Solopreneur MMG

[liberty]

@shaz Cool, that's great!! Then we are 3, or 4 if @xmj joins too.

Write here or on DM if you are interested in joining

[ertyu]

Are you guys envisioning this to be a video call, a chat, parralel play while working, one-time status report??

[liberty]

Chat, plus video calls once per week, maybe? Then those who want to work closer together, can schedule additional calls. But let's discuss this in chat or call when we start out.

[shaz]

I will be most likely to participate in asynchronous communication because times when I am willing to use a phone or computer outside of work are sporadic - mainly when I can't sleep or I am trapped waiting for something.

[mountainFrugal]

The organizers usually agreed to pay him the per diem, most of which he would pocket because he spent little on food for himself. If you get another invitation to attend a conference you could try requesting a meal per diem instead of having your meals purchased.

This is a great idea. Thanks!

[mountainFrugal]

There is interest in actually getting this going again. My current 2 businesses are being written about in my journal: viewtopic.php?p=282553#p282553

One is a partnership the other is a soloprenuer business that focuses on nature based zines, illustration, and data visualization. My business partner and I re-read The E-Myth Revisited and went through most of the exercises independently and then together.

I will contribute to the thread on that topic here in Mathiverses's Journal: viewtopic.php?p=280689#p280689

[liberty]

Looking for a new project to start, now after I "retired" again (2nd time).

One idea I got is to build an interactive investing course, where people can learn basics about stocks, bonds, real estate, history of markets, real vs nominal return, diversification etc. I would make tasks that needs to be answered before they proceed to the next topic, like for example "If a company earns 10 USD per share, and the stock is traded for 200 USD, what's the P/E ratio?". One problem I see after making some lessons, is that people disagree a lot about investing. Some will say that crypto is an investment, others say that value investing is the only investing. Also it's a bit hard for me to teach basic investing, as it's been a decade since I learned this things. I should probably find someone who is new to investing, and wants to learn. Then they could get the course for free and give feedback as they go. Let me know if anyone is interested.

Maybe I should first build an audience with an investing blog and Tiktok videos, and then try to pre-sell the course? I don't want to spend 500 hours making a course that nobody buys.

[AxelHeyst]

I recently watched this video re: selling courses and thought it was thought-provoking. My hustle involves selling courses (although at the moment we're focused on consulting and implementation) and we've noticed the same trends he's talked about, namely really low finish rate for courses.

One idea we're integrating into our offering is to start with live or otherwise high-touch interactive 'courses', ideally involving a cohort. In this way you're generating a lot of realtime feedback, getting a sense for what works and what doesn't, what people's questions and hangups are, etc. All this information can go in to the design of a more hands-off product/offering. Also this way you can be getting paid to generate the information/raw content that would go into a fuller offering, as long as you can scrape up a few people to buy in to your initial live/high-touch offering. Multiple ways to pitch it that could be compelling (will never be this inexpensive again, lifetime access to future materials, etc).

I'm interested in being a guinea pig for your course, but my cup runneth over at the moment so I'd have to think about if I could fit it in based on your timing. Keep me informed though, sounds interesting.

(ETA: FWIW, our current load of consulting came from my business partner selling an offering we hadn't built at all to his existing email newsletter. Our first batch of clients are getting the high-touch experience because they're literally paying us to build the thing; future clients will get essentially the same thing for the same price, but faster and less high-touch because it'll be already 95% built).

ETA2: tl:dr notes for that video.
Selling information doesn't work anymore because information isn't scarce anymore. Time is scarce now. Stop selling information, start selling implementation. How?

1. Do it for them. Service.
2. Do it with them. Coaching or consulting. Walk them through the process.Accountability is the differentiator vs. just online courses.
3. Doing it with others, community/cohorts. (MMGs? Cohorts?) Create a group to encourage a crew to go through a process together.

If you have a flat tire, what's better - a list of the steps to change a flat? Or have someone either come and do it for you, or do it with you and show you how to do it? That's the difference here, leveling up in terms of effectiveness of getting the thing done.

[mountainFrugal]

Maybe I should first build an audience with an investing blog and Tiktok videos, and then try to pre-sell the course? I don't want to spend 500 hours making a course that nobody buys.

I did not watch the video that @AH posted, but building an audience first de-risks your project. No need to invest 500 hours into something. Invest 1 hour first, put it out there, get feedback, build an email list, repeat 499 more times with payed courses along the way. What you think that people will pay you for might be in the ballpark, but getting to something specific based on actual customer feedback is the best way (like @AH's ETA).

We are prototyping all of our classes with a small number of students, getting feedback, using that feedback to make marketing materials, using A/B testing on engagement with marketing materials to see what/how/when to make longer form content out of the classes to put on Youtube as "freemium" classes. The longer form videos then help us gauge what courses to further develop. Once we get our first online course sale from this process I will reevaluate and repeat for more niche topics that I am interested in for my personal art/zine/adventure/bike repair business (only so much time in the day!). I want to be spending most of my time making art for me (which I do), exercising/exploring, and hanging out with DW, so there is hard cap on what I am willing to spend time wise on marketing.

[jacob]

If you want to make money on this, just do the opposite of what I have done. Most people aren't really interested in learning anything and those, who are, aren't willing to pay much since they can just learn it on their own. There's far more money in "quick&easy" courses than "good&easy" or "quick&good", because what the majority of those who are willing to pay for a solution really want is a combination of hand-holding and entertainment.

This basically means style over substance with just enough actionable advice that people feel like they got something out of "the experience". IOW, there aren't that many people who want to dive into P/E ratios as there are people for whom a $100 seminar that'll walk them through "how to open an account at a specific broker and invest in 'what everybody likes' so they can be cool and rich too". IOW, MOPs are where the money (paying public) is.

Thinking that the "average student is there to learn" is possibly the greatest mistake a teacher can make. Most are there because they expect someone to service them in solving a problem that 90% of them aren't really interested in for its own sake. They don't invest because they think investing is interesting. They invest because they want to be rich and they've heard that investing is the way to get there.

Once you "hook them", you can then upsell them on individual coaching or "exclusive memberships" for "quick&good"-type information. Just keep in mind that you're not selling knowledge. You're selling entertainment, hand-holding, ... a special feeling of being an exclusive insider.

There I just told you how to be evil^H^H^H^Hprofitable.

Conversely, if the goal is to educate people, putting out a book or a course is not even half the solution. Courses on their own only works for the other 10% ... or perhaps only 10% of that 10%. You have to continuously support the students education, reinforcing lessons, correcting mistakes, ... to avoid them going into "failure-mode".

[jacob]

If you want to make money on this, ...

Or consider thinking a bit outside the box: viewtopic.php?t=4974

This one did extremely well.

[xmj]

Once you "hook them", you can then upsell them on individual coaching or "exclusive memberships" for "quick&good"-type information. Just keep in mind that you're not selling knowledge. You're selling entertainment, hand-holding, ... a special feeling of being an exclusive insider.

There I just told you how to be evil^H^H^H^Hprofitable.

Also known as tripwire offer.

https://x.com/apx_loot/status/1796792142779605068

Basically Tripwire Offers

I see them often in BizOpp. Like selling a $7 digital ebook/course to get qualified leads (the tripwire) and then you push a few your main offers ranging from mid to high ticket

$75-250 courses/addons
$1.5k-2.5k+ courses/mentorship