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Think I'm in the wrong vehicle - Help me get my head on straight

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Jonathan Boyd

Jonathan Boyd

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<div class="bbWrapper">Hi, thanks for reading. I&#039;m currently running my first business that is basically a job, and I have been looking for a more scalable business. I was hoping to get some insight from the wonderful people here that have much more experience and perspective than me.<br /> <br /> <b>Brief background:</b><br /> Long story short, from growing up in a typical middle class &quot;go to school and get a job&quot; background, I&#039;ve always been &quot;looking for another way&quot;. After a mechanical engineering degree, a couple of ignorant rookie business attempts, and dropping out of grad school twice, I started my current business teaching guitar last year. This was my first business learning the ropes of how business works, and within the year I&#039;ve grown from 0 to roughly $60k net per year, and I only teach about 45 hours per month. I&#039;ve got a school and a system going, but it&#039;s all me. I really feel like pushing further in this industry is like trying to push the accelerator through the floor of a Toyota Corolla - the numbers just aren&#039;t in my favor.<br /> <b><br /> The positives:</b><br /> <ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">I&#039;ve been involved in music for almost 20 years, and I know what I&#039;m talking about.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">I don&#039;t really have any true competition in my area for my target market - I&#039;m dominating.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">This solves a real need for some people</li> </ul><b>The problems (or challenges):</b><br /> <ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">The business IS me. (and it sucks)<br /> </li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">This sort of service requires skilled labor, so;<br /> </li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Scaling would require a lot intensive training, employees to manage, and <b>highly skilled labor</b></li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">According to google, the industry has been on the decline for the last decade, and I don&#039;t see any reason why it wouldn&#039;t continue to decline<br /> </li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">The reach is very small (local), and even more locations is still a small reach.</li> </ul>To be perfectly honest, I hate having to &quot;be somewhere&quot; every week. In today&#039;s world, it seems ridiculous (and stupid) to me to have a solely offline business, and scaling this business to any significant level would take tons and tons of time, management, and people that frankly, I don&#039;t want to deal with.<br /> <br /> Something tells me it&#039;s just time to switch vehicles entirely.<br /> <br /> I don&#039;t waste my time, I spend every day reading/learning/looking for a new business to start so I can focus all my efforts there, and I want to leverage the internet.<br /> <br /> Do you think I&#039;m suffering Shiny Object Syndrome, or are my thoughts in the right direction here? What are some ways that I might be able to leverage my experience into something far more easily scalable? I&#039;d love to brainstorm with you and hear your opinions. Thanks for reading!</div>
 
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<div class="bbWrapper"><blockquote data-attributes="member: 35998" data-quote="Jonathan Boyd" data-source="post: 523809" class="bbCodeBlock bbCodeBlock--expandable bbCodeBlock--quote js-expandWatch"> <div class="bbCodeBlock-title"> <a href="/community/goto/post?id=523809" class="bbCodeBlock-sourceJump" rel="nofollow" data-xf-click="attribution" data-content-selector="#post-523809">Jonathan Boyd said:</a> </div> <div class="bbCodeBlock-content"> <div class="bbCodeBlock-expandContent js-expandContent "> I started my current business teaching guitar last year. This was my first business learning the ropes of how business works </div> <div class="bbCodeBlock-expandLink js-expandLink"><a role="button" tabindex="0">Click to expand...</a></div> </div> </blockquote><br /> Hi Jonathan,<br /> <br /> Have you considered guitar instruction online:<br /> <br /> Instruction videos on Youtube<br /> Your own website - centered around video instruction, with additional content<br /> <br /> Profit from affiliate sales and ads to start.</div>
 
<div class="bbWrapper">Hi Jonathan,<br /> <br /> I was just going to write what Bananas wrote ^^...online instruction.<br /> <br /> Edit: I decided to remove the link. PM&#039;d you.</div>
 
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<div class="bbWrapper">This is exactly the question you should be asking, so you&#039;re on the right track. <br /> <br /> You have a lot going for you already:<br /> <br /> You&#039;re disciplined enough to create a fully-functioning business out of thin air. Nice work<br /> That brings with it a lot of skills that you probably don&#039;t realize you have. <br /> You know the market well<br /> You have a business. (this is a big deal. Having your own business gives you the freedom to dream and try out various ideas...you wouldn&#039;t be able to do this as effectively if you worked for someone else...mainly because your mindset would be different)<br /> <br /> ...<br /> <br /> I was in the same boat as you last October. I was a freelance programmer. I sold my time. My conversion to Fastlane is in steps:<br /> <br /> 1) Hire a sales rep (did that at the end of October. Hired a guy in Pakistan. $10/hr plus commission. He&#039;s really good)<br /> 2) stop programming and manage the company. (I&#039;ve done this for the most part. There are few projects I&#039;m still doing some actual coding for, but that now occupies my time just a few hours a week. I have contractors working for me about 40 hours a week right now, total)<br /> 3) Increase sales (we are working on that...I&#039;ve doubled my sales pipeline from 50 to 100K since Feb 1)<br /> 4) Build my own Software as a Service product and sell subscriptions to it. (We are still coming up with ideas. And the money to implement them)<br /> <br /> ...<br /> <br /> There are a TON of ways this could go fastlane. You should start coming up with a list. Here are a few that I thought of off the top of my head:<br /> <br /> Already mentioned, but: online courses - start by providing them to your current customers. Take a look at Ken Tamplin and his voice instruction stuff on Youtube. He makes a fair amount of money on this (enough to be able to buy a $25k microphone (including pre-amp and accessories)). He charges for skype lessons at pretty high rates. I forget what they were, but they&#039;re around $250/hr. He also sells voice lessons on CD (audio download) for $300 per set.<br /> Accessory line for guitar players: distortion pedals - a lot of the development work can be outsourced fairly cheaply. There are circuit boards out there that already have all the components you&#039;d need. You just need a programmer to make it work.</div>
 
<div class="bbWrapper">Music Major Graduate here, I&#039;ve done my fair share of teaching lessons... and you&#039;re doing really well for yourself. It can be tough to make ends meet with lessons, but clearly you&#039;ve got something that is attracting and keeping students. Skill, personality, or both.<br /> <br /> You&#039;re 100% right, the business is tied to your time input and that&#039;s a problem. You&#039;ve got to increase the scale. Online is the clear way to do that.<br /> <br /> Is there a certain niche of guitar playing that is lacking in the online lesson space? Blues guitar lessons? Rock N&#039; Roll Guitar Lessons? Folk Guitar Lessons?<br /> <br /> Is there a kind of medium or delivery method of guitar lessons that hasn&#039;t been tapped yet? Is there a unique spin or angle you can bring to your lessons? What about regular livestreaming via Twitch or some other method?<br /> <br /> You need to develop products that can sell independently of your time. A video course, either one time fee or subscription based. A method book. DVDs.<br /> <br /> What about a course to teach people how to make money teaching guitar lessons? Your target audience could be the self-taught types who have some skill, but have difficulty structuring a productive 30min to 1 hour lesson. At one time in my life, I paid $120 for a bare bones course on how to make money fix and flipping washers and dryers, and I made way more than $120 putting the information into practice. People will pay money to learn how to make money.<br /> <br /> <br /> Just some thoughts.</div>
 
<div class="bbWrapper">A few questions off the top of my head:<br /> <br /> 1: What is your market cap in your area? Aka size of town?<br /> 2: How much of that market are you serving, versus your competitors, in percentage? Do you have about 80% of the market? 90% ? 100% ?<br /> <br /> If you are literally serving 100% of your market and you can&#039;t find skilled labor, maybe you should relocate somewhere with 1 - a larger market that you can break into effectively and 2 - enough skilled labor to outsource some (or all) of your lessons to.<br /> <br /> If you are serving most of your market, say, 80%, I would try to fill in the gaps. Are there other guitar teachers in the area that, although they are competition, you could possibly hire and they make a cut from what you would charge for a lesson? Obviously, you have to consider the possibility of those same employees stealing your clients themselves.<br /> <br /> This isn&#039;t exactly fastlane but it&#039;s a way to go. Because you&#039;re already experienced in your field and have plenty of connections, you can build a whole brand around your service without necessarily attaching yourself to that service. Just assure that whoever you send out for the job is of equal or better quality of instruction than you are. That way everyone will always go to YOU and YOUR image and not joe blow giving lessons for peanuts. You&#039;re essentially selling an image and service, not yourself.<br /> <br /> (source: I was mid-level management for a talent agency in my hometown. You can gobble up competition and fill in the gaps by aggregating all of the skilled labor to your business. You can keep competition underneath your thumb by giving struggling &quot;freelance&quot; guys opportunities for gigs. They will rely on you and will make you richer. Just be sure none of them are smart enough to steal your business).</div>
 
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<div class="bbWrapper"><blockquote data-attributes="member: 16059" data-quote="amp0193" data-source="post: 523860" class="bbCodeBlock bbCodeBlock--expandable bbCodeBlock--quote js-expandWatch"> <div class="bbCodeBlock-title"> <a href="/community/goto/post?id=523860" class="bbCodeBlock-sourceJump" rel="nofollow" data-xf-click="attribution" data-content-selector="#post-523860">amp0193 said:</a> </div> <div class="bbCodeBlock-content"> <div class="bbCodeBlock-expandContent js-expandContent "> Music Major Graduate here, I&#039;ve done my fair share of teaching lessons... and you&#039;re doing really well for yourself. It can be tough to make ends meet with lessons, but clearly you&#039;ve got something that is attracting and keeping students. Skill, personality, or both.<br /> <br /> You&#039;re 100% right, the business is tied to your time input and that&#039;s a problem. You&#039;ve got to increase the scale. Online is the clear way to do that.<br /> <br /> Is there a certain niche of guitar playing that is lacking in the online lesson space? Blues guitar lessons? Rock N&#039; Roll Guitar Lessons? Folk Guitar Lessons?<br /> <br /> Is there a kind of medium or delivery method of guitar lessons that hasn&#039;t been tapped yet? Is there a unique spin or angle you can bring to your lessons? What about regular livestreaming via Twitch or some other method?<br /> <br /> You need to develop products that can sell independently of your time. A video course, either one time fee or subscription based. A method book. DVDs.<br /> <br /> What about a course to teach people how to make money teaching guitar lessons? Your target audience could be the self-taught types who have some skill, but have difficulty structuring a productive 30min to 1 hour lesson. At one time in my life, I paid $120 for a bare bones course on how to make money fix and flipping washers and dryers, and I made way more than $120 putting the information into practice. People will pay money to learn how to make money.<br /> <br /> <br /> Just some thoughts. </div> <div class="bbCodeBlock-expandLink js-expandLink"><a role="button" tabindex="0">Click to expand...</a></div> </div> </blockquote><br /> <br /> Hey I just started in the appliance repair business and was wondering how I could do something just like that, fixing and then selling. Where did you find throw away units worth repairing? Did you buy broken ones cheap or search somewhere else?</div>
 
<div class="bbWrapper">If you decide to do online instruction, be prepared to battle with all of the noise that that particular niche has. Unless there&#039;s something totally untapped, maybe not necessarily related to guitar lessons themselves. One idea is providing a step-by-step course on how to perform for commercial wedding gigs. There&#039;s a certain level of professionalism and nuances to doing that kind of gig that nobody else is aware of except for people who have done them.</div>
 
<div class="bbWrapper">Why is your industry in decline?</div>
 
<div class="bbWrapper"><blockquote data-attributes="member: 25641" data-quote="RustyShacks" data-source="post: 523863" class="bbCodeBlock bbCodeBlock--expandable bbCodeBlock--quote js-expandWatch"> <div class="bbCodeBlock-title"> <a href="/community/goto/post?id=523863" class="bbCodeBlock-sourceJump" rel="nofollow" data-xf-click="attribution" data-content-selector="#post-523863">RustyShacks said:</a> </div> <div class="bbCodeBlock-content"> <div class="bbCodeBlock-expandContent js-expandContent "> Hey I just started in the appliance repair business and was wondering how I could do something just like that, fixing and then selling. Where did you find throw away units worth repairing? Did you buy broken ones cheap or search somewhere else? </div> <div class="bbCodeBlock-expandLink js-expandLink"><a role="button" tabindex="0">Click to expand...</a></div> </div> </blockquote><br /> I&#039;ll pm you. I don&#039;t want to de-rail the thread here.</div>
 
<div class="bbWrapper"><a href="https://www.thefastlaneforum.com/community/members/35998/" class="username" data-xf-init="member-tooltip" data-user-id="35998" data-username="@Jonathan Boyd">@Jonathan Boyd</a> <br /> <br /> Could you create a comprehensive set of DVDs on how to learn playing guitar, starting with novice and working your way up to expert? Have each one be a progression from easiest to hardest and maybe put groups of songs or something into each DVD that is parallel with the lesson taught. Now you have a step by step 60,90, 120 day program or however long it takes to learn that anybody can buy online and refer back to at any time to sharpen their skills. Think like a workout/meal plan but for the guitar.<br /> <br /> I know people can search online and find stuff for free but think of how easy it would be to have it all at your fingertips...it would save people a lot of time. It would be similar to P90x. You can find workous and meal plans online but he sold a strucutred, easy to follow program that thousand of people bought. Record it once and sell it a million times. As an add on, obviously you would record in English but find a way to translate or with subtitles and you open yourself up to a even larger audience. <br /> <br /> The one big issue I can think of is learning an instrument is not as black and white as following a workout plan. I&#039;m sure guitar lessons are very interactive as the students have a ton of questions. Get over that hurdle with a interactive forum or additional skype sessions and you&#039;re looking good.</div>
 
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<div class="bbWrapper"><blockquote data-attributes="member: 35998" data-quote="Jonathan Boyd" data-source="post: 523809" class="bbCodeBlock bbCodeBlock--expandable bbCodeBlock--quote js-expandWatch"> <div class="bbCodeBlock-title"> <a href="/community/goto/post?id=523809" class="bbCodeBlock-sourceJump" rel="nofollow" data-xf-click="attribution" data-content-selector="#post-523809">Jonathan Boyd said:</a> </div> <div class="bbCodeBlock-content"> <div class="bbCodeBlock-expandContent js-expandContent "> Hi, thanks for reading. I&#039;m currently running my first business that is basically a job, and I have been looking for a more scalable business. I was hoping to get some insight from the wonderful people here that have much more experience and perspective than me.<br /> <br /> <b>Brief background:</b><br /> Long story short, from growing up in a typical middle class &quot;go to school and get a job&quot; background, I&#039;ve always been &quot;looking for another way&quot;. After a mechanical engineering degree, a couple of ignorant rookie business attempts, and dropping out of grad school twice, I started my current business teaching guitar last year. This was my first business learning the ropes of how business works, and within the year I&#039;ve grown from 0 to roughly $60k net per year, and I only teach about 45 hours per month. I&#039;ve got a school and a system going, but it&#039;s all me. I really feel like pushing further in this industry is like trying to push the accelerator through the floor of a Toyota Corolla - the numbers just aren&#039;t in my favor.<br /> <b><br /> The positives:</b><br /> <ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">I&#039;ve been involved in music for almost 20 years, and I know what I&#039;m talking about.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">I don&#039;t really have any true competition in my area for my target market - I&#039;m dominating.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">This solves a real need for some people</li> </ul><b>The problems (or challenges):</b><br /> <ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">The business IS me. (and it sucks)<br /> </li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">This sort of service requires skilled labor, so;<br /> </li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Scaling would require a lot intensive training, employees to manage, and <b>highly skilled labor</b></li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">According to google, the industry has been on the decline for the last decade, and I don&#039;t see any reason why it wouldn&#039;t continue to decline<br /> </li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">The reach is very small (local), and even more locations is still a small reach.</li> </ul>To be perfectly honest, I hate having to &quot;be somewhere&quot; every week. In today&#039;s world, it seems ridiculous (and stupid) to me to have a solely offline business, and scaling this business to any significant level would take tons and tons of time, management, and people that frankly, I don&#039;t want to deal with.<br /> <br /> Something tells me it&#039;s just time to switch vehicles entirely.<br /> <br /> I don&#039;t waste my time, I spend every day reading/learning/looking for a new business to start so I can focus all my efforts there, and I want to leverage the internet.<br /> <br /> Do you think I&#039;m suffering Shiny Object Syndrome, or are my thoughts in the right direction here? What are some ways that I might be able to leverage my experience into something far more easily scalable? I&#039;d love to brainstorm with you and hear your opinions. Thanks for reading! </div> <div class="bbCodeBlock-expandLink js-expandLink"><a role="button" tabindex="0">Click to expand...</a></div> </div> </blockquote></div>
 
<div class="bbWrapper">I agree with the OP, I don&#039;t think this is a fastlane business. You have already discovered that you can&#039;t replace yourself with someone else. Prior to posting this, you&#039;ve probably already contemplated going on line with a website lessons business. But whether it&#039;s the existing competition, the cost of this kind of venture, lack of insight how you improve whats already out there, or the daunting task of it all, the idea probably doesn&#039;t interest you. <br /> <br /> However, you said you are working 45 minutes a month and making $60k? That sounds like a pretty good side job. Don&#039;t throw the baby out with the bath water. You have a lot of time to start other businesses that may be completely unrelated, and your current venture has allowed you to develop marketing, scheduling, and client relationship skills. Just work on finding that other income stream that you will be good at executing. Except this time, make sure it is a scale able business before starting. And in the meantime, let your current job pay the bills.</div>
 
<div class="bbWrapper">info product or better yet proper online lesson via udemy etc, e-book on Amazon Kindle, start a franchise of guitar teaching schools.</div>
 
<div class="bbWrapper">oh and Youtube Channel if no one has mentioned that already, probably thousands already out, find your angle/usp and work it.</div>
 
<div class="bbWrapper"><a href="http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/271819" target="_blank" class="link link--external" rel="noopener">http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/271819</a><br /> <br /> <a href="https://www.savvy.is/" target="_blank" class="link link--external" rel="noopener">https://www.savvy.is/</a><br /> <br /> Build a platform?</div>
 
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<div class="bbWrapper">What are your current clients ambitions? Do they want to become rock stars, hobbyists, educated parents? By delving into exactly &quot;what&quot; you are selling you might find a pivot for your business.</div>
 
<div class="bbWrapper">Hey guys, I sincerely appreciate your time and input here. Lot&#039;s of great ideas and helpful suggestions. <br /> <br /> Can&#039;t wait to dig in a little later tonight with more in-depth replies when I have a little more time. Stay tuned!<br /> <br /> Only thing I&#039;ll say is this: I&#039;m much more of a &quot;business minded&quot; person who just happens to be good at music than the other way around &quot;a musician looking for more&quot;. I&#039;m looking to get more into general business... anyway, more to come later tonight! Thanks so much guys, you are really helping here!</div>
 
<div class="bbWrapper"><blockquote data-attributes="member: 25813" data-quote="Bananas" data-source="post: 523810" class="bbCodeBlock bbCodeBlock--expandable bbCodeBlock--quote js-expandWatch"> <div class="bbCodeBlock-title"> <a href="/community/goto/post?id=523810" class="bbCodeBlock-sourceJump" rel="nofollow" data-xf-click="attribution" data-content-selector="#post-523810">Bananas said:</a> </div> <div class="bbCodeBlock-content"> <div class="bbCodeBlock-expandContent js-expandContent "> Hi Jonathan,<br /> <br /> Have you considered guitar instruction online:<br /> <br /> Instruction videos on Youtube<br /> Your own website - centered around video instruction, with additional content<br /> <br /> Profit from affiliate sales and ads to start. </div> <div class="bbCodeBlock-expandLink js-expandLink"><a role="button" tabindex="0">Click to expand...</a></div> </div> </blockquote><br /> Hi Bananas, thanks. Yes I have considered it, thanks for the suggestion. There is a ton of noise and very low barrier to entry in this niche. Also, this kind of online service is quickly becoming/or already is commoditized - everyone is fighting over price. <br /> <br /> <blockquote data-attributes="member: 33844" data-quote="Jon L" data-source="post: 523828" class="bbCodeBlock bbCodeBlock--expandable bbCodeBlock--quote js-expandWatch"> <div class="bbCodeBlock-title"> <a href="/community/goto/post?id=523828" class="bbCodeBlock-sourceJump" rel="nofollow" data-xf-click="attribution" data-content-selector="#post-523828">Jon L said:</a> </div> <div class="bbCodeBlock-content"> <div class="bbCodeBlock-expandContent js-expandContent "> This is exactly the question you should be asking, so you&#039;re on the right track.<br /> <br /> You have a lot going for you already:<br /> <br /> You&#039;re disciplined enough to create a fully-functioning business out of thin air. Nice work<br /> That brings with it a lot of skills that you probably don&#039;t realize you have.<br /> You know the market well<br /> You have a business. (this is a big deal. Having your own business gives you the freedom to dream and try out various ideas...you wouldn&#039;t be able to do this as effectively if you worked for someone else...mainly because your mindset would be different)<br /> <br /> ...<br /> <br /> I was in the same boat as you last October. I was a freelance programmer. I sold my time. My conversion to Fastlane is in steps:<br /> <br /> 1) Hire a sales rep (did that at the end of October. Hired a guy in Pakistan. $10/hr plus commission. He&#039;s really good)<br /> 2) stop programming and manage the company. (I&#039;ve done this for the most part. There are few projects I&#039;m still doing some actual coding for, but that now occupies my time just a few hours a week. I have contractors working for me about 40 hours a week right now, total)<br /> 3) Increase sales (we are working on that...I&#039;ve doubled my sales pipeline from 50 to 100K since Feb 1)<br /> 4) Build my own Software as a Service product and sell subscriptions to it. (We are still coming up with ideas. And the money to implement them)<br /> <br /> ...<br /> <br /> There are a TON of ways this could go fastlane. You should start coming up with a list. Here are a few that I thought of off the top of my head:<br /> <br /> Already mentioned, but: online courses - start by providing them to your current customers. Take a look at Ken Tamplin and his voice instruction stuff on Youtube. He makes a fair amount of money on this (enough to be able to buy a $25k microphone (including pre-amp and accessories)). He charges for skype lessons at pretty high rates. I forget what they were, but they&#039;re around $250/hr. He also sells voice lessons on CD (audio download) for $300 per set.<br /> Accessory line for guitar players: distortion pedals - a lot of the development work can be outsourced fairly cheaply. There are circuit boards out there that already have all the components you&#039;d need. You just need a programmer to make it work. </div> <div class="bbCodeBlock-expandLink js-expandLink"><a role="button" tabindex="0">Click to expand...</a></div> </div> </blockquote><br /> Thanks for the kind words <a href="https://www.thefastlaneforum.com/community/members/22786/" class="username" data-xf-init="member-tooltip" data-user-id="22786" data-username="@Jon L.">@Jon L.</a> Speaking of gaining skills through this process, I&#039;ve noticed that I&#039;m good at teaching people, and that I&#039;m very passionate about business (as a system) in general. Several strangers have commented that my marketing was very good - enough that they told other people about it, and a few students of mine said they weren&#039;t even looking for lessons until they came across my ads/landing pages. That being said, I&#039;ve been thinking of trying to get into marketing for small businesses, but I&#039;m not quite sure how, and of course, I don&#039;t have near the experience that I have in music - but I find that I know alot more about it than other people that I talk to, even business people. I sense an opportunity there. Anything popping out at you that I&#039;m not seeing?<br /> <br /> <blockquote data-attributes="member: 16059" data-quote="amp0193" data-source="post: 523860" class="bbCodeBlock bbCodeBlock--expandable bbCodeBlock--quote js-expandWatch"> <div class="bbCodeBlock-title"> <a href="/community/goto/post?id=523860" class="bbCodeBlock-sourceJump" rel="nofollow" data-xf-click="attribution" data-content-selector="#post-523860">amp0193 said:</a> </div> <div class="bbCodeBlock-content"> <div class="bbCodeBlock-expandContent js-expandContent "> Music Major Graduate here, I&#039;ve done my fair share of teaching lessons... and you&#039;re doing really well for yourself. It can be tough to make ends meet with lessons, but clearly you&#039;ve got something that is attracting and keeping students. Skill, personality, or both.<br /> <br /> You&#039;re 100% right, the business is tied to your time input and that&#039;s a problem. You&#039;ve got to increase the scale. Online is the clear way to do that.<br /> <br /> Is there a certain niche of guitar playing that is lacking in the online lesson space? Blues guitar lessons? Rock N&#039; Roll Guitar Lessons? Folk Guitar Lessons?<br /> <br /> Is there a kind of medium or delivery method of guitar lessons that hasn&#039;t been tapped yet? Is there a unique spin or angle you can bring to your lessons? What about regular livestreaming via Twitch or some other method?<br /> <br /> You need to develop products that can sell independently of your time. A video course, either one time fee or subscription based. A method book. DVDs.<br /> <br /> What about a course to teach people how to make money teaching guitar lessons? Your target audience could be the self-taught types who have some skill, but have difficulty structuring a productive 30min to 1 hour lesson. At one time in my life, I paid $120 for a bare bones course on how to make money fix and flipping washers and dryers, and I made way more than $120 putting the information into practice. People will pay money to learn how to make money.<br /> <br /> <br /> Just some thoughts. </div> <div class="bbCodeBlock-expandLink js-expandLink"><a role="button" tabindex="0">Click to expand...</a></div> </div> </blockquote><br /> Hey <a href="https://www.thefastlaneforum.com/community/members/16059/" class="username" data-xf-init="member-tooltip" data-user-id="16059" data-username="@amp0193">@amp0193</a>, thanks so much for chiming in. Is there a certain untapped niche, unique angle, unique delivery method? Yes. I know I can help people, and in fact, I have considered everything that you typed in your reply, and I have ideas on how I would execute and expand all of them. The question is - do I want to try to compete in an oversaturated industry where most of the customers are looking for &quot;bargains&quot;, the prices are already low, and I would have to <i>convince</i> people to try my way versus the way that everyone else is doing things? I&#039;d love to get into something that I could sell higher ticket items - $2,000 or $3,000 dollars - is this possible in this industry? I think it <i>could be</i>, but very unlikely. We are talking about &quot;musicians&quot; here. I know I&#039;m over generalizing, but just getting my thoughts out. <br /> <br /> I&#039;ll also make another distinction. I&#039;m a very strategic, hi-level thinker (always have been), and I know that I&#039;m suffering from analysis paralysis <img src="/community/imgs/emoticons/em-smile2.png" class="smilie" loading="lazy" alt=":)" title="Smile :)" data-shortname=":)" /> by looking for the future &quot;pieces&quot; to be in place. Just being perfectly honest. It was even tough for me to reach out here on the forum, but I finally did because I knew that you guys would try to help, and I very, very much appreciate it!<br /> <br /> I will post more replies later tonight guys. Thanks so much!!</div>
 
<div class="bbWrapper"><blockquote data-attributes="member: 35998" data-quote="Jonathan Boyd" data-source="post: 523809" class="bbCodeBlock bbCodeBlock--expandable bbCodeBlock--quote js-expandWatch"> <div class="bbCodeBlock-title"> <a href="/community/goto/post?id=523809" class="bbCodeBlock-sourceJump" rel="nofollow" data-xf-click="attribution" data-content-selector="#post-523809">Jonathan Boyd said:</a> </div> <div class="bbCodeBlock-content"> <div class="bbCodeBlock-expandContent js-expandContent "> Hi, thanks for reading. I&#039;m currently running my first business that is basically a job, and I have been looking for a more scalable business. I was hoping to get some insight from the wonderful people here that have much more experience and perspective than me.<br /> <br /> <b>Brief background:</b><br /> Long story short, from growing up in a typical middle class &quot;go to school and get a job&quot; background, I&#039;ve always been &quot;looking for another way&quot;. After a mechanical engineering degree, a couple of ignorant rookie business attempts, and dropping out of grad school twice, I started my current business teaching guitar last year. This was my first business learning the ropes of how business works, and within the year I&#039;ve grown from 0 to roughly $60k net per year, and I only teach about 45 hours per month. I&#039;ve got a school and a system going, but it&#039;s all me. I really feel like pushing further in this industry is like trying to push the accelerator through the floor of a Toyota Corolla - the numbers just aren&#039;t in my favor.<br /> <b><br /> The positives:</b><br /> <ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">I&#039;ve been involved in music for almost 20 years, and I know what I&#039;m talking about.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">I don&#039;t really have any true competition in my area for my target market - I&#039;m dominating.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">This solves a real need for some people</li> </ul><b>The problems (or challenges):</b><br /> <ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">The business IS me. (and it sucks)<br /> </li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">This sort of service requires skilled labor, so;<br /> </li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Scaling would require a lot intensive training, employees to manage, and <b>highly skilled labor</b></li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">According to google, the industry has been on the decline for the last decade, and I don&#039;t see any reason why it wouldn&#039;t continue to decline<br /> </li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">The reach is very small (local), and even more locations is still a small reach.</li> </ul>To be perfectly honest, I hate having to &quot;be somewhere&quot; every week. In today&#039;s world, it seems ridiculous (and stupid) to me to have a solely offline business, and scaling this business to any significant level would take tons and tons of time, management, and people that frankly, I don&#039;t want to deal with.<br /> <br /> Something tells me it&#039;s just time to switch vehicles entirely.<br /> <br /> I don&#039;t waste my time, I spend every day reading/learning/looking for a new business to start so I can focus all my efforts there, and I want to leverage the internet.<br /> <br /> Do you think I&#039;m suffering Shiny Object Syndrome, or are my thoughts in the right direction here? What are some ways that I might be able to leverage my experience into something far more easily scalable? I&#039;d love to brainstorm with you and hear your opinions. Thanks for reading! </div> <div class="bbCodeBlock-expandLink js-expandLink"><a role="button" tabindex="0">Click to expand...</a></div> </div> </blockquote><br /> Hey, you have a white ball from me because you choose this road and because you choose to keep learning.<br /> <br /> From my point of view you can scale thing on the internet my making videos and then sell them in video courses format.<br /> <br /> Peter is a youtuber that is doing this and also read MJ&#039;s book. This video may help you.<br /> <div class="bbMediaWrapper" data-media-site-id="youtube" data-media-key="Yvh5m2aT9MA"> <div class="bbMediaWrapper-inner"> <iframe src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/Yvh5m2aT9MA?wmode=opaque" loading="lazy" width="560" height="315" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="true"></iframe> </div> </div><br /> So create a website and sell the courses online. This way you don&#039;t have to be awake to sell, you may want to be present to respond to your customers questions. I am actually building a such a software that allow you to do this.<br /> <br /> And i can give you for free a license if in return you are willing to give me a honest feedback.<br /> <br /> In order will be like this:<br /> 1. Make several courses and pack them up in a zip format and a PDF.<br /> 2. Choose a domain name and hosting.<br /> 3. Create a website (you can use WordPress as well if you want).<br /> 4. Add some free content on the website and create a membership system.<br /> 5. Offer access to a video or pdf for free and in exchange ask for the email, that way you build a subscribers list.<br /> 6. Advertise for traffic on your website and sell the course(s) in a digital format to be downloaded.<br /> <br /> And good luck! It may be hard at beginning, but it&#039;s worthless. Just remember that pain is temporary.</div>
 
<div class="bbWrapper">You could take your experience with marketing and funnels, and do a joint venture relationship where you hook companies together. Maybe stay in the music industry to start since you are familiar with it?<br /> <br /> So you&#039;ve got physical music supply stores, music lesson giving people, online music e-courses, etc. A quick example is that you could find a smaller instrument maker, and then include a coupon for one free lesson with every instrument he sells. Then hook his customers up with different local music lesson people all across the state, and then get a portion of the revenue generated by the lesson giver people and split it with the instrument maker.</div>
 
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<div class="bbWrapper"><blockquote data-attributes="member: 38071" data-quote="Mike Partee" data-source="post: 523862" class="bbCodeBlock bbCodeBlock--expandable bbCodeBlock--quote js-expandWatch"> <div class="bbCodeBlock-title"> <a href="/community/goto/post?id=523862" class="bbCodeBlock-sourceJump" rel="nofollow" data-xf-click="attribution" data-content-selector="#post-523862">Mike Partee said:</a> </div> <div class="bbCodeBlock-content"> <div class="bbCodeBlock-expandContent js-expandContent "> A few questions off the top of my head:<br /> <br /> 1: What is your market cap in your area? Aka size of town?<br /> 2: How much of that market are you serving, versus your competitors, in percentage? Do you have about 80% of the market? 90% ? 100% ?<br /> <br /> If you are literally serving 100% of your market and you can&#039;t find skilled labor, maybe you should relocate somewhere with 1 - a larger market that you can break into effectively and 2 - enough skilled labor to outsource some (or all) of your lessons to.<br /> <br /> If you are serving most of your market, say, 80%, I would try to fill in the gaps. Are there other guitar teachers in the area that, although they are competition, you could possibly hire and they make a cut from what you would charge for a lesson? Obviously, you have to consider the possibility of those same employees stealing your clients themselves.<br /> <br /> This isn&#039;t exactly fastlane but it&#039;s a way to go. Because you&#039;re already experienced in your field and have plenty of connections, you can build a whole brand around your service without necessarily attaching yourself to that service. Just assure that whoever you send out for the job is of equal or better quality of instruction than you are. That way everyone will always go to YOU and YOUR image and not joe blow giving lessons for peanuts. You&#039;re essentially selling an image and service, not yourself.<br /> <br /> (source: I was mid-level management for a talent agency in my hometown. You can gobble up competition and fill in the gaps by aggregating all of the skilled labor to your business. You can keep competition underneath your thumb by giving struggling &quot;freelance&quot; guys opportunities for gigs. They will rely on you and will make you richer. Just be sure none of them are smart enough to steal your business). </div> <div class="bbCodeBlock-expandLink js-expandLink"><a role="button" tabindex="0">Click to expand...</a></div> </div> </blockquote><br /> Hi <a href="https://www.thefastlaneforum.com/community/members/38071/" class="username" data-xf-init="member-tooltip" data-user-id="38071" data-username="@Mike Partee">@Mike Partee</a>, thanks for your input and questions. As far as market cap and other guitar teachers - My system (and personality/skills) are targeted towards one very specific type of customer, and as far as I know, I am serving them the best in the area - I have filled a maximum number of hours that I&#039;m willing to teach, so I&#039;m not concerned with gaining &quot;market share&quot;. I don&#039;t want more money at my current stage, I want more time. Although I have thought of various ways to bring on other people, my bigger picture issue is that I don&#039;t want to focus on a &quot;road&quot; whose infrastructure depends overwhelmingly on humans - it&#039;s very draining for me, and that&#039;s why I&#039;m even posting this thread in the first place. Could I build this thing to multiple locations, and eventually many or even franchise. I firmly believe so. But would I keep my sanity in the nature of such a business? My gut is telling me no, and I think it&#039;s that very reason that I haven&#039;t grown more than I have to date. It&#039;s much more tempting to me to take advantage of computer systems. Is this a shiny object? I don&#039;t think so...but what do I know?<br /> <br /> <blockquote data-attributes="member: 38071" data-quote="Mike Partee" data-source="post: 523864" class="bbCodeBlock bbCodeBlock--expandable bbCodeBlock--quote js-expandWatch"> <div class="bbCodeBlock-title"> <a href="/community/goto/post?id=523864" class="bbCodeBlock-sourceJump" rel="nofollow" data-xf-click="attribution" data-content-selector="#post-523864">Mike Partee said:</a> </div> <div class="bbCodeBlock-content"> <div class="bbCodeBlock-expandContent js-expandContent "> If you decide to do online instruction, be prepared to battle with all of the noise that that particular niche has. Unless there&#039;s something totally untapped, maybe not necessarily related to guitar lessons themselves. One idea is providing a step-by-step course on how to perform for commercial wedding gigs. There&#039;s a certain level of professionalism and nuances to doing that kind of gig that nobody else is aware of except for people who have done them. </div> <div class="bbCodeBlock-expandLink js-expandLink"><a role="button" tabindex="0">Click to expand...</a></div> </div> </blockquote><br /> This is an interesting spin. I agree that there would need to be a unique entry and unique positioning, and I believe I have that, and can further develop and refine it. There is a ton of noise, and even though I think I could provide value and win some hearts, I don&#039;t know how to judge the market potential (price wars, popularity in decline, tons of noise). If possible, I want to avoid slaving to stomp the accelerator through the floor of an economy sedan - like I&#039;m doing now. Again this is just my opinion, and I have no real clue. Maybe it&#039;s a good thought to ask some more experienced guys if I&#039;m wasting time thinking about a worthless industry, or maybe I just need a kick in the a$$. I don&#039;t know, and that&#039;s why I&#039;m asking! <img src="/community/imgs/emoticons/em-smile2.png" class="smilie" loading="lazy" alt=":)" title="Smile :)" data-shortname=":)" /><br /> <br /> <blockquote data-attributes="member: 29850" data-quote="TG_Hawk" data-source="post: 523878" class="bbCodeBlock bbCodeBlock--expandable bbCodeBlock--quote js-expandWatch"> <div class="bbCodeBlock-title"> <a href="/community/goto/post?id=523878" class="bbCodeBlock-sourceJump" rel="nofollow" data-xf-click="attribution" data-content-selector="#post-523878">TG_Hawk said:</a> </div> <div class="bbCodeBlock-content"> <div class="bbCodeBlock-expandContent js-expandContent "> <a href="https://www.thefastlaneforum.com/community/members/35998/" class="username" data-xf-init="member-tooltip" data-user-id="35998" data-username="@Jonathan Boyd">@Jonathan Boyd</a><br /> <br /> Could you create a comprehensive set of DVDs on how to learn playing guitar, starting with novice and working your way up to expert? Have each one be a progression from easiest to hardest and maybe put groups of songs or something into each DVD that is parallel with the lesson taught. Now you have a step by step 60,90, 120 day program or however long it takes to learn that anybody can buy online and refer back to at any time to sharpen their skills. Think like a workout/meal plan but for the guitar.<br /> <br /> I know people can search online and find stuff for free but think of how easy it would be to have it all at your fingertips...it would save people a lot of time. It would be similar to P90x. You can find workous and meal plans online but he sold a strucutred, easy to follow program that thousand of people bought. Record it once and sell it a million times. As an add on, obviously you would record in English but find a way to translate or with subtitles and you open yourself up to a even larger audience.<br /> <br /> The one big issue I can think of is learning an instrument is not as black and white as following a workout plan. I&#039;m sure guitar lessons are very interactive as the students have a ton of questions. Get over that hurdle with a interactive forum or additional skype sessions and you&#039;re looking good. </div> <div class="bbCodeBlock-expandLink js-expandLink"><a role="button" tabindex="0">Click to expand...</a></div> </div> </blockquote><br /> Thanks <a href="https://www.thefastlaneforum.com/community/members/29850/" class="username" data-xf-init="member-tooltip" data-user-id="29850" data-username="@TG_Hawk">@TG_Hawk</a>, I think the workout DVDs are a good analogy, and a good idea - I&#039;ve had similar thoughts as well. I agree that there would need to be some level of interaction and support. Also, excellent idea with the foreign subtitles! I hadn&#039;t thought of that! I mean, honestly just from what you typed, one could create exactly what you laid out, and if they were savvy marketers, thousands and thousands could be made. Thanks so much for your suggestions!</div>
 
<div class="bbWrapper"><blockquote data-attributes="member: 33716" data-quote="Gadwall" data-source="post: 523906" class="bbCodeBlock bbCodeBlock--expandable bbCodeBlock--quote js-expandWatch"> <div class="bbCodeBlock-title"> <a href="/community/goto/post?id=523906" class="bbCodeBlock-sourceJump" rel="nofollow" data-xf-click="attribution" data-content-selector="#post-523906">Gadwall said:</a> </div> <div class="bbCodeBlock-content"> <div class="bbCodeBlock-expandContent js-expandContent "> I agree with the OP, I don&#039;t think this is a fastlane business. You have already discovered that you can&#039;t replace yourself with someone else. Prior to posting this, you&#039;ve probably already contemplated going on line with a website lessons business. But whether it&#039;s the existing competition, the cost of this kind of venture, lack of insight how you improve whats already out there, or the daunting task of it all, the idea probably doesn&#039;t interest you.<br /> <br /> However, you said you are working 45 minutes a month and making $60k? That sounds like a pretty good side job. Don&#039;t throw the baby out with the bath water. You have a lot of time to start other businesses that may be completely unrelated, and your current venture has allowed you to develop marketing, scheduling, and client relationship skills. Just work on finding that other income stream that you will be good at executing. Except this time, make sure it is a scale able business before starting. And in the meantime, let your current job pay the bills. </div> <div class="bbCodeBlock-expandLink js-expandLink"><a role="button" tabindex="0">Click to expand...</a></div> </div> </blockquote><br /> <a href="https://www.thefastlaneforum.com/community/members/33716/" class="username" data-xf-init="member-tooltip" data-user-id="33716" data-username="@Gadwall">@Gadwall</a> Hi, I appreciate your comments. In your first paragraph, you mentioned that an online venture probably doesn&#039;t interest me for various reasons. Would you mind elaborating on your thoughts? I&#039;d love to hear what you think. <br /> <br /> At the moment, I have about an $85k salary (in employee terms) - but that&#039;s 45 hours, not minutes <img src="/community/imgs/emoticons/em-smile2.png" class="smilie" loading="lazy" alt=":)" title="Smile :)" data-shortname=":)" />. What you mentioned is my strategy exactly. The reason I don&#039;t want to expand my current business is to leverage my TIME! I do want to find something else that I can go full force on. Also, you&#039;re right, I have learned a ton about client relations, marketing, etc, and I have become quite good at it in my current scenario. An idea that I&#039;ve been thinking about is helping other small (tiny) service businesses with marketing. I&#039;m thinking Yoga instructors, personal trainers, etc. Honestly, I&#039;d love to teach (online) courses about business skills to help others grow their businesses.<br /> <br /> <blockquote data-attributes="member: 22869" data-quote="Leo Hendrix" data-source="post: 523912" class="bbCodeBlock bbCodeBlock--expandable bbCodeBlock--quote js-expandWatch"> <div class="bbCodeBlock-title"> <a href="/community/goto/post?id=523912" class="bbCodeBlock-sourceJump" rel="nofollow" data-xf-click="attribution" data-content-selector="#post-523912">Leo Hendrix said:</a> </div> <div class="bbCodeBlock-content"> <div class="bbCodeBlock-expandContent js-expandContent "> info product or better yet proper online lesson via udemy etc, e-book on Amazon Kindle, start a franchise of guitar teaching schools. </div> <div class="bbCodeBlock-expandLink js-expandLink"><a role="button" tabindex="0">Click to expand...</a></div> </div> </blockquote><br /> Thanks Leo, I&#039;ll keep those in mind! All viable avenues. Thanks for your input!<br /> <br /> <blockquote data-attributes="member: 17030" data-quote="Get Right" data-source="post: 523974" class="bbCodeBlock bbCodeBlock--expandable bbCodeBlock--quote js-expandWatch"> <div class="bbCodeBlock-title"> <a href="/community/goto/post?id=523974" class="bbCodeBlock-sourceJump" rel="nofollow" data-xf-click="attribution" data-content-selector="#post-523974">Get Right said:</a> </div> <div class="bbCodeBlock-content"> <div class="bbCodeBlock-expandContent js-expandContent "> What are your current clients ambitions? Do they want to become rock stars, hobbyists, educated parents? By delving into exactly &quot;what&quot; you are selling you might find a pivot for your business. </div> <div class="bbCodeBlock-expandLink js-expandLink"><a role="button" tabindex="0">Click to expand...</a></div> </div> </blockquote><br /> Hi <a href="https://www.thefastlaneforum.com/community/members/17030/" class="username" data-xf-init="member-tooltip" data-user-id="17030" data-username="@Get Right">@Get Right</a>, I like this question, thanks for asking. Most just want to have &quot;freedom&quot; on guitar (as hobbyists at home or playing in a local band). I think most are afraid to admit to themselves that they secretly want to be the rock stars on the stage at the shows that they see. What am I selling? As far as I know, honestly I have to constantly sell belief and hope. Once a person actually believes that achieving some level of guitar playing is possible (because some expert told them it was) then they actually have hope, and become &quot;enabled&quot; to take the necessary actions to get there. Lot&#039;s of selling belief. People don&#039;t want &quot;lessons&quot; they want results, and first, you have to convince them that achieving those results is actually possible for them.<br /> <br /> Can I ask why you asked these questions? (just out of curiosity). Also, could you elaborate on finding a &quot;pivot&quot;? I know what pivoting is, but I would love to learn more about your thoughts. Thanks so much!<br /> <br /> <blockquote data-attributes="member: 29791" data-quote="Panamera Turbo S" data-source="post: 523990" class="bbCodeBlock bbCodeBlock--expandable bbCodeBlock--quote js-expandWatch"> <div class="bbCodeBlock-title"> <a href="/community/goto/post?id=523990" class="bbCodeBlock-sourceJump" rel="nofollow" data-xf-click="attribution" data-content-selector="#post-523990">Panamera Turbo S said:</a> </div> <div class="bbCodeBlock-content"> <div class="bbCodeBlock-expandContent js-expandContent "> Hey, you have a white ball from me because you choose this road and because you choose to keep learning.<br /> <br /> From my point of view you can scale thing on the internet my making videos and then sell them in video courses format.<br /> <br /> Peter is a youtuber that is doing this and also read MJ&#039;s book. This video may help you.<br /> <div class="bbMediaWrapper" data-media-site-id="youtube" data-media-key="Yvh5m2aT9MA"> <div class="bbMediaWrapper-inner"> <iframe src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/Yvh5m2aT9MA?wmode=opaque" loading="lazy" width="560" height="315" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="true"></iframe> </div> </div><br /> So create a website and sell the courses online. This way you don&#039;t have to be awake to sell, you may want to be present to respond to your customers questions. I am actually building a such a software that allow you to do this.<br /> <br /> And i can give you for free a license if in return you are willing to give me a honest feedback.<br /> <br /> In order will be like this:<br /> 1. Make several courses and pack them up in a zip format and a PDF.<br /> 2. Choose a domain name and hosting.<br /> 3. Create a website (you can use WordPress as well if you want).<br /> 4. Add some free content on the website and create a membership system.<br /> 5. Offer access to a video or pdf for free and in exchange ask for the email, that way you build a subscribers list.<br /> 6. Advertise for traffic on your website and sell the course(s) in a digital format to be downloaded.<br /> <br /> And good luck! It may be hard at beginning, but it&#039;s worthless. Just remember that pain is temporary. </div> <div class="bbCodeBlock-expandLink js-expandLink"><a role="button" tabindex="0">Click to expand...</a></div> </div> </blockquote><br /> Hi <a href="https://www.thefastlaneforum.com/community/members/29791/" class="username" data-xf-init="member-tooltip" data-user-id="29791" data-username="@Panamera Turbo S">@Panamera Turbo S</a>, thank you for your useful suggestions. Pardon my ignorance, but what do you mean by &quot;white ball&quot;? <img src="/community/imgs/emoticons/em-smile2.png" class="smilie" loading="lazy" alt=":)" title="Smile :)" data-shortname=":)" /><br /> <br /> Thanks for taking the time to post the video! Also, very helpful and precise list. Thanks a lot. The software that you are creating - is it for creating courses, or for responding to customers questions? I&#039;d love to hear about it.<br /> <br /> <blockquote data-attributes="member: 14194" data-quote="LibertyForMe" data-source="post: 523992" class="bbCodeBlock bbCodeBlock--expandable bbCodeBlock--quote js-expandWatch"> <div class="bbCodeBlock-title"> <a href="/community/goto/post?id=523992" class="bbCodeBlock-sourceJump" rel="nofollow" data-xf-click="attribution" data-content-selector="#post-523992">LibertyForMe said:</a> </div> <div class="bbCodeBlock-content"> <div class="bbCodeBlock-expandContent js-expandContent "> You could take your experience with marketing and funnels, and do a joint venture relationship where you hook companies together. Maybe stay in the music industry to start since you are familiar with it?<br /> <br /> So you&#039;ve got physical music supply stores, music lesson giving people, online music e-courses, etc. A quick example is that you could find a smaller instrument maker, and then include a coupon for one free lesson with every instrument he sells. Then hook his customers up with different local music lesson people all across the state, and then get a portion of the revenue generated by the lesson giver people and split it with the instrument maker. </div> <div class="bbCodeBlock-expandLink js-expandLink"><a role="button" tabindex="0">Click to expand...</a></div> </div> </blockquote><br /> <a href="https://www.thefastlaneforum.com/community/members/14194/" class="username" data-xf-init="member-tooltip" data-user-id="14194" data-username="@LibertyForMe">@LibertyForMe</a>, thanks so much for commenting - I&#039;m very interested in your idea; I&#039;m beginning to find out that I enjoy &quot;connecting&quot; people and things as you mentioned, and have been thinking of some sort of brokerage business to start. I agree with staying in the music industry to begin with, and I appreciate your example. I have actually done the free lesson coupon deal with my own business, but I hadn&#039;t thought of doing this for other people. If I might ask, so I can get a clearer picture, would you have a couple more examples of how this could be done? (in any industry). Also, how would I actually solidify a deal with the instrument maker in your example - what would keep him from keeping all the revenue? Thanks again, I like where this is going <img src="/community/imgs/emoticons/em-smile2.png" class="smilie" loading="lazy" alt=":)" title="Smile :)" data-shortname=":)" /><br /> <br /> I&#039;m very much an &quot;idea&quot; person, and I&#039;m already thinking of ways that I could connect two &quot;entities&quot; to benefit both parties for a small royalty. Have you done business like this yourself?</div>
 
<div class="bbWrapper">This thread is already extremely helpful to me guys. I really appreciate your time and comments, and I hope that I can help you soon as well.</div>
 
<div class="bbWrapper">There&#039;s a ton of great responses here, especially from the folks with a music background.<br /> <br /> I remember many years back, I wanted to learn guitar or drums. For guitar, I was told you need 1000 hours to learn it well. I backed out immediately because I just don&#039;t have that kind of spare time. <br /> <br /> If you can build some sort of unique system which teaches students to learn at a much more rapid rate, that can be your unique angle and twist in the market. You can then train others the system and branch out from there globally. Just a random suggestion and thought I had in mind from someone who would have been a potential student/client.<br /> <br /> I&#039;m sure there&#039;s an online market for it also but I would never purchase online courses...I would just procrastinate and never do it. For something like this, I need to drag my a$$ out and learn in person.<br /> <br /> Best of luck <img src="/community/imgs/emoticons/em-smile2.png" class="smilie" loading="lazy" alt=":)" title="Smile :)" data-shortname=":)" /></div>
 
<div class="bbWrapper"><blockquote data-attributes="member: 35998" data-quote="Jonathan Boyd" data-source="post: 524035" class="bbCodeBlock bbCodeBlock--expandable bbCodeBlock--quote js-expandWatch"> <div class="bbCodeBlock-title"> <a href="/community/goto/post?id=524035" class="bbCodeBlock-sourceJump" rel="nofollow" data-xf-click="attribution" data-content-selector="#post-524035">Jonathan Boyd said:</a> </div> <div class="bbCodeBlock-content"> <div class="bbCodeBlock-expandContent js-expandContent "> <a href="https://www.thefastlaneforum.com/community/members/33716/" class="username" data-xf-init="member-tooltip" data-user-id="33716" data-username="@Gadwall">@Gadwall</a> Hi, I appreciate your comments. In your first paragraph, you mentioned that an online venture probably doesn&#039;t interest me for various reasons. Would you mind elaborating on your thoughts? I&#039;d love to hear what you think.<br /> <br /> At the moment, I have about an $85k salary (in employee terms) - but that&#039;s 45 hours, not minutes <img src="/community/imgs/emoticons/em-smile2.png" class="smilie" loading="lazy" alt=":)" title="Smile :)" data-shortname=":)" />. What you mentioned is my strategy exactly. The reason I don&#039;t want to expand my current business is to leverage my TIME! I do want to find something else that I can go full force on. Also, you&#039;re right, I have learned a ton about client relations, marketing, etc, and I have become quite good at it in my current scenario. An idea that I&#039;ve been thinking about is helping other small (tiny) service businesses with marketing. I&#039;m thinking Yoga instructors, personal trainers, etc. Honestly, I&#039;d love to teach (online) courses about business skills to help others grow their businesses.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> Thanks Leo, I&#039;ll keep those in mind! All viable avenues. Thanks for your input!<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> Hi <a href="https://www.thefastlaneforum.com/community/members/17030/" class="username" data-xf-init="member-tooltip" data-user-id="17030" data-username="@Get Right">@Get Right</a>, I like this question, thanks for asking. Most just want to have &quot;freedom&quot; on guitar (as hobbyists at home or playing in a local band). I think most are afraid to admit to themselves that they secretly want to be the rock stars on the stage at the shows that they see. What am I selling? As far as I know, honestly I have to constantly sell belief and hope. Once a person actually believes that achieving some level of guitar playing is possible (because some expert told them it was) then they actually have hope, and become &quot;enabled&quot; to take the necessary actions to get there. Lot&#039;s of selling belief. People don&#039;t want &quot;lessons&quot; they want results, and first, you have to convince them that achieving those results is actually possible for them.<br /> <br /> Can I ask why you asked these questions? (just out of curiosity). Also, could you elaborate on finding a &quot;pivot&quot;? I know what pivoting is, but I would love to learn more about your thoughts. Thanks so much!<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> Hi <a href="https://www.thefastlaneforum.com/community/members/29791/" class="username" data-xf-init="member-tooltip" data-user-id="29791" data-username="@Panamera Turbo S">@Panamera Turbo S</a>, thank you for your useful suggestions. Pardon my ignorance, but what do you mean by &quot;white ball&quot;? <img src="/community/imgs/emoticons/em-smile2.png" class="smilie" loading="lazy" alt=":)" title="Smile :)" data-shortname=":)" /><br /> <br /> Thanks for taking the time to post the video! Also, very helpful and precise list. Thanks a lot. The software that you are creating - is it for creating courses, or for responding to customers questions? I&#039;d love to hear about it.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <a href="https://www.thefastlaneforum.com/community/members/14194/" class="username" data-xf-init="member-tooltip" data-user-id="14194" data-username="@LibertyForMe">@LibertyForMe</a>, thanks so much for commenting - I&#039;m very interested in your idea; I&#039;m beginning to find out that I enjoy &quot;connecting&quot; people and things as you mentioned, and have been thinking of some sort of brokerage business to start. I agree with staying in the music industry to begin with, and I appreciate your example. I have actually done the free lesson coupon deal with my own business, but I hadn&#039;t thought of doing this for other people. If I might ask, so I can get a clearer picture, would you have a couple more examples of how this could be done? (in any industry). Also, how would I actually solidify a deal with the instrument maker in your example - what would keep him from keeping all the revenue? Thanks again, I like where this is going <img src="/community/imgs/emoticons/em-smile2.png" class="smilie" loading="lazy" alt=":)" title="Smile :)" data-shortname=":)" /><br /> <br /> I&#039;m very much an &quot;idea&quot; person, and I&#039;m already thinking of ways that I could connect two &quot;entities&quot; to benefit both parties for a small royalty. Have you done business like this yourself? </div> <div class="bbCodeBlock-expandLink js-expandLink"><a role="button" tabindex="0">Click to expand...</a></div> </div> </blockquote><br /> By white ball i mean that it&#039;s very good how you spend your free time. Most of the people spend their time like it will never end. Well you spend your time with good activities like changing your oil(learning). For me a normal day is like this: go to gym 2 hours, sleep 8, work hard 10, learn at least 1 and in rest other activities, fun very few.<br /> <br /> Regarding my software, initially my purpose was to create a eCommerce platform, but now i will switch more to make it useful for people with digital content like eBooks courses etc. For example your case:<br /> <br /> I assume you will make some videos and an ebook for people. You install my platform and there you can set things like theme, fonts etc. After you will put the price for monthly fees. You can allow only the people which payed the monthly fee to some of your videos. Also if you give for free an ebook for their email, you upload your ebook and then each time someone subscribe, they will receive and auto email from the software with the download link. Same thing when they want to buy digital content. <br /> <br /> It&#039;s ready yet but you can see more at:<a href="https://www.proeminentcode.com" target="_blank" class="link link--external" rel="noopener">https://www.proeminentcode.com</a><br /> <br /> And if possible you can give a feedback on my website. Looking for your reply.</div>
 
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<div class="bbWrapper">Hey bud,<br /> <br /> I think you&#039;re in a great position. You have your material (skill) to build something to sell, now you just have to build it. Most people don&#039;t have enough value to bring to the table to sell an information product. You do, so use it! Remember, it&#039;s not the product you sell. IF it sells is should be your only concern. Once you build it, get your processes in order and figure out how to market it and convert it into sales. $ is the key, not the product.<br /> <br /> Think about what kind of product (call everything a product even if it&#039;s a service) you can create that will sell. Brainstorm everything. You can do pre-recorded courses so that your time isn&#039;t affected, tie them into some kind of book, even build a blog or forum around it. Do you want to teach music? How about selling books with blueprints for certain songs? If you&#039;re going to do anything that requires teaching via Skype, tie it into your mobile phone so you can do this anywhere at anytime. Sell package deals.<br /> <br /> If you totally want to get away from music, than you&#039;re in the situation I&#039;m in. <br /> <br /> That&#039;s why I just bought the book. I&#039;m hoping to clear my mind up and get moving. <br /> <br /> <blockquote data-attributes="member: 10406" data-quote="ddzc" data-source="post: 524039" class="bbCodeBlock bbCodeBlock--expandable bbCodeBlock--quote js-expandWatch"> <div class="bbCodeBlock-title"> <a href="/community/goto/post?id=524039" class="bbCodeBlock-sourceJump" rel="nofollow" data-xf-click="attribution" data-content-selector="#post-524039">ddzc said:</a> </div> <div class="bbCodeBlock-content"> <div class="bbCodeBlock-expandContent js-expandContent "> There&#039;s a ton of great responses here, especially from the folks with a music background.<br /> <br /> I remember many years back, I wanted to learn guitar or drums. For guitar, I was told you need 1000 hours to learn it well. I backed out immediately because I just don&#039;t have that kind of spare time. <br /> <br /> If you can build some sort of unique system which teaches students to learn at a much more rapid rate, that can be your unique angle and twist in the market. You can then train others the system and branch out from there globally. Just a random suggestion and thought I had in mind from someone who would have been a potential student/client.<br /> <br /> I&#039;m sure there&#039;s an online market for it also but I would never purchase online courses...I would just procrastinate and never do it. For something like this, I need to drag my a$$ out and learn in person.<br /> <br /> Best of luck <img src="/community/imgs/emoticons/em-smile2.png" class="smilie" loading="lazy" alt=":)" title="Smile :)" data-shortname=":)" /> </div> <div class="bbCodeBlock-expandLink js-expandLink"><a role="button" tabindex="0">Click to expand...</a></div> </div> </blockquote></div>
 
<div class="bbWrapper"><blockquote data-attributes="member: 35998" data-quote="Jonathan Boyd" data-source="post: 524035" class="bbCodeBlock bbCodeBlock--expandable bbCodeBlock--quote js-expandWatch"> <div class="bbCodeBlock-title"> <a href="/community/goto/post?id=524035" class="bbCodeBlock-sourceJump" rel="nofollow" data-xf-click="attribution" data-content-selector="#post-524035">Jonathan Boyd said:</a> </div> <div class="bbCodeBlock-content"> <div class="bbCodeBlock-expandContent js-expandContent "> If I might ask, so I can get a clearer picture, would you have a couple more examples of how this could be done? (in any industry). </div> <div class="bbCodeBlock-expandLink js-expandLink"><a role="button" tabindex="0">Click to expand...</a></div> </div> </blockquote><br /> Here are some examples:<br /> <ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Connecting high-end car detailers to fancy restaurants that have valet service.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Connecting wedding photographers, cake bakers, DJs, and suit rental places together to make a cheaper package deal - and give the package to wedding planners or someone similar.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Connect a trade association to a service that the people in that trade need. For example you could connect an electricians guild or something with a company who specializes in insurance for electricians. Negotiate a special rate from the insurance company, and promote it through the trade association as a special benefit for their members.</li> </ul>In all of these things, you take a percentage of the revenue generated and then give some of your percentage to the car detailer, trade association, etc.<br /> <br /> <blockquote data-attributes="member: 35998" data-quote="Jonathan Boyd" data-source="post: 524035" class="bbCodeBlock bbCodeBlock--expandable bbCodeBlock--quote js-expandWatch"> <div class="bbCodeBlock-title"> <a href="/community/goto/post?id=524035" class="bbCodeBlock-sourceJump" rel="nofollow" data-xf-click="attribution" data-content-selector="#post-524035">Jonathan Boyd said:</a> </div> <div class="bbCodeBlock-content"> <div class="bbCodeBlock-expandContent js-expandContent "> Also, how would I actually solidify a deal with the instrument maker in your example - what would keep him from keeping all the revenue? Thanks again, I like where this is going <img src="/community/imgs/emoticons/em-smile2.png" class="smilie" loading="lazy" alt=":)" title="Smile :)" data-shortname=":)" /> </div> <div class="bbCodeBlock-expandLink js-expandLink"><a role="button" tabindex="0">Click to expand...</a></div> </div> </blockquote><br /> I would call the instrument maker and tell him that I can possibly set him up a new revenue stream that is going to add value to his customers and won&#039;t be any additional work for him, and I&#039;ll do all the work and take all the risk to make sure it is a success. He can&#039;t keep all the revenue because the revenue never goes to him. The end customer would pay the lesson giver, and you&#039;d have a contract with the best lesson giver in each city to get 10-20% of gross revenue generated. Also, if possible try to set it up so that if that customer gets lessons for 3 years, you get 10-20% of revenue on each lesson, in perpetuity basically. Then when that lesson giver makes money, he gives you your percentage, and then you turn around and split it with the instrument maker. If the lesson giver doesn&#039;t pay up, you cut him off and send the business to a new lesson giver.<br /> <br /> <blockquote data-attributes="member: 35998" data-quote="Jonathan Boyd" data-source="post: 524035" class="bbCodeBlock bbCodeBlock--expandable bbCodeBlock--quote js-expandWatch"> <div class="bbCodeBlock-title"> <a href="/community/goto/post?id=524035" class="bbCodeBlock-sourceJump" rel="nofollow" data-xf-click="attribution" data-content-selector="#post-524035">Jonathan Boyd said:</a> </div> <div class="bbCodeBlock-content"> <div class="bbCodeBlock-expandContent js-expandContent "> I&#039;m very much an &quot;idea&quot; person, and I&#039;m already thinking of ways that I could connect two &quot;entities&quot; to benefit both parties for a small royalty. Have you done business like this yourself </div> <div class="bbCodeBlock-expandLink js-expandLink"><a role="button" tabindex="0">Click to expand...</a></div> </div> </blockquote><br /> This is the business I am currently working on, so take my words with a grain of salt. I just started pretty recently, but I feel this complements my skill set better than anything else I have done before. Right now I&#039;ve successfully set up a great contract with one side of the equation, and am working to get the other side of the deal done. So I&#039;m doing something similar to the trade show example I gave above, but it isn&#039;t a trade show. I&#039;m trying to get into a few BIG companies that have customers all over the place, and then I&#039;m going to link them up with local service providers. Been talking to the president and VP of some of these big companies, and its a slow process dealing with larger entities. <i>But</i>, once I get them on board it&#039;ll have a lot of potential for me.<br /> <br /> I have a FT job unfortunately, so focusing on a bigger deal in my limited time makes sense. Also, funnily enough, the bigger companies have been more receptive to it that the smaller companies. I guess that is why they are bigger!</div>
 
<div class="bbWrapper"><blockquote data-attributes="member: 10406" data-quote="ddzc" data-source="post: 524039" class="bbCodeBlock bbCodeBlock--expandable bbCodeBlock--quote js-expandWatch"> <div class="bbCodeBlock-title"> <a href="/community/goto/post?id=524039" class="bbCodeBlock-sourceJump" rel="nofollow" data-xf-click="attribution" data-content-selector="#post-524039">ddzc said:</a> </div> <div class="bbCodeBlock-content"> <div class="bbCodeBlock-expandContent js-expandContent "> There&#039;s a ton of great responses here, especially from the folks with a music background.<br /> <br /> I remember many years back, I wanted to learn guitar or drums. For guitar, I was told you need 1000 hours to learn it well. I backed out immediately because I just don&#039;t have that kind of spare time.<br /> <br /> If you can build some sort of unique system which teaches students to learn at a much more rapid rate, that can be your unique angle and twist in the market. You can then train others the system and branch out from there globally. Just a random suggestion and thought I had in mind from someone who would have been a potential student/client.<br /> <br /> I&#039;m sure there&#039;s an online market for it also but I would never purchase online courses...I would just procrastinate and never do it. For something like this, I need to drag my a$$ out and learn in person.<br /> <br /> Best of luck <img src="/community/imgs/emoticons/em-smile2.png" class="smilie" loading="lazy" alt=":)" title="Smile :)" data-shortname=":)" /> </div> <div class="bbCodeBlock-expandLink js-expandLink"><a role="button" tabindex="0">Click to expand...</a></div> </div> </blockquote><br /> Hey ddzc, thanks for your input. Come to my studio and you&#039;ll be having fun in 5 minutes, not 1000 hours - and I bet I could get you to buy one of my courses...after you read my sales page <img src="/community/imgs/emoticons/em-wink.png" class="smilie" loading="lazy" alt=";)" title="Wink ;)" data-shortname=";)" />. Thanks again. <br /> <br /> <blockquote data-attributes="member: 29791" data-quote="Panamera Turbo S" data-source="post: 524053" class="bbCodeBlock bbCodeBlock--expandable bbCodeBlock--quote js-expandWatch"> <div class="bbCodeBlock-title"> <a href="/community/goto/post?id=524053" class="bbCodeBlock-sourceJump" rel="nofollow" data-xf-click="attribution" data-content-selector="#post-524053">Panamera Turbo S said:</a> </div> <div class="bbCodeBlock-content"> <div class="bbCodeBlock-expandContent js-expandContent "> By white ball i mean that it&#039;s very good how you spend your free time. Most of the people spend their time like it will never end. Well you spend your time with good activities like changing your oil(learning). For me a normal day is like this: go to gym 2 hours, sleep 8, work hard 10, learn at least 1 and in rest other activities, fun very few.<br /> <br /> Regarding my software, initially my purpose was to create a eCommerce platform, but now i will switch more to make it useful for people with digital content like eBooks courses etc. For example your case:<br /> <br /> I assume you will make some videos and an ebook for people. You install my platform and there you can set things like theme, fonts etc. After you will put the price for monthly fees. You can allow only the people which payed the monthly fee to some of your videos. Also if you give for free an ebook for their email, you upload your ebook and then each time someone subscribe, they will receive and auto email from the software with the download link. Same thing when they want to buy digital content.<br /> <br /> It&#039;s ready yet but you can see more at:<a href="https://www.proeminentcode.com" target="_blank" class="link link--external" rel="nofollow ugc noopener">https://www.proeminentcode.com</a><br /> <br /> And if possible you can give a feedback on my website. Looking for your reply. </div> <div class="bbCodeBlock-expandLink js-expandLink"><a role="button" tabindex="0">Click to expand...</a></div> </div> </blockquote><br /> Thanks, Panamera Turbo S. Your site does look helpful, and I&#039;m sure people would get a lot of value from your products. <br /> <br /> <blockquote data-attributes="member: 37750" data-quote="ZeroTo100" data-source="post: 524068" class="bbCodeBlock bbCodeBlock--expandable bbCodeBlock--quote js-expandWatch"> <div class="bbCodeBlock-title"> <a href="/community/goto/post?id=524068" class="bbCodeBlock-sourceJump" rel="nofollow" data-xf-click="attribution" data-content-selector="#post-524068">ZeroTo100 said:</a> </div> <div class="bbCodeBlock-content"> <div class="bbCodeBlock-expandContent js-expandContent "> Hey bud,<br /> <br /> I think you&#039;re in a great position. You have your material (skill) to build something to sell, now you just have to build it. Most people don&#039;t have enough value to bring to the table to sell an information product. You do, so use it! Remember, it&#039;s not the product you sell. IF it sells is should be your only concern. Once you build it, get your processes in order and figure out how to market it and convert it into sales. $ is the key, not the product.<br /> <br /> Think about what kind of product (call everything a product even if it&#039;s a service) you can create that will sell. Brainstorm everything. You can do pre-recorded courses so that your time isn&#039;t affected, tie them into some kind of book, even build a blog or forum around it. Do you want to teach music? How about selling books with blueprints for certain songs? If you&#039;re going to do anything that requires teaching via Skype, tie it into your mobile phone so you can do this anywhere at anytime. Sell package deals.<br /> <br /> If you totally want to get away from music, than you&#039;re in the situation I&#039;m in.<br /> <br /> That&#039;s why I just bought the book. I&#039;m hoping to clear my mind up and get moving. </div> <div class="bbCodeBlock-expandLink js-expandLink"><a role="button" tabindex="0">Click to expand...</a></div> </div> </blockquote><br /> Hey <a href="https://www.thefastlaneforum.com/community/members/37750/" class="username" data-xf-init="member-tooltip" data-user-id="37750" data-username="@ZeroTo100">@ZeroTo100</a>, I appreciate that. You&#039;re right, of course the product has to be good, but it&#039;s all about sales. Thanks for your suggestions. <br /> <br /> I have considered getting away from music and moving more into pure marketing. What situation are you in and why are you looking to get out? What is on the horizon for you now?<br /> <br /> <blockquote data-attributes="member: 14194" data-quote="LibertyForMe" data-source="post: 524069" class="bbCodeBlock bbCodeBlock--expandable bbCodeBlock--quote js-expandWatch"> <div class="bbCodeBlock-title"> <a href="/community/goto/post?id=524069" class="bbCodeBlock-sourceJump" rel="nofollow" data-xf-click="attribution" data-content-selector="#post-524069">LibertyForMe said:</a> </div> <div class="bbCodeBlock-content"> <div class="bbCodeBlock-expandContent js-expandContent "> Here are some examples:<br /> <ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Connecting high-end car detailers to fancy restaurants that have valet service.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Connecting wedding photographers, cake bakers, DJs, and suit rental places together to make a cheaper package deal - and give the package to wedding planners or someone similar.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Connect a trade association to a service that the people in that trade need. For example you could connect an electricians guild or something with a company who specializes in insurance for electricians. Negotiate a special rate from the insurance company, and promote it through the trade association as a special benefit for their members.</li> </ul>In all of these things, you take a percentage of the revenue generated and then give some of your percentage to the car detailer, trade association, etc.<br /> <br /> I would call the instrument maker and tell him that I can possibly set him up a new revenue stream that is going to add value to his customers and won&#039;t be any additional work for him, and I&#039;ll do all the work and take all the risk to make sure it is a success. He can&#039;t keep all the revenue because the revenue never goes to him. The end customer would pay the lesson giver, and you&#039;d have a contract with the best lesson giver in each city to get 10-20% of gross revenue generated. Also, if possible try to set it up so that if that customer gets lessons for 3 years, you get 10-20% of revenue on each lesson, in perpetuity basically. Then when that lesson giver makes money, he gives you your percentage, and then you turn around and split it with the instrument maker. If the lesson giver doesn&#039;t pay up, you cut him off and send the business to a new lesson giver.<br /> <br /> This is the business I am currently working on, so take my words with a grain of salt. I just started pretty recently, but I feel this complements my skill set better than anything else I have done before. Right now I&#039;ve successfully set up a great contract with one side of the equation, and am working to get the other side of the deal done. So I&#039;m doing something similar to the trade show example I gave above, but it isn&#039;t a trade show. I&#039;m trying to get into a few BIG companies that have customers all over the place, and then I&#039;m going to link them up with local service providers. Been talking to the president and VP of some of these big companies, and its a slow process dealing with larger entities. <i>But</i>, once I get them on board it&#039;ll have a lot of potential for me.<br /> <br /> I have a FT job unfortunately, so focusing on a bigger deal in my limited time makes sense. Also, funnily enough, the bigger companies have been more receptive to it that the smaller companies. I guess that is why they are bigger! </div> <div class="bbCodeBlock-expandLink js-expandLink"><a role="button" tabindex="0">Click to expand...</a></div> </div> </blockquote><br /> <a href="https://www.thefastlaneforum.com/community/members/14194/" class="username" data-xf-init="member-tooltip" data-user-id="14194" data-username="@LibertyForMe">@LibertyForMe</a> Thanks so much for the examples; my gears are really turning. There are so many options. Very interested in this way of thinking and setting up deals though. Do you have previous experience doing business like this? How did you get into it?</div>
 
<div class="bbWrapper"><blockquote data-attributes="member: 35998" data-quote="Jonathan Boyd" data-source="post: 524528" class="bbCodeBlock bbCodeBlock--expandable bbCodeBlock--quote js-expandWatch"> <div class="bbCodeBlock-title"> <a href="/community/goto/post?id=524528" class="bbCodeBlock-sourceJump" rel="nofollow" data-xf-click="attribution" data-content-selector="#post-524528">Jonathan Boyd said:</a> </div> <div class="bbCodeBlock-content"> <div class="bbCodeBlock-expandContent js-expandContent "> <a href="https://www.thefastlaneforum.com/community/members/14194/" class="link link--internal">@LibertyForMe</a> Thanks so much for the examples; my gears are really turning. There are so many options. Very interested in this way of thinking and setting up deals though. Do you have previous experience doing business like this? How did you get into it? </div> <div class="bbCodeBlock-expandLink js-expandLink"><a role="button" tabindex="0">Click to expand...</a></div> </div> </blockquote><br /> I don&#039;t have previous experience doing this. I&#039;ve tried a lot of things in the past and failed miserably, and I&#039;m not too proud of my track record. But all my previous things have taught me skills that really lend themselves to setting up deals like this. I&#039;m pretty good on the phone doing cold calls, I&#039;m a good in-person communicator, I&#039;m a good strategic thinker, etc. I just decided that I was going to do this.<br /> <br /> Previous things I&#039;ve started have failed because they required more capital than I have available, were brand new ideas that have never been done before and thus required inordinate amounts of customer education, were &quot;me too&quot; products that I shouldn&#039;t have ever even thought about, were good products but were only good for a very small subset of people that were nearly impossible to target, and of course they also failed due to my own lack of effort. It is pretty hard saying all this stuff, because people on the forum know me, and I have absolutely nothing to show, but I read a recent post by <a href="https://www.thefastlaneforum.com/community/members/65/" class="username" data-xf-init="member-tooltip" data-user-id="65" data-username="@snowbank">@snowbank</a> on Learned Helplessness at foreverjobless.com and realized that I was hindering myself due to fear of rejection. So screw it!<br /> <br /> This business makes a lot of sense to me, and I got into it for a few reasons; low capital requirements, an element of passivity once the partnerships are established, people have done this before and have proven the business model (Jay Abraham being the leader), and it really meshes with the way my brain works.<br /> <br /> If you really are interested in this, and you want to REALLY get your brain buzzing, go read this: <a href="http://www.abraham.com/mindshift-challenge/" target="_blank" class="link link--external" rel="noopener">http://www.abraham.com/mindshift-challenge/</a></div>
 
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