00:00:00Okay, so let's assume you wanna make enough money
00:00:01to be financially free,
00:00:03but you don't just want financial freedom,
00:00:04also want time freedom, i.e. you can have the flexibility
00:00:06to spend your time however you want,
00:00:08and you also want creative freedom
00:00:09to do work that energizes you
00:00:10and that feels kind of fulfilling.
00:00:11I am a big advocate for one particular method
00:00:15of getting those things,
00:00:15and that is to start your own business.
00:00:17And so I've been talking about this sort of thing
00:00:19for the last year or so,
00:00:20and the single biggest question I get
00:00:22from people in the audience is,
00:00:23"How the hell do I come up with a business idea?"
00:00:26And that is what we are gonna be focusing on in this video.
00:00:29This video is gonna be all about what you can do,
00:00:31the practical steps you can take
00:00:32to try and come up with a profitable business idea.
00:00:35And to the end, we have also created
00:00:36a nice little workbook for you
00:00:38that goes through all of this stuff.
00:00:39It is completely free.
00:00:41There is a link down below.
00:00:42If you download it, you can print it off
00:00:44and this will help you come up
00:00:45with a profitable business idea.
00:00:47It's linked down below if you want it.
00:00:49Okay, so how does this process actually work?
00:00:51Well, as you might know,
00:00:52all money is basically an exchange of value.
00:00:53Unless you are the Fed or unless you are the bank,
00:00:56you're not allowed to print money.
00:00:57Unless you wanna go to prison,
00:00:58you're not allowed to steal money.
00:00:59Therefore, the only way for you to make money
00:01:00is for someone else to give it to you.
00:01:03Therefore, we need a person.
00:01:05We need a person who's gonna give us the money.
00:01:08Now then the question we need to ask ourselves
00:01:09is why would a random person choose to give you money?
00:01:12Well, the reason a random person would give you money
00:01:14is because they have a problem that you are able to solve.
00:01:19So we have person and we have a problem.
00:01:21So there is a person who's willing to give you money
00:01:23in exchange for a problem being solved.
00:01:25But in general, you don't just wave a magic wand
00:01:27and solve their problem.
00:01:28That is where the third element comes in,
00:01:30product or service that helps solve the problem.
00:01:33So that gives us what I think of as the holy trinity
00:01:36as it relates to business ideas.
00:01:37We need to figure out who is the person
00:01:39who's gonna give us money.
00:01:40What is the problem that they have
00:01:42that they deem sufficiently valuable
00:01:44that they can give us money to solve.
00:01:45And what is the product or service that we can create
00:01:47that helps that person have that problem solved
00:01:50in exchange for their money.
00:01:51And the way I like to think of this is that
00:01:52it's almost like you can think of these as Lego blocks.
00:01:54You can think of them as like a deck of cards.
00:01:56It's like, you know, imagine you've got like, I don't know,
00:01:58like cards here for different people,
00:02:00different products and different problems.
00:02:02Like in order to get a profitable business idea,
00:02:05you just need one,
00:02:07you need to choose something from your person stack.
00:02:09You need to choose something from your product stack
00:02:11and you need to choose something from your problem stack.
00:02:13And then you have a business idea.
00:02:15If the person has enough money
00:02:17and or the problem is sufficiently valuable
00:02:19for them to spend money on it.
00:02:20And they deemed the product
00:02:20to be a reasonable exchange of value.
00:02:22I either care about having the product
00:02:24and therefore solving the problem
00:02:25more than they wanna hang on to their money.
00:02:27You then have a profitable business idea.
00:02:28Like it's not complicated.
00:02:30It's a fairly simple process to get these things.
00:02:32But back when I was a nuke to entrepreneurship,
00:02:33I just didn't appreciate any of this stuff.
00:02:36Okay, so how do we figure out person, product and problem?
00:02:38Well, there are three phases to this process.
00:02:40The way I think of it is sort of using this kind of diagram.
00:02:44Wee!
00:02:45Phase one is diverge.
00:02:48Phase two is converge.
00:02:51Phase three is e-merge.
00:02:53This is sort of the general process of creativity.
00:02:55You start out by like thinking broad, divergently,
00:02:58coming up with loads and loads and loads
00:03:00of different potential ideas.
00:03:01You then by a process of elimination,
00:03:03converge on the thing that you think you wanna do,
00:03:05run as an experiment.
00:03:06And in the process of doing that kind of discovery,
00:03:09the right kind of niche or business idea for you emerges.
00:03:12And that is how you get to all of the money
00:03:15that you wanna make and the financial freedom,
00:03:16time freedom and the creative freedom that you want.
00:03:18So if you download the worksheet,
00:03:19this is the process that we're gonna take you through.
00:03:20And I'm gonna sort of talk you through
00:03:22some of the bits of this process
00:03:23so that you can see exactly how it works.
00:03:25But if you wanna do it yourself,
00:03:26you should check out the worksheet.
00:03:27Now, given that we know we want these things,
00:03:28person, product and problem,
00:03:29a mistake that a lot of beginners to entrepreneurship make
00:03:31is that they start here.
00:03:33They start with the product.
00:03:34They think, "I wanna build an app,"
00:03:36or, "I wanna design a hoodie,"
00:03:37or, "I wanna build a tote bag,"
00:03:38or, "I wanna design a," like whatever.
00:03:40They're starting with the product in mind
00:03:43and it's an okay place to start.
00:03:45But from having coached a lot of people through the process,
00:03:48generally you get quite a lot more value
00:03:50by thinking person and problem first
00:03:51before you worry about the product.
00:03:53Now, this combination and person of person and product
00:03:56is often called a niche.
00:03:58It's sort of like you have a group of people.
00:04:01So person, plural, they have problems.
00:04:03And this intersection of like a specific type of person
00:04:07who has a specific type of problem
00:04:09is then defined as your niche.
00:04:10And so within our Lifestyle Business Academy,
00:04:12when we take beginners through the process,
00:04:13the first thing we do
00:04:15is that we try not to worry too much about the product
00:04:17and we instead try and figure out like,
00:04:18what could the niche be?
00:04:20Now, as we talked about,
00:04:21we're gonna start thinking divergently.
00:04:22So there's a few different ways we can try and get at
00:04:25who is the person and what is the problem.
00:04:27The first one is that before doing any of that,
00:04:28you should just write down any initial niche ideas you have.
00:04:31That is the very first thing.
00:04:32If you imagine what sort of problems could I solve
00:04:35for what sorts of people
00:04:36and you just take whatever comes to mind,
00:04:38you just go on the worksheet and you're like,
00:04:40I could potentially help this sort of person
00:04:42potentially solve that kind of problem.
00:04:44Okay, so method number one of figuring this out
00:04:47is to start with our, what I call craft skills.
00:04:52What do I mean by craft skills?
00:04:53I mean, basically any skills or expertise
00:04:56that you already have as a result of your personal
00:04:58or professional or life experience.
00:05:00So you might wanna ask yourself,
00:05:01what are the sorts of things that you're good at?
00:05:03What are the sorts of things
00:05:03that people come to you for help with?
00:05:05What are the sorts of things
00:05:06that your employer is already paying you to do?
00:05:08What are some skills you've developed
00:05:09as a result of solving certain problems in your own life?
00:05:12All of this basically gives you a list of skills.
00:05:14For example, when I first launched
00:05:15my medical school admissions business like 13 years ago,
00:05:17I did a similar sort of exercise where I was like,
00:05:19okay, what am I good at?
00:05:21Well, I know how to make websites
00:05:22'cause I'd spent like ages
00:05:24trying to teach myself website design when I was a kid
00:05:26'cause I was weird.
00:05:27I mean, really cool.
00:05:28I was like, I think I'm pretty good at teaching
00:05:30because I had been working as like a private tutor for kids
00:05:33for a few years at that point.
00:05:34And I sort of backed myself as it relates to teaching.
00:05:36I was pretty good at close up magic.
00:05:39I was like, can I start a business
00:05:40based around close up magic?
00:05:41I tried getting some gigs at a restaurant that totally flopped.
00:05:44I also did pretty well in the med school admissions exams
00:05:46back when I was applying to med school.
00:05:48I kind of vaguely know coding like super basic.
00:05:52And so for me, these were just like random skills
00:05:53that I developed when I'm aged like 13 to 18
00:05:56of just like exploring random crap.
00:05:58If I think of examples of students
00:05:59in our lifestyle business academy,
00:06:00which is our like online business school mentorship program
00:06:02that helps begin to start businesses.
00:06:04We have quite a lot that have experience
00:06:06in like people management because they've worked in corporate
00:06:09and so they've been managers.
00:06:10A lot of them have the skill of what I'm gonna call biz ops
00:06:13or business operations and things like that.
00:06:15A bunch have the skill of automations
00:06:18'cause they've built like Zapier and Make
00:06:20and recently NA10 automations at work or inside projects.
00:06:23AI is a big skillset that some people have these days.
00:06:26If you have ever been interested in being a creator
00:06:28or something, maybe you have the skill of video editing.
00:06:30I didn't when I started out, but now I would say
00:06:32I have the skill of video editing if I need it.
00:06:34Something like being confident at speaking on camera,
00:06:36camera confidence, something like public speaking
00:06:39could totally be a craft skill.
00:06:40Quite a lot of this stuff is very vague,
00:06:41but again, we're just thinking divergently.
00:06:42We're just trying to come up with as many different cards
00:06:45as we possibly can because this is part
00:06:47of the diversion thinking process.
00:06:48If you're enjoying this video,
00:06:49then you might like to check out Skillshare
00:06:50who are very kindly the paid partners of this video.
00:06:53If you haven't heard by now,
00:06:54Skillshare is an online platform with thousands
00:06:56and thousands of creative classes taught by real people.
00:06:59And if you want somewhere to start,
00:07:00I actually have a bunch of classes
00:07:01that I've published on Skillshare myself.
00:07:03They cover things like building better productivity systems
00:07:05and making videos.
00:07:06So if you wanna make real progress with your goals,
00:07:08you wanna be more productive,
00:07:09or you've been thinking of maybe starting a YouTube channel,
00:07:10those would be good places to begin.
00:07:12What I love about Skillshare
00:07:13is that every class has a project.
00:07:14So you're not just passively consuming stuff.
00:07:16You're actually making stuff.
00:07:17You're getting feedback from other members
00:07:19and you are genuinely learning by doing.
00:07:21I've been teaching on Skillshare since like 2019.
00:07:23I also like taught myself to edit videos
00:07:25by literally watching Skillshare classes
00:07:26about how to edit videos.
00:07:27And then I made my own Skillshare class
00:07:28about how to edit videos.
00:07:30So there is a lot you can learn on Skillshare
00:07:31from productivity, video editing, like art, illustration,
00:07:35cooking, copywriting, graphic design.
00:07:36There's like almost any skill imaginable.
00:07:38There's probably a Skillshare class on it.
00:07:40So if you would like to give it a go,
00:07:41the first 500 people to use my link in the video description
00:07:44or to scan the QR code on screen.
00:07:45If you're one of the first 500,
00:07:47then you'll get a one month completely free trial
00:07:49of Skillshare where you can check it out.
00:07:50You can browse and watch the classes to your heart's content
00:07:52and you can see if you vibe with it.
00:07:53So thank you so much Skillshare for sponsoring this video
00:07:55and let's get back to it.
00:07:56So we now have a list of our craft skills.
00:07:58The next thing we wanna do is we wanna create
00:08:01a list of things that we are passionate about.
00:08:05But can we add anything to the list if we think of passions?
00:08:08I mean, for me, it would have been like World of Warcraft,
00:08:10which was one of my passions back in the day.
00:08:12It would have been like watching trashy TV shows.
00:08:16Can't really build a business off of that,
00:08:18but like, you know what?
00:08:19Screw it, we're just gonna, we're thinking divergently.
00:08:20We're gonna put it down.
00:08:21I was passionate about singing, but really sucked at it.
00:08:24♪ La la la la la ♪
00:08:26Oh my God.
00:08:27So it wasn't really a skill, it was more like a passion.
00:08:29These days I would say one of my passions is Harry Potter.
00:08:32Actually, Harry Potter in general
00:08:33would have been a passion back then.
00:08:35But recently actually Harry Potter fan fiction
00:08:36is a passion of mine.
00:08:37And so you know what?
00:08:38I'm just gonna stick that over there.
00:08:39You get the idea, we're sort of divergently thinking
00:08:41and listing all the things that we are passionate about.
00:08:43And if, for example, you find that you feel like
00:08:45you don't have enough of these skills,
00:08:46you can do a third thing, which is skills I'd like to learn.
00:08:51You do not have to start a business
00:08:54based on skills you have.
00:08:55You can actually start a business based around skills
00:08:57you would like to learn.
00:08:58So maybe AI is on your list of skills you'd like to learn.
00:09:00Maybe UX design.
00:09:01Now I think, you know what?
00:09:02I really wanna learn the skill of therapy, shall we say.
00:09:07Forget about the credentials and all that kind of stuff.
00:09:08I just wanna learn the skill of therapy
00:09:09because I like the idea of being able to offer therapeutic
00:09:11support to people.
00:09:12And you know what?
00:09:13I really wanna get better at guitar.
00:09:15Why not?
00:09:16Let's take that on the list.
00:09:17Great.
00:09:18We now have a list of skills.
00:09:19And by the way, this diverge-converge-emerge process
00:09:21is sort of what inspired this little pen
00:09:24that I have designed in collaboration
00:09:25with my favorite stationery brand, Baron Fick.
00:09:27If you're into fancy stationery like I am,
00:09:29you might like to check it out.
00:09:30I'll put a link down below.
00:09:31It's a really cool pen.
00:09:31I've been using it for months now,
00:09:32ever since I got the first prototype.
00:09:34The story behind this is that I was at a writer's retreat
00:09:36where James Clear, the author of "Atomic Habits"
00:09:38happened to be there.
00:09:38We were hanging out and he gifted me a copy of his own pen.
00:09:41And I really liked that pen.
00:09:42I thought that pen was absolutely sick.
00:09:44And it became my favorite pen for a very long time
00:09:45until I lost it.
00:09:46And that pen was designed by Baron Fick.
00:09:47I was like, "Oh, Baron Fick, I've heard of them."
00:09:49Like, 'cause I'd seen the notebooks around.
00:09:50And because I loved that pen so much,
00:09:52I ordered a bunch of stuff from them
00:09:53and fell in love with the stationery brand.
00:09:54And then I got an intro to the founder, Joey,
00:09:56and reached out to him.
00:09:57And I was like, "Hey man, I love the James Clear pen,
00:09:59"but like, I really wish it was in white.
00:10:00"Can we design like a more light mode version
00:10:02"of like the James Clear pen?"
00:10:03And he was like, "Oh, funny you mentioned that.
00:10:33Again, we are thinking divergently.
00:10:35So the goal here is quantity rather than quality.
00:10:37My passion for "World of Warcraft."
00:10:39To what extent could that potentially solve
00:10:42a problem that someone has?
00:10:43Well, it's a passion rather than a skill.
00:10:45If I was really, really good at playing "World of Warcraft,"
00:10:48maybe I could help aspiring
00:10:51professional "World of Warcraft" players solve the problem
00:10:54of like getting better at "World of Warcraft."
00:10:56But like, I'm nowhere near good enough for that.
00:10:57So like, okay, what else?
00:10:59I'm passionate about "World of Warcraft."
00:11:01What problems does that help me solve?
00:11:04Not very many.
00:11:05And I'm not gonna throw it away.
00:11:06It's still useful to have in our list,
00:11:07but it doesn't immediately lend itself
00:11:09to a problem that I can solve
00:11:11for someone who would genuinely have that problem.
00:11:12What about website design?
00:11:13Like, okay, well, website design is one of those skills
00:11:16that obviously solves the problem
00:11:17if someone needs a website.
00:11:18So you're like, "All right, cool.
00:11:19"Well, there are lots of people in the world
00:11:20"that have the problem of they need a website
00:11:22"and you know, if I were to design websites for them,
00:11:24"then maybe that could be a thing."
00:11:25So for the problem of I need a website,
00:11:27what I'm then trying to do is think about
00:11:29who are the people that I know
00:11:32who have the problem of needing a website
00:11:34that I could potentially solve?
00:11:35We generally don't wanna think of people in the abstract.
00:11:38It is generally easier to start a business
00:11:40where you know the name of your first client
00:11:42or your first customer.
00:11:43So actually, the first money I ever made doing my own thing
00:11:45was actually website design.
00:11:47And I went to all my friends
00:11:48back when I was aged 13 years old,
00:11:49went to all my friends in school.
00:11:50And I said, "Hey, does anyone's parents need a website?"
00:11:53And one of my friends, Luke, hooked me up with his stepdad
00:11:55who needed a website.
00:11:56And so I designed a website for that person.
00:11:58He paid me like 30 quid to design that website.
00:12:00And then I was able to make money at the age of 13
00:12:02by solving a problem for someone who had it.
00:12:04But there are loads of people that I would know
00:12:05beyond my friend Luke's dad who, for example,
00:12:07need a website.
00:12:08One thing you might wanna consider
00:12:09is who do you know who owns a business
00:12:12or who is high up in a business?
00:12:13Because like, for example,
00:12:14businesses have loads and loads and loads of problems.
00:12:16And generally it is easier to sell stuff
00:12:18to people who own businesses
00:12:19because they can generally justify
00:12:21the return on investment for the thing.
00:12:22If, for example, you've got a friend who owns a business
00:12:24and they'd be totally down with you buying them lunch
00:12:26and just asking them about their problems,
00:12:28that is where you get amazing, amazing insights
00:12:31as it relates to business ideas.
00:12:32If you're thinking that you don't know any business owners,
00:12:34you probably do.
00:12:35You're probably just like one degree
00:12:36of separation from them.
00:12:37Do you have a friend who knows someone
00:12:39who like runs the local kebab shop
00:12:40or who is a freelance designer?
00:12:43A business does not have to be a big thing.
00:12:44There are loads of people out there
00:12:45who are like self-employed.
00:12:46You probably know someone who's self-employed.
00:12:48Or if not, you probably know someone
00:12:49who knows someone who's self-employed.
00:12:50Like, could you find a way to talk
00:12:52to a bunch of different people
00:12:54and ask them about their problems
00:12:55so that you could generate niche ideas
00:12:57if nothing compelling is emerging
00:12:58from this sort of divergent process
00:13:00that we're going through.
00:13:01So again, in the context of web design,
00:13:02I'd be listing out all the people that I know,
00:13:03like actual names of people.
00:13:04I'm like, okay, you know,
00:13:05my friend Johnny runs his own like accounting practice.
00:13:08Look to his website and his website kind of sucks.
00:13:10So maybe he has the problem of like needing website design.
00:13:12You know, that sort of thing.
00:13:14This is just my hypothesis.
00:13:15I'm just like spitballing here.
00:13:16We're just thinking divergently
00:13:17about what potential business idea it could be.
00:13:19Maybe I'm like, oh, my friend Ravi
00:13:22is actually a private practice plastic surgeon.
00:13:25And then I'm like, hmm, I wonder if Ravi has a website.
00:13:27And then I'm Googling him looking at his LinkedIn profile
00:13:29and being like, yeah, he's got a website,
00:13:31but it's just like a GoDaddy sort of landing page.
00:13:34So he doesn't really have a website.
00:13:35You get the idea.
00:13:36You start doing this for people you know.
00:13:37If you have been creating content for any length of time
00:13:40and you have a bit of an audience on social media,
00:13:42your person could be, and this would be vague,
00:13:45but it could be something like people in my audience.
00:13:46Of course, we'd wanna get a little bit more specific
00:13:48about what sort of people
00:13:49and all that kind of stuff further down the line.
00:13:50But hey, we're just spitballing here.
00:13:51We're just thinking divergently.
00:13:52We don't need to overthink it.
00:13:53For example, one of our Lifestyle Business Academy students,
00:13:55her name is Ricardo.
00:13:56He has a YouTube channel where he does like medical content
00:13:59for people who speak Italian.
00:14:00And so people in his audience are generally people in Italy.
00:14:03And so then he might be asking themselves,
00:14:04what problems do they have?
00:14:06And one big problem that he identifies
00:14:07was that they want to lose weight.
00:14:09And he, as a doctor, is able to prescribe them like Ozempic
00:14:13or give them weight loss advice or whatever.
00:14:14You get the idea.
00:14:15Again, we are thinking divergently.
00:14:16No idea is a bad idea.
00:14:18And there's a nice phrase from a chap called James Altucher,
00:14:20which I really liked.
00:14:21He brought it many years ago,
00:14:22which is if you can't think of 10 business ideas, great.
00:14:24Think of 20 instead.
00:14:25The goal here is quantity, not quality.
00:14:27And we really do not want to be quagmired
00:14:29in overthinking right now.
00:14:30And I'm deliberately being like vague and messy about this.
00:14:33If I'm taking someone through the process one-on-one
00:14:35or through a Zoom call, we literally, if it's real life,
00:14:37we get our post-it notes.
00:14:38If it's on a Zoom call, we get out a Figma board
00:14:40and put post-it notes on the thing.
00:14:41And we just do this as a messy, divergent, creative process
00:14:44that helps us generate a bunch of ideas.
00:14:47We do not want to be judging any of the ideas at this stage.
00:14:50Now we are moving to the converging phase.
00:14:53Once we've generated loads and loads and loads
00:14:54of different potential business ideas,
00:14:56we're gonna try and converge onto the ones
00:14:58that make the most sense to experiment with initially.
00:15:00There's lots of different ways of doing this.
00:15:01Alex Formosy has a framework,
00:15:03but the framework I like most of all
00:15:04is from a guy called Taki Moore, who's one of my mentors.
00:15:06And it's based on this idea of person, problem, promise.
00:15:08And then you are asking yourself three questions
00:15:10for each of these different potential niche ideas.
00:15:12So let's say I was like,
00:15:13person is, I don't know, "World of Warcraft" players.
00:15:16The problem that they have is that they're not very good
00:15:19at playing "World of Warcraft".
00:15:21And the promise is, I don't know,
00:15:23maybe I help them improve your enjoyment of the game.
00:15:27So let's say that is niche number one.
00:15:29Let's say if I think of my first business
00:15:30that actually worked, it was sort of
00:15:32med medical school applicants in the UK.
00:15:34UK med applicants, that was my person.
00:15:36The problem was that they were bad
00:15:38at the BMAT medical school entrance exam.
00:15:42And the promise was ace the BMAT medical school entrance exam
00:15:46with the implication that that will increase your chances
00:15:48of getting into med school.
00:15:50Therefore enter a med school.
00:15:52And let's use another example
00:15:54of one of our Lifestyle Business Academy students.
00:15:55Their person is UK accounting firms.
00:15:59They're selling to businesses.
00:16:00The problem is that client onboarding takes too long.
00:16:04And their promise is automated client onboarding
00:16:07to save time or something like that.
00:16:09Now, in reality, your list would be like 15
00:16:11to 20 different things long.
00:16:13Ideally, if you're following along with the process
00:16:14and following along with the worksheet.
00:16:16And then we are asking ourselves three questions.
00:16:18Number one, do I like the idea
00:16:21of working with this group of people?
00:16:22And you rate that red, yellow, green.
00:16:24Question number two, can I actually help
00:16:27these sorts of people with that sort of problem?
00:16:29And you rate that red, yellow or green.
00:16:31And then the final question is,
00:16:32will this sort of person be delighted to pay
00:16:35to have this kind of problem solved?
00:16:37Which sort of gets up, do they have the money to pay?
00:16:40And is the problem enough of a problem in their life
00:16:42that they will be delighted to pay for it?
00:16:44And you rate that red, yellow and green.
00:16:45So you've got your three questions.
00:16:46Do I like them?
00:16:47Can I help them and will they pay?
00:16:49If you've seen previous videos of mine here on the channel
00:16:51talking about business advice,
00:16:52my recommendation is that you start a business
00:16:55in the high ticket space.
00:16:56High ticket meaning you're charging at least $2,000
00:16:59if you can.
00:16:59Obviously adjust depending on your currency and stuff.
00:17:01But if I was starting a business from scratch today,
00:17:03I would try my best to sell something for at least $2,000.
00:17:06And so my question would be,
00:17:07does this sort of person have that kind of money?
00:17:09And secondly, is the problem sufficiently painful for them
00:17:11that they would be willing to pay at least 2000 US dollars?
00:17:14So would World of Warcraft players
00:17:16who are not very good at World of Warcraft
00:17:18pay $2,000 to improve their enjoyment of the game?
00:17:20Absolutely not.
00:17:21It's not a painful enough problem for this sort of person.
00:17:23Would medical school UK applicants
00:17:25who are bad at the BMAT exam pay $2,000 to ace the BMAT?
00:17:29Well, that would be a yellow.
00:17:31I'm unsure.
00:17:32It wouldn't be the students themselves who are paying.
00:17:34It would be the parents.
00:17:34If they're rich parents from like China or something
00:17:37like international medical school applicants
00:17:38and they're paying 50,000 a year
00:17:40in terms of like university fees
00:17:42and paying two grand for them to ace the BMAT
00:17:44to increase their chances of getting into med school,
00:17:45doesn't seem like too much of a stretch.
00:17:47But if I'm targeting homegrown students in the UK,
00:17:49which is kind of what I was doing
00:17:50rather than international students
00:17:51and I look at my competitors
00:17:52and see what prices they're charging,
00:17:54it was a lot lower than two grand
00:17:55and therefore I'm like, eh,
00:17:56maybe they wouldn't have the means
00:17:58to pay for that specific thing.
00:17:59Let's say my person is UK accounting firms
00:18:01and client onboarding takes too long
00:18:02and therefore my promise is automated client onboarding
00:18:04to save you a bunch of time.
00:18:05Do I like them?
00:18:06Well, you know, I've got a couple of friends
00:18:07who own accounting firms and I love talking to accountants.
00:18:09You know, they're kind of boring,
00:18:10but they're very humble and very nice.
00:18:11So like, you know, yes, that's a green for I like them.
00:18:14Can I help them?
00:18:15Well, I mean, I've never actually worked
00:18:16with accountants before, but like, you know,
00:18:17I'm pretty good at like automations.
00:18:18I've used Zapier, I've used Make, I've used NA10 before.
00:18:21I kind of get the theory around how to automate stuff.
00:18:23So yeah, you know, I back myself
00:18:24at potentially being able to help them
00:18:26and will they be happy to pay at least $2,000?
00:18:28Well, yeah, probably.
00:18:29If the accounting firm is doing, I don't know,
00:18:30six figures in revenue, maybe even seven figures in revenue,
00:18:33then paying like $2,000 to save a shit ton of time
00:18:36would probably be something that is worth it to them.
00:18:38So that kind of idea would then get green lights
00:18:40across the board if I was in that specific situation.
00:18:42Now, when we take students through this exercise,
00:18:44they always really worry about the will they pay column.
00:18:46They're always like, oh, I'm really not sure if they'll pay.
00:18:48I don't know, it seems like a lot of money,
00:18:49et cetera, et cetera.
00:18:50What I normally say is when you're doing your first pass
00:18:52through the exercise, just like go with your gut.
00:18:55This is still a very rough process.
00:18:56Just go red, yellow, green, depending on how you feel,
00:18:58depending on what your intuition says.
00:19:00And then of course, we can always do a little bit
00:19:02of market research to see are there competitors
00:19:04offering similar price points?
00:19:05Because if competitors exist in a market
00:19:08that is generally a good sign rather than a bad sign,
00:19:10it means that there is at least a market there.
00:19:12If the competitors are charging $5,000,
00:19:14then you know that there are probably
00:19:15at least some people out there
00:19:16who are willing to pay at least 2,000.
00:19:18But if all of the competitors you can find are charging $20,
00:19:21you probably have a good sense that like, okay,
00:19:23maybe 2,000 might be a bit tricky of an ask
00:19:26for this specific person and this specific problem.
00:19:28The other thing here that adds a lot of nuance
00:19:29is that there are premium products and premium services
00:19:32in any category you can think of.
00:19:34For example, how much does a backpack cost?
00:19:36Well, most people wouldn't pay more than like $50
00:19:38for a backpack, but if that backpack had Louis Vuitton
00:19:41written all over it, or like had Hermes written on it,
00:19:43suddenly people are willing to pay thousands,
00:19:45if not tens of thousands of dollars
00:19:47for basically what is the same thing.
00:19:49And in fact, in every market,
00:19:51you get this sort of like distribution of stuff.
00:19:54You get the 1% who are the luxury buyers.
00:19:58You get roughly 9% who are premium buyers.
00:20:02And then you get roughly 90% who are the mass market.
00:20:07And generally we do not want to be starting a business
00:20:10that caters to the mass market.
00:20:12This is playing business on hard mode,
00:20:14because generally this requires quite a lot of volume.
00:20:16And generally the mass market shops in terms of price.
00:20:18And so you end up just competing on price.
00:20:21It's very hard to compete on price,
00:20:22especially against competitors who've been in the game
00:20:24for longer than you.
00:20:24If you are just starting out,
00:20:25it's also quite difficult to target the luxury market
00:20:28because the luxury market doesn't buy based on features,
00:20:31they buy based on status, for example.
00:20:33So unless you have an in there where you can create like a,
00:20:35I don't know, concierge experience for the luxury market
00:20:37or whatever, or like help make the case
00:20:40that your product or service
00:20:41will increase the status somehow.
00:20:42It's also generally not sensible to target the luxury market
00:20:44if you're a beginner.
00:20:45But man, targeting the premium market,
00:20:48the market of people who are willing and happy to pay
00:20:50for high quality stuff,
00:20:51that would be a very good thing to do.
00:20:53So a mistake you don't want to make early on
00:20:55is you don't want to just assume
00:20:56that they won't have the money.
00:20:57You want to think, okay, person, problem, promise.
00:20:59Even my example earlier of helping kids get into med school.
00:21:01Back when I was doing this business back in 2012 to 2019,
00:21:04I was charging between 50 pounds and like 110 pounds
00:21:08for like a classroom course that was teaching people
00:21:10in a whole day how to do well on the medical school exams
00:21:13or medical school interviews.
00:21:14But a few months ago, I was in London
00:21:15and I hosted an event for entrepreneurs
00:21:17and there were three different entrepreneurs
00:21:19who came to that event.
00:21:20All of whom had businesses helping kids get into med school.
00:21:23And they were charging five to $15,000
00:21:27to help kids get into med school.
00:21:28I was charging 50 to $100 to help kids get into med school.
00:21:32What was the difference between what they were doing
00:21:35and what I was doing?
00:21:35Well, partly it was the product.
00:21:37They were doing more of a one-on-one mentoring service
00:21:39rather than a group course, so sure.
00:21:41But if I were to offer one-on-one mentorship
00:21:43to someone getting into med school,
00:21:44I'd be thinking that's like 200 pounds, 300 pounds,
00:21:46maybe like 30 pounds an hour for like 10 hours for 300.
00:21:49But they were charging five to 15,000.
00:21:51The difference was is that I would have thought
00:21:53to target people in the UK who I knew,
00:21:55friends of people I knew, parents of people who I knew.
00:21:57But they were targeting people from mainland China.
00:21:59Parents in mainland China whose kids
00:22:01were already going to expensive private schools
00:22:04in the UK or in the US, ideally boarding schools,
00:22:06and who really wanted their kids to get into,
00:22:08for example, a UK medical school.
00:22:09Now, these parents had loads and loads of money
00:22:11because they're like China rich.
00:22:12And therefore, for them, five to 15 grand
00:22:14was like literally nothing.
00:22:15And therefore, these guys were able to have
00:22:16like multimillion dollar businesses
00:22:18as effectively junior doctors in the UK
00:22:20because they were targeting rich people,
00:22:22even though they were basically helping them
00:22:23solve exactly the same problem.
00:22:24So the thing to keep in mind here
00:22:25is that don't let yourself get put off
00:22:28by a particular business idea
00:22:29because you think it's like not expensive enough or whatever.
00:22:32It's like trying to remember that in every market,
00:22:33there are people willing to spend lots of money on the thing,
00:22:35provided the problem is sufficiently painful.
00:22:38Okay, once we've generated our shortlist
00:22:42of potential niches, at this point,
00:22:43you might end up with a couple of different options
00:22:46that you're like feeling relatively okay about.
00:22:48Fingers crossed.
00:22:49Here are some journaling prompts that we have in our workbook
00:22:51that students in our Lifestyle Business Academy
00:22:53get a lot of value out of.
00:22:54Firstly, we have the two year test.
00:22:55Imagine you're gonna be working in one of these niches
00:22:57for the next two to three years.
00:22:58Which one feels most exciting?
00:23:00Which one makes you think,
00:23:01yeah, I could see myself doing that.
00:23:02Prop number two, the no fail scenario.
00:23:04If you knew you couldn't fail,
00:23:06if success was totally guaranteed,
00:23:08which niche would you choose?
00:23:09This removes the fear and reveals what you actually want.
00:23:11Journaling prompt number three,
00:23:12which niche feels the most you?
00:23:14Which one aligns with your values, your story,
00:23:16and the kind of person you wanna become?
00:23:17Which one would you be proud
00:23:18to tell your friends and family about?
00:23:20That is an interesting question.
00:23:21Often results in a niche that's less profitable,
00:23:23but it's always interesting to see
00:23:25like whether our heart aligns with where the profit is.
00:23:27The fear check, which niche scares you
00:23:29a little bit in a good way?
00:23:30Sometimes the thing that makes us slightly nervous
00:23:31is the thing we care about most, what's pulling at you?
00:23:34And then we've got a couple more questions over here,
00:23:35but it's all in the workbook if you are interested.
00:23:37And so the idea is you can print it all out.
00:23:38You can write it by hand if you want.
00:23:40You can like fill out the PDF by computer if you want,
00:23:42whatever, and then based on your answers above,
00:23:44which three niches seem to be rising to the top?
00:23:47So we've gone through a divergent process
00:23:48to try and generate like a few dozen different niche ideas.
00:23:52And then we've gone through a converging process
00:23:54to rate them on do I like them,
00:23:55can I help them, will they pay?
00:23:56And then following these sort of journaling prompts
00:23:58to figure out, okay, what's the business idea
00:24:00or the niche that I might potentially wanna pursue?
00:24:03At this point, we generally recommend students fill out
00:24:06like just based on gut feeling, what's your gold niche,
00:24:08your silver niche, and your bronze niche?
00:24:10Like who's the person, what's the problem?
00:24:11Why are you excited about it?
00:24:13Why do you think they'll hopefully be willing
00:24:14to pay lots of money to have that particular problem solved?
00:24:17Any concerns that you have and any additional notes?
00:24:19Now, if you are part of a mentorship program
00:24:20like our Lifestyle Business Academy,
00:24:22then we ask our students to send us this sort of document
00:24:24and we give them feedback on it
00:24:25and we kind of go back and forth with them.
00:24:27Alternatively, you could do that with like
00:24:28Claude or Chad GPT,
00:24:29but hopefully this process gives you a bit of a sense
00:24:31of like how to take a bunch of different things
00:24:33and narrow them down to a potential business idea.
00:24:36And if you're interested in how this process fits
00:24:38into the wider roadmap that helps you go from zero
00:24:40to building a multi six-figure lifestyle business,
00:24:42check out that video over here
00:24:43that explains the roadmap in depth.
00:24:45Thank you so much for watching.
00:24:46I hope you got value from this.
00:24:47Check out the workbook down below and I will see you later.