
Curious about how to turn your existing skills into a thriving business? Ever wondered if you already possess the talents needed to create a profitable endeavor from scratch? If so, today's episode is exactly what you need.
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Reach sales professionals, not professional sailors. With LinkedIn ads, you can target the right people by industry, job title and more. We'll even give you a $100 credit on your next campaign. Get started today at LinkedIn.com results, terms and conditions apply. Hey everyone. Welcome Back to the $100 MBA Show. I'm your host, Omar Zenholm, and in today's lesson, you'll learn how to use the skills you already have to build the business you want. This episode is all about taking what you already know, your skills, your experiences, your talents, your knowledge, and turning them into a profitable knowledge business or digital product. Now, the first thing you want to do is you want to download this worksheet that goes along with today's lesson. And you can find that over at 100- MBA-NET worksheets. You'll get access to our whole library of worksheets. But download this one so that you can work along with me. I'm going to go through the process with you step by step so that you don't miss a beat. But first, did you know that the global elearning market is projected to reach over 325 billion by 2025? That's just around the corner. That's a study. That's according to Forbes. The demand for digital products and online courses is skyrocketing. So why not use the skills you already have to tap into this growing market and build a business you've always wanted? So let's jump into the worksheet right now and start with the first step. And that's to identify your skills, your experiences, your talents, basically gathering the assets you already have. Okay, so as I look down on this worksheet, this is where you're gonna start listing any skills, any experiences, any talents, any knowledge that you've accumulated over the years. Don't hold back, don't think, oh, this is insignificant. Oh, no one cares about this. Write it down. Write everything down right now that comes to mind. And then later you can, you know, sift through that. But right now, we just want to have a brain dump right now. So let's go through that right now. And I'm just going to use me as an Example, let's say I'm starting out back in the day. I'm a former educator, I'm a former teacher. I taught high school and university. I was an administrator. This is my experience in life. Ten years of this. I was teaching five classes, five days a week. So the first thing I'm going to write in this, if I was doing this worksheet, I would write teaching. Right. I have a lot of experience in teaching, so I'm going to put this on my list. But I also did a bit of sales too. When I was in university, I had a bunch of sales jobs. I did phone sales, telemarketing. I sold long distance phone service, so I'm going to say some sales. I got some experience there. I also was around my dad a lot who was in sales, car sales. Actually. My first job was washing cars at a wash bay in a car dealership. But I picked up a little about how to talk and coach people through what's a good decision. So I would say maybe one on one sales. Right. So that's something. I have experiences. What else? I'm really going to dig deep here. I really am good with technology. I used to do tech support for Toys R Us back when they were in business. So I know some tech, I know a bit of development work. So dev work. So that's just me, my experience. Okay. I'm pretty well traveled, so I have some idea of cultures and worlds. So I would say culture travel, Right. I'm not really sure how this fits into my business right now, but I'm just gonna pop it in here because it is noteworthy, right, that I've traveled. Not a lot of people have traveled. Not everybody has traveled. So I'm gonna put culture and travel, what else? I speak a different language. So I grew up in an Egyptian household. My parents are Egyptian, so I grew up speaking Arabic. So I'm bilingual. So I'm gonna write bilingual. So you might not think that that's something, but, you know, one of the things I noticed is that I am pretty good at teaching, even to people, that English is not their first language. I understand that this is a concept, like some people are learning or listening to me and English is not the first language. So I like to break things down regardless if there's a language barrier or not. What else? I've done coaching. I've coached basketball before. Right. I played sports, so you get the point. I'm putting down all my experiences in this box. Okay. That's the first step you want to do. Okay. So let's move on to step number two. Right? Step number two is where we want to prioritize these things. Prioritize what's marketable. Once you have a list of these things right here, you want to prioritize the sales that are in demand that I enjoy, or the ones that really you could build a business around. So I definitely can build something around teaching that's up here, right? Sales for sure. Some tech I can build around that I can learn a little bit of that. Maybe coaching. So I'll put coaching here. Okay, so far this is pretty simple, right? Okay, now the next step is to choose a business model, right? You want to think about how you can monetize your skills. There are several business models you can consider, including online courses, coaching, consulting, ebooks, membership sites. These are all ways I can add value to people's life and ways I can transact with my customer. So now what you want to do is just choose maybe one or two business models that would work with these marketable skills that you already have. So one stands out here is coaching. I can do group coaching for sure. Well, online courses stands out as well. So group coaching, online courses. These are two options. Now, you don't have to choose. You could start with one and do one later on in a few months. Okay, so you may want to start with group coaching. And then maybe next quarter or next half of the year, you can start building some online courses as another product that you sell in your business. Next, you're going to match your prioritized skills to the most suitable business model. Consider your audience that you want to target, the scalability of the model, how much you can scale this, your personal preferences, what you like to do. For example, if you like writing and you love creating content, consider writing an ebook to start with or creating a blog that gets traction and that you can, you know, make money through affiliate commission. So the point here is, is that you want to build a business that you're going to enjoy and not hate. So this is where this comes in. So group coaching, online courses. Now, I like to be time flexible. Group coaching times me to a schedule. I have to show up on a call at a certain time. So I'm not like super, super attracted to group coaching, but. But I like the idea of being able to create great content and then putting it out in the world, let people benefit from it. Online courses, I can also include some technology that I'm really excited about through online courses. So I'm gonna go with online courses to start with at least. And Give my best chance for success. The reason why I say best chance of success is because if you are not enjoying yourself, if this is work for you, it's gonna be very hard for you to get traction. Cause you really need to put a lot of effort and, you know, show up as your best self. And if you're not really loving it, it's gonna show your customers are gonna see it. Especially if you're to be in front of your customers selling or demoing or delivering this product or service. Like in my case where I'm delivering a course or coaching. So I'm going to say online courses. I'm not totally, you know, against group coaching because I do group coaching, but I want to, just want to start with online courses, get some traction and then I can build an online course or I should build a, I should say a coaching program that fits my needs and schedule. But I want to rely on this to make my money, to survive. Now it's time to package your knowledge into a product. This could be an online course, like I mentioned, a coaching program, an ebook, a membership site. But what you want to think about here is focus on creating something that solves a problem or fulfills a need for your target audience. That's really what an offer is. When you're offering something to somebody or saying, hey, I got something that you really want, you're going to want to buy this. For example, if you're offering an online course, outline the modules, the lessons. But more importantly, what's the outcome of this course? What are people going to be able to do after this course? So that way they can feel like, okay, I'm going to get an outcome that's worth paying you money for. People pay for outcomes not for videos or modules or worksheets. Those things are important. The videos and the modules and the worksheets are important because they get them. The outcome helps them along with the outcome. But that's not what's really being sold here. An offer is really something that is attractive to the buyer. They want to be like, oh, this is really what I want. So think about what's the end result, what's the after picture of them taking whatever you choose. So for my example here, an online course, I'm creating an online course. The after picture for me at the a hundred dollar MBA is I show people how to go from nothing to having a business that sustains their lifestyle, that allows them to quit their job and allows them to live a life they probably haven't lived before in terms of earning Potential. So this is really what I'm offering. I'm offering changing their life. Really. You might feel like, wow, this offer that I'm creating is a little grandiose. It's okay if it's grandiose. It's good. The more compelling the offer, the more likely they're gonna buy, the more value they're gonna perceive. But make sure you can deliver. I know I can deliver because I've done it several times myself, but also for my students and for the people that have followed me for over 10 years at the $100 MBA. So I know I can change people's lives, help them change their life. They're changing their own life, but I can your life by showing them the path forward of how to start and grow a business. So the change of life. Have a business. And what does that business do? One of the key phrases I like to use in any offer is so you can. If you're teaching somebody to snowboard, I'll teach you how to snowboard so you can enjoy snowboarding with your friends without wasting your money or getting hurt. So you can. Is really like, why it's important. So I'm going to put this here so you can have a bit. So you can have financial freedom. Okay? So that's really my offer. Now I'm gonna also include when I can in this box how I'm going to pull this off. How am I going to be able to get them here? Right? So it might be, you know, videos, right? Worksheets, might be some software or tooling or AI or something. I'm using my own example here. It might also be templates, right? So how are you going to get them there? Maybe if your model is. Coaching is going to be totally different. Coaching calls accountability, you know, a buddy. If you have a membership site you like, a community, whatever it might be, right? What are the, I guess the features or the things that are going to actually get them to that result next? You want to set up your platform. You want to choose the right platform to deliver your product. There are many options out there, from course platforms to digital product platforms. And to be honest with you, they all are pretty much the same. Okay? They all pretty much do the same thing. They might have one, might have one feature, another won't. But I want you just to choose one that is affordable to you, that you feel like is easy to use for you, that just, you know, calls you out, that kind of say, okay, this looks like a good fit for me. They'll fit your needs and Fit your business model. Okay. They'll actually help you with that. So the ones that come off the top of my head that I think are worth exploring are Podia, teachable and Kajabi. I'm not an affiliate of any of these guys, but these are something you can look into. If you're launching an online course, you may want to look at one that's more suitable to online courses, whether it's teachable or Kajabi. If you have downloadable products like ebooks and things like that, Podia might be a good way to go. So look at what you're doing and see if which platform will actually deliver on your mission or on your business model. So here, when we say set a platform, you basically going to choose one you can evaluate. And I would, I like to do is write down your needs. So let's say for example, with me, online courses, I need to have online courses. I want to be able to have worksheets because I said that's how I'm going to do it. Remember up here says worksheets, AI templates. I can have some sort of downloadables in there. Worksheets, downloadables, maybe I want to embed my own tool there. So I'm going to go through all these that I mentioned. You know, there's more by the way, but these are just somewhere you can get started. Podia, teachable, Kajabi. And I'm going to say, okay, which one will fulfill all these needs for me? I'm going to go do some research. Okay.
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Raise the sails. Raise the sails. Captain, an unidentified ship is approaching. Over rise.
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Wait, is that an enterprise sales solution?
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Reach sales professionals, not professional sailors. With LinkedIn ads, you can target the.
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Right people by industry, job title and more.
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We'll even give you a $100 credit on your next campaign. Get started today at LinkedIn.com results, terms and conditions apply. The next step is pretty simple. Okay, you're going to start marketing your product. With your product ready as a concept, it's time for you to start marketing it. Because you start marketing it, start selling seats and then open the Doors when you are ready to actually offer, when the product's actually ready, whether it's a course or an ebook, or coaching for that matter. So here, start brainstorming. How are you going to market your product? Are you going to grow an email list? Right, Email list. Are you going to use social media? Are you going to use ads, paid ads? Are you going to get on podcasts? Right. Are you going to use print media? If you want to do that. So what I would do is just start brainstorming every way you can market your product or service. Okay, Maybe you want to bring on affiliates and do affiliate marketing. Give them a commission if they sell your product or service affiliate. I'm just going to dump everything I can think of. And then what you want to do is choose two or three of them to start with. So I might say I want to grow an email list. I really love email marketing. I love paid ads because they just work, right? It's like throwing money at the problem. You know, if you don't have a budget, maybe you want to just use organic social and then maybe I can also do podcasting. I like podcasting, being on podcasts or start my own podcast. So there you go. Now the last step is setting your pricing for your product or service. A lot of people struggle this at the beginning and I understand people feel like I don't know how much I'm worth and I don't know who's going to buy and I want to be too expensive. People won't buy and if it's too cheap, they're going to think it's now nice or it's not worth it. I get it. And I can do a whole, you know, three hours on pricing. And we probably have three hours worth of content of all the different lessons we've had on pricing over on our website. You can check it out 100 MBA net and you can search all our lessons on pricing on our podcast. But I want to give you a few tips just so you can get the ball rolling. First one is price is an experiment. Price equals experiment. Right? You are experimenting with pricing. Whatever you price your product right now won't be the price forever. It's just a starting point. Okay. You want to make sure that you're experimenting with pricing all the time now. A lot of people like to do the research other courses, see if it's competitively priced. I'm not into that. What I like to do instead is two things. First thing I want to like to do is I like to look at the result and 10x that value. So the result versus value, okay, equals price. Right? So what is the value of changing somebody's life and giving them business to allow them to have financial freedom? It's kind of hard to put a price tag on it. How much would it be worth to do that? To have exponential wealth, to be able to have sustaining growth, to be able to have financial freedom? Let's say this is worth a hundred thousand dollars. Now, I can easily charge $10,000 for my course because it's 10 times as worth that much money, right? But I like to make it even more compelling. What if it was a thousand dollars? Okay, wow, that's incredible. So really work off the result. That allows you to really be able to demand more. And you can compare that with your price, the result value versus the price. Okay, so what you want to do here is think about, even if you're not in business. So say, for example, like I said, a snowboarding coach, how much is it worth to be able to have an enjoyable first on the snowboard without getting hurt, without feeling like this whole ski trip was a waste of money? Right. Without embarrassing yourself in front of friends? How much is that worth? Right? If you had to put a price, a dollar amount to that? Well, we can actually calculate how much a ski trip is worth. You know, how much it costs you with traveling and the hotels and everything. So at least $5,000, right? And then plus, we got to talk about the time and the embarrassment and the fact that this memory is going to be with you forever, and you want to make sure it's a good one. So that experience is worth at least $10,000 to get it right. Okay, so $10,000. Am I going to charge? No. What if I just charge $1,000? What if I charge $500 to show them how to do well on the first day on a snowboard? That is really worth it. So as you can see, that's a good way to set your pricing. The next thing is what I want. What would be worth it for you? So say, for example, you want to make $10,000 a month, and you want to figure out how you could do that. Work backwards, how much you need to charge to get 10,000. Do. Do you feel confident you can get 10 customers at $1,000? If so, then make it a thousand dollars. If not, if you think you only get five customers charge $2,000, you can always discount with offers and specials and sales. So it's better for you to anchor your price higher at where you need to Be okay. So that's a good other way to think about it. Just think about what you need out of this very important. Right? There's three E's in this need. Anyway, the point here is what do you need out of this whole situation? Okay. And price accordingly. You can always adjust pricing later and figuring out through time what the willingness to pay of your audience is. And there you have it. I've walked you through all the steps on this worksheet and you can just go ahead and fill this out yourself, right? And now you have a game plan, you can get started. You know exactly what you need to do and you just now need to implement what you just planned out on your worksheet. Now, one of the things I would recommend is go through the worksheet and then start thinking about what are the to do's you need to get done to get each part done. Do you need to outsource a graphic designer to get you to, you know, come up with a cover of your ebook? Do you need somebody to help you edit the videos for your online course? Just write down the to do's so you can figure out who's going to do that later. How am I to get that done so that it's very clear, it's digestible and you know what needs to be done in what order. So there have it. See, you already have the skills, the knowledge, the experience to build the business you want. It's all about identifying the assets you have, choosing the right business model, packaging your knowledge, getting it out there in the world with some marketing. And there you got a business on your hands. You got something that you can actually build upon and start growing now if you want to continue to grow. If you love today's lesson and you want more, check out all our business lessons over at 100 MBA net. You can dive into over 2,500 businesses business lessons in our archives. And don't forget, you can download this worksheet and all our worksheets over our worksheet library@100mba.net worksheets I'm Omar Zenholm. Thank you so much for listening to the hundred dollar MBA show watching us on YouTube. If you want to learn more, if you want to keep on going, subscribe to the show whether you're listening on your favorite podcast app or on YouTube. We publish three days a week and we've been doing it for 10 years so we're not going anywhere. We got your back. See you soon. Take care.
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Podcast Summary: The $100 MBA Show – MBA2536 "How To Use The Skills You Have To Build a Business You Want"
Host: Omar Zenhom
Release Date: October 21, 2024
Introduction
In episode MBA2536 of The $100 MBA Show, acclaimed host Omar Zenhom delves into leveraging existing skills and experiences to create a successful business. Drawing from over two decades of entrepreneurship, Omar provides a step-by-step guide to transforming personal talents into profitable digital products or knowledge-based businesses. This episode is especially valuable for individuals seeking to build a business with minimal resources by capitalizing on what they already know and can offer.
1. Identifying Your Skills and Assets
Omar begins the episode by emphasizing the importance of a comprehensive self-assessment. He introduces a worksheet designed to help listeners list their skills, experiences, talents, and knowledge. Omar demonstrates this process using his own background:
“Write everything down right now that comes to mind.” [02:00]
He highlights his diverse experiences, from teaching and sales to technology and cultural insights. This foundational step ensures that entrepreneurs recognize all potential assets they possess, no matter how insignificant they might initially seem.
2. Prioritizing Marketable Skills
Once the skills are identified, Omar advises listeners to prioritize them based on market demand and personal enjoyment. This prioritization helps in focusing efforts on areas that are not only profitable but also sustainable in the long run.
“Prioritize what's marketable. Once you have a list of these things right here, you want to prioritize the sales that are in demand that I enjoy, or the ones that really you could build a business around.” [04:30]
Omar uses his skills in teaching, sales, and technology as examples, determining that coaching and online courses are strong candidates for his business model.
3. Choosing the Right Business Model
With prioritized skills in hand, Omar explores various business models such as online courses, coaching, consulting, ebooks, and membership sites. He encourages selecting one or two models to focus on initially, allowing for scalability and flexibility.
“Choose maybe one or two business models that would work with these marketable skills that you already have.” [06:15]
Omar opts for online courses, highlighting the flexibility and passion he has for content creation over group coaching, which requires more rigid scheduling.
4. Packaging Your Knowledge into a Product
Omar stresses the importance of creating products that solve specific problems or fulfill needs for the target audience. He elaborates on framing offers around desired outcomes rather than just the content itself.
“People pay for outcomes, not for videos or modules or worksheets.” [10:45]
Using his example, Omar outlines an online course aimed at helping individuals build a sustainable business, ultimately offering them financial freedom. This focus on transformative results makes the offer more compelling and valuable to potential customers.
5. Setting Up the Right Platform
The next step involves selecting a suitable platform to deliver the digital product. Omar reviews popular options like Podia, Teachable, and Kajabi, advising listeners to choose based on affordability, ease of use, and alignment with their business model.
“Choose one that is affordable to you, that you feel like is easy to use for you… which platform will actually deliver on your mission.” [13:00]
He recommends evaluating each platform's features in relation to specific business needs, ensuring seamless delivery and a positive customer experience.
6. Marketing Your Product
With the product ready, Omar shifts focus to marketing strategies. He encourages brainstorming all possible avenues, including email marketing, social media, paid ads, podcasting, and affiliate marketing. The key is to select two or three methods to start with and gradually expand.
“Start brainstorming every way you can market your product or service.” [15:30]
Omar emphasizes the importance of a robust marketing plan to attract and engage the target audience effectively.
7. Setting Your Pricing Strategy
Pricing is a common challenge for many entrepreneurs, and Omar offers actionable advice to simplify the process. He presents pricing as an ongoing experiment, encouraging flexibility and adjustment based on market response and perceived value.
“Price is an experiment. Whatever you price your product right now won't be the price forever.” [18:45]
Omar introduces the concept of valuing the outcome, suggesting pricing based on the transformational value provided to customers. He also recommends setting prices to meet financial goals while considering the willingness to pay of the audience.
8. Implementing and Executing Your Plan
In the final steps, Omar urges listeners to translate their worksheet into actionable to-dos. This includes tasks like outsourcing design work, editing videos, and organizing content. The goal is to break down the plan into manageable steps to ensure steady progress towards launching the business.
“Write down the to-dos so you can figure out who's going to do that later.” [20:00]
By systematically executing each part of the plan, entrepreneurs can build a solid foundation for their business, ensuring all aspects are covered from product creation to marketing and sales.
Conclusion
Omar Zenhom wraps up the episode by reinforcing the idea that everyone possesses unique skills and knowledge that can be transformed into a thriving business. By following the structured approach outlined—identifying skills, choosing a business model, packaging knowledge, setting up platforms, marketing effectively, and pricing strategically—listeners are equipped to build businesses they are passionate about and that meet market needs.
“See, you already have the skills, the knowledge, the experience to build the business you want.” [22:00]
For those eager to dive deeper, Omar encourages exploring additional business lessons available on the 100 MBA website and downloading the accompanying worksheets to facilitate the process.
Additional Resources
Notable Quotes:
About The $100 MBA Show
The $100 MBA Show is an award-winning podcast hosted by Omar Zenhom, recognized as the Best of Apple Podcasts. The show delivers practical, no-fluff business lessons designed for real-world application. With over 20 years of entrepreneurship experience, Omar shares actionable strategies on everything from validating ideas and building audiences to marketing, sales, and reinvestment, all tailored for individuals with minimal resources.
For more information, visit 100mba.net.