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The BetterLife Podcast
How to Choose the RIGHT Business Idea (7 Figure Blueprint Series - Part 2)
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Hey everyone. Brandon Turner, host of the Better Life podcast. And today I'm continuing the seven Figure Business Blueprint series that I started last week. If you missed episode one, go back and listen to that one first. But today we're talking about how to choose what business to build. I'm going to show you why boring beats flashy. And I'll walk you through a real million dollar business idea from scratch. So, hey, DM me7blueprint, the number 7blueprint on Instagram @bardybrandon. If you want the PDF summary of the whole series. Let's go. Hey, what if I told you that you could up with a million dollar a year business idea in the next 60 seconds? Actually, let me prove it to you. So right now I'm going to give you an example. Right now I have a list of chores to do around my house that I have not gotten to in ages. Now, I'm pretty rich, so I know that I could hire someone, but that honestly is just a hassle. Like it's. And it's simple stuff like hang a picture here, take a old mattress to the dump over there, install a doggy door cause my dog keeps crapping on the floor. Stuff like that. So my question for you, is there a service that you could think about right now that would pay, that I would pay to solve these issues? Like assume for a minute that I have tons and tons of money, but I have no time at all. So what is a business idea? A service that would make me say yes to paying you money and to pivot your thinking a little bit. I'm not necessarily saying that you would need to come fix those things. Think a little bigger. Could you think of a business or design a business idea that maybe solves my problem for me? Maybe pause the video or you know, podcast for a minute and jot down a few ideas. You got some. Now maybe you run a business called to do done and a customer gets a handyman at a predetermined time for a predetermined price every month or every week. Like I would love that. I would pay for that right now. Maybe your idea was totally different. I'm just spitballing here, but maybe you didn't pause the video long enough to focus on it or whatever. Or maybe just not good at ideas. That's fine too. But the point I'm trying to make is this. Most businesses are nothing but solving people's frustrations. Or another way to say that every single frustration is a potential business. And by the end of this video, you are going to see problems and opportunities everywhere you look. So let's get into it. What's going on, everyone? Welcome back to the seven Figure Business Blueprint series. My name is Brandon Turner. Beardy Brandon on the socials. And this is a six part series. This is part two of a six part series that's going to give you everything you need to build a business that does a million dollars a year or more. I'm calling it the seven Figure Business Blueprint series. And this is pillar two, Choosing what million dollar business to build. Now, if you missed the first video, go watch that first. I'll link it in the description or put it like here on my screen somewhere and you can just go there. But in that video, we talked about the mental game. Like, how do you get fed up enough to actually decide and commit and then focus on one thing when the dip tries to kill most people? And why consistency beats intensity every time. But both are needed. Like that's the foundation, the mental stuff. And you need it before anything else is gonna make sense. Now today we're getting more practical. We're gonna figure out exactly what business you should build that's gonna make you a million bucks a year in profit. This is where a lot of people get stuck. They spin their wheels trying to find the perfect business idea. I mean, they read books and courses and make spreadsheets comparing all their different options, and they never actually start anything. So let me simplify this just a little bit for you. Every business that has ever existed started by solving a problem like Amazon started. Try solving the problem of having to drive to a bookstore Uber. Solve the problem of having to hail a cab, your local plumber. Solve the problem of water not going where it should go. Look, you need to train yourself to see problems everywhere. Every time you're frustrated, every time you hear someone else frustrated and complaining, every time you think, ah, this is annoying, it's gotta be a better way. Like, that's a potential business. So start asking yourself, who would pay to have this fixed? And if the answer is, yeah, a lot of people, you might be onto something. The best business ideas often come from your own life and your own problems. So what problems do you have? What do you wish existed? What do you spend money on that could be done better? I'm gonna give you a few more examples. This is from a flight that I took the other a couple weeks ago. So I'm sitting in this flight and I'm thinking, this seat is way too small. And then I had a headache because I usually do when I fly. And then my 1 year old needs constant entertainment because he's like too young for an iPad, but too old to just like sleep. My sunglasses, they're on top of my head and they're giving me a worse headache, but I have nowhere to put them. My power outlet's too loose. It doesn't hold a charger in the floor under my kids feet is an absolute disaster with crumbs. And the bathroom, disgusting. Like those are all pains and frustrations and problems. And I bet you if you sat down you can come up with half a dozen business ideas on how to solve each one. Let me just spitball one right now. Like I get headaches when I fly. Why do I get headaches when I fly? I'm probably dehydrated. Yes, I could buy water, but like water is usually not enough to. It's like I need electrolytes in it. So what if we created an a water electrolyte brand that had to do with hydration when you fly. And it was called like you know, flight water, right? And you sell it at airports. Flight water helps cure your headaches when you're flying or whatever. Maybe cure is too strong of a word. You see what I did there? I just took a problem and I said what could be a marketing angle, really? Like it's not even a new product. It's just like this could work now look everywhere, all around us, all the time. There are frustrations every day. And some people complain about them, most people accept them and just move on. But some people say, hmm, wonder how many other people have this problem and what can we do to solve it? What would people pay to solve it now suddenly when you think that way, you realize there's a never ending number of businesses to start. So you just start training your brain to think differently about problems. And again, I'm not talking about starting the next salesforce or Anthropic or OpenAI or anything crazy like that. Sometimes the best businesses are just the boring ones. Water like boring businesses almost always beat the flashy ones. Like when you scroll social media though, you, you see all the sexy startups, the tech founders that are ringing like the NASDAQ bell and the a crypto millionaires, the viral app that took over the whole world. Like that's what gets attention. What you don't see though are the thousands of people who tried to build the next Uber or the next open AI and they failed. Like the graveyard of startups that burn through all the investor money and they're just chasing A dream that never materialized is big. The 99% who didn't make it. Like, they're not talked about. Meanwhile, there's a guy in your town who owns a Laundromat that's not sexy. Nobody writes articles about it. But it cash flows, like, nine grand a month because he solves a problem and he's working, like, a few hours a week. There's a woman who started a commercial cleaning company in your area. Yeah, that's boring as dirt. She just sold it for, like, a couple million bucks. So that's what I'm talking about. Laundromats, landscaping, bookkeeping, H Vac, junk removal, pest control, water. Like, these businesses aren't going, like, to land you on the COVID of Forbes magazine, but they work, and they generate real cash for real people. And they're proven models that have been making people wealthy for decades. Why? Because they solve real problems for real people in real situations. They're also the most likely to survive the coming AI disruption, the AI apocalypse. So no matter how good ChatGPT is, it's not gonna unclog my toilet or prune my roses or feed my chickens or massage my back. So don't let survivorship bias and social media trick you into chasing the next Uber when you could just be building a reliable, profitable, boring wealth cash flow machine. Now, here's a hack that'll help you start making money faster. Solve expensive problems for people who have money. Now, I see this mistake a lot with new entrepreneurs. They try to solve cheap problems for broke people because they're usually cheap and broke. So they think, I'm going to make an app that helps you college students save five bucks on pizza. Okay, good luck with that. The $5 problem for broke people. It's a brutal business. Like, you got to find a million customers just to make any kind of money at all. And then those customers are haggling over every dollar and leaving bad reviews over nothing. And they churn constantly. But can you solve a $50,000 problem for a business? Like a business owner? It would gladly pay thousands of dollars to save or make tens of thousands of dollars, right? And you need far fewer customers, and they've got bigger budgets, and they pay on time, and they don't always nickel and dime you. So go where the money is. And I'm just. Again, I'm not talking about just business problems. In fact, I think one of the best opportunities is solving a rich person's personal problems. I'll give you some examples, more like, we already talked about some of my Frustrations. But I'm a rich guy, so this is perfect for me. Like, I have a lot of problems as a rich guy. Like as I mentioned earlier, things are always breaking in my house, but not enough to hire a full time handyman. Also, my kids, they're on screens way too much. Also, I want to eat simple, healthy meals, but I don't want to just microwave nasty like plastic wrapped food from some delivery company. I also don't want to hire a private chef. That just seems excessive. Oh my garbage. Like I had to take the can out to the road every single week. I hate it. My garage full of crap, I don't like that. But sorting it and I don't have time for that. So look through that list I just gave you. Those are all problems. Does anything stand out to you as a problem you could maybe solve? Let's take that last one actually. The crowded, messy garage. What solution could fix that? So most people would immediately think, well, I could go and clean a rich person's garage. That sounds dumb. Okay, but a few problems. First, you're still just trading your time for dollars like it's just another job. Your income's capped. So if it's just you cleaning garages, what are you going to make? At best, like 50 grand a year, like 100 grand a year at most. Like I want to get you to a million dollars a year or more now. Second, if you just go clean people's garages, as a customer, I would fear you have no idea what to toss, what to keep. Like you'd just be asking me questions all day and I'd be out there with you sorting stuff. I don't have time for that. So I wouldn't hire you because I don't trust you could do it good enough. So should you give up on the idea? Yeah, maybe, but probably not because you can just ask, how do we solve those issues? So here's what my brain came up with. Just spitballing here in like a few seconds of thinking through it. Like, what if you had a couple people, a two man team, not you two man team. They begin the day with a 15 minute walkthrough with the customer and they record the conversation on video as the customer quickly does high level keep, donate, sell trash of various things. The video gets transcribed by AI into a checklist. The customer then reviews that. Then a simple app gets built using maybe a vibe coding tool like lovable or Replit and you do that in like 15 minutes. So in this app, the team will then throughout the day Snap photos of items, and then the owner can look at the app and swipe, like, tinder up means keep. Down means trash. Left means donate. Right means sell. Now, I don't need to spend all day then with the team. I just check the app and I swipe Quick decisions like, oh, yeah, sell quick. You know, sell trash, donate. The team just follows my instructions when they're stuck and they clean the entire garage. They provide shelving, black bins, clear labels. They hang up tools and bikes. And then the company's got this great brand. It's called Garage Zen. Sounds nice, right? Television. Like, it's got the operations to back it up. And I would gladly pay good money for that right now. But here's the thing. If you came to me right now and knocked on my door and said, hi, and you're in, like, some, you know, like, dirty outfit, and you're like, hi, I would like to clean your garage for you. There's no way I would hire you. I'm like, no, I don't trust you. I don't know you. Like, I have no idea what you're doing in my garage. And even if I did trust you, because, you know, maybe you went to my church or, you know, somebody recommended you. What are you worth, like, 30 bucks an hour? I mean, that's what labor's worth. 20. 30 bucks an hour. So you work all day and you make a couple hundred bucks. Look, look, I'm not saying that's nothing, but, dude, it's not a million dollars a year because you're just doing some solo thing. But if you ran a company called Garage Zen and you had a beautiful app and a logo and before and after photos and testimonials, and you pitched me a $1,500 plan for the whole day to organize my garage, I'd be like, yeah, hell yes. On the spot. And that's the power of, like, positioning your offer and selling the service, which we'll talk about in the next video. Maybe it's the video after that, when we talk about marketing. I think it's the fourth video I'll be talking about that. But you're not selling labor at that point, because labor is only worth 20 or 30 bucks an hour. You're selling a trustworthy process and a clean, Zen, like, garage. You're selling the outcome that's worth 10 times more. It's the same thing, though. So you pay maybe a couple hundred bucks to a couple employees, right? And maybe you clear 500 or even more on a garage cleaning that's cool if you did 20 of those a month. That's a lot of money before your overhead. Now is that enough to retire a wife? Maybe, maybe not. But here's where I get really pumped up about this. There's levels to this game like could you scale to multiple different two man teams? Could you get a full time sales guy? Could you get pricing higher? Could you hire, you know, give people commission to be salesmen, go door to door? Could you add other services like Carzen or Handyman Zen? Could you? You know, there's so much you could do. You can make this a multi million dollar business. It's not getting taken over by AI it solves a real pain point. It's simple, it's low overhead and it's profitable. And look, that was just one idea spitballing as we make this video. Like there is millions of more ideas out there because there's millions of problems out there. Now we're going to come back to Garage then in just a moment because it's a cool idea. But first, here's a trap. I constantly see people think they need to invent something brand new. They want to be the next Elon Musk or the next Zuckerberg. They got this idea they've been sitting on for three years. Look, it's not going to happen. And that thinking is going to keep you broke. The truth is you don't need a new idea. You need a proven model. Like a business that's already working for thousands of other people that you can just do better, a little better and you can execute in your market, in your city, in your niche. Like there are people are making six or seven figures with junk removal, with lawn care, with pressure washing, bookkeeping, commercial cleaning, mobile car detailing. Like no one's making movies about those guys. Nobody's making a movie about a guy who built a million dollar a year pressure washing company. That's lame. But that guy's financially free. He's home for dinner. His wife doesn't have to work unless she wants to. She's raising the kids. He takes three months off every year to go Hawaii. Meanwhile, that idea guy is still tweaking his pitch deck. He's still working on his little invention. So here's my rule. If you can't find a hundred people making money doing it, you're just gambling. You're not building. Now sometimes gambling pays off, sure, but it's not building a business, it's gambling. So find somebody doing exactly what you want to do. Study them, model it, Take what works. Like Improve it. That's not stealing. It's smart. McDonald's didn't invent the hamburger. It's not even that good of a hamburger. They just perfected the system. Your job isn't to reinvent the wheel. Your job is to roll it better than other guys in your town. Now, this is actually one thing I love about real estate investing. Literally, millions of people invest in real estate. This is not a real estate investing video. But millions of people do it. And yet it still works because hundreds of millions of people need it. Like the housing. And all of a sudden, you need to do what I do. You don't need to buy rentals or flip houses or mobile home parks. But you see what I mean? It's boring, it's predictable, but it's profitable because you do it right. Now, when you pick your business idea, one mistake I want to encourage you to avoid is just picking something because you like it. It's like an interest of yours. It's a passion. Like, look, a lot of business coaches will tell their people to follow their passion, but can we be honest for a minute? Like, Your passion for 16th century poetry is not gonna pay the bills. Neither is your bowling passion ne playing music. Unless you're one of the lucky few. Like, I'm not saying you should do something that drives you to drink from boredom, right? Like, don't do that. You need some fire for it. You gotta have some interest. For example, like, early on, I tried to read a book on day trading. Oh, I made it through, like, three pages, and I wanted to pluck my eyes out. Hated every second of that book. But then I read a book on real estate investing, and I was like, oh, this is kind of cool. It caught my attention. Now, would I rather be on stage playing electric guitar, like, while beautiful women threw their underwear at me from the crowd? Yeah, sure, that sounds great, but that's a one in a million shot. And besides, I'm married, so. Heather, if you're watching this. Hi. That sounds awful. I would never do that. What a terrible bunch of heathen women. But in reality, yeah, like, I could be the lucky guy who makes my passion my income. But those are exceptions, not rules. They are gambling. And even if it comes true, when people turn their passion into their income, almost everyone loses interest in that passion. So you're not even chasing your passions. Like, you just end up hating it. Look, you need enough fire for the thing to survive the dip that we talked about in the last video. So if you absolutely hate it, don't do it. But once you start making really good money and you start working fewer hours, that's something you're always gonna be passionate about. That's when you get fired up more. So money will make you passionate. So you're looking for something at the intersection of three things. It solves a problem, it is a proven model, and C, you have at least some fire for it. You hit those three, you're definitely on your way for a million dollar per year business. But here's another common mistake. People think that they have to go wide to reach the maximum number of people. You want to be all things to all people. You need to make an app that helps people with a to do list. You think you need to start a fitness brand for everybody who wants to get healthy, or you want to start a newsletter that's just for entrepreneurs. Or you want to help people find financial freedom through real estate investing, but for new people into a new industry. When you're trying to build, this is why it's so dangerous. Being for everyone means you're actually for no one. There's this great essay from like 20 years ago. The guy named Kevin Kelly wrote it. It's called A Thousand True Fans. Totally changed my life. And he basically said, you don't need a million customers, you need a thousand people who love what you do. A thousand people who pay you a thousand bucks a year is a million dollars. Now, Alex Hermosi, you guys have heard of him? Alex Hermosi drives this home so well. In his book Hundred Million Dollar Offers, he says the more specific your niches, the more money you can charge. So a generalist competes on price. A specialist commands a premium. Like if you need heart surgery, do you want the general surgeon who does a little bit of everything, or do you want the specialist who's done 5,000 heart surgeries? You want the specialist, you'll pay way more, even if it's 10 times the normal rate. So don't be the to do app for everybody. Maybe be the to do app for stay at home moms. And don't be the fitness brand for everybody. Maybe you're the fitness brand for busy CFOs. Don't be the newsletter for entrepreneurs. Maybe you're the newsletter for faith driven tech entrepreneurs. Like you don't want to be the community to help people find financial freedom through real estate investing. You can be the community that helps people find Success in Section 8 Affordable House Investing. Do you see the difference? We want to narrow down? And if you came to me and told me that you have An AI consulting business that helps other businesses implement AI in their business. I would think A, yeah, I get that pitch a hundred times a day in my Instagram inbox. And B, there's no way that you understand my business. So I don't trust at all what you have to say. Even if you did convince me to hire you, I wouldn't want to pay you very much for your knowledge because of those things. I just don't trust that you would be able to really help me. Maybe I'd pay you a few thousand bucks. But look, if you came to me and said you ran an AI consulting business that worked exclusively to install AI into large 5000 plus unit under management, property management, residential real estate firms, well, shoot now 100%. I'm going to take that phone call with you and likely pay you tens or even hundreds of thousands of dollars because now your pitch is different. And I believe that you actually will understand my business because that's all you do. But the funny thing is, the actual implementation of your AI business might not be any different as a generalist or a specialist. Just like the surgeon who does the general surgery might not do any worse than the specialist. But from an outside perspective, who do I want? I would pay ten to a hundred times more for the specialist. Because you're a specialist. I trust that you are going to know my business. That's what Hormozi was getting at and that's what's going to get you your million dollar a year or more business. The riches really are in the niches now. Of course there is such a thing as way too narrow. Like especially in industries where like the lifetime value of a customer is low, like you're not going to make a lot of money, for example. You probably don't want to build a dog walking business just for CFOs who own PIT bulls who live in Scott, because there's like seven of them, right? Like that's silly. And at that point you've carved the market down so small, there's just not enough opportunity out there. So yeah, there's a balance there. You want to niche down enough to become known, trusted and differentiated in that industry, but not so much that you just choke off all demand. So the sweet spot is where the niche is specific enough that people instantly say, yeah, that is for me. But still it's large enough that you can build a real business around it. And this is where most people just get it wrong. They hear it niche down and they think that means limiting their opportunity and they get Fearful and scared. But that's the exact opposite. When you narrow your focus, that expands your opportunity because it gives you clarity. Clarity on your messaging, clarity in your offer, clarity in who you serve and what problems you solve. So instead of whispering this vague promise to the masses, you, like, start making direct promises to a very specific kind of person. And that specific promise converts. That's why the fastest growing businesses are often not the ones trying to be everything to everyone. They're the ones that just become the obvious choice for a very particular group. Like they own a category in the customer's mind. So when somebody says, I need help with this exact problem, your name comes up every time, immediately. That's the goal. Not broad awareness, specific dominance. So don't ask like, how do I serve the most people? Ask, whose problem can I solve better than almost everyone else? Maybe don't ask like, what giant market can I enter and compete in? It's like, what market can I become world class and famous in? Because once you become the go to person for a specific niche, you could always expand later. In fact, my story is exactly like that. Early on, when I started doing real estate education, I was like 20, mid-20s and I wanted to start teaching real estate online. I had owned a bunch, I bought a bunch. And so I thought, I want to make a blog and try to make some money off this. But rather than going real estate education, Brandon Turner, like, that wasn't my niche. I literally bought the domain name real estate in your 20s.com because I had to fight against all the gurus that existed out there on how to learn real estate. But when I was real estate in your 20s.com, what do you think? Anybody in their 20s who wanted to get into real estate, where would they end up? On my website, they'd be like, yeah, that's my guy. Nobody else is doing that. He's the guy. And then once I established that beachhead, I was able to move over to the biggerpockets community in the podcast there. And I got to go wide. And so today I'm even wider. Today I'm teaching business stuff, not even just real estate, but I earn the right to do that over time. And to be honest, you guys, I would make more money and probably be more successful if I still niched down and went and taught like mobile home park investing. Like, if I started a mobile home park course, I'd probably kill it. I just don't want to. Cause it's not my one thing right now. Even though I love mobile home parks. So go narrow Enough to matter, go deep enough to dominate, then earn the right to expand. Now one more thing before we check back in on Jake. So before you commit to your seven figure business, ask yourself this question. This is important right now. Is AI going to kill your business in the next three years? Look, some businesses, maybe even most, are going to be decimated. Like basic content writing, gone. Simple graphic design, gone. Data entry, gone. First level customer support, gone. Like a business I would love to start right now would be virtual assistant placement services for real estate investors. That's niched. It's something I know a lot about. I use a lot of VAs. I have an audience that would use a lot of VAs. I could make a ton of money right now by offering VA services. But look, that industry is on a chopping block. AI is going to take it out soon. I'm not going to go waste my time and build that. So what's harder to replace? Businesses built on human trust and relationships. That's what's hard. Local service businesses where someone shows up in person. The high stakes advice where people want a human in the loop. So build something AI is not going to make obsolete, but it's something that's going to make more powerful. Now, speaking of making a choice, let's check in on Jake from the first video. If you didn't watch that video or maybe you just don't remember because it's been a little while. Throughout this seven figure business blueprint series, I'm wrapping up each lesson with a story of a man named Jake who's trying to build a seven figure business so he can retire his wife, increase his income, decreases work and raise his kids wealthy. In the last video, Jake finally hit the tipping point of being fed up with his inability to fully provide for his wife. His wife's name is Maria, by the way, so he committed to doing whatever it took to get her out. So now Jake spends a week with his eyes open. He looks for problems everywhere. Like his neighbors complaining to him about finding reliable lawn care. His co worker just paid 400 bucks for junk removal from his garage. Interesting. His mom frustrated with her bookkeeper. Hmm. Now he's seen these problems everywhere. So Jake picks one junk removal. More specifically, he's gonna build garage Zen. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I'm letting Jake steal my idea. It's fine. Ideas are dime a dozen, right? Ideas don't even matter as much as you think they do. We're gonna talk about more about that next week. Building is what matters and selling it. So Jake's reasoning is solid, right? Low startup costs, just a truck with some muscle. He gets immediate cash flow because people pay on the spot. Wealthy homeowners like wealthy homeowners will pay a thousand dollars or more for a clean garage. It's local, it's hands on, so AI isn't a threat. And there's a clear path to scaling with more trucks and more workers. Now, is he passionate about trash? No. But he is fired up about freedom and about serving other people. And garage then is a vehicle to get there. So that, my friends, is Pillar two. Decide what business to by deciding what problem to solve. If this is helping you drop a comment and let me know what business idea you're thinking about or what problems you see. And if you're not subscribed yet, follow me at beardybranding right now so you don't miss the next video. Because in the next video we're going to actually get into Pillar three, actually building the business. I'm going to show you the lean startup methodology that made me millions of dollars. I'm going to show you how to get customers to pay you before you build anything and why most entrepreneurs are just playing dress up and the huge mistake that I see entrepreneurs making all the time because of AI. So hit subscribe and I'll see you in the next one.