Photo: gilles chiroleu
About halfway between Albuquerque and Santa Fe, off the west side of I-25, stands someone’s great idea that didn’t make it. Originally designed as an outlet mall, it failed to attract enough customers and was bought up by a Native American group that renamed it “Traditions!” and restyled it as one-stop shopping for Indian gifts.
That failed, too, and some other enterprising folks bought up the whole outfit and turned it into a turnkey movie studio and production mall (can you call that a mall?)
I saw recently that it’s for sale again.
I’m guessing it has something to do with the location. People driving between Albuquerque and Santa Fe are, for the most part, pretty focused on getting to the city they didn’t leave from. The drive is about an hour but would be 15 minutes longer to exit I-25 and see the “great idea,” given that it’s not an easy-off, easy-on exit.
In any event, the “great idea” wasn’t.
Since so many people with much more disposable income than you come up with great ideas that fail, you should notice this and not take it for granted that your great idea will succeed.
But don’t take this the wrong way.
You should still try out your great ideas. Just spend a little time figuring out how you’re going to avoid bankrupting yourself if the idea doesn’t pan out. That way, you can keep rolling out new trials of new “great ideas,” and eventually, in retrospect, some of your guesses will turn out to have been right on.
It’s not the scarcity of money or time or knowledge. The real barrier to entry is uncertainty. If you knew that what you were trying right now would work eventually, you wouldn’t fret about spending your money or time. But unless you’re very good at practicing non-attachment or are the gambling type, that’s not how it feels.
It’s tough, not knowing if your work will create the outcome you think you want.
Photo: kwerfeldein
There’s a greeting card that asks (paraphrased), “what would you attempt if you knew you could not fail?” There’s a problem with these encouraging words, though (or with this platitude, depending on what mood you’re in):
Without uncertainty, most endeavors would become unbearably boring.
Ellen J. Langer has remarked that golf wouldn’t be much fun for long if you knew every shot would be a hole in one. Now that may sound like one of those annoying comments about lottery winners – “they were much happier before they won.” Yeah, yeah, we think. Just let ME win, and let me find out for myself whether I’ll be less happy.
But we don’t have the choice of eliminating uncertainty. Our perception that we could is illusory.
The only way through the barrier is to act even though we’re uncertain.
Photo: greefus groinks
If there’s one thing that’s easy to do these days, it would be to sell exclusive information on how to make money online. There are a few requirements:
1. a good sales letter
OK, so maybe there’s only this one requirement. [Cue the laugh track]
Now, chances are you are not currently selling exclusive information on how to make money online. Instead, you may be interested in setting up a business to make money online. If this describes you, and if you’re considering purchasing a book or program to help you set up such a business, caveat emptor!
But let me elaborate.
You generally don’t have to worry that you might be swindled, that your credit card will be charged and you won’t receive anything in return. This really isn’t a common problem, especially if you’ve done your homework and looked at what people have to say about the products and companies you’re considering.
No, what you need to beware of is this: the product you purchase will probably have a lot of accurate, hard-won, insightful information, but you will feel overwhelmed by the prospect of actually implementing it.
You know intellectually that if it were really that easy to be making an income online, everybody would be doing it, so it can’t be that easy. But a well-written sales letter can suspend your reservations, making you want to believe its claims. In addition, if you go ahead and purchase the product, you may be convincing yourself in a mysterious, semi-conscious way that it will be easy for you to implement the program and that your success will be immediate.
But it won’t work out that way.
Instead, when faced with the twin realizations that 1) the product you paid for contains valid information, and 2) you don’t have immediate (read “instant”) success, you may decide it’s not possible for you to make money online, leading you to give up. You’ll find yourself rationalizing that this project is just too hard.
That’s the emptor I’m talking about: you thought this was going to be easy (you’re not thick, after all!), but now you believe it’s too hard, and you are disheartened. This feeling is really what you have to beware of.
What to do?
Consider this important, but often overlooked psychological truth: other people’s achievements can seem impossible to replicate when you are not privy to the individual steps they took to get there.
Social psychologist Ellen J. Langer describes this effect in her book Mindfulness:
Our judgments about the intelligence of others can be distorted by an emphasis on outcome. In an informal inquiry, my students and I asked people to evaluate the intelligence of scientists who had achieved an “impressive” intellectual outcome (such as discovering a new planet or inventing a new drug). When the achievement was described as a series of steps (and virtually all achievements can be broken down in this way), they judged the scientist as less smart than when the discovery or invention was simply named. People can imagine themselves taking steps, while great heights seem entirely forbidding. (p. 76)
The task before you was claimed to be easy but then felt impossible. By looking at it afresh as a process requiring a series of steps, and by using failure well, you can regain the confidence you need to get to work.
Photo: kevindooley
As promised in the last post, today I’m going to present a high-altitude view of one type of internet information business. I’ll pick one of the possible business models (the What), I’ll describe what’s appealing about working this way (the Why), and I’ll lay out the three components that are necessary for the business to succeed (the How).
It’s a high-altitude view today because there are many, many details in even a straightforward business model like this one, and a holistic overview will help you decide which aspects you’d like to explore and in what order.
The WHAT
I’ll begin by presenting the components of one particular internet business model: creating and selling digital-delivery products, such as downloadable pdf files or videos (think YouTube). There are many other business models available, ranging from blogging to affiliate marketing, and many of the technologies and approaches relevant to this model can be directly applied to other models. This ability to recycle and repurpose your knowledge and know-how is one of the benefits of developing your information entrepreneur skillset.
The WHY
First, here are some of the guiding principles that might lead you to consider this kind of business. This model might be good for you, if:
- You want to devote only a few hours per week to the tasks of running a business. You’d rather spend the majority of your time doing other things, such as starting new projects, creating content, or doing something completely non-work-related.
- You like the idea of your product being out there on its own, marketing itself, sending you some income whether you’re paying attention to it or not.
- You’re not interested in leaving your day job (right now, at least), but you wouldn’t mind some extra income each month.
Downloadable products can be sold to internet customers (almost) anywhere, and there is very low overhead and little maintenance in selling this way. It’s exciting to imagine being able to connect people who really need particular, specfic information, know-how, and experience with the people who have that information, know-how, and experience. The goal is mutual benefit: value for the customer, compensation for the provider, and good will generated between them.
OK, time for a little thought experiment.
Imagine a downloadable, pdf-format text-and-images resource, such as a how-to manual for Vespa owners who want to repaint their scooter.
Photo: antmoose
Now consider some of the ramifications:
- The manual might sell online for $20. If 10 people (worldwide!) purchase the manual each month… [math left as an exercise for the reader].
- It can be delivered (i.e. downloaded) without paying for postage.
- You don’t need a warehouse or even a garage for inventory of your product. The manual is a file on a computer server.
- Customers don’t have to wait to get it delivered in the mail. They can download it and read it right away or print it out to read wherever they’d like.
- If you want to change something in the manual, you don’t have to reprint it; you just change the file, and the new version is ready immediately. There’s no necessary, intrinsic cost to change the product.
The HOW
Here are the components you would need to make this work (high-altitude overview only, today):
- The product itself
- A website set up to deliver the product and perform financial transactions (accepting credit card payments, handling refund requests, crediting your bank account)
- A marketing system that helps potential customers find your site
Depending on your personality and your skills and inclinations, you may feel that at least one of these three components seems extraordinarily difficult. I’m here to tell you that all three components are really, truly manageable, and you don’t have to be a Rhodes-scholar-who-spends-all-her-free-time-between-high-powered-sales-meetings-in-the-computer-lab to get them all to work together.
Does this sound doable? Do you run a business like this? If this sounds reasonable and intriguing, but you’re not doing it, why not? Where are you stuck? I welcome your feedback and questions.
Today, I’m going to look at three reasons people use to avoid starting an online, information-based business. If any or all of these reasons sound familiar to you, I hope to show you why this might be the time to jettison them and go ahead in spite of your earlier concerns.
1. “I don’t like business.”
I understand, and I believe you. I’ve experienced this feeling and used it as a reason to avoid getting involved in business before.
Then I discovered I was stereotyping. I was “profiling” (as in “racial profiling,” only in this case I was guilty of “activity profiling.”) The business world is not monolithic, and not only are there different types of businesses in the world; there are also different ways to think about business.
Don’t like unethical, pushy, greedy, dehumanizing, soul-draining, just plain evil businesses? Great! (Neither do I.) The good news is that it’s actually possible to be involved in an ethical, courteous, generous, empowering, soul-reinvigorating, just plain good business. Heck, you could even start one yourself.
2. “Business doesn’t like me.”
Ah, the flipside of #1. Do you worry that maybe you’re not cut out to be a businessperson, that you don’t have something worthwhile to offer, or that other people wouldn’t be willing to compensate you for what you do have to offer?
Whether you’re “cut out” to be a businessperson is really a trick question (or is it a trick worry?) There’s no one type of business, and if or when you find the really right business to be in, it will feel more like play than work, and how can you not be cut out for that?
It’s true that to be in business, it’s essential to be able to provide value to others. Many entrepreneurs are outstandingly proficient at discovering ways to create and provide value. This doesn’t come easily to everyone, but fortunately it’s a skill that can be learned and practiced. Whether or not you are in business now, the ability to see the parts of yourself that create value in the world is a crucial life skill. And once you start practicing “self value awareness,” you’ll find yourself feeling increasingly energized and motivated.
And as far as compensation goes, you don’t need everyone to compensate you. If only a tiny fraction of people finds your folding instructions for a remote-controlled origami banjo even remotely interesting…no problem! Enter the world of the internet, where you can reach (as of the last count) over a billion people. Even if it’s only a fraction of the internet world that finds your information valuable, a tiny fraction of an immense number can be a substantial number. The internet has changed all the ground rules of the information matchmaking game, and even if you didn’t think it was worth playing the game of business before, you owe it to yourself to take another look.
3. Go into business now? In this economy? That can’t make sense!
One of the key benefits of being an online information purveyor is the extremely low startup cost. You have to put in some time, and the learning curve can be daunting at first, but the initial investment is pretty small. Certainly no more than a few hundred dollars, and that includes web hosting costs, getting your first webpage designed, and paying for some online advertising to test whether there is real-world demand for what you have to offer.
Worst case, if your ebook or quickstart guide (or remote-controlled origami banjo instructional video) doesn’t work at all, you’ve had fun putting it together anyway and can move on to your next idea which may well work. Failing quickly and repeatedly is the best way to learn and get better. The key is to set your process up correctly, so you can start small, without taking unnecessary risks. I’ll have a lot more to write about this shortly. It’s a very important point, probably the critical point when going into business.
What’s next?
In coming posts, I’ll be describing the big picture, the information entrepreneur business model as seen from 35,000 feet. Then, I’ll dip down some to show the largest components of the model and how they interact with each other, and I’ll start getting into the learning curves involved with each one.
I’ll also start pointing out various landmarks to help you find your way around this new country, including key websites, tools, people, and ideas.
Thank you for reading this far. Please share your feedback in the comments. For a little more information about where I’m coming from and going to with Studio Non Troppo, you can visit the About page for this blog.