12 Qualities Of The Perfect Business
I didn't come from a family of entrepreneurs, so when I decided to start my first business…
…I didn't know WHAT the hell I was doing.
I had no mentors, no role models, no example of what to do.
I had a wife and kids, so I felt like I HAD to get it right: I couldn't afford to screw up.
(Although that sure didn't stop it from happening anyways!)
Because of that fear of failure, I dabbled for YEARS… taking small, half-hearted stabs at new business ideas, but never acting with the conviction and commitment required to really make a go of it.
Then, in 2006, I stumbled upon an article by a financial newsletter publisher named Richard Russell that changed everything.
(The man who showed me the way)
The article was called "The Perfect Business."
In the article, Richard Russell described, in point-form, what he thought the perfect business would look like.
According to the article, the perfect business…
1. Sells to the world (global market, not just local or domestic)
2. Offers a product with inelastic demand (something people want at almost any price)
3. Sells products that cannot be easily copied or substituted (copyright protection)
4. Has minimal labor requirements (lends itself to automation)
5. Enjoys low overhead (minimal operating costs)
6. Does not require large cash outlays (highly bootstrappable)
7. Enjoys cash billings (no long or complex credit terms)
8. Is free of regulation (low government or industry interference)
9. Is portable (can be operated from anywhere)
10. Satisfies your intellectual and emotional needs (highly fulfilling work)
11. Gives you free time (not an all-consuming grind)
12. Produces income not limited to your personal output (not trading time for dollars)
(Check out the full article here. It's still an incredible piece and well worth your time)
After reading this article, it finally hit me: of all the businesses I'd been considering, selling digital products online checked ALL THE BOXES on Richard's list.
His article may have been written back in 1972—decades before the internet was mainstream—but it described digital business PERFECTLY.
That article lit a fire under my ass and gave me the confidence to move forward and finally start a digital business with FULL COMMITMENT.
Thanks in large part to that article, I went from being a burned-out mental health program manager to cofounder of an eight-figure business… going on to generate over $60M in online sales across a half-dozen different ventures.
If you've been on the sidelines, determined to start a business but UNSURE of what kind of business to start, I'll tell you this:
If I had to do it all over again, I would absolutely make the same choice and start another digital business, for all the reasons Richard Russell talked about in his article all those years ago, and then some.
I love digital businesses, because they give you…
* Ultimate leverage
* Ultimate automation
* Ultimate adaptability
* Ultimate freedom
* Ultimate scalability
That being said… digital businesses DO have a dark side.
You see, the scalability cuts both ways:
When you get your business model right, scaling it up "at the speed of bytes" is an incredible rush.
But when you get your model WRONG (like I did at the beginning)… it can shoot you off in the wrong direction at terrifying speed.
On the next page, I'm going to show you how I did digital business the complete wrong way at the start… and how that screw-up cost me hundreds of thousands of dollars and YEARS of my life.
So TRULY: if you're looking to start a digital business (and you absolutely should), let me help you avoid the pain I went through and set YOUR digital business up for success from the very start.
I'll tell you the whole crazy story on the next page.
