digest
Short Summary
Main recommendation: Dan Martell ranks real estate and software as no-brainer top-tier, AI automation and coaching/courses as worth-it, with paid ads agency and others in lower tiers, while calling NFTs and crypto projects and network marketing scams and drop shipping among the weakest choices. He scores each business on speed to first dollar, ease of learning, long-term profitability, and whether a buyer would want it later. He also emphasizes "meta skills" like copywriting, paid ads, and AI that carry forward even if a business fails.
Key Points
- Tiering is based on four criteria: how quickly you can earn your first dollar, how hard the business is to learn, how profitable it is long term, and whether someone would buy it in the future.
- AI automation is called the fastest-search, easy-to-learn, and currently very profitable option, though he warns AI may eventually outpace individual operators.
- Paid ads agencies are described as quick to start and very profitable, but he is concerned that Meta and other platforms may automate ad buying, reducing long-term relevance.
- Coaching and online courses are fast and easy to launch, with software and information products cited as highly profitable because they carry very high margins (he says around 97%), though he notes courses aren't very sellable long term.
- Virtual assistant agencies and web design agencies are flagged as hard to sell and likely to be overtaken by AI.
- Franchising is criticized because owning one without controlling product development makes you more of a reseller than a business owner.
Details Worth Noting
- Concrete instructions: Evaluate any business model by asking four questions: Can I get revenue quickly? Can I learn it quickly? Will I learn a lot and build transferable skills? Am I building an asset someone else would buy, rather than a job that requires me to show up?
- Concrete instructions: Prioritize meta skills such as copywriting, paid ads, and AI, since they stack into future ventures even if the first business fails.
- Concrete instructions: If pursuing a service business, the speaker suggests building a productized service with recurring revenue or contracts to make it sellable.
- Concrete instructions: Vending machines are suggested as a worthwhile option if placed in the right location, since they could be sold, similar to real estate.
- Concrete instructions: Avoid business models where the way to earn is recruiting others into the next opportunity, which he identifies as a common network marketing scam pattern.
- The speaker says most millionaires or the majority of wealth created in the US came from real estate, citing monthly cash flow, tax advantages, asset appreciation, and leverage.
- He notes ghostwriting is not a scam and that about 70% of New York Times bestselling books were reportedly written with a ghostwriter.
- He reports that many NFT projects were scams, with more than 500 of a thousand projects described as pure money grabs.
Bottom Line
Choose a business that builds transferable skills and can become an asset others would buy, rather than one that only pays you for your time.
