What I wish I knew before building my first apps

June 22, 2024

5 min read

10 business lessons that changed how I build products — from chasing ideas to solving real problems people pay for.

Breakthrough

As I mentioned in the previous post, I had long desired to earn money from my IT products, but my business fundamentals left much to be desired. I released several applications, spent many months working after hours, invested a few thousand zlotys, and did not earn a penny. The breakthrough came in 2021-2022, when, in addition to my full-time job and building a house, I listened to business podcasts and read various books and blogs. :)

To be more precise, the pinnacle of this breakthrough was reading the book "The Millionaire Fastlane: Crack the Code to Wealth and Live Rich for a Lifetime" by MJ DeMarco, which was highly recommended on one of the blogs.

After finishing the book, I discovered MJ DeMarco's business forum, specifically thefastlaneforum.com. The content I found in both the book and the discussion forum turned out to be a true treasure for me. While most of the information and lessons I gathered might be obvious to some, they initiated significant changes in my thinking and actions.

Another book I must mention, as I read it a few weeks ago and immediately applied one of the strategies described by the author, is "Million Dollar Weekend" by Noah Kagan, a former Facebook employee who was fired and went on to create several highly profitable businesses.

To sum up, the lessons learned

1. Most profitable businesses are not born from an idea that pops into our heads in the middle of the night and seems super attractive. The best businesses mainly arise as a response to pressing needs and urgent problems of other people. Of course, it's possible that we are visionaries and our idea will conquer the world, but we have the greatest chance simply by helping people.

2. Success in business is a matter of statistics and we need to help it by constantly trying and increasing our chances. If we give up after the first or second failure and don't learn from them, the probability of achieving our goal will be slim. If our first venture succeeds right away, it can be compared to winning the lottery – just luck :).

3. Earning from a hobby is often a myth. A significant portion of million-dollar businesses are not sexy or fancy, such as manufacturing cardboard boxes or selling small soaps to hotels.

4. I prefer the B2B market over B2C because individual consumers are emotional, often unstable in decision-making, picky, and generally reluctant to spend money. A company as a client, on the other hand, often has a larger budget and needs that it must regularly meet to increase its profits.

5. Our product does not have to be innovative. Creating a new market is often difficult because customers may not understand our ultra-modern product. It is easier to find something that is already in demand and do it better, further specifying the target audience (so-called niche down) or completely reformulating the product to find a different audience (niche sideways).

6. An idea in itself is worthless. Its execution is what matters. Don't be afraid to share your idea with others.

7. The worst thing you can do is to build a project for several months, perfect every detail, keep it hidden from the world, and then realize that no one wants your solution. Show your results from day one, even if you haven't done anything concrete yet. Talk about what you plan to create, ask for feedback from potential customers, present the concept and functionality. This way, we create solutions according to customer requirements, not what we think is right, especially if we don't know the domain well.

8. When validating a product idea, don't trust customers, and worse, those close to you, who say your solution is great and they will definitely pay for it once it's finished. True validation is the customer's money in our pocket. I realize this might be more challenging in Poland, but we should strive to sell our product before we even start working on it (offer pre-sales and/or discounts, ambassador programs, sign agreements with customers, refund if we don't deliver).

9. If our idea has a low entry barrier (e.g., selling printed t-shirts) and anyone can do it, we are unlikely to achieve spectacular success. We have a better chance by creating something that requires more work, that not everyone can do, and with which we can compete on many levels, such as quality, ease of use, design, customer service, a variety of options, etc., not just price.

10. Observe the world around us and the changes happening in it. Ask people about their problems and needs. Ask what annoys them and how we can help them make more money. Every novelty in any market is a new source of gaps waiting to be filled :).

What’s next?

I have started applying the above-mentioned conclusions in practice. Additionally, I learned how to use Google Forms to research people's needs and problems, how to check current societal interests using Google Trends, how to create effective ads on Google Ads, and how to use fake sales as one of the techniques for validating an idea. In the upcoming posts, I will present projects that have made some money, were executed according to business principles, and could, in my opinion, be potential sources of income. Stay tuned!