In the last 6 episodes we revealed the 6 stage small business roadmap. A stage by stage, step by step, 10,000 foot view of building a business.
They weren’t the 6 stages your business will go through automatically. They were the 6 stages you want to go through so that you and your idea are best setup for success as you define it.
The roadmap was immensely well received (you’ll find links to each episode below) and in this episode we cover two things:
- We answer the 4 common questions we heard from your comments.
- We reveal 4 updates we made to the roadmap based on your feedback.
Take a listen to the episode, subscribe in itunes if you haven’t and enjoy!
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“This 9 stage roadmap helps you foster courage (and fun) in your small business.”
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The Roadmap Episodes:
- Clarity (episode 100)
- Connection (101)
- Planning (102)
- Build (103)
- Money (104)
- Scale (105)
- 4 Updates (106)
““Whether you think you can, or you think you can’t—you’re right.” ~ Henry Ford”
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Show Notes
2 Experts Share Exactly How to Use a Productivity Journal (& Increase Productivity by 23%) FS099
10 Business Archetypes: How to Choose a Business Model That Makes Sense (and Money, FS091)
Bill Murray on Secrets About Living
““Many people die at twenty five and aren’t buried until they are seventy five.” ~ Benjamin Franklin”
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Learn how to set goals that actually stick!
The Top 10 Mistakes in Online Business
Every week we talk with entrepreneurs. We talk about what’s working and what isn’t. We talk about successes and failures. We spend time with complete newbies, seasoned veterans, and everything in between.
One topic that comes up over and over again with both groups is mistakes made in starting businesses. Newbies love to learn about mistakes so they can avoid them. Veterans love to talk about what they wish they had known when starting out.
These conversations have been fascinating, so we compiled a list of the 10 mistakes we hear most often into a nifty lil' guide. Get the 10 Most Common Mistakes in Starting an Online Business here »
I realy like the road map. I feel that my current service business (video production) falls out of it in the product/audience part. I don’t have products, I sell my skills. I seem to have some kind of audience, because I’m semi known in my area for my skills by word of mouth. I do very little selling, because customers call me and ask me to do a projecct for them. So I have an audience, but I do nothing to build it, except do my best work for my customers. I have tried to help the “audience” to grow via istagram, facebook, website, but I just get unrelevant audiences intrested. I know all of my customers by their names, so migth it just be that for me connecting and audience bulding ends up being kind of the same thing.
Actually the lack of the audience in my business is the reason why I feel Fizzle is not for my kind of business. I’m a member, but passive one still. Do all Fizzler have an audience, I just have my netwok of people. Mayby I’m not a real internet business even when all my products are to be used on websites.
I hear you, Joonas. And I’ll say this: there’s a reason why we have client service business courses (like Book Yourself Solid) and networking courses (like Connect With Anyone)… because there’s a ton of people in Fizzle building businesses just like yours. So you’re not alone there!
Good to hear that I’m not alone. :-)
It would actually be a great podcast edisode where you could tell your views on productization vs. skill selling and how can they intersect. I do B2B business and all my projects are totally different from another. I allmoast allways have to learn something new to get the projects done. I like to grow and learn, but it’s stressfull too. I have been planing some service products. But it feels like dying in some sence, to lock down a skill based product. It would be my nigth mare to be somekind of a “corporate video production firm” Same price and same result every time.
But on the other hand I allways do somekind of productization when I’m selling an idea to a new kind of cutormer group. It’s somekind of super flexible product consept creation, or something…
So how to have the benefits of productization when you don’t want to lock down your value proposition and loss your flexibility.
I think you have some ideas about this as you are a designer too.
Love the Road Map too. Was taken by the responses from people which the guys talked about in Podcast #106, that quite a few folks are
in several stages of the Road Map at once. Made me realise – me too! I think it’s a synthesising process for me, where ideas, thoughts and decisions in one area influence things in other areas. Which doesn’t mean the Road Map is redundant. In fact I think this simultaneity makes it even more essential to have, otherwise I could easily lose my way, disappear down a rabbit-hole and so on. The other thing is that it can be a tool to prevent my innocent ignorance of all the stages and how many steps and how much time might be involved. That and I think it will stop me taking newbie shortcuts, which aren’t shortcuts at all, but side-roads to the crickets of doom.. :)
“In fact I think this simultaneity makes it even more essential to have, otherwise I could easily lose my way, disappear down a rabbit-hole and so on.” Great point, Isobel.
Hey guys, love the updates to the roadmap. The stages feel clearer now and I think separating out product and audience was a really good move. Thanks for the mention during the show and for addressing my concerns. What you guys are doing is awesome! :D
You got it, Paul. Thanks man.
Honestly, this step is always the least of my worries. I have enough self-determination to get things done, and the technical stuff I’ve done so much it’s pretty quick.
http://androidupdateguide.com/
Thanks Fizzle.co crew! I find this information really helpful. I like to have an outline to follow and then I can improvise when required. I am a very visual person so I took the stages and built a Trello board for my own use. I am sharing it here; https://trello.com/b/TRfCvp5f so that people can use it and also make corrections and suggestions, since my interpretation of the podcasts if far from perfect.
Thanks Corbett, Chase and Barrett! This project will help me focus and I am sure help many more people too!
Very cool, I’d be interested in feedback on your “interpretation” (I mean in the artistic sense, not the definitive sense) by two specific groups of people:
1 – the original Fizzle crew;
2- people who are way further along this path than me
Any takers?
Wow, this is awesome, Paul!
Hey guys, I wanted to ask – where do you get the awesome jingles for the intro/outros of your podcast? Thanks!
Fizzlers made them I do believe
Hi Paul — I actually made those.
@darlenehildebrandt:disqus, in some of the older episodes there was an actual Fizzle jingle (where we sang the URL) that a Fizzler helped us with :)
It is quite an effort to implement all these steps from the beginning to the end for a new small business plan.
In my case, I can say that a part of these stept were already applied on my online business, but we need to wait some time until the final steps could be applied.
On http://www.alternative-energies.net you can see already the first six steps.
Guys, you’ve talked about it before — Chase, I think it was you. “It would be cool to write a book in front of our audience, to craft it in front of them.” This roadmap is your guys’ book. You NEED to keep developing this and to make the process transparent for us all; then you need to publish this stuff for a broader audience. In old-school Master’s Thesis terminology, this is your “original contribution” to your field. Love you guys.
I second that!
As a Fizzler the Roadmap podcast series was the BEST!!!
So helpful . . . I now feel things are coming together.
Love your show and love you guys!!
Ugh! I’m a Fizzler, and I’m stuck at stage 1 picking an audience and have been for more than 4 months. It’s quite frustrating.
I know that feeling, Charles, and have seen tons of others quagmire out there. For me, the pain before came from trying to find a certain path… I never found one. They all felt “decent.” Maybe the right balance looks more like asking ourselves “do I know enough yet to get started?” Keep on keeping on, Charles.
So I listened to each of the episodes again, but now I have more questions! I should warn you I was that annoying person in school who kept interrupting to ask more questions, so I apologize in advance :)
1) Do you think there is a difference or have you guys considered how the roadmap would differ (if at all) from someone who is starting with a brand but doesn’t have their product/service idea versus someone who is starting with a product/service but is trying to build up their brand (because of the ever changing business world)?
2) When choosing your target audience, what if your audience is not really a “niche” in the traditional sense? I don’t want my target to be everyone, but I don’t know how to target this group. I’m in the nutrition and fitness field and personally, I don’t believe there is one type of “diet” that is right for everyone (so I can’t target the people who are “gluten free” or “low carb” or “paleo” etc.), what I want to help people with is creating behavior and lifestyle change, regardless of the actual diet they want to follow. I believe that’s a personal choice, and as long as they’re healthy that’s all I care about :)
3) Are you guys planning on doing some sort of “beta” testing (maybe not the right term in this situation?) with the roadmap? I’d love to get involved and help with feedback or in what ever way I can. You guys have done so much for me already and I’m only a podcast listener! (for now…) !
Thank You!!!
1. Brand first vs product first: Categorically i’m not sure if there’d be too many differences. On the surface, though, I’m sure every business differs on details. So, this one feels like a little “yes” and a little “no” and a whole lot of “let’s just see what happens and make the best decisions we can and hope to survive!”
2. I shy away from words like “traditional niche” since the names and faces and trends change so fast (and because what works in the future will probably be completely different). It almost makes more sense to think about it like this: http://www.biologycorner.com/resources/tax_interpret.gif
There are kind of natural categories that exist. Some bubble up with new trends (intermittent fasting, paleo), others are so built-in that it takes a long time for us to realize it was just one of the options (think actual cave men eating paleo, because there were no other choices).
So, there are all these in-between levels of “niche” in this taxonomy of fitness, and just because you’re not choosing something way down on the end at the terminus doesn’t mean you’re not choosing something.
When most people say “choose a niche” they’re simply saying “pick which part of the natural taxonomy of things you’re going to be very clear about.”
3. Beta testing the roadmap: we are… in a way. We’re implementing a beta program of coaching we’ll release within Fizzle and we’re creating the curriculum now—something a coach can use to help you through each step with, connecting you to great resources (Fizzle courses, podcast episodes, books, etc) for each level. If you’re in Fizzle you’ll hear about it!
I think we’re on or between stages 7-8 money/growth – somewhere in there. Not quite at freedom number but doing really, really well. But need to sustain it and grow now and haven’t found product market fit yet. Still working on those.
What it feels like – overwhelming. We need to hire someone but aren’t sure who or how or what we’d farm off to that person. It feels like time spent doing that and training someone is time we don’t have right now so is catch 22. We need staff – no time to get one.
Feels rewarding in that it’s been 3 years of hard work my ass off time put in – and it’s finally starting to come together. Biggest struggle right now is keeping up with blogging, customer support, making a new product and redoing an older one. Finding time to make it all work AND do 3-4 photography tours a year.