Round 3: Business edition.

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Business, the basics, round 3:

We all want a better life, but only some want to be a business owner or work all day, every day.

The wonder of 2024 is that you can choose! 

There are plenty of options when it comes to achieving wealth.

So, as promised, let’s explore the Lean Startup Method and the New Rich Lifestyle in more detail.

The Lean Startup Method - Steering Stage:

Like a rocket, you need to be constantly steering after the launch, or you will get lost, crash, and burn! 

When you launch the first MVP, you test your business's leap-of-faith assumptions, which everything depends on:

 The value hypothesis (the actual value you give to people) and the growth hypothesis (the sustainability of the business growth).

After, you will start the Feedback Loop, forever!

-> Have you passed these tests with the first MVP? 

You can only advance if you do... No skipping steps!

Build-Measure-Learn

Ideas-Build -> Product-Measure -> Data-Learn

This is the feedback loop. You will constantly use it to steer your business to success and sustainability.

In the Ideas-Build stage, you create new and improved MPVs.

In the Product-Measure stage, you present the MPVs to the audience/clients for testing.

In the Data-Learn stage, you compile and collect the test results to learn if there’s real progress.

You repeat this loop with every improvement or alteration you make to the product or service. In the end, before you repeat the loop, you make a decision: 

Do you preserve your strategy because it’s working, or do you need to pivot because the business is not sustainable?

->Measuring is the major step in this loop, but don’t be vain! Your measures need to be actionable, accessible, and auditable.

Main Strategy Pivots:

Zoom-in Pivot: where one feature of a product becomes the complete product.

Zoom-out Pivot: where a product becomes one feature of a much larger product.

Customer Segment Pivot: where the hypothesis is partially confirmed, you are solving a problem, but for a different audience than you initially assumed.

Customer Need Pivot: where the hypothesis is partially confirmed, the target audience has a problem you can solve, just not the one you initially assumed. 

Platform Pivot: where you change from an application

 to a platform or vice versa.

Business Architecture Pivot: where you switch between the 2 architectures: a complex systems model (high margin, low volume) or a volume operations model (low margin, high volume).

Engine of Growth Pivot: where you switch between the 3 major engines (viral, sticky, or paid growth) to seek faster or more profitable growth.

Channel Pivot: where you change the product delivery mechanism for your customers.

Technology Pivot: where you find a new technology for better performance and cost efficiency.

-> All entrepreneurs need to confront the business results and a need to pivot it’s not a failed business. Courage and pivot as many times as you need to!

New Rich - New Rules

1.Retirement is Worst-Case-Scenario Insurance.

Treat retirement money like a reservoir of capital to survive.

2.Interest and Energy are Cyclical.

You need to alternate periods of activity and rest to survive, let alone thrive.

3.Less is Not Laziness.

Focus on being productive, not busy.

4.The Timing is Never Right.

Just do it and correct the course along the way.

5.Ask for Forgiveness, Not Permission.

Most people try to stop you before you start, but they will not get in the way if you’re already moving.

6.Emphasize Strengths, Don’t Fix Weaknesses.

Focus on using your best weapons, not on repairing your weaknesses.

7.Things in Excess became their Opposite.

It is possible to have too much of a good thing.

8.Money Alone is Not the Solution.

Life problems are more than money, not having it is not an excuse not to solve them.

9.Relative Income is More Important than Absolute Income.

You work 80 hours a week, I work 10 hours, and we both make 50k a year. Who dies richer? –Me.

10.Distress is Bad, Eustress is Good.

Distress is harmful and makes you weaker. Eustress is euphoria and makes you push your limits.

-> Can you implement these new rules for your new life?

This is how you beat the game, not just play it.

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Last thoughts:

Wealth is available for both the business-working soul and the freedom-searching soul. The paths are just different.

Something common for both is fear, fear of even trying, etc, and that’s normal. To conquer your fears, you just need to define them. Answer these:

What are you putting off because of fear? 

What is the worst that can happen if you go for it? 

Can you repair the potential damage? 

How? Define the steps.

What would be the outcome?

Would it cost you more to do it or not do it?

What are you waiting for?

I can’t give you a surefire formula for success, but I can give you a formula for failure: try to please everybody all the time. – Herbert Bayard Swope

->Things are always a lot worse in our heads than in real life.

There’s no problem our mind can’t solve if we need to.

See you in a week.

Your Zine.