Last week, I took a mini vacation to goa and came across this shop. They sell petrol bottles for tourist vehicles. And the only way they show is by putting 2-3 bottles of petrol right at the front.
If you pass through this shop, you can immediately tell they sell petrol bottles.
Can you tell me what you find interesting about it? I’ll tell you what.
There is no fancy name board, no decorated door, no design, nothing — yet it generates sales and brings in customers. Their business runs.
This is what I want to emphasize repeatedly. The “internet marketing” world is swamped with people giving advices on –
- “Use the xyz wordpress plugin”
- “Use this color code on your button”
- “21 ways for SEO and keyword optimization”
- “How to get 2500 facebook page likes and 356 instagram followers”
- “Get the right design with your business card”
However, let me ask you this — Do any of these above vanity metrics (instagram followers) actually matter? What does it bring you to your bottom line?
My guess — 0 sales? 0 revenue? (Oh yeah, it might bring you 258 facebook page likes!! Goodluck with that)
What’s the psychology here? The thing is — doing these type of things makes us feel productive, makes us feel accomplished.
In fact, psychological research tells us that we trick our brains into feeling productive. As author Tim Pychyl points out, “Everyone knows what they should be doing. It’s how we choose not to do that thing can be interesting.”
It’s the classic Shiny Object Syndrome, where you “chase project after project, change after change, never settling with one option”
We know where we should be spending most of our time on to start a profitable business. Yet we love to debate on tiny things and choose to spend it on activities which really gets us no results.
What REALLY Matters
Yet, nobody talks about what REALLY moves the needle, like how to start a side business and find paying customers or generating sales.
These are what I call, your Gold Stars. Let others talk on meaningless talks, but if you really get results on the few key things (like finding a profitable idea, generating a list of business ideas, or getting your first paying customer), then you have a Gold Star in your pocket. You Win!
This is where I spend MOST of my time on — testing ideas, researching and validating, and getting the initial customers to earn your first revenue online.
I’ve been able to do so on my Industrial Inside website, freelance consulting, coaching and other channels.
The fun part? Once you get your first customer, you can get the next 10, and the next 100, and on and on.
The exact 5-step roadmap to start a side business and earn extra money
Let me show you the exact 5-step roadmap you need to start a profitable side business.
So, here’s the key takeaway to remember, and that is to spend most of your time researching on your idea, validating it and then finding your first 1-3 customers.
Now, to get you started, I’ve a ready-to-use cheatsheet for you which includes 35+ successful ideas.
