I’ve read dozens of business books. I’ve sat through webinars, courses, and coaching calls, all promising to simplify the process of building an online business.
None of them taught me as much in fifteen minutes as a kid selling curb-painting for ten dollars.
I wasn’t expecting a business lesson when I answered the door one recent Saturday.
The Doorbell Rang
Kennley, the daughter of some friends of ours, had just finished mowing our lawn. Her mom, Karynn, had come to pick her up. I was talking with Kennley and her mom when the doorbell rang. Karynn answered the door for me. She told me a boy was at the door. I told her to bring him in.
In walked a scrawny little kid who couldn’t have been much more than 12 years old, maybe 13 at the outside. He probably didn’t weigh 90 pounds soaking wet.
His name was Bobby, and he had come to sell me something. He wanted to paint our house number on the curb. I asked him how much he wanted for the job.
“Ten dollars,” was his reply. As I talked with Bobby, I quickly discovered that this kid was a superb salesman. In fact, he was better than a lot of adult door-to-door salespeople I’ve encountered. And he was about to give me a few lessons about building a business.
“How Long Will the Paint Last?”
Before I agreed to anything, I had a question for Bobby. I asked him, “How long will the paint last?” He didn’t hesitate. He said, “Well, I don’t know. All paint will wear off eventually.” What could I say to that? He was absolutely right.
What struck me wasn’t just his answer. It was the way he answered. Bobby didn’t make up something because he thought that’s what a potential customer wanted to hear. He didn’t promise me the paint would last five years, ten years, or forever. He didn’t know, so he said he didn’t know.
But he also knew enough to point out the obvious: paint doesn’t last forever.
There’s a good business lesson in that exchange. You don’t have to have an answer to every question a potential customer asks. And you certainly don’t have to invent one.
Sometimes, “I don’t know” is a perfectly good answer.
Especially when it’s the truth.
Then Sharon Asked the Important Question
I then asked my wife, Sharon, to come in to meet Bobby. She asked him a question that took our conversation in a different direction.
She asked, “What do you want to do with the money you’re making?”
“I want to buy a 3D printer,” he said.
Sharon asked, “How much do they cost?”
Bobby answered immediately. “The one I want costs about $400.”
There was no hesitation. Bobby knew exactly what he wanted, and he knew how much it would cost. That impressed me. Bobby wasn’t knocking on doors because he had some vague idea that it would be nice to make a little money. He had a specific reason for doing it.
He wanted that 3D printer. In other words, Bobby knew his why.
That’s something those of us building an online business can easily lose sight of. “I want to make money online” tells you what you want to do. It doesn’t tell you why you’re doing it and it’s not specific.
Bobby could answer both questions.
He was painting house numbers for $10 because he wanted to buy a $400 3D printer.
Bobby Had a Mission
The more I thought about Bobby’s answer, the more important it seemed.
He didn’t just know that he wanted a 3D printer. He knew the one he wanted would cost about $400. At $10 per curb, that’s a pretty substantial goal for a 12-year-old.
But Bobby never stuttered. He never hesitated. He never sounded unsure of himself. That boy had a mission.
I don’t know what Bobby plans to make with his 3D printer. That really doesn’t matter. What matters is that he knows what he’s working toward. There’s a big difference between saying, “I want to make some money” and saying, “I’m earning money so I can buy this $400 3D printer.”
The same applies to building an online business. “Making money online” isn’t much of a destination. What do you want that income to do for you? Replace part of a paycheck? Give you more control over your time? Build an income stream that belongs to you?
Bobby’s answer was a 3D printer.
What’s yours?
He Had Something Specific to Sell
Bobby also knew exactly what he was selling.
He wasn’t offering a long list of services or asking me what kind of work I might have for him. His offer was simple: for $10, he’d paint our house number on the curb.
I understood the offer immediately. I knew what it cost. I knew what I would get. That kind of clarity is something we can easily lose when we’re building an online business.
We can spend hours thinking about websites, products, email lists, social media, funnels, and all the other pieces that might eventually become part of the business. But none of those things answers the most basic question:
What Are You Selling?
Bobby had an answer.
For $10, he’d paint my house number on the curb.
Simple.
And, as I was about to find out, he could deliver exactly what he sold.
The Result Is Right Outside My House
When Bobby finished, our house number, 4870, was painted on the curb.
That’s the result I bought for $10.
I took pictures of the 4870 on the side of our house and another of Bobby’s work on the curb. Those two pictures tell the story well.
Bobby offered me a specific result. I agreed to pay for it. He did the work. I got what I paid for, and Bobby moved $10 closer to his $400 3D printer.
That’s business stripped down to its basics.
It doesn’t require complicated terminology to understand what happened.
Bobby had something to sell.
I bought it.
He delivered it.
And both of us walked away with something we wanted. And to tell the truth, I didn’t pay Bobby $10.00. I paid him $15.00! Yup! He was that good!
He Went Looking for Customers
Bobby didn’t wait for someone to come looking for a kid who painted house numbers. He went door to door. He knocked on our door, told me what he was selling, gave me the price, and answered my questions. I’m sure he did the same thing at other houses in the neighborhood.
That’s about as direct as connecting with potential customers gets.
Obviously, I’m not suggesting that you should grab a wagon and start knocking on doors. But we do have to put what we create in front of people. That’s where a lot of us get stuck.
We can work on a website. Write blog posts. Create products. Set up an email list. Tinker with another piece of the business.
At some point, though, we must connect what we’ve created with people who might actually want it.
Bobby understood that.
He had a $10 service to sell, so he went out and found people to sell it to.
What Bobby Reminded Me About Building an Online Business
The more I thought about my conversation with Bobby, the more I realized how many basic business principles he had packed into one Saturday afternoon.
He knew what he was working toward. He had something specific to sell. He knew what he charged.
When I asked him a question he couldn’t answer, he didn’t make up something. He went looking for customers. And, when someone bought, he delivered what he promised.
I’ve written recently about Clarity → Create → Connect as the framework I’m following while I build my online business. Bobby certainly didn’t show up at my door talking about a business framework, but that’s exactly what I saw him doing.
He had clarity. He knew what he wanted and what he was selling.
He created a simple service he could deliver.
Then he connected that service with potential customers by knocking on their doors and making the offer. No complicated business plan. No elaborate system. He just did it. Maybe that’s what impressed me most about Bobby.
Maybe We Make Business Too Complicated
I keep coming back to how simple Bobby’s business was.
He wanted a $400 3D printer. He had a service he could sell for $10. So, he went looking for people willing to pay him $10 to perform that service.
Those of us building online businesses can make things a lot more complicated.
We can spend enormous amounts of time choosing tools, working on websites, studying marketing, setting up funnels, trying different platforms, and looking for the next thing we’re supposed to do.
Some of those things have a place. But they’re not the business.
The business starts with something much simpler: knowing what you’re trying to accomplish, creating something people will pay for, and connecting with people who might buy it.
Bobby didn’t have decades of business experience. He didn’t have sophisticated technology or a complicated marketing strategy.
He had a $10 offer and a $400 goal.
Then he started knocking on doors.
What’s Your 3D Printer?
Bobby’s goal was to buy a 3D printer. Your goal is probably something else. I’ve written before about creating your “why.”
Maybe you want to replace some of the income from a job you lost. Maybe retirement doesn’t look quite the way you expected. Maybe you want more control over your income instead of leaving all of it in someone else’s hands.
Whatever your reason, “I want to make money online” isn’t enough.
Bobby reminded me of that. He knew what he wanted. He knew what it cost. And he figured out one way to start earning the money right away to get there.
For Bobby, that meant painting house numbers on curbs for $10.
Your path will look different. Mine does too. But the question Bobby’s example left me with applies to all of us:
What Are You Actually Trying to Make Possible by Building an Online Business?
Get clear about that first. Then create something worth buying and connect it with people who might buy it. That’s the path I’m following as I build my own online business: Clarity → Create → Connect.
And a 12-year-old who knocked on my door reminded me just how simple those fundamentals can be.
If you want tools to help you stay consistent while you build, take a look at the Rock Solid Fire Your Boss Bundle. Inside you’ll find tools designed to help you stay organized, focused, and moving toward the kind of freedom many people start exploring online business to find — more control over your time, your income, and where you live. You can learn more about it here: rickloves.me/RSFB
I’m online entrepreneur Richard Rawlings “Rick” Smith. If you want to build an online business that gives you more control over your time, your income, and where you live, you don’t have to do it alone. I’m building an online business step by step, and you’re welcome to join me as you build your own online business.