If you’ve decided to be an entrepreneur to solve your financial problems. I’ve got news for you. You’ve got a long, arduous, dare I say impossible journey ahead. Because you’ll need to solve problems to get rich.
You see, if you are looking to fix your own financial situation or gain freedom from the 9-5, you’re starting a business for the wrong reason. Businesses exist to solve problems, not to make you rich.
Budding entrepreneurs often make the mistake of starting businesses to solve their own financial woes. Real entrepreneurs find big problems to solve, spend years working their tail off, then profit on the backend.
Pigheaded focus on anything other than solving customer needs makes you a wantrapreneur, not an entrepreneur.
Lets explore why.
Why You Can’t Focus On Yourself
Who is really paying the bills at your business? Think about that for a second.
Yes, you pay the actual bills. But where does that money come from? Customers. Satisfied customers. Who not only spend their hard earned cash at your business, but also recommend your products or services to their friends.
Notice your needs are not in the equation. No one really cares about you. Customers care only about themselves and there is a massive jungle of places where they can cater to their needs, wants and desires.
So why should customers spend their money with you?
You Solve Their Problems
People spend money to solve problems. Plain and simple.
Maybe someone feels fat and wants a gym membership. Perhaps a business owner needs your SAAS software to make their business more efficient. Perhaps someone wants organic, locally grown produce but don’t have the time to buy it.
What ever the business, people spend money to solve problems—not to make you rich.
So how do you find these problems? Glad you asked.
Finding Problems to Solve
Now that your mindset is shifting from money making to problem solving, let’s look for big juicy problems to solve.
Problems can appear anytime, anywhere. Maybe you overhear a conversation at a restaurant that goes, “You know, it’s so hard to find a good contractor right now.” Or maybe someone says, “I hate washing my car, I wish the car wash would just come to me!”
Another technique is solving a problem you experience. For example, you might be a bride-to-be and don’t want a traditional registry and are having a hard time finding the right alternative. Or perhaps you are trying to do something online that is time consuming and frustrating and no service (or only a poorly run service) exists to help you.
Alert! Alert! These are opportunities! These are all problems aching to be solved and people will pay good money to solve these problems.
I know what you are thinking, “But Chris, there are already companies solving these problems.” Sure there are, but if you hear people complaining, then the existing companies are not solving the problem well enough or their marketing is terrible. That means there is plenty of market available for you.
Next Actions
Real problems are real opportunities. If you start a business around a problem, you have a much higher chance of beating the odds and owning a successful company. But, if you focus your time and energy maximizing your wealth instead of solving problems, then you will never get the financial freedom you seek.
Today, listen to conversations around you and find out what people are complaining about. Write them down and come up with solutions. Pick the best one and get moving. You’ll need to start to solve problems to get rich.
Did you start your business to solve a problem? What was the problem? Let me know in the comments below.
