In this email, I'm going to give you a blueprint for a business idea that's EASY to do. In fact, this is a side business that I started.

Here is what we'll cover in this email:

  • How I stumbled upon this
  • How you can replicate it 
  • How to scale to your first 1,000 customers
Step #1: The Opportunity

Because of COVID, interest in online education is higher than ever.

Check out how interest in these online learning sites and products has exploded over the year...


People are bored. Their jobs are threatened. But purse strings haven't tightened yet. Many are leveling up their skill sets. And picking up new hobbies to stay occupied.

In fact, many LMS and online learning businesses are having record-breaking months. 

This is Ankur Nagpal. The founder of Teachable. 



Opportunity: Millions are interested in online education. Topics that used to be of marginal interest have seen search volume and demand jump overnight. 


Step #2: What's the business idea? 

A few weeks ago, I asked our marriage counselor to host a series of workshops for my friends and family.

I saw the need for better tools between couples starting to spike as we all began spending much more time cooped up together.

Here is what I did: 
  • I asked our counselor to teach
  • He agreed
  • I handled tech 
  • I invited people
  • I charged $25
  • He taught 
  • We met every Thursday night at 7:30pm
121 couples registered and we generated $3,025 in revenue!

The workshop was a success and people loved it!

So, what's the business idea in this? 

Here are a few things you could do with this concept: 

1. Host a workshop: Do what I did. Find an expert. Be the expert. Invite everyone you know.  
2. Host a series of workshops: Keep doing it. Rotate topics every month. Repeat customers. 
3. Turn into a course and coaching business. Host the workshops. Then create a course out of it. Offer high end coaching off the back end. 

What topics could you host these workshops around?
  • Leadership: Teach me how to lead through a crisis, how to retain and even attract new employees, how to budget and handle finances correctly, and how to keep from driving myself crazy. 
     
  • Marketing: Teach me how to have my best sales months ever, how to adjust my existing marketing campaigns, how to recruit top talent laid off at other places, and how to turn this into the best thing that's ever happened to our company. 
     
  • Marriage: Teach me how to not be driven insane by my spouse now that we spend 5x more time with each other, how to parent our kids better, how to have a better sexual relationship, and how to be a role model to those around us.
All of these topics are multi-part workshop series.

If you want even more ideas on topics that you could center your workshops around, read this article on how to find topics that are exploding in popularity right now. 


Step #3: Making the product

You could teach the workshops yourself. If you can, do that. It's easier. And cleaner. 

But I'm not a marriage expert so I brought one in. 

Here is what to do: 
  • Pick a topic of high interest
  • Use this to help 
  • Ask a few friends if they'd be interested 
  • I used Facebook for this
  • Make sure you get a lot of interest 
  • Collect 3 pre-pays of $25 
  • That's ultimate validation 
  • Find an expert
  • Ideally someone you know 
  • Give them a guaranteed fee
  • $250-500
  • Or teach yourself! :) 
Here is the post I made to gauge interest: 


Here is the script I used to ask our counselor to teach:


After you do your first workshop, decide what your next steps are. 

Do you want to do more? A series?
Do you want to double down on this topic and turn it into a legit business? 

You get to pick.

First step, clear $1,000 from your first workshop. 

Step #4: Getting your first 1,000 customers 

You know this is a big opportunity. I know it works, I just did it. And you know how to easily find topics that are exploding in interest.
So, how do you get customers? 

Phase #1: Your first 100 customers 

Do exactly what I did: 
- Invite everyone you know
- Phone contacts
- Linkedin contacts
- Facebook, Twitter, Snap chat
- Personally invite everyone you know 
- 1:1 invites
- Hand to hand combat
- Everyone that signs up ask them to invite 1 person 

Do this for 7 days and you'll have 100 customers.

Keep the price point low. I charged $25. No brainer price. Probably could creep that up some. But I wanted it to be a quick decision for people. 


Phase #2: First 500 customers 

If you decide to keep doing this, awesome, you now have a training business. Here is how I'd scale up to my first 1,000 customers with this.

The basics: 
- Keep hosting these monthly
- Touch different angles of the same topic
- Ask people what they want next
- Our people wanted to know about kids and sex (after marriage workshop)
- What is that for you? 
- Ask for next sale on the final week of 1st workshop
- Convert 30-60% of those people to the next one
- Put them all on a list and tell them the next workshop every month
- Asl for referrals

Scaling
- Make a list of 100 companies, influencers, software vendors, blogs and popular Facebook groups around the topic of your 1st workshop
- DM and email the owner of all of them
- Tell them what you do 
- Those that respond, ask them to partner with you

Reach out to 100, 10-20 will do it. Repeat every month. Wok your face off. Within 90 days you'll be at 500+ units sold per month.

At that point, you can start thinking about a recurring membership for all of your 2-3x repeat customers. 

MRR FTW!

…

Want help starting this business or growing your business? We run a 1:1 coaching program that does exactly that. Let's talk and work together. 

Book a strategy call with us here

-Bryan