What To Focus On When Starting A Business (And What To Avoid)

About this video

Dan Martell coaches Jill, who with a partner is turning free diversity and inclusion speaking into a paid business while both still work full time, aiming to retire into it in four to five years. She says the business has contracts and will generate $15,000 over the next four months, offering keynote speaking, workshops, coaching circles, and inclusive frameworks for nonprofits and governments in the Atlantic provinces. Martell says the biggest pitfall is doing too many things at once: companies die of indigestion, not starvation. When asked which offer could reach $100,000 fastest, Jill picks workshops, so he urges selling one workshop repeatedly, adding a recurring quarterly access fee to create predictable revenue. On incorporation and other setup work, he advises crossing the bridge when you get to it and spending only on ’now’ problems that return profit quickly so gains compound. On pricing, he reframes ‘cost’ as ‘investment,’ warns against competing on price, and urges premium positioning for a specific niche with value at least three times the price. He suggests raising prices 10% to test, claiming he has seen companies double or triple price without hurting win rates.

Key takeaways

• Focus on one core offer: Jill identified workshops as the fastest path to $100,000, so drop or defer keynotes, coaching circles, and frameworks until that one sells repeatedly.
• Add a recurring component to a one-off service, such as a quarterly fee for access and follow-up calls, to build predictable revenue for hiring and marketing.
• Cross the bridge when you get to it: defer incorporation, a world-class website, and other ’not now’ spending until revenue and trend lines require it.
• Price as a premium, niched service rather than the low-cost option, aiming for perceived value at least three times the investment, and test a 10% increase.
• Reframe pricing language from ‘cost’ to ‘investment,’ raise or tweak pricing every six months, and steer clients back to the proven offer instead of customizing.

Episode details: published June 21, 2021 · 23:50 long. Summary written by Self Growth Videos from the episode itself. Business results and any income figures mentioned are Dan Martell’s own claims, shared for education — they are not typical or guaranteed.

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