Meet Karan

“For the first time ever, I see a path where both my living and my hobby can be one” — Karan Bajaj

“I could never figure out how to do writing, a job, and a family”

Karan is a bestselling novelist who loves to write. But his books don’t earn enough to pay the bills, so he has to work a full-time corporate job. With work and family taking up most of his time, it looked as though Karan would have to give up writing.

“I couldn’t write all weekend anymore, and with our family’s expenses increasing, I couldn’t quit my corporate day job either. I had a deep, sinking feeling that my writing was about to give.”

He needed a way to balance working full-time, writing, and being a dad. One day, listening to the Smart Passive Income podcast, he heard about our Zero to Launch course. Though he never saw himself as an entrepreneur and was skeptical about online business, he was determined to find a way to turn his passion for writing into income.

He joined our email list and 8 days later, invested in Zero to Launch.

“I’m a writer, an introvert, and I thought I was the exact opposite of someone who’d start any type of company.

…when I heard about Zero to Launch, I saw a lifeline and reached for it.”

One of Karan’s novels

“Everybody thought this was a completely bad idea”

Karan was initially skeptical about online business. Everything he’d seen made it look either scammy (“Make $1 million overnight!”) or useless (“Be your best self!”)

But once he started Zero to Launch, he was relieved to see this course was different.

“I was struck by how logical it was. It was incredible because the way it was structured went from how to start, to how to implement, to how to execute.”

Even though he liked the program, he still had one glaring problem; the majority of his readers lived in India. His friends and family who lived there were adamant he’d never be able to sell anything to them.

“Everybody was saying, ‘Nobody buys online courses in India’… Everybody thought this was a completely bad idea.”

Finding his profitable business idea

Teaching people to write was the obvious choice for his business idea. But Zero to Launch helped Karan hone in on one that would be even more profitable.

The program taught him the importance of finding an idea that would solve a burning pain for people. While a course on how to write could work, he found there was something else he was passionate about and naturally good at that would be far more lucrative: helping aspiring authors get book deals.

“If you think of aspiring writers who have been trying to get book deals for years, it consumes their life… [realizing] that was extremely revelatory for me.”

Having gotten deals with Random House and HarperCollins himself, he went to work creating a course to help writers get book deals with top 5 publishers.

Karan’s website, karanbajaj.com

$3,100 in 3 days — with no email list

Karan was anxious to start making money. Since he didn’t have an email list, he decided to simply email people he knew who might be interested in his program.

Within 3 days, Karan earned $3,100

“I launched the course 21 days after I first found Ramit. In the first 3 days, I made about $3,100 in sales from an Indian audience with no mailing list. [I just] emailed people who had ever expressed interest in my writing.”

This success motivated Karan to do more. He followed the steps in Zero to Launch to build a system that sold his product automatically. Then used our techniques to improve his website, drive traffic to it, and grow his email list.

Within 4 months he went from 0 subscribers to nearly 1,800.

From 0 to 1,800 subscribers in 4 months

“My friends and family who are in India right now are stunned. Nobody could ever believe you could sell 64 online courses in India.”

“Zero to Launch has given me hope for the future”

After proving that he can sell online courses in India, Karan sees a bright future. One where he’s able to blend his passion for writing with his need to earn money and support his family.

“For the first time, I feel I can integrate my passion for writing with selling a course…That’s given me a lot of energy for my life.”

As an unexpected benefit, creating his online business forced Karan to interact more with his readers. They’ve inspired him, helped him come up with ideas, and made the writing process more rewarding.

“Now it’s a very regular 2-way interaction with my readers, which has opened my heart tremendously.”

Five months after purchasing the course, we flew Karan into our studio to share his whole story. Click below to learn:

• The one question he asks to find out if a business idea is profitable (4:50)
• How he overcame his skepticism about online business (even as friends and family doubted him) (2:43)
• Why teaching others was the best thing Karan’s ever done as a writer (7:25)