3 ms·
1) Identify a market that you know something about - not necessarily much, but something - and where a medium-sized number of people spend a fair amount of mone
by thenomad 14y ago
1) Identify a market that you know something about - not necessarily much, but something - and where a medium-sized number of people spend a fair amount of money with minimal resistance, regularly.
2) Talk to those people about their problems. Find out what really scares them, pisses them off, or simply takes too much time.
3) Build something to fix that problem. Keep talking to real people who have the problem you're fixing as you build it.
This is the methodology I've heard quoted by a dozen successful entrepreneurs, from Jason Cohen to Naomi Dunford. It's also extremely close to Tim Ferriss' recommended approach in Four Hour Work Week.
I make money in slightly different ways to this - at present - but as far as I can tell, it works. If you follow all the steps.
(Note: building something for WoW players fails at step #1. The market simply doesn't support spending a lot of money regularly.)
- clarky07 14y agoDoesn't elementary school teacher fail at #1 too?
- chc 14y agoYou might think so if you know schoolteachers only by reputation, but actually, they spend a ton on teaching materials. They will go to Barnes & Noble, scour the educational section and plunk down $200 without blinking.
- clarky07 14y agoWell, my wife is an elementary school teacher, and I promise she doesn't spend 200 at BN without blinking. She does spend some money, but not tons.
- kamaal 14y agoMost people in every profession fail at #1.
- thenomad 14y agoHence why you need to find the ones that don't :) Although once you start evaluating, you'll rapidly find there are plenty of markets that fit the bill. Golf. Soccer fans. Airplane enthusiasts (RC, amateur pilot and planespotter alike). PC building enthusiasts. Almost any business. Martial artists. Re-enactors and RenFaire enthusiasts. Almost all the alternative medicine areas. And that's just off the top of my head without mentioning any of the markets I'm actually considering entering one of these days.