I'll never forget the best piece of Business advice I ever received it was 2016 and I was working on an exhaustive List of steps to get my digital business Off the ground and by the time I hit 15 Steps I wanted to throw up I was utterly Overwhelmed with the process of trying To start a business that's when I called My mentor for help he told me to get a New piece of paper and start over but This time to only write down one step And after that he told me to complete That step before putting another one on My list you see you only need to know How to complete the very first step in Front of you in order to succeed in Business that's really the secret to get Ahead so I'm going to be walking you Through the first three major steps Today to getting your business off the Ground so if you have no idea what you Want to do I designed this first Worksheet specifically for that but even If you do know what you want to do I Encourage you to watch this section Anyway and these days 99 of businesses Out there are going to start off as a Side hustle something you do alongside Your job or current source of income While picking a business opportunity is Allowed lot like dating there's an Endless list of opportunities out there And if you don't know what you're Looking for this can be extremely
Overwhelming and possibly problematic so In the same way that it's not a good Idea to just throw yourself into a Crowded bar and go home with a stranger You shouldn't whimsically just pick a Business idea either and Dive Right In This process is designed to help you Find the specific criteria that you're Looking for in your business similar to What you might be looking for in a Romantic partner and you need to know What you're looking for before putting Yourself out there otherwise everything Looks like an opportunity so let's get Started with the first worksheet we want To figure out the characteristics that You're looking for out of your ideal Business or what's really going to be a Side hustle initially and so a few Examples of this could be online based No customer service out in nature Location independent animal lover or Feel free to come up with your own as Well so my personal first characteristic Would be time freedom because I Personally hate getting up in the Morning and being on a set schedule next I would personally want to be able to Work from anywhere in the world so my Second characteristic is going to be Location independent and finally we're Going to finish off with the Characteristic of recurring revenue and This often comes from a subscription or
Membership type business so now we have Our criteria and we know what we're Looking for but it's time to now travel Back many many years to your childhood And think back to your childhood Passions you see one of the biggest Lessons I've learned in business over The years is that the key to sticking it Out long term with a business venture is Tying it in with one of your passions However blindly following your passions Rarely translates to success so instead We're going to find your profitable Passions so first of all what is a Passion this is something that you find Yourself to be endlessly curious about Over long spans of time and these may be Things that you've put on the back Burner in life for now but you always Find yourself revisiting them or Thinking about them over the years so For this part of the worksheet I want You to think about your childhood and Adult passions without even remotely Thinking about profitability or how You'd make money with them because we're Just looking to come up with a list of Six of your lifelong passions and then We're going to figure out which of these Are your profitable passions so back to The worksheet I'm gonna go with these Passions number one is going to be Off-Road Jeeps number two is going to be Acoustic guitar three is going to be
Fresh water fishing number four a Popular one that is video games number Five is going to be Woodworking and then Finally for number six we have camping But now we do need to start thinking About money unnecessary evil in life but How do you figure out which of your Passions can make you money versus just Feeding your soul and to figure that out We're gonna need our next worksheet Which is the quality bar worksheet and We're gonna come back to this one in a Little bit so before you pursue a given Niche in business you absolutely need to Know two things number one how Profitable is the niche and number two How competitive is it so the next step Here is to take that list of passions And then analyze the competition and We're going to do that for three of Those passions and so the goal of the Quality bar worksheet is for you to be Able to take a passion of yours or even A business opportunity that you were Considering pursuing and then be able to Look through and determine if it's Profitable and also if it's extremely Competitive or not because you're going To want to make sure you're able to at Least meet the minimum level of quality In that particular business Niche but Hopefully be able to exceed what Everyone else out there is doing so for Example number one here we're going to
Go with our Off-Road Jeeps now as far as A business in this particular Niche Going out and creating your own off-road Jeep accessory is going to be a pretty Heavy lift but starting a resource that Reviews and gives information about Accessories that already exist is a very Viable business option so that's what We're going to look into so the idea Here would be making content about Existing Jeep accessories and then Linking out to them on Amazon and other Websites and then earning Commissions in The process so we're going to look at Existing Jeep accessory blogs and see How competitive this particular Niche is So we have this incognito window open And we're just going to type in Jeep Accessories and we're going to see what Is pretty much the top blog out there in This Niche coming up with the top link Here that's not an ad is Lovethuytruck.com and this is top 101 Best Jeep Wrangler accessories for 2023 So this would be your immediate and Direct competition so let's go ahead and Analyze this using the quality bar Worksheet so for starters does the Business have a professional logo well Yes they do they have a professional Looking logo not only that they also Have content that has really good Branding on it and just uh you know nice Looking text so we're gonna say they
Definitely have that so I'm going to put That as like a yes plus because they're Like Beyond just having a professional Logo here so next up do they have a a Website well it's a Blog so of course They have a website but we're gonna Figure out is it a good website or not Every single accessory mentioned here Has a segment on it and then images and This is probably five or six thousand Words and I think there's 101 Jeep Accessories mentioned so I would say That this article is pretty good it Would definitely be useful and then if We go to the home page of their website Overall this is a pretty good website It's uh easy to navigate and so we're Gonna say that yes they have a pretty Good website next we're going to look Into social media and most businesses Are going to put their social media at The bottom in the footer of their Website so we'll check that now so Looking at the bottom of the website I'm Not seeing any social media links so I Would say that they don't seem to be Leveraging social media so boom if you Were able to basically compete with that Content that was already out there but Then also leverage social media there's Your leg up on the competition we're Gonna say no they do not seem to have Any social media or if they do it's Certainly not being linked to from their
Website so now we're going to think About what things they're doing well and Then what they could improve upon so I Would say they're doing a really good Job here with their images since we have A clear view of everything that they're Talking about but there's definitely one Thing they could improve upon in a major Way and it's a simple detail that would Make this so much better and that is a Simple table of contents I'm not seeing A table of contents here so when you Come across this article you simply have To just scroll through this massive Massive list of 101 items and if you Could add a simple table of contents Which you can in WordPress you could Make a much better piece of content here Assuming you had similar content with a Table of contents so let's write that Here at what could be improved upon Would be a table of contents so here's My favorite part of this particular Worksheet you now take all of this Information that we collected and this Is a bar that you shade in to basically Give yourself a visual representation of Where that quality bar is and based on The information collected you know you Could pretty much much get a leg up on Them using things like table of contents And maybe categorizing information Better and also leveraging social media So we're going to say the quality bar
For this one is pretty much if you were To shade this half of the way it's not Going to be the easiest Niche but it's Also not the most competitive and as far As money to be made seeing as you can Link directly to all of those products On Amazon I mean I can just tell you From personal experience there is money To be made in these Amazon affiliate Blogs but if you weren't sure you know You could just do additional research so Now we're going to do the same exact Thing for our next passion from Worksheet one which was acoustic guitar Now as far as businesses you could start Here it's a little bit more limited I Mean you could start a music store but These days it's going to require a loan And be pretty difficult but we're gonna Go with a pretty simple business here Which is simply offering guitar tutoring So we're gonna do a random City Generator and then fill out the quality Bar worksheet for a guitar tutoring Business in that particular area click General rate places and will go with the Very top one so Angleton Texas I've Never heard of that place but we're Gonna look into a guitar tutoring Business in Angleton Texas now so what We're going to type into Google here is Angleton Texas guitar lessons and then Click on enter and we're gonna see what Shows up so Collins Music Center that
Seems to offer lessons but let's scroll Through and see if there's any business Websites actually offering lessons in That area so the first actual local Business in that area that I came across Was this musicians Academy so let's go Ahead and fill out the quality bar Worksheet for this business now first of All do they have a professional logo yes It looks like a pretty good logo to me And it looks like this is also a Combination of a business that has a Digital footprint and also has a brick And mortar location where they offer Lessons as far as the website I would Say it's a really good website I mean They have FAQs they have a lot of Content about their business and they Have all of these different lessons that They're offering so they're offering Quite a bit here now let's look into Social social media let's scroll down to The very bottom and see and in this case We are finding social media links and Based on this Um they've posted twice or is this Potentially just people who have tagged Them I don't know that this is actually A page let's take a look and see if they Have a YouTube channel they have a page Here where they've posted it looks like Four times over the last couple of years 2 900 likes here and 3 000 followers so We're gonna say that they are active and
It looks like definitely Facebook they Could use some work on YouTube and they Don't seem to be on Instagram whatsoever So we're gonna take those notes on the Quality bar worksheet so this company May not have everything figured out with Social media but they do have a brick And mortar business and that's honestly A pretty high quality bar so we're gonna Fill this one out pretty much two-thirds Here because unless you're going to be Offering lessons where you're going to People's houses or bringing people to Your home you are going to need an Actual space to do that maybe you could Do it virtually I would just think as Well that may not be as high paying if You pretty much just have to do one One-on-one lessons if you want to scale The business you're going to need an Actual location so this is a pretty high Quality bar and so finally this leaves Us with the passion of fresh water Fishing you could definitely start a Blog but we've covered that already so Let's think about a different type of Business you could start with this Passion so how about catfish farming it Sounds kind of weird but a lot of people Are eating catfish these days and you Could pretty easily tie in an e-commerce Component where you pack freeze and then Ship this catfish all over the country I Found a catfish farm operating in
Mississippi and that is TJ's fish farm So first of all does this company have a Professional logo somebody took a Picture of a sign in a kitchen and so That's not a logo we're going to Definitely say that's a no right off the Bat not secure that's a big problem and It's a simple fix the SSL certificate People who are going to this website Might be getting hit with a wall that Says this is not safe simply because They don't have SSL encryption they do Offer large and small orders of tilapia In catfish but you'd have to schedule an Appointment here and email them Basically to place an order there's no Simple way on the website to order based On having two subscribers I would say It's not very effective use of YouTube So as far as our Quality Bar for the Freshwater fishing and in particular the Catfish farming business here that we Looked at we're gonna shade this with About one-third full so that's a pretty Low quality bar so by filling out our Quality Bar worksheet here with three Passions from our list we've really Figured out a lot of information we have An idea about how competitive these Different niches are we have figured out How people are making money with these Things as a passion and so now we're Going to go back to that first worksheet And we're going to continue on with that
Process with this new found information What we're gonna do is follow step three Here which is to circle the passions on Your list that are most likely to make You money and this is going to be what We call your profitable passions so After doing the quality bar research on The Off-Road Jeeps niche there's Definitely money to be made there so We're gonna go ahead and circle that on Our list first of all looking at the Acoustic guitar business that one would Definitely be trickier because you're Going to need an actual location I don't Think there's a tremendous amount of Money to be made in acoustic guitar Lessons at least in just operating your Own little gig unless you're just trying To make some money on the side we're Gonna rule that one out and we're gonna Move on to the freshwater fishing Niche We're gonna Circle that as well there's Definitely money to be made with that Particular passion so now that we have Two profitable passions on our list we Now have to go back to step number one Which was the very criteria that we're Looking for in the first place and we Now have to do a gut check here and Figure out if either of these profitable Passions match up with the criteria We're looking for out of a business Opportunity so let's start off with time Freedom well you could easily accomplish
This with a digital accessory review Business for Jeep accessories so that Definitely would fit that criteria and As far as the freshwater fishing and the Fish farming well if you partnered with An existing Farm arm and just simply ran Their e-commerce side of the business You could still have time freedom and Then as far as the characteristic of Location independent that would be Possible with both of those businesses We just talked about but when we get Down to our final characteristic here of Recurring Revenue this is where we're Going to be narrowed down to just one of Our profitable passions and that's Because it's going to be very difficult To build recurring Revenue into an Accessory review blog or even content Channel and that's because you're going To be at the mercy of the algorithms and Also just people's shopping behaviors And so unless you're going to go out and Maybe launch an app or something which Is going to be a really heavy lift it's Going to be very difficult to get a Consistent monthly recurring Revenue With that business model so we now have To officially rule it out so we're going To move forward now with the profitable Passion of freshwater fishing looking at The business of starting a catfish farm But in particular one that offers a Monthly subscription and so this leads
Us to our final worksheet now my Personal favorite which is the MVP Worksheet and this is where we figure Out how to actually launch the business And start solving a problem that exists In the market and how you're going to be Doing this is by testing the market with Something called an MVP or minimum Viable product so this strategy was Popularized by a book called The Lean Startup and this is actually how many Startups go about a market test today And your MVP is your most basic Representation of a solution to a Problem the purpose is to get quick Feedback from the market in the most Efficient manner as possible now you Might have a business idea that's going To offer multiple solutions to a series Of different problems and that's totally Fine but for now I need you to focus on One problem and then one solution so Let's go ahead and start filling out This worksheet here for that catfish Farming business in order to launch our MVP so the first question on the Worksheet is what problem am I solving And so what we're going to write for our Business is it's difficult to get access To catfish if you're not in Miss for Example unless you're going to a fish Market or something you're not going to Really find catfish at your local Grocery store so the next question asks
You how can you solve this problem as Simply as possible and so doing things As simply as possible is going to rule Out this idea of starting our own Catfish farm so partnering with an Existing catfish farm and then launching The e-commerce side of their business Basically as a partner would be the Simplest manner so we're going to write Down partnering with an existing catfish Farm step number three is to create the Solution or a visual representation of What the solution would be and that's Going to be the better option 99 of the Time because you want to bootstrap in Not invest resources into what might not Be a good idea and that's really the Whole point of this MVP is to just get a Test out there to the market see how It's received and then down here we're Going to go through the three possible Outcomes after we do a real live market Test we're actually going to do this and Get real feedback from strangers so You're going to want to stay tuned so Let's jump into my computer now and get Started with a Google Slides Presentation what we're going to use for The title slide here we don't Necessarily need a name for the business But we're just going to say Farm Fresh Catfish delivered we're going to move Into the next section which is going to Be the main information about our idea
Farm Fresh catfish is growing in Popularity as more people explore Alternative diets however sourcing Catfish can be difficult outside of Mississippi that is we're launching a Subscription-based recurring delivery Service for Farm Fresh catfish and so it Just clearly defines the problem our Potential solution click here right Click and then we're going to actually Replace this image and then what I love About slides is you can literally search The web in the right hand side so that's Just how easy this is and so for the Other graphic here we're going to Replace this with a calendar just to Sort of represent the recurring nature Of the subscription and we're gonna Probably add some graphics on top of This as well and so there we go you Could definitely spend more time here You could even up a logo if you wanted To but for the MVP we just want people To be able to get an idea of what we're Thinking about the last thing I want to Do is jump over here and just bold our Key points but finally here we're going To finish off with something asking People for feedback on this idea and We're actually going to set up a Google Form where we're going to be taking People's feedback through that and then We're going to send this out to real People for a 24-hour market test so over
On Google forms now we're going to start Out with our survey and we're going to Keep it very very simple that way we get Hopefully a high level of participation Would you consider subscribing to this Service if it actually was offered and It's recurring frozen catfish delivery And we're going to make this a yes maybe Or no question just to give people three Different options what would be your Delivery frequency preference weekly Monthly every six months Etc and we're Gonna make this a short answer we're Going to make it required and then over Here in Google Slides it's going to be Very clear for people that they can Click and take the two-minute serving And we're going to also bold that that Way they know it's a very very short Survey alrighty so now it's time for us To share this presentation in a couple Of different subreddits that I found That I think are going to be able to get Us some actual feedback so the first Post is going to go in Reddit Pescetarian and it says looking for Feedback on a fish delivery business Idea sort of spells out the basic high Level idea and then has a link to the Presentation so the next post is going In the subreddit fish and it's basically The same thing looking for feedback on a Fish delivery business idea and then our Final Reddit post here is going to go in
The subreddit business ideas I'm hoping This one really gets a lot of activity Is this has like a hundred fifty Thousand people so here we are on quora And I can't guarantee what's going to Happen here because this is all Happening live as it's being recorded But I'm gonna post here on quora and ask For the same type of feedback would you Subscribe to a farm fresh catfish Delivery service and then we're gonna Click on ADD question so we ran into a Roadblock here I can't actually link to My Google Slides presentation but we're Still going to leave the question out There because people may still answer it So we'll check back in tomorrow and see If we get any comments about the Business idea it's time to give things 24 hours and then we'll check in on the Results of our MVP okay guys so it's now Been 24 hours and so now we're going to Assess the feedback by looking at any Form submissions we got as well as Comments on the Reddit posts and any Responses that we got over on quora so Starting off here looking at the Google Forms we ended up getting 10 responses Which I was super pleased with seeing as These are complete strangers where we Were providing them with absolutely no Incentive other than just asking them For their feedback so if we go over to Responses we can see a really nicely
Organized data set here for all of our Information so the first question we Asked people was would you consider Subscribing to this if it's actually Offered and we ended up getting 50 of The entire group saying maybe we had 10 Percent or just one person say yes and Then four or forty percent saying no so We're gonna continue reading here but Right off the bat I'm gonna say that we Didn't hit the nail on the head here in Terms of finding something that people Actually want the maybe is interesting Because it tells me that we are probably Close and people might want something Similar but I don't think we're quite There yet seeing as only one person said Yes to this what would be your delivery Frequency preference we said weekly Monthly every six months Etc people are Either looking like they want it to be Monthly or probably quarterly and then Lastly we have the long form section Where people left us their feedback and This is where I think we're going to get Probably the best insights so the first Person said they'd be looking for more Than just catfish to be honest that's a Very valuable Insight the next person Said I don't eat catfish it's nasty so This person would be definitely in the No category make the brand identity feel Like it's all locally sourced so that's A really solid idea there next year this
Person said why can't people just use Their local fish market or store and They certainly can but we were thinking Of basically offering the convenience of The recurring delivery if that's Something that the market would find Valuable and so far at least with Catfish I don't think they would find it To be very valuable the next response Said I think this is a good idea because When I was living in Kentucky all the Fish people ate was catfish however I Feel like it would be best to Market This towards restaurants as well because I feel like I've never seen someone Specifically wanting and failing to find Some catfish to eat good luck with your Endeavors so that's a really solid point I mean maybe it's something that people Are just not actively seeking out and Perhaps going after the B2B play of Selling it to other restaurants maybe That is the move here so it's just Another potential vertical or MVP to Consider for basically a future Iteration of what this business might Look like there's some people that Really just don't like to eat it and There's definitely some health concerns To look into as well about the pcbs or Mercury levels we honestly got a ton of Great feedback here now let's jump over To quora and see if we got any responses To the question placed over there we did
Still get one response and this person Said very firm no I can just walk down To the river and snag one so this person Is probably from Mississippi or Something but I'm just not fond of Eating them anyway they are a the low Life of culinary fish based on some of The other feedback we've received it's Sort of hard to argue with that okay so We completed all of the steps here on The MVP worksheet except for step number Seven which is testing your potential Solution with paid traffic we sort of Did a workaround here by using Reddit And maybe 10 responses wouldn't be a Large enough you know sample size for Actually pursuing an idea but I think It's enough for us to figure out that we Really didn't have the perfect idea with This first MVP so I just don't think it Would be valuable to put money into ad Spend but maybe if you went back to the Drawing board and came up with a Different solution maybe then it would Be worth it to do paid traffic so this Leads us to the next section which is The three potential outcomes of our MVP Outcome number one is that the market Isn't interested in your solution at all And that's not the case here because we Had a decent amount of maybes we only Had one yes but it seems like people Liked the subscribe encryption aspect of Locally sourced fish just not so much
The catfish so outcome number two is That the market is interested in a Different solution this is the most Common and this is exactly where we Landed is that we didn't quite get it With this but we got a lot of data and Maybe if we were to say okay maybe Freshwater fish isn't the idea but if we Can maybe partner with a saltwater fish Farm or something like that or a Saltwater fish market and do the E-commerce side of their business and Offer subscription-based delivery of That and then maybe even building in you Know meal delivery as a future MVP or Future vertical of that business future Solution to a problem it just gives you You know Stepping Stones of where you Could go with that business and then Outcome number three it's the most Uncommon it's that the market is Interested in your solution and that Just really wasn't the case here it was A close but no cigar situation and That's what the MVP is really helpful For because if I didn't you know test This very quickly just think about how Much time I could have wasted on this Idea of the catfish farming when I could Have been close in terms of the idea and Would I have just pivoted into saltwater Fish or something perhaps that's a much Better idea but from here I would Recommend doing another MVP with the
Saltwater fish idea seeking out further Feedback and then if you get more yeses And you definitely think you've landed In outcome three of having the market Interested in your solution that is when You would definitely consider paid Traffic and then if the paid traffic Matches up with those results that's When you could consider pursuing that Business idea further just like that you Now know how to start a business with This very simple three-step process now Of course the one question you probably Have is how do you get your hands on a Copy of these worksheets well these are A free bonus that come along with my Book from side hustle to main hustle to Millionaire and that is available both In person at Barnes Noble stores and on Amazon and if you flip to the very back Of that book there's a secret link that Leads to our private Discord Community Where you can communicate with me and Other side Hustlers out there there and Within that Community we have all of These worksheets available to download Now these are just the first three and We have about a dozen worksheets planned And we're going to be releasing three Every quarter so the next set of Worksheets are going to be coming around In April somewhere around there so Definitely stay tuned for those I am Excited to communicate with you guys
Over in the Discord and help you get Your business off the ground if you Enjoyed this video guys this book is Really for you because the worksheets Are based on the book and this video is Based on the worksheet so you really Just got a very small taste of what's in Store with my full-length book I also Have an author narrated version on Audible so if you prefer to listen you Can hear me narrate it definitely Multiple Avenues to explore if you are Interested in joining and you can still Get access to the worksheets in the Discord community Through audible or the Ebook format no matter what if you got Value out of this video please share it With one person out there who might be Interested in either starting a business Or maybe just getting better focused in Life on you know what they they want to Do and I know we didn't cover all of the Aspects of starting a business like Forming an LLC and opening up a business Bank account but trust me guys that's The easy stuff that's the stuff you can Literally just Google search or watch a Five minute YouTube video what we Covered here is the important stuff it's Making sure that you don't go to the Market with a bad idea or just go into Something thinking that you have you Know what is a great solution and you're Almost there but you waste a bunch of
Time and money and resources because you Were off by five degrees so I'm telling You guys this is the most important part The rest can happen in a step-by-step Manner like we talked about earlier you Lay out the next step you complete that Step and then you figure out the next Step in business and that is how you get Ahead make sure you subscribe hit that Bell and turn on all notifications for Future business videos just like this And I hope to see you next time
