Ep02 Transcript: How to Choose a Business Idea

In this episode, we will review the 5 action steps Michael Stelzner, founder of Social Media Examiner, takes when he decides he wants to start a new business.

Andrea Vahl: Hello Dreamers. I’m Andrea Vahl and I am going to dive deeper into Mike Stelzner’s Episode 01 with my top takeaways because he had such amazing little knowledge bombs that he shared with us, and I highly encourage you to go back and listen to that episode if you haven’t already. It was amazing, but let me share the top takeaways in a short format.

Introduction: Hello Dreamers. Welcome to the Late Starters Club, giving you the inspiration, mindset, and tools you need to start something midlife and beyond. Remember, it’s never too late to follow your dreams.

Andrea Vahl: So what does Michael do when he is starting something new, like a business, that has made him so successful?

And I want you to pay attention to each of these steps because this can be a great lesson for you if you are thinking of starting a new business. So let’s break it down.

Number one is he talked about watching the trends in the marketplace.

What are people talking about? Maybe you’re looking at social media and noticing the conversations there. We’re gonna dive into the tools that you can use to watch the trends on Quick Fix Friday, but they involve things like Google Trends, maybe you’re watching certain hashtags to see the conversations that are happening around that and noticing that you can start a business because there’s a lot of people who are interested in that topic.

Then step number two was that he noticed there was a hole in the market.

There wasn’t anyone doing a great event around Web3 and putting together great events is one of Michael’s strong suits, as well as creating amazing content in that space.

So he was able to add his unique voice and unique spin in his crypto business podcast and then prepare to develop that into an awesome event.

Step number three is to leverage the assets you already have.

Now, in this case, Mike had a great email list full of entrepreneurs, business owners, small businesses, that he could then introduce this topic in this podcast to, and it would hopefully fit their needs and fit their interests as well. So that was a great asset that he already had.

Now you might not have a huge list of people. If you’re starting something from scratch, that’s okay. Just go ahead and list some of the assets you might have. Maybe your asset is time. Maybe you’ve got all kinds of time to start something new. Maybe your asset is money. That case, that’s great. You can use paid ad platforms to push that business out a little bit further into the world. Maybe your asset is some of the friends in your space where you can start networking with them, start making those connections. So list those assets as well.

Step number four was he was going to use content marketing to grow this business.

So it’s important to know exactly what your model is going to be to grow this business. Content marketing is a fantastic model and you don’t have to be everywhere with your content marketing.

You could just start a podcast by itself. Start a blog by itself. Start recording videos. Maybe it’s doing webinars or even just doing something like events where you’re putting out content and getting people connected into your business. That’s exactly how I started. I started doing free events and webinars and doing blog posts. So it works for a lot of different types of businesses.

As Michael said, content marketing can be the key to anyone’s success, and you don’t have to do everything all at once. Just starting in a couple of key places can be a great way to get started.

Now step number five is that he did not risk more than was necessary to start this business.

He knew that he had good cash flow coming in from his business. He could start this up in a bigger way, and I am a huge proponent of that as well. Make sure that you are not doing something so risky that you are setting yourself up for failure, like thinking you have to quit your job in order to start this new thing.

What Michael has done in all of his new startups is that he has started them alongside something that’s already working, something successful, and he is growing it in a way that is not going to break the bank, so to speak. So that’s a great thing to do as well.

And all of these steps can help when things get a little bit scary. It’s scary to start something new and your monkey mind can come into play.

Or maybe it’s a well-meaning relative or friend that comes in and says, “What Sam Hill do you think you’re doing here?”

And you can say, “I am starting a business and I’m starting it in the right way. With all the right steps. I’m not taking too many risks. I’m excited about this new project and I know that with time and energy it’s going to work because I’ve got a plan.”

And we’ll see you to dive a little bit deeper on Quick Fix Friday.

Outro: Hope that was helpful, and make sure you grab the free guide Top Tools for Late Starters on the website at latestartersclub.com and let’s turn dreaming into doing.