I’ve Helped Thousands of People Build Their Business…Here’s How

I've helped thousands of people start their own business side businesses, full scale businesses. And if you are looking to start a business but you don't have any money, I've got good news. It's not as hard as you might think. I'm going to break down how to start a business into six steps so you can build a successful company even without funding. This is my complete playbook to building a multimillion dollar business from scratch. Starting with step one Decide what to sell. No, you actually don't need an idea that's going to change the world. But what you do need is something that people are actually going to buy. Something they're happy to buy. So how do you find a profitable idea? Well, Mark Cuban once said the worst advice he ever got was follow your passions. And I'm sure we've all heard that phrase. I know I have. But just because you love something does not make it a viable business. I love ironing clothes and eating hot sauce. Is anyone going to buy an online course on how to iron clothes so sharply that that the crease on your left sleeve cuts your face when it touches it? I wish. Unfortunately, no, because passion is just one element of running a successful business. Passion can come later too, once you find your profitable idea. In my opinion, I find passion from helping people succeed, creating their rich lives. That's what gets me passionate. And look, if you want to turn your passion into a business, you can. But you don't have to. Remember, it's such a relief to know that you don't have to start with passion. Instead, profitable ideas are found at the intersection of things you enjoy, things you're good at, and things other people will pay for. To start, pick something that is simple enough. You can do it on your own. You don't have to hire other people. You don't need to hire a factory to make it for you. You can do it on your own. And here's a little secret. Your product does not have to be perfect. Remember that phrase, done is better than perfect. The idea here is at the beginning, it's better to move quickly and not get stuck in brainstorming or the optimization phase. Here's some business models that I really like, starting with selling freelance services. Maybe you're great at cooking. You could cook a week's worth of healthy food for busy clients so they don't have to worry about what to make every night after work. You writing and selling an ebook. For example, if you understand how to do email marketing, you could create an ebook on best practices with specific examples that will guarantee responses. Or developing and selling a video course. For example, if you're a trainer, maybe you create a video course that shows your customers monthly training routines and proper technique so they can look great in three months. Hold on. Why did I just do this? What is this lift? That's not even a real lift. This. That's why I'm not selling a video course on personal training. Now, no matter how you brainstorm your ideas, the key thing to remember is that there needs to be real people who are able and willing to pay for your service. Now here's a simple, powerful framework to find the right business idea that will actually help you eliminate 50 to 75% of your bad ideas. Those are the ones that sound good on paper but won't actually pay. This framework is called the Pay Certainty technique. It makes certain that people are actually going to pay for your idea. Let's say that you love clothes. Everybody's always commenting on how great your style is. You decide, hey, I think I want to be a personal stylist. How do you decide if this is a good idea? With the Pay Certainty technique, you take your product or service idea and you go deeper into who the customer is. And then you ask yourself these two questions. Do they have the ability to pay for this? And do they have the willingness to pay for this? Let me show you how this simple framework works. Let's take three potential customers of your personal styling service and let's run them through the Pay Certainty technique. First off, 18 year old college students. Do they have the ability to pay for a personal stylist? No. They're poor. They have no money. Do they have the willingness to pay for it? No, they don't care. They wear disgusting soiled hoodies, they roll out of bed, their T shirt looks like it was rubbed in oil and they are happy about it. They have no ability and no willingness to pay. Don't serve this market. It's a trap. Now let's try another customer base. 65 year old retirees. Do they have the ability to pay for a personal stylist? Yeah, they probably have some money to be able to do it. Do they have the willingness to pay for it? Maybe, maybe not at this point. Maybe they have developed their style or they're not necessarily going to places that require them to be constantly shopping for new things. Maybe they just don't give a damn. Am I generalizing? Yes. Am I okay with that at this stage? Yes, because later I'm going to test it. What you can see so far is the 18 year old college kids and the 65 year old retirees are probably not the best client base for this idea. Now let's go to 35 to to 40 year old senior executives. Do they have the ability to pay for a personal stylist? Yes, they're executives. They have the money. Do they have the willingness to pay for it? Yes, they do. Because they know that the way they look and the way they are perceived at work is important to their corporate careers. Do you see how just with this simple framework we have eliminated the vast majority of customers with this idea just by asking ourselves to two simple questions. Do they have the ability to pay? And do they have the willingness to pay? Now you know what market to pursue. This is amazing because you don't have to waste your time pursuing a market that will Never pay. Step 2 Give yourself a financial cushion. Now listen up because this is really important for starting a business. The most helpful thing you can do as you start your business is to build a cushion or a financial buffer that will give you some breathing room to experiment and learn and build your business. So I actually recommend you keep your current job, don't quit and go full time on your business. Right at first. I always recommend starting it on the side, starting to prove out the idea, start to earn some extra money. Then you can decide maybe you want to keep this side business, a side business. Maybe you want to create a rule for when to know when you can go full time. This is exactly what I did. I made a rule for myself. I was working at a full time job and my side business started to really take off. And my rule was I, I'm not even going to think about quitting until my side business makes more than my full time business. Three months in a row, not once, not twice, three consecutive months. That means it's not a fluke. I've got something real here. So for example, if you make $5,000 a month at your full time job, your side business might need to make at least 5,500 bucks three months in a row in order for you to comfortably quit your job. That was my rule. You, yours might be different. You might say I want to be earning 75% as much as my full time job or I want 1,200 customers. It's up to you. It's your rich life, your rules, whatever you decide to do, I recommend you start your new business on the side because it gives you a lot more flexibility and control. Now that you've got an amazing idea and you've created a rule for if and when you want to go full time on that business. That brings me to step three. Worry about the essentials and forget about the rest. And honestly, let me tell you what you think is essential at the beginning of your business probably isn't. Let me show you. The business I built. I Will Teach youh to Be Rich has generated millions and millions of dollars and no one on my team has business cards. Do you think we've ever lost a student or a client because we don't have business cards? No. Zero times even. My first website back in 2004 was awful. I used a free template. I didn't put ads. I had no revenue model. I didn't know how to add a newsletter opt in. I just wanted to get started. So instead of focusing on things like business cards or fancy looking websites or even professional photography, I focused on the things that were actually important at that stage. For me it was writing great material and that has made all the difference. So what do you really need? Well, I think it's simple. I think there are three things. Number one, something to sell that's a product or a service. Number two, someone to sell it to a customer who wants what you have and is happy to pay. And third, some way of communicating with them or marketing. That's it. I often see too many people, especially beginning entrepreneurs, get caught up in needing everything. Don't fall into this trap. You only need three things you can always improve later. Which brings me to step four. Find your best customers. Now here's where a lot of beginning entrepreneurs get stuck. So listen carefully. Your business is not just your idea, it's applying that idea to the right audience. And this is a critical thing to understand. Just as I talked about applying the personal styling example to the right audience, in this section I'm going to share my exact strategy for finding your best style customers. Let me show you what I mean. If I asked, what's your market? The most common response is everyone. No. The more you focus down on your audience, the more you can speak to your customer in a way that makes your business irresistible. Think about it. I could be sitting out here giving five tips to save money on cucumbers. That's not a market I want. That's not an idea I resonate with. But I am talking about money. I'm showing you how to make more money, how to spend your money meaningfully, how to engage in your relationship about money, and most importantly, how to live a rich life. That's why you're watching this Video. That's why I'm talking about business right now. Now that you've got the potential idea to sell, I want you to start thinking about your market. I'm going to show you how to find out who your best potential customers are. And these aren't only the people you'll sell to. That's just a starting point. One of the simplest ways to start defining your market is to pick a real person. You know, meeting someone with their first name, last name, could be a friend, cousin, coworker, whoever. This person would benefit from your help and your services. Quick little tip. A lot of times our target customer is actually us. Just one or two or five years ago. For example, let's say that you're a new mother who figured out how to change the way you raise your baby. Maybe you figured out how to overcome tantrums, or maybe you figured out how to help your baby sleep better at night. This is a perfect example of you learning something that you would have happily paid for one to five years ago. Now that you have that potential customer in mind, we're going to go a little bit deeper using what I call the two qualifier method. This method will help you narrow your target customers even more. Here's what it looks like. Qualifier 1 is the real person or the audience that you thought of. And Qualifier 2 gets even more specific. You can base it on location, industry, education, income level, a life situation like getting married, getting divorced, having children, or common interests like they love to run or they work at a nonprofit. From here, you want to get deeply into the mind of your customer. Let's call her Lisa. And let's think about what she really wants. Where does she hang out? What does she struggle with? What words does she use to describe her struggle? What blogs, websites, magazines, TV shows does she consume? And most importantly, what is her big problem? Does she want more time? Does she want more help with her children? Does she want to simply feel better for five minutes a day? Whatever it is, the two qualifier method helps you start thinking about your target market as specifically as you possibly can. With all of these insights, you start to be able to easily choose your pricing, your marketing methods, and most importantly, the exact language you will use in your offer so that it becomes an irresistible must buy for your target customer. Now that you've found your best customer, the next step is step number five. Get your first sale. You've got a product, You've got an audience of potential customers. Now it's time to start outreach. And when you're learning how to start A business, you have to be willing to put in a little bit of extra work to compensate for the lack of a budget. No business worth having was ever built without some real sweat equity. It takes work at the beginning, but you can do it. Here's how to get your first sale. Start by reaching out to your close friends, your close family, or anyone you know who's in your target customer base and ask if they know anyone who would benefit from what you're selling. The idea here is to get creative and to put in the reps to bring in a few first customers or clients. Now let me tell you something. Your first customer might be your mom. Your second customer might be your cousin. But your third customer, someone you've never met until now, might. That changes everything. You start to realize that, whoa, somebody actually handed over their credit card because they are willing to pay me for something that I can give them. That is a magical moment. Have you ever been to a restaurant where you see small business owner, they have a dollar bill hung up behind glass on the wall that means more to them than you can possibly imagine because it was their first dollar they got in their business. I want the exact same thing for you. I remember I sold a $4.95 ebook. I literally thought maybe 50 people would buy it. And I still have the first email I got when somebody went to the PayPal page, put in their credit card and it sent an email to me. I will never forget. $4.95. The number means nothing but. But the fact that someone from somewhere in the world was willing to spend money on something I created was magic because I knew if I could sell $4.95, then I can sell $50. If I can sell $50, I can sell $500 and so on. Now, there are certain best practices when doing outreach to get your first sale, and these took me years to understand. But I'm just going to share them with you right now. If you follow these best practices, you you're going to send meaningful outreach through emails, DMs, or anywhere else that people actually want to respond and eventually buy your product or service. Keep it clear. Keep it to the point. I have a rule for writing Every word must earn its way on the page. Whether it's our 77 page, sales page or emails, our webinars, all of the content and messaging has to be respectful of the other person's time. Avoid III syndrome. A lot of people start off by saying, I started this business because I wanted to. I grew up under a palm tree. I I I just tell them how this is going to help them. Put yourself in the shoes of the recipient. Would you want what's being offered to them? If so, great. If not, what would make you want it? What would make it compelling for the prospect? Address the individual needs of the customer. Think about the needs of the person you're reaching out to. If you're not sure what their needs are, find out by spending time to research them and then tailor your pitch to that person. Add a specific call to action. Remember your message is but a moment in their day. They get dozens, probably hundreds of emails. People get distracted. So if there is a clear call to action, your message can be better received. Be clear on what the next steps you want the prospect to take. Establish your credibility. The fastest way to establish your credibility is to list past clients. They can be mutual friends, reputable people in their industry, recognizable brands, or if you're just starting out, make people an enviable offer. Say, normally I would charge $150 for this, but for the next few clients, I'm going to be offering a special discount in exchange. If I get you amazing results, I would love it if you could offer a testimonial. Remember to have patience while working on getting your first sale. Sending pitches, in many ways is like first dates. You're not going to go out and get married the first time. It's going to take a while and you have to find out what you like and your prospects are going to find out. If they like you, then you adapt along the way. Remember, you're not banking on any single pitch. You're going to keep looking for prospects, keep reaching out. One or two of them per day and they're going to hit eventually. You're going to get better with practice. Now, before we get to step six, if you're not already subscribed here on YouTube, hit that subscribe button for me and turn on notifications so you don't miss out on any of my new videos on money. Alright, this last step is really important if you want to grow a successful business. Step 6 Plan for your biggest growth ahead when you make your first dollar, it's hard not to see a path to a hundred, a thousand, ten thousand six figures, potentially even more. It's feasible. It's achievable. You have to remember that when you truly understand your business, you realize business is not magic, it's just math. But there are a few key points you need to consider when scaling your business. You got to be excited about what you're doing in my experience, the single biggest predictor I've ever seen for the long term success of a business is if the CEO actually enjoys what they're doing. Because if the CEO is not enjoying it, the rest of the business is not going to grow. Remember, if you're doing something you don't like, certainly something you don't love, six months from now or six years from now, it's going to catch up with you. Now, for those of you who don't know, IWT started with me trying to give free talks about money to my classmates in college. And I say trying because I did it for a year and a half. Almost nobody ever came, but I was still pumped. I knew there was something the world needed to hear. And I just. Look, I took a hard look at myself and I realized I'm not doing something right. I don't know what it is, but I'm not connecting. Then I decided to pivot. I made a change. I said the idea is good, but the way I'm delivering it is not. I'm going to change. Instead of trying to give talks, I created an ugly blog that at first nobody read, but then five people started to read and then 10 people. And every day I was sending emails and getting to know people. Maybe it worked, maybe not. I wasn't selling anything, I made no money, but I still loved it. And when I got one comment and five comments, it was like gold. And now, 20 years later, I'm sitting here recording this video you're watching and I'm still having fun. I love what I do. I get to go on Netflix. I get to host a podcast with couples where they say things they've never said in public. I also love that I've created a 100% remote business that helps millions of people change their lives. And my team gets to have an amazing place of employment where they can affect all those people. I love that my business lets my team and my students create their rich lives and it helps me lead my rich life. If you're excited like I'm excited, your customers will get excited too. And that is how you create a winning business for the long term. Next, consider how you want to scale. And here are a few questions you should be asking yourself to understand what to do if and when you decide to grow. Do I need to take out a business loan? Do I have capital needs? Should I post freelance jobs and hire contractors to help me scale? At what point do I go with full time employees? Should I go nine to five? Should I go part time? How Much risk am I willing to take to grow this business? Now listen, most people do not want to grow their business past a few hundred thousand dollars a year because at each stage you're going to have to learn new things. That's totally fine. It's up to you to decide how big you want your business to be and how you want to run your business. You are the CEO, it's your choice. And then accept that it will take time to grow. A lot of times we see other successful business owners, we go, I want that. It looks like it happened overnight, but we rarely dig into how it actually happened. To behind the scenes, think about learning to play the piano. You're on social media, you see some piano master playing all this stuff, you go, that looks cool. How long did it take? Probably like a month. I could probably do that. We don't realize that that person's been playing for 15 years and they love it every day. Building a business is a skill. We can get better at the skill of growing our business. We do that by creating something that the market wants and we know that they want it because they are happy to pay us. But we have to be patient. We have to know that this is a skill. Sometimes it's going to go up, sometimes it's going to go down. It's going to be really hard. But in the end, for entrepreneurs who have made it, they will all tell you, yes, it was one of the hardest things I ever did and I love it. So how do you do it? Listen to your customers. Remember that you don't need everyone, just the right people. Iterate and refine your offer. It's fine if your first offer is not great, neither was mine. You're going to try it again. Trust yourself that you're going to keep listening and improving and you're going to learn to master the skill of selling. Whether it's online, in person, automated email funnels, sales calls. The more you practice, the better you will get. Remember, if you only focus on doing something you love but you're not getting paid, that's not a business, that's a hobby. When you pair something you enjoy, something you're skilled at, with improving your business skills over time and you make sure that that it's valuable enough for people to pay you, now you have a profitable business. Remember, think long term. Year one crawl Year two walk Year three run. Alright, I hope this video helps you start your side business and shows you how to grow it into something you will be proud of. Now check out this video popping up on screen next to watch more.