need for new content and a drive to stay relevant. Don’t be fooled by the people who’ve reached a tipping point and this includes me. The first year or two are easy but what do you do beyond that? How do you stop yourself from becoming stale? You can repurpose content forever but eventually, your audience gets bored.

Platforms and rules change.

Info products become outdated.

High-ticket products reach their market size.

This world is still new and it’s going to be fascinating to see what people do after 10 years of being a creator or 20 years. People like Mark Manson achieved mainstream success but they built their brands in an era where competition was much less fierce than it is today.

SaaS the solution?

Personal brands can be canceled or stop being cool. Yet if you build a tool that solves a problem for someone, it won’t go out of fashion. It’s much more scalable because it doesn’t depend on someone meshing with your style and personality.

I see smart creators dipping their toes into SaaS (Software-as-a-service) which is a fancy word for an online tool you usually pay for with a subscription. Unlike a course, you receive recurring revenue without needing to keep adding new content or engaging with a community. Once the product has traction, it’s no longer dependent on a personal brand to keep it going meaning the creator can disappear from the public sphere.

I have two dozen SaaS subscriptions myself but they are often cheap and the amount of time they save me makes paying the small fee a no-brainer. The easiest way to find a product idea is to think about what tools you’d love to have but can’t find anywhere.

• Sam King wanted to know the best hashtags for his social media posts but it was painful manual work. So he created Flick.
• Dickie Bush wanted to write in one place and share to different platforms without the tedium of copying and pasting. So he created TypeShare.
• Aadit Sheth wanted to leverage his excellent Twitter content on LinkedIn. So he created the LinkedIn Carousel Generator.

These products can become redundant too but often only need minor updates and maintenance. If you target a niche small enough, it won’t attract the attention of large companies but it can give you a comfortable lifestyle.

The obvious roadblock for creators who want to transition into more traditional entrepreneurs is coding ability. Yet you must know most founders don’t code their apps. Creators can invest their earnings into hiring developers. There’s always a risk but there are few millionaire creators but many millionaire SaaS founders.

Creators have an unfair advantage

More creators should be thinking about how they can leverage their brand to create a product that isn’t trading information. Yes, it adds resilience to their finances but they also have a competitive advantage that can add value to people’s lives.

For a traditional founder, the hardest part is the early days. How do you get potential customers to give you product feedback when you’re a nobody? How do you win your first customers if you have no track record?

Creators can build their products in public and receive vital feedback along the way because their audience trusts them already. They’ve got unique insight because of how many of their target customers they interact with. Rather than pay for marketing to make the first sales, creators can use their channels. It’s way easier to sell to people who already like you!

You can also use content to build a powerful network. When you ask your friends to promote your product in the early days, it helps if those friends happen to also have hundreds of thousands of followers and big email lists.

I get so many cold emails from people wanting me to use their product and write about it. I don’t know them. I have no idea if they are credible. Frankly, they don’t have a big enough budget to make me care in most cases.

Yet when a fellow major creator slides into my messages and asks me to check out their product, I’m going to do it out of a sense of kinship.

Maybe stereotypical creators aren’t what many people consider entrepreneurs. Yet if they choose to break into other product categories, the existing players better be ready for a fight.