Today in the podcast we have Hayden talking about one of his favorite topics : using your unfair advantage as the foundation for your business.
Something we realized, is that one of the main reasons for which people fail at building a solid business is that they don’t rely on the assets they already have, which could help them get ahead of their competitors from the beginning.
We like to call these assets the Unfair Advantage.
In this episode, we talk about how to find what your unfair advantage is, and how to use it efficiently in order to hit the ground running with your new business.
We also talk about what kind of businesses are the best to opt for if you’re just starting, as well as why SaaS isn’t a great idea for a first business.
Referenced in this episode:
Blog posts on how Hayden created NoHatSEO, and then turned it into NoHat Digital : Part 1 – Part 2
Sign-up page for the webinar to get the 10 free modules
alex.b says:
I always have an issue with this unfair advantage stuff…I feel I don’t have any (and it’s not the first time I do this exercise of writing down things I’m passionate about or good in). Since doing everything myself in IM over the years, I gathered experience in all kinds of areas, but I’m literally a master of none. So I’m no expert anywhere – how can I then go about this?
Han Chang says:
That’s a great question Alex, and there are two answers:
1. You actually do have expertise and are just unaware of it. For me, I was a seasoned software engineer, having worked at places like Lime Brokerage doing automated blackbox trading in equities and building huge dating sites like OkCupid, but I wasn’t aware of how to take my corporate skills and turn them into a business. After doing the exercises Hayden and I created, I finally came up with a viable business: teaching beginning software engineers how to navigate the job market and write killer resumes/cover letters and negotiate a higher salary. There’s definitely something you’re really good at that you don’t realize yet as well. It helps to ask your friends: what do friends and family always come to you for advice about? Those are good places to start! For me, I’ve had a lot of friends ask about compensation negotiation, so that’s when the light bulb clicked for me.
2. You somehow have literally no expertise in any field, but you have friends and family don’t you? One of them is bound to be an expert at something! Did you know that Dane Maxwell of The Foundation actually started his software project paperlesspipeline.com because his uncle was in the real estate business? That’s how he broke into the industry – not by cold calling, but through a family connection. Similarly, even though Glen Thomson here in Valle is an excellent photographer, he doesn’t do it professionally so he isn’t aware of all the challenges that professional photographers face. Luckily, he’s got a good friend who is an extremely successful wedding photographer, and as a result he’s doing a case study on her business to both show what she’s doing right as well as to give suggestions on how to improve her online marketing to drive even more leads. In short: leverage your connections!
Finally, always remember that “expertise” is relative. On a scale from 1-10, with 10 being world class, you might only be a 4 in something. You might get discouraged as a result, not realizing that all the 1-3s out there would greatly benefit from your knowledge. In fact, the 9s and 10s would be so far out of their league that the 1-3s wouldn’t actually get anything out of studying from a 9 or 10; you’re the better teacher because those you still remember and understand the growing pains that you just recently went through and they are currently going through, whereas a 10 has internalized that knowledge and won’t be able to relate nor express how to learn those skills and mindsets all over again.
I hope my explanations helped open your eyes to the possibilities out there, let us know if you have more questions or concerns!