Major Bauknight

Clemson University 17

[Major Bauknight @MajorBauknight3]

@vladdubchak_x BOT

[Major Bauknight @MajorBauknight3]

@rowancheung Silly question. For newbies like me will any of these use cases be willing to provide guides on how to build the workflows? Thanks for you and the rundown ai teams help. Have really enjoyed your newsletter and learning with Billys how to videos.

[Anatoli Kopadze @AnatoliKopadze]

https://t.co/AAWIZD1pNL

[Iris Hayes @irisneural]

🚨 BREAKING NEWS: Claude has launched a new feature called Council!
Instead of Claude responding with "one head," you can now have 5 heads discuss and debate with each other, then give you the final answer.
Here's how to use it + 5 powerful prompts:
(Save this thread)

[Arti Shah @TechByArti]

8. Business Idea Evaluation

Validate ideas before investing time or money.

Prompt:

Act as a startup advisor.

Evaluate the following business idea:
[Describe the idea]

Analyze:

Market demand
Target customers
Competitive landscape
Revenue potential
Key risks

Provide an honest recommendation

[Arti Shah @TechByArti]

2. Research Assistant

Get structured information in minutes.

Prompt: Act as a professional research analyst.

Research the following topic: [topic]

Provide:

1. Key information
2. Current trends
3. Important statistics
4. Main companies or market players
5. Opportunities and risks in this sector

[Dan Go @CoachDanGo]

Morning routines are overrated.

The real performance secret is what you do before you wake up.

Here's a simple yet powerful nighttime routine that's changed my life (backed by science):

[Nayeem Sheikh @HeyNayeem]

I don't understand why so few people use AI tools.

Most people only know about ChatGPT.

Here are 12 hidden gems you need to know↓

[Codie Sanchez @Codie_Sanchez]

Harsh truth:

Running a company is simply a game of prioritizing problems.

Here’s how to become the Chief Problem Solver in your business:

[Reads with Ravi @readswithravi]

25 books recommended by Marc Andreessen:

1) Zero To One by Peter Thiel

[Jimmy Mackey @thejimmymackey]

Don't have time to eat healthily?

B.S.

Here are 18 meals you can cook in 15 minutes or less, to be healthier and leaner than 98% of the population:

[Compounding Quality @QCompounding]

TED Talks are free education.

But 99% don't know the best ones to watch.

Here are 8 TED Talks about money you should watch:

[Nolan Gore | SMB Lawn Cowboy @NolanGore]

You won't learn these in an MBA program:

- The emotional weight of covering payroll for your team

- How to look someone in the eye when you fire them

- How to hold people accountable

- How to compartmentalize the anxiety from all the “human problems”

- How to feel your way toward a “business model”

- How to hire people who are better than you

- Partnership navigation

- What to do when someone calls at the last second and you need to drive that truck

- How to handle a conversation with a banker who doesn’t believe in you

- How to convince someone you are worth following

- How much should you pay yourself vs reinvest in your team and the business

What else?

Again - an MBA can be useful, but often a few years operating or working under a great operator is more valuable long term.

[Alex & Books 📚 @AlexAndBooks_]

Every industry has 1 book that will teach you 90% of what you need to know about it.

Here are the 20 best books in 20 different industries:

(ranging from automotive to venture capital)

[Chris Koerner @mhp_guy]

Ever heard of a holding company starting an unsexy tree trimming biz? Me either. So we thought we'd try it ourselves.

So glad we did!

Next month could be our first $100k month, only 8 months in. And my partner has yet to touch a chainsaw.

Most leads are generated from a $5/hour VA in the Philippines. The ROI on his efforts are about 12x.

Everything else is slowly compounding from SEO, GMB and the occasional Angi, LSA and Thumbtack lead.

Gross margins are just under 50%. 100% of jobs are subbed out.

I love this business. Show up on time, trim the branches, haul away, get 5 star review. (and once we broke a customer's driveway, whoops! Still got 5 stars)

There are 500+ home service verticals to pick from. So go pick one! If we didn't do trees we'd have done fencing.

November and December were SLOW months, and @CoFoundersNik and I were feeling pretty down about that.

Even a warm Texas climate isn't immune to seasonality. Right around Jan 10th things started picking up again.

Follow me @mhp_guy to keep tabs on our progress. If you're new around here you'll soon learn how transparent I am with all of our growth strategies.

[Dan Go @CoachDanGo]

3. Make your phone ugly

Color stimulates your brain.

Set your phone to greyscale/black & white. This reduces the stimulus & novelty your brain seeks, which contributes to your addiction.

[Chris Koerner @mhp_guy]

If I started another 7-8 figure home service brand today, I would do it all differently

I would first de-risk, because now I know how

Here's exactly how to know which high ticket home service biz to launch with very little risk, tactics & all:

I'd start with 5 high ticket, recession resistant industries that I really like:

1. Fencing
2. Irrigation
3. Hardscaping
4. Flooring
5. Foundation repair

Don't like these? That's ok, there are hundreds more.

Then I would scrape a list of every potential competitor in my area for each of the 5 industries. Use Outscraper for this (no affiliation).

Within 20 minutes I would have a CSV of every competitor.

Then, I would run the exact same scrapes in 2 other areas that are comparable to yours. If you're in Dallas, then try Houston and San Antonio as well.

All of this will cost under $50.

Then, get population data for all 3 areas.

Find out how many competitors there are per resident and throw it in a column. You need 2 other cities to see what the baseline is. 3-4 cities would be even better. If you’re in Seattle, don’t compare it against Miami.

If your city has 1 competitor for every 10k people and the other 2 has 1 for every 20k people, you’ll probably have a harder time succeeding.

In our tree biz, we learned that DFW is 1 in 10k, whereas in Nashville is 1 in 5k. We aren’t launching in Nashville any time soon!

Then I would go to Upwork and find a $3-4/hour VA to call every single one of the competitors in your area only.

Why $3/hour? Because this is very low skill, you will have a ton of bids, accents don't matter, as you don't even need the VA to talk to the person.

You just need to know who is answering the phone and who isn’t. The minimum wage in most countries is under $1/hour, FYI.

As soon as the business owner answers, have the VA ask:

"I need a quote for (insert service here). How soon can you come out to bid?"

Have the VA add their answer and whether or not they picked up the phone.

This should take about a day or two. You'll be out around $150 total at this point.

Now, use the same VA to join Nextdoor and every local Facebook group to search and see what service people are needing most, for all 3 markets.

Throw that in another column and compare side by side.

Now, have the VA to go

Angi
Thumbtack
Google LSA

To notate how many of those competitors are on those platforms. For LSA you’ll need to do a Google maps search and look for the sponsored ones, like this:

Now you have potential demand, and that's the hardest part!

You now know:

1. Which of the 5 industries have more sophisticated operators (highest % listed on the 3 big platforms).

2. What areas have low competition.

3. In which industries the competitors are answering their phone and/or able to quote a job quickly.

4. What areas and/or industries have the most demand for that service.

Use that data to determine what biz to launch. Of the 5 options, pick the top 2.

Once you have 2, start looking for subcontractors.

Whichever industry you have an easier time finding subs, that's the one you launch.

Where/how do you find subs?

Well, you can start with the list you’ve already scraped.

Many of those future competitors are also potential subcontractors. If they look flashy, have a wrapped truck and a website (even if ugly) then don’t even think about it.

If they don’t have a website and/or their name is hispanic, and their listed phone number is a cell (use Phone Validator) give them a call and ask if they need more work.

Learn how to price your service and see where they’re at.

You can also find subs:

At gas stations early in the morning

At home depot

At that random place in town that people use to find day laborers. If they aren’t a sub then they know of subs and will refer them for a cool $20.

At the taqueria

FB Marketplace

Craigslist

The BEST subs are just getting started on their own but know what they’re doing. If they’ve been doing it a while then they are swamped and don’t have time for your jobs.

Some industries make it easy for a sub to steal your customers (landscaping) and others like tree trimming are the opposite, as trees aren’t very recurring and the subs don’t interact with homeowners much.

But it’s not something you should worry about now. If you have that problem, it means you have customers. But for now, you need to find them.

STOP FOCUSING ON WHAT MIGHT GO WRONG AND START TAKING STEPS TO GENERATE YOUR FIRST $1.

“What about the liability?” Ever hear of insurance?

“What about the labor shortage?” You don’t have a customer yet.

“I know nothing about this industry.” Watch some YT videos.

Don’t pick an industry on what you like or what sounds sexy, just use data.

You don’t want to drive all over down to quote $50 lawns or spray driveways for $200. High ticket allows you to keep your job while you launch and net more profit for the same amount of work.

Some of your friends want to quit their jobs next year. Send this to them.

Home services will never go away. We picked tree trimming and it's going great, but others are great, too.

I'll break down the tactics on how to find your first customers in my newsletter (MHPguy. com)

Would love a follow @mhp_guy if you found any value here. Drop a question below and I’ll gladly answer.

[Compounding Quality @QCompounding]

Twitter is full of investment wisdom.

If you know who to follow, you'll learn more than an MBA.

Here are the 9 best threads of 2023:

[Kevin Dahlstrom @Camp4]

🧵 How to build a great life (17 things I’ve learned)

I’ve run hard my whole life—always charging forward, rarely looking back. But 50 hits you different. It’s caused me to pause & reflect. ⬇️

[Kevin Dahlstrom @Camp4]

4/ Be multi-dimensional. I’m convinced it’s the only way to be happy. I wrote a whole thread on this 👇
https://t.co/64h2e7tnWS