Where do I start turning my expertise into a business?
Start with the problem, not the product. Before a name, a logo, a website or a company registration, get clear on three things: what problem you solve, who has it badly enough to pay, and whether a few of them will. Everything else is easier, and cheaper, once those are settled.
Why not start with the website or the business plan?
Because they're built on answers you don't have yet. A website written before you've talked to buyers describes your services in your words. The ones that work describe the buyer's problem in theirs. You'll rewrite it, so write it once you know.
What's the order?
Name the problem
Say the problem you solve the way a buyer would say it, not the way your industry would.
Name who has it
The role, the type of company or person, and the moment they feel it.
Talk to ten of them
Listen more than you pitch. Write down their words.
Make one small paid offer
To the people with the sharpest problem.
Build to sell it again
A clear offer, a price and a way to reach more of the same people.
Then the rest
The brand, the website and the systems.
What if I can do lots of things?
Most experienced professionals can. Start with the problem where your track record is strongest and the buyer feels the most pain. There's research behind leaning on your track record: a study of US start-ups found that “prior experience in the specific industry predicts much greater rates of entrepreneurial success.”1
Leading with one problem doesn't mean you can only ever solve one. It means a stranger can tell what to call you about.
How do I know which step I'm on?
Our free Startup Readiness Assessment shows which part of your business is most ready and which isn't yet.
What this looks like
Maya, an imaginary founder, spent years in hospital finance and now helps independent dental practices recover money lost to rejected insurance claims.
Maya's first instinct was a logo and a website for “healthcare revenue consulting.” Instead she wrote one sentence about the problem, rejected claims nobody has time to resubmit, and one about who has it: the practice manager at a small independent dental practice.
She talked to twelve of them before building anything. The website came later, and it used their words.
Where this fits
The Proof Path puts this order into three layers: the foundation, the business model and the operating loop. Read about the Proof Path.
Related questions:
- 1. Azoulay, Jones, Kim and Miranda, Age and High-Growth Entrepreneurship, American Economic Review: Insights 2(1), March 2020. www.aeaweb.org
An honest read on where your idea actually stands.
The Startup Readiness Assessment takes most people under ten minutes and looks at the eleven parts of a business in the order they need to be solid.
