So you’ve decided you want to wander the world for awhile and fund your escapades with glorious dollar bills made over the internet. You want to be a Wanderpreneur, a Digital Nomad that owns their own business.
Congratulations! You’re going to sip cocktails under palm trees while your business fills your bank account! Post envy-inducing photographs of amazing places on Instagram! See more places in a year than your college buddies will see in a lifetime!
The potential feels like an electric pulse zipping through your body! Then it’s time to begin. Time passes. It crawls. The dream stays just as distant as it was the very first day it formed in your head like a beautiful, shimmering mirage.
Looking for Trouble
Most aspiring Digital Nomads I talk to get stuck on the same early hurdle: “How do I come up with an idea that will make money?” It’s frustrating as hell to be ready and fired up to start the rest of your life, but have no idea how to do it.
So we’re going to look carefully at that critical time at the start of your journey to learn how to find ideas you can turn into income.
Good business ideas, or at least ideas that are worth money, all start in the same place: they solve a problem. So if you’re looking for ideas, you have to look for problems.
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Problems come in all kinds of flavors, and they are everywhere. It can be difficult for the newbie, however, to find them because you may be accustomed to just dealing with them. Problems may slap you in the face every day but you may be so used to working around them that you don’t realize there’s something of value right in front of you.
Not all problems are created equal, though. Some are minor. Some are nasty and hairy, and can prove extremely difficult to solve. Not every problem has a solution that’s worth your time, and it will take some searching to find one that has a solution for which people will pay.
But that’s the idea. Find a problem that’s annoying the holy hell out of people, build a solution, and help them out by selling it to them. Sound simple? It is. But simple ain’t the same thing as easy, as Queen Elizabeth used to say.
We’re not going to worry right now about finding the perfect idea. Instead we’re going to build your idea-finding muscles with some exercises. Once you have some ideas flowing, then we can start to sort them into “sucky” and “ducky” piles. You have to learn to walk before you can start screaming around the skies in that flying squirrel suit.
Let’s Work
Do you have a social media account? If not, you’re going to need at least one, if not two or three. A deep pool of friends and followers on Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram, Snapchat, etc is going to help, so create some accounts and make some friends.
Start reading the stuff they post. What are your friends and followers passionate about? In what do they invest their time? If you pay attention, you’ll see that everyone is into something: Game of Thrones, old guitars, their kids, their job, their business, reptilian pets, 70’s muscle cars, wiffle ball, wife carrying (yes, that’s a real thing), Irish music, etc.
The narrower the niche, the better. For example, if someone posts about their kids all the time (what parent doesn’t, much to the annoyance of all of you out there who are currently living blissfully child-free lives – for now) you can probably deduce that they’re passionate about their kids. That’s ok, but it’s much more useful if you can figure out that they’re really into teaching their kids coding. Or their kid’s 4-H club. Search for something specific.
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Keep paying attention until you clearly understand the sliver-like niches this, that, and the other person are passionate about. Then contact them. If you know them well, this part will be easy. If not, well, it’ll still be easy. You’re not asking them out on a date, you’re just asking them questions about themselves, which, as it turns out, is everyone’s favorite topic.
Send them a message/IM/PM/email/DM/ZM (ok, I made that last one up) and say:
Hey, I’ve noticed that you’re really into [name of thing they’re into here]. I’m curious – when you’re [doing that thing they’re into] what frustrates you the most?
They might not be sure what you mean by “frustrate”. Explain to them that you’re wondering if there’s something about collecting antique glass bottles, for example, that drives them bonkers.
They might not be specific about their answer. If they’re into building realistic battlefields for their civil war action figures, they might say, “Oh, just getting ahold of stuff.” Don’t take fuzzy answers. Politely keep asking questions until you fully understand the exact problem, “It’s hard to find a good set of model paints for realistic items, like trees, fields, and mountains.”
Keep digging, keep asking questions until the problem is clear to you. Then thank the person and move on. It doesn’t matter if a problem seems minor, or easy to solve, or impossible for you to solve because you don’t have the skills, or not really a problem at all. What we’re doing here is practicing, exercising your problem-finding muscles, heightening your awareness of problems that cause pain all around you.
Don’t stop at social media. If you’re on the train, at a party, or in line at the supermarket, say hi to a stranger, introduce yourself, and ask them what they do.
“Waiter”
“Accountant”
“Stay-at-home dad”
“Fashion consultant”
Then ask them the same question: what are the biggest challenges at your job? Depending on your level of comfort it may be a little difficult at first, but difficult is good. Difficult things force you to grow.
Keep at it, continue asking questions until you find yourself doing it intuitively, and soon you’ll become aware of all sorts of problems. And with those problems will come ideas.
We’ll go into learning how to solve those problems and sell your solutions in future posts. For now, get up close with people and ask them questions.
Go.
Inspiring! And to connect the problem to a personal passion (or at least an interest), would finding a problem in your own hobbies be an ideal place to fish fora business idea?
Hey Igor!
Your own hobbies and interests are a great place to start. I don’t worry too much about tying my own business to an area of personal interest because it’s the process of building the business itself that I find engrossing. That may not be everyone’s jam, however, and if not then using a hobby as a starting point might be a good idea.
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