Hey

Great idea! I'm currently in the process of launching two online businesses.

This is the process I've gone through so far:

1. Decide what business you want to launch - product or service business. Either option has pros and cons depending on the type of product or service.

2. Define your niche and target audience. Where do they hang out online, what do they do, why would they use your product or service.

3. Join Facebook Groups and Discord channels, Reddit and Quora threads with discussions around your niche and target audience and start engaging and answering questions and providing recommendations..

4. Launch a blog or YouTube channel and start documenting your journey about the online business you are launching and the product or service you have in mind.

5. Offer a free trial of your service or sample of your product to capture email addresses and start building an email list of potential future clients.

6. Once you have an MVP of your product or service, launch and get feedback from your audience about changes and improvements to your product or service. Build up testimonials as social proof.

For products, if you are offering physical products you want to have a number of sales channels like Amazon, eBay etc and you need to consider sourcing suppliers and drop shipping etc which involves quite a few moving parts.

If you want a good template to follow for an online business, read Tim Ferris 4 Hour Workweek - packed full of nuggets and has helped with my online businesses.

Happy to have a chat and discuss further if you want a deeper dive on this.

Good luck!

Hey

Congrats on taking the initiative to want to support yourself and grow your independence.

My question to you would be - what do you enjoy doing most? Do you have hobbies and interests that you love?

Once you've established that, there are two approaches that you can take.

1. Find a job that pays you money to cover your living costs and doesn't require you to work 50/60 hour weeks. In your down time, use that to start a YouTube channel or a TikTok profile where you put out content around your passion. Build an audience. Then you can start to monetise that audience in a number of ways and before you know it, your living expenses will be covered by doing something you love and you can leave your job.

2. If you're living expenses are super low (living at home with parents) you can fast track your passion project and focus on content content content. Document your journey, don't create content that you think people will want to see.

My one recommendation to you right now is to spend 50 hours watching Gary Vee's YouTube channel and by the end of this learning experience you will have some useful tools and ideas that can help you start earning money online in the next 3-6 months.

Good luck!

Hey

I've had experience growing service businesses and agree with some of the answers you've received already.

The key is identifying the use of your time and it's already been mentioned that you are spending too much time working in your business instead of on your business.

My recommendation is to spend a week or two tracking your task and time so you get a clear picture of what you are spending your time on in your business. Using an app like Toggl will help with this.

Once your time has been tracked, you can review where you are spending your time and then applying the XDS approach to your tasks -> What can I eliminate entirely (X), what can I delegate (D) and what can I systematize (S).

If in doubt, be ruthless and eliminate.

Once you've gone through this process you can start executing the XDS method to free up your time - outsourcing and automation will be key to this. It seem like an uphill battle when you get started but as soon as you buy into the method and seeing the results (i.e. free time) then you can turn start answering your question of what you should focus on to scale up, because you will have the time and headspace to actually think about and try new tactics and strategies.

If you want to chat this through further and how you can implement and execute XDS I'd be happy to jump on a call!

Good luck

Hey

I used to have a rental arbitrage business where we were managing 75 units (mixed use for AirBnB and Co0Living) in the UK.

I would prepare for this eventuality upfront and speak with a lawyer to draft a template rental arbitrage lease for you to make sure that it's watertight and largely in your favour as the tenant.

Once you have this template document, you present it to the landlord as part of the offer that you put forward and explain that you have a standard set of terms for all of your rentals to enable a uniform management process for all of your properties.

The landlord may come back with amendments and then you enter a negotiation stage where you have deal points that you are prepared to accept, those where you are prepared to compromise and those which are deal breakers and you're not prepared to accept.

If you don't have a standard document that you use, you can spend a lot of time, effort and money on lawyers fees having to review different leases from different landlords, which is not cost or time effective.

Hope that helps and if you want a deeper dive to go through some specific points I'd be happy to jump on a call.

Good Luck!

I'm going through a similar process at the moment with one of my business.

The quickest and simplest way I've found is by offering your service for free to a handful or people in your existing network.

Explain to them that you are starting out with your coaching + consultancy business, explain the value and the help that you are able to provide with your service and that you are happy to provide this service to them for free for a period of time in exchange for them providing you with a testimonial at the end of this period of time with feedback on their experience of your service.

These testimonials can then be used in your marketing for paid clients and you will also gain hands-on experience while you are providing free advice, which means you can test ideas, strategies, tactics, tools etc, and be able to offer a better service to paying clients - which feeds the cycle of testimonials and social proof, which will benefit your business and service in the long run.

Making the investment in time and effort upfront will pay off in the long run and you have to be patient with this approach. The good thing is, because you are offering a service for free to your existing network should present you with plenty of opportunities to develop your service offering for paid clients and find willing takers for your free service.

Hope you find this useful and if you want to talk through specific strategies and tactics that you can use I'd be happy to jump on a call and help.

Good luck!

The answers lies ultimately in what's the biggest pull for the student.

Have they validated their business idea from by testing their product (or service) in the market and received feedback that there is demand for this product (or service).

The validation can be done alongside their studies by planning out their time each week and allocating time towards both their studies and testing the business idea. This will mean sacrificing other commitments (social or otherwise),which comes back to what the biggest pull is for the student.

If they are committed then they can study and start the business at the same time by being disciplined. If the business takes of to such an extent that the opportunity of growing and scaling the business to profitability is greater in the long run than finishing their studies then that is a decision only they can make in light of the information infront of them.

If the business has lesser success and enables them to finish their studies in the meantime before fully committing to the business then this is another decision that only they can make in light of the information infront of them.

Education is important and so is the concept of nurturing creativity and taking calculated risks. Evaluating the scenario comes down to opportunity management and deciding on the option that is the best fit for the student once a full assessment has been made of the options.

Also bear in mind that just because the student might quit their education right now to pursue the greater business opportunity (once their use case and product/service has been proven) doesn't mean that they cannot return to their studies at a later stage as and when they decide.

Wish them all the best and if they want to talk things through further, I'd be happy to help.

That depends on your personal situation and what you enjoying doing to wind down and relax.

My aim during a holiday is always to unwind, reflect and prepare. Unwind from the stress and busyness that you've recently experienced. Reflect on the progress made during this time, the wins, the loses and the changes that need to be made in the weeks and months ahead. Plan the next 3/6/12 months by setting out clear goals and markers to work towards achieving so you have direction and purpose once you've spent time relaxing and are ready to get back at it.

Depending on your personal situation, spending time with family, kids, friends or in solituted to get back in touch with yourself is also a useful and necessary part of the process.

What do you plan on doing in your holiday?

Having looked through the answers to this question already, plenty of options have been provided which are good resources for you to check out.

My personal favorites are edx.org and LinkedIn Learning.

You should also check out Harvard Business Reviews learning resources and library - online text and video content specifically around business, management, and finance which I've found super useful.

Something a little left field as well is to head over to Mindvalley.com which has some interesting quests around business and management.

Also, check out Masterclass.com which has some useful courses, from successful CEOs and entrepreneurs, similar to Mindvalley, around business and management.

All the best for you learning and development!