in the last 5 years I've built two businesses both of which generate tens of thousands of dollars of Revenue every single month and this is all the lessons I've learned in the 5e long journey whether you're a freelancer trying to make more money or someone who's setting up their own business this video will be super crucial to you so make sure you watch till the very end before we start I want to talk about the two businesses the first one being this YouTube channel I started this in 2020 and have been running this by myself and with my team in The Last 5 Years and till this date this channel has generated hundreds of thousands of dollars of Revenue the second one being marketup media private limited that is my marketing agency I am one of the two directors in the company and we've been offering marketing services to companies in India and abroad now that you know the two businesses let's dive deeper and understand the learnings in each of them the first one being you know nothing out of every successful founder I've met they all have the you know nothing mindset what that means is they approach any problem with a mindset of you are a beginner right so when you are a beginner you approach everything from first principles like Elon mus says and that is so important because so many times we have our preconceived beliefs Notions Traditions that this is how things happen that this is how it works and when you have those preconceived beliefs you are never able to think of something outside of the box outside of the normal and that is super crucial any business idea is basically problem solving and when you approach a problem you need to have no biases the less biases you have the more learnings you can have the better you can observe I used to have these conceived Notions will not agree that is my preconceived notion that is not how the market actually works so you need to start with the mindset that you know nothing and then approach people then approach problems then approach every single business idea and see how it works from the ground level from the Grassroots without any biases that is my first learning the second one is a question to ask yourself are you able to charge a premium for any business that you want to start ask yourself that question in this business in this product am I able to charge a premium that is what a brand is all about I'll give you an example right I recently went to Singapore I was at 7-Eleven store and I saw two umbrellas one was the normal umbrella which was selling for about $3.50 then right next to it there was another umbrella which was selling for $7.50 more than double the price and it just said Japanese quality umbrella that's it that was was the only differentiating Factor but just by writing Japanese quality made it twice more valuable and so that is the brand proposition which means if you're in a market with tough competition you would always be fighting with people who have more money than you who have more resources than you who have more experience than you and ultimately it will be all about how much lower can you charge for the service or the product that you offer and that is the worst place to be in it only works out if if you have a lot of money to burn and you're only focusing on grabbing the market share and that is not the condition with most people who run a business or are a freelancer so even if for example you're a video editor right as a video editor your focus should be on becoming a niche video editor someone for example who can edit Ali abdal type reals who can do that rotoscopy and so if you can do that you will now be able to charge a premium the market will only reward the outlier someone who can offer something which most other players cannot and so if you're a video editor think about how can you offer something a type of a edit some style which very few people can offer and that is how you can charge more you can charge for a premium a one of the most important parts as a video editor is creating and sending invoices as a freelancer I had no no clue about this designs invoices create but process with time inefficient ex and it was just a huge mess but this app lets you do it for free Odo is a all-in-one business management software is invoicing app is a lifesaver for Freelancers because you can create invoices track all the payments and get paid faster than ever you set your own official details like your address your contact info your UPI ID the website Etc invoices design the layout to your own liking just like so is about add the client details like the company full name their address GST and the services that you provide the price for it the quantity GST terms and conditions adding sections and log Notes too Bank details invoices easily create you get to choose from multiple payment providers too say you can send the invoice to your customers via email and keep track of all the outstanding payments along with the status and the due dates right from your dashboard yeah invoicing process end to end completely automate you get your first app free forever for unlimited users and free unlimited hosting and customer support so go try out the invoicing app by Odo today the link is in the description the third learning is are you working on the business or are you working under the business and I'll give you a very close example A friend of mine runs her own own freelancing company and what she has done in the last four to 5 years is she is the one who actually delivers on the deliverable on the service that she has created the contract for with the client and so what happens is forever she is working under the business as a glorified employee which is getting paid a lot more but you are still a cog in the wheel and so you are still that person who's doing the delivery who's doing the output and if you do that you will never be able to work on the business it's always about how can you create systems productize yourself your service that will help you to focus on growing the company and I learned this the hard way when I started market up the first one and two years were all about me doing the work myself like I would actually be doing all of the video edits uploading the videos taking care of the thumbnails and everything in between for the client that we used to work with and that's when we realize we are not able to grow we are not able to grow the revenue of the company and it is stagnating and so the best thing we did was to hire a team which really works for the client so that you can think about bigger problems in the business which is how do you grow how do you focus on getting testimonials Word of Mouth marketing things like that always think about how can you hire a team which is more experienced in doing the work that you want the client to be getting so that is third learning the fourth one we just talked about people is that I believe people is your greatest resource not money it's not contacts it's not inside I've myself seen a ton of companies which raise a lot of money they want to work on a problem they spend 3 to four years working on it burning a ton of cash on it and guess what they're not able to do it so they end up shutting down so money is definitely not the problem you need to focus on the people and people management is such an important skill which you will only learn to appreciate once you start hiring three or four people and that is when you learn how do you manage expectations of people who are working with you how do you incentivize them to work harder just like you are you'll spend majority of your time with the people who you work with so it's really important for you to pick the right people who have the integrity and the drive to work alongside with you and you will actually be compounding learnings with that person I have people in Market who've been working for 2 three years and even longer and the compounding that we have what they teach me and what I teach them is on another level the next one is similar to people but it's focused more towards your co-founder the person that you will be building your company with in many cases you have a co-founder in some you don't but when you have a co-founder it's very important for you to evaluate is this the right person that you want to be building this company with do they have the Insight do they have the expertise do they have the drive and the obsession to build because I believe that energy is infectious what that means is when you work with a high intensity obsessed co-founder you would always find that they are really focused and that gets to you and so you become a lot more effective and productive every single day and the best way to know them is to become a friend go on a trip with them spend some time with them stay with them and that is how you'll know if they are really the right people to be building a company with there are too many examples of companies which die because of co-founder conflicts or having the wrong co-founder with you and that gets nasty at the very end like you've seen in the social network if you are enjoying this video so far make sure to hit the like button the next learning I have is are you observing what works and the reason I ask this question is so many times we are so focused on what you are selling you are not focusing on what is actually working in the market and you need to be very Nimble about it when you are just getting started so I have this habit of meeting people and learning from them I think that is the greatest way to learn about what is working in this world that we live in so I meet people and I ask them hey what's up what are you doing what are you building how are you building it and when I ask that I get new insights so the best thing you can do is to observe very carefully right the best things I do is I go to an airport and I observe people I observe their habits I observe what do they do on on a normal basis so when you do that you understand this is how people are behaving today and so this is what you can build which people will find valuable because of their consumption habit that you have observed and no one else so the best Founders are great observers of an Insight of human behavior and everything in between the next learning is to be delusional and the reason I say that is because being delusional is all about believing in something which does not exist yet because only when you can believe in something that doesn't exist today can you start to work on it today and make it into a reality all of this today like me sitting here having a million subscriber plus YouTube channel is unreal most people would never even dream about this and so because of that they are never able to achieve it most people are rational thinkers and the funny part about building a company is that you will never be able to build it while being rational you have to be that person who goes out and tries something else who goes out observes something and implements it and that is what the market rewards people used to mock Brian chesy saying that oh you're going to build a app that lets people stay in other people's houses that would never work out but that is a b and b a huge multi-billion dollar Company Mark and Reed were always criticized for the subscription service that they started in that era where CDs and DVDs were the trend they thought it would never work out but that is Netflix today so you take any other example the bottom line is people were delusional they were irrational they had a bet they knew that this would work out they were able to predict it before it was even a reality that is the greatest skill that a person can ever have to imagine something which does not exist yet and then to create it with years and years of hard work in practice and the next learning is the fact that the best sale never feels like a sale you know there are so many people who will try to sell you on something and you can very immediately tell and it is a immediate turnoff for most people that is why they click the skip ad button that is why you will always see people running away from salesmen who are selling credit cards or anything like that you need to sell in a way that never feels like a sale I'll give you an example so I went to a event in which I met someone who is a very close friend of mine and he was like Hey Shan come let me introduce you to a couple of people he takes me around introduces me to three to four people and says that hey this is a very sharp guy from bits who has built a marketing agency that you should know know about it was a referral it was a word of mouth we just connected and they became our clients for the longest part I've never sold like marketup services to people I've always met them and understood their problems that okay how are you building content all right what does your organic distribution look like okay how are you growing on YouTube okay you're not able to grow why is that and so when I ask all of these questions is when their pain point is reflected and they dwell on it and they cry about it and then they're like we're looking for a solution and that's when it comes to their mind that okay ishan actually offers this and there you go that that is the sale moving on to the next one and this is super important riches are in the niches Niche or a category is a segment is a particular segment in which you are selling something to a very specific set of people and you able to charge a premium for it let me give you a real world example example so I was talking to a Jan friend of mine and we are together planning to go to the US and he was telling me that you know my mom gave me this number of this agency you can just call up and you can ask them where is the best place to have J food in my locality and no matter where you are around the world that agency will charge you some money and will give you recommendations imagine that is an actual business that is a business that generates people Revenue people earn a living through that you would never even imagine it so it's a very particular segment gen people who are going abroad living for a long period of time and they need a reliable place to have Jen food that is a niche that is a problem statement and they are able to charge a premium for it so always think about how can you create a niche where there's no one that competes with you and that is when you will be able to win the most in life and now let me give you the last lesson I've learned and that is managing expectations with the client that you work with you know this is super important so many times when we work with a client we have a customer we overpromise the reality is when they get a subar service and product they are disappointed so instead of making huge claims which can lead to good sales initially but then disappointment later it's better to be realistic better to under promise and then overd deliver because then the word of mouth marketing is going to be insane people will love it so much that they would want to recommend to other people and that is how you get more sales so this were all of my 10 business lessons I've learned in the last five years that I want to share with all of you also check out Odo with the link in the description and try out their invoicing app for completely free that is all from me today I will see you in the next one if you have any questions let me know Below in the comment section you can you can also click a screenshot of this video and put it on social media tag me at isan Sharma 7390 I'll see you in the next one bye-bye