How to Start a Business From Nothing (Thank Me Later)
5 sections
- 0:02Learned the importance of resourcefulness, bartering, and minimizing expenses to sustain and grow a gym business with limited funds.
- “People will reach out and help. People will be way more willing if you got it all figured out.”4:22
- 5:36Seeking advice, shadowing experienced owners, and investing in education helped avoid costly mistakes and accelerated growth.
- “Whenever I enter anything, I always just pay if I can to get access to people who are already doing it.”6:08
- 6:41Continually asking questions, observing, and being open to change ensures ongoing improvement and adaptation in business.
- 6:53Focus on market selection, smart equipment purchases, and leveraging community connections to optimize operations and profitability.
- “The meaning of life is learning, to change behavior based on the conditions.”6:53
- 7:05Take advantage of entrepreneurs' willingness to help early on, using their insights strategically as a competitive advantage.
- “And so take advantage of that. Like this is a strategic advantage that you have when you're starting out is that people are willing to help especially other entrepreneurs.”7:05
- 7:42Prioritize marketing and pre-sales before opening locations; delay delivery to maximize initial revenue and establish a strong presence.
- “We need to start doing is marketing and selling as fast as possible and then delay delivering as long as possible.”7:42
- 9:16Use pre-sales to assess market quality, avoiding risky long-term leases and reducing financial exposure.
- “So instead of signing a beginning to market to figure out whether it's a good location, reserve the location until after pre-sales, to reduce risk.”9:16
- 10:22Create frequent, slightly varied ads to keep campaigns fresh, utilizing creative as part of targeting to attract the right audience.
- “The creative itself now becomes part of targeting, attracting similar audiences with tailored ads.”10:22
- 12:49Identify your business stage using a tailored report, helping you understand constraints and next steps for growth.
- “I broke up the stages of business into 10 stages and used a custom report tool to identify constraints and next steps.”12:49
- 16:50Focus on making onboarding smooth and risk-free, providing easy entry points with satisfaction guarantees to outspend competitors and dominate markets.
- 18:42Avoid ego-driven overspending; keep cash in the business to fuel growth, and take money out when comfortable to reduce stress and improve decision-making.
- “You finally get in shape. You find a community of people and you actually stick with this for life.”19:08
- 20:11Gradually improved accountability and accessibility by simplifying programs, and learned to ask specific questions to understand client needs better.
- “Pain increases their desire to change. So think about it this way. You want to sell at the point of greatest deprivation.”24:47
- 24:53Sell at peak deprivation by emphasizing pain points and creating vivid vacation scenarios to increase desire for change.
- 26:06Leverage bonuses and targeted discounts as advertising tools, and tailor offers to overcome customer obstacles and objections.
- “Any kind of discount I’ll have my terms will change to all the advertising they will allow me to do, which is worth more to me than whatever the discount is.”27:22
- 28:09Created templated solutions like budget guides and at-home workouts to handle customer objections efficiently, ensuring better engagement and sales success.
- “They’re save money on this plan. And they’re what if I uh like what if I don’t know what about working out when I’m away?”28:23
- 30:34The core of success is identifying what customers truly seek, which is community and accountability, not just the physical equipment or traditional amenities.
- “What they were coming for was the accountability and the quality of the people they liked.”30:34
- “Like what problem does this solve? Where does this fit in your life?”31:34
- 31:36Talking directly to customers helps identify their real needs, guiding better investments and improvements in the service, such as focusing on community and environment over technical details.
- 35:18Collecting and displaying proof, like testimonials and before-and-after images, builds trust and eases purchase fears, making it easier to attract new customers.
- “Proof system and displaying. So it's both collection and displaying of the proof.”35:18
- 35:33Effective partnerships bring complementary assets, expertise, or funds. Avoid partnerships with friends where roles and compensation are unclear, to prevent conflicts.
- “All right. So I have this really nice acronym for partners I’m going to share with you.”35:33
- 40:51Creating internal growth opportunities, like location transfers for exemplary employees, fosters loyalty and organic growth within businesses.
- “Creating a clear career path within the business can become a simple and effective way to foster organic growth.”40:51
- 42:11Focus on perfecting core operations before expansion; rushing can cause setbacks and customer churn. Patience ensures sustainable growth.
- “Nail the core processes before you scale, or risk losing customers and creating chaos.”42:11
- 67:21Deliver excellent products and understand customer needs to generate word-of-mouth and organic growth, which are more valuable than quick scaling.
- “Getting outstanding customer referrals and delivering products customers love can build a sustainable, organic growth engine.”67:21
- 67:41Prioritize working leads effectively and simplify sales processes to increase conversions exponentially, rather than obsessing over minor improvements.
- “Focusing on working leads and simplifying sales processes results in a significant boost in sales effectiveness.”67:41
- 75:05Recognize that different employees are motivated by different factors. Personalize management strategies to align with individual motivations.
- “People are motivated by different things; understanding this leads to better management and employee retention.”75:05