Yacht Problems - A Lesson In Legitimacy, Pain Points, and Making Money
You may have the world’s smallest violin for those who own yachts. But, you can benefit greatly by listening to them. No, not their “I got rich by hard work” BS. I am talking about their problems.
Yes, this is a big, maybe even yacht-sized, metaphor. So, let’s navigate these waters together.
We are focusing on yacht problems to put two things into perspective:
You are justified in the problems you face every day, no matter how big or small. If your blender stops working at home, you have every right to want that fixed as the broken blender on a yacht.
Yacht problems present a big opportunity - a way to make money. People with yachts have yacht money, and they will pay to have their problems fixed.
Perspective 1. You Have Yacht Problems Too
Every problem you have, they have but on a bigger scale. If your car doesn’t run, their yacht doesn’t run. If your floors get scratched, their floors get scratched. If you don’t have time to cook, they need to find a chef.
I am a fully capable human. I have done my own bookkeeping, home repairs, motorcycle maintenance, etc. However, I hire a bookkeeper because I want it done right and I don’t want to stress it. I hire construction contractors because I don’t know all the codes. I hire a mechanic for my car because it is a more complex machine and more detrimental to my life if it isn’t in working condition. My problems may not be the size of a yacht physically, but they are just as big metaphorically.
So, everyone throws a pity party. We have something we expected, but it isn’t working in our favor.
This brings us to the big perspective 2: Yacht-pportunity.
Perspective 2: How To Make Money With Yacht-pportunities
Selfishly, I wanted to test a new outreach method, but I also wanted to prove this isn’t BS. So, I contacted yacht brokers on LinkedIn to ask what their clients have the most problems with.
Maintenance and a good crew are very similar to your car or house troubles and finding good contractors.
Insurance and finding slips/docking can easily be a metaphor for car insurance and finding parking. However, what about taking this mentally into having security and having a home?
Based on research, I did expect to get the answer about managing charters/rentals. Yacht owners aren’t always on the boat. So, it ends up being a big money suck when not in use, so many rent it out. I didn’t get insight into that, but I know it is a big problem.
People have problems. If you can solve them, you have a service worth monetizing.
See, yacht problems can easily be scaled down to your life scenario and vice-versa. So, what issues do you have that you pay for? What is an adjacent one a yacht owner might face? How can you be paid to solve that problem?
You may get imposter syndrome because rich people seem more qualified. Some rich were born into it. Some are hyperfocused on their service (maybe they are investors), so you are the specialist they need for other aspects.
If you want to monetize, you need to solve a problem. Simple as that. People only have so much time and effort they are willing to spend, so you can 80/20 this. Their 20% effort of hiring you and following up to ensure you are working solves 80% of their problem.
Time = money. Their hourly is $1,000. Your hourly is $250. The ROI on hiring you for a service stress relief and income-related. Lean into that combination of pain points. Don’t worry about charging a higher price if you know they have more money. They make that money so they can afford to have their problems fixed.
Blue Ocean Strategies (I couldn’t resist)
If you struggle to find clients or what to offer, research problems. You have my permission to target high-ticket prospects even without current high-ticket clients. You are finding the exact issues that need to be fixed.
Search Google for “biggest problems (insert prospect here like yacht owners) face.” Read the articles, and become an expert on their pain points. You can even pivot this. For instance, I don’t care about actual yacht owners because I am not prospecting yacht owners since I don’t sell yacht services. However, I love yacht sales, yacht maintenance, and yacht docking companies for my marketing services. Find out yacht problems, find out those who solve those problems, and help the latter solve more of the former.
One tool I love for this is Closely. You can search LinkedIn for those in the market you want to reach, then put that search results into Closely. It will then automate outreach! For instance, I contacted yacht brokers for this article and asked for their expertise on what yacht owners have problems with. From here, I am building my audience of people who may want my services. However, I care about their expertise, so this article is as legitimate as possible.
If you want to explore more rich people's problems for fun or inspiration, these articles will kick you off:
https://whiteboardfinance.com/rich-people-problems/
https://www.buzzfeed.com/pernellquilon/wealthy-people-reveal-rich-people-problems