The Business Investment Test
Best Time Management Test
February 17, 2020
How do you know if a business that’s for sale might be a good investment?
How do you know if your new business idea might be a winner?
Take the following test and find out.
1. SOLVE A PROBLEM/UNDERSERVED NEED OR WANT
2. STRONG COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE
3. BET ON A WINNER: STAMINA + DEEP DOMAIN EXPERTISE + PASSION FOR THE WORK + STRONG LEADERSHIP ABILITY
4. SIMPLE PLAN
5. START SMALL (TEST BEFORE YOU INVEST)
The Investment Test
1. Solve A Problem/Underserved Need Or Want
30 POINTS
2. Strong Competitive Advantage (SUDS + Talking Point + Award Winning)
30 POINTS
3. Bet On A Winner = Stamina + Deep Domain Expertise + Passion For The Work + Strong Leadership Ability 30 POINTS
4. Simple Plan
5 POINTS
5. Start Small (Test Before You Invest)
5 POINTS
The Numbers That Matter:
- One competitive advantage
- Three mentors that are five to thirty years ahead of you at where you want to be
- Three successful businesses in your industry to model
- Five years or more experience in your industry or 10,000 hours of practice with continuous improvement in mind
- Ten highly regarded books in your industry
1. SOLVE A PROBLEM (UNDERSERVED NEED OR WANT)
Don’t start a business unless people are asking you to.
2. STRONG COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE
Why are you better than the competition?
3. STAMINA: DEEP DOMAIN EXPERTISE + PASSION FOR THE WORK
Do you have goosebumps (are you physically excited) about the business and the work?
Are you excited to get out of bed in the morning to do the work?
Do you think about the work in the shower and/or when your driving?
Have you put 10,000 hours or more of work in the field, focusing on continuous improvement?
4. SIMPLE PLAN
Napkin Test: Be able to write your entire business plan on a napkin.
Elevator Pitch: Be able to sell your business idea in 30 seconds or less.
5. START SMALL (TEST BEFORE YOU INVEST)
Start small in the beginning.
Test before you invest.
Always be willing to walk away.
1. SOLVE A PROBLEM (UNDERSERVED NEED OR WANT)
Don’t start a business unless people are asking you to.
Success is in the setup. Dan Bilzerian
Things that start out wrong only get progressively worse. Dan Peña
80% of a restaurant’s success is determined before it opens. -Legendary Chicago restauranteur Rich Melman
Banks don’t invest in “passion”; they invest in someone who has experience, research and a plan, and a business that will serve an underserved market Scott Adams
The number one reason businesses fail is because they don’t solve a market need. You must serve a market need. You should not start a business:
- Based purely on what you want
- Based on what other people are doing (copying someone else)
- Because you really like a technology (Bitcoin, Facebook ads, etc.)
99% of business have been started for one of these three wrong reasons. The second reason is they run out of cash. The third is that they don’t build a good team. Sam Ovens
Discover your niche by doing two simple things. First, recognize an underserved segment of your marketplace. Second, target an affluent segment of your target market. Michael Zipursky
Go into a Blue Ocean (not a Red Ocean). Red Ocean = compete in existing market space. Blue Ocean = Make the competition irrelevant by creating and capturing new demand.
I don’t start very many new businesses. I buy existing businesses and fix them. They’ve already bought a lot of customers. I go in and buy those customers at wholesale, not paying retail to buy the customers. Brad Sugars
Look for “Star Ventures”. A star business has two attributes:
★ it is the leader in its market niche
★ the market niche is growing fast, at least 10 per cent a year. The secret of the Star Principle: Only bet on #1 players, and only play in markets that are growing at 10% or more per year. Disqualify everything else. And if you are not the #1 player, redefine the market so you are. Richard Koch
Dan Peña Businesses To Stay Away From
- •Retail
- •Restaurants
- •Bars
- •Contruction (margins too thin)
2. STRONG COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE
Why are you better than the competition?
If you don’t have a competitive advantage, don’t compete. Jack WelchIf you’re not first, you have to be different. Dan Peña
Competition is for losers. Instead, invent your own category. Peter Thiel
The most important question a business owner or entrepreneur can ask is, “What is it about my business that can make it different from other businesses and make it much more useful to a small or large group of customers. What can we do that no one else can do?”. Richard Koch
Use a margin of safety. Ray Dalio
4 Strategies To Be The Best In Your Category by Ryan Gromfin, The Restaurant Boss
- Location (you will either spend the money on your location or on your marketing)
- Distinction (figure out what your the best at that no one else can do, and double down on that)
- Become a marketing machine (average product and service, but you have systems in place for everything so you can focus the majority of your day on marketing)
- Efficiency (small simple offering, systems for everything so you can serve your product faster and a lower price than your competition)
3. STAMINA: DEEP DOMAIN EXPERTISE + PASSION FOR THE WORK
Do you have goosebumps (are you physically excited) about the business and the work?
Are you excited to get out of bed in the morning to do the work?
Do you think about the work in the shower and/or when your driving?
Have you put 10,000 hours or more of work in the field, focusing on continuous improvement?
Invest in your circle of competence. Ray Dalio
If you like the store, chances are you’ll love the stock. Ray Dalio
Passion fuels performance. If you don’t love it, you’ll never work hard enough to be great. Gunnar Peterson
The thing you do obsessively from ages 13 and 18, that’s the thing you have to most chance of being world class at. Bill Gates
Look for the job that you would take if you didn’t need a job. You really want to find something you love doing, and don’t give up until you find it. Warren Buffet
Show me someone with deep domain expertise in a high demand, cutting edge trend, and I’ll show you a future millionaire. Tai Lopez
Never invest in a business you don’t understand
Have at least 5 years of experience working in the field you are going to start your business in
What To Bet On:
- •Confidence
- •Curiosity (Continuous Learning)
- •Stamina
Stand next to the smartest person in the room. Harold Ramis did it (Bill Murray). Steve Jobs did it (Steve Wozniak). Craig Silverstein did it (Larry Page). Kanye West did it (Jay-Z). I make money only when I do this. James Altucher
Two Guidelines For Dan Pena’s Kids When They Finished School
1. Be first in and last out. You come in with the garbage people that clean the building, and you leave with the other people that clean up when they turn the lights out.
2. Make 300 cold calls a day. You will lead the nation. Mentees are 2000 cold calls away from buying their first company. One mentee who made a 20 million dollar deal said if he knew he was only 2,000 away from buying a 20 million dollar company, he would have just sent the check for 20 grand and never came to the seminar. That’s how simple it is.
4. SIMPLE PLAN
Napkin Test: Be able to write your entire business plan on a napkin.
Elevator Pitch: Be able to sell your business idea in 30 seconds or less.
Begin with end in mind. Steven Covey
Only go into business with people you like and can see yourself having an enjoyable dinner with 10 years from now
After seeing thousands of pitches on Shark Tank, there are three attributes I see in every successful pitch. In every case, they are able to articulate their success in 90 seconds or less, with most being 60 seconds or less. The ones that ramble on don’t get funded. The second thing is they explain why they are the right people to execute the business plan; (additionally) I generally only invest in teams that have the yin and yang of different skillsets. The third thing is they know their numbers. Kevin O’Leary
5. START SMALL (TEST BEFORE YOU INVEST)
Start small in the beginning.
Test before you invest.
Always be willing to walk away.
Talk to people. Ray Dalio
Always have at least 3 options you are looking at. Patrick Bet-David
T. Boone Pickens told me: if you want to make a deal bad enough, you’ll do a bad deal. That resonates with me to this day. Whenever I’m pushing too hard on a dead dog, I realize it’s a dead dog and I’m not going to breathe life into it. Dan Pēna
One thing that Charlie Munger repeatedly advocates is the idea that it’s better to limit downside by avoiding mistakes than it is to be brilliant. His reasoning is that, if you are doing stuff that exposes you to harm, you will eventually run out of luck no matter how great you are, and given that humans have natural blind-spots, we are always exposing ourselves to harm. Zat Rana
