Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur taxpayers own.
“But I’m not an expert. I don’t have a degree or credentials. How can I start a business? No one will take me seriously, let alone pay me.”
i hear this everybody the time of my students. I patiently remind you that I am a school dropoutand on paper, my only qualification to manage Facebook Y Google ads is the fact that I run a seven-figure agency that manages Facebook and Google ads.
It is not usually assimilated, so I refer you to a recent Wall Street Journal Article which tells the all too familiar story about a group of graduates who can’t get a high-paying job. This particular story, however, shares the struggles of students enrolled in the MFA film program at Columbia Universitythe prestigious ivy league school in New York. These students took on six-figure debt to earn an MFA degree, only to discover that not every student could be Scorsese from the start. an ivy league education couldn’t save them from the same low paying entry level film jobs as someone who didn’t obtain a loan the size of a condo.
We are facing an epidemic of overeducated and underpaid wage hunters in this country because we have the success equation completely backwards.
What I am about to share with you not only applies to starting a business, but also to people who just want a lucrative and satisfying job. I will describe how most people approach skills acquisition, and then I’ll tell you how successful people approach the acquisition of skills.
If I do my job well, you’ll be convinced that you don’t need to be an expert to start a business. In fact, if you’re not an expert right now, you’re better off.
Related: 8 keys to look like an expert in what you sell
As most people gain skills
“Go to college! Get an advanced degree! That’s how you succeed.”
It’s amazing how people refuse to believe what is right before their eyes. Columbia filmmakers are not unique. According to a PayScale survey, 46% of American workers reported being “underemployed.” Meanwhile, 76% of those surveyed said it was because they weren’t using their degrees in their careers.
But people still blindly follow the same old routine, which goes something like this:
- sinking time and money to education to acquire skills.
- Go to market with newly acquired skills.
- ???
- Profit?
We are going to discuss two things about this approach. First, advance all risk. you’re sinking tons of time and money acquiring skills you expect the market will reward you. In reality, so many graduates enter the market only to find that the market doesn’t need their skills. Worse yet, many find that their advanced education makes them overqualified. They have been listed outside the market.
Related: 5 steps to establish yourself as an industry expert
as entrepreneurs acquire skills
Entrepreneurs, and other smart people, take a reverse approach to what I described above. This is what it looks like:
- Go to the market and ask them what problems they have.
- Find out how much they would be willing to pay to solve that problem.
- When you find a problem that the market will pay handsomely to solve, go out there and acquire the skills you need to solve that problem.
- Acquire your first customers.
- Refine your offering, using your first customers as hands-on training.
- Present your offer to the market.
An entrepreneur starts with the market, listening to what they want, and only then acquire the necessary skills.
There is also much less risk up front. Yes, it can take time and money to acquire the skills you need to solve the market problem. Perhaps it will require a title? Maybe it won’t? But it probably won’t. You can do wonders with books and online courses.
But no matter how much time and money you invest, you’re investing knowing there’s a payday waiting on the other side. Why? Because you are responding to the market.
You are the solution to a problem. And, at the end of the day, that’s what people pay money for. Columbia filmmakers learned the hard way that there was no bigger problem to solve, and that didn’t change just because they had a expensive grade.
Related: 7 ways to position yourself so people see you as an expert
Next steps
These are the reasons why you should start your business sooner you have the skills to deliver. Once you start making your market researchyou are in business.
Here’s how to get started:
- Pick a niche, any niche. Don’t be tempted to follow the money: everyone is pitching to consulting services, doctors, lawyers, etc. Often the darker and more esoteric the niche, the better.
- Talk to people in the niche. Find out what their biggest problems are on a day-to-day basis.
- Ask them how much they would pay to fix the problem. If they say anything less than $2,000, you may not have a viable business. It has to be worth your time.
- Do you want extra bonus points? If you’re feeling ambitious, ask them to pull out their credit card and pay you for the solution before you know how to deliver it. It’s a bold move, but that’s how you know that people are willing to pay for the solution. It is the definitive validation of the product-market fit.
- now and alone now, go out and acquire the skills you need to solve the problem.
You don’t need to become a 10,000 hour master. You just need to know a) more than the customer and b) enough to solve the problem.
Solving the problem is everything. Thread that needle, and you’re done.