This week I showed you that your best business ideas come from problems you’ve already solved – and that not every solved problem needs to be a business, but can instead be a course or free tutorial.
The most important thing I ACTUALLY do in my business to generate ideas is maintain a simple "Ideas" document in Apple Notes:
This isn’t fancy.
It’s just bullet points that I add to whenever I solve a problem, have a problem, run into what I think is an interesting problem I could solve, or notice something that could become content or a course.
I open this document and add to it constantly throughout the week and weekend.
Sometimes multiple times a day, sometimes just once a week.
But it’s always there, collecting problems that could eventually become valuable business assets.
If you want to build a successful email-based business from your solved problems, here’s the exact process I’d follow:
Step 1: Create your own "Ideas" document
Start by creating a simple bullet list in Apple Notes (the simpler the app the better – Notion has too many options and is distracting in my opinion).
Document problems you face and solve in your everyday life.
Frame them as "How I…" statements:
- "How I write emails that make sales"
- "How I stay productive while working from home with 2 young kids" (I haven’t fully solved this one entirely yet, but I do get enough done to be dangerous)
- "How I lost 15 pounds without changing my diet" (Hint: get the flu and spend most of January sick)
The key is obviously start to ACTUALLY SOLVE problems, not just identify them.
When you solve something that was difficult for you, move it up on your list or highlight it somehow or just take a mental note that it’s a better idea.
Don’t judge or filter at this stage – even problems that seem "too simple" or "not important enough" go on the list.
Problems that you run into but haven’t solved yet can go on here too.
But be skeptical of them – you haven’t solved them and/or they might not be real problems worth solving.
This document will become your business idea goldmine.
Step 2: If you’re starting from scratch, identify your Business Foundation ideas
Once you have a collection of problems, and some start to become solved, look through them for potential Business Foundation Problems (see Thursday’s email).
Apply the Midnight Test we talked about Wednesday:
- Which problems keep people up at night?
- Which create emotional distress?
- Which impact fundamental areas like money, health, relationships?
Find the one with the clearest transformation – where the before and after states are dramatically different.
This might become your overall business focus.
If you’re unsure… GUESS. Pick any of your problems and try to create a solution and sell it. <– This is obviously a giant step, but this is the real advice of this entire series.
This is where people starting from scratch will likely stop (for now).
If you already have a business going, then move to:
Step 3: Map out potential courses
When you have your Business Foundation, identify 3-5 specific problems within it that could become products or courses.
Remember, products/courses solve specific components of the bigger midnight problem.
For example, if your business foundation is "How I built a 6-figure freelance business," potential courses might include:
- "How I find high-paying clients"
- "How I create systems that let me work just 25 hours a week"
Step 4: Break things down further for content
Look at each potential product/course and identify smaller tutorial topics within them.
These become your free content pieces – email tutorials, blog posts, or social content.
For example, from the "How I find high-paying clients" course, you might extract tutorials like:
- "How I write cold emails that get responses"
- "The exact LinkedIn profile updates that doubled my inbound leads"
- "My 3-question framework for qualifying clients"
TL;DR Action Plan
- Start by documenting problems you’ve solved in the past. This might take some serious effort.
- If that’s too hard… start by documenting the problems you’re solving right now.
- If that’s too hard… start by documenting the problems you have and want to solve.
- If you have no problems… then you’re not a human and certainly not ready to start a business.
But seriously, if you can’t think of any problems you have, you need to get out and try to build/write/create something.
In the process of trying to build something you will encounter tons of problems and headaches along the way.
If you’re unwilling to try to build something then you’re not really an entrepreneur.
The job of entrepreneur is to solve problems.
So get after it!
Now, the process I’ve outlined is simple, but not easy of course.
It requires you to actually solve problems and then document your solutions.
But I promise, there’s no better foundation for a successful business than your own real-world experience solving problems that keep people up at night.
I’ve built an entire (successful) email-based business this way, and you can too.
I hope this series was helpful! Let me know, let me know by hitting reply.
And have a great weekend!
— Derek
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