Noob seeking harsh truth

[Florian]

Hey guys,
Thank you for spending your time and attention to read this.

Question: Is it a good idea to get some experience before you create your "real" CENTS business? (By creating a digital marketing agency, offering fb ads.)

I know MJ talks about the "you never know what expects you, so don't spend years training and just do it and improve in the process". Yet I know about Emanuel Fredenrich doing something similar (Learning copywriting, getting really good and finally taking that money and experience to fund his own "real" business.) and becoming a millionaire at age 19.

For me, it yields the benefits of having some funding (profits of the business) and experience in sales, lead gen, hiring and firing, and daily business of operating an agency.

I've been in the digital agency nice for about 9 months, working in an email marketing startup. Yet do I need to create a dummy business first, before creating a "real" business?

Please give me your harsh and honest feedback. I don't want to feel good, I want to figure out the truth before I pour 3/4 of 2019 into that.

Best,
Florian

 

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[ExaltedLife]

Hit the ground running, start a CENTS business with the minimum viable product you can deliver and start selling. Then learn as you grow. Otherwise you could spend years waiting till you have "enough" experience.

 

[Florian]

Hit the ground running, start a CENTS business with the minimum viable product

Thanks for sharing your opinion, ExaltedLife. Do you think the risk of not going for a "real" business is just too high or the costs of first creating an agency and then creating a CENTS business is just not worth it?

 

[Kruiser]

Please give me your harsh and honest feedback. I don't want to feel good, I want to figure out the truth before I pour 3/4 of 2019 into that.

Why do you think the truth needs to be harsh? There is no single "true" answer here. Either path sound reasonable. Folks will have different opinions.

There's no harm in starting a "dummy" business, earning some cash, and learning some skills. You might even come across a major opportunity while working your "dummy" business. That happens to lots of folks. But if you have some "real" business idea you want to get started on, you don't have to wait. Having a "dummy" agency is not a prerequisite.

 

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[rpeck90]

I think you're over-thinking it.

A CENTS business is only viable after you have momentum (either capital to put into a product or an audience for it). The likes of MJ and other successful people focused on earning before they discovered various opportunities. This is what I would recommend you do -- go out and provide an honest service for honest money, and then use that money to fund a CENTS business (product).

Think about it in the sense of real-estate. A CENTS business is the equivalent of having a main-street store with your own unique products/offering inside. Lily Lolo is a CENTS business. Lush is a CENTS business. GoldenPoint is a CENTS business. If you have the $$ and insight to do that straight away, then great. But almost no-one does.

If you're involved in an email marketing startup, what value can you take from that and apply through the provision of your own service? What expertise can you bring to others and offer them at honest prices? This is the point from which you start. Whether that leads you to do an agency or some other thing is entirely up to you.

Some good examples of what I'd be looking at include:

• Offer to do email marketing for German companies (write the copy in German and English)
• If you have inclination to do coding, talk to as many companies as possible to see if they need support for their digital infrastructure
• Clean up product imagery for companies (which allows them to do better emails etc)
• FB ad management (??) for local businesses -- I've never done this so don't know about the propensity of the market

The most important thing you need to do is sell expertise. Deliver work for free, brown-nose the decision-maker and do everything you can to invest into an underlying product-set. The more valuable the product you end up with, the more effective the business. The best companies deliver expertise as a service and maximize that service through the distribution of products.

 

[Florian]

[QUOTE="Kruiser, post: 755400, member: 50550"There is no single "true" answer here. Either path sounds reasonable.[/QUOTE]

Thanks for your reply Kruiser. You mean as long as I'm operating within the market, I'm learning and therefore progressing anyways? Sounds good to me. And no - I actually don't have a ready-to-go idea. I saw some problems in the market, but I haven't drilled deeper yet.

 

[Florian]

I think you're over-thinking it.

A CENTS business is only viable after you have momentum (either capital to put into a product or an audience for it). The likes of MJ and other successful people focused on earning before they discovered various opportunities. This is what I would recommend you do -- go out and provide an honest service for honest money, and then use that money to fund a CENTS business (product).

Think about it in the sense of real-estate. A CENTS business is the equivalent of having a main-street store with your own unique products/offering inside. Lily Lolo is a CENTS business. Lush is a CENTS business. GoldenPoint is a CENTS business. If you have the $$ and insight to do that straight away, then great. But almost no-one does.

If you're involved in an email marketing startup, what value can you take from that and apply through the provision of your own service? What expertise can you bring to others and offer them at honest prices? This is the point from which you start. Whether that leads you to do an agency or some other thing is entirely up to you.

Some good examples of what I'd be looking at include:

• Offer to do email marketing for German companies (write the copy in German and English)
• If you have inclination to do coding, talk to as many companies as possible to see if they need support for their digital infrastructure
• Clean up product imagery for companies (which allows them to do better emails etc)
• FB ad management (??) for local businesses -- I've never done this so don't know about the propensity of the market

The most important thing you need to do is sell expertise. Deliver work for free, brown-nose the decision-maker and do everything you can to invest into an underlying product-set. The more valuable the product you end up with, the more effective the business. The best companies deliver expertise as a service and maximize that service through the distribution of products.

Hey rpeck90, thank you very much! This is gold!
1. Provide a service (relative value to the market place)
2. Get momentum ($$ and insight) and look for opportunities
3. Change and swap your service until you maximize the value output
4. After some time you either see that it's not worth it to keep going or you start focussing on dominating the market with the best product you can offer.

Am I getting this right?

 

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[rpeck90]

1. Provide a service (relative value to the market place)
2. Get momentum ($$ and insight) and look for opportunities
3. Change and swap your service until you maximize the value output
4. After some time you either see that it's not worth it to keep going or you start focussing on dominating the market with the best product you can offer.

Exactly, but don't worry about "dominating the market" in #4. Focus on improving the potency of your results and the market will come to you (eventually). This is basically what you want to be looking at:

This is from a branding post I will ask MJ permission to publish soon. Interchange "brand" for "productocracy" and you have the essence of this community.

 

[Florian]

Exactly, but don't worry about "dominating the market" in #4. Focus on improving the potency of your results and the market will come to you (eventually). This is basically what you want to be looking at:

This is from a branding post I will ask MJ permission to publish soon. Interchange "brand" for "productocracy" and you have the essence of this community.

This is pretty epic. Thanks for all of your insights - I sent you a little "thank you" gift