summary
It’s not luck that makes you build a million-dollar business in a year; it’s about doing the right things in the right order.
The 4-Phase Blueprint: Phase 1: Find Your Winning Product (Months 1–3)
Conditions:
Fixes a problem that hurts
Has buyers who are very interested (like pet owners and fitness fans)
Price range of $50 to $200 (high enough to make a profit, low enough to make people buy on impulse)
Validation Hack:
Use Facebook ads to see if people are interested before you build.
Phase 2: Launch Like a Pro (Months 4–6)
The 3 Things You Need:
Offer that can’t be turned down (group products, add bonuses)
Facebook and Instagram ads are the most common scalable traffic sources.
Funnel that works (from landing page to checkout to upsell)
Important Measure:
$1.50 ROAS (Return on Ad Spend) means you should scale right away.
Phase 3: Grow to $30,000 a month (Months 7–9)
Double Down:
Put your profits back into ads that work
Reach out to new groups of people, like men to women or the US to the UK.
Outsource:
Hire virtual assistants to help with customer service and get things done.
Step 4: Leave or Automate (Months 10–12)
Option 1: Put the Business Up for Sale
3X–5X annual profit valuation (for example, $1M in sales leads to $300k in profit, which leads to a sale of $900k to $1.5M)
Option 2: Keep cash flow and automate
Get a general manager to run the business
Important Ways of Thinking: Concentrate on ONE product (no distractions.) Profit is more important than revenue. For example, $30,000 a month at a 30% margin is better than $100,000 at a 5% margin. Speed over perfection (launch quickly and make changes based on data)
Example from the real world
Moran’s Study of a Case:
Natural deodorant
Plan: Sell to environmentally conscious moms through Facebook ads
Result: $0 to $1.2 million in 12 months, then sold for seven figures.
Why This Works: It uses existing platforms, so there’s no need to make new ones.
Decisions based on data (kill what doesn’t work, grow what does)
Concentrates on the endgame (build to sell or automate)
Great For:
People who are starting a business for the first time
People who work on the side and are ready to go all in
People who work from 9 to 5 want to be free.
Today, come up with ten product ideas that fit the above criteria.