The 3 Most Common Questions Early Entrepreneurs Have

Dear Friend,

you can build a business in one day and become wealthier and more fulfilled than you could ever imagine is possible.

I explained how to do it in my last newsletter issue.

If you've missed it, you can check it out here.

Upon reading, some people hit me back with a few legitimate questions:

1. How do I stand out in the market?

2. How can I do better than other, more established companies?

3. How can I do something different?

Today, I'll lay out the best solutions I've discovered from the work of accomplished entrepreneurs like Alex Hormozi, Daniel Priestley, Chris Do, and David Perell to help your business become competitive from day one.

Ready?

Go!

1. How do I stand out in the market?

We tend to think of the market as one finite pond where every fish has to fight for its space.

Unfortunately, ponds have rules that apply to all fish in them.

So, while we strive to stand out in the pond, what we're really doing is being the same as everyone else.

Eventually, it becomes a matter of size: the biggest fish wins all the space.

Instead, you should completely change the pond you swim in.

There are several ways to do that. A popular one is to niche down. I’ll explain.

Imagine you're a manager for XXX company and want to start your own gig.

You could sell management live courses or package them into offline courses.

At this stage, your potential pond would be:

People who need management skills.

Too big, too much competition. Let's change ponds:

People who need management skills -> Newly promoted managers.

Still broad.

People who need management skills -> Newly promoted managers -> Newly promoted managers who work in IT companies.

Now we're talking. I bet the competition in this pond will be less fierce.

Keep niching down and changing ponds until you find one where you can swim comfortably.

Capiche?

You get the point. You wouldn't be subscribed to this newsletter if you didn't.

2. How can I do better than other, more established companies?

Sometimes you can find a comfortable pond for you to swim in. Unfortunately, this is not always the case.

Some fish are so big and strong that they can swim everywhere.

It was the case when I started advertising my teaching business on Google. I would rarely get any traffic despite my efforts.

The big fish were always winning all the visitors.

Visitors knew they had a problem to solve and they were looking for the best solution: the big fish.

So, if you're just starting off, you've got to change strategy.

What you should do is target people who have a problem they're not yet aware of.

Someone who doesn't know they have a problem will be more likely to listen to who revealed the problem to them.

One way to go after that kind of prospect is to advertise or create organic content on social media. (If you had some budget, I would give advertising a shot. It's faster and you can validate your idea pretty quickly).

There, people aren't really looking for solutions.

Surely you won't get as many clicks, but at least you have a chance to stand out against the big fish if your ad is the first one they see.

Pick a social media platform that fits your service or product.

• Professionals: LinkedIn

• Gen Z or students: TikTok

• Millennials: Instagram or Facebook

3. How can I do something different?

We think that to stand out, we need to be the next Steve Jobs.

So, we tell ourselves that we won't ever be able to build anything unless it is truly different and new.

I'll tell you one thing.

There are probably millions of businesses that make more than $1M a year you've never heard of.

So that's just an excuse, and you know that.

The reality is that failing is way more comfortable than finding solutions.

So we're OK with thinking that Steve Jobs was only one and there'll never be another one.

Why bother trying in the first place??

No, no, my friend. I'm here to tell you that standing out means doing 1% better. No more.

Let's take the example of a localization expert who would like to build a localization agency.

What would mean to be 1% better?

Finding out what customers of other agencies complain about and trying to do a little bit better.

Here's how:

1. Go to where your potential customers leave reviews, e.g., Amazon, Trustpilot, Google, etc.

2. Look out for complaints.

3. Pick one or two and figure out how you can do better.

4. Advertise your service, making sure to point that out.

In the case of our localization agency, for example, they might discover that:

• Other agencies aren't particularly responsive

• They don't offer free discovery calls.

• They use only AI for translations.

• They don't do social media content well.

• They don't localize into Korean.

Etc.

At that stage, it would be a matter of trying to do 1% better in those areas, making sure it stands out to their potential clients.

You get the point.

Alright.

These were some questions and answers I hope will help you solve common problems early entrepreneurs have when starting off.

Hope you liked them, and even better, "hope you'll do something with it."

Until next week…

Yours truly,

N.

Sent while trying to be the next Steve Jobs