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So I've been a wantrepreneur for some time..

nelnhf

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Ever since I was an undergraduate, my dream is to start and own my own business. Inspired by rags to riches stories and a relatively decent IQ score, I felt invincible. The sky was the limit. That was ten years ago.

Upon graduation, I spent seven months in an insurance sales job which I decided wasn’t suitable for me; and about a year trying to start a recruitment business, which failed. Subsequently, I found myself a job in the education industry and has been working with the same organisation for the past eight years.

With a stable paycheck, and the failure from my past venture, my initial ambition to own a million dollar business diminished. What was left were occasional ideas for side hustles which never materialised.

The idea to get more serious in starting a business for an alternative source of income struck a little more than six months ago. My baby was six months old, and getting more fun and adorable by the day. I want to be able to spend more time with her, and a 9-6 full-time job will not allow me to do so.

I went on to find out more about operating a franchise of a relatively well-known tuition brand. The initial capital required came up to about $50k, and the expected returns, i.e. monthly income was just marginally more than my current paycheck.

I figured the franchise wasn’t worth the capital investment. At the same time, I decided that I can create something on my own, something better, without such a hefty investment.

I found Smart Passive Income by Pat Flynn, and binged listened to his podcasts. I enrolled in Pat’s free online course, Build Your Own Brand. I also made my first monetary investment in this little project, by subscribing to a hosting account for my soon to be established online empire.

My first idea was to build an online guide teaching people to create their own websites. I watched hours and hours of YouTube videos while trying to perfect my website, came out with the topics to be covered in my tutorials and wrote my first few lessons. And then, I realised this wasn’t going to work. My tutorials aren’t really that good. There is so much good quality information out there teaching people the same thing, and the quality of my content was nowhere near.

I had to review my niche.

I have decided on another niche about three months ago, that of writing local travel guides. But, I had lost the momentum over the past three months. Though I’m still listening to books and podcasts actively, in the name of learning, I haven’t been doing much. I figured I kind of know what I needed to do, but I just wasn’t doing it. Consuming content is just more fun than writing content, which is real, hard work. Furthermore, the idea of writing a ton of content without any feedback/validation/motivation is tough. (Question to those who have been there done that: Is this the right way to do it?)

I came across FLF yesterday, and found that what I've been doing all these while was merely feeding dopamine for the mind to feel good, with little or no real action taken. I seriously need to start driving, in order for me to reach the destination. My aim is to reach there before my baby turns three. She is thirteen months old now.

I'm excited to be part of this community and have already started reading TMF . I promise this will be the last book I'll read before I embark on the journey - the roadmap is essential.

Also, as I've been doing this alone all the while and has no one to validate my ideas, I will be grateful if anyone can let me know if I'm looking at the right direction - Niche site, build authority then offer products. Any advice/suggestions are welcomed.
 
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Phil K

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Welcome. I found this forum many years ago, but only recently decided to become more active within it. Your journey sounds very familiar to mine, and it's good to hear that someone is coming to the same conclusions (and finding similar motivation) as me. I wish you the best.
 

NMdad

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Congrats on the tiny little one! They'll supercharge your motivation to get out of your comfort zone.

Glad you didn't sink any cash into a franchise--in TFLF, we're pretty negative on franchises (unless you're the franchiser--not the franchisee), MLM, and chasing what others are doing.

Something you might consider is looking at opportunities in your education industry niche/job. Lots of people--because they want to ditch their day job--ignore the goldmine of opportunities in their existing job niche. The reason you have an advantage in that niche is because you've worked in it for 8 years--you've already got deep industry-specific knowledge that'd be very difficult for outsiders to acquire.

So, what challenges, problems, & opportunities do people/organizations in your niche struggle with? How can you help them with those?

The day job (that you might loathe) might actually be the fastest path out of your slowlane.
 

Kalera

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Welcome to the forum! I've only joined for about a week myself and your story resonates like a church bell for me. The best of luck, and whenever I think I have some valuable advice, I'll be sure to share it!
 
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nelnhf

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May 19, 2019
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Congrats on the tiny little one! They'll supercharge your motivation to get out of your comfort zone.

Glad you didn't sink any cash into a franchise--in TFLF, we're pretty negative on franchises (unless you're the franchiser--not the franchisee), MLM, and chasing what others are doing.

Something you might consider is looking at opportunities in your education industry niche/job. Lots of people--because they want to ditch their day job--ignore the goldmine of opportunities in their existing job niche. The reason you have an advantage in that niche is because you've worked in it for 8 years--you've already got deep industry-specific knowledge that'd be very difficult for outsiders to acquire.

So, what challenges, problems, & opportunities do people/organizations in your niche struggle with? How can you help them with those?

The day job (that you might loathe) might actually be the fastest path out of your slowlane.

Thank you for the valuable tip! I'm really glad I did not sink money in the franchise too :) I did consider doing something related to my day job. However, I also worry about conflict of interest and I wouldn't want anyone in my present company to know what I'm up to.
 

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