This week’s Q & A comes at you from beautiful Mt. Lemmon Ski Valley (southern most ski resort in the US).
In today’s video, I answer a 5 pack assortment of questions that have been emailed into me by blog readers. This week’s questions ranged from entrepreneurship to employment, recipes to my best advice on validating your 1st online business idea.
(brief video transcript below)
Question #1: Entrepreneur vs Employee?
This is a very broad question. There’s no one person who can answer this & there’s no right answer.
Each person’s scenario is entirely unique to them since we all have different DNA. Some people are more suited for entrepreneurship, while others are more suited for an entrepreneurial lifestyle.
I know employees who make may more money than entrepreneurs, but I also know a good chunk of entrepreneurs who make more money than employees.
The decision really comes down to what your goals are:
Do you want to build your own business?
Do you want to be comfortable & have the security over time with an established company?
There is no right or wrong answer……
Becoming an entrepreneur doesn’t mean you can sit on the beach, drink Mojito’s, & relax all day. It’s actually likely that you’ll work more hours as an entrepreneur.
Every business that exists today was started because of someone’s idea. Over 90% of businesses don’t go on to become successful, but those that do make it reap the benefits.
Question #2: Ryan, I see that you make a lot of recipes & cook a lot, what’s a good recipe that you’ve cooked lately that isn’t too difficult to replicate?
Cajun Jambalaya………a recipe from New Orleans (the Bayou).
Here’s the link to one of my all time favorite Jambalaya recipes- Jambalaya Recipe
Hope you enjoy it!
Question #3: What’s your favorite documentary that you’ve recently watched?
That would be Print The Legend
It dives into the world of widely available 3-D printing to the masses.
3D printers have mostly been accessible by large corporations for the past few decades due to the sheer price of them ($300-400 K)
Recent startups that have popped up in the revolutionary 3D printing market have made high grade 3D printers accessible to the masses for a reasonable price tag of $1,500 to $3,500. The key here is these devices can run off your desktop & a portion of the platforms for these printers are “open-source”, meaning that anyone can collaborate & improve upon the current product.
This documentary specifically focuses on MakerBot (acquired by ) & Form Labs by following through their ups & downs as a startup company.
Question 4: How to you best validate your first online business idea?
The best way to validate your idea is to NOT work endlessly for months and months on initially building a product or service prior to launch…..in hopes that customers will come later.
The best thing to do is to first ask people (your potential customer base) if they’d even be interested in your product or service. By asking people if they’d be interested in your product or your service, you’ll be able to directly see if there is a need in the market.
Example: Let’s say you want to help do marketing for small businesses in the real estate industry. Before acting upon your great idea, talk with 20-30 ideal potential clients on their wants, needs, & pain points. Then let them know your solution to see if they would be willing to pay for it.
You can then move forward with confidence knowing you’ll have a product/service people will pay for.
Question #5: What’s your favorite book that you’re currently reading?
48 Laws of Power by Robert Greene. Highly recommend this book (it’s not a book you can breeze through, but it continues to get better as move farther into the book). Highly recommend!
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If you have any have questions yourself, shoot me an email here & I’d be glad to see it if it aligns with my readership to answer for you in an upcoming video.
Don’t be shy, I love answering great questions:)
