I am an engineer. I don't know where to start and who needs me.
What pain points do you usually face when you're trying to find the problems that are worth solving?
Best Answer
The "build and they come" era for engineers is over. My friend. It was long over. Now it is "build it and hauler to your friends and they might come".
Two key words for you my friend: FOCUS. And friendship.
Only FRIENDS allow you to listen to their real pains and accept your solutions. So build relations with your heart. If you wan to provide and if you want to make money in today's world, you will be extremely disappointed. I am an engineer turned entrepreneur. I know exactly what you are talking about.
People only care about the things they care about during COVID lock down - love and toilet papers. Oh, grocery stores are open, good. Every other pain is forgettable.
Build relation. Make friends. That is first step.
Problems are scattered everywhere. Let's say during COVID a lot of people are out of jobs. And let's say many wants to do shopify or FBA business. Then they would not be able to handle the calls. Now that is the pain - to help gig workers with customer calls so they can focus on their work. So build an automated call handling software with AI algorithm. See you on the cover of INC next year!
Problems are everywhere. If you don't focus, you only see a white beach. If you focus, you see 1 triillion grains of sand, each representing a problem. Each will make you generational money.
The problem with American education system is (I was a professor), we have highly educated Ph.D. teachers teaching you from dry books or their wet research. We don't teach building skills. We never teach anyone how to FINISH building something, or how to "sell that item by identify value".
Today engineers are commodity - they are the nuts and bolts in a machine. Now you need to start thinking from the reverse. Think about three things. 1. Who I want to be my friends. 2. Solve any problem the friends have. Trust me, they can make you rich. 3. Build and learn and learn and built. Learn on the fly. Build on the fly. After this, you will be as clam as u/rolandopax. The COVID and AI will disrupt the world economy and tech landscape - act on something fast.
I have a list of free business ideas that you are welcome to take a look
Other points
Choose an audience that you know. Research them. They will reveal the problems that they are struggling with, the language they use to describe those problems (which, if you use that same language, means your marketing will immediately appeal to them) and the amount they are willing to pay to have those problems solved.
And if you can't find a problem you want to solve - or you can't find a problem that they are willing to pay to have solved, switch to a related audience and start over.
A product must gain access to a market and then bought by a customer who is comparison shopping in a safe place. The market validate the quality and safety of the product.
What are the steps to turn an idea into an innovation? there are at least the following steps. The idea must be turned into a product, and the product must enter the market. In the market, the target audience will examine the artifact - if they buy, then the product becomes a merchandise.
A first time entrepreneur always under estimate the difficulties. Each voyage is a ship with 2000 holes - each hole is only visible when the boat is in water.
Jack the entrepreneur is a creation of TeenSharks Startup School
A business plan has two parts, the aspiration and the traction. A business plan is about two parts: how the business runs, and how to start that business.
How to turn an interest into a money maker. How to attract people, how to stimulate people to pay, how to make profit, how to make relations, how to keep relations.
How much do I have to give my audience so they can pay me something in return? What do they value? what problem do they search for answers on your own? I want to solve that problem.
When you finally connect what you love to do to what a lot of people love to buy. When you can focus all you want and still have unlimited work and fun.
A general or CEO or founder who is tolerant and generous. Someone who recognizes own mistakes. Someone with big heart for hiring people better than him.
Brand means name recognition. A lot of people knows what your company does and what you stand for. Brand is result of long campaign of consistent value provision and media cultivation. Brand helps a company reduce marketing cost.
Whether there are buyer willing to pay or not. For that to happen you must provide extreme value. The entire startup process would be based on guess before the validation. Validation happens in a market, not on the street.
Value is what you give customers beyond the price you charge. Value is effective solution to a problem. The price your customer pays reflects whether the problem is big for them and whether your solution is uniquely effective. Value stems from quality and detailed work.
Marketing means bring your product to the market and bring your message to your customer. Marketing is not salesmanship. Marketing is to penetrate the world of commerce through many barriers and existing networks.
Minimally viable business, or MVC, minimally viable company. A company that scrapes by, full of guess and hope and no traction and sales. When you give your customers things for free they all take it. But they never pay and you can never rent a table at the market.
Minimal viable product. A full artifact of a real product. Something that works ALL THE TIME. You can demonstrate the real effect on real people - not to sell hope. The MVP may not have certain non-essential bells and whistles, but it needs to have appeal value.
A business lives at the mercy of its customers. You provide your customers 10 dollars worth of value and they pay you 1 dollar, not knowing that your company only costs 99 cents to provide the item. The value is not the item - the value is what is attached to the item.
Company culture is based on a company making money. Once your workers are paid, they need to have a mission and aspiration so they are not bored everyday and make trouble in the work place.
When you find a full universe within a grain of sand, a life time of work to do by focusing on one thing. There is enough people behind you to support your living and cause.
People's reaction when they know you have done something they could never do And they know this is not accident because you have done it a number of times.
A company valuation is cash investment divided by the percentage. As long as your story is good, the valuation will keep coming, and the investors will keeping falling into the line.
Investors are either behind family fortune (never work with them) or for rich clients as investment vehicle. Both need returns 2-3 times better than stock market darlings.
Having found what people want, not just what people may need. Your offering and their acceptance is sure, no longer a guess. You can provide it for profit, and you can indeed making living on it. Traction is sometimes called validation. You are no longer a theater. You have touched nature, and found cash vein.
