New Start: In the Search for Real Productocracy ideas

[DougRMR]

Hope you're doing good, guys. I've posted a few times this year and wanna give thanks to the people in this forum who give value. Huge shoutout to MJ who also takes his time and interacts with us. Every now and then I come here and log where I'm at, my working ideas and to get some feedback.

One of the things MJ called out in my last posts was that I seemed to be stuck in a "money-chasing" mindset. As soon as he said that I knew he was right. I'm currently re-reading Unscripted and I realized how far away from the path I've strayed. Even though I started my own business last year and made some profit with it, I had nothing near a product that was full of value nor was it really done with CENTS in mind. However, I'm grateful for the experience, the capital I gained and the lessons I learned because if it weren't for that I never would've realize how much stuff I need to change.

Currently in a job but now that I have TUNEF at the forefront and CENTS in mind, I can't stop thinking of what a valuable idea might be. I'm not a very good idea guy in terms of business so my mind is working overtime. I have a few off the top of my head but still need to do some market research to see how useful or wanted this product might actually be (note that I'm just spitballing):

1) A barcode scanner specifically for data entry. If done right, a data scanner would cut data entry time in half. I'm currently working at an office for a distribution/warehouse company and this is one of THE biggest things that makes the office an eternal rush hour. Humans get slow entering data or they're out to lunch or 100 orders come in at the last minute, and suddenly you have towers of work by 4pm when you should be closing by 5pm. I don't if it's just a thing in my company because we're underemployed or because they don't have the right systems in place but this is constant enough that it causes major headaches and slow downs. However, I once had to do a scan of some data and I literally finished everything in like 10 minutes as opposed to the usual 30+ minutes. The boss decided to code some of the data into bar codes (I didn't even know how easy that was) and boom. It worked out awesomely. I was like, "Why don't we do this 100% of the time?!" However, I'm having trouble picturing how exactly I could make this scaleable or packagable, if that makes sense. Would I sell it to distribution companies as a computer program + scanner? Or could those two things come together somehow? Honestly don't know. I'm going to have to look deeper into it. The problem with this is that different companies give out their data differently so I'm gonna have to find a way to make this as universal as possible.

2) A subscription based service to help the elderly that comes with an optional app where maybe you get 8 buys per month or maybe even 1 buy per week. I could be underestimating old people but the idea in my mind is this: my business would deal with all the hassle (gas, going to the grocery store, deliveries, etc.) and make an app with the easiest UI I can possibly imagine where the elderly would literally just point and choose 1)grocery list, 2)payment + address, 3) confirm delivery. I'm almost 100% there's an app for this but I've never seen one or anything similar. I have seen services that bring you your groceries but I've never seen a subscription style service. Maybe I'm overcomplicating things and it'd be much better for the elder to call whenever he needs the buy but whatever. No bad ideas in a brainstorm

3) An ultra diet program that has literally changed my life. I suffer(ed?) from IBS but I was put on such a life changing diet I almost cried the first time I felt the relief. The biggest challenge for this is the marketing and how to make it appealing, because although it really is as straight forward as do this, eat that and boom, your body will immediately see the relief, people will definitely need some prepping to it. At least I think. The other thing is that I don't know on how many people it will actually work on because everybody's body is different. However, I'm 100% confident enough that this could actually change people's life who suffer from types of bowel problems. However, I do feel weird selling this forward when the diet program was made by a naturopath (this man cured my asthma and acid reflux, too, btw). I paid about $50 dollars for the appointment and $30 for each visit (all 100% worth it), so it didn't come out exactly cheap for me. However, I guess my value skew is that you wouldn't have to pay that much to get the results and that you could do it from your own home. Pros: info-product friendly, truly life changing and easy to do. Cons: making it appealing enough, I have no authority on this field other than that it changed my life, I don't know if I need a license to give out this advice and no idea if this will be life changing enough for everyone.

I have a few more but don't wanna clog this up too much. Anyways, currently acquiring money through my job and will soon make it part time to free me up some time to work on my stuff. No side business at the moment, just brainstorming. Any and all feedback is appreciated!

 

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[MJ DeMarco]

I actually like ALL the ideas as they seem pretty value driven.

 

[Guest-5ty5s4]

Hope you're doing good, guys. I've posted a few times this year and wanna give thanks to the people in this forum who give value. Huge shoutout to MJ who also takes his time and interacts with us. Every now and then I come here and log where I'm at, my working ideas and to get some feedback.

One of the things MJ called out in my last posts was that I seemed to be stuck in a "money-chasing" mindset. As soon as he said that I knew he was right. I'm currently re-reading Unscripted and I realized how far away from the path I've strayed. Even though I started my own business last year and made some profit with it, I had nothing near a product that was full of value nor was it really done with CENTS in mind. However, I'm grateful for the experience, the capital I gained and the lessons I learned because if it weren't for that I never would've realize how much stuff I need to change.

Currently in a job but now that I have TUNEF at the forefront and CENTS in mind, I can't stop thinking of what a valuable idea might be. I'm not a very good idea guy in terms of business so my mind is working overtime. I have a few off the top of my head but still need to do some market research to see how useful or wanted this product might actually be (note that I'm just spitballing):

1) A barcode scanner specifically for data entry. If done right, a data scanner would cut data entry time in half. I'm currently working at an office for a distribution/warehouse company and this is one of THE biggest things that makes the office an eternal rush hour. Humans get slow entering data or they're out to lunch or 100 orders come in at the last minute, and suddenly you have towers of work by 4pm when you should be closing by 5pm. I don't if it's just a thing in my company because we're underemployed or because they don't have the right systems in place but this is constant enough that it causes major headaches and slow downs. However, I once had to do a scan of some data and I literally finished everything in like 10 minutes as opposed to the usual 30+ minutes. The boss decided to code some of the data into bar codes (I didn't even know how easy that was) and boom. It worked out awesomely. I was like, "Why don't we do this 100% of the time?!" However, I'm having trouble picturing how exactly I could make this scaleable or packagable, if that makes sense. Would I sell it to distribution companies as a computer program + scanner? Or could those two things come together somehow? Honestly don't know. I'm going to have to look deeper into it. The problem with this is that different companies give out their data differently so I'm gonna have to find a way to make this as universal as possible.

2) A subscription based service to help the elderly that comes with an optional app where maybe you get 8 buys per month or maybe even 1 buy per week. I could be underestimating old people but the idea in my mind is this: my business would deal with all the hassle (gas, going to the grocery store, deliveries, etc.) and make an app with the easiest UI I can possibly imagine where the elderly would literally just point and choose 1)grocery list, 2)payment + address, 3) confirm delivery. I'm almost 100% there's an app for this but I've never seen one or anything similar. I have seen services that bring you your groceries but I've never seen a subscription style service. Maybe I'm overcomplicating things and it'd be much better for the elder to call whenever he needs the buy but whatever. No bad ideas in a brainstorm

3) An ultra diet program that has literally changed my life. I suffer(ed?) from IBS but I was put on such a life changing diet I almost cried the first time I felt the relief. The biggest challenge for this is the marketing and how to make it appealing, because although it really is as straight forward as do this, eat that and boom, your body will immediately see the relief, people will definitely need some prepping to it. At least I think. The other thing is that I don't know on how many people it will actually work on because everybody's body is different. However, I'm 100% confident enough that this could actually change people's life who suffer from types of bowel problems. However, I do feel weird selling this forward when the diet program was made by a naturopath (this man cured my asthma and acid reflux, too, btw). I paid about $50 dollars for the appointment and $30 for each visit (all 100% worth it), so it didn't come out exactly cheap for me. However, I guess my value skew is that you wouldn't have to pay that much to get the results and that you could do it from your own home. Pros: info-product friendly, truly life changing and easy to do. Cons: making it appealing enough, I have no authority on this field other than that it changed my life, I don't know if I need a license to give out this advice and no idea if this will be life changing enough for everyone.

I have a few more but don't wanna clog this up too much. Anyways, currently acquiring money through my job and will soon make it part time to free me up some time to work on my stuff. No side business at the moment, just brainstorming. Any and all feedback is appreciated!

All ideas you listed sound good. I would pursue the one that you have the most resources, skills, etc for so that you can get moving quickly!

 

[Kid]

Ok, so i would go after 1) with a twist.

So ,say you get this scanner setup working.

In itself it isn't much of a fastlane because
there is not that much warehouses and they would buy
it just once (unless you go truly global and sell worldwide).

But!
It can be an introduction for your other services/products
offered to warehouses owners or operators.

Like things that are used often and bought repetitively.
(idk - cardboard boxes).

Assuming you'd bring value with scanner,
owners would be more open to deal with you
for next offer.

 

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[FactaNonVerba]

For the #1 barcode scanner idea, what if the service provided was solely getting them set up on it?

I think there’s plenty of value in that based on what you said - saves so much time over the long run and they only have to implement it once. Lots of people wouldn’t know the first step or have any idea how easy it is. You’d sell them the scanner itself and any other hardware needed, make sure they have the needed computer on-site, and then schedule a day to go in and set it all up, and train whoever needs it.

Basically just get them up and running on it, you don’t need to help them set up every single item they have (although that could be an additional service they could pay for if you wanted to offer it).

 

[Guest-5ty5s4]

Ok, so i would go after 1) with a twist.

So ,say you get this scanner setup working.

In itself it isn't much of a fastlane because
there is not that much warehouses and they would buy
it just once (unless you go truly global and sell worldwide).

But!
It can be an introduction for your other services/products
offered to warehouses owners or operators.

Like things that are used often and bought repetitively.
(idk - cardboard boxes).

Assuming you'd bring value with scanner,
owners would be more open to deal with you
for next offer.

For #1 you could sell the main product cheap or even at a loss, and then sell some kind of scanner printer paper or other special tool that has to be replaced all the time, and charge a good margin on that.

That’s what razor companies, printer companies, all of them do.

 

[DougRMR]

Thank you all for the suggestions and feedback! Currently in the lab still seeing what I can really lean into, will update at a later date what exactly are the pros and cons of each idea.

 

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