Fundamentals I follow to make money in my business
I have this list of rules I follow from what am selling to the content I write.
In my early I was always wrong about it, I failed and hit bottom for one year, which made me broke for 2 times.
All those failures taught me many lessons and of them main wrong idea I followed was:
Idea > product > search for market/problem > solution for the problem > finding a way to reach them (I mean reaching them using social media and other channels to distribute).
It took me a while to come up with the reason that caused this, going to Reddit and listening to what pros were saying (well not all of them were pros, some were acting like a pro to buy their cool jackets), although I can differentiate what is good and what is bad with my little experience.
With this, I just improved my business fundamentals and created a new version:
channel/distribution > problem > solution > business
What people I can reach? (and in my case, it was through communities like Twitter Sorry X, Reddit, and Tumblr), what problem do they have that I can solve? (Although I have little experience in the dev field, my abilities started with writing, so that's where I focus) If I can solve it How can I monetize it?
I began with the newsletter because that was painless and the impact I could make was huge, even tho I'm not the best, I have to believe in myself right...
Also before directly asking 2 or 3 questions to myself, I have some checklist that need to consider before getting myself involved in any.
Checklists:
- is there a problem
- is the problem painful enough ($$?, urgent, important)
- is the problem frequent enough (weekly vs once 8 years?)
- are there enough people with the same problem (500 ppl vs 20M)
- how hard is it to reach people with problems (channels)
- is the market saturated by big brands (healthy competition is good)
- is the solution at least 3x better than the current substitute for any segment of the market?
- does the solution-business model work (subscription, cross-sell, upsell, partnerships, sponsorships, grants, etc)
- is there a segment that can be the early adopters?
- is there a road to other bigger segments?
Hope it was helpful!
The Selfish Mind, A weekly newsletter on how to improve oneself physically, emotionally, and psychologically.
