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Hi all,
I've been a member of INSIDERS for a couple of weeks and have been mostly a lurker. I was in the process of listening to Unscripted and wanted to finish that before posting anything there. Unsurprisingly a lot of my early questions were answered in the book, so I'm glad I held off. I've started working on a strategy for a business I'm really excited about. My concerns are some of the scalability and time factors, so I'd like honest feedback about my idea.
Background: I grew up poor - eight of us lived in a 40 x 8 ft. trailer for a few years of my life. My parents moved us around A LOT, almost once a year. This meant new school, being bullied, etc. on a regular basis. When we weren't living in the trailer, we lived in motel rooms, shady apartments...you get the picture. Anyway, I dropped out of high school and pursued jobs in restaurants, construction, social work, whatever. I did get my GED though and tried community colleges a few times. It wasn't until I got married and had a child that I committed to bettering my life by going to college (I wish I read the millionaire fastlane back then, although it didn't exist). I started going to be a science teacher, but started doing research and eventually went to graduate school to get my Ph. D. in Biomedical Science. I worked in 2 prestigious postdoctoral positions and finally have a well-paying job that I want to escape. I wanted to share this - not to brag - but to give you a sense of my skills and background as that is the basis for this business idea.
What is my why? My biggest why is seeing my 6 year old son alone most days during the summer. I work from home and he is alone since his 2 older sisters are either working or with friends. He does have play-dates with friends, but he is mostly here, asking me to play with him, but I'm hamstrung by corporate responsibilities. I really want to be in a position in 1 year where I can take whatever time off I want/need. Not just for him, but for my entire family. I
know you shouldn't have 2 "whys" but the one thing I learned the most from these books is that your monetary value is commensurate with the number of people you provide real value to - and the magnitude of the value. I've joined so many "get rich" affiliate marketing courses that I never followed through as they were all about developing sales funnels to get people to buy in to crappy resources - through spending thousands on FB ads. I don't knock people for pursuing that, but it felt icky to me and is counter to my personal beliefs. With that being said, my second why is to provide science resources and education to people from underserved communities to help them uncover their potential in STEM.
Here is my playbook of how I see it now. This is also fluid, so I'll pivot to where the market voice leads me, but getting started on this has already opened my eyes to other things:
- I've started out with a website and blog providing DIY science experiments people can do at home. I'm researching science themed birthday providers and looking at the different science experiments they can do. Once I have 2 hours worth of material, I'll add the option of science-themed birthday parties where people can hire me. I've also looked at Alibaba for science kits I can give to party attendees. Since I'd rather have a US-based supplier, I looked into that, but there will be work in getting the costs down. Conversely, I realized I can actually make a lot of kits myself and get the independent parts and the custom packaging for pennies on the dollar. Still more expensive than sourcing from China right now with the lower MOQs. Anyway, my goal is to eventually hire graduate students to do these. It will help with their CVs if they want to move into more of an education track (which is A LOT of them). I have lot of connections in this area, so I'm not really concerned about getting them. This will help me learn a lot about what the market voice is across several demographics.
- A second track of this business is after school programs in under-resourced schools. The one-time programs I don't mind doing for free, but I do want to set up a 6-12 month program where a select number of High School students get to take on a project from conception all the way to a report. I know this is a need since students from these schools don't have the resources, so they get weeded out from better STEM programs. A project like this would be really beneficial for their self-esteem as well as applying for specific internship/education programs. I can also get graduate students and postdocs to volunteer to help in these endeavors.
- The end-point at this moment is to provide accessible science camps for kids. I've looked into a lot of them and I know I can be competitive and, more importantly, not make it just for the privileged. I'm not putting a ton of energy into this just yet, but that is where I see the most potential for scalable growth that fits the CENTS model.
Speaking of which:
Control - I can control a lot of this business. Marketing could be done on so many platforms, but since it's just me at the beginning, I'll mostly work on word-of-mouth and referral through other science-based programs.
Entry - I've been an experienced biomedical scientist for ~12 years and have had more lab-based experience than 99% of the people who currently participate in these programs. It is also going to be a slog for a while as it will be my and my wife at the beginning trading time for money. It's not a palatable get rich quick scheme and requires a specific knowledge.
Need - the need is there. I've been volunteering for programs since I started graduate school in 2009 and know that this specific demographic needs better access to real-world science technologies and experience.
Time - Honestly this is my biggest concern right now. I now where it would need to be to fit this requirement, I'm just not sure how long that will take. I know this is stupid to think as I just need to roll my sleeves up and do it. And I'm not going to let this component stop me from acting. Just going through this process, it is entirely possible/probable that I will recognize something that I can make as a product that is consistent with this business.
Scale - I'd like to franchise the business so people can start their own academies across the country.
Anyway, that's what I'm working on. Any gaps or ideas from you would be appreciated. More importantly, writing this out and submitting it to you all has really solidified a lot about this business in my head. Thank you @MJ DeMarco and others for changing my mindset and giving me this path. It may be a complete disaster, but it's something I know I can act on every day passionately.
Cheers!
I've been a member of INSIDERS for a couple of weeks and have been mostly a lurker. I was in the process of listening to Unscripted and wanted to finish that before posting anything there. Unsurprisingly a lot of my early questions were answered in the book, so I'm glad I held off. I've started working on a strategy for a business I'm really excited about. My concerns are some of the scalability and time factors, so I'd like honest feedback about my idea.
Background: I grew up poor - eight of us lived in a 40 x 8 ft. trailer for a few years of my life. My parents moved us around A LOT, almost once a year. This meant new school, being bullied, etc. on a regular basis. When we weren't living in the trailer, we lived in motel rooms, shady apartments...you get the picture. Anyway, I dropped out of high school and pursued jobs in restaurants, construction, social work, whatever. I did get my GED though and tried community colleges a few times. It wasn't until I got married and had a child that I committed to bettering my life by going to college (I wish I read the millionaire fastlane back then, although it didn't exist). I started going to be a science teacher, but started doing research and eventually went to graduate school to get my Ph. D. in Biomedical Science. I worked in 2 prestigious postdoctoral positions and finally have a well-paying job that I want to escape. I wanted to share this - not to brag - but to give you a sense of my skills and background as that is the basis for this business idea.
What is my why? My biggest why is seeing my 6 year old son alone most days during the summer. I work from home and he is alone since his 2 older sisters are either working or with friends. He does have play-dates with friends, but he is mostly here, asking me to play with him, but I'm hamstrung by corporate responsibilities. I really want to be in a position in 1 year where I can take whatever time off I want/need. Not just for him, but for my entire family. I
know you shouldn't have 2 "whys" but the one thing I learned the most from these books is that your monetary value is commensurate with the number of people you provide real value to - and the magnitude of the value. I've joined so many "get rich" affiliate marketing courses that I never followed through as they were all about developing sales funnels to get people to buy in to crappy resources - through spending thousands on FB ads. I don't knock people for pursuing that, but it felt icky to me and is counter to my personal beliefs. With that being said, my second why is to provide science resources and education to people from underserved communities to help them uncover their potential in STEM.
Here is my playbook of how I see it now. This is also fluid, so I'll pivot to where the market voice leads me, but getting started on this has already opened my eyes to other things:
- I've started out with a website and blog providing DIY science experiments people can do at home. I'm researching science themed birthday providers and looking at the different science experiments they can do. Once I have 2 hours worth of material, I'll add the option of science-themed birthday parties where people can hire me. I've also looked at Alibaba for science kits I can give to party attendees. Since I'd rather have a US-based supplier, I looked into that, but there will be work in getting the costs down. Conversely, I realized I can actually make a lot of kits myself and get the independent parts and the custom packaging for pennies on the dollar. Still more expensive than sourcing from China right now with the lower MOQs. Anyway, my goal is to eventually hire graduate students to do these. It will help with their CVs if they want to move into more of an education track (which is A LOT of them). I have lot of connections in this area, so I'm not really concerned about getting them. This will help me learn a lot about what the market voice is across several demographics.
- A second track of this business is after school programs in under-resourced schools. The one-time programs I don't mind doing for free, but I do want to set up a 6-12 month program where a select number of High School students get to take on a project from conception all the way to a report. I know this is a need since students from these schools don't have the resources, so they get weeded out from better STEM programs. A project like this would be really beneficial for their self-esteem as well as applying for specific internship/education programs. I can also get graduate students and postdocs to volunteer to help in these endeavors.
- The end-point at this moment is to provide accessible science camps for kids. I've looked into a lot of them and I know I can be competitive and, more importantly, not make it just for the privileged. I'm not putting a ton of energy into this just yet, but that is where I see the most potential for scalable growth that fits the CENTS model.
Speaking of which:
Control - I can control a lot of this business. Marketing could be done on so many platforms, but since it's just me at the beginning, I'll mostly work on word-of-mouth and referral through other science-based programs.
Entry - I've been an experienced biomedical scientist for ~12 years and have had more lab-based experience than 99% of the people who currently participate in these programs. It is also going to be a slog for a while as it will be my and my wife at the beginning trading time for money. It's not a palatable get rich quick scheme and requires a specific knowledge.
Need - the need is there. I've been volunteering for programs since I started graduate school in 2009 and know that this specific demographic needs better access to real-world science technologies and experience.
Time - Honestly this is my biggest concern right now. I now where it would need to be to fit this requirement, I'm just not sure how long that will take. I know this is stupid to think as I just need to roll my sleeves up and do it. And I'm not going to let this component stop me from acting. Just going through this process, it is entirely possible/probable that I will recognize something that I can make as a product that is consistent with this business.
Scale - I'd like to franchise the business so people can start their own academies across the country.
Anyway, that's what I'm working on. Any gaps or ideas from you would be appreciated. More importantly, writing this out and submitting it to you all has really solidified a lot about this business in my head. Thank you @MJ DeMarco and others for changing my mindset and giving me this path. It may be a complete disaster, but it's something I know I can act on every day passionately.
Cheers!
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