Great businesses solve real problems for real people. Therefore, you can’t expect to build a profitable business without first connecting with your target audience to develop an understanding of their challenges—as it relates to your niche topic area.
If you don’t have a clear business idea already, that’s completely ok.
In fact, you really shouldn’t have a 100% solidified vision for the product, service or otherwise you’re planning to offer. Your solution has to be created in partnership with your target audience, in order to make sure it’s something they actually need. No matter your initial idea, it’ll grow, adapt and change as you work directly with your audience to perfect that offering.
It all starts with building a community around your niche topic. And building a list of targeted potential customers today is how you’ll ensure that you’re actually solving a real problem in the marketplace. By tracking down the right people who are within your target market and forging mutually beneficial relationships with them, you’ll create a community of people who will help you build your business in a way that all but guarantees its effectiveness.
This lesson’s worksheet starts by poking holes in your competitors’ solutions to find the strongest areas of opportunity. Then you’ll craft an elevator pitch, start building your email list of subscribers (potential customers) and work towards validating your idea.
Lesson 3: Building a Community and Validating Your Idea
In this lesson’s worksheet, you’ll start by uncovering your biggest frustrations about the current solutions in your niche. You’ll take a look at your top 3 competitors to highlight their shortcomings and determine your greatest opportunities for filling a much-needed void in the marketplace (using your strengths & skills from Lesson 2). Next, you’ll craft an elevator pitch that succinctly describes the solution you’re planning to create. Then, you’ll build a targeted list of email subscribers (potential future customers) who are interested in getting updates about your project and you’ll use my copy & paste conversation scripts to begin validating this idea. Download this lesson’s worksheet right here (you’ll need a computer in order to fill out the worksheet).
1. Time to completion:
Outreach takes time. Completing this worksheet and landing your first 10 (or more) email subscribers will likely take 1 – 3 hours if you’re also having meaningful conversations with these target customers (which is the point 😊). Expect to hear some no’s and prepare for the reality that your idea may not actually be a good fit for everyone you reach out to—it’s nothing personal as we’re all at different stages of life with shifting goals and obligations. By the end of your outreach, your goal is to have a spreadsheet with at least 10 – 25 email subscribers who’ve expressed interest in your idea—these will be your first potential customers that you’ll start validating with.
2. How many subscribers do you have?
How many subscribers you’ve added to your email list after completing your outreach? Does that number give you a sense of confidence in your idea—or a feeling that you’ll need to go back to the drawing board? If you’re running into any challenges, ask for help and feedback from your validation community.
3. What comes next?
This is the end of Finding a Profitable Business Idea, BUT that doesn’t mean the fun is over. It’s actually just beginning. How are you doing so far? I’d love to hear about your biggest win or the most difficult setback you’re facing right now—comment over on my in-depth article about the best business ideas and I’m more than happy to help as much as I can.
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