Not all solved problems make good businesses (obviously).
CopyHour would have never sustained as only an "accountability to the handwriting exercise" product.
It needed to evolve into solving the much bigger problem of "how to write sales letters that actually make money."
The key is solving the right kind of profitable problems.
Today I want to show you exactly how I’d identify which of your solved problems have the most business potential.
[Note: The cool part though is – with my business model – I can turn ideas (aka solved problems) that maybe aren’t good as an overall business idea – into courses or tutorial email sequences. More on this below.]
I’m calling this approach the "Midnight Problem Test"… not a revolutionary name, I know, but you gotta name things right?
If I were starting a new business today, here’s the exact process I’d follow:
Step 1: List all problems you’ve SOLVED
I keep an ongoing "Ideas" document in Apple Notes for this exact purpose:
You’ll notice several important things about my document.
First, I just bullet out my problems – I don’t try to add a bunch of formatting to this document.
Adding complication will mean that I won’t use it consistently – the main idea is that I’m opening this document and adding to it ALL THE TIME.
Second, when I add to it, I try to frame problems I’ve solved as "how I" statements:
- "How I write emails"
- "How I write sales pages"
- "How I create offers"
"How I" statements give me a nice way to identify the problems themselves. It also keeps me on track – making sure that my ideas are related to problems I’ve actually solved.
I don’t title this document "Solved Problems" though, because I also want to keep track of problems I have or would like to solve… but haven’t yet.
I’m just trying to capture all potential ideas (aka problems) in one place.
You’ll notice that my main ideas right now are related to offers/courses that I can create (some of them I’ve already created).
That’s because I already have the overall business idea for CopyHour and I’m remaining focused on this business for the moment.
But when I was just starting out, I kept a very similar text document to this with the title "Ideas" and just dumped everything in there.
My recommendation is that you don’t filter or judge your ideas (and solved problems) at this stage.
Just get everything down.
- Health/fitness challenges you’ve overcome
- Financial problems you’ve solved
- Relationship/parenting issues you’ve worked through
- Career/business goals you’ve crushed
- Skills you’ve built (are you good at a certain video game? Write all the "dumb stuff" down too)
- Personal habits you’ve developed that others can’t quite seem to adopt
- Systems you’ve created to make life easier (are you good with home automation?)
Remember, what feels "normal" or "easy" to you now might have been incredibly difficult when you first tackled it.
Step 2: Apply the "midnight" filter
Now, I have to clarify that these "filters" I’m about to talk about are only filtered in my brain – there’s no hyper-defined process.
When I need an idea for something, I’ll look at my document and mentally run through these questions.
The term "midnight problem" refers to issues that literally keep people up at night worrying.
When I started taking this common marketing colloquialism as HARD truth, my business life changed dramatically.
What LITERALLY keeps someone up at night?
Those are going to be the best business ideas, hands down.
But then there are other real problems that I can use in my business too.
Here’s how I think about it these days:
- For overall business ideas: you want them to be genuine "midnight problems" – issues that keep people up at night. Money worries, health issues, relationship struggles, etc. These make for the best business foundations.
- For products/courses: these solve specific aspects of that midnight problem. A copywriting course helps you get more customers, which helps solve money issues.
- For content like email tutorials: these address individual pieces of the solution. I wrote a tutorial on email subject lines because that’s one component of the broader copywriting solution.
For each problem on your list, I’d mentally ask:
- Does this problem cause emotional distress?
- Does it create a sense of urgency?
- Does it touch on fundamental human needs or desires?
- Would someone pay immediately to solve this problem?
- Does it feel "important" rather than just "interesting"?
The more yes answers, the stronger the business potential.
"How to organize email" is interesting, but it rarely keeps people up at night.
But "How to make money when you’re about to miss your mortgage payment" absolutely does.
People pay quickly and generously for solutions to problems that cause emotional pain or threaten their security, health, or identity.
Step 3: Apply the "hard problem" filter
I’ve noticed in hindsight that problems worth solving also tend to be genuinely difficult.
Hard problems typically share these characteristics:
- They require consistent effort over time
- They involve changing behaviors or mindsets
- They have many potential failure points
- Many people have tried and failed to solve them
- The REAL solution isn’t obvious, widely known, or used
- The "quick fix" solution is a pill or "push button" that has undesirable side effects
Hard problems make better businesses for a simple reason: people value solutions to difficult problems more highly than solutions to easy ones.
That’s why weight loss programs, copywriting/sales/marketing courses, and business coaching can command premium prices – these problems are genuinely difficult to solve.
Step 4: Apply the "transformation" filter
Another mental check I’d run is whether the solution creates a clear transformation.
(Again, this is mostly just in my head as I’m looking at the problems in my document.)
For each potential idea, I’d consider:
- Is there a clear "before" and "after" state?
- Is the transformation meaningful and desirable?
- Can the results be clearly demonstrated?
- Would someone be stoked to share this transformation?
The more visible and meaningful the transformation, the better the business potential.
For example, with CopyHour, the transformation is clear: from "struggling to write copy" to "confidently writing sales letters that make lots of sales."
You can literally demonstrate your transformation with the actual sales copy you’ve written.
That transformation directly impacts income (a "midnight problem"), which makes it extremely valuable.
Step 5: Apply the "market" filter
Finally, you can think about whether enough people share this problem but you’ll never know for certain – so don’t stress on this one too much.
You can consider:
- Have I met multiple people with this same problem?
- Do online communities exist where people discuss this issue?
- Are people already spending money trying to solve this problem?
- Is this a recurring problem rather than a one-time issue?
You don’t need millions of potential customers. A few thousand people with a burning problem can support a very profitable business.
In my experience, having 300-500 loyal customers is all you need to get to $30k – $80k months.
Now, this "Midnight Problem Test" process isn’t perfect.
I’ve mostly built it in retrospect by analyzing which of my ideas succeeded and which failed.
Some ideas that seemed to check all the boxes still flopped.
CopyHour surprised me – but only based on the first version. The second version which solved the bigger problem shouldn’t have surprised me (even though it did).
That’s why you ultimately need to launch your ideas into the world to see what sticks. No amount of filtering and analysis can replace real market feedback.
Now, you might be thinking: "But Derek, I haven’t solved any important problems and I want to get started right now!"
I promise you have.
I can say that because I know from experience that we don’t recognize the significance of our own experience or solutions because they’ve become second nature to us.
(I hired a business coach that showed me "my significance").
Tomorrow I’ll show you how to categorize your solved problems into different business "assets" that are especially useful for email-based businesses like mine.
Not every problem you’ve solved needs to be an entire business, but almost all of them can be valuable in different ways.
Talk tomorrow!
— Derek
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