Three Ways to Make Money From One Idea
In the first post of this series, I wrote about the weekly report our real estate agent never sent us while our house was on the market. That report would show sellers how many people have seen the house, what buyers said after each showing and how many views the listing got on Zillow and Realtor.com.
Once you have an idea like that, there are three different ways to make money from it. You can teach people to build it, you can build it for them or you can sell them the tool itself. I’m going to walk through all three using the seller report as the example, because the same three ways work for every idea on the 101 niches list and the corporate niches list.
Way one: teach it
With this one, you show people how to build the thing themselves. For the seller report, that could be a short course or a live workshop where real estate agents learn to set up their own weekly report in Claude.
This fits when your buyers like doing things themselves and when there are a lot of them. You build the course or workshop once and sell it over and over, so the work doesn’t grow every time someone buys.
The trade-off is that your buyers still have to do the work. Some of them will set it up right away and some never will, so teaching usually sells at a lower price than doing it for them.
What you could sell
- A self-paced course on setting up the report
- A live workshop where agents build it together
- A template or Claude skill with a short video showing how to use it
Way two: build it for them
With this one, you do the setup. You connect the seller report to the agent’s listings and email, test it and hand it over ready to go, and you charge a one-time setup fee.
This fits when your buyers are busy and would rather pay someone than learn it. Real estate agents are a good example, because most of them would rather spend their time with clients than figuring out AI.
The trade-off is your time. Every new client means another setup, so you can only take on so many at once. It pays more per client than teaching, though, and it’s the fastest way to learn what buyers want.
What you could sell
- A one-time setup of the weekly report
- A setup plus a short training call so they know how to use it
- A team setup for a whole real estate office
Way three: sell the tool
With this one, the tool runs for them and they pay every month. For the seller report, you’d send each agent’s sellers their report every week, and the agent never has to touch it.
This fits when the thing needs to happen over and over, like a weekly report, a monthly summary or reminders that go out on a schedule. Money comes in every month, and an agent who likes it is likely to tell other agents in their office.
The trade-off is that you have to keep it running. You’ll answer support questions and fix things when something breaks, and you’ll need to keep customers happy so they don’t cancel.
A monthly tool doesn’t have to be an app. It can start out as a report you run for each client with Claude every week, and you can build an app later if it takes off.
What you could sell
- A monthly subscription for the weekly seller report
- A monthly plan that adds a buyer report or a closing timeline
- An office plan that covers every agent in a brokerage
The same three ways work for corporate ideas
If you’re coming from the corporate world, here’s how the three ways look for an assistant that answers employee questions from the company handbook.
- Teach it. Run a workshop where HR teams learn to set up their own handbook assistant.
- Build it for them. Set up the assistant for one company, load their handbook and train the HR team to keep it updated.
- Sell the tool. Charge a monthly fee to keep the assistant running and update it every time the handbook changes.
Corporate buyers are used to paying for setups and workshops, and they often pay for a whole team at once. That’s why the build-it-for-them and workshop options tend to work well with companies.
You can do more than one
You can do all three, and a lot of people start with one and add the others over time.
Start by building it for a few clients
Set up the seller report for three or four agents. You’ll learn what they want in the report, what they’ll pay and what questions they ask.
Turn it into a monthly tool
Once you know what works, offer to run the report for them every week for a monthly fee.
Teach it to the people who want to do it themselves
Some buyers will always want to build it on their own. A course or workshop gives them a way to buy from you too.
How to pick where to start
Ask yourself three questions about your idea.
- How much time do I have? If you have very little, teaching it or a simple monthly tool takes less of your time once it’s built.
- Do my buyers want to do it themselves? If they do, teach it. If they don’t, build it for them or sell the tool.
- Does it need to happen every week or every month? If it does, a monthly tool is a good fit.
The Pivot Idea Finder gives you three ideas, scored, and for each one it tells you what you’d sell, a rough price to test and how hard it is to build. Get it free here.
If you want help picking the right way to sell your idea and testing it, that’s what we work on together inside the Creator’s MBA AI Mastermind. You can take the quick quiz to see if it’s a good fit for you.
Find three ideas you could sell
Answer a few questions and get three ideas, scored, with a first test for the top one.
Get the Pivot Idea Finder →Frequently asked.
What are the ways to make money from an AI tool idea?
You can teach people to build it themselves, build it for them as a done-for-you service or sell it as a tool they pay for every month. A lot of people end up doing more than one.
Should I sell a course or a done-for-you service?
If your buyers like doing things themselves and you have a lot of them, a course or workshop fits. If your buyers are busy and want it handled, a done-for-you setup fits better and pays more per client.
Is a monthly subscription better than a one-time sale?
A monthly tool brings in money every month, but you have to keep it running and answer support questions. A one-time sale is simpler to deliver, but you have to keep finding new buyers.
Which way should I start with?
Most people find it easiest to start by building it for a few clients. You learn what buyers want, and then you can turn it into a monthly tool or a course.
Do I need to build an app to sell a monthly tool?
No. A monthly tool can be a report you run for clients every week with Claude, or a setup that runs on tools they already use. You can build an app later if the idea takes off.
Dr. Destini Copp helps digital product creators build sustainable, systems-based businesses through the Creator Growth Flywheel framework. She’s the founder of Creator’s MBA and HobbyScool, and has been teaching online business strategy for over a decade. Learn more →
