Dan Lok

7 Steps To Scale Your Online Business Fast

September 27, 2020 by Dan Lok

You’ve been examining your spreadsheets, analyzing your revenue, and thinking deeply. Everything is now in place – your profits, your team, and your peace of mind. You are ready for the next level. But as a business owner who has never done so before, it all might seem slightly overwhelming. There is a lot to keep in mind when scaling up.

We’ve laid out a step-by-step process for how you can scale your online business – fast.

Here are some ideas for you.

The Power Of The Online Business Model (& Why It’s Faster To Scale)

Because of how powerful technology is, more and more business owners are shifting to an online model. This also lowers expenses because there is barely any overhead.

Not to mention, in this current situation, people are choosing to shop online for health purposes. In the US, e-commerce sales alone have increased by 25%.

In a traditional brick-and-mortar business, you have to take into account expenses such as rent, utilities, inventory, storage, transportation, and more. With an online business model, most of that is already taken care of for you. The biggest expenses involve how you market yourself and your business.

Scaling an online business is also drastically easier and faster than scaling a traditional business.

Since everything is online, all you need to do is leverage technology to help you scale your business. When you want to expand, you do it via online marketing instead of renting, furnishing, and stocking a new physical location.

But what if you’re currently operating as a brick-and-mortar store? You can still leverage technology to turn your business into an online business. Or at least use these tactics to take some of your business online.

This will be a game-changer for your business.

An online business model effectively reduces your expenses by at least half – saving you money and allowing you to scale with ease. As a result, online business is one of the most scalable business models to exist today.

If your online business is making consistent revenue in a market with high demand, it’s time for you to scale.

We are going to show you, step by step, how to scale your online business.

Step 1: Leverage Your Money Mindset To Create More Money

Before you take another step, you need to consider your mindset. This is the first checkpoint in learning how to scale your online business.

Do you have big goals? Are you ready for your business to scale?

Scaling your online business requires a different mindset. If you think small, your business will stay small. You need to adjust how you view your business, finances, goals, and time.

You only have so many hours in a day. If you continue to trade a limited resource – your time – to obtain more revenue, eventually you will be at a loss. Instead of trading your time for money, think of how you can use your mind to create wealth instead. The best way to do that is to leverage the second most important resource you have – money. Use the money you currently have to generate even more.

This could mean putting out more social media ads. Or you could partner up with an influencer to get them to promote your services, and pay them a fee to use their name and reputation.

In the world of business, it is necessary to spend money to make money. The only way to scale is to grow your business. In order to grow your business, you need more leads and more prospects. Instead of having a saving mindset and trying to salvage every dollar, focus on making more money. The potential prospects who are interested in your services will provide you with a much larger return on your investment.

Step 2: Find And Recruit Passionate Entrepreneurs To Scale Your Business On Autopilot

If you are looking to scale your online business fast, a team member with an employee mindset will probably not be of much help. An employee who is looking for a 9-5 job is interested in only one thing: doing the least amount of work possible and collecting their paycheck. These people have their roles when it comes to scaling a business, but the majority of your team should be passionate entrepreneurs.

Passionate entrepreneurs are less focused on their salary and more focused on what they can become. These are the kind of people who are willing to go above and beyond to help you grow your business. They understand that your success is their success as well.

To attract more entrepreneurs into your business, treat team members like entrepreneurs. Give them the incentive to perform and devote 110% of their time, energy, and work ethic.

For example, in this organization, many members of the team are trained as High Ticket Closers. High Ticket Closers are salespeople companies hire to help them close deals. The difference between High Ticket Closers and traditional salespeople is that High Ticket Closers close on a commission basis. They understand that if they don’t close, they don’t eat. This motivates them to go above and beyond what a traditional salesperson on a salary would do. The more deals these High Ticket Closers close, the more revenue they generate for the company and the more commissions they collect. As the company grows, so do they – they are able to close better deals and generate more revenue.

Provide a culture in your business that pushes team members to become passionate entrepreneurs. They’ll help you grow and succeed fast – and benefit from doing so as well. It’s a win-win situation for everyone involved.

Once you build a solid team of entrepreneurs to help scale your online business, you can move on to the next step.

Step 3: Stop Working In Your Business And Start Working On It

You’re a busy person. You may have a small team working with you, but you’ve got a lot to do as a business owner.

And that’s hindering your ability to scale.

For example, a fitness coach who is making 10K a month offering 1 on 1 training sessions probably has a system in place. His prospects could be sending him an email asking for more information. He has to reply to that email and schedule a time to talk with them. Once they’re on a call together, he talks about how he can help the prospect achieve their fitness goals. After a lengthy discussion about price and what they can expect, the 1 on 1 training begins.

Is that how you’re running your business? Are you involved with every step of the process?

The first step in scaling your business is to stop being involved in every step of your process.

You have to get out of your own way.

This business system will not allow you to scale. Let’s return to the fitness coach case. We can assume he is making 10K a month but has his day-to-day schedule already 80% full. It is next to impossible to take on the number of clients needed to scale to 20K, 50K, or even 100K.

The easiest way to solve this issue is to get some help. Hire a team you can delegate tasks to, so you as the business owner have more time to focus on growing your business. You can hire a support team to manage the emails. Then build a team of closers to talk with your prospects and convert them into clients.

Now you have the time to think about how to scale your business because you aren’t preoccupied trying to do everything yourself.

Step 4: Manage Your Expenses And Automate Tedious Processes

As your business grows, so do your expenses. To maximize your revenue and profits, automate as much as you can in your business. This could mean investing money into software that helps automate tasks so you have more time.

For example, the team members within this organization are extremely busy people. For them to send constant check-in emails would waste time and result in chaos. That’s why we have a task management system that allows them to see what tasks are done and what’s next with just a glance. This speeds up the entire process within the organization, allowing everyone to stay organized and make the most of their time.

What can you automate in your business?

You can save time by investing in software that schedules appointments for you. You could also automate your sales funnel and remarketing campaigns.

Remember that every minute is crucial. Add them up over the span of a month, and you’ll see just how much time you spend on trivial tasks.

Step 5: Focus Exclusively On High Ticket Clients To Do Less Work And Make More Money

Once you get yourself a team that allows you to focus more on running your business, it’s time to examine your offers and market positioning.

Let me ask you a question: would you prefer to work with one client and charge them $10,000, or work with 100 clients and charge them $100? If you’re looking to scale your online business, you need to think about selling high ticket offers.

That means raising the rate and standards of your service to accommodate a prospect who is willing to pay more. Because you are looking to scale your online business, time is your most important asset. You need to focus on how to maximize your time while maintaining or increasing the amount of revenue you generate. The best way to do that is to increase your prices.

“But there’s no way my clients will pay me 10X more for the service I’m charging!”

And that is true. This means there are two options that you have:

Increase the value that you are providing and improve your market position OR
Hand the cheaper clients over to your support staff

You don’t want to reject the prospects that want to work with you. If your prospects aren’t willing to pay the premium prices that you are charging, you can hand them over to your team members.

When Dan Lok was just starting out as an entrepreneur, he worked under his copywriting mentor, Alan. Alan was a busy man with many clients, who charged premium prices because his copywriting skill was in demand. When he encountered clients who weren’t willing to pay his prices, he handed them over to me, who charged a lower price. Instead of the customer being charged $4,000 for a sales page, they would be charged only $1,500.

By leveraging your team members, you can cater to both types of customers, without losing prospects.

Step 6: Scale Your Online Business With A Digital Community Of Like-Minded Individuals

Let’s take a minute to acknowledge where your business should be at this point. You should have:

A solid mindset focused on thinking like a millionaire set on growth and expansion.
A team of entrepreneurs who think big and work hard.
The confidence to delegate everyday tasks to your team so you can focus on strategizing and thinking big.
Automated systems that stop humans from spending their valuable time on mundane tasks that AI and computers can take care of.
High-ticket offers and a solid plan to increase your prices and improve your market position.

So now, we are going to build a digital community you will be able to pluck clients from.

You can do this through social sites like LinkedIn or Facebook. You should create groups that people join to gain information about a problem your online business solves.

People won’t join groups that just sell products, so make sure your group offers true value.

Once you have people learning from and building a relationship with you in the group, they will be more likely to convert.

On occasion (and strategically), you should plug your products and offers. If like-minded individuals who need your solution have a relationship with you, you should see conversions. And just like that, you’ve built a community of ideal clients to pick from when you need more business.

Step 7: Create Online Courses and Programs To Cater To A Larger Audience

So now that you have a digital community, you can push your high-ticket offer. But you can also offer low-ticket online courses for those in your community who are not ready for your high ticket prices just yet.

Online courses do take time to create, but they offer an excellent source of passive income. This means you and your team need to invest some time to build and maintain them but can then focus your efforts elsewhere.

This is an especially poignant strategy if you’re looking to scale your online business without a large team.

So what kind of courses can you offer?

With the increase of internet usage lately and the explosion of DIY culture, just about any business can create a course that has demand for it. Plus, 78% of DIYers start their research process online, so you want to capture that business.

You may be concerned that teaching people about what your business does will negate the need for your offers. But that’s not the case. Your low-ticket course could also be about something adjacent to your offer – not necessarily how to do what you do.

For instance, if you’re in marketing, you may have noticed the giant uptick in demand for online content. So create a high-ticket offer that would alleviate that stress from your ideal client. Build a low-ticket offer course teaching business owners how to find reliable sources for their online content. Then push it to your group of ideal clients. If you’re really going for an awesome sales funnel, advertise the low-ticket offer, then upsell to your high-ticket offer.

And just like that, you know how to scale your online business.

The Secret System To Scale Your Online Business

Scaling your online business should not be difficult. For traditional brick-and-mortar businesses, there are many more things to take into account. However, online businesses have endless room to expand. Even if your main offer is a physical product, you can still capitalize on current digital trends to reach your ideal client and scale your online business.

So where’s your mindset now?

Do you feel ready to take on this challenge and conquer new mountains?

Are you ready to hit the 7-figure mark?

Dan can show you how he took his business online, coaching business from 6-figures to 7-figures – and how you can do the same for your business. All you need to do is attend the High Ticket Mastery™ Event.

What Are They Saying About You When You’re Not Around?: 7 Steps for Building Your Personal Brand

September 18, 2020 by Dan Lok

Ever wondered why so many small businesses fail? Most business people and entrepreneurs focus on the operations of their business and forget to count themselves in the formula for success. If you pay close attention to successful businesses, you will notice one thing – a strong personal brand behind it. Whether it’s the executive or the business owner – there is always someone by whom people remember the business better. Building your personal brand is also what makes your business stand out.

The E-Myth Revisited by Michael Gerber is one of Dan Lok’s all-time most recommended business books. It is somewhat of a cult classic in the business world. In it, Gerber makes a bold statement that most businesses fail because the people who run them are not entrepreneurs but technicians. Being good at your craft/technical role is not the same as being an entrepreneur. What it takes is knowing how to market your business and how to connect with people.

The success of your business doesn’t depend on your knowledge and skills as much as it does on how you present yourself and your business. A technician has the knowledge and skills in a specific area. An entrepreneur is a technician who also knows how to present himself or herself to earn client trust. It all has to do with personal branding.

In this article, we will share 7 steps for building your personal brand. If you are ready to build a strong business and never wonder what people say about you when you’re not in the room – read on.

What’s a Personal Brand?

Before we move into details of building your personal brand, let’s first clarify what a personal brand is. You see, the mistake entrepreneurs make is that they think that their business brand is more important than their personal brand. But this couldn’t be more wrong.

What people think about you has everything to do with your business. If people like you and have positive associations with the mention of your name, your business is doing well. You see – your personal brand is the public projection of everything about you, including your business. It’s a projection of your personality, skills, and values.

People make conclusions about others based on first impressions. What you wear and how you walk and talk all determine what people think about you. The key is that the personal brand is not a person. It is just a projection of perceptions people have of you. Very few people actually know you, but they know your brand. They have a rough idea of your personality and values.

So what is personal branding then? It is actually the process of creating a unique personal identity around a leading attribute. It’s about managing the perception of your audience to create a certain feeling and impression of who you are.

“Your brand is what people say about you when you’re not in the room.” Jeff Bezos, Amazon founder Share on X

The good news, though, is that you can take steps to manage those perceptions by being mindful of the impressions you make. A great personal brand will pre-sell people to your business by making them aware of your character and strengths before they ever meet you.

Here are 7 steps you can take now to start building your personal brand.

#1: Get clarity around building your personal brand.

What do you want to be known as? The last thing you want is to appear as ‘just another’ person in the same business. What do we mean? You do not want to be another mortgage broker, another real estate agent, another web designer, another…anything. You want to be unique. Be known as something different and special.

When Dan Lok first started his career as a copywriter, he gave himself a unique name. Dan came up with a strategy to call himself the “whiz kid of copywriting.” He was so young, and he knew that people might hold that against him. Business owners could decide not to take him seriously because of his youth. But he used this disadvantage of age as an advantage for himself.

Later on, he realized that his name is not easily remembered. His Chinese name was preventing him from networking and landing clients. This is when he decided to change his name to Dan Lok. The moment he did this, he got more clients, and he became more confident as well.

So think about it – how do you want to be perceived? As a strong and decisive leader? An innovator? A low-key, thoughtful, silent power—or as a charismatic and energetic catalyst for change? Brands are built based on the attributes used to describe them: authentic, charismatic, focused, influential, passionate, strong. What brand attributes best reflect you?

Never wait for others to call you what you want to be. Never wait for others to refer to you as an expert. If you want to be the best - make the claim that you’re the best. - Dan Lok Share on X

This will allow you to be the expert in your field because others will perceive you as such.

#2: Understand how you are currently perceived.

So, what are people saying about you when you leave the room? Do you know? How can you find out?

While you may not currently be aware of it, you have a personal brand already. The problem is that you’re unaware of what it is. You need to find out.

How? By asking others. You could ask trusted friends or colleagues, customers, and clients. You could also do a little digging online to see what kind of comments others make about you. What kind of language do they use when they talk about you? What results do you get when you Google your own name? Or your business name?

There are plenty of ways to gain insight into how you’re currently perceived. It’s a critical step to take in building your personal brand. For instance, you might take the list of brand attributes you selected to define your desired personal brand and ask your own group of personal advisors to rate you on each of these on a scale of one to ten. Where would you fall on a scale of one to ten based on the attributes you’ve selected?

Once you gather this input, you’re likely to find some gaps. Look at your score and compare it to what you wish the perception of you was. How can you improve these scores? By identifying the various opportunities that others have to form impressions of you, you can implement changes to match the perception with the vision. Consider these opportunities—or brand touchpoints— and think about how they can serve you better.

#3: Conduct a personal brand audit.

Now that you know that your perception doesn’t match your desired brand, you can fix it. That’s the good news. The most important step to take is to analyze the signals you send which contribute to your perception.

Think about the following questions:

Are you firm and decisive when meeting with business associates, or do you wait for them to lead the conversation and share their ideas?
Do you speak up confidently in business settings, or do you hang back, waiting for others to speak?
Do you forge ahead when making decisions, or do you vacillate and come across as indecisive?
How do your nonverbal signals support, or detract from your desired image?

Now, when you think about these questions and answer them, think about opportunities for change. What can you do to change the way you’re perceived?

#4: Make some changes.

Marketers talk about ‘living the brand promise.’ But what does that mean? Well, that means that you need to stay true to what you project. Everything you do needs to be consistent with the perception you create and the experience your audience has engaging with your brand.

If your brand audit reveals some gaps between how you’re perceived and how you want to be perceived, you need to make changes. And you need to make those changes before you start aggressively interacting with others. If you don’t, you won’t be living your brand promise.

This process will take time and effort. But it’s time and effort well spent. Think carefully about your interactions with people across all online platforms. Is the experience they have consistent across the board? Do you send the same message?

Be bold with this step too and dare to make whatever change necessary. Remember that Dan Lok changed his name to build his brand. He often tells his students this story. Dan realized quickly that his Chinese name is hard for people to pronounce and remember. Since his goal was to build a successful business, he knew he needed a name that’s easier to remember. This is when he changed it to Daniel.

However, after a few years, he realized that name isn’t the right fit either. One day, he asked his mentor – What do you think about Dan Lok? His mentor was surprised at first, but then he smiled – Dan is a much better fit. He said – it sounded more straightforward and approachable – it sends a better message. And that is how Dan Lok brand name was born.

A recent Forbes article included feedback on personal branding from 16 members of the Young Entrepreneur Council (YEC) about changing your personal branding. Many suggest that letting in your followers and clients on the changes you and your brand are going through is a good strategy as well. Use the transition to your advantage and give everyone a little behind the scenes. This will increase their trust in your brand as well and give them a sense that they know you better.

#5: Maintain alignment across all touchpoints all of the time.

Now, just as Dan thought carefully about his name, you should think about every change you make. Keep in mind that your personal brand has to be consistent across all platforms. If your attire screams Dolce & Gabbana, but you drive an old used car, there’s a disconnect. If you’re committed to building a reputation as a fierce negotiator, but you capitulate immediately to even minor demands, there’s a disconnect.

To establish a strong personal brand, you need to convey consistent signals across every touchpoint others may encounter. But ensuring alignment requires mindfulness and attention to detail. This isn’t an easy task. It will require difficult personal decisions and potential sacrifices. Why? Because the strategies that got you to where you are today, will not get you to where you want to go.

Think from the standpoint of where you want to be and plan your communication and branding accordingly. Take your followers and clients and customers on a journey through your brand development. Along the way, you can share your personality and provide value. This will make them trust you and your personal brand will seem genuine.

Make sure you have a good connection between your personal and business trend by taking some of the additional steps recommended by Forbes: read and approve social media content, ask for feedback, specialize on commonalities, focus on foundations, stay consistent, model your company values, let your actions speak for you.

If you’re like most people, you want a friend who is reliable and with whom you simply “click.” Disney and Omnicom share that “consumers across all generations want and expect the same things from brands as they do of their friends and family — reliability, authenticity, and the feeling like the brands ‘get’ them.” Being consistent and connecting your personal and business brand show that you live your values and that people can count on you.

#6: Create your elevator pitch.

An elevator pitch, or elevator speech, is a message you can deliver in about the time it would take to ride up or down in an elevator—about 20 to 60 seconds. The elevator pitch you create for building your personal brand should be a response to the question: “What do you do?”

Being asked this question gives you the opportunity to share your personal brand by succinctly and precisely stating what it is. The elements of your elevator speech should include:

Who are you?
What you and your company do?
The value of what you do for your target audience

A not-so-good elevator pitch would go something like this: “I’m Chris Jones. I own a software company.”

A better pitch would go something like this: “I’m Chris Jones. My company ABC Software offers turnkey order processing solutions to online retailers.”

An exceptional pitch would sound like this: “I’m Chris Jones—I’m changing the way online retailers interact with their audiences by offering the best, and most seamless, order processing solution through my multi-billion-dollar company, ABC Software.”

You’re more than a business owner. You’re a visionary, a fierce leader. Your elevator speech should make this abundantly—and immediately—clear. So should all of the other messages you’re sending across a wide range of potential channels.

#7: Spread the Word

You’re aligned, locked, and loaded. Now, you’re ready to spread the word through as many channels—personal, traditional, and digital—as you possibly can. You want to achieve the power of omnipresence—the ability to be present everywhere.

Think about it – who is going to get their message out more effectively? Someone who is shy or someone who is outgoing? A withdrawn person or someone who is engaged? Someone who blends in with the competition or someone who stands out?

The goal is to stand out in meaningful and aligned ways through as many touchpoints as possible, so your brand begins to build and grow and support the attributes you’ve selected. Tell your story so you can shape how people view you and enable consumers to begin forging a connection with you and your company.

Every encounter. Each impression. Every touchpoint that your audience comes across sends a message. Together these encounters create impressions that drive your personal brand. Be bold and authentic. Do not be afraid to share yourself and your vision. The bolder you are the more attention you will receive. Keep in mind this research – consumers need to see your brand five to seven times to remember it.

Remember Dan Lok and his red suit? Yes – be that bold and that loud.

A few final thoughts…

What are people saying about you when you leave the room? This is the question you, as an entrepreneur and business owner, must know an answer to. If you are not sure – your brand is in trouble. If you do not know what they say behind your back – do your research.

When you’re clear on your vision and mission, make sure to analyze all your touchpoints with people. Are you projecting what you want to project? Are they getting the right message? The best way to build a strong personal brand is to work with people who already did it.

To help entrepreneurs build the best personal brand, Dan Lok has put together an advisory board for elite entrepreneurs. If you’re ready to make your business to the next level, then this might be the mastermind group for you.

Act now to start a journey that will help you earn a position among the most elite entrepreneurs in the world. Become part of the Dragon 100™.

The Fast Emergence of the AI Industry: How Not to Get Left Behind

August 28, 2020 by Dan Lok

What does AI mean to you?

Do you think of Terminator or the power of humanity’s creations? Are you scared or excited? Is it confusing or clear?

AI, for many, has become a catchphrase.

General statements about the future mean very little. Wouldn’t you agree?

You don’t need a grand explanation of the possibilities of AI in the future. And you certainly don’t need a dire prediction about AI taking jobs away.

What you do need is a clear understanding of AI today and the best way to adapt to the changes it will bring to our world.

Overview of the AI industry

You may be wondering, exactly what is AI?

AI, short for artificial intelligence, is tasks that are performed by a machine or by a program that requires some element of intelligence to complete.

The AI industry is focused on building machines that complete projects or solve problems that normally would require human intelligence.

The field of artificial intelligence was actually founded way back in 1956. But our fascination with the way the brain works has existed long before the beginning of the official industry. Philosophers have tried to categorize human action. Scientists have studied systems behind the way we think. Everyone has wondered at a psychological trick or two.

While the buzz around the topic has only become mainstream in the past decade, AI has existed longer than most people realize.

The AI Industry Today

How immersed in AI are you?

Actually, if you’ve used Siri or Alexa today, you’ve already interacted with AI.

Other examples of the AI industry at work today include:

Augmented reality (real-to-life experience through a set of goggles)
Chatbots (website AI that starts conversation with customers)
Self-driving cars (allows drivers to relax and enjoy the trip)
Amazon’s transactional AI (gives users suggestions based on past purchases)
Google Nest (regulates temperature, lights, and other simple household elements)
Pandora’s music AI (finds related music based on 400 preset qualities)

Have you used any of these common AI technologies recently? We all have. Our day-to-day life has been completely transformed whether we realize it or not.

What AI Means for Individuals

We can’t get beyond the fact that artificial intelligence is advancing rapidly. It’s transforming our world right under our noses.

Watch this video where Dan Lok shares 7 jobs that will disappear in the next 20 years due to AI (and what you can do about it).

As you can see, technology in general has replaced many jobs that required humans with computers.

Remember cashiers at the store? Now, we have automated checkouts.

Remember agents at the airport? Now, we have kiosks to handle practically everything.

Artificial intelligence is also infiltrating jobs held by:

Factory workers
Phone operators and telemarketers
Bank tellers and clerks
Warehouse stockers and packers
Stock traders
Bomb technicians
Surgeons
Hotel staff

It makes sense why most people fear AI will take over all jobs.

Here’s the bright side: even if AI replaces many jobs that we know today, it will also create new opportunities. This is the way every technological advancement in the past has worked as well.

Even if AI replaces many jobs that we know today, it will also create new opportunities. - Dan Lok Share on X

Back when Elias Howe invented the sewing machine, seamstresses boycotted the idea. One sewing machine could replace the work of up to 10 women. Yet the invention of the sewing machine only made the fashion industry more profitable. It’s created more jobs, not less.

Yes, those jobs were different from the ones required before the machine. The end result was not less work but more.

How to Adapt to the AI Industry

AI has the potential to change the job market in a similar way to the sewing machine. However, its impact will be ten times greater.

How should you approach AI?

It’s not just about the jobs that will be replaced. It’s about your future career opportunities and income potential.

Want to stay ahead of the curve? Dan Lok has put together several ways you can do just that.

Try these approaches as you work to stand out while AI changes our world:

Learn to operate computers.

In many cases, a machine doing its job will need a human to regulate it.

Why not focus on learning as much as possible about these machines and how to operate them?

The seamstresses who succeeded best in the era of the sewing machine were the ones who started using it. In the same way, the job seekers who stay ahead of the curve in the next decade will know how to manage AI.

If you’re working for a company just starting to invest in AI, take the time outside work to do the research into the technology. Don’t miss a chance to learn and operate it. Be the first person to offer yourself as the company integrates artificial intelligence into its daily process.

Even if you don’t want to be at your current job forever, your understanding of the technology behind AI will be invaluable to your career. If you start your own company someday or quit your current career to pursue something new, you’ll only benefit from having a basic understanding of AI technology.

The majority of people will just sit around and accept that their job is being stolen from them by AI. You can be better than that. Instead, focus your attention on becoming a master of the AI industry in the space where you work.

Invest in innately human skills.

Artificial intelligence is quickly overtaking easily automated jobs. These jobs often require repeated tasks rather than complex problem solving.

You can be disappointed by this, or you can take the opportunity to invest in skills that humans can do far better than robots.

In the end, AI taking the mundane tasks off your plate should only help you build your career in a more efficient, better organized way.

As more and more artificial intelligence is entering into the world, more and more emotional intelligence must enter into leadership. - Amit Ray, AI scientist Share on X

What are the skills humans are good at that AI cannot capture?

Empathy

While some highly-advanced robots can mimic human empathy to a certain extent, AI has not been able to truly replace the beauty of human connection.

Someone who is highly intuitive and quickly understands how people think is an asset no matter where they are headed career-wise.

Thankfully, empathy isn’t just a random talent that only certain people have. By taking time to listen to people, ask questions, and show genuine interest in their lives, you’ll be the person a robot can never quite replace.

Sales

Sales and empathy are highly connected. Although the way people sell and the products they provide are different from 100 years ago, the basic skill of selling hasn’t changed.

Sales has been around since the first humans bartered goods. And it’s not likely to be replaced just because some new technology comes along.

Spend some time learning the basics of sales and how to be not only good but great at it. No matter how far technology advances in the next decade, you’ll be able to use your sales skill to create opportunities for yourself.

Creativity

As humans, we are innately creative. Watch any child pick up a pen and paper, and they’ll quickly draw a depiction of how they see the world (even if it’s just a stick figure family).

Invest in your creativity. Start a business or a side hustle. Try something you’ve never done before. Learn a musical instrument or take a painting class.

In the end, working your creative muscles will be one of the best ways to stay ahead of the curve as the AI industry takes over non-creative jobs.

Complex problem solving

Your brain is extremely good at focusing on a single problem and quickly coming up with a unique solution. It’s crazy how much you can do with 10 minutes and specific concentration on a single idea you need to figure out.

In today’s world, many do not practice the skills needed for complex problem solving. We have information coming at us from every possible angle. Most of us don’t take the time to sit, think, and allow our brains to work their magic.

If you take the time to become great at problem solving, you’ll outpace both other humans and robots in your value to the world. - Dan Lok Share on X

Imagine a person who has worked to build the above skills. Now, imagine someone else who has done the same thing every single day. Who will the AI technology replace?

Those who take the time to invest in the skills that make us great as humans will have the edge as the differences between humans and technology become apparent.

Stay up to date with the changes and teach others.

The third and final way to beat the changes coming to our world by way of AI is simply to become the teacher.

As the world changes, it will be hard for many people to keep up. This means huge opportunity for entrepreneurial folks who are willing to do the research it takes to understand the AI industry.

Companies, individuals, and schools will all need education about artificial intelligence. They’ll need to know how to implement it, how to learn about it, and how to lead the charge in AI advancement.

This field is ripe with opportunity. Become the researcher others look to. Learn to be the person they go to for solid teaching about the industry. Make your voice an authority in the space while you spend time learning about its current advancements.

If you can become a master of one or all of these skills, you’ll pave your own road to success as the artificial intelligence industry grows. In the end, the advances in technology will be a net gain for society.

The choice is up to you. Will you build the skill it takes to stay ahead of the curve?

5 Secrets Great Brands Use in Their OmniChannel Strategy (And How Your Company Can Adopt Them)

August 26, 2020 by Dan Lok

Coca-Cola was born in 1902. Since then, the brand has been loved and celebrated all over the world.

From “The Great National Temperance Beverage” slogan in 1906 to the recent “Share a Coke”, it’s no wonder that Coca-Cola is an iconic American beverage. And it’s reached far beyond the United States, growing into a global empire over the last 100 years.

Can you imagine Coca-Cola without also thinking about great times? Even the red and white colors and the iconic Spencerian font say happiness.

How has the company maintained a consistent brand over such a long period of time?

Coca-Cola’s secret is simple: branding.

What makes great brands so amazing?

Omnichannel brands stand out because they’re everywhere. They aren’t limited to a physical location, a specific social media platform, or a single marketing method.

Coca-Cola is a wonderful example of a brand with an omnichannel strategy that stood the test of time and succeeded in the process.

But you’re probably thinking, That’s because they’re Coca-Cola. There’s no way my company can get from here to there.

Sure, you’re probably starting out with a fraction of the impact (and budget) that they had. But Coca-Cola didn’t start where they are now either.

So how can you get from where you are to where Coca-Cola and other large companies have grown?

Simple. Study great brands. Pay special attention to the qualities that differentiate stellar companies from the others. Then do your best to instill those qualities into your business today.

Better yet, we’ve already studied numerous companies with strong brands for you. Interestingly, there are 5 common qualities that make these companies stand the test of time.

1. They stand out.

No one ever wanted to buy a product from a company that didn’t have a great story. Or from a brand that didn’t differentiate itself from the competition.

In fact, we often don’t choose products solely because of quality. We buy based on emotion and justify that emotion with logic later.

One of the biggest impacts on a buyer’s emotional decisions is the branding of the company. Does the buyer have a reason to buy from you and not your competitors? Do they feel connected to your company somehow? Why wouldn’t they wait and try it out later?

The best businesses’ brands make obvious two things:

Why their product stands out among their competitors.
Why customers should buy the product now.

2. They don’t limit themselves.

If you’re trying to impact the world with your company, you’ll need to reach more than a small group of people.

You’ll need to appeal to the old and young, people from the city and country, the rich and poor. You’ll have to bridge the gap between all the little differences that separate people.

This can’t happen unless you’re building a brand that can encompass multiple channels and impact millions of people across those channels.

It’s important, of course, to have a clearly-defined audience. When your company is in it’s beginning phases, it’s best to find a niche audience and to nail your marketing strategy for that group of people.

But as they grow, the best brands use their omnichannel strategy to approach a broader and broader audience.

These companies don’t say, “We’ve maxed out the market. There’s no way our product could reach more people.” Instead, they innovate, so they can reach more people. That’s how they end up changing the world.

3. They educate.

Great brands don’t just blindly share content and hope it strikes a chord with their followers. They strategically position themselves to be an expert voice for the issues relevant to the company brand.

Often building a world-changing brand means changing the way people think about your industry. This takes well-planned content and a brand that reflects the new ideas the company is introducing to the world.

For example, Dan educates salespeople about how to grow from sales associate to top closer in High Ticket Closer. Without Dan’s unique insights into sales, this product wouldn’t be a reality. Without a well-planned content strategy, there would be no way to share these breakthrough ideas with the people who need them.

If you have a product that’s innovative, unique, and world-changing, chances are you have a huge opportunity to educate your target audience about it.

Besides, with the information economy in full swing, people will research you. We all Google companies we like, check out their social media, and visit their website.

If we don’t find what we like, we mistrust the company. After you’ve lost a customer’s trust, there’s not much chance they’ll buy your product.

How can you keep your customers’ trust? Create an omnichannel brand that educates your customers.

4. They entertain.

Entertainment is cheap in today’s world. Many platforms are perfectly built to both educate and entertain, so smart brands build a strategy with a good dose of both.

Gone are the days when you can reach people by putting your logo on a billboard. Today’s customers see through typical ad styles. They’re calloused to the huge letters and flashy music.

So it takes something unique to get today’s generation to notice your brand. Something that makes them laugh. Something that reaches beyond the clickbaity nuisances that today’s customers all tune out.

Calculating entertainment into your strategy is one of the best ways to make sure people remember your brand. (Geico ads, anyone?)

5. They personalize.

The best companies focus on the customer first. They use conversational marketing or work directly with influencers. These companies know their success comes down to how well they can reach the customer.

In today’s world, we’re bombarded with ads at every turn. We also have the ability to do all the background research necessary on any given company at our fingertips.

We’re used to chatbots and retargeting ads.

So what stands out today is the brand that still adds a personal touch to their marketing strategy.

How can you create an omnichannel strategy?

Rome wasn’t built in a day, and Coca-Cola didn’t create its brand without years of trial and error. It will be the same for your company. However, planning a strong strategy beforehand will give you a competitive advantage as you grow your business.

There’s no one-size-fits-all model that will fit every company. One channel may work for some companies while it fails to reach customers for others. There are, however, several universal keys to keep in mind as you’re building a unique omnichannel strategy for your company.

Keep the customer in mind.

Value creation is the most important key to a great brand. Unfortunately, most companies get caught up in following the latest marketing trends.

This approach is a crippling mistake.

Fads pass, but loyal customers will be the advantage your company can have. It stands to reason, then, that every decision you make about the future of your company should be centered around one question: how will this strategy improve our customer experience?

This perspective will help simplify your approach as you build your strategy for the coming years. If you’re not sure what your customers need or want, ask them. Take some time to put out surveys or get on the phone to listen to what your customers are saying.

An investment in your customers now will pay off decades down the road. - Dan Lok Share on X

Compound that growth with years of investment in your customers, and you’ll have a brand as solid as Coca-Cola or any other great company you admire.

Dominate one channel at a time.

Don’t try to take over the world in the same month. Focus on building solid growth in one or two channels that are most important to you. Maybe the best thing to focus on is email marketing or Facebook ads. Maybe YouTube is the channel you should try out first.

This strategy is far more effective than trying to spread out your marketing budget over a dozen channels you want to eventually use.

As you study social media secrets and other tactics to help you expand, you’ll quickly learn which channels are the top priorities for your company brand.

When you’ve dominated the key channels that can help you grow today, you can move on to taking over several more. After you’ve mastered those, you can break through to other avenues of growth. Continue this, and you’ll have your omnichannel brand before you know it.

Remember that everything is sales.

If it’s not selling, it’s probably irrelevant to your ultimate growth. - Dan Lok Share on X

Think about that statement again. What are you doing now that is simply not helping your company grow? Cut it out.

With every Facebook post, every Instagram story, and every tweet, you have to pay attention to basic persuasion secrets that can be the difference between selling your product or failing to do so.

Not everything has to be an outright sales pitch. But every little thing you do either convinces potential customers to trust your brand more or turns them away from it entirely.

As you’re building an omnichannel strategy, cut out anything that doesn’t sell.

Don’t forget your personal brand.

Your personal brand has more of an impact on the company image than you realize. If you instill trust in the people who look up to you, you’ll automatically transfer that trust to your company.

But if you neglect your personal brand or accidentally build an image that is untrustworthy or shady, you’ll hurt your business more than any other marketing fail can.

Even if you don’t realize it, you have a personal brand. It’s yours to take control of. And it’s never too late to get started building a strong one.

If you take the steps now to make your personal brand something people trust, it will be one of the most beneficial assets to your company as it expands.

With these tips, you should be set to build a solid foundation for your company’s growth.

Are you unsure of building your omnichannel strategy alone? Dan Lok has worked with people like Jeremy Hanes and Brian Tracy to help them build strong brands. If you’re 100% committed to success and need some clarity of how to get there, check out Dan’s consulting options.

Whether you choose to build your strategy alone or enlist a consultation with someone like Dan, you’re headed in the right place just by finishing this article.

Now, all that’s left to do is build the omnichannel strategy you need to drive your company to success.

3 Ways To Expand Your Business Without Sacrificing Margins

August 25, 2020 by Dan Lok

There is a prominent myth about business. People think businesses run on huge margins that leave the owners rolling in cash. But that isn’t the case. Margins have to be decent to account for the unforeseen costs of running a business. But they are often smaller than people think.

The hidden costs of owning and operating a business would astound the public. And when it comes to expanding your business, it can be impossible to sacrifice those margins. But you can expand your business without sacrificing your profit margins.

There are a few key things you can do that will need your time but not at a large monetary cost. Or you could trade one cost for another.

These steps will allow you to expand your business while keeping your margins intact.

Ultimately, they will set you on the path to take your business to the next level. You’ve worked hard to get your business where it is. But what got you here will not take you where you want to go.

So you need to learn how to put in place these skills. You will not only better your business but improve your presence in your industry.

The first step to this future is simple: use what you already have.

Expanding Your Business With Tools You Already Have

Why invest in something new if what you have is more than enough? This is the first step to expanding your business without sacrificing margins. You don’t have to create new long-term expenses. Instead, invest your time in evaluating what you already have.

There are two things every entrepreneur with an enterprise has: human capital and a process.

Your human capital is your team and any freelancers or agencies you use. Your process involves what you do to make your product or service happen.

If you operate any business at scale, you have these two items at some level. They helped you get your business to your current level, and they can help you go further.

But they need to be adjusted if you are going to expand your business.

Evaluating Your Human Capital

To expand your business, you need to build a powerful team. When operating a business at scale, your team will represent you to the industry.

You will not be able to have a hand in every part of the process. So every time your team interacts with someone, that reflects on you.

Conquering your industry requires recognizing that your role in the business has changed. Instead of handling day-to-day tasks, you need to operate at a higher level.

You need to focus on your industry.

This is one way to expand your business, but we’re getting ahead of ourselves.

As you are no longer part of the day-to-day operations of your business, you need a high-caliber team. You are most likely operating with a team already. So expanding your business without sacrificing your margins requires examining your team. Ask yourself:

What is your team structure?
Could they be more effective?
Are they driven by your business’s culture?
Do they represent your best interests?
Are they costing you money with mistakes?

Being loyal to your team is an excellent trait, but you also need to be loyal to your business. That means acknowledging when a team member is no longer necessary. Or when they are costing you more than they contribute.

Employees are human. They make mistakes and need time to learn. But to maximize growth, reevaluating your team and its structure is important.

Are there people on your team who have hampered your business’s growth?

Or could you encourage your team more to expand your business?

Does your team know you appreciate them through your wellness initiatives?

Is Your Team Happy?

There are several management styles. Knowing yours will help you better understand how you relate to your employees.

If you’re a very people-oriented manager, you may be in tune with your team’s happiness. But you may have difficulty restructuring your team because of your loyalty.

If you’re a more numbers-focused manager, you may not recognize if your team is happy. But you’re ready to restructure for growth.

But all the restructuring in the world won’t expand your business if your team isn’t happy.

Happy employees are more loyal with higher engagement levels. And engagement levels are very significant. A Gallup study showed businesses with engaged employees had 59% less turnover.

Plus a 21% increase in profitability.

Wellness initiatives in businesses are not cheap. But asking your employees how they want to feel appreciated could reveal solutions.

For instance, offer more flexible work hours. Adjusting work hours to fit employees’ lives would not impact your margins. Yet it would increase employee engagement.

It would take time and a process to change the schedule. But there would be long-term benefits.

So investing in your human capital does not only mean restructuring your team. It also means evaluating their happiness.

What are the little things you can do every day in your business to encourage your team’s engagement?

Do Your Employees Have Hidden Talents?

Another way to keep your employees engaged is to take advantage of their hidden talents. Allow them to express what they’re passionate about outside of their job description. Then, use those talents.

Keeping your team small and agile will help your business expand in the future. But that means everyone has to have multi-faceted jobs. While you do need to define those jobs clearly, people will still need to have roles.

So get to know your team. Find out what they are good at.

An accountant might have a knack for photography. Or a salesperson may be a grade-A social media manager.

And that brings us to an important question:

Are you outsourcing work that in-house employees could do more effectively?

There is a time and a place for outsourcing. Some positions need a highly-skilled person who does not need to be employed full-time. For instance, copywriting is often outsourced.

If you are outsourcing and plan to continue doing so, ask yourself this:

Can you outsource more effectively?

Take a look at your external team. Are their services worth what you are paying? Are their offerings effective?

This is part of examining your team as a whole. These contractors are not directly part of your team. But they are a piece of your external team, so they impact your business.

Therefore, you need to see their role in your business.

Evaluating Your Process

The next step is diving into your process. You most likely have many processes. These could include marketing, production, distribution, accounts payable, and more.

These processes all have a few things in common: they take time and they’re powered by something. Whether they are powered by humans or money, they require something to make them function.

Are you making them function?

Are you too involved in each process? Are you personally involved in processes you don’t need to be a part of?

If you truly want to expand your business, you need to delegate effectively. But you need to be sure that your process is streamlined for your team, so they are not wasting their time. Or your money.

Your processes should make use of technology and humans to the fullest extent.

Are You Up-To-Date With Technology?

We live in a world full of constantly changing technology. What was top-of-the-line tech five years ago is now deeply outdated.

When was the last time you examined your technology?

If your last evaluation of your tech was several years ago, it’s time to review your technology. This includes processes from payroll to production to lead acquisition.

Software often makes up the foundation of these processes. Software companies will come up with updates for the software you are using. So make sure to check you are updating your software automatically.

And alternative options or solutions may have become available. So it’s important that you continually research and remain open to ideas.

There will be switching costs. But they may be low in comparison to the switch off.

Or alternatively, you may find an all-inclusive software. If you are using a separate invoicing and bookkeeping system, you could find a service that does both. So you can consolidate your needs into one bundled solution.

Make sure to view your process with an open mind. You might also find ways to streamline by using technology less or differently. Pieces of tech you once considered critical may not be required anymore.

But the key is approaching this evaluation with a very open mind. You need to be ready to change. This includes humans.

Are You Using Too Many Humans?

The process of evaluating your team and your process should happen at the same time. So you will know, when you go through your process, how your team will be impacted.

Because you have to ask yourself a harsh question: are you using too many humans?

Is there something you are paying for that technology could do?

If you are a people-oriented manager, this question will be really difficult to answer. And if you decide to keep people on your team that are doing jobs a computer could do, that’s up to you. But you have to recognize you could more efficiently expand your business in other ways.

One of those ways could be capitalizing on your people-oriented attitude. Not every business can say they are loyal to their employees.

But 87% of employees expect their employer to support their work-life balance. This is a large portion of the population who cares about how companies treat their employees.

So if you are unwilling to replace humans with computers, capitalize on that market.

Acknowledge that you may need to sacrifice some margins. It will not be as fiscally efficient to expand your business. But you do have a market that you can tap into without changing your business.

Expanding Your Business With New Additions

While you can use what you already have, you could also make additions.

Depending on your business, this may involve new investments in people or technology. Replacing older technologies with new ones will create a short-term expense. If you replace technology, you may be able to make the process more affordable.

But the long-term ramifications will save you money.

Hiring someone to help with your evaluation could help, too. It would be an additional expense but with long-term benefits. A fresh set of eyes and open mind could help you identify areas to improve.

But there are other steps you can take to expand your business that involve you specifically.

As we mentioned, your role in your organization has to change to expand your business. If you want to take your business to the next level, you need to invest in your industry.

This is why it is so important you trust your team to delegate to them. And you trust your process to make sure your business is running according to your standards.

Once you have those two factors in place, you will be free to explore your industry further. Take the opportunity to network with your peers and establish yourself as an authority.

Collaboration With Peers

Networking with peers is fundamental to expanding your business. Knowing others in your industry will allow you to better understand your competitors. It will also help you capitalize on best practices in your own organization.

Can you honestly say right now that you know the standards for your industry?

The internet has made researching an industry easy. But nothing will replace gaining wisdom from those who are currently succeeding. That’s why finding the right mentor is so important.

And networking with those in your industry around the world will help you to establish yourself as an authority. What are the benefits of being an authority with a recognizable brand? You will be top-of-mind when they need your services.

But networking with peers extends outside your industry. It includes similar industries or ones with which you work. And if you network correctly, that allows for collaboration. You could find new products or services to offer based on people you connect with.

This is why networking is so important to expand your business. Your business will be able to grow so much more when you keep an open mind to learning from others. Plus, you will give your business opportunities by being open to collaboration.

Networking takes time and social skills but virtually no large investment. It’s an excellent way to give your business opportunities without sacrificing margins.

Are You Networking Correctly?

The internet has given plenty of networking opportunities. LinkedIn is a great example.

But you need to know how to fully utilize the platform.

If you are attending an industry event, find out beforehand who is going to be at the event. Send them a connection with a note about attending the event. That way, at the event, you can re-introduce yourself but with research.

You know their job history, current responsibilities, and projects they’ve worked on. You can determine if collaboration would be a good option.

But even if you are not able to attend events in person, LinkedIn is still a good option for virtual networking.

Don’t be afraid to connect with and message others in your industry. You can respectfully and professionally encourage them in their endeavors and introduce yourself.

Make sure to brush up on the proper way to connect with powerful people in your industry. They are busy professionals, and there is a proper way to go about it.

Even if you aren’t reaching out to others, you should post a few times a week about your own business and projects. If people know what you are doing, they can collaborate. Additionally, you should interact with peers’ posts, so they become familiar with you.

Expanding Your Business Through Networking

Ultimately, to expand your business without sacrificing your margins, you need collaboration. Collaborating has several benefits. Namely, you will establish yourself as an authority in your industry. Plus, you will learn best practices while setting industry standards.

”You have to put yourself in connection with other entrepreneurs who are seeking the same growth as you if you want to expand your business.” - Dan Lok Share on X

Dan Lok’s S.M.A.R.T. Challenge is an excellent example of entrepreneurs coming together to build unbreakable and sustainable businesses and growing their networks at the same time.

The S.M.A.R.T. Challenge is only run a few times each year, and with every challenge, business owners see phenomenal results.

Being a relatively short but impactful implementation program is what sets the S.M.A.R.T. Challenge aside from other business-scaling challenges.

How Do You Know If Your New Business Idea Will Actually Work?

August 24, 2020 by Dan Lok

So you’ve got a big business idea. It could be something you’ve been stewing over for several years. Or it’s a spur-of-the-moment idea you feel you could actually commit to.

Regardless of the stage of your idea, you may be asking:

Am I willing to quit my job to pursue this?
Do I have to sacrifice any money to make this work?
Do I have what it takes to be an entrepreneur?

Many times, these fears can be summed up in one question:

How do I know my new business idea will actually work?

Life isn’t built on certainty, and the variables of success are too many to count. If you could ensure your ultimate success early in your entrepreneurial journey, wouldn’t you?

Of course you would.

These steps aren’t part of a mindless checklist. They require intensive research and effort. They’ll also call for a dose of introspection and plenty of thinking time. So if you’re looking for an easy checklist, you’ve come to the wrong place.

But if you’re willing to put in the work to follow through on your business idea, these action items are for you.

The first step is asking the right questions. If you can channel the questions you have in an effective way, you’ll learn to better understand yourself and get a stronger grasp on your business idea.

The second step is putting your business idea to the test. Technology enables you to test the concept behind your business before you go all-in. Using social media and other channels to test your business plan will let you know if you can succeed in the “real” world.

In this article, we’ll hand you the keys to both of these action items. First, we’ll cover some questions you should ask yourself as you think through your business idea. Second, we’ll share some of the best ways we’ve seen entrepreneurs put their ideas to the test.

5 Questions to Ask About Your New Business Idea

1. Why do I want to start this business?

We’re not talking about your business plan here. We’re talking about your why.

The biggest success factor for your new business idea is you. - Dan Lok Share on X

Now is the time to realize if you care about the business or if you’re chasing something else – fame, money, or approval. Fame, money, and approval aren’t bad in themselves. But if you make them your focus, you’re digging a hole for yourself and the business.

Uncovering your “why” —your core business motivation —will be an advantage when you hit tough times. Your “why” will guide you through the challenges every entrepreneur is bound to face.

Take a look at the mission statement for the Disney company:

The mission of The Walt Disney Company is to entertain, inform and inspire people around the globe through the power of unparalleled storytelling, reflecting the iconic brands, creative minds, and innovative technologies that make ours the world’s premier entertainment company.

Everyone surrounding Walt Disney knew that he was an incredible optimist and a master storyteller. These core motivations haven’t changed since the company’s early days. They impact every movie Disney releases and add the spark of magic people experience at Disney World.

As the founder of your company, this is the same kind of impact that you can have on the lasting legacy of your business.

2. Am I willing to do whatever it takes to make this happen?

Successful businesses rely on a leadership team with total commitment to the company vision.

If you’re not willing to sacrifice a great job, free time, social life, or other things that are important, you may not be ready to launch your business.

There was once a man passionate about duck hunting. He was so passionate that he actually turned down a career in the NFL to follow his vision. He ended up inventing several duck calls, and that’s the beginning of the story of the Duck Dynasty. That man was Phil Robertson, and he and his sons still run this hugely successful company.

Does your business idea have to be your biggest passion? No.

But do you need the inner resolve to push through the hurdles that are sure to come your way? Unquestionably, yes.

Where there’s a will there’s a way, and this resolve increases the chances of your business succeeding.

3. What is the problem my business idea solves?

Let’s face it: not having a problem you can solve with your new business makes success less attainable. We call these pain points. Unless your customers see a way your product can improve their lives, they won’t buy it. Simple as that.

If you don’t know the problem you’re trying to solve or the way your company is making the world a better place, you’ll have no selling point for your product.

If your company is groundbreaking, there’s a chance you’ll have to show people a problem they didn’t know they have. Take Ford Motor company, for example. Henry Ford is famously known for saying

“If I had asked people what they wanted, they would have said faster horses.”

Another example of a company that solves a huge problem is GrubHub. The company was started by two developers working for Apartments.com. Working late, they were frustrated with the lack of food options and the constant issue of having to give credit card numbers over the phone.

So they built Grubhub—a directory for restaurants plus a service that allowed people to order food from the comfort of their homes.

This is a problem most busy people had, but everyone just dealt with it. Grubhub posed a solution to a previously unsolved problem for many Americans.

4. How big is the market my business could reach?

Ask questions about the market you want to reach. This approach is simply an extension of the question “What is the problem my business idea solves?”

Let’s take it a little further:

Is this problem something only a certain group of people have?
Is this problem affected by where my customers live?
How many people have this problem?
Will my product be something anybody can access, or does the amount of money they make come into play?

Simply asking these questions means doing substantial market research.

Wouldn’t you want to dive into the research if it meant more money?

There are two ways to make a lot of money:

Sell a high volume of products at a reasonable price.
Sell fewer products at a higher price.

If your target market is small (i.e. entrepreneurs in Chicago with a net worth of over $2M) then your product needs to be worthy of and sell for a higher price point.

On the flip side, if the potential market for your company is large, you’ll need to find some way to convince that market of the value of your product.

5. What strengths and weaknesses do I bring to the table?

What do you think is the most important factor of success in your business?

YOU.

Start now and do some serious self-assessment. You won’t want a personal downfall to mean the demise of your business later on.

When it comes to entrepreneurship, many founders are really good at one or two things. Yet they lack ability in several others.

For example, some entrepreneurs are great at marketing and sales but are chronically disorganized. It pays for them to recognize this and to hire other people to manage the company operations.

Others may be technically skilled but have no concept of how to pitch their product.

If you correctly analyze your business strengths and weaknesses now, you'll do yourself a favor in the long run. - Dan Lok Share on X

The success of Apple had to do with partners who complimented each others’ strengths and weaknesses. Steve Wozniak and Steve Jobs met while working a summer job.

At the time, Wozniak was building a computer. Jobs, on the other hand, saw its potential to solve a global problem.

Without the insight and business sense Jobs brought to the table, Wozniak probably would never have put the computer on the market. And of course, Jobs would never have had a product without Wozniak’s analytical and technical abilities.

6 Ways to test your New Business Idea

Now that you have gone through the big questions, it’s time to put your big idea to a potential test.

1. Use social media to test your ideas.

Isn’t it funny how one simple post asking a question on Facebook can get hundreds of comments? How quick are people to share their opinion on Twitter?

These are opportunities.

Start sharing the problem you’re solving with your friends. Ask them directly if they would buy the product you’re trying to sell. See if they’re willing to share details about the company you’re trying to build. Ask for their feedback on potential business models or marketing ideas.

If you’re extra adventurous, try starting a Facebook page and running some simple ads to a landing page that explains the product you want to develop.

Chances are if you can get engagement on social media around the idea you’re building a product around, there will also be people who want to invest money in it.

Social media is also a great way to get an idea of other perspectives as you build out your business plan. Just remember to take everything with a grain of salt: not everything people say on social media should be taken to heart.

2. Start a newsletter.

A newsletter about your business idea will have so many benefits. First, you’ll be able to test whether people are willing to make a commitment to your business.

An email is one of the most valuable things you can have when it actually comes time to launch your business. Email gives you direct access to a potential customer who is already invested enough in your idea to give you personal information.

Finally, it’s going to be incredibly valuable to you to regularly share the progress you’re making on your business as you figure out how to build it. You’ll be able to stay accountable to potential customers and get continual feedback as you test and implement your product.

3. Get yourself in front of investors.

What’s one of the best indicators of success? When someone is willing to commit to and invest in whatever you’re building.

You can look for potential investors by networking. You may have already been keeping your eyes open for potential partners in this business venture. If so, offer to take these people out for coffee or pay for their lunch and ask for their advice and ideas.

Use LinkedIn to pitch investors who have been involved in companies similar to yours. Make a point to connect to these people. This way, when you’re ready to ask for investments, you will have a network of people who already know and trust you.

If you don’t want to go the route of traditional investors, you could try crowdfunding. Kickstarter, SeedInvest, and Patreon are several options if you’re going for smaller investors.

Finally, maybe the best option for you will be to create an MVP (a minimum viable product) that you can test on the market for a lesser price than what you eventually want to charge.

This way, you’re already accountable to the market while you’re bringing in the first bit of money you’ll need to grow your business.

Regardless of how you choose to get your initial funding, the basic idea still stands: you won’t know your business can be successful until someone can put their money where their mouth is.

4. Create a survey.

Are you looking to do more market research and understand a bit more about your potential customers before you raise money? No problem.

You can create a quick survey using SurveyMonkey, Typeform, Google Forms, or FormAssembly where people can give you their true opinions about what you’re building.

Ask family and friends to complete the form as a favor to you. You’d be surprised how much they know about you! Then market your survey to a broader group of people.

5. Get an understanding of the financial side.

Do you have any idea how much it’s going to cost to create your product? Or if it’s even reasonable to think you can make money off of it?

How much of the work will you need to outsource? How many employees will you need st a minimum and how experienced do they have to be?

If you don’t feel equipped to do the research on this yourself, flesh out the idea with someone who can give you good advice.

If you can’t make money, your business will ultimately fail.

And it’s better to find that out now rather than to run into a hiccup you could have avoided by doing the proper legwork in advance.

6. Do some background research.

Most people like to call this “researching the competition.”

Know your competition and their successes. The time you invest in this research will be valuable when you’re assessing how to build your business.

Besides, it will let you know if your potential market is saturated or if you have the potential to create a true win.

Here are several tools you can use to research your competition:

Social media profiles. What does a product similar to yours do for an Instagram page? How active are the founding members and C-level employees on social media? Do they run ads on Facebook or Twitter?

Google. Search “Products for (Problem You’re Trying To Solve)” or “(Industry Name) Companies”. Take some time to assess the top pages that come up during your searches. Is your competition spending time creating content around the problem you’re solving? What are they doing to get noticed?

Keyword Tools. Want to know how your business can succeed? Study what people are searching for in your target industry. Keyword tools like Ubersuggest or Ahrefs allow you to study the analytics of certain search terms in your target industry. With these tools, you can see who consistently ranks for keywords in the space you’re targeting. The companies who are ranking for your target keywords are the ones you should begin to study.

If you’re interested in diving deeper, Dan goes into more detail about the idea in this video.

Wrapping it all up

In the end, you can’t determine the profit of your business by doing the same thing as another entrepreneur. You won’t have a guaranteed path to success by following a set of rules.

Your business will succeed because of your hustle. It’s going to make money because of your determination to keep going.

Finally, your business will power through difficulty with your ability to research, test, and adapt. You can start the process while your business is still in the idea phase.

If you start the process of research today, you’ll set your business up for long-lasting success.