how to find profitable problems to solve...
one of the biggest blockers people seem to face in online business is that they don't know which problems are even worth solving...
they understand that biz is at it's core just selling solutions to problems, but they have no idea how to apply this idea because they don't have much experience.
the truth is that they almost certainly have already fixed problems worth productizing, it's damn near impossible to live into adulthood without doing so.
therefore the key here is to focus on what problems that you have already solved.
this is because:
the alternative is that you solve problems that you think exist from the outside looking in - taking a gamble without understanding the market and run the risk of building something nobody wants.
this is why the best solutions almost always come from people deep inside of a certain community. they have been living it for a while, interacting with others facing the same problem(s) & understand the pain/desires on an expert-level.
your task right now is to make a list of all of the problems you've solved in your life.
step 1: what have you achieved?
it doesn't have to be big, think about times you:
write down literally anything that comes to your mind, for example:
step 2: which problems did you overcome to achieve it?
for each achievement, ask:
example:
step 3: identify if the problems connect to money/time/status
people ultimately only care about 4 things:
for each problem on your list, ask:
delete anything that doesn't trace back to the money, time, or status desires.
step 4: the hidden problem check
look at your filtered list. for each problem, ask: "is this what people think their problem is? (surface problem) or is this the REAL problem underneath? (root problem)"
example:
for each problem on your list, write both:
You'll often sell the surface problem, but solve the root problem.
by the end of these 4 steps, you should have a list of 3-5 problems that you actually experienced & solved that others in your field still struggle with. You should also have confirmed that they trace back to money/time/status.
if you still have no ideas that means you genuinely haven’t solved a single problem worth productizing in your life. in this case ou must do one of the following:
Before you choose to productize the solution of the problems you've chosen, answer these quick self-checks honestly:
check 2: is this problem painful enough that people will pay to fix it.
"mildly annoying" problems don't create buyers. "i'd lose a kidney for this" problems create buyers.
check 3: can you clearly articulate the transformation from problem -> solution
try this exercise right now: the [PROBLEM] was costing me [PAIN]. i discovered [SOLUTION], and now [OUTCOME].
example:
"the feast/famine client cycle was costing me sleep and financial stability. I discovered how to position myself as authority via. EP's system, and now I book 2-3 months out at 3x my old rates."
do this for your top problems right now.
if you can't explain it simply in one sentence, you don't understand it well enough yet.
most people skip this product research and jump straight into "building", and then we wonder why half of X solves problems that nobody has.
the problem isn't your product. the issue is that you're solving problems that:
by starting with YOUR problems, you're giving yourself an unfair advantage.
you have:
this is your unfair advantage.