In MJ's book, he talked about the Commandment of Entry, basically saying 'If it's easy to do, it's probably not worth doing'. People like to bypass this commandment so easily, as if it's unimportant.
Here's an easy way to tell whether or not your business fulfills the commandment.
Write, in as much detail as you can imagine, all of the steps you will need to take in order to start generating revenue. For example, I started a t-shirt selling business that failed in a day. I gave up. Why? It became pointless the next day; the t-shirts became irrelevant. You can read more about it in my blog. I lost about $40.
So, in order to start selling t-shirts:
The only 'hard' thing here is the SEO. SEO isn't even that hard; it just takes a little while (maybe like two months for front page). So this essentially means the business is probably not worth pursuing.
Let's try a lead generation business.
If you say 'holy shit' at the end... you've fulfilled it. Viable businesses move slowly and NEVER take off overnight.
I oversimplified BIG TIME. Hopefully people can get the point though lol. A lesson I learned the 'hard' way!
Thanks a lot, Zazzle, for making t-shirt selling far too easy.
Here's an easy way to tell whether or not your business fulfills the commandment.
Write, in as much detail as you can imagine, all of the steps you will need to take in order to start generating revenue. For example, I started a t-shirt selling business that failed in a day. I gave up. Why? It became pointless the next day; the t-shirts became irrelevant. You can read more about it in my blog. I lost about $40.
So, in order to start selling t-shirts:
- Domain (costs $40)
- Hosting ($50)
- Wordpress (free)
- Create a design (maybe an hour)
- sign up for Zazzle and pick a price point (free)
- Create Facebook page (free)
- Start SEO (time intensive)
The only 'hard' thing here is the SEO. SEO isn't even that hard; it just takes a little while (maybe like two months for front page). So this essentially means the business is probably not worth pursuing.
Let's try a lead generation business.
- The biggest barriers to entry are the ranking and getting customers to sign up
- Must negotiate with vendors to agree to sign up because of the cost involved (at least at first)
- Requires enough bandwidth to support all traffic
- Requires a custom-made Web site (Wordpress won't work here)
- Requires a payment scheme that allows me to get paid if AND ONLY IF a user schedules an appointment AND must test this payment scheme to make sure it works
- If payment can only go through beforehand, there must be an easy refund protocol in case the lead does not go through. Must monitor the payment scheme until it becomes evident that it works
- Requires a search engine function
- Requires SEO on both front page AND search results pages
- Must develop a good reputation for referring people to good places
- ...holy shit
If you say 'holy shit' at the end... you've fulfilled it. Viable businesses move slowly and NEVER take off overnight.
I oversimplified BIG TIME. Hopefully people can get the point though lol. A lesson I learned the 'hard' way!
Thanks a lot, Zazzle, for making t-shirt selling far too easy.
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