Hey ya'll, Young Gun here. Not quite so young (a couple of years since I've last posted here).
I'm still running my first business (a high-end tutoring company + blog + related infoproducts).
There have been some good successes: I've hit low 6-figure income (not profit) for the past 3 years... and I'm proud of the work our company has done for kids and families.
However, it's been very stagnant for me in terms of growing scalable profits, and I've learned some uncomfortable lessons.
I could have put even more effort into growing my tutoring business the past couple of years, without a doubt. But I've also been working hard. All my friends and family would say I stress too much, but I know I could push myself much harder... that's a topic for another day, though.
More to the "Fastlane" point... Specialty tutoring is just not a highly-scalable model. Yes, I have options to scale. Give me 20 years and I could scale nationally as a chain in 20 major cities and make a few million in profit a year, I'm sure of it. Teaching is a relatively fulfilling occupation, and I'd be my own boss the whole way.
I'm also pretty sure I could make a bit of supplemental profit from infoproducts in my niche. I've experimented before with some minor success, but nothing exciting... nothing to justify the time I invested.
Ultimately the specialty, high-end tutoring my company does is a *niche market.* It's also a service-based business. There's only so big (and so fast) it can grow. I can throw paid advertising at it, but % profits decrease. Payroll and office expenses scale just as quickly as profits.
To reiterate an important point that I'm trying to make for first-time entrepreneurs, my entire system is a tutoring service... highly dependent on HUMANS, people-time, and physical proximity. There's only so much you can automate when it's face-to-face teaching, or any other personal service.
That's not the greatest, because aside from the major scaling issues, I'm *highly* introverted by nature. I hate personnel management, and I'm easily disappointed by employees' performance. I love teaching, but it gets old after a while, and dealing with parents of students can be truly exhausting for me.
Here's where I'm going with this. I think something has to change.
I want to make a LOT of money. I mean, one of my dreams is to have my own yacht (sailboat or motoryacht) that I can cross the world in.
I'm talking, goals of 8-9 figure networth before I'm too old to enjoy it.
I *know* this is possible, and that I can achieve at least some taste of it.
The tutoring business is never going to get me there in time.
I think it's time to turn to a SaaS model and start a new business.
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I understand the "big picture" of entrepreneurship pretty well after 7 years of running my company. Even a simple tutoring company will teach you a lot about marketing, execution, and good business ideas. Plus, I've made an effort to stay relatively "cutting edge", so I'm skilled with website development, email lists, automation, etc.
Now, here's why I think SaaS is the way to go for any serious entrepreneur in 2017:
Software Ownership is *the* greatest, most scalable, most profitable global business model in human history. I am 100% certain of my reasoning behind this.
[With one other contender - the global Financial Markets are the only equivalent alternative in terms of scale and profitability, but I'm not really interested for multiple reasons]
And, Software-as-a-Service (monthly recurring charge) is the best distillation of the Software Ownership model.
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So, I turn my thoughts to starting a Software Company as soon as possible.
To answer the question before you ask:
No, I don't currently know how to program.
I've started studying the Python programming language for about a week, learning via the internet, free books, and hands-on practice.
I think that with a few more weeks of hardcore study, I should be able to know "just enough" to create basic software mockups, Alpha versions, or at least instruct other developers in what to build for me.
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Next part of the process is Idea Extraction / finding pain points in a sizable market.
I think I should go after local / small businesses. Find a problem that TONS of small businesses deal with... ideally, something they already *pay money* to solve.
This must be a problem that can be solved through subscription software.
I have some ideas already, but I'm not going to share the specifics quite yet. It's too easy to kill ideas before they're hatched.
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Anyway, this gives the general idea of where I'm coming from, and where I'd like to go.
I think a Software Ownership business, focused on developing SaaS solutions for small local businesses... built around uncovered "pain points" through customer development and conversations with potential customers. Then aggressively marketed...
This is a much better chance of hitting the Fastlane than my current tutoring business. I'm still proud of my company, and especially what I've learned.
But, I'm about to be 30 years old, and I have relatively little to show for all my hard work, other than the lessons I've learned... and my self-respect for putting in the hard work.
It's time to make my financial dreams come true. If you're curious, I can post pictures of some of my dream yachts...
EDIT: I included one XD
Riva 88 Domino Super
Very small amount of input here, but try a language like c# or something like that. Python is a little dated, and not many other developers know it. If you want to think about allowing others to modify your code, learn the popular languages.
Also, love this thread, keep it up man!
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