7th Venture. 1st hopeful success.

[Guest92dX]

Hi everyone!

I'm currently building a web based product. It's not entirely SaaS. It has a hybrid business model based on what I think the niche needs.

This is not a super large market, but it's not small either.

If you're wondering what my other failed ventures are they were good ideas, but I ideas I can't execute on for lack of money or know how. My first idea was bad though.

I would suggest to everyone that you pass on trying to sell a PP (Provisional Patent) if you don't have a ton of capital and money for leads and travel. I would even suggest passing on licensing real patents because you need tons of capital and tons of leads plus industry knowledge. All of these are great barriers to entry, but your life will be terrible trying to sell a product you can't execute on well. You'll just feel defeated.

So, I found a niche where the number one problem people have hasn't been adequately answered.

I started marketing the product before I built it.

I placed bids on competition keywords as I couldn't find natural search traffic. However, the competition has millions of users and revenue with different products so I feel confident there may be a space for a product focusing on one key area of innovation: Quality.

I received an 11% CTR and then 26% when I optimized. (On page CTR)

I also emailed industry news outlets. They were interested in running a story on the product, but I blew the pitches, which made them want to wait to see more.

The third thing I did was focus on getting feedback on the concept. Multiple times I heard about the #1 issue. I talked to multiple people who confirmed this problem.

I even had a couple active leads.

What I'm doing now is focusing on building the product. It should be doable with the resources I have.

I've given myself 6 months to build the basic product.

Time will tell if the reception is as good as when I tested.


I made this thread to keep me accountable. I'll update it as I'm going along. There won't be daily updates, just updates at inflection points.

 

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[Guest92dX]

Update:

I abandoned the venture I worked on. I'm sure my competitors fed me bad information through clicks and email opt-ins.

One of my competitors also released a new iOS and Android application shortly after I tore down the website.

The features and things they put in the app were copies of what I was going to offer.

It's disheartening that people would do that.

Maybe they didn't notice me. Maybe they weren't thinking about me. I don't have analytics from my form. It wasn't possible to track that deeply.

I'll track deeper next time.

What I do know is that I successfully burned cash to learn one thing: I have to track better and take a different avenue that doesn't rely on competitor traffic.

If they did do something like that then it's because I started it by bidding on their keywords and their name.

Lesson learned.

-----

For my next venture, I'm stepping back and not coming up with ideas. This has been a consistent theme with every venture. I'm going to let other people come up with the ideas for me and focus on pre-selling which is something I'm learning about now.

----

I've also started learning copywriting as well, advertising platforms, and selling techniques. These are the most critical components to building a successful business.

My time has previously been spent with 95% action and 5% research and study.

I'm switching the distribution of my time to 80% learning and 20% action. There are many things I don't know.

 

[Guest92dX]

Update:

Until recently, I always thought you needed money to start a business. Unless it's B&M I think this is incorrect.

Some people might disagree and think things like "The Secret" are wrong because it leaves out necessary action. Yes, books like "The Secret" are wrong. However, people thinking tons of action is necessary are wrong too.

By the time I was on my 5th venture, I had only gotten to product and market once, the very first time I tried. The first time I tried it didn't require anything to make the product. It was a PP (provisional patent). Who couldn't create one of those? lol.

On my 5th venture, I actually "manifested" the ENTIRE infrastructure for a business. I had to walk away from it though because my partner didn't communicate well. My partner saw me helping him. He had the resources. He decided to help me. For various reasons, I believe that I messed up the partnership. It's my fault. The universe gave me exactly what I wanted, and I messed it up.

I barely took any action for my 5th venture. It was literally offered to me and fell out of the sky. I learned some important lessons though.

Following that, I got to product and market multiple times on #6 and #7. There was no serious bites on the offers though and no sales. The market was also terrible.

What I'm doing now:

I am researching industry niches and trying to find granular data on growth in them. I will use this data to select a niche and learn more about it to solve a problem in it.

I'm not just going to build something. I think that's backwards. I'm going to find a problem and then get people to pay me first.

The way I plan to do "idea extraction" is much different than the way I think other people are doing it. I didn't even realize that the strength I have talking with men and women is one of my key assets.

I only discovered this asset about it from reading the Dane Maxwell interview where he suggests pre-selling.

 

[Guest92dX]

Update:

- learned practical sales advice
- read 10+ books for a total of 15 since my doing my first project from authors on the fastlane recommended reading list
- finishing Unscripted and enjoying it much better than TMF
- Picked several growing niches to target for the next year
- Calculated costs to run the next project for several months to first sale.

Last stop before start:

Find the cash to fund the project.

Up until now, I've used other people's money and used it as prudently as I could conceive except for the first time.

The psychological stress from taking money from people who aren't entrepreneurs was killing me. This stuff would eat me up.

I'm probably going to use Upwork to generate the cash. Then I'll make more consistent updates as I'm on the project.

Edit: I also need to add that I'm not in a rush. The glamour has worn off for me. This is literally just about finishing something.

For a long time, I hadn't finished anything or seen it through to its logical conclusion because I wasn't compelled by outside forces. This is to prove that I can finish something.

Fwiw, I need to wrap up one more thing I've been putting off for a year before I dive into this wholeheartedly.

Things I've finished since starting this journey:

- 1k cranes, check out my picture. No that's not my work. That's just what 1k cranes looks like. All of mine are computer paper sitting in a bag. I did it under 1 year like the wish myth suggests. It was to give me clarity and peace. I haven't figured out what to do with them yet.

- beat 1 video game. I hadn't played one in years let alone finished 1.

- finished 10+ books. I don't have the exact count, but I hadn't finished a book in a while.

- last, finish my meditation course that helped spark so many positive changes in me. I'm on the final stages and haven't finished yet because I lost the audio files.

 

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[Guest92dX]

Finished collecting emails. Setup the temporary website for the project.

Still haven't found the cash the float the project.

I've put in several applications on Upwork. I turned down one invite, which may have been an easy way to make the cash. The guy wasn't payment verified though. His English was also sub-par.

 

[JM35]

Finished collecting emails. Setup the temporary website for the project.

Still haven't found the cash the float the project.

I've put in several applications on Upwork. I turned down one invite, which may have been an easy way to make the cash. The guy wasn't payment verified though. His English was also sub-par.

Do you legitimately not have the cash to put into this project or are you just too afraid to invest your current dollars in it because you have been unsuccessful in the past? You mentioned you have lost other peoples money in the past, so it sounds like you haven't ever invested your own money into something.

Maybe you are trying to generate cash right now that you are okay with losing, so another failure wouldn't set you back from where you financially are right now.

When you go all-in, and have something to lose is when you will really bust your a$$ to make a venture a success. If you don't have anything real to lose, then you will keep flirting with success and end in failure. I wouldn't ever trust anyone with $1, if they don't have $5 of their own in it before coming to me.

 

[Guest92dX]

I have $0 to my name. Good for you. Do you have anything important to contribute?

This literally feels like a self-promotion post. You have 85 messages and 65 likes received. You don't even go 1 for 1 on messages.

You sound like an armchair quarterback. How you ended the post about yourself seems really fishy. I'll pass.

 

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[JM35]

I have $0 to my name. Good for you. Do you have anything important to contribute?

This literally feels like a self-promotion post. You have 85 messages and 65 likes received. You don't even go 1 for 1 on messages.

You sound like an armchair quarterback. How you ended the post about yourself seems really fishy. I'll pass.

Not sure why the salt here bud, I didn't say anything about myself in that, except for the last sentence which still had nothing really to do with myself. Company INSIDERS buying stock in their own company is considered a bullish sign in the finance world, because it means they believe in their business and the growth behind it.

Simply asking a tough question that many people wouldn't. Don't take so easily to criticism's and push back. I'm not on here to get into a pissing contest, and there is nothing I self-promote on here. I wasn't intending to say that you were coming to me for an investment with that last sentence - I can see the confusion there, sorry.

And to point out, you aren't 1-to-1 either...but why in the hell does that even matter? You're sadly mistaken if you think that the only successful people on this forum have thousands of likes. I'm not claiming I'm one of them - just pointing out the ignorance of your comeback.

 

[Guest92dX]

Salt? I'm pointing out facts.

You've spent another two paragraphs saying absolutely nothing.

You're projecting onto me and are continuing to project.

You mentioned you have lost other peoples money in the past, so it sounds like you haven't ever invested your own money into something.

You automatically assumed that I hadn't pumped any of my own cash into this. #1 I have. #2 There isn't anymore to go around on rodeo 7. #3 Money is an accelerant, not a definite need to make sales. #4 You're mentioning finance drivel now.

The quote demonstrates exactly how you were in your head and making the post about yourself. Good for you. You don't put "invest" in companies unless someone puts in 5x as much money. That's not even a good yardstick for anything, but good for you.

Please just leave the thread.

 

[JM35]

Salt? I'm pointing out facts.

You've spent another two paragraphs saying absolutely nothing.

You're projecting onto me and are continuing to project.



You automatically assumed that I hadn't pumped any of my own cash into this. #1 I have. #2 There isn't anymore to go around on rodeo 7. #3 Money is an accelerant, not a definite need to make sales. #4 You're mentioning finance drivel now.

The quote demonstrates exactly how you were in your head and making the post about yourself. Good for you. You don't put "invest" in companies unless someone puts in 5x as much money. That's not even a good yardstick for anything, but good for you.

Please just leave the thread.

Good luck in your current venture mate.

 

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