- Joined
- May 7, 2015
- Messages
- 91
Rep Bank
$265
$265
User Power: 53%
This is something I posted in another thread that I'd like a bit of feedback on please if anyone would be so kind to provide it:
I think most of us who are new to business and have read TMF and unscripted understand that the only way to succeed in business is by adding value in some way, but understanding how to add value is really difficult.
The advice that a lot of people will give is to do something you're already good at. If you work for a copywriting agency for example, it's likely that you have the framework in place to start your own copywriting agency. Or perhaps like @Joe Cassandra if you have experience in the finance industry, you are equipt to go into copywriting as an expert in the industry to help companies with their copywriting by adding value in a way that a generic copywriter cannot.
The question is, what approach should someone who does not have this sort of experience take? There are a lot of young guys on this forum who likely have no specialised skills/knowledge to go on whatsoever.
I work in customer services for a commodity company for example, where solving pain points in the industry is difficult due to the bland nature of the products being sold and the heavy regulation. I'm sure many are in the same situation though, doing a job where there is limited scope to develop a career and start to understand the industry and find problems that can be solved.
The next logical step then would be to look at hobbies and see whether there are any opportunities to add value to industries where your hobbies lie. Again though, this all depends on what hobbies you have, and whether you think there are problems you can solve. Again I personally don't feel there are any problems I can solve within the industry of my hobbies, and I'm sure there are many like that also.
I think this leaves many people in a position of being like a leaf in the wind, being blown from one idea to the next, because their desire to add value to an industry is not grounded in experience and understanding of that industry.
I've been reading an interesting book lately called 'Opportunity identification and entrepreneurship' which is about studying why and how people become successful entrepreneurs. In the first chapter of the book, they reveal that the serial entrepreneurs they looked at (serial being defined as someone having more than one success, so as to weed out people who got lucky once. People who are clearly far removed from the average and achieve extraordinary results) found most of their opportunities in industries they were already working in.
Finding a business idea for these ultra successful entrepreneurs was a process of using their domain specific knowledge to scan for problems and opportunities. The fact that they had domain specific knowledge allowed them to find pain points easier and put them in a more advantageous position than the average Joe, they leveraged their knowledge and this seems to make a big difference when finding opportunities. They found opportunities, because of their experience, that others could not see. They had an 'unfair advantage' so to speak.
Everywhere I look now I seem to be seeing entrepreneurs who were successful after already having worked in the industry that their successful business was built in, rather than just jumping in blindly.
With the above in mind, it seems difficult and unlikely for someone to go from 0-100 in an industry they have to prior knowledge or understanding of.
So this leaves a lot of newbies in a predicament with two options:
1) Do nothing, hope for the big blockbuster idea to come along
2) Do something, feel unconfident and uncomfortable and solve needs poorly until your knowledge allows you to serve needs better
Option two is the one that seems to be the way forward.
It's daunting and difficult to just throw yourself into something, and that's why a lot of people (my self included) struggle I think.
I am personally considering just starting on upwork with my limited skill set that I currently have for online marketing and just helping businesses, and then trying to focus on a specific niche to become known as the go-to guy for online marketing in that niche. My gut feeling is that this approach is overplayed, but I know that logically anyone can come along and take a piece of the market and that domain specific knowledge acquired may take you in a different, more lucrative direction anyway.
Another suggestion that people seem to make is to just start flipping items. Again I can see how buying and selling fitness equipment (I seem to recall someone on here doing it with bicycles?) for example can naturally progress into an ecommerce store perhaps or gaining an understanding of what your core buyers want and how to launch a business to meet that need.
Something interesting that I've witnessed recently is an instagram account which I follow about watches. The premise of the account is to post pictures of celebrities wearing watches and identify which watch it is that they're wearing. The owner had recently started posting instagram stories brokering second hand watch sales for luxury watches worth $xx,xxx. He has built an audience interested in these watches, and if he is successfully selling them I bet he is getting a great commission. This guy has probably identified an opportunity for people wanting to sell watches (maybe they're sick of paying high eBay fees) which he wouldn't have seen if he had not started. And he has already done the legwork of building an audience who are interested in what he is selling.
I'm still not confident that what I am writing in this post is correct as it comes from a position of never having built a successful business, but I know that a lot of my anxiety and disappointment in myself comes from sitting on the sidelines and not having a business idea, but I feel like just jumping in and hustling might be the best way forward for people in my situation.
So really what is on my mind now is doing one of the following:
1) the upwork route - getting started by just solving needs for people, move into an industry I enjoy working in as I become more comfortable and then start to build a marketing agency perhaps around that industry and expand the services I can offer to meet clients needs
2) Start buying and selling things on eBay or gumtree (the Craigslist of the UK), as I get more experience and knowledge start to specialise in certain items (luxury watches for example) and become the go to guy in that industry, then look to carry over the buying/selling knowledge to an ecommerce store for example
3) I've read an article over at a website called gaps.com recently about building email newsletters and I've had a few good ideas from that, I've considered doing a location arbitrage on a company called theskimm who send short news updates via email to its paying subscribers
4) just throw everything I can at ecommerce. I see tons of people who seem to be doing well on instagram, a company I really admire is Tayroc who sell watches in the U.K., I know for a fact they're raking it in based on their published financial data. They came out at a time where the watch niche was less saturated than it is now but still later than the likes of MVMT watches who were the first adopters to the whole instagram fashion brand thing, and from what I can see they don't seem to offer a different value proposition to its customers, makes me wonder whether it's possible to just launch a business in the space without trying to do something unique and grow it through sheer hard work.
As you can see from above my thoughts are still kinda all over the place and I'm really not sure where to start, but I've coasted for years messing around without SEO getting nowhere, and a recent F*ck this moment has really kicked me into gear and motivated me to just take life by the reigns and move forward with a business.
I think most of us who are new to business and have read TMF and unscripted understand that the only way to succeed in business is by adding value in some way, but understanding how to add value is really difficult.
The advice that a lot of people will give is to do something you're already good at. If you work for a copywriting agency for example, it's likely that you have the framework in place to start your own copywriting agency. Or perhaps like @Joe Cassandra if you have experience in the finance industry, you are equipt to go into copywriting as an expert in the industry to help companies with their copywriting by adding value in a way that a generic copywriter cannot.
The question is, what approach should someone who does not have this sort of experience take? There are a lot of young guys on this forum who likely have no specialised skills/knowledge to go on whatsoever.
I work in customer services for a commodity company for example, where solving pain points in the industry is difficult due to the bland nature of the products being sold and the heavy regulation. I'm sure many are in the same situation though, doing a job where there is limited scope to develop a career and start to understand the industry and find problems that can be solved.
The next logical step then would be to look at hobbies and see whether there are any opportunities to add value to industries where your hobbies lie. Again though, this all depends on what hobbies you have, and whether you think there are problems you can solve. Again I personally don't feel there are any problems I can solve within the industry of my hobbies, and I'm sure there are many like that also.
I think this leaves many people in a position of being like a leaf in the wind, being blown from one idea to the next, because their desire to add value to an industry is not grounded in experience and understanding of that industry.
I've been reading an interesting book lately called 'Opportunity identification and entrepreneurship' which is about studying why and how people become successful entrepreneurs. In the first chapter of the book, they reveal that the serial entrepreneurs they looked at (serial being defined as someone having more than one success, so as to weed out people who got lucky once. People who are clearly far removed from the average and achieve extraordinary results) found most of their opportunities in industries they were already working in.
Finding a business idea for these ultra successful entrepreneurs was a process of using their domain specific knowledge to scan for problems and opportunities. The fact that they had domain specific knowledge allowed them to find pain points easier and put them in a more advantageous position than the average Joe, they leveraged their knowledge and this seems to make a big difference when finding opportunities. They found opportunities, because of their experience, that others could not see. They had an 'unfair advantage' so to speak.
Everywhere I look now I seem to be seeing entrepreneurs who were successful after already having worked in the industry that their successful business was built in, rather than just jumping in blindly.
With the above in mind, it seems difficult and unlikely for someone to go from 0-100 in an industry they have to prior knowledge or understanding of.
So this leaves a lot of newbies in a predicament with two options:
1) Do nothing, hope for the big blockbuster idea to come along
2) Do something, feel unconfident and uncomfortable and solve needs poorly until your knowledge allows you to serve needs better
Option two is the one that seems to be the way forward.
It's daunting and difficult to just throw yourself into something, and that's why a lot of people (my self included) struggle I think.
I am personally considering just starting on upwork with my limited skill set that I currently have for online marketing and just helping businesses, and then trying to focus on a specific niche to become known as the go-to guy for online marketing in that niche. My gut feeling is that this approach is overplayed, but I know that logically anyone can come along and take a piece of the market and that domain specific knowledge acquired may take you in a different, more lucrative direction anyway.
Another suggestion that people seem to make is to just start flipping items. Again I can see how buying and selling fitness equipment (I seem to recall someone on here doing it with bicycles?) for example can naturally progress into an ecommerce store perhaps or gaining an understanding of what your core buyers want and how to launch a business to meet that need.
Something interesting that I've witnessed recently is an instagram account which I follow about watches. The premise of the account is to post pictures of celebrities wearing watches and identify which watch it is that they're wearing. The owner had recently started posting instagram stories brokering second hand watch sales for luxury watches worth $xx,xxx. He has built an audience interested in these watches, and if he is successfully selling them I bet he is getting a great commission. This guy has probably identified an opportunity for people wanting to sell watches (maybe they're sick of paying high eBay fees) which he wouldn't have seen if he had not started. And he has already done the legwork of building an audience who are interested in what he is selling.
I'm still not confident that what I am writing in this post is correct as it comes from a position of never having built a successful business, but I know that a lot of my anxiety and disappointment in myself comes from sitting on the sidelines and not having a business idea, but I feel like just jumping in and hustling might be the best way forward for people in my situation.
So really what is on my mind now is doing one of the following:
1) the upwork route - getting started by just solving needs for people, move into an industry I enjoy working in as I become more comfortable and then start to build a marketing agency perhaps around that industry and expand the services I can offer to meet clients needs
2) Start buying and selling things on eBay or gumtree (the Craigslist of the UK), as I get more experience and knowledge start to specialise in certain items (luxury watches for example) and become the go to guy in that industry, then look to carry over the buying/selling knowledge to an ecommerce store for example
3) I've read an article over at a website called gaps.com recently about building email newsletters and I've had a few good ideas from that, I've considered doing a location arbitrage on a company called theskimm who send short news updates via email to its paying subscribers
4) just throw everything I can at ecommerce. I see tons of people who seem to be doing well on instagram, a company I really admire is Tayroc who sell watches in the U.K., I know for a fact they're raking it in based on their published financial data. They came out at a time where the watch niche was less saturated than it is now but still later than the likes of MVMT watches who were the first adopters to the whole instagram fashion brand thing, and from what I can see they don't seem to offer a different value proposition to its customers, makes me wonder whether it's possible to just launch a business in the space without trying to do something unique and grow it through sheer hard work.
As you can see from above my thoughts are still kinda all over the place and I'm really not sure where to start, but I've coasted for years messing around without SEO getting nowhere, and a recent F*ck this moment has really kicked me into gear and motivated me to just take life by the reigns and move forward with a business.
Dislike ads? Become a Fastlane member:
Subscribe today and surround yourself with winners and millionaire mentors, not those broke friends who only want to drink beer and play video games. :-)
Membership Required: Upgrade to Expose Nearly 1,000,000 Posts
Ready to Unleash the Millionaire Entrepreneur in You?
Become a member of the Fastlane Forum, the private community founded by best-selling author and multi-millionaire entrepreneur MJ DeMarco. Since 2007, MJ DeMarco has poured his heart and soul into the Fastlane Forum, helping entrepreneurs reclaim their time, win their financial freedom, and live their best life.
With more than 39,000 posts packed with insights, strategies, and advice, you’re not just a member—you’re stepping into MJ’s inner-circle, a place where you’ll never be left alone.
Become a member and gain immediate access to...
- Active Community: Ever join a community only to find it DEAD? Not at Fastlane! As you can see from our home page, life-changing content is posted dozens of times daily.
- Exclusive Insights: Direct access to MJ DeMarco’s daily contributions and wisdom.
- Powerful Networking Opportunities: Connect with a diverse group of successful entrepreneurs who can offer mentorship, collaboration, and opportunities.
- Proven Strategies: Learn from the best in the business, with actionable advice and strategies that can accelerate your success.
"You are the average of the five people you surround yourself with the most..."
Who are you surrounding yourself with? Surround yourself with millionaire success. Join Fastlane today!
Join Today
O jewi vsoif vji iyisdoti ug xsovoph fuxp qsucmint, opdupwipoipdit ivd. cav O piwis tiin vu duni aq xovj epzvjoph.
