Make Money While You Sleep with a 'Muse' Business

A money-making opportunity that's inexpensive to
set up and yet generates passive income while you
kite-board, eat a bowl of cereal or watch TV?
It sounds too good to be true, but it is one of the
most talked about elements of Tim Ferriss's book,
The Four Hour Workweek. Read our interview with
Tim here.
But how do "muse" businesses actually work? We
reached out to a successful entrepreneur to find
out more.
What is a "muse" business?
Jesse Phillips, a co-founder of the calendar
company NeuYear, explains a "muse" business as
such: "an automated business that gives you your
target monthly income number, so you can do what
you want." Phillips was very inspired by Ferriss's
book in starting a company to deliver well-
designed calendars to help people track and
achieve their goals over the course of a year.
"We started NeuYear to help people achieve their
dreams," he explained. "One of the best ways to
focus your effort toward achieving your dreams is
to plan and pursue goals. This doesn't have to be a
crazy big or detailed thing, it's as simple as
thinking about the steps to achieve something, and
making deadlines for each step." In crafting a
large, design-focused calendar, he and his cohorts
aimed to make that process as simple as possible.
He further explains: "A muse is not sexy. A muse is
not about pursuing your passion.
A muse is about finding a niche where you can
make money. Easily. With as little work as possible.
The emphasis is on good margin, low effort, which
will typically not be sexy/interesting/fulfilling your
passions."
How do you successfully create a "muse" business?
After successfully creating a profitable business
that was recently featured on the design site
Fab.com, here are Jesse's tips on mastering the
"muse" business:
1. Create something that people actually want, not just
something you want.
If you have a good idea and only 100 people in the
world want it, you're not going to make money
selling it to them (unless they pay $100,000 for it --
but that's not a "muse" business). This means you
have to do lots of research to find an opportunity
in the market.
A trick to this is finding what people are spending
money on. There have been an awful lot of
successful projects on Kickstarter related to coffee.
Solid coffee ideas will get way overfunded on that
platform. Perhaps you can come-up with a coffee
idea? Also iPhone accessories have been well
funded. Do you have an idea for an iPhone
accessory that will solve a real problem?
More on research
2. Test before launching!
Too many people quit their job and start a
restaurant! They struggle for 3 years and then go
bankrupt. You HAVE to create a prototype, test
with real users, and see if people will really buy
your product, before you invest a ton of money
and time.
This is why I love Kickstarter - it helps you to see if
people out there are willing to buy your product.
But you can do it easier than that, just go survey
people. Find people that buy similar products and
ask them if they'd buy yours. Put-up an easy web
page with LaunchRock or something and see how
many sign-up. This is not easy to do. The hardest
part is being honest with yourself.
3. Be willing to pivot!
No one knows the future. It's impossible to create
the perfect product that meets customer needs
perfectly without testing. Therefore, once you
launch and realize some other aspect is more
desired by the customer, you need to be willing to
shift. It's arrogant and foolish to try to force your
will on the market, you have to shift with your
growing knowledge of your market.
More on market research
4. START!
Too many people (myself included), have a great
idea, but never do anything about it. Make goals,
start working toward them, figure-out your
minimum viable product and get going. Don't try
to invent the next iPad, either! Start with
something small and simple, yet with good margins
and an existing market (this is not easy to find, but
it's out there).
5. Design is important.
A lot of entrepreneurs skimp on design when they
are starting out. I ran into the founder of About.me
at SXSW one year and he said: "Design is not the
most important thing. It's the *only* thing." This is
so. freaking. true. We are humans. We judge books
by their cover. We can't help it, it's how our brains
work. Therefore, make your design awesome. (sleek
& modern & minimal is usually easy to do, takes
less time and looks great!) Design is a huge asset .