How to make a living from your ideas

Hiya! I'm Lucy Werner and amongst the many hats I wear I'm mostly these days an author, newsletter creator, PR educator and cofounder of three children.

This is the DIY version of the workshop How to make a living from your ideas I ran at Happy Startups Summer Camp. You can do it alone, but it's even better with a few other people.

There are more ways to make money from what you know than doing the obvious thing you've always done.

If you were there (hi 🌊 again), here's everything we did so you can come back to it.

If you weren't, I've put the zine and exercises below so you can do it yourself.

Zine workbook

You can print off my zine to work through the exercises below. Or remix it to make your own zine for your next workshop.

Exercises

Fine to do alone. Even better if you can share with another.

Fold your zine.

Write your name and draw yourself in the frame.
Go on. Give yourself a giggle.

Warm up: How do people make money?

Before we get into your ideas, let's see how many different ways we can think of that people make money.

Set a timer for two minutes and scribble down as many as you can.

Salary. Freelancing. Products. Subscriptions. Commission. Royalties. Teaching. Renting something out. Licensing. Events. Sponsorship...

Don't worry about whether you'd ever want to do them. The point is to remind ourselves that there isn't one way to make a living.

If you're doing this with other people: shout them out and see how long you can make the list.

Note it down on first page titled 'How could you make money?'

ROUND 1 — What have you already got?

Before thinking about what you could sell, take stock of what you already have.

Write down:

What do people already pay you for?

What do people always ask you for help with?

What are you unusually good at?

What have you done over and over again?

What do you know a lot about?

What have you already made?
Think frameworks, processes, templates, presentations, workshops, writing, research, resources, tools.

What else do you have access to?
An audience? A community? A physical space? Interesting people? A network? Specialist equipment? Local knowledge?

What do you enjoy doing enough that you'd happily do more of it?

Then:

Circle THREE things that feel particularly valuable or interesting.

Note it down on the 'What have you already got page'

ROUND 2 — How many ways could ONE thing make money?

Choose one piece of expertise / skill / asset from Round 1.

Now forget about whether the ideas are good. You're trying to see how many different forms the same thing could take.

Could you…

DO IT FOR THEM
A service, freelance work, consulting, done-for-you.

DO IT WITH THEM
Advisory, mentoring, coaching, strategy sessions, VIP days.

TEACH THEM
Workshop, class, course, training, speaking.

MAKE SOMETHING
Book, guide, template, toolkit, physical product, digital product.

BRING PEOPLE TOGETHER
Event, retreat, dinner, mastermind, community.

GIVE ACCESS
Membership, subscription, office hours, paid newsletter.

CURATE / RECOMMEND
Directory, guide, affiliate income, sponsorship, recommendations.

LICENSE IT
Your framework, methodology, content, IP, training or creative work.

BRAND COLLABORATE
Get sponsorship, affiliate link, partnership, limited edition

For the actual group exercise:

Each person chooses ONE thing.

Then everyone else gets two minutes to throw ideas at them.

The person whose turn it is writes everything down. No defending the idea. No explaining why it won't work yet.

Then rotate.

Note down your responses on the 'How many ways could one thing make money?'

ROUND 3 — What's stopping you?

By now, you should have a few different ways you could make money from the thing you chose in Round 2.

Pick the one you're most interested in. Not necessarily the most sensible or the one you think will make the most money. The one that made you think, ooh, I could actually do that.

Now we're going to try to talk you out of it.

What would make you not do this? What's blocking you?

Maybe it's:

• I don't have enough followers.
• Nobody will pay for this.
• Someone else already does it.
• I'm not enough of an expert.
• It's too niche.
• I don't have the time.
• I wouldn't know how to find customers.
• I can't charge that much.
• I don't know how to start.
• It feels a bit embarrassing to put it out there.

Write down the biggest thing that would stop you.

If you're doing this with other people: tell your group your idea and what's blocking you. Their job isn't to tell you you're wrong or convince you that your idea is brilliant. Ask them to help you find a way around the block.

Could you make it smaller? Do it differently? Find a partner? Charge differently? Sell it somewhere else? Test it before committing loads of time or money?

If you're doing this on your own: ask yourself the same thing. Is this an actual reason the idea can't work, or is it something you've decided will happen before you've tested it?

Note down all the things blocking you to face your worst fears on the 'What's stopping you?' page

ROUND 4 — Make it real

You've got an idea. You've worked out what's most likely to stop you doing it. Now let's turn it into something you could actually try.

Then complete:

MY IDEA:
What am I actually selling?

WHO IT'S FOR:
Who specifically might want this?

WHAT I'D CHARGE:
Put an actual number on it.

THE SMALLEST VERSION:
What's the least complicated version I could sell/test?

HOW I'LL FIND MY FIRST 1 / 5 / 10 BUYERS:
Not “marketing”. Actual people/places/routes.

WHAT I'LL DO NEXT:
What's the first action I need to take?

Note it down on the the double pages to give you a micro tweak to move forward with.

Meet us in the comments....

Did you end up somewhere you weren't expecting?

Tell me what you're thinking about trying. I'm nosy.