3-2-1: 3 Business Ideas, 2 Growth Tips, & 1 Quote

Dear starters,

Welcome to the Starter Story newsletter.

In this issue, I’ll be sharing 3 business ideas, 2 growth tips, and 1 inspiring quote.

I hope you like this format. It's inspired by James Clear's 321 newsletter which you should definitely check out.

3 Business Ideas

Business ideas that are absolutely killing it right now:

#1: Help people level up in video games

Overgear is doing $1M/month helping gamers level up in games like World of Warcraft and Call of Duty.

As micropayments become more accepted in games today, so will users willingness to pay for services like this.

Overgear is seeing massive growth right now, and I think this can be replicated for other popular games and services. 

Where to start? Here are the most popular games on Twitch. How can you help gamers of those games?

The video games space is full of business opportunities. Kyle makes $27K/month modding video games. And here are 50 more business ideas for gamers.

#2: Cohort-based online courses

Sahil, the founder of Gumroad just announced his $850 course.

How can he charge this much? Because it's not just a course, it's a series of live classes.

Why does this work?

(1) Scarcity: The course is capped at 150 participants
(2) Perceived Value: With Covid, a Harvard MBA costs $200K and is also "online". Sahil's online course feels like a steal at $850.
(3) Community: Live classes give us accountability and community. That's a feature!

Other companies doing this: Reforge, Write Of Passage. 

Starter Story examples: Lori has helped 1,000s of parents return to work. Alex makes $1.2M/year with Pinterest courses.

#3: Create a business around a fad diet

Jeremy has built a HUGE $600k/month business around the keto diet. In 2020, they sold 300K cookbooks.

What I think is brilliant about this idea is that there will always be new cooking fads & diets.

If you build a media company around cooking and food, you can watch for new trends and capitalize on them before they go mainstream.

I can think of a few examples: Atkins diet, Paleo, Whole 30, South Beach diet, etc (you get the point)

Some more examples:

• Mike started a $6M/year nutrition coaching biz. 
• Ashley started a $25k/mo keto pancake biz.
• And here's a $1.5M/year healthy meals business.

2 Growth Tips

Growth tips that I love:

#1: Make a statement

Although this tip is quite simple, it can work wonders for your brand.

Make a statement. State your position. Say something controversial.

Natalie runs Sustainably Chic, a $6K/month blog about sustainable fashion.

I love her Instagram posts. Instead of posting some generic images, she uses this real life black board with white letters to make a statement.

Her message resonates with people, and that's why these posts are her most successful posts on her Instagram:

#2: Upgrade your landing page

I just found the greatest article on landing pages.

If you follow a few of the key steps from this article, I think you could 1.5x your conversion rate.

1 Quote

In my experience, the hardest part of starting a business is the first year. After that, it gets so much easier. That's why I love this quote:

"I believe that starting a business is like having a child. It has to be loved, nurtured, fed properly, and watched after until it grows up, and then you can breathe a little bit once it can live on its own. Just like when a baby is born, that first year in business will definitely have a lot of sleepless nights, worrying, and learning."

- Eric Ray, who founded $18M/year Easy Auto Ship

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