How to Start Your First Business in 48 Hours

Ali Abdaal
6 Feb 202414:12

Summary

TLDR本视频讨论了Noah Kagan的书籍《百万美元周末》中如何快速启动业务的方法。书中分为三个部分:启动、构建和增长。Kagan强调,创业不必等到有了完美想法才开始,而是应该先决定开始,然后找到合适的想法。他提倡“先行动,后完善”的理念,并建议通过解决实际问题来构建业务,优先考虑客户需求。此外,他还分享了如何通过预售产品来验证市场需求,从而减少创业风险。

Takeaways

  • 🚀 **开始创业不必等待完美想法**:创业不是先有好主意再开始,而是决定开始创业,然后找到合适的主意。
  • 🛠️ **行动胜于空想**:成功的企业家都是先行动,再解决问题,而不是事先分析。
  • 💡 **最小行动原则**:不要被“如何做”所困扰,而是考虑现在能采取的最小行动。
  • 💌 **情感支持的重要性**:对于许多想要开始YouTube频道的人来说,情感障碍比技术问题更大。
  • 💰 **投资与理财**:使用如Trading212这样的平台可以帮助你投资股票、股份和基金,且无需支付佣金。
  • 🎯 **客户至上**:首先确定你想要服务的人群,因为业务本质上是解决愿意为此付费的人的问题。
  • 🤔 **验证商业想法**:通过询问潜在客户,验证他们是否愿意为你的解决方案付费。
  • 📈 **从自己的问题中发现商机**:如果你遇到问题,很可能会有人有同样的问题。
  • 📝 **预售验证市场需求**:通过预售产品或服务来验证市场需求,而不是先制作再销售。
  • 🗣️ **与客户沟通**:与客户进行大量沟通,了解他们的问题,并验证你的商业想法是否真的有市场。
  • 📊 **持续学习与成长**:阅读《百万美元周末》这样的书籍,了解创业的深入策略和方法。

Q & A

  • 《百万美元周末》这本书主要教我们什么?

    -这本书主要教我们如何在一个周末开始自己的第一家公司,为有创业想法但尚未行动的人提供了一条清晰的行动路线图。

  • 书中提到的“就f***ing开始”是什么意思?

    -这句话的意思是鼓励人们在创业时不要等待完美的时机或完美的点子,而是要立刻开始行动,即使自己还没有完全准备好。

  • 为什么说“现在,而不是怎么做”这个座右铭对创业者很重要?

    -这个座右铭强调的是采取行动的重要性,而不是纠结于如何去做。它鼓励创业者专注于立即可以采取的最小行动,而不是被“怎么做”这个问题所困扰。

  • 书中提到的“客户优先”的方法是什么?

    -“客户优先”的方法是指创业者首先应该确定他们想要服务的人群,然后找出这些潜在客户的问题,而不是先有一个商业想法或产品。这样可以确保在开发产品或服务之前,已经验证了市场上确实有人愿意为解决这些问题付费。

  • 如何验证一个商业想法是否有市场?

    -验证商业想法的市场性可以通过直接向潜在客户提出问题,询问他们是否愿意为解决某个问题付费。如果他们愿意预付资金,那么这个想法就值得进一步探索。

  • 为什么说在建立产品之前先销售产品是个好主意?

    -在建立产品之前先销售产品可以验证市场对产品的需求,确保有实际的客户需求。这样可以减少风险,避免在不确定是否有市场的情况下投入大量时间和资源去开发产品。

  • Noah Kagan的朋友Boris是如何验证他的餐饮业务想法的?

    -Boris通过发送电子邮件给他的朋友们,提出了一个预先支付20美元以换取方便且美味家常菜的业务想法,并询问他们是否对此感兴趣。这种直接向潜在客户收费的方法帮助他验证了这个想法的可行性。

  • 如何使用自己的问题来生成商业想法?

    -通过反思自己的日常生活中遇到的问题,比如那些让你感到烦恼的事情、长时间未完成的任务、经常做不好的事情,或者你想买但市场上没有的产品,这些都可能是潜在的商业机会。

  • 为什么说与客户交谈是验证商业想法的关键?

    -与客户交谈可以帮助创业者更好地理解客户的真实需求和问题,从而调整和优化他们的产品或服务。此外,通过向客户预销售产品或服务,可以验证市场的真实需求,并为产品开发提供资金支持。

  • 在创业初期,为什么建议创业者专注于获取前三个付费客户?

    -专注于获取前三个付费客户可以帮助创业者验证他们的商业想法是否具有市场潜力。一旦有了愿意付费的客户,这为创业者提供了继续发展业务的动力和信心。

  • 如果我想要开始一个在线课程,我应该先做什么?

    -你应该先进行预售,通过创建一个简单的着陆页,向你的受众介绍课程概念,并提供预购选项。这样,你可以在实际制作课程之前验证市场需求,并为课程的开发提供资金。

Outlines

00:00

🚀 如何在周末开始你的第一家公司

本段介绍了Noah Kagan的书籍《百万美元周末》中的核心理念,该书旨在教导读者如何在周末启动自己的第一家公司。书中分为三个部分:开始、构建和增长。视频主要聚焦于前两部分。作者强调,创业者往往因为缺乏所谓的“正确想法”而迟迟未能行动,但Kagan提出,创业者应该先决定创业,再通过一定的流程找到正确的想法。他鼓励读者在准备好之前就开始行动,因为没有人会感到完全准备好。此外,他还提出了“现在行动,而不是如何行动”的格言,鼓励创业者采取最小的行动立即开始。

05:00

💡 以客户为中心的创业方法

这一部分讨论了以客户为中心的创业方法,强调了在寻找商业想法时,首先要确定你想要服务的人群。商业的本质是解决愿意为此付费的人的问题。作者通过自己的经验指出,许多创业者在没有验证市场需求的情况下就开始构建产品或服务,这是很多学生创业者常犯的错误。他建议,创业者应该从自己的影响圈开始,找到有钱且愿意付费的客户,然后通过直接询问他们生活中的问题来生成商业想法。此外,作者还分享了一个通过邮件预售产品来验证商业想法的实例。

10:01

🤔 如何验证你的商业想法

在这一段中,作者讨论了如何验证商业想法的有效性。他强调,与其花费大量时间和精力去构建一个产品或服务,不如先通过预售来验证市场是否真的需要它。他提出了一个简单的例子,即通过直接向潜在客户提出服务并要求预付款来测试他们是否真的愿意为这个想法付费。此外,作者还建议创业者应该关注自己的问题,因为如果一个问题对你来说是存在的,那么很可能其他人也面临同样的问题。他给出了四个提示来帮助创业者发现自身的问题,从而可能转化为商业机会。

Mindmap

Keywords

💡创业

创业是指个人或团队发现商机并组织资源去实现的过程。在视频中,创业是核心主题,讲述了如何开始自己的第一家公司,并通过实际行动而非过度规划来验证商业想法。

💡行动先行

行动先行是指在准备充分之前就开始采取行动,强调的是开始的重要性,而不是等待完美的时机或想法。视频中提到,成功的企业家都是先行动,然后解决问题,而不是通过预先分析来获得行动的信心。

💡客户优先

客户优先是一种商业策略,强调首先确定目标客户群,然后围绕他们的需求和问题来开发产品或服务。视频中提到,创业者应该首先确定他们想要服务的人,因为商业本质上是解决愿意为之付费的人的问题。

💡最小可行性产品(MVP)

最小可行性产品(MVP)是指带有最基本功能的产品原型,用来测试市场反应并收集用户反馈。在视频中,提到创业者应该在制作MVP之前先尝试预售产品,以此来验证市场需求。

💡预售

预售是指在产品或服务实际完成之前,就开始销售给消费者的营销策略。这种方法可以用来验证市场需求和收集资金。视频中提到,通过预售,创业者可以在没有实际产品的情况下测试市场的反应。

💡问题发现

问题发现是指识别和理解客户需求或市场上存在的问题的过程。在创业过程中,找到问题并提出解决方案是构建业务的关键步骤。视频中强调,创业者应该成为问题的磁铁,积极寻找并解决生活中的问题。

💡情感支持

情感支持是指在面对挑战和困难时给予个人的心理鼓励和安慰。在视频中,作者提到情感支持对于创业者来说非常重要,因为创业过程中会遇到很多情绪上的挑战。

💡商业想法

商业想法是指创业者为了解决特定问题而构思的创新解决方案。视频中提到,创业者应该先找到愿意为解决问题付费的客户,然后再开发产品或服务,而不是先有一个商业想法再去找寻客户。

💡投资

投资是指将资金用于购买股票、债券、基金或其他金融工具,以期待获得未来收益的行为。视频中提到了使用Trading212这样的投资平台,来管理和增加个人的投资组合。

💡赞助商

赞助商是指为视频、活动或其他媒体内容提供资金支持的个人或公司,通常作为交换,他们会在内容中获得曝光。视频中提到了Trading212作为视频的赞助商,并介绍了它的一些功能。

💡市场验证

市场验证是指通过实际的市场反馈来确认产品或服务是否满足客户需求并具有商业潜力的过程。视频中强调了在投入大量时间和资源之前,通过预售和直接与客户沟通来验证商业想法的重要性。

Highlights

Noah Kagan's book 'Million Dollar Weekend' provides a roadmap for aspiring entrepreneurs to start their own business.

The book is divided into three parts: start it, build it, and grow it.

The core message of the first chapter is to start before you feel ready, as no one ever feels truly prepared to start a business.

Successful entrepreneurs act first and figure things out later, rather than overthinking before taking action.

The motto 'now, not how' encourages focusing on taking the smallest action now rather than getting stuck on the details of how to do something.

Emotional support is crucial for entrepreneurs, as many struggle with the fear and uncertainty of starting a business.

The customer first approach to building a business emphasizes understanding the target audience's needs before creating a product or service.

Entrepreneurs should validate their business ideas by asking potential customers if they would pay for the solution to their problems.

The founder first approach often leads to entrepreneurs building products without verifying there's a market for them.

A customer first perspective involves identifying a problem and then finding a way to solve it that people are willing to pay for.

Validating a business idea involves asking for pre-orders or payment before creating the product or service.

Entrepreneurs should look to their own problems as potential business ideas, as these are likely shared by others.

Four prompts are suggested to help identify personal problems that could be turned into business opportunities: irritations, lingering to-dos, regular failures, and unavailable desired products.

Instead of building a product and then finding customers, entrepreneurs should sell the idea first to validate demand and secure paying customers.

Pre-selling a product or service before building it can validate the market and provide essential feedback from potential customers.

Second-time founders often spend most of their time talking to customers to validate their business ideas and understand their needs.

The book 'Million Dollar Weekend' is highly recommended for anyone starting their entrepreneurial journey, offering practical advice and strategies.

Transcripts

play00:00

All right, so how do you start your first business in a weekend?

play00:03

That is what Noah Kagan purports to teach us in this book Million Dollar Weekend,

play00:06

which is what we're discussing in this episode of Book Club,

play00:08

the ongoing series where I distill and discuss highlights and summaries

play00:11

from some of my favorite books.

play00:12

And genuinely, this is a absolutely fantastic book to read

play00:15

if you are an aspiring entrepreneur.

play00:17

If you've ever thought that you want to start your own business

play00:19

and you have not yet done it, you need to read this book

play00:21

because it's going to give you a play-by-play roadmap

play00:23

on how exactly to do that.

play00:24

Okay, so the book is broken down into three parts.

play00:26

We've got part one, start it.

play00:28

Part two, build it.

play00:29

And part three, grow it.

play00:30

And in this video, I'm going to focus on part one and two,

play00:32

start it and build it.

play00:34

Let's go.

play00:35

If you're watching this and you haven't yet started your business,

play00:37

I suspect, for a lot of people I know,

play00:39

you might have been thinking about starting a business for several years.

play00:42

You have just not yet taken action.

play00:43

And there is this pervasive myth that happens amongst

play00:47

everyone who is an aspiring entrepreneur,

play00:48

which is, I need the right idea.

play00:50

I cannot get started until I have the right idea.

play00:53

But the thing is, and what Noah talks about throughout the book,

play00:56

is you don't start a business by first having the right idea

play01:00

and then starting the business.

play01:01

You start a business by deciding to start a business

play01:04

and then you find a process to come up with the right idea.

play01:07

And really, the core message he's sharing this first chapter,

play01:09

which is why it's called a chapter one,

play01:10

just f***ing start,

play01:12

is begin before you are ready.

play01:14

No one feels ready to start a business.

play01:16

Just like I've heard, no one really feels ready to have kids.

play01:18

The timing is never quite right.

play01:19

Similarly, the timing to start a business is never quite right.

play01:22

You have to just start.

play01:23

You have to begin before you're ready.

play01:24

And just to labour this point just a little bit more,

play01:26

there's a nice quote here.

play01:27

Most people overthink first, act later.

play01:30

Every successful entrepreneur, act first, figure it out later.

play01:34

Any analysis ahead of action is purely speculation.

play01:37

You really do not understand something until you've done it.

play01:40

Rather than trying to plan your way into the confidence to act,

play01:43

just start acting.

play01:45

And there is a motto that he talks about here.

play01:46

And this is a motto that has really stuck with me

play01:49

since I read the book a couple of weeks ago.

play01:50

And that motto is, now, not how.

play01:53

Whenever we think of doing something, we're like,

play01:55

okay, well, I've got this idea for this thing,

play01:56

but how do I do it?

play01:58

And there's this tyranny of how.

play02:00

The how holds us back from doing things.

play02:02

Instead, think, what is the smallest action I can take right now?

play02:05

Even if you don't know what to do about anything,

play02:07

there's probably a small action that you can figure out

play02:09

that you can just take action on.

play02:10

And then once you've taken action on that,

play02:12

you can then get started with the thing.

play02:14

So honestly, the whole first chapter is a lot of emotional support.

play02:18

Genuinely, I've been running my YouTuber Academy for a few years now.

play02:20

We've taught like 5,000 students in it.

play02:22

95% of students, when it comes to starting YouTube channels,

play02:26

it's not technical things they're struggling with.

play02:27

It's the emotional side of things.

play02:29

They're like, oh, I couldn't possibly make YouTube videos

play02:31

unless I have the perfect idea.

play02:32

No one starts making YouTube videos with a perfect idea.

play02:34

Just like no one starts a business with the perfect idea.

play02:37

You decide to start, and then you can figure out the idea second.

play02:40

Now, whatever stage of the business process you're at,

play02:42

you're hopefully making some amount of money,

play02:44

and then you're gonna need a place to invest that money.

play02:46

And that is where the sponsor of this video comes in,

play02:47

and that is Trading212.

play02:49

Trading212 is a fantastic app that lets you invest in stocks,

play02:52

and shares, and funds in a commission-free fashion.

play02:55

They've got a bunch of really good features,

play02:56

which is why I personally use them to manage a portion of my portfolio.

play02:59

So firstly, they've got a great practice mode.

play03:01

If you're new to investing, for example,

play03:02

you can go on the app and you can make an account for free,

play03:04

and you can invest with fake money,

play03:06

which actually sort of will track how the market's actually performing.

play03:09

And so you can see, would you have made money

play03:11

or would you have lost money over a certain period of time

play03:13

had you invested actual real cash?

play03:15

And then once you're ready, you can always switch it

play03:16

from like the fake play video game mode

play03:18

into the actual money mode,

play03:19

which is obviously what I do,

play03:20

because I invest my actual money through Trading212.

play03:22

They also have a really good pies and auto-invest feature.

play03:25

So basically, there's a bunch of like random people

play03:26

who are super into like the stock market analysis,

play03:29

and they'll create these pies where they might be like,

play03:31

you know, this is a pie of stocks,

play03:33

like 30% Apple, 20% Tesla, 10% like, I don't know, Microsoft,

play03:37

20% Google, all that kind of stuff.

play03:39

And you can browse through these different pies,

play03:41

and you can see how they are currently performing

play03:43

and how they've historically performed.

play03:44

And if you like the idea of a pie

play03:46

and you kind of agree with what's going on with it,

play03:48

you can actually just copy and paste

play03:49

that asset allocation directly into your account,

play03:51

and you can invest however much money you want

play03:53

in that particular pie.

play03:54

Obviously, for the record, the thing that I do,

play03:56

not financial advice,

play03:57

but generally what most people recommend

play03:59

is to just invest in broad stock market index funds.

play04:01

But if you're like me,

play04:02

and you maybe wanna play around

play04:03

with some small percentage of your portfolio,

play04:05

then using the pies feature is a great way of dabbling

play04:08

with like individual stock picking in that sense.

play04:10

They've also recently added support

play04:11

for multi-currency accounts.

play04:13

So if, for example, you're in the UK

play04:14

and you wanna invest in a US stock market index fund

play04:16

like the S&P 500, like I do,

play04:18

then you won't get hit

play04:19

with the annoying foreign exchange fees.

play04:20

And if you have an invest or an ISA account,

play04:22

then Trading212 also gives you daily interest

play04:25

on your uninvested cash in USD or GBP or euros.

play04:28

They've got more than 23,000 trust pilot reviews

play04:30

with an average rating of over 4.6 stars.

play04:32

So they are very reputable.

play04:34

And like I said, I've been using them for years

play04:35

to manage a portion of my own portfolio.

play04:37

And so if any of that sounds up your street,

play04:38

then do hit the link in the video description,

play04:40

and that will take you to this page

play04:41

where you'll be guided on how to sign up for an account.

play04:43

And if you use that link,

play04:44

you will also get a free share

play04:46

up to the value of 100 pounds.

play04:47

So it's free money.

play04:48

You might as well check out Trading212.

play04:49

And thank you so much Trading212

play04:51

for sponsoring this video.

play04:51

So now that we've gotten the emotional support

play04:53

side out of the way, that begs the question,

play04:55

what happens next?

play04:56

And that is where we now come

play04:57

to the customer first approach to building a business.

play05:00

I have interviewed hundreds of entrepreneurs on my podcast,

play05:02

spoken to hundreds more in real life.

play05:04

And all of them basically talk about this idea,

play05:06

this customer first approach,

play05:07

which is that you're not trying to find an idea

play05:09

for a business.

play05:09

Instead, first of all, you're starting with

play05:12

who are the people you would like to serve?

play05:14

Because fundamentally what a business is,

play05:15

a business solves a problem for someone

play05:17

who's willing to pay for that problem to be solved.

play05:19

And the biggest thing that holds back entrepreneurs

play05:23

and has done forever is trying to build something

play05:26

without first verifying that there's actually someone

play05:29

out there willing to pay for the thing.

play05:31

This is the problem that students often have.

play05:33

Because students come up with great ideas

play05:35

and it's amazing.

play05:35

They're like, I have this idea for this business.

play05:37

And they'll just go and try and build it

play05:38

without first verifying that there are in fact

play05:40

people to pay for it.

play05:41

Here we go.

play05:42

That's why when it comes to generating business ideas,

play05:44

customers come first before the product or service.

play05:47

Even before the idea.

play05:48

To build a business, you need someone to sell to.

play05:51

I can't tell you how many times

play05:52

someone has emailed me saying,

play05:54

what do you think of this business idea?

play05:55

I also get those emails.

play05:57

My alter reply, have you asked what the customer thinks?

play05:59

Basically, when you're trying to start a business,

play06:02

the first step is to figure out

play06:03

who are you going to sell to?

play06:05

And that's ideally within your own zone of influence.

play06:08

For example, in my position of being a medical student

play06:10

at university, the people I'm serving

play06:12

are probably the people around me

play06:13

or the parents of the people around me

play06:14

or the people I interact with in hospitals

play06:16

or the people I interact with at the university

play06:17

or the local businesses I interact with.

play06:19

That's like within my zone of influence.

play06:21

The other good thing that this customer

play06:22

should ideally have is money.

play06:24

It is so much easier to create a business

play06:26

where you are targeting people who have money

play06:27

rather than people who don't have money.

play06:29

Again, this is one of the issues with students

play06:30

is that if you're a student,

play06:31

then everyone you know is your age

play06:33

and probably does not have very much money.

play06:35

If it were me and I were a student starting a business,

play06:37

I might be thinking, okay,

play06:39

my friends don't have any money,

play06:40

but who does?

play06:40

Their parents do.

play06:41

Okay, what are the problems

play06:42

that my friends' parents have?

play06:43

Who else has money?

play06:44

Like my college or my university,

play06:46

there's a pot of money I can tap into there.

play06:48

Okay, now that you've brainstormed

play06:49

who are the sorts of people ideally with money

play06:50

that you'd potentially like to serve,

play06:52

the next step is to brainstorm

play06:53

what are all of the problems that they have.

play06:55

Now, the easiest way to do this

play06:56

is to just go and ask them,

play06:57

what are the things in their life

play06:58

that are really annoying?

play06:59

What are the things that they already pay for?

play07:01

What are the things where they're paying for something

play07:02

but the thing they're paying for doesn't seem very good?

play07:04

And if you do this enough,

play07:06

you will come up with an infinite list of problems

play07:08

that people have.

play07:09

And the whole world progresses and evolves

play07:11

based on people discovering a problem

play07:13

and then trying to find the solution to that problem.

play07:15

Uber started because someone complained,

play07:17

was like, oh man, it's really annoying

play07:18

trying to held out a cab

play07:19

and trying to ring the taxi company.

play07:20

And so that's where the idea for Uber comes along.

play07:22

And there's a really good example here.

play07:23

So I love this.

play07:24

There's the founder first approach

play07:25

and then there's the customer first approach.

play07:27

So here we go.

play07:28

Let's say you have an idea for a dog walking out.

play07:31

How would you go about doing it?

play07:32

Here's the way most people,

play07:33

most entrepreneurs would do it.

play07:35

One, spend hours at home thinking about the app

play07:37

and coming up with clever names for it.

play07:38

Two, spend $100 hiring their cousin to draw a cool logo.

play07:41

Three, set up an LLC.

play07:42

Four, watch YouTube videos about apps

play07:44

and programming and business and dogs.

play07:46

Five, consider signing up for a developer bootcamp

play07:48

and quickly realize that coding is hard.

play07:49

Six, buy the domain name for the snazzy website

play07:52

they're going to build.

play07:52

Seven, look into hiring a developer on Upwork

play07:54

and quickly realize it's prohibitively expensive.

play07:56

Eight, give up again.

play07:58

Does that sound familiar?

play07:59

That is founder first.

play08:01

Now let's take the same idea for a dog walking app

play08:03

and let's put it through the customer first perspective.

play08:05

One, call or text three people right now who have dogs

play08:09

and ask them to pay you to walk their dog.

play08:11

Two, turns out none of these dog owners

play08:13

have problems walking their dog.

play08:15

You discover their real problem is finding dog sitters

play08:17

when they're traveling.

play08:19

Three, ask for the next travel dates

play08:20

and have them pay you a deposit.

play08:22

They pay jackpot.

play08:23

And the idea here is that quickly,

play08:25

based on this really simple example

play08:26

which I think we can all relate to in some ways,

play08:28

in the founder first approach,

play08:29

you go down a rabbit hole

play08:30

where you build this thing

play08:31

without verifying that people actually have the problem

play08:33

and are willing to pay for it.

play08:34

In the second one, you come up with an idea, cool.

play08:37

Then you talk to people and you see,

play08:39

does the idea have legs?

play08:40

Would they be willing to pay you for it?

play08:42

You realize, no, they don't.

play08:43

And now you do something else

play08:44

because you realize they are willing to pay you

play08:45

for this other thing.

play08:46

And crucially, you ask for that first sale.

play08:48

You make that first dollar.

play08:49

The first dollar is always the hardest.

play08:50

The first three customers are always the hardest.

play08:52

If you just aim to try and get

play08:54

your first three paying customers

play08:56

as soon as is humanly possible

play08:58

before you even try and build anything,

play09:00

then at least you have some kind of validation

play09:02

that the idea has legs.

play09:03

So this, for example, is an email

play09:05

that one of Noah's friends, Boris, sent.

play09:07

Subject, helping you help me with food.

play09:09

Hey friends, one thing I realized

play09:10

is that I'm busy all the time

play09:12

and I don't have time to cook a quality meal.

play09:14

I wanted to invite a few close friends

play09:16

to test a business idea with me.

play09:17

Consider yourself the lucky chosen few, smiley face.

play09:20

Convenient and home-cooked meals.

play09:22

On February 9th, for $20,

play09:23

there will be a personal chef making us food

play09:25

and delivering it to you conveniently and deliciously.

play09:27

If this is something you're seriously interested in,

play09:30

please PayPal $20.

play09:31

Open to all and any feedback.

play09:33

Cheers, Boris.

play09:34

P.S. Please let me know

play09:35

if you have any dietary requirements, et cetera.

play09:37

I promise the dinner will be delish,

play09:38

exclamation mark, exclamation mark, exclamation mark.

play09:41

This is how you validate the idea for a business.

play09:44

You know, you might have a business idea

play09:45

and at a party you say to someone,

play09:46

oh, I'm thinking of starting a business around bloody blah.

play09:48

Would you be interested?

play09:50

Social etiquette dictates

play09:51

that they basically have to say yes.

play09:53

You're very unlikely to meet someone

play09:54

who will actually say,

play09:55

no, I won't get about that.

play09:57

But here's the crucial bit.

play09:58

If you ask them for money,

play09:59

be like, oh, okay, cool.

play10:00

Well, you know, I'm taking pre-orders now.

play10:02

Would you be willing to pay me $20 for it?

play10:04

Now you see how good your idea actually is

play10:06

because no one is gonna part with their money

play10:08

unless they actually believe in the idea.

play10:10

Words are cheap, money is not.

play10:12

So if someone says, yeah, I like your business idea,

play10:15

that means jackal.

play10:16

What matters is, are they actually paying for it?

play10:18

Have they pre-ordered the thing?

play10:20

Would they be willing to be your first customer

play10:22

for a 50% discount with a money back guarantee?

play10:24

Anything like that.

play10:25

Now, the other way to get business ideas

play10:26

is to also look to your own problems.

play10:28

If you find something is a problem for you,

play10:30

chances are it'll be a problem for other people as well.

play10:33

And there are four prompts that Noah gives us

play10:34

that I fully agree with

play10:35

that help us figure out what our own problems are.

play10:37

So firstly, what is one thing this morning that irritated me?

play10:40

Secondly, what is one thing on my to-do list

play10:42

that's been there for over a week?

play10:44

Thirdly, what is one thing that I regularly fail to do well?

play10:47

And fourthly, what is one thing I wanted to buy recently

play10:50

only to find out that no one made it?

play10:51

And these sorts of prompts help you think about

play10:53

like the problems in your own life.

play10:55

You should sort of become a magnet for problems.

play10:57

Like as you go through life,

play10:59

anytime you find something annoying,

play11:01

what an aspiring entrepreneur

play11:02

or an actual entrepreneur does is they recognize,

play11:05

I'm finding this thing annoying.

play11:06

I have just identified a problem.

play11:08

And a problem with a solution is a business,

play11:10

assuming people are willing to pay for that solution.

play11:12

Whereas what most people do is like,

play11:13

they will just come across a problem

play11:15

and they'll be like, oh yeah, it's just a thing.

play11:17

Oh yeah, it's really annoying that we have to fill out

play11:18

these like feedback forms in our lectures.

play11:21

And that's where the idea will stop.

play11:22

What I used to do in med school was,

play11:23

oh man, it's really annoying

play11:24

that we've got to fill out

play11:25

those feedback forms in lectures.

play11:26

I wonder if there would be

play11:27

a more efficient way of doing that.

play11:28

If we found the right person,

play11:29

we could build a solution to this.

play11:30

And when I was in med school,

play11:31

I was unsophisticated with this.

play11:33

I was like, oh, how might I build this?

play11:34

I knew how to code.

play11:35

I knew how to make websites and apps and stuff.

play11:36

So I would default to like,

play11:38

just trying to build the thing.

play11:39

I've wasted years of my life chasing business ideas

play11:42

where I was like, I found an idea,

play11:44

I'm going to build the thing.

play11:45

And I didn't find any customers

play11:46

to pay for the bloody thing.

play11:48

And I really, if someone had told me this when I was 13,

play11:50

I would literally say seven years of my life

play11:52

chasing down random rabbit holes

play11:54

because I was afraid or didn't realize

play11:56

I could speak to people

play11:57

and actually just ask them for money.

play11:58

The main thing is that honestly,

play12:00

the way you start a business these days

play12:01

is that you try and get people to pay for the thing

play12:04

before you make the thing.

play12:05

People come to me and they're like,

play12:06

hey, Ali, I've got a bit of an audience.

play12:07

I want to make an online course.

play12:08

And I'm always like, okay, cool.

play12:10

I know that the temptation is there to build the course

play12:13

and then sell it in that order,

play12:15

but you should flip that around.

play12:17

You should sell the course and then build it.

play12:19

So if for example, you're thinking,

play12:21

you know, maybe your audience wants a course

play12:22

on how to build the perfect productive desk setup.

play12:25

You could go out and spend like a month

play12:27

or two or three trying to create the course.

play12:29

That would be a terrible idea.

play12:30

Instead, what you should do is pre-sell it.

play12:32

You can whip up a landing page in like a Google doc

play12:36

in maybe half a day.

play12:37

You can send it out to people in your audience

play12:38

and be like, hey, potentially working on this course

play12:41

about how to have a productive desk setup.

play12:43

If this sounds interesting,

play12:44

you can pre-order the course here.

play12:46

It'll be released in the next month

play12:47

and I'll give you your money back if you don't like it.

play12:48

50% off, something to that effect.

play12:50

Because based on how the pre-sell goes,

play12:53

if enough people want to buy it,

play12:54

then it gives you an idea.

play12:55

It lets you validate the market.

play12:56

So it's about finding a problem,

play12:58

finding someone who's willing to pay

play12:59

for the solution to that problem,

play13:01

talking to those people quite a lot,

play13:03

getting money from them.

play13:04

And only once you have done that,

play13:06

do you know that, okay,

play13:07

this is a business idea worth pursuing.

play13:09

And now you can start to build the thing

play13:10

because you already have paying customers.

play13:12

This is the thing that I wish I had known

play13:13

when I started my entrepreneurship journey.

play13:15

This is the thing I wish is a message

play13:16

that could be hammered into the heads

play13:18

of every single aspiring entrepreneur out there.

play13:20

I give so many talks these days around the world.

play13:22

It's super fun.

play13:22

And there's always like half the audience

play13:24

are aspiring entrepreneurs.

play13:25

And they're all stuck in this thing of like,

play13:27

oh, I need to have a good business idea

play13:28

or, oh, I've just been building this thing,

play13:30

but like I haven't built it yet.

play13:32

And I need to make my MVP first.

play13:33

And then all of it is a total waste of time.

play13:36

If you speak to people who are second time founders,

play13:38

people who have started multiple companies,

play13:40

you'll find they spend the majority of their time

play13:43

just talking to customers.

play13:44

The more you talk to your customers,

play13:45

the more you validate the idea actually has a market.

play13:48

The more you understand what problems they have,

play13:49

the more you can start to see,

play13:51

huh, maybe I thought this thing should be red,

play13:52

but actually this thing is blue.

play13:54

The more you try and ask them for money

play13:55

to pre-sell the thing that you haven't even built yet,

play13:58

the more likely you are to succeed in the business.

play14:00

Honestly, I think you should totally read the book.

play14:01

It's absolutely amazing.

play14:02

Noah's done a smashing job of it.

play14:03

And if you liked this video

play14:04

and you wanna see a way deeper dive into this,

play14:06

I actually have an interview with Noah Kagan

play14:08

on the Deep Dive podcast

play14:09

that will be linked right over here.

play14:10

Thank you so much for watching

play14:10

and I'll see you in the next video.

play14:11

Bye-bye.

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