Questions

I am ready to become an online entrepreneur. I have several ideas and am having trouble picking which would be best. I'm seeking a solid, concrete opinion from someone who's started a successful business. #1: A product (paper, cheap and simple). It's a very simple and unique goal-setting program that would require a monthly subscription. #2: Art lessons. I'm an artist and could build a list around a free lesson, with an upsell for monthly subscribers to join a live feed each week teaching them how to draw. #3: A membership site geared to help mentor youth. Resources for teens and their parents to help the two connect and help youth get set up for life, especially as entrepreneurs.

Passion is important, but not as important as income. Otherwise, it's just a hobby. And--funny thing--the path to producing income often becomes that "magnificent obsession" for you, because it's working.

So here's your problem: you have a skill, you can teach people something, but I'm not seeing a distribution channel. For you, that means finding a group of people you can help...beginner artists, those who want a tune-up or to learn a new skill, or youth who are excited about having a plan moving forward. You need a way of getting in front of those people, and capturing those interested as leads.

That way, you can market to them and some will become customers. You need three systems in front of the fulfillment systems you mentioned:

> a lead generation system
> a qualification system
> a closing system.

There's more to making money online than putting up a website and hoping. I've been making money through online marketing since 2010 and have put together a whole lot of funnels to make clients money over the years.

First, have a look at this picture:
http://www.salestactics.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/PassionPay.png

It'll help you focus on where the money potentially is.

I mean, young people are great, but they don't usually have a lot of money. They don't spend it on "smart" things. Maybe their parents will, a subset, a target market (starting to see where I'm going?).

Second, watch this video which I made expressly for helping with prioritizing the zillion ideas we get as entrepreneurs:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kw4T7HeV_gQ

Understand that the passion can come AFTER the money is flowing. I get excited about making money, and that gets me interested in some things I otherwise wouldn't be so curious about. Sure, some topics will never be a fit--I can make my money however I want, so I get to choose. But there have been enough ideas over the years that didn't strike me as awesome off the cuff, but after the money started flowing I really got into.


Answered 7 years ago

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