The world is changing. it’s going through a transformation. Whether you see it now or not. You will in time. You should look to build your business to thrive in this new environment.
The conventional way is to get thousands of people into your sales funnel. Trade a questionable free offer for their email address. Followed by an aggressive marketing campaign, emails, reminders, count downs, and more and more offers.
The internet guru’s all tell you the same thing. Buy their product and system because that’s what they sell and they want you to believe this is the only way to run a business. Many of us shake our heads and say “Yes, I must have this. That’s what I need for my business to grow and succeed” And then we try their method with varying degrees of success before we look for the next great magic solution.
In my last two newsletters, I touched on this. In August, I wrote the Tale of Barb and Brooke/ two entrepreneurs, and the different ways they approach their business
And in September, I wrote about my own transformation. How One Entrepreneur Took a Different Path.
There’s a better way
But it’s not for everyone. It’s honest, transparent, and ethical. It works by first finding a topic that’s interesting to you, create a product or service that helps a select group of people by providing something of true value. Offer it to a super-specific person who needs, wants, and will benefit from what you have. By getting this right – your idea and your offer, you’ll get people who trust you. become fans, and be interested in what you have.
You’re should be crystal clear about what this product or service will give them, who it will and won’t help, and the pros and cons.
How it’s done?
From here you can build a small (maybe very small), but powerful and profitable business. You’re be attracting the people who fit your target market and are excited about what you have. They are the people who become superfans and will buy almost anything you offer.
You can grow this into a 7-figure business but stay small and flexible. Maybe it’s just you and a partner, an outside contractor, virtual assistant, powerful software, or AI. This ensures it remains resilient and can survive in all situations.
To understand this concept read The 5 Elements Your Small Business Must Have to Thrive in Any Market Condition.
Why do I need a resilient business?
As I said before, a resilient business can withstand many attacks and unexpected events, and can quickly change direction when needed. It helps you, as the aspiring entrepreneur, build a sustainable and consistent business where you achieve control over your life, finances, and freedom, which is at the heart of what we really want.
Dan Sullivan of Strategic Coach calls them the four freedoms of time, money, relationship, and purpose. Read about them on his blog.
In contrast, it’s the large businesses with a lot of overheads, loans, employees, and a complex system that are fragile and can’t adapt to new situations. To learn more about this small concept, read the book Company of One: Why Staying Small is the Next Big Thing for Business, The Million-Dollar, One-person Business and my post. A One-Person Million Dollar Business, Is it Possible?
How to start?
Find a single concept that explains the essence of your offering. And then everything you do is to market that concept to attract traffic, get leads, and conversions.
You start with an idea that you’re passionate about and is in line with your skills, interest, and vision. It should be in alliance with the lifestyle you want and the way you choose to do business. Next, identify a small select audience who is eager for what you have and the very people you want to attract, an underserved niche who will be part of your tribe.
Validate your offer through testing and running ads. The ads will attract people who like what you say and filter out the people who aren’t a good fit. They will self-select by choosing to engage with you. For more ways to validate, Read How to Validate Your Business Idea.
Next it’s time to create the business that’s primed to succeed. It consists of defining mindset, goals, and constraints that get in the way, and overcoming them.
What should I do next?
Let’s look at how you take your ideas and move forward. There are three important determinations to make as part of this process.
One thing we won’t get into here is the practical aspects of starting your business. Such as finding and setting up a name, getting hosting, developing a website, forming your company, etc. There are so many great articles you can find on the internet.
1. Mindset.
Mindset is how you see the world and how you act. The right mindset is critical for your business success.
There are two different mindsets to consider. One is whether you have a finite or infinite mindset. The second is whether you have a fixed or growth mindset. Understanding the difference and which one you choose can be critical for your business success.
I will discuss only the finite versus the infinite mindset here. I will explain the fixed versus growth in another post.
A finite mindset plays only to win and looks for the thrill of competition. In a finite game, there is a winner and loser and the game ends. It believes that you can win at business by beating the competition. It is driven by limiting beliefs.
With an infinite mindset, there is no end in sight, it’s a long term view that focuses on cooperation, continuing to play, improving ourselves and our business. It is a belief in continuing to grow and thrive. There is no winner or loser at business, just getting better and more profitable.
2. Goals
You must define goals. There’s nothing special about that. But your goals must be known so you can put forth a plan to see what needs to be done and what is stopping you.
For instance, your ambition may be to build a resilient and long term asset that improves and grows with challenges, but you need to put specifics behind it.
One goal must be to make money if your business is to survive. You may have other important goals in addition, but making money must be one of them. Whether it’s a growth number, revenue amount, or sales. You need some way to identify targets.
Set your ultimate goal, then set your goal for the year. It has to be specific so you can measure it. Perhaps your goal is to reach 7 figures in annual sales. And a near term goal is to sell $25,000 per month.
Those targets are not reached by short term thinking. You must have a plan.
Next we’ll look at what’s getting in the way of reaching those goals.
3. Obstacles.
Once your goals are clear, you can see what is preventing you from reaching them.
Now ask yourself, why you haven’t reached your goal. Write down everything that needs to happen to make your goal a reality. Then identify every obstacle that is keeping you from doing what needs to be done. Turn the obstacles into targets that will be used to overcome the obstacles. What actions do you need to take to accomplish each target?
Once you do that you will see where you can put your effort to fix what isn’t working.
Here’s an example, You have determined an income goal of $25,000 per month. You’re not there. So you look at where you fall short. As a matter of fact, you only sell about half of what’s necessary to reach that goal. You realize that you need to double the sales of the small course you have or raise the price.
Either or both of those solutions will be the biggest one thing you can do to increase your revenue. What obstacles stand in the way of you selling more? Will the market buy at a higher price? Determine what actions you can take to change what you currently do. How will you sell more? What price can you charge?
Next step
This is a condensed explanation of all the actions to start and run a powerful and enduring venture.
If this resonates with you and you want to know how it works, next month’s post will explain one of these items in more depth, Also, next month we’ll give you an opportunity to learn about our course which teaches all of this.
To get access to the next post, subscribe to The Solo Entrepreneur’s Guide. The valuable content in this monthly publication will help you transition from the job world and create a self-reliant income, live life your way, and achieve wealth and freedom.
Leave a Reply