Start scrappy, build smart

The myth of instant income

If you’re launching your digital business with more hustle than capital, you already have everything you need. Here’s how three successful business owners approached their journey by starting with what they could directly offer their customers.

Why services work:

• Immediate revenue and validation
• Low startup costs and minimal tech
• Fast feedback loops that sharpen your offer
• Deep trust and credibility with early adopters

Three entrepreneurs make a strong case that the smartest path for digital entrepreneurs is a simple one. Start by offering services, use that experience to validate and build trust, then productize your expertise and finally scale sustainably through subscriptions.

Using services to build trust

Let’s look at how one entrepreneur built deep trust by starting small. When Julia Topaz launched Look Up The Stars Astrology, she didn’t start with a course, an ebook or a fancy funnel. She offered personalized readings. “It directly aligned with my strengths,” she says, “and allowed me to focus immediately on connecting deeply with my audience.” Services let her build an engaged community, generate revenue fast and refine her niche. All without needing major upfront investment.

The catch? Services don’t scale. Eventually, you run out of energy and bookings on your calendar. That’s when savvy entrepreneurs pivot into digital products.

For Topaz, the model worked incredibly well at first because personal readings created immediate value, built trust and created a loyal community. However, she eventually faced a ceiling on the amount of income she could generate and the amount of time she could devote. “There were only so many clients I could serve one-on-one without burning out,” says Topaz.

Once she acknowledged this limit to her services offering, she expanded into digital products, creating detailed astrology courses and an astrology book. “This allowed me to reach more people while leveraging the expertise I'd developed through years of personal readings.” Digital products provided Topaz with passive income, scaling her impact without significantly increasing her workload.

But passive income isn’t quite passive. Digital products don’t sell themselves and even the best products gather dust without marketing systems in place.

The solution is to leverage the relationships and trust you’ve built by developing digital marketing campaigns that showcase your success with individual clients. Keep it budget-friendly with word-of-mouth campaigns that activate your existing networks, or build new audiences with influencer campaigns. The key is to build on the goodwill you’ve developed with outstanding services.

Using services to collect and leverage client insights

Like Topaz, Murray Seaton also began with direct client services, but with a different twist on product development. As a health and fitness entrepreneur, Seaton founded Hypervibe without a product, platform or fancy funnel, “What I did have was a niche skill set and a deep curiosity about a specific problem space. I began by offering 1:1 consulting and custom performance protocols in the wellness and tech space,” says Seaton. Like Topaz, his services weren’t scalable, but they generated a profit.

He goes on to explain the deep impact working with clients had on his business and their direction, “It gave me a front-row seat to the real pain points my future customers had.” Services allow you to collect data straight from the source

Starting with a service-based model allowed Seaton to validate product-market fit without writing a single line of code. Each client interaction doubled as real-time research and development, offering deep insights that later shaped his digital products. This approach also gave him the confidence to self-fund the next stage of business growth without relying on external capital.

The only problem was, he quickly hit a ceiling. Not only was he managing clients while trying to build scalable assets he was also parenting four kids across multiple time zones. That was his catalyst for shifting into digital products, and then he built a subscription model to create long-term value and a more predictable source of revenue. His advice? “Start with services if you want speed, clarity and trust. Once you've mapped what works, productize the value, then wrap it in a subscription for long-term scale. Each model has its place—you just have to know which one fits your current stage.”

Scaling from services to subscriptions

For many digital entrepreneurs, subscriptions are an ideal model. They offer predictable and recurring revenue, community-building and the foundations for long-term scale. But timing is everything.

Livia Oboroceanu, founder of Acadova, understands the network effect of a subscription service. Her mission is to reimagine education, so she created Acadova to foster a more inclusive and personalized learning experience. Acadova uses AI to adapt to different learning styles, helping students manage time, retain information and address gaps early in their education.

Education has always been a central part of Livia’s life. Her mother is a teacher and her first degree was in pedagogy, giving her insight into the classroom experience from all sides. But the inspiration for Acadova came from a far more personal place. "As someone with ADHD," she explains, "I’ve spent years trying to navigate an education system that was never designed for people like me."

Frustrated by the rigid, one-size-fits-all model, Livia set out to build a platform that recognizes how different brains work, using AI to adapt to individual learning styles, improve time management and prevent students from falling behind. Her vision for Acadova is deeply personal, shaped not just by her own experiences, but also by the desire to create a better path for others.

“People don’t subscribe to products,” she says. “They subscribe to trust.”

To build that trust, she followed the same road map as other entrepreneurs, trying out various models and learning lessons from each.

Oboroceanu’s path to building Acadova mirrors the evolution many entrepreneurs experience when refining their business models. “Services were the quickest way to get started,” she explains. By offering coaching and consulting, she was able to generate revenue quickly, gain deep insight into her audience and build critical confidence. Yet the model had limits: “I was working non-stop, and when I wasn't working, income stopped too.” Seeking more scalability, she shifted toward digital products, packaging her expertise into downloadable resources. “Creating the product wasn't the hard part,” she notes. “Getting eyes on it was.”

Today ,Oboroceanu is steering Acadova toward a subscription model, a move she sees as essential for cultivating lasting relationships and stable, predictable revenue. But she’s clear about the risks of jumping too soon: “I wouldn't recommend starting with it unless you've already validated your audience and proven your value,” she cautions. “People don’t subscribe to products; they subscribe to trust.” Her journey reflects the foundational truth behind any successful subscription service: trust isn’t built overnight — it’s earned through service, understanding and real-world validation.

“If you're just starting, my advice is simple: Start with services. Learn as you earn. Then turn that into a product. And once people trust you, go subscription.”

Final thought: start where you are

If you’re just getting started, or pivoting into a new direction, here’s a simple roadmap you can adapt for your journey:

• Start with high-value services. Focus on your zone of genius. Deliver personalized results. Build cash flow fast.
• Use client feedback as research. Every conversation reveals what your audience truly needs.
• Productize your insights. Create digital tools, templates, or courses based on proven demand.
• Scale gradually into group programs or subscriptions. These models reward trust. Don’t rush them.

So start with what you have. Offer your expertise in service of others. Learn, refine and scale wisely. Because in digital entrepreneurship, every scalable empire begins with one person saying, “I can help.”