CAOS
C - Concept A - Audience O - Offer S - Sales
P.S: do you want a lifestyle and performance business?
lifestyle: small 1-8 person team: that enables you to have that freedom and lifestyle you are looking for. no debt: no investors
performance: you want to build to scale, you want to grow past 8 people and get that 100M business valuation.
want debt: want investors, etc.
Concept
once people ask you: “omg you quit Caltrans? what are you doing now? what’s going on?
you need to have a good answer for them. best way to figure that out is:
OMV
Origin, Mission, Vision
Origin: you need to tie your concept to who you are and something really intrinsic to your past.
what was the one moment when you were 10-12, that helped you see that you are truly different from your parents?
- did you feel empowered?
- was it a bad moment were you learned something about yourself.
“when I learned to ride my bike”:
- physical activity
- the feeling of independence
- of efficacy
so it makes sense that I started a business around training people who have never worked out before?
“when I got a really good grade on my writing assignment”
- enjoy the process of writing and reading
- getting good feedback from others
- building things and putting it out into the world.
it makes sense that I started a business writing blog posts and advertising on my newsletter.
”I want money”
doing something / a business PURELY for money; never works
even if someone looks like they are doing something just for money; there is actually something deep down around their actions that influence their motivations more than just the acquisition of money.
if you are stuck on your origin…
Work for an entrepreneur.
Look at what is actually happening behind the scenes of someone who is in the life that you want.
Join a team and start seeing what the life of a startup or of a real entrepreneur (small team of 8-13 customers). (Lucas Sommer)
Mission
once you have analyzed your origin moment into it’s emotional and literal components
try to tie those deep intrinsic traits to the rest of your mission and vision.
Vision: what do you want to do for the world? what’s the thing you want to see? lifestyle or performance?
Mission: what is the most high value thing you can do right now?
Vision: defeat the nazis Mission: storm the beaches
Ideation
think of 10 concepts of what problems you can solve
& who is willing to pay the most for those solutions.
pick the best 3.
test the ideas as fast and as cheap as you can.
your concept or idea needs to be able to push the door open on the sale, not try to bash it’s way in.
(good) entrepreneurship is hard = because there are so many people who want in
(bad) entrepreneurship is hard = because no one wants what I can offer.
think about 10:1 return on their money, that’s your goal on your concept vetting. a nice and clear 10:1 return.
How to Validate
Ideas should look like: a page of notes about the idea what it is or who it’s for.
Top 3 validation methods
- an free “Intro to X” event/webinar
- run a quiz: “are you ready to
” answer 10 questions - Create a free Whatsapp group or Discord or Telegram
do cold-dm or message through social media, use lead magnets for your quiz or intro events.
Don’t do food; can’t scale
do software or scalable business ideas: where you can build/grow assets that exist beyond your time (Millionaire FastLane)
Audience
Two types of people who are trying to solve a problem:
- ones with a bunch of time to throw at the problem.
- ones with a bunch of money to throw at the problem.
from current timestamp: 26:10
freelancing is not the best = selling your own labor entrepreneur ⇒ focus on outcomes instead of component labor
find the components (people) that can specialize in the work and organize them to quickly get your client’s desired outcome.
if freelancing ⇒ 50% of the time you are just trying to get your next customer
and a lot of downsides of not working at a company without the upside.
think more like: ⇒ what is the problem I am trying to solve for other people? (instead of just trying to solve your problems…) how can I organize and run a business to efficiently solve that problem.
Mindset Shifts
shift your mindset towards money → $3K is not a lot of money
- never read the news (it’s always going to be irrelevant)
- everything is downstream from lead generation.
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started as a RevShare model like mentioned in $100M Offers
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should you start a startup or join someone else’s
join someone else’s
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do two years in someone else’s startup / agency first, then start your own.
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learning how everything works is so much better than getting funneled into an organization
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revShare example:
customer pays for costs of service, but you get a percentage of the success profits
would use low-risk first step (free lead magnet) to draw leads that would be interested.
- like onlinebusinessbuilder, etc.
- would charge a combination of success fees based on leads and sales.
“you need to grind”
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success can happen quickly if you tap into a trend and the flood gates could open.
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some businesses compound over time. “j-curve businesses”
- technology
- restaurants
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their cashflow over time looks like a J
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technology companies are a good example: spend 1 million for a software product, and charge $10 / month per user.
as you get more and more customers your cashflow will start exponentially growing.
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consulting - non j-curve
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low startup costs but exponential cashflow potential.
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j-curve businesses have frictionless sales process
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non-j-curve businesses require a sales process.