Jonathan's Fastlane Idea: 'Study Buddy'

[Jonathan1]

I'm still working on the name, but let's call it 'Study buddy' for now.

Good day fellow fastlaners. The purpose of this thread is both to introduce myself and share my fastlane business idea. I want to be held accountable to aid my execution, so I will make regular posts to share my progress.

My name is Jonathan. I have read TMF, and it has changed my beliefs about life and finances. I also came up with an idea while reading and I want to make that idea a reality. I am very excited about this project and I have the support of my girl friend and my mother, and now I hope that I will have the support of this forum (of course, I will try to give back value to this forum where possible).

My idea: I live in a third world region in which all secondary school students have to take a major Exam at the end of their secondary studies. There is a great demand for private lessons, to the point where almost every student takes lessons for at least one subject. My idea is to create passive online lessons (which no one is doing right now). I want to:

-take the syllabi for all the subjects and create quality video modules for each topic
-create memory aids to help the student retain the information, and
-create content so that the student can practice answering questions to build confidence in what they would have learned (in time, as the business makes money, I will invest in interactive software and games so that they can learn through playing games etc.)

Is it fastlane? Yes.
Control-I determine the price of my product plus the market size based on the countries that I target, so that I get C.U.L.
Entry-No one is giving online lessons. (The benefits of online vs private, in person lessons are: 1) Learn at your own pace, 2) Learn from the comfort and safety of your own home...Safety is big because crime is rampant here, 3) Quality teaching and material, 4) Immediate feedback on learning, 5) I am able to offer better prices) In time, I can even higher tutors for private 1 on 1 online lessons. So that I can offer the same benefit of in person lessons. I prefer not do this however, as it will subtract from the passivity and automation from my system.
Need-The fact that there is a great demand for in person private lessons shows that there is a market. In addition, education at this level is mandatory and stressed as a passport out of poverty (in the third world culture).
Time-I love this aspect of it. 10 Years from now, the principles of math and business etc will all still be the same. The content will still be relevant. I may need to make a few minor adjustments as they add or subtract minor things from the syllabi. 10 years from now, my content will still be relevant. If executed right, students just need to subscribe for as long as they need then unsubscribe. Which means, passivity and automation.
Scale-The market size is roughly 320,000 potential customers. Because students move up a grade every year, this means every year I have a set of 320,000 new students and as such, potential customers.

Market size: 640,000
1+2) Math and English-84,000 + 85,000* respectively
3)Business-30,000*
4)Information Technology-22,000*
5)Accounts-18,000*
6)Biology-16,000*
7)Physics-14,000*
8)Chemistry-14,000*

*Number of candidates in 2015 region wide
Approximately 320,000 student entries. The exam requires two grades to prep. So the true market size is roughly 640,000.

Potential income

The figures in red represent the percentage of the market in my country.
The figures in green represent the percentage of the market region wide.
*200 per month represents my currency, so I have put the USD equivalent.

I created a projection from 1 student to 50,000. Honestly, based on my experience with poverty, if I only had 1 student all my life, it would still be worth it. With only 15 students, in 40 years I would have over a million in my currency. There is no reason for me not to execute this project.

Plan of action
1.Learn how to use word press sufficiently to do the following:
Topical progress monitor
Student profiles with avatars
Subscriptions-Recurring billing credit cards or 3 month, 6 month packages
Family packages-2-5 children
Feedback graphs + percentages-Parental Accountability
Testimonials
Profile comparison charts?
Level of usage monitoring
Habit forming design
Trial account-Try before you buy
Flash cards
Progress badges/tracking-Badge OS

2. Find:
Theme
Logos and icons
Pictures
Video intro/end with theme song
Website logo
Plugins

3.Mission Statement
4.Research and gathering phase-for understanding and remembering components
Best books
Best online content
Videos


5.Repackaging Phase-Use word press plugins and tools to package content
Repackaging checklist
General
Is the entire syllabus covered?
Is it systematically organized?
Are we using a unifying theme?

From student’s perspective-Questions to ensure the content is the quality that I want.
Understanding
Holistic learning-Can the student see the bigger picture?
5 year old technique-Is this idea presented in a simple manner?
Multimedia-Are videos, pictures, sketches etc. used?
Attention keeping?
Does the information seem common sense and make connections with things the student already knows? Better than what they hear in school?
Why is this important? Can the student see the importance of the idea in real life?
Hook-Is there a hook that makes the student want to see the next lesson?
Is the understanding component itself worth the price?

Remembering
Memory tips-Are cue associations, episodic memories, sounds used to help the student remember effortlessly and efficiently?
Is the remembering component itself worth the price?


Practice
Is there enough practice to build true confidence? (10 questions per topic)
Is the practice sufficiently challenging?
Is the practice component itself worth the price?

Things to acquire
Physical assets
Canon Vixia HF R600 1080p HD Video Camcorder+SD Card-242USD
Huion 8 x 6 Inches Digital Graphic Drawing Tablet - 680s-40USD
Transcend USB 3.0 SDHC-7USD
Seagate Expansion 1TB Portable External Hard Drive USB 3.0-55USD
Green screen
Lighting-My computer lamp
Syllabi
Books and other materials
Total thus far=344

Software
Website-bluehost.com and wordpress.org-$1200. Per year
Adobe after effects
Adobe captivate smooth draw

Current roadblocks
I am broke
I am unemployed
Only my girlfriend and myself are planning to create the content, so it is alot of work for us both. I presume this is the trial of process.

Thanks for taking the time to look at my post! In the end, I realize that fastlane is about making us better persons. It's not about selfishly getting rich, but enriching the lives of millions. Wealth is the by product. I suspect though, that by the time the bank account is fat, it would not be the riches that satisfies, but the awareness of the number of lives we enriched.

 

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[Duane]

What a hell of a post. Only one thing I would be weary of..

My friend created a very complex algorithm on excel that pretty much solved any problem one of my classes could throw at you. He then started selling it to students.

He got caught and we found out what he did was illegal in a lot of ways. Lucky for him, the professor dropped major charges.


Yeah I could see offering advice and help with homework is fine, but you're self employeed then working on a set hourly pay rate. And if you make a plan to walk students through specific syllabi you might run into legal problems so I'd look into that.

Goodluck

 

[Scot]

What a hell of a post. Only one thing I would be weary of..

My friend created a very complex algorithm on excel that pretty much solved any problem one of my classes could throw at you. He then started selling it to students.

He got caught and we found out what he did was illegal in a lot of ways. Lucky for him, the professor dropped major charges.


Yeah I could see offering advice and help with homework is fine, but you're self employeed then working on a set hourly pay rate. And if you make a plan to walk students through specific syllabi you might run into legal problems so I'd look into that.

Goodluck

If he's essentially making a Kaplan in whatever country he's in, I don't see any legal issues with that. Hell, my wife is a veterinarian and when she studied for boards, the board study software, that was 3rd party, had a lot of questions that appeared on the tests.

As long as you're not stealing intellectual property, shouldn't be an issue. If it's a state standardized test, I don't know if intellectual property applies. Again, all here say since this is a different country..

 

[Jonathan1]

What a hell of a post. Only one thing I would be weary of..

My friend created a very complex algorithm on excel that pretty much solved any problem one of my classes could throw at you. He then started selling it to students.

He got caught and we found out what he did was illegal in a lot of ways. Lucky for him, the professor dropped major charges.


Yeah I could see offering advice and help with homework is fine, but you're self employeed then working on a set hourly pay rate. And if you make a plan to walk students through specific syllabi you might run into legal problems so I'd look into that.

Goodluck

Hello Duane,

Thank you for reading my post and for your response. I would certainly want to avoid the same mistakes of your friend. The aim of Study buddy is not to do homework for students. It's simply a collection of videos teaching students the material on the syllabi. So it's essentially school from home. My experience in our schooling system has taught me that most teachers are not very good at teaching. I am studying Psychology and so I understand a thing or two about learning, so the value I am contributing is teaching in a way that students can really learn. I want to create content that I wish I had access to when I was at that level in my education journey. Hopefully that clarifies that I am not at any legal risk.

Regards,
Jonathan.

 

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[Jonathan1]

If he's essentially making a Kaplan in whatever country he's in, I don't see any legal issues with that. Hell, my wife is a veterinarian and when she studied for boards, the board study software, that was 3rd party, had a lot of questions that appeared on the tests.

As long as you're not stealing intellectual property, shouldn't be an issue. If it's a state standardized test, I don't know if intellectual property applies. Again, all here say since this is a different country..

Hello Scot,

Thanks for reading my post. Great way to capture my goal....it really is a sort of Kaplan for our major exams. And yes, I do not plan to steal intellectual property, for not only is it wrong, but I would not want others to steal my 'kaplan' once I am in business.

 

[ZCP]

what is your MVP to get this started?
can you charge less for personalized study while then hiring the ones you just taught to teach the next ones?
could you trade classes in one subject for expertise in another?
what is your MVP to get this started?

 

[Jonathan1]

what is your MVP to get this started?
can you charge less for personalized study while then hiring the ones you just taught to teach the next ones?
could you trade classes in one subject for expertise in another?
what is your MVP to get this started?

Great question....one I should give more thought than I currently am. Thank you.
I am shying away from personal tutoring because that will subtract from the passivity of the system (if I am there teaching, then it requires my time; if I hire others to teach as you are suggesting, then they need to be managed). That idea was more of secondary consideration. What I want instead is fully passive content. Video lectures, content to help students remember what they learn, and content to help them practice what they know, which are all passive.

To your essential question of what is the MVP to get this started, I am thinking that once I create the content for Math and English (that I mentioned in the last sentence), I can get online and start advertising. I am hesitant to advertise too early though, because I fear someone with more resources than I (e.g. a group of teachers) might take the idea and be able to tackle the pool of subjects faster than my girlfriend and I are able to.

 

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[ZCP]

Then hire a teacher.
Tutor if needed to raise funds.
Trade other classes to get teachers.
Find a way!
Group effort / open source it if you have to.....

 

[Jonathan1]

Then hire a teacher.
Tutor if needed to raise funds.
Trade other classes to get teachers.
Find a way!
Group effort / open source it if you have to.....

I will consider those suggestions. Thank you.

 

[Scot]

Great question....one I should give more thought than I currently am. Thank you.
I am shying away from personal tutoring because that will subtract from the passivity of the system (if I am there teaching, then it requires my time; if I hire others to teach as you are suggesting, then they need to be managed). That idea was more of secondary consideration. What I want instead is fully passive content. Video lectures, content to help students remember what they learn, and content to help them practice what they know, which are all passive.

To your essential question of what is the MVP to get this started, I am thinking that once I create the content for Math and English (that I mentioned in the last sentence), I can get online and start advertising. I am hesitant to advertise too early though, because I fear someone with more resources than I (e.g. a group of teachers) might take the idea and be able to tackle the pool of subjects faster than my girlfriend and I are able to.

Some thoughts on this..

1. Passivity.
Passivity is a great end goal, but it's not a place everyone can start. Just like MJ's business, it started off very labor intensive. Over time he was able to automate it. Don't be afraid to get your hands dirty and be involved in it. Obviously, publishing content and creating videos is an awesome return on your time, but don't be afraid to do some of the work. Over time, once you have more students and income you can expand.

2. Losing your idea
Clearly you're not too worried about losing you idea of you posted your business plan online. Will you eventually run into competition? Absolutely. Make sure you set yourself apart with excellent content and value. But don't be so afraid to launch an MVP that you never get started. MVPs are pretty standard in startups because they work. We are a week away from launching our MVP. It's no where near the final level of usability the final version will have. But if we never get it out there, we won't be able to start.

The biggest importance of an MVP is learning if your idea will suit customers. What happens if you wait until everything is 100% done, launch, and find that students don't like your product? What if you find out they prefer a group study environment over video content? What if you find that they want a live person instead of study guides?

These are all things you find out through your MVP. It's easy to pivot your business, add/change features if you're not 6 months into development.

 

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[Honestea]

I'm still working on the name, but let's call it 'Study buddy' for now.

Good day fellow fastlaners. The purpose of this thread is both to introduce myself and share my fastlane business idea. I want to be held accountable to aid my execution, so I will make regular posts to share my progress.

My name is Jonathan. I have read TMF, and it has changed my beliefs about life and finances. I also came up with an idea while reading and I want to make that idea a reality. I am very excited about this project and I have the support of my girl friend and my mother, and now I hope that I will have the support of this forum (of course, I will try to give back value to this forum where possible).

My idea: I live in a third world region in which all secondary school students have to take a major Exam at the end of their secondary studies. There is a great demand for private lessons, to the point where almost every student takes lessons for at least one subject. My idea is to create passive online lessons (which no one is doing right now). I want to:

-take the syllabi for all the subjects and create quality video modules for each topic
-create memory aids to help the student retain the information, and
-create content so that the student can practice answering questions to build confidence in what they would have learned (in time, as the business makes money, I will invest in interactive software and games so that they can learn through playing games etc.)

Is it fastlane? Yes.
Control-I determine the price of my product plus the market size based on the countries that I target, so that I get C.U.L.
Entry-No one is giving online lessons. (The benefits of online vs private, in person lessons are: 1) Learn at your own pace, 2) Learn from the comfort and safety of your own home...Safety is big because crime is rampant here, 3) Quality teaching and material, 4) Immediate feedback on learning, 5) I am able to offer better prices) In time, I can even higher tutors for private 1 on 1 online lessons. So that I can offer the same benefit of in person lessons. I prefer not do this however, as it will subtract from the passivity and automation from my system.
Need-The fact that there is a great demand for in person private lessons shows that there is a market. In addition, education at this level is mandatory and stressed as a passport out of poverty (in the third world culture).
Time-I love this aspect of it. 10 Years from now, the principles of math and business etc will all still be the same. The content will still be relevant. I may need to make a few minor adjustments as they add or subtract minor things from the syllabi. 10 years from now, my content will still be relevant. If executed right, students just need to subscribe for as long as they need then unsubscribe. Which means, passivity and automation.
Scale-The market size is roughly 320,000 potential customers. Because students move up a grade every year, this means every year I have a set of 320,000 new students and as such, potential customers.

Market size: 640,000
1+2) Math and English-84,000 + 85,000* respectively
3)Business-30,000*
4)Information Technology-22,000*
5)Accounts-18,000*
6)Biology-16,000*
7)Physics-14,000*
8)Chemistry-14,000*

*Number of candidates in 2015 region wide
Approximately 320,000 student entries. The exam requires two grades to prep. So the true market size is roughly 640,000.

Potential income
View attachment 12829
The figures in red represent the percentage of the market in my country.
The figures in green represent the percentage of the market region wide.
*200 per month represents my currency, so I have put the USD equivalent.

I created a projection from 1 student to 50,000. Honestly, based on my experience with poverty, if I only had 1 student all my life, it would still be worth it. With only 15 students, in 40 years I would have over a million in my currency. There is no reason for me not to execute this project.

Plan of action
1.Learn how to use word press sufficiently to do the following:
Topical progress monitor
Student profiles with avatars
Subscriptions-Recurring billing credit cards or 3 month, 6 month packages
Family packages-2-5 children
Feedback graphs + percentages-Parental Accountability
Testimonials
Profile comparison charts?
Level of usage monitoring
Habit forming design
Trial account-Try before you buy
Flash cards
Progress badges/tracking-Badge OS

2. Find:
Theme
Logos and icons
Pictures
Video intro/end with theme song
Website logo
Plugins

3.Mission Statement
4.Research and gathering phase-for understanding and remembering components
Best books
Best online content
Videos


5.Repackaging Phase-Use word press plugins and tools to package content
Repackaging checklist
General
Is the entire syllabus covered?
Is it systematically organized?
Are we using a unifying theme?

From student’s perspective-Questions to ensure the content is the quality that I want.
Understanding
Holistic learning-Can the student see the bigger picture?
5 year old technique-Is this idea presented in a simple manner?
Multimedia-Are videos, pictures, sketches etc. used?
Attention keeping?
Does the information seem common sense and make connections with things the student already knows? Better than what they hear in school?
Why is this important? Can the student see the importance of the idea in real life?
Hook-Is there a hook that makes the student want to see the next lesson?
Is the understanding component itself worth the price?

Remembering
Memory tips-Are cue associations, episodic memories, sounds used to help the student remember effortlessly and efficiently?
Is the remembering component itself worth the price?


Practice
Is there enough practice to build true confidence? (10 questions per topic)
Is the practice sufficiently challenging?
Is the practice component itself worth the price?

Things to acquire
Physical assets
Canon Vixia HF R600 1080p HD Video Camcorder+SD Card-242USD
Huion 8 x 6 Inches Digital Graphic Drawing Tablet - 680s-40USD
Transcend USB 3.0 SDHC-7USD
Seagate Expansion 1TB Portable External Hard Drive USB 3.0-55USD
Green screen
Lighting-My computer lamp
Syllabi
Books and other materials
Total thus far=344

Software
Website-bluehost.com and wordpress.org-$1200. Per year
Adobe after effects
Adobe captivate smooth draw

Current roadblocks
I am broke
I am unemployed
Only my girlfriend and myself are planning to create the content, so it is alot of work for us both. I presume this is the trial of process.

Thanks for taking the time to look at my post! In the end, I realize that fastlane is about making us better persons. It's not about selfishly getting rich, but enriching the lives of millions. Wealth is the by product. I suspect though, that by the time the bank account is fat, it would not be the riches that satisfies, but the awareness of the number of lives we enriched.

Hello Jonathan- I am very glad to see your post. It so happens for my first venture (not for tutoring students maths/English but for other similarly labor intensive coaching services), I recently came to the same place as you, i.e. realizing creating and selling passive content will be the ultimate solution in terms of eventually liberating me from selling my time for money.

What I do not fully understand is the assumption of a 40 year (life time) revenue from a student- is that what you meant in the table? Could you explain?

 

[JDx]

Wow what a post!
You've certainly given this some serious thought. And you're using the guidelines and tips from the book well too, good job.

Have you started already?
What are you doing now?
When will you go live, or aim to?

Getting started is most important. Don't get too caught up in researching everything and making logo's before you actually have any product or a customer. How are you planning on getting these? Do you have potential customers already?

Keep us posted and good luck!

Hello Jonathan- I am very glad to see your post. It so happens for my first venture (not for tutoring students maths/English but for other similarly labor intensive coaching services), I recently came to the same place as you, i.e. realizing creating and selling passive content will be the ultimate solution in terms of eventually liberating me from selling my time for money.

What I do not fully understand is the assumption of a 40 year (life time) revenue from a student- is that what you meant in the table? Could you explain?

I think what he meant is that every year, x amount of people form new classes. This is an endless cycle; getting one(or, XX amount) student from class A every year for 40 years.

 

[Jon L]

Great post by the way. Is your market size really 640,000? I mean ... are there 640,000 people in your country that are willing to part with $200/month for a service such as yours? The size of the car market in the US, for example, isn't the number of people that would like to buy a car. For automakers here, the number they care about is the number of people that will actually buy a car this year. (those people: 1) want it, 2) have the money or the ability to get financing, 3) choose to buy a car instead of the myriad things they could have done with that money.)

Depending on which website you look at, the tutoring market in the US is between 1 and 10 billion annually. (probably also depends how you define that market) (I didn't find any sites that actually cited where the figures came from)

 

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[Jonathan1]

Some thoughts on this..

1. Passivity.
Passivity is a great end goal, but it's not a place everyone can start. Just like MJ's business, it started off very labor intensive. Over time he was able to automate it. Don't be afraid to get your hands dirty and be involved in it. Obviously, publishing content and creating videos is an awesome return on your time, but don't be afraid to do some of the work. Over time, once you have more students and income you can expand.

2. Losing your idea
Clearly you're not too worried about losing you idea of you posted your business plan online. Will you eventually run into competition? Absolutely. Make sure you set yourself apart with excellent content and value. But don't be so afraid to launch an MVP that you never get started. MVPs are pretty standard in startups because they work. We are a week away from launching our MVP. It's no where near the final level of usability the final version will have. But if we never get it out there, we won't be able to start.

The biggest importance of an MVP is learning if your idea will suit customers. What happens if you wait until everything is 100% done, launch, and find that students don't like your product? What if you find out they prefer a group study environment over video content? What if you find that they want a live person instead of study guides?

These are all things you find out through your MVP. It's easy to pivot your business, add/change features if you're not 6 months into development.

Thanks for your response. Yes, I am willing to be involved, but I want my efforts to go into creating video content, not live tutoring.

I am actually a little scared about someone executing my idea faster or better than me, but I guess a little fear is natural. Good idea about getting a MVP out asap to get feedback. I was sharing with my mate today what you said and she agreed that early feedback will help us refine our model to what students actually need as opposed to what we think they need.

 

[Jonathan1]

Great post by the way. Is your market size really 640,000? I mean ... are there 640,000 people in your country that are willing to part with $200/month for a service such as yours? The size of the car market in the US, for example, isn't the number of people that would like to buy a car. For automakers here, the number they care about is the number of people that will actually buy a car this year. (those people: 1) want it, 2) have the money or the ability to get financing, 3) choose to buy a car instead of the myriad things they could have done with that money.)

Depending on which website you look at, the tutoring market in the US is between 1 and 10 billion annually. (probably also depends how you define that market) (I didn't find any sites that actually cited where the figures came from)

I found the official website of the council that facilitates the exams for the region and I looked at their stats. For the year 2015, over 100,000 students registered for exams. Each student does approximately 5-7 subjects (I did 7 when I was at that level of my education). For the year 2015, there was a total of over 500,000 exam registrations across all the subjects. The subjects I catalogued is only a fraction of all the subjects offered. (I chose these because they have the greatest number of candidates). So based on the subjects we are focusing on, there were over 300,000 exam registrations. These exams take two years for preparation, specifically, students at the equivalent of what you US citizens call grades 9-10. This means that the number of students preparing for the exam at any given time is about twice the average number that register for exams annually. So I just doubled the 300,000 and that's how I got the figure around 600,000. Every year, 100,000 students will be out of the system after doing the exams, but another 100,000 would be entering grade 9.

I understand the technicalities of defining market, but I am just looking at the raw estimate of students taking exams and seeing them as potential customers. Of course not everyone can afford internet, and lessons, and would be interested in it etc. However, based on my financial projections, just a fraction of the 100,000 students will make us very happy.

 

[Jonathan1]

Hello Jonathan- I am very glad to see your post. It so happens for my first venture (not for tutoring students maths/English but for other similarly labor intensive coaching services), I recently came to the same place as you, i.e. realizing creating and selling passive content will be the ultimate solution in terms of eventually liberating me from selling my time for money.

What I do not fully understand is the assumption of a 40 year (life time) revenue from a student- is that what you meant in the table? Could you explain?

Hey Honestea, I'm not assuming a 40 year lifespan for one student. Every year, X amount of students will take the exams, and after that, they will be finished with their secondary school education. When they leave the system, a fresh batch of students, let's call them X1, will be entering the grade in which the exams are taken. So every year students are taking the exams and 'passing through the system'. The numbers I used in my estimations does not represent the same students of a particular cohort, but simply the number of students across cohorts.

Take the first line for instance with 1 student. I'm not imagining 1 student from 1 cohort for 40 years, but I'm imagining if over 40 years, and 40 cohorts, if I only had 1 student from each cohort, what the projected sales would be like.

Hope that clarifies.

 

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[Jon L]

I found the official website of the council that facilitates the exams for the region and I looked at their stats. For the year 2015, over 100,000 students registered for exams. Each student does approximately 5-7 subjects (I did 7 when I was at that level of my education). For the year 2015, there was a total of over 500,000 exam registrations across all the subjects. The subjects I catalogued is only a fraction of all the subjects offered. (I chose these because they have the greatest number of candidates). So based on the subjects we are focusing on, there were over 300,000 exam registrations. These exams take two years for preparation, specifically, students at the equivalent of what you US citizens call grades 9-10. This means that the number of students preparing for the exam at any given time is about twice the average number that register for exams annually. So I just doubled the 300,000 and that's how I got the figure around 600,000. Every year, 100,000 students will be out of the system after doing the exams, but another 100,000 would be entering grade 9.

I understand the technicalities of defining market, but I am just looking at the raw estimate of students taking exams and seeing them as potential customers. Of course not everyone can afford internet, and lessons, and would be interested in it etc. However, based on my financial projections, just a fraction of the 100,000 students will make us very happy.

I think you need to put some more thought into this. Here's an example:

Ebay processes about $50B in orders every year. Just a fraction of that would make you a very rich man. However, very, VERY few ebayers make more than a few hundred dollars a year. Most people trying to make money on ebay don't make even a part-time income...and they spend a lot of time making very little.

You say that Poland is a third world country. What percent of those 100,000 students could afford to spend $200/month studying? What percent of those that could afford it would actually want to spend the money?

Asking these questions isn't just an academic exercise.

Once you have a handle on who would be willing to spend the money: What are the characteristics of those people? How would you market to them? What kind of tutoring product would they want? How would you market to them? (do most of them want to be: business owners, doctors, lawyers, etc?) ... etc etc etc. Figuring out your actual market will help you a LOT in creating and selling your product

 

[458]

Target cam girls with big nockers and sell to college nerds. Genius

 

[Scot]

I think you need to put some more thought into this. Here's an example:

Ebay processes about $50B in orders every year. Just a fraction of that would make you a very rich man. However, very, VERY few ebayers make more than a few hundred dollars a year. Most people trying to make money on ebay don't make even a part-time income...and they spend a lot of time making very little.

You say that Poland is a third world country. What percent of those 100,000 students could afford to spend $200/month studying? What percent of those that could afford it would actually want to spend the money?

Asking these questions isn't just an academic exercise.

Once you have a handle on who would be willing to spend the money: What are the characteristics of those people? How would you market to them? What kind of tutoring product would they want? How would you market to them? (do most of them want to be: business owners, doctors, lawyers, etc?) ... etc etc etc. Figuring out your actual market will help you a LOT in creating and selling your product

Just a clarification, it's $200 in his currency, $30 USD per mo

People spend $5,000 on Kaplan course packs..

 

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[RHL]

If he's essentially making a Kaplan in whatever country he's in, I don't see any legal issues with that.

What you find pretty quickly when you travel outside the western world is that there are zillions of dollars to be made in simply re-making awesome stuff that already exists in the US/UK/etc. for a foreign market.

Problem: You need the balls to pack your bags and put boots on the ground long-term and the tenacity to make business contacts who can sell through in the native language and won't screw you.

 

[CaptainAmerica]

How is this different from the Khan Academy?

 

[Hyrum]

I was thinking about doing something like this a year or two ago for a professional licensing exam. Like @Scot said, people were paying big bucks ($1000+) for a full service exam prep course. When I broke it down, I found most of the people buying the prep course were mainly concerned about one (out of four) section. I could make a course for just that section, charge a third of what the big boys were charging, and siphon off a few hundred customers.

If I were in your shoes, start with just one or two of those sections. Pick the ones that give the students the most anxiety. Use those to test your market, polish your product, and get a feel for the business before building out a full platform for all 8 sections. Don't be afraid to do things that won't scale at first. Figure out the business first, then work out the processes to move it to the Fastlane.

 

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[Jonathan1]

Ahhh, I want it to be pretty similar to Khan Academy. The thing is that Khan Academy is not made by our people for our people. I think locals will prefer something made by persons in our accent. I'm not saying that Khan Academy isn't quality, but people will be people in how they think and have their preferences for their own. That, plus our content will be built around our curriculum. I think students will prefer a program that faithfully adheres to the curriculum as opposed to filtering an already existing database like Khan Academy for only relevant content.

 

[Jonathan1]

I was thinking about doing something like this a year or two ago for a professional licensing exam. Like @Scot said, people were paying big bucks ($1000+) for a full service exam prep course. When I broke it down, I found most of the people buying the prep course were mainly concerned about one (out of four) section. I could make a course for just that section, charge a third of what the big boys were charging, and siphon off a few hundred customers.

If I were in your shoes, start with just one or two of those sections. Pick the ones that give the students the most anxiety. Use those to test your market, polish your product, and get a feel for the business before building out a full platform for all 8 sections. Don't be afraid to do things that won't scale at first. Figure out the business first, then work out the processes to move it to the Fastlane.

Oh, I love that idea of focusing around the subjects that make students anxious. Great idea.

 

[Jonathan1]

What you find pretty quickly when you travel outside the western world is that there are zillions of dollars to be made in simply re-making awesome stuff that already exists in the US/UK/etc. for a foreign market.

Problem: You need the balls to pack your bags and put boots on the ground long-term and the tenacity to make business contacts who can sell through in the native language and won't screw you.

I was thinking about that recently. Another reason that this idea appeals to me is because it requires little capital to start and sustain, which is great considering how broke I am. If/when this works, then I will polygamous in investing, and the next step is definitely to import some key ideas from first world countries.

 

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[Sanj Modha]

How do plan on acquiring customers?

 

[Jonathan1]

How do plan on acquiring customers?

Television Advertising is very costly here, ranging from the hundreds of thousands to millions (in my currency). At first, when I have a MVP, I'm planning to use word of mouth to get friends, and friends of friends, then Newspaper ads, maybe radio, then finally television. Do you have any suggestion?

 

[Scot]

Television Advertising is very costly here, ranging from the hundreds of thousands to millions (in my currency). At first, when I have a MVP, I'm planning to use word of mouth to get friends, and friends of friends, then Newspaper ads, maybe radio, then finally television. Do you have any suggestion?

Find kids in some of the bigger school, pay the $20 to leave flyers at the schools. Simple, low cost advertising. It's going right to the source.

Maybe even start an affiliate program. My wife's board prep company did this. Offer the course free to one student at each major school. Have them be responsible for giving a seminar about the benefits of the prep course and spread it by word of mouth.

 

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[Jonathan1]

Find kids in some of the bigger school, pay the $20 to leave flyers at the schools. Simple, low cost advertising. It's going right to the source.

Maybe even start an affiliate program. My wife's board prep company did this. Offer the course free to one student at each major school. Have them be responsible for giving a seminar about the benefits of the prep course and spread it by word of mouth.

Excellent idea. I truly love it. One idea I had to encourage a sort of snowballing/exponential growth rate is to offer the course at a higher price per month, and offer customers a lifetime lower price if they recruit one person. So e.g. 300 per month, or 200 per month if you recruit one person. Just some rough figures to illustrate the idea. I'm really excited about that in school advertising idea though, and I can think of many ways to negotiate with the school boards. I'll share it with my partner. Thank you.

 

[Scot]

Excellent idea. I truly love it. One idea I had to encourage a sort of snowballing/exponential growth rate is to offer the course at a higher price per month, and offer customers a lifetime lower price if they recruit one person. So e.g. 300 per month, or 200 per month if you recruit one person. Just some rough figures to illustrate the idea. I'm really excited about that in school advertising idea though, and I can think of many ways to negotiate with the school boards. I'll share it with my partner. Thank you.

It's a method of advertising we plan on using for our app. We just plan on bribing all the Marines I know with beer money haha