The Simplicity of Business: Product + Distribution

Written byAyush
3 min read
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The Simplicity of Business: Product + Distribution

I’ve built 7 different business over the last 3 years.

Failed at most, succeeded at some. But the fundamentals remain the same across. If you’re building your first business, read this 👇

First off, here’s everything I’ve done since I quit my job back in 2021 -

  • Education products - e-books, courses, templates
  • Freelance Copywriting
  • Ghostwriting agency
  • Product Consulting
  • Paid Newsletter
  • Paid community
  • SaaS

+13000+ audience across social media and my newsletter.

Most people starting out find business overwhelming because they tend to overcomplicate it.

In reality, business is remarkably simple -

Business = Product + Distribution

Product: The Value You Offer

Your product is what you offer to the world—how you add value and create something people want enough to pay for. Once you have a product, the process is straightforward:

  1. Create a website
  2. Explain your value proposition
  3. Add a price tag + a "Buy" button under it

Distribution: Spreading the Word

Distribution is how you inform people about what you've built.

It means:

  • Telling people in your network
  • Sharing on the internet, on social media, in communities and forums.
  • Driving traffic to your website and that all-important "Buy" button

When product and distribution work in harmony, you have a profitable, sustainable business.

If your business isn't working, at least one of these two elements—product or distribution—is falling short.

When starting out, neither are working.

But gradually, with time, you'll refine your product and then figure out distribution.

If you’re bootstrapping or starting a side hustle, there’s a very narrow range of products you CAN build:

  1. Educational products (info products, courses, e-books)
  2. SaaS (Software as a Service) products, particularly micro-SaaS solutions for niche markets
  3. Service offerings - freelancing/consulting/coaching

This is short list, and that’s a good thing - you don’t want to have too many options, otherwise you’ll get analysis paralysis.

Distribution Strategies

There are limited but effective ways to distribute and drive traffic to your product:

  1. Personal branding, building your own audience/network on a social media channel (for me that was Twitter)
  2. Influencer outreach and partnerships - connecting with someone who already has an audience.
  3. Search engine optimization (SEO) - attracting traffic from the biggest traffic source in the world - Google.
  4. Paid advertising on platforms like Facebook and Google (if you have the budget)

The Bottom Line

Business is fundamentally simple: product + distribution.

But its also hard. Execution is the real challenge, but its so worth it if you can nail it.