If I Started a Business Again Today, I'd Do This

In this new series, I will share my knowledge and experience of starting, growing, and scaling a profitable business. The focus is on the feel-good business model that allows for financial success with minimal stress. We will discuss three types of business models: traditional businesses, high growth startups, and feel-good businesses. Then we'll explore a five-step framework for building a feel-good business and learn from mistakes made along the way.

This chapter introduces the concept of a feel-good business charter and shares some personal notes on creating one. The purpose of a feel-good business is to prioritize personal fulfillment, meaningful work, and positive impact. The principles include enjoying the journey, cultivating positive relationships, embracing autonomy, diversifying clientele, prioritizing slow sustainable growth with a small efficient team.

Traditional Business Model A traditional business focuses on steady and moderate growth, with profit as the main objective. It requires moderate capital investment and has a formal hierarchical structure. Work-life balance is not a priority.

High Growth Startup Model "High growth startups aim for rapid and exponential growth by investing heavily in venture capitalist money. Work-life balance is sacrificed for the sake of growth, and organizational structures are flexible."

Feel Good Business Model The feel good business model prioritizes fun, freedom, flexibility, lifestyle optimization over rapid growth or high profits. Capital requirements are low or can be bootstrapped. Work-life balance is highly valued.

In this chapter, we will discuss a framework for building a feel-good business. The framework consists of five key steps.

To build a feel-good business, start by identifying the skill you are passionate about and market validate the idea. A feel-good business is centered around a skill that you enjoy as the owner or creator. It should be intrinsically enjoyable for you to do the work. Ask yourself how you would choose to spend your time if money was not an issue, and try out different things to discover what skills energize rather than drain you.

To start a successful business, you need to choose your business model and find ways to generate leads for your product. There are three main ways to make money: service business, product business, or content business. A service-based business involves providing services in exchange for payment. A product-based business involves creating and selling products using your skills. And a content-based businesses involve creating free online content monetized through advertising or by selling products/services to the audience you build up over time. For example, if you're passionate about woodworking, you can offer woodworking as a service where you design custom furniture for clients or tweak their setups at their homes. Alternatively, you can create products using your woodworking skills and sell them to a mass audience that appreciates handmade items. Lastly, consider starting an online platform where you share tutorials on woodworking techniques.

To turn your passion or skill into a successful business, you need to create a minimum viable product (MVP). This is the simplest version of your idea that can be launched and tested in the market. Avoid spending years developing your product in isolation; instead, focus on getting it out there quickly to gather feedback. Being nimble and adaptable is crucial for building a feel-good business that aligns with your desired lifestyle.

"Step 4 can't really build a business out of it, it's just going to be a hobby rather than a business." Scaling sustainably and optimizing for balance is crucial. It's important to recognize that building a feel-good business should be sustainable from day one. While hard work may be necessary in the early days, future videos will explore specific methods for sustainable scaling.

Step five in this process is to periodically re-evaluate and pivot your business. It's important to question if what you're currently doing aligns with your long-term goals. For example, even though our course was successful, I realized it wasn't something I wanted to continue doing in the long run. So we pivoted from running live cohort courses to offering a pre-recorded Evergreen course instead. This decision may result in less revenue but prioritizes lifestyle and freedom.

Market Validation One common mistake in feel-good businesses is ignoring market validation. Many people focus on creating content they enjoy without considering if there is a market for it. A business needs to add value and make money, so finding the right balance between personal enjoyment and market demand is crucial.

Scaling Too Fast 'Scale too fast' was another mistake made by the speaker about a year ago. It's tempting to expand rapidly when things are going well, but sustainable growth allows for better problem-solving and prevents overwhelming stress. Setting realistic growth targets helps maintain balance and overall well-being.