Solopreneur Insider

Estimated read time: 5 minutes

🚀 Welcome to this week's edition of Solopreneur Insider!

Ready to uncover the latest and greatest strategies, tools and break-downs that will boost your solo business journey? Let's zoom in!

Taking the plunge into solopreneurship often begins with an innovative idea, but what if we take a leaf out of the book of existing successful models?
This week, we're focusing on rebuilding existing businesses with NoCode and AI technologies instead of waiting for that 'perfect' idea to strike.

Key Benefits:

• Less risk as the business model is already validated.

• You avoid "falling in love" with your business idea - this approach helps not being misled by your feelings but keep an objective outlook.

• Low entry barrier: With NoCode and AI, you don’t need (a) to be a tech genius and (b) you don’t need a lot of capital to start.

• Gain AI experience: No matter how your project turns out, you will for sure get a hands-on way to understand and leverage AI for business growth.

Solopreneur Basics

Budget-Friendly Business Building

Back in the days when I worked as a consultant for large corporates, I witnessed firsthand how prolonged the process of bringing a digital idea to life could be, often requiring hefty investments. As a solopreneur, the situation is very different. You can progress much faster but you often have to deal with limited resources. From my personal journey, I’ve learned a bunch of a strategies that will allow you to test business ideas with very limited resources (both time & money). I can’t emphasize enough how much the latest developments in NoCode and AI are democratizing this process of venture building. Now, testing ideas quickly without a significant financial burden is the new norm. Allow me to take you through it.

Breakdown (from Strategy of the Week)

Let’s transition from theory to practice and explore how this strategy was manifested in a real-world scenario.

Case Study: You might decide on a project to build a Personal Fitness Coach Web App (e.g. Freeletics, Asana Rebel,…), employing Chat GPT for interactive user engagement and Bubble.io or heyflow for a simple user interface.

Outcome: The result? With just a modest investment, you will have validated the concept, be crafting a functional fitness app, and beginn onboarding users.

Step-by-Step Guide:

1. Identify a Proven Business:

   • Research and find a business model with a proven success rate.

   • Look into the market demand, competition, and the target audience to ensure the viability of pursuing a similar model.

   Example: Personal Fitness Coach App
   

2. De-Construct Customer Experience:

   • Analyze the user journey within successful apps. Write down every step or even create a user flow diagram.

   • Make a list of functionalities the app offers, like sign-up, workout tracking, nutritional guidance, community engagement, etc.

   • Try to understand the pain points and the high points of the user experience.

3. Identify Most Valuable Functionality:

   • Based on your analysis, identify the one core functionality that delivers the most value to the users, e.g., personalized training plan creation.

   • Understand the mechanics of this functionality and why it's valuable.

4. Replace core function with AI:

   • Explore how AI can replicate or enhance the identified core functionality.

   • For example, using Chat GPT to create personalized training plans:

     • Describe a fitness coach persona (see prompt example below) and tell the AI to act like if it was this persona.

     • Let the AI design a questionnaire to understand the user’s fitness level, goals, preferences, and other relevant information.

     • Have Chat GPT process the responses to generate a personalized training plan.

     • Ensure that the AI-generated advice is safe and effective, possibly by consulting with fitness experts during the development phase.

Prompt Example - Fitness Trainer Persona:

You can start by pasting this prompt into your chatGPT window:

Act as “FitCoach Alex”: A virtual fitness trainer persona that embodies a blend of empathy, expertise, and motivation. FitCoach Alex is primary goal is to understand individual user needs, create personalized workout plans, and provide motivational nudges along the fitness journey. Whether a user wants to lose weight, build muscle, or improve overall fitness, FitCoach Alex is there to provide a tailored roadmap to their goals. Alex has wide knowledge about the latest trends, training methods and scientific studies in fitness and health.

5. Build a SIMPLE Customer Interface:

   • Keep the flow and design clean, focusing only on the essential features that deliver the core value proposition to the users. No “nice-to-have” but only must-have-features. To be more precise, this means no login, no dark mode, no charging (as you will start with a free offer) etc.

   • Design the interface to be more convenient and intuitive than a chat interface, ensuring easy navigation and a clear display of personalized fitness plans.

   • Use platforms like Heyflow (simple) or Bubble.io (advanced) to create a straightforward, user-friendly interface where users can interact with FitCoach Alex.

6. Share with Everyone You Know, Test, Measure & Improve:

   • Your ultimate goal: find out for what exact feature people are willing to spend (at least a little) money.

   • Share the app with your network including friends, family, former colleagues, and on your social media platforms.

   • Encourage people to share it within their networks as well.

   • Utilize basic analytics tools to track visits to the landing page, downloads of the app, user engagement within the app, and other relevant metrics.

   • Collect feedback from users regarding their experience, what they liked, what they didn't, and what could be improved.

7. Build a SIMPLE Landing Page with a Clear Value Proposition:

   • Utilize tools like Notion or Relume Library to design a straightforward landing page.

   • The landing page should clearly articulate the value proposition of your Personal Fitness Trainer App. Highlight the benefits, such as personalized training plans created by AI, and how it addresses common pain points in fitness journeys.

   • Include a call to action (CTA) that prompts visitors to download the app, sign up for a trial, or learn more about the AI-powered personalized training plans.

   • Make sure the design is clean, mobile-responsive, and easy to navigate. It should also have a section for testimonials or user reviews if available.

8. Offer for X% of the Price from the Original:

   • Offer your app at a significantly lower price point compared to established players to attract early users.

   • Highlight this price advantage on the landing page and in your marketing communications.

   • Monitor user acquisition rates, and be prepared to adjust pricing as necessary based on feedback and the value you are providing.

   • This pricing strategy can help in quickly building an initial user base, gathering valuable feedback, and making necessary improvements to the app.

This structured approach helps in breaking down a complex project into manageable steps, aligning closely with the budget-conscious and value-driven ethos of bootstrapping. Each step is focused on validating assumptions, building incrementally, and ensuring that the core value proposition is well understood and well executed.

Disclaimer: This approach is still a simplified approach to launching a product in reality.

Poll of the Week

I want to make sure that this newsletter delivers the highest amount of value possible for YOU.

Therefore I would love to know your preferences for our upcoming newsletters.

What section is most interesting for the next newsletter episode?

a) “Cashflow Corner” with tips on managing finances and investments for solopreneurs.

b) “Freedom Feature” stories of how former corporate employees achieved work-life balance as a solopreneurs.

c) “Tech Corner” introducing new apps or software for business efficiency.

How to Answer:

Simply respond with “a”, “b” or “c” to this email. Merci Beaucoup!  🙏

Until Next Week

Your journey towards solopreneurship is a courageous step towards a more independent and fulfilling work-life. Stay tuned for our next issue where we will explore more tools and strategies to accelerate your solo business voyage.

Next Issue Preview: Dive into the world of AI landing page building within minutes.

Keep doing!

Janosch