How to Start Your First Business in 48 Hours

2024-02-06 · Long video (solo, talking head or whiteboard) · Ali · recording, 14:12 · watch on YouTube

Topic: Business and entrepreneurship · mode: Explanation and tutorial · tags: Lesson from a book, Aimed at students, His medical past, His own numbers, Sponsor segment present

In a Book Club episode on Noah Kagan's Million Dollar Weekend, Ali summarises its first two parts: begin before you are ready ("now, not how"), then take a customer-first approach, finding people with money and their problems and getting them to pay before you build anything.

What is said

The parts of the video and what is said in each (★ — how much it matters to the video).

00:00:00 — Book Club on Million Dollar Weekend: the book's three parts

★★★ Ali calls Noah Kagan's Million Dollar Weekend a fantastic book for aspiring entrepreneurs: anyone who has wanted to start a business and has not yet done it needs to read its play-by-play roadmap. — 00:00:00 · Noah Kagan

00:00:29 — Start it: begin before you are ready, "now, not how"

★★★ Following Noah Kagan's Million Dollar Weekend, Ali calls "I need the right idea" a myth that holds aspiring entrepreneurs back: you start a business by deciding to start one, then find a process to come up with the idea. — 00:00:29 · Noah Kagan
★★★ The core message of the first chapter of Million Dollar Weekend, Ali says, is to begin before you are ready: no one feels ready to start a business, just as no one feels ready to have kids, and the timing is never quite right. — 00:01:14
★★ Noah Kagan (quoted): Noah Kagan writes that most people overthink first and act later, while every successful entrepreneur acts first and figures it out later; any analysis ahead of action is speculation. — 00:01:14 · Noah Kagan
★★★ Noah Kagan's motto "now, not how" has stuck with Ali since he read the book: instead of being held back by how to do something, ask what is the smallest action you can take right now. — 00:01:43 · Noah Kagan

“And that motto is now, not how.”
★★ Ali's YouTuber academy has taught about 5,000 students over a few years, and for 95% of them the struggle in starting a YouTube channel is emotional, not technical. — 00:02:18 · Part-Time YouTuber Academy
★★ No one starts making YouTube videos or a business with a perfect idea, Ali says: you decide to start and figure out the idea second. — 00:02:18

00:02:38 — Sponsor read: Trading 212

★★★ The hundreds of entrepreneurs Ali has interviewed all describe a customer-first approach: start not with an idea but with the people you would like to serve, because a business solves a problem for someone willing to pay for it. — 00:04:46

00:04:52 — Build it: the customer-first approach, people with money, their problems, the dog-walking app and Boris's email

★★ Students often come up with great business ideas and try to build them without first checking that people will pay for them, Ali says. — 00:05:26
★★★ The first step in starting a business, Ali says, is to work out whom you will sell to, ideally within your own zone of influence; taking a medical student as his example, that means the people around them, their parents, hospital and university contacts and local businesses. — 00:05:51
★★ Target customers who have money, Ali advises: a student's friends have little money, but their parents do, and so does the college or university. — 00:06:26
★★ To brainstorm the problems of the people you want to serve, Ali says, ask them what annoys them, what they already pay for, and what they pay for that does not seem very good. — 00:06:55
★ Uber started, Ali says, because someone complained how annoying it was to hail a cab or ring the taxi company. — 00:06:55
★★ Noah Kagan (quoted): In Noah Kagan's founder-first example of a dog-walking app, the founder thinks up names, pays for a logo, sets up an LLC, watches videos, considers a bootcamp, buys a domain, prices an Upwork developer, and gives up. — 00:07:35 · Noah Kagan
★★ Noah Kagan (quoted): In Noah Kagan's customer-first version, you ask three dog owners to pay you to walk their dogs, learn that their real problem is finding dog sitters when travelling, and take a deposit for their next trip. — 00:07:58 · Noah Kagan
★★★ Ask for the first sale, Ali says: the first dollar and the first three customers are the hardest, and getting three paying customers before building anything shows the idea has legs. — 00:08:52
★★ Ali holds up the email of Noah Kagan's friend Boris, who tested a personal-chef meal idea by asking close friends to pay $20 by PayPal for a home-cooked dinner on 9 February, as how to validate a business idea. — 00:09:20 · Noah Kagan

00:09:44 — Ask for money, look to your own problems, sell the course and then build it

★★★ People will politely say yes to a business idea, Ali says, so ask them for money instead, such as a pre-order or a first purchase at 50% off with a money-back guarantee: no one parts with money unless they believe in the idea. — 00:09:44
★★ Another source of business ideas is your own problems; Ali fully agrees with Noah Kagan's four prompts: what irritated you this morning, what has sat on your to-do list for over a week, what you regularly fail to do well, and what you wanted to buy but no one made. — 00:10:11 · Noah Kagan
★★ An aspiring entrepreneur should become a magnet for problems, Ali says: notice whenever something is annoying, since a problem with a solution is a business if people will pay for the solution. — 00:10:44

“You should sort of become a magnet for problems.”
★★ At medical school Ali noticed problems such as having to fill out lecture feedback forms, and because he knew how to code and make websites and apps, he defaulted to trying to build the solution. — 00:11:12
★★ Ali says he wasted years chasing business ideas he built without finding customers; had someone told him at 13 that he could just ask people for money, he would have saved seven years. — 00:11:45
★★★ These days, Ali says, the way to start a business is to get people to pay for the thing before you make it. — 00:11:45

“you try and get people to pay for the thing before you make the thing.”
★★★ To people with an audience who want to make an online course, Ali says to resist building it first: sell the course and then build it, rather than spending one to three months creating it. — 00:12:10
★★ To pre-sell a course, Ali suggests a landing page made in a Google Doc in about half a day, sent to your audience with a release next month (March 2024), 50% off and money back if they don't like it. — 00:12:10 · landing page, Google

00:13:25 — Talk to customers; read the book; the Deep Dive interview with Noah Kagan

★★ At the talks Ali gives around the world, about half the audience are aspiring entrepreneurs stuck needing a good business idea or building an MVP first, which he calls a total waste of time. — 00:13:25
★★★ Second-time founders spend most of their time talking to customers, Ali says; the more you talk to customers and try to pre-sell what you have not built, the more likely you are to succeed. — 00:13:25

In the description and comments

★★ Ali Abdaal (channel): Asked by a viewer building a guide for an audience, the channel says not just to ask people whether they would pay but to actually ask them to pay, through 50% off or a pre-order, as the true test of demand. — creator comment
★★ Ali Abdaal (channel): You do not need an audience of 50,000 to pre-sell something, the channel says: you probably have 200 or more people across Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, friends and family whom you could ask. — creator comment · Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn
★ Ali Abdaal (channel): Asked whether a creator needs the author's permission to make a video sharing lessons from a book, the channel says no. — creator comment

Threads in this video

refine · How do you learn how to start and run a business? — Ali calls Noah Kagan's Million Dollar Weekend a fantastic book for aspiring entrepreneurs: anyone who has wanted to start a business and has not yet done it needs to read its play-by-play roadmap. (00:00:00)
refine · How do you find a business idea? — Following Noah Kagan's Million Dollar Weekend, Ali calls "I need the right idea" a myth that holds aspiring entrepreneurs back: you start a business by deciding to start one, then find a process to come up with the idea. (00:00:29)
restate · How do you find a business idea? — The hundreds of entrepreneurs Ali has interviewed all describe a customer-first approach: start not with an idea but with the people you would like to serve, because a business solves a problem for someone willing to pay for it. (00:04:46)
restate · Should you plan things out first or just start? — The core message of the first chapter of Million Dollar Weekend, Ali says, is to begin before you are ready: no one feels ready to start a business, just as no one feels ready to have kids, and the timing is never quite right. (00:01:14)
refine · Should you plan things out first or just start? — Noah Kagan's motto "now, not how" has stuck with Ali since he read the book: instead of being held back by how to do something, ask what is the smallest action you can take right now. (00:01:43)
refine · Who should a first business sell to? — The first step in starting a business, Ali says, is to work out whom you will sell to, ideally within your own zone of influence; taking a medical student as his example, that means the people around them, their parents, hospital and university contacts and local businesses. (00:05:51)
restate · Who should a first business sell to? — Target customers who have money, Ali advises: a student's friends have little money, but their parents do, and so does the college or university. (00:06:26)
refine · How do you test a business idea before building it? — These days, Ali says, the way to start a business is to get people to pay for the thing before you make it. (00:11:45)
restate · How do you test a business idea before building it? — Second-time founders spend most of their time talking to customers, Ali says; the more you talk to customers and try to pre-sell what you have not built, the more likely you are to succeed. (00:13:25)
refine · Should you build a business on online courses? — To people with an audience who want to make an online course, Ali says to resist building it first: sell the course and then build it, rather than spending one to three months creating it. (00:12:10)
restate · How do you test a business idea before building it? — Asked by a viewer building a guide for an audience, the channel says not just to ask people whether they would pay but to actually ask them to pay, through 50% off or a pre-order, as the true test of demand. (creator comment)

Mentioned

Central: customer-first approach · Million Dollar Weekend · Noah Kagan

Also: Projects: Book Club · Deep Dive · Part-Time YouTuber Academy

Organizations: Google · PayPal · Trading 212 · Uber · Upwork

Concepts: landing page · minimum viable product · money-back guarantee

Only in the description or credits: Facebook · Instagram · LinkedIn

Also centred on Million Dollar Weekend: 19 Books to Transform Your 2026 · My honest advice to someone who wants passive income

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