I run about eight businesses, and in 2024 I launched two new ones. Every launch follows the same five-step framework, and none of them takes more than 30 days to get to market. Not because I rush, but because 30 days forces the only question that matters: will people pay for this?
Here is the whole system.
Before You Start: The Must-Have Checklist
I write every business idea down, then score it against this list before moving forward, usually after sitting on it two or three days:
- Solves a very specific problem
- I love the customer avatar
- The avatar wants to solve the problem
- MVP can launch in 30 days or less
- Low risk: minimal startup capital, and a profit margin of at least 50%
- Scalable beyond seven figures
- Location independent, with no physical locations
- Has, or can easily add, recurring revenue
If it is not a yes on everything, I pass. That checklist exists because the base rates are brutal: 50% of businesses fail in the first year, 80% within five years, and 95% of companies never do over $1 million in revenue. Most operate on around 20% net margins. The checklist is designed to opt out of those statistics before you begin.
Step 1: Pick a Problem You Already Solved
Think of a problem you solved in the last five years, in one of three categories: health, wealth, or relationships. For yourself, for someone else, it does not matter. Then answer three prompts: describe the pain of the problem, describe the benefit of solving it, and be honest about how much you would pay to solve it if you still had it today. That last one matters because entrepreneurs chronically underprice solutions to problems they no longer feel.
If you can solve a problem, you have a business. That is my entire approach.
Here is how that looks with a real example from my own life.
The problem: my daughter became a picky eater and was not getting proper nutrition. I realized I knew nothing about nutrition myself, and I wanted a resource to help with meal planning, getting her to eat what we were eating, and moving our whole family into a better health position.
The pain: every meal was a battle, and I was worried about her health. That is the "describe the pain" prompt, answered.
The solution: I hired a nutritional coach and worked with her for four months. It completely transformed our life.
The price: I paid $4,000, and I would have paid more to solve it sooner. That is the third prompt answered honestly, and it is the one that matters most. A real parent paid a real price for this exact solution. There is a business in it.
Step 2: Draw Your Genius Model
The Genius Model is a framework I learned from Simon Bowen (he breaks it down in this video). Your genius model is the blueprint of how you got from point A, having the problem, to point B, not having it. Structure it as three big strategies, each with three steps: nine steps total, with the solution in the middle.
Because you are starting from a problem you already solved, all the material is in your head. You are not inventing a method, you are documenting one. This becomes the framework behind every offer you build.
Step 3: Define Your Ideal Customer Avatar
Three filters: who urgently needs this solved, who is willing to pay to solve it, and who wants it solved but does not know how. Then get specific: age, demographics, where they hang out, where they shop, what they fear, why they buy. The detail powers your marketing later.
Stuck? Your avatar is who you were five years ago, right before you solved the problem.
Step 4: Build the Offer in Three Buckets
List every way you could package the solution across three tiers, then choose your launch product: DIY (lowest ticket, like ebooks, courses, and checklists), Done With You (mid-tier, like community, coaching, and workshops), and Done For You (highest ticket, like physical products, software, and productized services). Each tier should solve a different problem for the same avatar. I break this down with real price points in the offer ladder article.
Step 5: The 30-Day Launch Plan
- Articulate your competitive advantage. Why you, versus anyone else?
- Find 5 beta testers. The deal: they pay what they think it is worth at the end, or it is free. Either way you get a testimonial, and you ask every one of them who else they know with this problem.
- Host a free training. Zoom works fine, and you invite attendees to buy or beta test at the end.
- Put about $500 into Facebook ads driving to a free training or challenge, with your offer at the end.
- Iterate. The best way to know if you have a viable business is if you have sales.
What is deliberately missing: a website, an email list, an LLC. Operate as a sole proprietor until revenue shows up. If you have a solution to someone's problem, you do not need a website to sell it. Experiments are more important than perfection.
Proof it works when you follow it: I launched an education business with a real estate photographer friend, teaching photographers how to earn $100K in their first year as a real estate photographer. We had no email list. We invested about $1,800 in Facebook ads driving to a freemium event: the event was free, with a paid VIP ticket upgrade. The VIP sales paid for the ads, so the program sales at the end were all profit, and the whole thing went from idea to launched in about three weeks.
Proof of what happens when you do not follow it: I once spent two years building a software product before launch (these days I build working software in an afternoon with no code, which I walk through in meet my AI co-founder), and I wish I had taken my own 30-day medicine. Validate first (here is how), build second.
