5. Consulting and Online Learning

I used to often wonder: why is consulting, which costs more for an hour than an online class, still such a good business?

Later I came to understand that the two have different starting points and purposes, so they can’t be directly compared. Especially as I gradually broke away from my old way of thinking and learned to see the world from a broader perspective, I came to realize that the detours a good consultation can save you from are beyond imagination.

For example, when we learn a musical instrument, we go straight to a teacher; when we start working out, we first look for a coach; when exploring a new field, we directly ask someone in that industry for advice. Even though it costs more, in the long run it can actually save us from taking many unnecessary detours.

In many cases, your problem really can be solved by tutorials on the internet or by ChatGPT, and I also recommend looking online or asking ChatGPT before seeking a consultation. However, there is one thing that is very hard to find on the internet—experience and insight.

When you’ve spent decades in an industry and handled enough cases, you have an advantage over others: you possess both a macro perspective and concrete, detailed ways of doing things.

Take setting up servers as an example. There are so many service providers on the market, and AWS and GCP offer countless services. How exactly should you choose? If you want to get a service online at the lowest possible cost, what kind of setup is best? What are the pros and cons of managed services? Is SSH login supported? How are backups handled?

On the internet, articles and tutorials usually only compare prices and specifications. But specific configurations, development, and so on require accumulated experience before you can distill your own viewpoint. Choosing only the cheapest option may leave you at a disadvantage elsewhere, or you may end up wasting money on features you barely use. Before your product has even started making money, you may already be burning cash.

Charging for your own experience is completely meaningful, and even more valuable than ordinary online courses. A lot of resources in online courses can be found on the internet anyway; what’s hard to find are the kinds of experience mentioned above, which only come from spending a long time in the industry.

From another angle, you can also fragment the content of online courses and explain more narrowly defined areas, such as: how to apply for Stripe from start to finish, how to choose your website-building tool, how to start your e-commerce business (further broken down by product category). These courses may have a smaller audience, but for that audience, the need is urgent, and they can provide even more value.

I also really like online courses. More than the knowledge itself, I want to see the teacher’s perspective, how they help students absorb knowledge, how they break down concepts, and one part I think is very important—the community.

Finally, if you’d also like a consultation, you can refer to here. If there’s anything I can help you with, feel free to chat! I’ve done my best to write down my experience clearly so that you can have plenty of information to refer to before the consultation. If you really need it, then consult me.