We are officially two weeks away from the “Into The Digital Age” workshop and naturally, there is a growing excitement trying to build a community for Digital Entrepreneurs.
We have never been at this point in the Caribbean, where we have all of the things we need to build out an business online. You are starting to see institutions talking about their Visa Debit cards, we now have locally based payment gateways and SLOWWWWWLLLLYYYY but surely, more businesses are starting to see the value in building out a website & participating in e-commerce.
My 3 part workshop is being done in collaboration with Cassia Marina, came about because we are always looking at different ways to help push people forward and start having the necessary conversations we need to see success in this digital era.
I wanted to talk a bit about the first workshop, which for me I think is the most important part of the discussion, as its one of the biggest reasons why I see so many businesses fail or entrepreneurs struggling more than they need too.
Our “Start With Why” session is going to challenge everybody to do some reflection and get thinking about who they are as a person. What are your interests, your strengths, the problems you go through day to day and what makes you happy. There is a business that can literally be made out of anything these days and asking ourselves these questions will give us some direction into what we could base our business on.
When I say anything can be turned into a business, let me enlighten you, the top 2 grossing online courses built on Teachable.com, that grossed over 6 figures (USD) for 2018 were courses on “Finding Copper Deficiencies In Goats”, and “Advanced Blacksmithing”. I kid you not!
Everybody has things they are passionate about or problems they face day to day, that they can add value too. Identifying these things will allow us to then start thinking about how to craft our own micro niche.
For example, I built Droid Island because I love mobile technology. There are thousands of tech bloggers & retail outlets across the globe. I decided to niche down and focus on providing relevant tech content for the Caribbean consumer and offer products that nobody else was bringing down to Trinidad & Tobago. That has allowed me to become a thought leader in my space and compete on value, rather than competing on prices with other retailers.
There is a micro niche waiting to be built by every single entrepreneur/solopreneur. You do not need to be everything to everybody, you simply need to solve a problem for a small group of people, who view this as a big enough problem that they will pay you for the solutions.
Most people that are struggling have started businesses because they seen somebody else do it and find success, but struggle to replicate it themselves. Or they have started businesses to try and solve a problem, that people do not care enough about to pay. A bad business, simply cannot be saved by a business or marketing coach. So it is imperative we learn how to get this right.
From there we can start thinking big, starting small and learning fast. Digital businesses offer very low entry to get started and there are so many ways to get your idea off the ground without much money needed to invest. Even if you are not spending a ton of money to get started, the trade off is the amount of time you need to put into building your vision.
Our 2nd workshop will be all about how the different ways to get paid online, the local payment gateways, and Scotiabank will also be talking about how they are supporting entrepreneurs and what they looking for when sponsoring brands/businesses.
Spots for all of the workshops filled up within a few hours, mainly due to the people that registered for the VIP list, had first dibs on registration. Due to the high demand, myself and Cassia
If you got any questions on the workshops, feel free to shoot me a message or drop a comment in the post. I look forward to seeing all registered guests on April 27th.