How is my business plan wrong?

DerangedGoblin — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 09:13:06 -0800

What is the likelihood of my product selling such that I make $1000 a month? What money I've put into it isn't an issue as it was sort of extra money that I wanted to put to something like this anyway. Everything I do to figure out how much I'll make seems to imply that I'll be rich (for a student) and I don't believe that's true, but I can't figure out what I'm missing. This is my first post on AskMefi, and for that I'm sorry. I was hoping my introduction would be through a post about healing all the pain in the world, but realistically I don't suppose any post would be good enough. Also, I'm real sorry this is long. I've been reading askmefi for a long time, but I wouldn't be surprised if I messed this up. Just correct me if I do.

This is the very basic version of what's going on. I am in the process of making a product. The product is a how to guide regarding studying in the context of other things, ie, memory techniques, note taking techniques, keeping a healthy mind, etc. I'm not linking to it or advertising it because it's really not necessary and there's nothing to link to yet. And this product is pretty good I think. It's not amazing, but I call it good in relation to other things I've seen and things I've done in the past.

I am also having a page made by a professional. Not just a white page with text that RANDOMLY GETS BIGGER AND BOLD.

I plan on having about 50 adwords keywords, ten for each topic of the course (speed reading, note taking, memory, mind health, and stress management). There will be five individual ads, one for each topic.

The other courses on memory and stuff I see online are 200-300 dollars usually. Mine has about that much information I think (It's 5 audio files, a booklet, worksheets, and a quickstart guide) and I'm not too ambitious (I'm a student, so even a little money helps a lot) so I'm selling mine for just short of 100. In the 90s somewhere. If it fails, I'll go a little bit further down.

The catch is that some people will recognize this formula as the Four Hour WorkWeek formula. And it is except I'm not using a physical product. I followed most of his advice, and while I totally understand and to a degree agree with the people who criticize how jerkish he seems, I'm trying to follow the book so that if it fails, I can criticize it instead of myself.

My reason for not mentioning it as part of the question itself is that I read the last Four Hour WorkWeek thread which seemed to address Tim Ferriss as a person, and the title of the book as unrealistic. No one seemed to actually consider his plan.

There's $50 a day on advertising. Assuming I sell this product at $99.99 (For rounding's sake) how likely am I to make $1000 a month?

The reason I ask is that I keep running the numbers and they are way way too optimistic. Tim Ferriss suggests assuming 1% of people searching for your term will click it, and 1% of them will buy the product. That comes out to 1/10000 people searching for the term buying it, and if that goes right then I'll be selling somewhere around 20 a month. I can't believe it's going to work like that. What am I missing?

LifestyleDesignFilter - Is the Four Hour Work Week Feasible?

wisdom-seeker — Thu, 02 Aug 2007 06:52:12 -0800

I have finished reading Tim Ferriss' "The Four Hour Work Week" and I am curious, has anyone out there who has read the book actually implement the strategies mapped out in the book? I am in the process of creating a business that I can run from virtually anywhere on the planet and want to know if others have done it.

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How is my business plan wrong?

LifestyleDesignFilter - Is the Four Hour Work Week Feasible?