The inspiration for this post came when I was traveling in Prague, with a good friend of mine.
We’re both online entrepreneurs. And self-made millionaires.
Despite that, during this trip, we didn’t work AT ALL.
Partying every single day.
Going to the casino and playing Poker.
We’re legends in our own mind.
But the sobering truth is…
We’re just 2 idiots.
It’s not that we didn’t want to work.
We COULDN’T get work done.
We were on a heroic mission to find a wife.
Unfortunately getting rejected by every woman we spoke to.
Despite the tragedy…
The one silver lining and consolation prize…
Is that we still made more than the average person.
My business generated about $511k in topline, give or take $17k per day:
His business generated $1.8m, that’s $60k per day:
This made me think.
How come some online entrepreneurs can do whatever the hell they want…
Whenever they want…
Print money while not working…
And some are “locked in“ doing “monk mode“ all year round?
We discussed this in-depth.
And came up with this list.
The perfect online business is time free:
This means that you’re not trading dollars for hours.
You can take time off, and still get paid.
In physical businesses lawyers, doctors and other high skilled professions have this problem.
In the online business world, freelancers have this problem.
They’re trading dollars for hours.
Which means that you WILL have feast and famine cycles.
It’s a feature of the business model.
Because you need hours to LOOK for clients and hours to DELIVER the service to clients.
Say you get booked for 3 months.
You make money for that 3 months of work.
But because you haven’t done any client prospecting.
So you will need to spend the next days, weeks or months looking for clients.
And during that period you make nothing.
Which creates the feast and famine cycles.
The perfect online business has built in assymetric risk to reward ratio:
Put 1 dollar in, get 2 dollars out.
And once that system is in place.
It quickly snowballs to millions.
This foundation is what BUILDS initial wealth.
Giving you the freedom, flexibility and safety to take riskier shots for generational plays.
The perfect online business easy to start, hard to master:
What do I mean with easy to start?
Well, little to no money down is the first thing.
Something you can start with just “sweat equity“, so no SaaS.
An agency is relatively easy to start. But hard to master at scale.
A publishing business is easy to start. All you need is a basic website builder. But mastery takes time. But hard to master at scale.
An eCommerce business is easy to start. All you need is Shopify. But scaling takes an operational master.
And this is good thing.
It becomes your moat.
It means that everyone has a shot, but only the passionate few, who put in the hours, get to reap the biggest rewards.
The perfect online business has a hungry audience:
It should be relatively easy to get customers.
People NEED to desire your product BADLY.
Don’t try to sell ice to an eskimo.
If client acquisition is easy.
It doesn’t matter what you do.
Organic traffic.
Paid traffic.
Money just flows.
The perfect online business has different ways to monetize:
This one is straightforwards. The more ways you can monetise, the more money you will make.
Recurring or re-occuring purchases.
Affiliate deals.
Sponsors.
Physical products.
Digital products.
Consulting.
Etc…
The perfect online business should satisfy you intellectually:
This is personal. But I’ve found that people who stick to it, find enjoyment from the task.
It’s easy to keep going when you don’t need discipline or motivation.
When you get the dopamine and serotonin boosts from working, work comes natural.
And if you’re wondering…
You can make a million dollars in almost every single market you think of.
I’ll write an article dedicated to markets soon.
As you know, I’ve made money in basically every niche possible.
From pets to astrology. Make money to make love.
You name it, I’ve probably done it.
Talk soon.
Zhihao Huang
