Complicated Businesses Suck
Since I announced my retirement from teaching the buying & selling websites training class, I’ve been hard at work on my 2 new business ideas.
The two new businesses I’m starting are in the travel market and the toys market, neither of which I have any experience with, but are both proven and profitable markets to get into.
While doing my market research, I decided I needed to find partners who were both smarter than me, and have lots of experience in these markets.
I met with a couple guys yesterday to discuss my business ideas and realized something very important.
The main reason I’ve been so successful in my internet businesses is because I always keep them SIMPLE.
I never realized this until talking with these partners. I basically gave them a rundown of what I wanted to do, which was very simple and straight forward. It took all of 5 minutes to explain the entire business plan to them.
Almost immediately, the guys I was chatting with were throwing out ideas left and right. Each “brilliant idea” was more and more complex and I knew in the back of my mind that:
a) trying to do all of these things would be too overwhelming and probably never get done.
b) these ideas would most likely confuse the customers and result in them not taking action on my offers.
c) would be 3 times as expensive to do and half as profitable as my simple idea.
I didn’t want to tell these potential partners that their ideas sucked because they were so excited about them. Yes, they were sexier ideas than my plain jane version of the business, but 9 out of 10 times it’s the boring businesses that make the most money.
After talking with these guys, I realized that many of the mistakes people make when trying to make money online are because people over complicate things. The easier the business, the more effective you can be at doing the things that actually make money. If you are so caught up in complicated technology or constantly trying to be innovative and cutting edge, you will be stuck in a never ending rat race.
Have you figured this out for yourself yet?
Hi Max, thanks for sharing this insight into what you’ve been up to, and great advice about keeping it simple. I like what you’ve done with this blog, and it is nice to see you posting again. I don’t think there is anything wrong with breaks. We all have many obligations and limited time.
Good to know you like travel related sites. if you are interested i am selling this site and domain please contact me
UBE – You should spend your time writing for your blog and marketing rather than reading other people’s blogs about how to make a blog successful. Action is the key, not reading…
Emma – I haven’t decided what to do with blogging experiment yet. Its purpose was to help people make money online as well as help promote my training course, which I am no longer selling. I’ll try to post more often, but my main business is the top priority since this blog makes next to nothing in comparison…
Don – We only buy .com domain names, but thanks for the offer though.
Max
MAX,
Maybe allow guest posters? I know your busy with your other projects and stuff but maybe this would be a good way to allow people to expose thier buisness and at the same time give a little knowledge that they have gained along the way. Its just a thought that might allow you to keep your readers and keep people involved. Since you are high rankings for make money online it would bring good traffic to other people’s sites and still keep you up in the rankings.
Just my 2 cents worth. Let us know what you think.
Jason
It’s so true. It’s the simple, basic stuff that gets results. Link building + nice content = success. All the other internet marketing tips and tricks are great and useful, but success still always comes back to the content and the links.
I figured this out early enough to save myself lots of problems, thank god! Unfortunately often many have o learn through experience, and since the online biz of MMO is so based on experience and trial and error, many have to fall in order to learn valuable lessons.
All the best with your new projects Max. I really appreciate you introducing the concept of Buying and Selling websites on this blog, I would never have considered this business model had I not read about it here.
Keeping things simple is great advice. I am one that tends to overcomplicate things, so I have to work at this.
New projects are always exciting and you are right with the keep it simple idea. i figured it out for myself. Im a new blogger in Germany and try to start my own blog about business and everything to do with it but the problems im facing are my blog is to complicated and has no structure. This both things are deadly for a new blog.
But i try to make it better and like you said to keep it simple and profitable.
I wish you the best with your new ideas.
Greets from germany
hainmd
When we try to build up these complicated schemes that’s when it all comes tumbling down. I agree with you Max. I’ve tried to either do too many projects and nothing got done or tried to make all these grand plans for one project that couldn’t be fulfilled.
It’s best to keep it simple and allow the product, content or service to make the project a success. The best example is a blog. Too much crap (pictures, video, and text) will make me tune out. Give me simple and good, and I’ll be won over every time.
That’s very true. I believe most people try to complicate things before they even start with what they have. One thing they forget is that whenever you start something new, it is a process and not a one shot thing.
So as you said, keep it simple and start the process of building up on your idea up to the point where you want to be.
Keeping it Simple (KISS) has never been truer when comes to business plan.
I never really thought too hard about the actual concept being too hard for customers, I’ve only thought about the design being too complicated and “busy”. I guess it’s time for me to go back and see what parts may need simplification… Thanks for the article.
I just dont get it with other businessman’s idea.Why make it hard if we can simplify things:)
You know, complicated anything sucks. Most “complicated” concepts aren’t complicated; they are simply yet disorganized. This is especially true for blog posts. If you wander around the topic, it’s not a problem with the topic, it’s a problem with the presentation.
Personally I find it humorous in my “day job” when the phrases “agile” and “lean” are tossed around. Meant to describe our process of building systems. Unfortunately, then the powers that be that dictated “lean” start to heap on super complex methodologies of delivering these systems and require massive amounts of paperwork (both real and electronic).
All this work…so that we can get items done “quickly” (HAHA, example: An issue arose the other day that in our pre-lean/agile days would have taken < 5 minutes to fix, test and deploy. Now in our “fast moving environment” it has to go before a committee after the necessary workflow documents are written, approved my business “owners” and then implemented by an entirely different team to prevent “corruption”. Time to deployment. 1 1/2 weeks. Nice)
I think this is why so many people fail. They go off in every direction with all of these different ideas when just sticking to a simple plan would have worked just fine. It’s so easy to do this when it comes on the internet. The shortest distance between two points is a straight line-something to remember!
I think in some areas all the ‘SIMPLE’ stuff has been done, and you have to be a forward thinker to progress and come up with more complex ideas.
There’s no such thing as “complicated” business.
You have to make it simple, easy, smooth
“Keep it simple” concept. Copywriters know it, marketers use it . Why not everybody is using it?
I guess we like “complex” stuff. We’re adults. Easy things are kids… lol
Pareto principle 80-20 rule: keep your focus on the easy stuff.
I agree. I’d rather work with a business that is easy to understand and make money from. Great post.
Yes indeed, working smart not hard (complex) is the key. There are so many aspects its no wonder it almost impossiable to do it alone successfully. Hope to here more from you Max
The simpler the better. The most effective methods are the easy ones, as many can understand hence more productivity and involvement from all parties.
Big ideas can have big rewards as long as it works. Complex stuff can be confuisng, time wasting and expensive but don’t worry about it, if you have an idea atleast you are contributing.
true. in a way, it’s similar to software. some of the best programs are the simplest, which focus on doing just one or a few things. too many features, and it tends to become bloatware.
I agree. Keep it Simple – Yes, that old KISS principle
Thanks for the great post
I hear the travel market is really profitable, but maybe a bit saturated
But set your mind to it and u can achieve
Complicated tends to mean unneccessarily convoluted or full of extra items that detract from the main goal. When someone excitedly presents a complicated idea, it is beneficial to hold off on responding and wait until they can calmly run through the idea in their head. Excitedness does not go hand-in-hand with reasonable concepts.
I so agree with what you say. Everything in life is simple and then for some odd reason it seems that people need to make it complicated. Simple things are so much easier to achieve.
I agree with you that complicated is suck. Sometimes I had a few fresh ideas to create a new site but it is getting overwhelming when I think a lot stuff to do with the site. Maybe should do it slowly and simple next time.
“The simpler the better” still holds true until today.