NichePursuits.com - 🤦 Built to Fail

In the early 90s, Alan Payne started opening video rental stores...the early days of video rental.

His stores were extremely successful and in fact, he LOVED to open new stores across the street from Blockbuster, because he knew he could crush them with better prices, better selection, and more.

But then in 1993, Blockbuster bought out his chain of stores (which was out of Alan's control).

Suddenly, all of Alan's stores were converted to Blockbuster stores and for the next 25 years he operated a chain of about 30 Blockbuster stores in Texas, Alaska, and other locations as a Blockbuster franchisee.

Alan quickly learned that Blockbuster was REALLY good at opening new stores, sometimes 3 or 4 a day as they flood the US and eventually the world with Blockbuster stores.

However, Alan also quickly saw that Blockbuster was "Built to Fail" as he explains in his book by the same title (which I just finished reading).

Blockbuster was good at scaling a new business (opening new stores), but actually terrible at running video stores.

Fortunately, franchisees were giveaway alot of flexibility in following the guidelines given by Blockbuster headquarters.

So, instead of raising prices on new releases, Alan and his stores lowered prices.

Instead of shrinking the amount of non-new releases available in the stores, Alan and his stores increased their selection.

Instead of ending late fees, they kept late fees.

Over the years, there were several other strategic moves that Alan and his stores made in the exact opposite direction of what Blockbuster recommended.

The result?

Alan's stores were consistantly generating DOUBLE the profit of corporate owned Blockbuster stores.

His stores rented more videos, had better selection, and higher customer satisfaction because Alan actually knew how to run a video store properly.

Blockbuster filed bankruptcy and quickly started closing all its stores in 2010.

Alan was able to run his Blockbuster franchisee stores profitably until 2018, and extra 8 years.

Blockbuster failed miserably, not specifically because of Netflix, Redbox, and changing times...but because they were constantly poorly managed by corporate headquarters that were unwilling to actually learn how to operate a video store.

Plus, they failed to listen to or implement new ideas when they came along (video kiosks and video streaming).

In fact, they had the chance to buy both Netflix and Redbox but they had the hubris to believe that Blockbuster had no reason to fear them or that they could implement the ideas better themselves.

Not only is Built To Fail a book that I think is worth reading, I think there are also some valuable lessons to be learned when building your own business.

The bottom line is you actually have to know the nuts and bolts of how to operate a niche website for example, if you want it to be successful.

Buying or building a ton of sites (scaling quickly like Blockbuster) and then turning them over to a bunch of contractors to run without knowing exactly how to operate those sites is likely going to lead to failure.

How can you know the exact nuts and bolts of how to operate an authority website successfully?

One way is trial and error.

Like Alan Payne learned after running stores for decades, he tried everything and knew that raising prices was a bad idea when Blockbuster tried it.

The other way to know how to successfully operate an authority website is to be taught by someone that has been doing it for a long time.

With so many courses teaching you how to make money online which one do you choose?
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As many of you know, I no longer am creating courses, but I still get asked where someone can go to learn how to build a niche site and grow a real business online.

You can certainly go to my blog and read all the case studies and free content I've given over the years. That's where I'd start.

However, if you are still looking for more in-depth training, I would recommend checking out Authority Hacker Pro right here.​

(The doors to Authority Hacker Pro just opened in the last 24 hours and it will be closed this week again)

I've known Mark and Gael for a long time, and they have built significant authority websites (in niches outside of the "make money online" space).

They practice what they teach. Mark and Gael sold one of their sites for mid-6 figures. We talked about their experience selling their site a few months back on my podcast.

Their Authority Hacker Pro course is their most advanced training and community, focusing less on the basics and more on what it takes to scale your online business.

You won't be learning to set up your first WordPress site in this course but learning what it takes to turn your site into a full-time income.

It's one of the most complete courses including 420+ step-by-step over the shoulder "blueprint" video courses with full lesson notes.

The course is only open for enrollment this week, and this isn't a marketing gimmick either.

In an email to me, Gael Breton co-founder of Authority Hacker Pro, said that "Once this launch closes, AH Pro won't be available at BEST until the end of 2021."

You can see the full course details here for AH Pro.​

Overall, whether or not you take advantage of AH Pro, I hope you are building your business to succeed, rather that fail.

Make sure you are pursuing strategies and ideas that will increase the odds of your success, which can often be different than what the "Blockbuster's" of the world out there are doing.

Best of luck,

Spencer

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