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

[MTF]

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 http://www.ibisworld.com/industry/home.aspx 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.

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[MJ DeMarco]

Could be Gold in the making...

And yes, listening is a lost art, hence why, most people never get it and will gravitate toward the same old guru bs of "do what you love" and other self-loathing platitudes -- one is self-centered and involves talking, the other, selflessness which is listening.

 

[MTF]

@Zulu

Awesome stuff! I absolutely love the fact that you took action and learned things I shared in this thread on your own. That's the best way to grow.

As for your "kind of speculation", that's why I prefer scheduling calls with people and only talking with people who are really eager to talk with you. You'll get half-assed replies from people who approach their business from a half-assed perspective, and legendary ideas from success-oriented people.

That's why I recommend talking with rock stars of the industry instead of small business owners.

Most small business owners struggle with getting clients. Owners of successful companies have much more specific problems and they understand the value you can provide them by sharing their problems with you. I also found them much more giving, easy to talk with and just in general friendlier.

Like I said in my first post, I had calls with two owners of huge cleaning companies and they could schedule a call with me and spend an hour or two talking about their business problems.

I also had a call scheduled with another guy, an owner of a small company, and he couldn't even keep his promise and pick up the phone at the scheduled hour.

Well, that's why some people are rock stars and some are barely getting by. Find big dogs and reach out to them. You won't find a better customer than these people.

By the way, you guys shared some incredible offline Fastlane ideas here. As @JasonR says, spotting opportunities is an ability. Once you realize it and start flexing your idea muscle, you'll understand why ideas are worthless and execution is king.

You could become a millionaire by executing any of the ideas shared in this thread.

Unfortunately, most of you won't because you'll say you don't know anything about software, plastic crates, pot holes or salt.

But there will be this one guy who'll say "okay, I don't know shit about any of these things, but I can learn them or hire an expert". And this guy will become the next pot hole millionaire - not any of the people who discount all ideas looking for a magic bullet simply because they're not willing to learn new things.

Entrepreneurship is more about mindset than anything else, folks. I only realized it after 6 years of "kind of" being an entrepreneur.

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[Kak]

Step one- start a passive business that keeps you from ever needing a job again (covers your lifestyle)
Step two- screw around with anything under the sun because now you have time

When people ask me how to "do it" this is pretty much what I tell them.

It is way easer to choose now because if you are at step zero you choose the business that will cover your nut the easiest.

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[MTF]

Most people don't spend enough time on fully understanding the customer or the need because they're so focused on finding the million dollar idea.

And it all goes back to MJ talking about listening to other people instead of focusing on yourself and your egoistical reasons to get into a business.

So much gold in the recent posts. Thank you all for your contribution to this thread!

To all the guys asking questions like "what's your product" or "how much do you make", etc. - you have the wrong money-chasing mindset IceCreamKid mentions frequently in his posts. I know, because I also struggled with it for a long time.

Until you realize that entrepreneurship is NOT about you, you'll keep asking these questions and only reading stuff instead of taking action. MJ makes it very clear in his book, yet it's difficult to understand it unless you take active action (e.g. start talking with your potential customers).

What would reading that one of the forum members here makes $10 000 per month selling cat toys change for you? If you would enter this market simply because you read you can make $10 000 selling cat toys, you would enter the market for the wrong egoistic reasons.

That's why I recommend idea extraction - once you start talking with your potential customers and learn about their pains, something will change inside you.

You'll notice there are business opportunities everywhere. You'll see that MILLIONS of people are struggling with THOUSANDS of different things.

If you only forget about yourself for a while, you can HELP these people and get rewarded proportionately to the value you bring to their lives.

I have a challenge for some of you that may change your mindset.

Starting today, focus solely on problems of people around you and offer them your help absolutely for free.

Your brother has no idea for a birthday gift for his girlfriend? Brainstorm ideas with him and make sure she'll get the best birthday gift ever. Your parents suffer from back pain? Find them a good massage therapist. Your favorite coffee shop has a badly designed website? Help them create a new one for free.

As long as you're mostly a consumer in all your daily interactions, it will be difficult for you to spot business opportunities because you'll look at things as a consumer, not as a producer.

You can't do a proper idea extraction if you only think in terms of how much money you can make off someone.

If you can't enjoy providing value to other people without monetary compensation, perhaps entrepreneurship is not for you as it all starts with selflessness.

 

[MJ DeMarco]

1. Start simple. Just look around at home. What do you see?

When I moved last year, I borrowed 50 plastic crates from my mother for packing and they helped tremendously. Anyone could easily create a crate rental business for explicity this purpose. I would have paid a couple 100 bucks to rent them for a week to assist in my moving. When I checked, there were a few that did this, but I never knew about it. That means they are not marketing well. It's a rental business and if properly systemized, could follow a franchise model.

I truly believe there is an emergence of opportunities in the B&M space because the young entrepreneurs of the world are focused on the glamorous -- mobile apps, internet, and other digital goods. That leaves a lot of potential in the B&M space, which I see practically everyday. A lot of product based businesses are growing like weeds simply by Instagram.

Just saying... don't discount the real world in favor of the online world.

 

[MTF]

How Can I Use This Process to Start a Business Which Is Not Related to Software or Is Not Online-Based?

One person asked me the following question:

When you have done your cold emailing/calling have most of the problems raised by people been related to a software fix (I know this is what you are targetting) or has there been much related to practical solutions or cost reduction (ie. can you supply me something cheaper?).

As he already pointed it out, so far I've been mostly targeting problems that can be solved with software (not anymore). However, it doesn't mean you can't come up with great ideas for a business which has nothing to do with software or that isn't even online-based.

It's all about the way you ask questions and just listen to people. You can ask questions to learn about pains related to something you can solve with software, you can ask questions about problems related to manufacturing, selling or services. You can talk with entrepreneurs (including owners of brick and mortar businesses and online businesses), professionals, your friends or family, and each time you'll get completely different replies and ideas.

"Okay, okay, shut up and give me some real-world examples, man!". You love real-world examples, don't you? There you go.

Real-World Examples Proving There Are Many Ways to (Un)Dress Your Mistress

(sorry IceCreamKid, can't help using your funny metaphors for corny jokes)

1. Solution for conservators-restorers. Just by talking with an art history professor (who's a friend of my mother so I discovered this pain by chance) I learned that conservators-restorers in my country have a hard time learning about new biddings for conservation-restoration jobs.

These guys work on one project (e.g. renovating an old chapel) and once they finish it, they're looking for a new job. Since each place (such as a church or a museum) usually publishes information about a job only on their website, it's a major pain to check hundreds of sites on a daily basis to track all new biddings and potentially get a new job.

Consequently, most conservators-restorers have to rely on word-of-mouth marketing which puts young professionals at a disadvantage because they don't have as many connections as old guys.

There are several possible solutions:
- lead gen website (limos.com for conservators-restorers)
- SaaS (software that would automatically track all biddings and post them on the site)
- simple paid newsletter (people pay per month for weekly e-mails with information about biddings - you can hire a student to collect this information for you)

I have no idea about conservators-restorers, but I can talk with them and within one hour learn about all major pains and frustrations of their work and walk out with several new ideas for both online and offline businesses.

Just to give you a bonus example-in-example, most conservation-restoration jobs take place during the warm months because cold weather can badly affect items or places they renovate.

What if you could become the only company in your country that does conservation-restoration jobs safely during the cold months as well? Major USP.

There you go - an idea for an offline business that is a result of a simple 30-minute conversation.

2. Help with embroidery design. One of my friends, a guy who's an owner of a company that prints designs on t-shirts, mugs and other stuff told me he has a hard time finding someone who could help him convert designs to a project that can be loaded on his embroidery machine.

I don't even know what I'm talking about now, but it's a pain for him, and I bet there are owners of other similar companies (including clothing companies) who also have a similar problem as it's a manual design work owners of these companies can't be bothered with.

Possible solution? Start a company that only specializes in creating designs for embroidery. You don't have to be a graphic designer to start it - you can simply start by working with freelancers.

I didn't even ask him about his business problems. We just talked and he basically threw a business idea, and because I'm fine-tuned to listen for problems and needs, I remembered it. If I were to validate this idea, he could probably become my first customer (it's much easier to sell your products and services to your friends and family first).

3. Bored people. In my first post, I shared with you an idea to organize fun events in your city. People in many cities all over the world suffer from lack of cool opportunities to spend free time with their friends or their partner. Ask your friends if they'd like to have more fun during their free time (instead of spending several hours per day on Facebook). I bet most of them would love to go out and do something fun. Just read comments under each video of this guy.

In my original post, I wrote that you can solve this problem by starting a company that organizes regular fun events. However, this problem signalizes many more opportunities for different kinds of businesses.

Problem: people are bored and want to spend time doing something fun.
Solution: provide fun.

Possible solutions:
- as already said above, organize fun events. 1-hour lessons teaching how to do a simple and fun thing, meet-ups (including stuff like speed dating), competitions, etc.
- start an e-commerce site with toys for adults (I'm *not* talking about dildos and inflatable dolls, you dirty perv!). You can sell frisbees (Aerobie Pro is mad fun), board games and fun gadgets. For inspiration, check this store: http://www.vat19.com/ I bet they enjoy great sales. Many of their videos on Youtube have over 1 million views, and they have 46k fans on Facebook. These products have a great potential for a viral marketing campaign.
- manufacture your own toys/other fun stuff. Have it made locally or find a company in China to make it for you.

Three different ideas, three completely different kinds of businesses, all solving the same problem.

Just to be clear with you - I may still pursue some of the ideas I shared above, but I'm not afraid you'll steal them. Why? Because ideas are worthless.

Moreover, I'm sure that pretty much nobody will even try to validate ideas I shared in my first post or for that matter, any other great ideas shared in this thread by other people.

Why? Firstly, because it's the hard part. Only a few percent of people are action takers. Secondly, because most people will *assume* that since these ideas are public, they're no longer worth anything (as if they were worth anything in the first place).

I'm sure that all successful INSIDERS here would become millionaires much sooner with a shitty idea than a newbie with a legendary idea. The reason is simple - it's all about the execution.

Just to prove my point, check this company: https://www.myclean.com/ How many of you would say that a maid cleaning services company is a shitty idea? Yet the monthly revenue of this company was $400k 4 years after launching it and it went from $20k in monthly revenue to $400k in just one and a half year (source). It wasn't about the idea, it was about brilliant execution. Your ideas don't have to be sexy.

Anyway, I hope this post will help at least some of your realize that opportunities are indeed everywhere. Like @MJ DeMarco wrote in his first reply to this thread, listening is a lost art.

If you simply start listening to people more and focusing on their problems and needs, you wouldn't even have to cold call people or send them messages on LinkedIn to get great ideas (for both online and offline businesses) on a daily basis.

 

[IceCreamKid]

Hey @KLaw I understand you just want to learn by observing other people's successful businesses. You want an idea? Here you go bro:

1. Make a list of a bunch of industries that you want to contact...food, construction, plumbing, roofing, anything that comes to mind.

2. Contact the TOP 2 players in each industry.

For example, dive into the construction industry and ask the top 2 players, "Hey what machine part breaks down the most often for you? Which part needs replacement the most often?"

3. Find out what that part is then offer to send them a batch of orders FREE. BUT the key is that the part you offer to them MUST be of higher quality than the part that consistently breaks on them. This is where process comes into play. Many will enter, few will win LOL. It's about giving value, my friend. If you can provide a better quality product, you better believe they will want to deal with you...even if that means paying you slightly more.

4. Repeat this process for as many industries as you like. When you deal only with the TOP 2 players in each industry, you will receive massive amounts of orders simply due to the fact that they operate on a massive scale.

5. You can even pull off a JackEdwards style business and hire a bunch of women to contact these big players. Get creative with it.

 

[Enki]

Something that I have read to that could help response rates is to use the news section in Google to see if there has been any recent news on the company and include it in the subject. People love hearing about themselves so it sounds like it would work.

I've been having tremendous success using this method. I also try to identify ten unique facts about the organization or person I am reaching out to. I'n in email I sprinkle the facts with the hope of "looping" with the reader. In a call I just come out and say "I was blown away to find out Best Unique Fact Here"

I found that the majority of the time I'll get a response like

"Well yes, we do _____________, But its really a constant struggle to keep ______________"

I've put out atleast 250 calls in the past week. And everytime I hear words like hard, struggle, and phrases like the problem is I get chills. Can it really be this easy to identify peoples/businesses needs? I know that if I call them back with a solution I would have them hook line and sinker.

 

[MTF]

How to Find Business Ideas Without Talking to Lots of People?

Let's say you don't want to talk with lots of random people to find a business idea. Are you screwed? Not necessarily.

There are some simple ways to find viable business ideas without talking to lots of people. Here are some simple ideas to find a business idea by doing a quick research on various sites:

1. Twitter search

Credit goes to @Matt33 (check his original post and this one).

1. Go to http://twitter.com/search
2. Search for things like:

• I hate it when
• I wish there was
• It sucks
• There should be
• I would buy
• I want to buy
• I want to learn
  
• etc.

An idea I found by searching for "I want to buy" book:

Gary Vaynerchuk:
I want to buy a very high end graded comic book for investment purposes (2-5k) Who has advice on what to buy for appreciation in value

Business idea: create a website with advice on how to buy comic books for investment purposes.

Another example, I searched for "I want to learn how to":

macEy:
i want to learn how to make renders and stuff does anyone know of any free program

Business idea: teach people how to make renders using popular tools

Of course all these ideas still need further research and validation, but it's a start. You can no longer say you don't have any business ideas.

Note that you can use a similar process on Reddit or forums by searching for posts with these statements.

2. Fiverr

Another simple way to come up with good business ideas is to browse Fiverr and check popular gigs. If people are buying, your idea is already validated.

A few minutes spent on the site resulted in a couple of ideas:

Naming company - a naming gig displayed in the "featured gigs" section gave me an idea to start a naming company. The guy on Fiverr comes up with 3 names for $5 and offers a couple of upsells.

So far 194 people bought his services which validates that there's indeed a need for such services at this price point.

Can you do it better? Give more names for the same price? Offer better upsells? Perhaps you can come up with a similar idea using a different angle, for instance coming up with USPs for new businesses?

Helping moms get a work at home job - in this gig the seller is offering a list of 20 legit work at home opportunities for $5. He probably made the list in a couple of hours and is now selling the same list with no additional work (small passive income). It got me thinking that stay at home moms may need help finding a job.

So far 63 people ordered his list so he made $315. But wait... How can you improve this offer? It can be a lead magnet for your funnel!

Let's say 63 people buy your list for $5. You made $315. Then you can offer to help them write a great CV or even create an infographic resume for a higher price, say $50. Let's say that 10% of people will go for it. Now your revenue is $815. What else can you offer them to maximize your profits? How many stay at home moms are looking for a job? Do your research. It's a huge market.

3. Elance/ODesk

Elance and ODesk can work very well for finding viable business ideas. Browse the site, check out categories that interest you and see which jobs are the most common.

Crowdfunding marketing services - I went on Elance and checked "Marketing & Sales" category. I noticed that right now there are 23 jobs for crowdfunding marketing consultants on Elance alone, including projects worth $1000-5000 and $500-1000 ones. Many companies are already offering such services which validates there's a need for these services.

Industry specific social media management - there are many jobs for social media managers. What about starting a company that offers social media management only for a specific industry, say luxury hotels? There's clearly a need for these services - there are currently 55 jobs for social media managers.

I hope that this post will convince even more people that business ideas are a dime a dozen. It's only EXECUTION that matters. You don't have a problem with business ideas - you have a problem starting a business.

You can test most of these ideas very fast, for instance by using http://www.quickmvp.com. The point is simply to see if you can make a couple of sales. If you manage to make a few sales and the market is large enough (you should research if before driving traffic), congratulations - you're in business now. Time to scale.

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[IceCreamKid]

- Some proportion of people who have executionable fastlane ideas, possibly cannot describe in detail the process by which they discovered it. Some are not natural at logically breaking down sequence of events that eventuate in an oucome. (ie. i foud this problem but not sure how, but hey now I have a successful business)

This is exactly my problem. By the time you get good at something, you're doing it at an unconscious level so you are no longer aware of the thought process behind what you're doing.

It's sorta like driving a car...when it's your first time behind the wheel, you're nervous and can describe every little detail on the road. After many years, it becomes natural to drive so when people ask, "How do you drive a car?" my standard respond would be just do it.

I greatly admire teachers for their patience and ability to break things down.

 

[MTF]

The Dirty Truth about Business Ideas (Plus a Bazillion New Business Ideas)

Fact: most of your business ideas can work as long as you're not calling your new business a "startup" (just kidding*).

Reality: your business won't build itself. I.e., it's not about ideas, it's about execution, and particularly about marketing (no idea matters if you can't make sales).

I'm going to contradict myself and say that idea extraction is not really that necessary in many cases. You can launch an MVP in 7 days or less (tip: do everything manually) and validate in a proper way whether it can work or not.

The problem with idea extraction and pre-selling is that most clients won't pre-order your product, but it doesn't mean they won't buy it when it's available for sale.

A simple product and a little hustle to get your first clients (instead of spending weeks on idea extraction) is very often a much better way to get your business off the ground.

Okay, I made one thing much simpler for you as I know that idea extraction is intimidating to many people. Now, on to business ideas...

Some newbie entrepreneurs associate coming up with business ideas with something that has to be extremely creative. If you don't come up with an original idea that sounds "cool" or inventive, you don't have a good business idea. That's BS. As long as the business idea fits your personality (and that's a thing many entrepreneurs don't really think about before it's too late) and somebody else is already making money with it, you can make money with it, too.

Case in point...

A Never-Ending Source of New Business Ideas

Two words: productized services.

Find a service people for which people are already paying and do it a little bit better. It doesn't even have to be something extraordinary. Guaranteed turnaround, quick response, different positioning (the Ferrari of the industry vs Fiat) and plain old work ethic - each of these things is enough to differentiate yourself.

Launching a company offering productized services (or usually, just one service) is one of the easiest ways to start a business (a Fastlane one at that). Here are some ideas off the top of my head (some inspired by this episode and their other episodes):

• pick one part of running an online business and offer to perform one specific task most entrepreneurs don't like to do/don't know how to do. Setting up a membership site (I can't even begin to tell you what a pain in the a$$ it is for a non-technical person), setting up CRM software, setting up autoresponders/newsletters, cleaning up SEO, split testing - there are literally hundreds of tasks you can specialize in. If you pick a problem that's common for most online entrepreneurs, you'll have almost infinite scale. What's cool about this business idea is that you don't need any money to test it - just a simple website and some hustle to get your first clients. You can learn the skill first and perform it by yourself or outsource the task while overseeing the entire project.
• offer peace of mind. WPCurve guarantees that if you have any problems with WordPress, they'll fix them quickly. There are few things more annoying for a non-technical person than random errors. A similar idea - http://designpickle.com/ for small design jobs. Another good way to reduce the burden for a non-design, non-technical person.
• build a business around a specific, popular solution. WPCurve does it for WordPress, ShopifyNinjas do it for Shopify. This one can violate the commandment of control, but it shouldn't be an issue as long as you pick a very popular solution that's not going anywhere.
• services for new online businesses. Writing about pages, creating short about us videos or product videos, setting up social media properties and filling them with initial content. New entrepreneurs are already confused enough and many of them would like to delegate some of these tasks right away.
  
• "x in a box" type of a service. Tucker Max is doing it with Book in a Box. You can do it with a podcast, video series, video courses, membership sites, blogs, and virtually any other platform.
• "let's help you save a lot of time on boring tasks" type of a service. Let's say a well-known person wants to write a blog, but she doesn't have time or doesn't enjoy proofreading, editing, formatting, looking for the right image, and posting the post on her blog. Why not offer her a service that will turn her raw post (sent in an email or a .txt file) into a proper, professionally-edited, well-formatted SEO-optimized article and post it on her blog on her behalf?

Seriously guys, it's probably one of the simplest ways to start a business. If you already have a marketable skill, it's going to be even easier. If not, learn it or learn just enough to make sure your contractor is doing a good job and focus exclusively on marketing (which is IMO much more difficult than coming up with business ideas).

* I'm actually being half-serious. More often than not, people talking about startups (especially mobile apps) are creating stuff nobody needs or wants. Don't be one of them. Offer something of value.

 

[IceCreamKid]

I need you to post more stuff like this for the people as I don't have time right now to pump out articles.

I like your style, good sir. Have a beer.

 

[IceCreamKid]

So who here can say they have had success from the 'idea extraction' process.

The idea extraction process is simple at its core, but everyone makes it complex in their mind. It's essentially about listening to the other person and asking questions based off their answers.

Me: "What's your biggest pain?"
Owner: "Getting more customers."
Me: "Okay, how do you currently get customers?"
Owner: "Postcards in the mail."
Me: Who makes the postcards?
Owner: "I hand write the postcards myself."
Me: "Wow, what if we automated that with a printer or something?"
Owner: "Oh hell yea that would save me tons of time."

Okay I gave a really simplified example of idea extraction, but hopefully you get my point how one question builds off the next if you truly listen. Some people don't listen and completely miss the opportunity to ask a deeper question. If you learn to love others and truly want to help their needs, your attachment to self benefit fades away and it becomes much easier to listen to their needs with clarity.

For my current business, I idea extracted a bunch of customers instead of business owners because I wanted a product that had broad appeal instead of a very niche product.

I should do an INSIDERS call or write an article about idea extraction someday.

 

[1milclub]

Thanks for this thread. I would like to add a few additional points to simplify the process for those who do not want to get off to search the industry database, write email, talk to people, etc.

Note: I am in a 'comfortable' job but in the process of start driving in the fast lane (in parallel for now!)

OK, so as I said I am in the process of identifying opportunities. However, note that I am not totally new to this, so some of these come from my previous experience. A few things I have observed that help are:

1. Start simple. Just look around at home. What do you see? Is it the best way to create that product? Can it be improved? Can you find someone to make it better (design, manufacture), etc.

Example 1: I had three separate can openers (manual) that are either broken or useless (not effective). I have some ideas of creating different ways - design, material, etc. to improve it.

Example 2: I was installing an outdoor light. It was a nice looking, bright LED light to be installed on the wall. I was excited, but when I tried to connect the wires, the idiots have made it so hard that it is impossible to install it single handedly because of the short wire and the weight of the light. All I needed was a simple connector. I am thinking to design one (I tried to look online, but the ones I found does not make it easier in my case).

But what if you do not want to deal with physical products, keep reading ...

2. Again, start from home or office, and notice what do you do during the day ? Are there certain things that happen everyday? notice anything easy? why? is it difficult - why? Can you think of a service that can help make that step/process easier? May be an App? May be a web app, SaaS?

Example: Home with kids is usually a war room in the morning. I need something to streamline morning tasks. Did you take notes/books/homework/lunch bag? How can I make sure everything is covered before rushing out?

3. Watch TV? Note the commercials - what type of advertisements are seen frequently? that may be the industry you should eye on. What pain are they solving? What kind of products are there? Can we create something better?

Example: My wife does not like the chemicals in the Hair products. Can we have something home made/herbal/natural products? (see Biophase's excellent thread on home made soap business experiment)

4. Now you need to go out of house. Visit stores like Target. KOHL's, if you are a member Costco/Sam's type warehouse also is a good place. Observe what do they carry. Depending on your interest look around and find what products can be sourced - similar or the same. Food/kitchen gadgets/clothes/books (if you are into eBooks), etc.

5. After the above visit to the stores, I highly recommend a visit to the nearest Dollar stores (Dollar General/Tree). I saw almost similar products (different brands) to the ones found in some of the high end stores. Most of them are from China. Can they be sourced? If Dollar stores can sell it for a buck, there must be a low price, and if high end stores also carry it, they can be sold at higher margins. There are multiple ones, so you have to be selective and may need to spend time to check if that is also sold on Amazon/eBay and for how much, but there must be a market.

Having said that, I am also learning, but I hope this helps ...

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[IceCreamKid]

Gee @IceCreamKid I think I should learn copy

You should learn copy, but I wouldn't recommend doing the 30 Day Challenge while being in the extraction phase because the challenge takes up exorbitant amounts of time. Perhaps stretch it out to a 90 day challenge if you really want to get it done.

Calling people and extracting ideas=Active action
Copying sales letters=Passive action

Focus on active action as much as possible because it's too easy to get stuck in the passive action loop convincing yourself that you're getting closer to the money. Bro, trust me on that...I stayed in passive action for years before finally admitting that I was lying to myself.

The truth will set you free.

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[throttleforward]

Idea extraction is the most valuable thing I've done to date.
-You get over your fear of calling people
-You realize that business ideas are literally a phone call away
-You learn that when you approach this whole process with "how can I help you" instead of "pay me for this thing I came up with" that you just FEEL better and more confident, because you know in your heart that you are trying to help people instead of sell people
-You learn what is perhaps the most valuable lesson, which is that not only is it OK if you don't know everything, you'll be far more successful if you realize and communicate to others that you don't know everything. I pride myself on being smart, so it was a hard lesson to learn, but once I realized the power in recognizing that I can succeed by telling people I know nothing about them or their industry, and inviting them to share what they knew that I didn't, it was like a huge burden was lifted off my shoulders. I didn't have to come up with something out of whole cloth and try to see if people wanted it - I could extract it from others what they wanted and evaluate if it was right for me (I've had idea extraction calls end with the person on the other end of the phone offering to pay for development if I created a solution for them, because the pain point they identified though the idea extraction process so painful).

I came to the recognition that the smartest people aren't those who know everything about everything, but those who were humble enough to recognize that it doesn't matter if they (ethically and legally) borrow every good idea, strategy, tactics, etc from someone else...what matters is that they are smart enough to ask the right questions, assimilate the right information, and execute on that information.

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[johnp]

I truly believe there is an emergence of opportunities in the B&M space because the young entrepreneurs of the world are focused on the glamorous -- mobile apps, internet, and other digital goods. That leaves a lot of potential in the B&M space, which I see practically everyday. A lot of product based businesses are growing like weeds simply by Instagram.

I agree with this so much.

In the PA area the cold is killing us. The roads are practically falling apart. Hundreds of new pot holes are forming daily on high volume roads. I happen to work for the Department of Transportation (hopefully not for much longer) so I hear people complain about the pot holes every day. Flat tires, broken wheels, and major accidents because people are jumping into other lanes to avoid the pot holes. A few people have died already.

Last Friday I asked the guy next to me why the pot holes aren't being filled. He told me that it's too cold to fill the pot holes. So I instantly saw a need to create some sort of process to fill the holes in the cold weather.

And it turns out that someone is actually doing this. He created a special truck that fills pot holes in seconds. He holds a patent on the truck. He has like 30 employees working for him and he's pulling in over 10 million per year filling pot holes. He was interviewed by a local paper and I'm pretty sure that he said that he "fills then bills" - He described all of the snow and cold weather as being like a a birthday to him.

Who would have thought that there is millions in pot holes. Needs are everywhere.

 

[Kak]

Maybe I'm just gifted, but I can rattle off 300 ideas in the next 10 minutes. I have never had to think about it this hard. Shit comes to me as I live life and work on other businesses and projects. I started giving them away for equity and offer to share expertise in a passive and hands off manner.

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[IceCreamKid]

It reminds me of what JackEdwards said on his call. I believe he said something like...decide where you want to be and then make sure you choose a business that will get you to your goals, otherwise its not worth starting it to begin with.

That sounds like a very Jack thing to say. That was actually the very first thing he said to me on our very first phone conversation.

@IceCreamKid are you saying that the idea isn't really anything necessarily different from what's out there, but just executed differently...for example, different finance terms or whatever?

When you take your business to its first $100k you will realize how insignificant the idea really is. Seriously. It's all in how you craft the message. Is it compelling? Is it convincing? Does it have that WOW WHAT THE F*CK factor?

There are 2 schools of thought:
1. Extract a very niche idea and grow slowly over time. Kinda like growing a weed from a small seed.

2. Take a product that already sells a lot then add your own twist to it sorta like Dollar Shave Club.

You can create a compelling and convincing offer with both schools of thought. Whichever path you choose largely depends on your goals. For me personally, I just want freedom. The founder of Dollar Shave Club might have less freedom than the guy with the SaaS business because he may have to oversee employees, the factories, distributors, etc.

EDIT: Just so you know, my product has been around for 100 years lol...nothing is new these days.

When you learn to write copy, you can convince world leaders to follow your instructions. You can convince the most beautiful women that you are Brad Pitt. You can convince your mother that the sky is purple.

You will have more power than Justin Timberlake...if only you learned copy.

 

[kamanuci]

1. Cold e-mailing/cold calling
Pick an industry (use http://www.ibisworld.com/industry/home.aspx 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:

Something that I have read to that could help response rates is to use the news section in Google to see if there has been any recent news on the company and include it in the subject. People love hearing about themselves so it sounds like it would work.

 

[biophase]

I guess I don't understand. I will keep working on it though. F*ck the competition. We will crush them. Y would one be scaired to actually show their product. Copy cats can't compete.

Ok let's say you sold Iphones online. You tell your friend, so he wants to sell Iphones. What's he going to do? He's going to make a website and find your supplier. Then what? He's going to PPC Iphones or SEO Iphones or blog about Iphones. So now your PPC is more expensive, your SEO keywords are harder. He could piss off your supplier or even offer to pay more for them. He could buy up inventory causing you to be out of stock. He's probably going to sell Iphones for a markup of $5 instead $150, because he's 15 and lives at home and $5 is alot of money to him. Now all Iphones go from $300 to $155 because you have an idiot blowing money on clicks at $1 each, making a bunch of 1 page stupid websites to clog up Google and selling a product at 50% of its MSRP. In a few months he may give up, but how does that NOT affect your business?

 

[IceCreamKid]

Wrong. I just want to understand where you are you coming from. You talk about dropping two dollar bills off of the roof top during a mayors speech but I can't find any evidence of that. Why

I think it's a fair question to ask if you saw me selling a $1,997 educational course or a $97 e-book on this forum. If someone is selling something then I want to see tons of factual evidence to back up their claims since I'm putting my money at risk.

I'm a bit amazed that you have no questions regarding that short 5-step action plan that I posted above. I hope someone on this forum uses that plan and turns it into gold.

I'll make a deal with you, become a major contributor here and I'll be more than happy to tell you what I do. A lot of the major contributors here know exactly what I do: my products, marketing strategy, distribution channels, everything.

OP, please forgive me I sincerely apologize for this thread losing its focus to some degree.

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[MTF]

MTF not calling you out or challenging you but this was what I am alluding to in my earlier reply. Although I agree there are millions of problems I would say an absolute minute percentage would represent true business opportunities. If there were truly millions of problems then we wouldn't spend so much energy searching for a viable business idea. Viable being key.

I think you're overthinking it. It's true that not all ideas are million-dollar ideas, but it doesn't mean you can't start a smaller company just to get going. You can either keep looking for a perfect business idea and do nothing (or keep working 9 to 5) or start a small company, solve some problems, make some money and learn new things (and perhaps notice another business opportunity when talking with your customers).

Most business ideas are viable if you execute them properly. Another printing service company may not be a viable business idea from your perspective, but it can be a great Fastlane opportunity for someone who finds a way to offer extremely fast service and guarantee (e.g. "send your project at 8 PM, it will be done by 6 AM").

I see so many businesses with stupid names and guarantees it's crazy. If a guy who tells his customers that his business motto is low prices and high quality makes enough money to stay in the business for 10+ years, you surely can do at least as well as this guy who knows nothing about marketing and differentiation in the market.

I am tending to think it is almost a risk avoidance mechanism or process, which again is not a bad thing, trying to ensure the downside is reduced.

As for the downside, listen to Richard Branson.

Idea extraction focuses on your potential customers. So many entrepreneurs avoid talking with their customers for as long as they can, almost as if they were afraid of them. Your business is your customers. If you start a business without validating it first by talking with your potential customers, you're much less likely to succeed (or prepare to lose money in the first few months).

I have been thinking more lately that perhaps an alternate (note I didn’t say better) method would be to emulate an already successful business and improve by innovation. Now innovation comes in many forms...not just the obvious of improving the physical product. I believe this may ultimately prove more successful for traditional B&M businesses.

You still have to talk with your potential customers to see if it's viable, unless you're willing to start a business with no customers and hope that you'll find enough customers before you blow through all your starting capital.

It is possible and many successful people started their company first and then looked for customers, but why increase the risk of failure when you can look for customers first and then start your company?

I just do not have too much belief currently in the method being touted...as in cold call / cold email. Although I am still very early on in the process and yes nothing to lose by trying.

Send 1000 e-mails or call 1000 people first and then perhaps you'll have more belief in this method. Don't assume, test everything.

It doesn't require a lot of work - you can find someone to collect 1000 e-mail addresses for you for around $50-100 and then it will take you maybe 20-30 hours to send them. You could do it over the weekend.

Out of these 1000 e-mails, with a simple script (which doesn't necessarily have to be super personalized) you can expect at least 30-40 good replies, all of them coming straight from people willing to pay to solve their problems.

 

[throttleforward]

I'll throw out an idea that I'm not going to take action on any time soon. (IceCreamKid - You've heard this before)

In my interviewing of vacation rental companies for one of my business concepts, one company found customer retention, recognition and welcome packet creation to be such a hassle that they were willing to pay five figures for development of a SaaS solution if I managed the build process. They were then going to help me sell it to other vacation rental companies. I'd be happy to do an email introduction with the business owner for the right person here.

 

[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.

 

[Bowden]

Great post!

Speed ++++ , well uh, $$$$

I have hundreds and hundreds of notes jotted down between spiral notebooks, small moleskin notebooks, and in my phone. Anytime I hear someone complain about a problem, or how something could be improved, I write it down. I'm an observer, sitting or standing back watching and listening. You never know when you might hear something that could change the rest of your life.

 

[Bigguns50]

THIS IS A PROBLEM !

https://sisweb.resa.net/ParentPortal/

This 'portal' is for parents of students wanting to keep track of their kid's grades, assignments, etc. Problem is....it SUCKS !

Why do I know it sucks ? Teachers constantly complain it's too difficult to use...therefore...they don't use it and keep it up to date unless their boss is breathing down their neck. That leads to the parents upset for not having up to date information regarding their kid's progress. My Wife's Daughter's school uses this system and neither one use it anymore because it's rarely updated or accurate.

The students also have their own 'student connect' with sucks just as bad as the 'Parent connect'.

I don't know anything about how the school system purchased this...or is leasing it...or if they are looking for another system, or the owners of this to fix it.

Somebody fix this = $$.

Keep your eyes and ears open and you will see problems or things that can be done better or more efficiently or cheaper...on a daily basis.

 

[Bigguns50]

Refrigerator food spoilage. This drives me crazy ! (and costs families hundreds or thousands yearly)
Can't we just scan our foods as we put them in the frig and when the expiration date gets close...it tells us so.

I've thought about this and obviously it's very involved...but still.

What about when we run out, or nearly out of something. Do we still have to write it down on our grocery list ? Can't we just scan it at a portable scanner that adds it to our weekly list ? I scan items into my phone but that's a headache. ("Out of Milk" application)

 

[JasonR]

Maybe I'm just gifted, but I can rattle off 300 ideas in the next 10 minutes. I have never had to think about it this hard. Shit comes to me as I live life and work on other businesses and projects. I started giving them away for equity and offer to share expertise in a passive and hands off manner.

You're better at spotting them, because you've practiced your ability to identify and solve needs in a market.

Keep flexing that muscle, and you'll realize countless opportunities abound.