Build a business with $0 startup costs
Estimated Reading Time: About 3 minutes
Today we’re going to revisit an idea from a few months ago when we interviewed John Linford.
It’s been a while since we have fleshed out a really solid business idea, so instead of Tuesday Terms we are going to have a look at ghostreading.
We like this idea because it has $0 in startup costs, and can scale easily through referrals and repeat business.
Ghostreading vs. Ghostwriting
Ghostwriting has been around for a very long time. Like 500 B.C. long time. Scribes have been writing speeches and books on behalf of world leaders and celebrities for thousands of years.
Today ghostwriting is often done for tweets, newsletters, and even full books.
Prince Harry’s book was written by popular ghostwriter J.R. Moehringer, who also wrote popular memoirs like Shoe Dog.
Ghostreading on the other hand seems to be a newer trend.
It’s very similar to ghostwriting, but instead of someone else doing the writing for you they read for you.
Now you may say, “what about Spark Notes or the other book summaries that I used to cheat on my book reports in high school?”
There are endless options out there for book reviews and summaries that may condense general information down to a useful format. But the money is in a more specialized form of ghostreading.
A good ghostwriter can make the average reader believe that the book is written by the person they are representing. They spend hours getting to know their personality, unique knowledge, and other quirks to make the book or shorter writing seem more authentic.
Ghostreading is the same way. By getting to know your clients as much as possible you can provide unique insights and interpretations that general summaries can’t.
Think about executives at a large company. The director of marketing is going to read Atomic Habits and learn completely different things than the director of customer service.
Finding clients
The toughest part about this business will be finding clients. You’ll need to look at it and think “Where does my target client spend their time?”
Consider specializing in a very specific niche that has a lot of literature in that category. For example, sales. There are hundreds of thousands of books on being a good salesperson. Salespeople are very outspoken and active on social media because they are always looking for new clients.
Start by posting regular content on one social media platform. Start with something more professional and text based like LinkedIn, Twitter, or Reddit. Post book reviews and insightful takeaways for free. The name of the game is giving away free value. After you’ve built a sizeable following offer your services in specific packages.
Once you have a few clients set up a referral program. Offer benefits and rewards for bringing you new customers. People are always willing to refer their friends and coworkers when there is a great product.
Building a service based business is essential to the learning curve of becoming a successful entrepreneur. As you build your skills in this area you’ll be able to move on to more complicated products. Remember the lesson we learned in the ladders of wealth creation a few weeks ago.
If you decide to start a ghostreading business let us know. We’d love to promote your venture and follow along as the business grows!
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