Struggling with Business Ideas? Do This One Thing to Never Run Out of Fastlane Opportunities

[Paul Schuyler]

Hey, thanks for the really excellent post. Not following this line of thinking is MY personal major hangup, I always start from the wrong end of things. I always wind up getting caught in speculative interesting future projects, that are either artistically-oriented or novel inventions without a (yet) clearly defined need. In both cases where the needs are potential, possible, but not clear. But there's really no substitute for need is there? Without needs directly in front of you, the feedback loop is in the foggy distance and there are a million dead end trails.

 

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[MJ DeMarco]

Moved to GOLD, still hearing way to many "I can't find ideas!"

 

[Carol Jones]

Moved to GOLD, still hearing way to many "I can't find ideas!"

Good morning from Oz,

Ideas are everywhere. We trip over them every day. Every time we say:

I wish . . .

Why doesn't someone . . .

This doesn't work!

I can't find . . .

It's an opportunity to discover a solution that adds value to . . . whatever.

I just finished reading 'Unscripted '. The most enlightened book I've ever read about entrepreneurship.

It started me thinking about new opportunities.

It inspired me to start an 'Ideas Journal' on Sunday. Every time I utter the above, I now write it down. Along with whatever it was I was complaining about. Ditto for what I hear my partner grumble about. I will also be searching online for grizzling that leads to opportunities. This is the process I'm following to find new opportunities that I can add value to. The day will come when the process will lead to an event.

Ideas are right in front of us. Every minute. Of every day. But too often we ignore them because it's as Albert Einstein says, "Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work." ~Carol❤

 

[russ rags]

Fascinating thread! thanks to all who have contributed to prove once again one of the "laws of entrepreneurship" that ideas only matter if action is attached to them.

 

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[MTF]

Let's add two more simple ideas to get you started right away. It can't get easier than that to finally take some action and discover new business opportunities.

• Get a new hobby. Don't do any research about the potential market size of people interested in it or think hard about business ideas it might provide. Just start learning something cool and take notes whenever something is difficult or you wish could be done differently. I'm pretty sure that within a few weeks at most you'll uncover at least a few business ideas for products or services. Just by using products that help you engage in your new hobby, you'll come up with ideas on how to improve them. I recently got into filmmaking and have already discovered one cool product idea.
  
• Pick any software you find interesting and learn how to use it. This works great for any powerful tool that a lot of professionals use daily. Any Adobe product (for example, Photoshop, Illustrator, Premiere, After Effects, Lightroom, InDesign) or alternative tools are a great example. You can use your knowledge to start a productized services business (for example, learn how to create cool video intros for YouTube channels and specialize just in this - later on you can teach your process to contractors and focus on growing the business) or just start as a freelancer at first (you'll get paid learning how to use the software @Andy Black style). Instead of performing the service in itself, you can also start teaching others how to use the software (and you can even subniche it, for example "learn Lightroom for travel photography").

Yes, you'll have to spend some money on your new hobby or to buy software you intend to learn, but that's a small price to pay to get INSIDERS knowledge or acquire lucrative skills. It certainly beats wasting months "researching" business ideas without actually becoming your target customer or developing useful skills.

 

[MTF]

Get a new hobby. Don't do any research about the potential market size of people interested in it or think hard about business ideas it might provide. Just start learning something cool and take notes whenever something is difficult or you wish could be done differently. I'm pretty sure that within a few weeks at most you'll uncover at least a few business ideas for products or services. Just by using products that help you engage in your new hobby, you'll come up with ideas on how to improve them. I recently got into filmmaking and have already discovered one cool product idea.

I need to reemphasize how powerful this is. I've been traveling a lot recently, started surfing and got interested in a few more things. Because of all these new interests, I now have several new business ideas that I know would have at least one customer ready to spend money now - me.

Depending on the resources (mostly time and energy) I might actually work on some of them. I know that if I've been searching for something like this and couldn't find it, then other people would find it useful as well.

If you have no business ideas, stop obsessing about finding them and just start doing something new that you find exciting. I'm pretty sure that you'll quickly find some business ideas this way.

 

[superb]

I need to reemphasize how powerful this is. I've been traveling a lot recently, started surfing and got interested in a few more things. Because of all these new interests, I now have several new business ideas that I know would have at least one customer ready to spend money now - me.

Depending on the resources (mostly time and energy) I might actually work on some of them. I know that if I've been searching for something like this and couldn't find it, then other people would find it useful as well.

If you have no business ideas, stop obsessing about finding them and just start doing something new that you find exciting. I'm pretty sure that you'll quickly find some business ideas this way.

Funny, I was just considering taking up a new hobby. I've had only one hobby for years and not to say that there couldn't be anything new in this niche, but it's very saturated and I haven't been able to identify a problem worth solving - things are easier and more convenient than ever in this niche. Also I have been too close to it for so long that it's difficult to have a fresh perspective.

 

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[paddaiwan]

Thanks for the detailed explanation as to how you can listen to others to find painful problems. Didn't think of LinkedIn groups as a source of new ideas.

Another source where bigger problems get aggregated and published (at least here in Germany) is the Office of Fair Trading (OFT). I think this a variation of your approach. In their publications they serve you the problems of a lot of consumers on the silver platter.

 

[DrScream]

It's 2020 and this post alone has been worth my $60 INSIDERS subscription.

 

[MTF]

Glad to hear that, @DrScream!

 

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[luckywatcher]

I just got INSIDERS and this was one of the first posts I read. Since reading it I have made an active effort to recognize needs people have and discuss. It's been crazy how many ideas I've had recently once making that mindset change. Thanks OP!

 

[Venn]

First gold thread I have read after INSIDERS subscription, tons of value !

 

[jsc]

Great read!

 

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[Vasudev Soni]

aka The Astonishing Secrets That IceCreamKid Never Told You… Exposed!

(just kidding man)

Dear INSIDERS,

For years I couldn't understand how MJ can so easily spot everywhere opportunities to start a Fastlane business. I was always struggling with business ideas, and MJ's words in his book - "Not a day goes by when I don’t spot a need that can be exploited for Fastlane opportunity" just infuriated me.

"How the hell does MJ spot so many needs? What am I doing wrong? It's easy for him because he's wealthy!".

As a result, I just chased money. Blogging? Let's do it, I can make money on ads and e-books! Affiliate marketing? Why not - there are so many products to sell! SEO? Damn man, imagine how much money I can make on Google traffic and AdSense!

Oh boy, how stupid I was. No wonder why I couldn't see Fastlane opportunities all around me.

Fortunately, I finally learned from my own mistakes. Now not a day goes by when I don't spot a need that can be exploited for Fastlane opportunity.

Do This One Thing to Never Run Out of Brilliant Fastlane Opportunities

Guess how to spot a Fastlane opportunity...

No, you don't google "how to make money". You don't read lists of 100 best business ideas. You don't start a make money blog (seriously, come on!). You don't even come up with your own ideas.

What you do is you LISTEN to other people.

It's nothing new - MJ talks about it extensively in his book. IceCreamKid also already mentioned it in his thread, but I think many people missed the main point of his post.

Instead of repeating their advice, I'd like to give you some real-world examples so that you can get started right away.

3 Ways to Get Million-Dollar Ideas on a Daily Basis

The easiest way to always have new business opportunities is to talk with people and let them share with you their pains, problems, needs, and/or wants.

In fact, your ability to spot Fastlane opportunities is directly related to your ability to listen to other people.

Okay, but how exactly do you get other people to share million-dollar ideas with you? Here are three ways I tried personally (along with real-world examples in the next section):

1. Cold e-mailing/cold calling

Pick an industry (use IBISWorld - Industry Market Research, Reports, and Statistics for some cool industry reports), google "[your chosen industry] [city]" (or use www.manta.com), browse their site to find their contact info and send them an e-mail or call them. Here's one of the scripts I used when e-mailing one of the industries I researched:

Subject line: Can you help me [first name]?

Hey [first name],

Found your contact information on Manta.com and felt the need to reach out to someone with your experience.

My name is [your name] and I am an entrepreneur doing research on the [your chosen industry]. My goal is to learn about the biggest pains you have running your business and to solve a big problem that will make your life easier.

What are your biggest frustrations with managing your business?

Love to hear back from you, even if it’s only one sentence.

Kind regards,
[your name and contact info]

It's pretty similar to Dane Maxwell's idea extraction e-mails. Keep in mind your initial response rate for cold e-mails won't be higher than 5%, so for each 100 e-mails sent you can expect maybe 5 replies. You can greatly increase your response rate by personalizing your e-mails.

I didn't try cold calling, but my friend is doing it and he finds it very effective for his research.

2. Leverage LinkedIn

LinkedIn is the best place to reach people in virtually every industry - including CEOs of extremely successful companies.

I myself had calls with two owners of huge cleaning companies (with up to several hundred employees) who both shared with me problems worth thousands, if not millions, of dollars to them.

One business owner told me outright - "if you solve this problem for me, I'll make you a very wealthy individual".

Again, find an industry, join groups for this industry and start connecting with people and message them asking about their problems.

You can also post discussions in groups (post them around 8-9 AM to increase your chances of being featured in a daily group digest).

I didn't explore posting in groups much, but I got great results from simply connecting with people and messaging them - I'm talking about response rate of around 20% (and remember, that's for cold messaging).

3. Talk with people in person

Visit local businesses or talk with your friends and family. If you start listening more, you'll get dozens of ideas a day. Not all of them are Fastlane, but that's not the point - the point is you'll always find several brilliant ideas among every 50+ ideas you'll get every week/month if you simply focus on problems of other people.

Keep in mind that you should always get people to talk with you. Exchanging e-mails is not enough. Get people on Skype, talk over the phone or in person.

When talking with these people, dig deep - ask them to clearly define their problem, get to know the most painful part of it, ask them how much it's worth to them and how much they would be willing to pay to get it solved. And then pre-sell your solution to validate the idea - ask them to pay upfront for the solution.

Real-World Ideas I Got from This Process

Just to give you some examples, here are some ideas I got thanks to following this simple process:

1. Software for dance studios. Currently there's no professional software for dance studios that would let owners of dance studios use their own payment gateway instead of a pre-defined payment gateway.

One business owner told me he's willing to pay $50-60 a month for this solution, and he says this solution would be a blockbuster not only for owners of dance studios, but also any other studio (e.g. yoga and pilates studios).

The main pain here is that owners of dance studios using other software solutions are forced to give up control and use payment gateway provided by the software company.

Fastlane? Check. If you take into account the fact there are around 8000 dance studios in the US alone, you can easily take it to mid 5 figures a month (and that's just from dance studios and no upsells). More scale, less magnitude.

2. Employee management software for the cleaning industry. Large cleaning companies struggle with employee retention. They're willing to pay thousands per year to increase their employee retention rate (get employees who wouldn't leave their company after several months to join a different cleaning company which offers a slightly higher hourly rate).

Fastlane? Check. One business owner told me this problem costs him up to millions per year. Each client can be worth thousands a year to you. More magnitude, less scale.

3. Marketing consultation company for owners of yoga studios - just to show you something not related to software. After exchanging messages with numerous owners of yoga studios I noticed that a common pain is that owners of yoga studios don't have any marketing skills. They're great at teaching yoga, but not very good at marketing. You could start a company focused on helping yoga studios get more clients.

Fastlane? Check. There are 26 000 yoga and pilates studios in the US alone. Once you develop a process, you can easily replicate your process all over the US.

4. Organizing fun events in your city. I originally learned about this cool idea from Noah Kagan (read this incredible post in which he shows how to start a $3500/month business in less than a week) but after speaking with my friends (they can also be a great source of business ideas) I noticed there's a similar pain in my city shared by many people.

If there are few fun events in your city, ask your friends what they'd like to do to have some fun for $25 (e.g. learn how to craft cocktails) and then pre-sell events to them.

Fastlane? Check. Once you master the process, you can start a franchise and organize similar events in other cities.

I didn't decide to go through with these ideas for various reasons so feel free to steal them.

Warning: Ideas Are Worthless Without Execution

Before you start jumping for joy because I shared these Fastlane ideas with you, remember that ideas are worthless without execution. Each of the ideas I listed above is easily worth millions, but to make them, you first have to execute and provide value.

However, now that you know how to always have new brilliant business ideas, you can't make an excuse you can't come up with any ideas...

Once you stop obsessing over ideas and start taking action, the world becomes your (entrepreneurial) playground.

You don't have to get it right, you just have to get it moving. Pick an industry, start researching it, and stop struggling with coming up with business ideas.

Further Resources

If you want to learn more about how to listen to people to get to know their pains and problems, read Harry Browne's book "The Secret of Selling Anything".

PS. I experienced incredible growth thanks to the INSIDERS groups and my friend and mentor who I got to know thanks to this forum. It's my way of giving forward. My course of life was permanently altered thanks to you MJ.

It was indeed a great read. Thanks for this post.

 

[harlansjobs]

After re-reding unscripted , I typed in a certain keyword and this post came up. Not sure why as I have yet to find the keyword here, but no matter. I am following the advice in post #1, but Manta told me that they wouldn't let me in because I did not have a website and they wanted me to subscribe. So still lookng for new sources of information. Need to look at the scrapers. THe problem is they either don't work right, or Google keeps changing their API. Will see about maybe some directories, or groups maybe. Will see how to find my way around the requrement of many of them that you either have to be a scubscrber or a member of the industry just to join!

 

[shneebz]

This was a good thread. Thanks.

 

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[MJ DeMarco]

Upgraded to GOLD, old thread that got lost in the weeds.