I’m new to this sub and I’ve done some poking around. It seems that the unanimous advice in this sub for people looking to become an entrepreneur is ‘find a problem and sell the solution’.

I’m from a poor family and I’m just a simple working folk. I’ve been trying to think of a way to break free from that life most of my adult years but have never found a way to make it happen.

So my question is. Since I’ve been trying to find a problem to solve for most of my life and failing to do so. How can I make a shift to really find that problem I can solve? It seems most people in here have businesses. What problem did you solve and how did you figure out that problem to begin with?

  • sligowind@alien.topB
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    10 months ago

    It’s not unanimous advice. And it’s only one way to achieve success. The vast majority of successful entrepreneurs DO NOT FIND A PROBLEM etc. Instead, they simply become another market participant in an already thriving market. They become a plumber (already thousands of those), or they open a dropship store, amongst thousand’s already existing, just to name a few examples among many.

    You don’t have to think up something new or unique.

  • Initial_Mousse_6989@alien.topB
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    10 months ago

    It’s not just a matter of “finding the problem”, it’s a matter of following through. Finding the problem is easy. If your life is not perfect, you can come up with a solution to your problem (at least you will have one user =) )
    More often than not, we are intimidated by the size of the task and how much we have to do. Then we say “well that’s too easy” or “it’s already been done”. Everything has already been done in Simpsons. You need to find the strength to start and see it through. You need that, not to find the “Perfect Problem” and solve it.
    That’s the kind of problem you can look for your whole life and find nothing

  • positiverealm@alien.topB
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    10 months ago

    Just live life and you will experience problems. I guarantee it 💪 Now talk to other people about the problems you are facing and you might hear people say “Me too!!!”. I went to Stanford tand paid thousands to learn this lolllll

  • TriRedditops@alien.topB
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    10 months ago

    Got admitted to hospital, had surgery, and came home with a life altering change. Boom, instant invention muse. :/ 0/10 Would not recommend

  • BackyardMangoes@alien.topB
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    10 months ago

    Sell and ship premium mangoes. Not a complex problem to solve. Except through a very few sellers, most people do not have access to the mangoes I can provide. Indian mangoes,Thai mangoes, new varieties and classic mangoes.

  • Able_Loan4467@alien.topB
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    10 months ago

    Honestly, that’s not good advice if you want to make money. Working class people think that money is in doing useful things. That is wrong. Real estate, investing, financial speculation, marketing, deluding and manipulating people, that’s where the money is. People who actually accomplish stuff get paid shit if they get paid at all.

  • shinynuts@alien.topB
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    10 months ago

    I’m convinced the comments are just book salesmen. Fine! I bought some books 😂😂

  • DisruptorMor@alien.topB
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    10 months ago

    Well… You could try to change your perspective about “problems”. The thing here is that we are often told that problems are something that drives everyone crazy, but in most cases a problem is something that you are so used to that you don’t even think of it as a problem.

    For example: Is it a problem to wait 3 minutes for a cup of coffee? Perhaps not. But would it be better to get your coffee with just 2 minutes of waiting? In this case we don’t perceive the situation as a problem, but in contrast with a better scenario we can easily understand the first situation as a “problem” or ar leat “less better”

    With find a problem and sell the solution you look out for really small problems that everyone has or enormous problems that 0.1% of people have but are willing to pay tremendous amount of money to solve it, even if they don’t realize the problem.

    I can give you some real life examples:

    • A construction company made a mistake during the foundation process and the cost to out everything down and start again would be something around 2M. They decided to hire a specialist in the field to see what could be done. In the end the consultant gave a solution that would save months of work for just 700k. He was paid 200k for his advice.

    • In my country we often see homeless people on the street with a bottle of water and soap, a sponge, and a squeegee. They wait for the traffic light to go red and go clean some car windows to get a few bucks. Dirty windows are a common and small problem.

    • A home owner needs money to pay some medical bills but can’t manage to find someone to buy his house and that’s why he decides to ask for a real state agent to sell it for him in exchange of commission.

    In general we are always solving problems and being paid for that. The description of a job is exactly what kind of problem the business already know about and are willing to pay for someone to care of it.

    Of course a genius is born from time to time and his ability to track problems and find solutions is beyond our comprehension but we don’t need the mind of a billionaire to earn a great living using the concept of finding problems.

    Everything is a problem and nothing is a problem.

    We don’t necessarily need an iphone to call family and friends, but still we perceive the lack of iphone as being a problem, and that’s why we buy it.

    I hope it helps.

  • BABarista@alien.topB
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    10 months ago

    I’m pretty skinny so all my dress shirts fit pretty poorly or choke me at the neck where I can’t button it up all the way. traditional tailoring is expensive and time consuming so I invented a product that lets you tailor a shirt in 5 minutes for less than $5

  • ManiAdhav@alien.topB
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    10 months ago

    If you are coming from poor background, you are gifted by born itself. Because you may come across lot of problem to solve.

    Take one problem, find how many people could face same problem across country/globally.

    If you conclude it’s country wide problem, find a solution.If not go to next one.

    I am also coming from poor background like you.

  • Itchy_Neighborhood51@alien.topB
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    10 months ago

    My issue was always finding what I was good at or finding something to solve. It wasn’t until later that I realized I had it wrong.

    I don’t need to solve anything. I need to step into something that people WANT or NEED. Identify this, and then focus on getting really good at it. You’ll become an expert and be able to get more customers.

    It’s not that easy. It takes discipline over motivation, but if you’re hungry for it, you’ll get it.

  • yyz2023@alien.topB
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    10 months ago

    It is a fallacy that all entrepreneurs need to solve unique problems. What is the unique problem Pepsi solves? You can simply replicate a successful business model in a different region. You will have more chances of success and options to exit.

  • illusionst@alien.topB
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    10 months ago

    Scratching your itch does indeed work.

    I encountered a problem with a crypto trading bot that required spinning up a VPS, installing Java, activating the licence using Discord, and what not. Being a computer engineer, it took me more than 30 minutes. Checking their Discord, I found that many people were complaining about the installation and maintenance.

    So, I built a service that automated the entire process. At its peak, it was generating around $5k-$6k in revenue with an 80% profit margin. I partnered with the company, and they later acquired my service, now offering it as part of their core services.

  • JacobStyle@alien.topB
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    10 months ago

    If you are a simple working folk, then you are already getting paid to solve problems. It also means you have at least some access to a functioning business, so you can learn about how that business operates to solve customers’ problems. Additionally, you can learn about what problems typically frustrate your employer and then figure out how to solve those problems for other businesses in exchange for money.