How to Build an Online Business by Helping People for Free

By Alexandra Allover | November 20, 2025

The more you focus on solving other people’s problems, the more valuable your work becomes. That principle has guided my work as an online coach for years.

For more than five years, I have offered free calls to people who needed orientation, clarity, or a next step. At first glance, this can look inefficient. Many calls revolve around similar questions. Some answers repeat. And yet, it has never felt like a waste of time. Every conversation is different, every context unique, and every person brings a new perspective. Most of all, these conversations are often genuinely enjoyable.

This stands in contrast to how many online businesses are built. They start with an idea, not with people. A course is created, an offer designed, a launch prepared—followed by the hope that a market will appear. When it doesn’t, the problem is often blamed on marketing or visibility. In reality, the disconnect usually happens much earlier.

The most sustainable online businesses tend to begin elsewhere: with real people, real questions, and real problems.

One of the most effective ways to understand what future clients actually need—and what they are willing to invest in—is surprisingly simple.

Help people for free. Deliberately.

Start by Solving Real Problems, Not Imagined Ones

The more you focus on solving other people’s problems, the more valuable your work becomes. I‘ve been doing free calls for five years and guess what, it‘s not a waste of time! Sure, people often call for the same reason and my answers might get repetitive sometimes, but either way, every call is unique and you‘ll learn from them. Plus, most people who call are a lot of fun to talk to!

Many strong business ideas come from questions you’ve already heard dozens of times:

What do I really need to get started?
How much time will this take?
What’s the simplest next step?
What can I ignore for now?

I‘ve collected most of these asked questions and it‘s therefore really easy to answer them. You can compare it to building something for novices who want clear answers, not mastery.

The key insight:

You don’t need to change people’s lives. You need to remove friction from their daily problems.

Everyday Problems Beat Big Transformations

The most reliable online businesses solve problems people already care about:

saving money
improving health
feeling more confident
getting unstuck
making something work better

These problems don’t require belief change. They require relief.

It’s also better to solve specific, measurable problems than broad, abstract ones. Helping someone “improve their marketing” is vague and overwhelming. Helping them “improve cash flow” or “get their first three clients” is concrete and actionable.

Clarity creates demand.

A good test is always the same:
Why should someone care about this right now?

If you can’t answer that clearly, the market won’t either.

The “Help 100 People” Method

One of the fastest ways to discover what to build is to talk directly to people—not experts, not influencers, not mentors—but regular people with real problems.

A simple approach:

Offer short, free sessions (15 minutes already works)
Invite people to talk about one specific problem you might help with
Make it genuinely free—not a sales trick
Listen more than you speak

The goal is not to pitch.
The goal is to learn.

Over time, patterns appear:

the same frustrations
the same language
the same obstacles
the same desired outcomes

That information is more valuable than any market research report.

Why This Works Better Than Guessing

When you help people directly:

you improve your skills faster
you learn how to explain things clearly
you discover what people actually ask for, not what you assumed they wanted

Some conversations may lead to paid work. Many won’t—and that’s fine. Even those calls build relationships. People remember being helped. They talk. They share. They give feedback. They become early supporters.

In effect, you build an informal advisory board before you ever build a product.

By the time you create something paid, you already know:

who it’s for
what problem it solves
how to describe it
and why people care

How to Do This Practically

Keep it simple:

Create a basic sign-up form
Ask for name, email, and one key question:
What’s your biggest challenge right now?

Start with people you already know
Friends, colleagues, followers, classmates.

Schedule the calls
Phone, Zoom, Skype—whatever is easiest.

Stay focused during the conversation
Be friendly, but guide the discussion.

Always follow up
A thank-you message, a short recap, or next steps.
This part matters more than most people think.

Then repeat. Many times.

From Free Help to Sustainable Income

Helping people for free does not mean staying unpaid forever. It means building understanding before building offers.

Over time, patterns emerge. You notice which questions come up repeatedly, where people get stuck, and which issues require more than a short conversation. That is where monetization becomes both natural and ethical.

Some practical options include:

Paid follow-up sessions
A first call remains free, while deeper work—strategy, planning, or decision-making—happens in a second, paid session.
Short-term coaching packages
Instead of open-ended commitments, offer focused packages: three sessions to prepare for relocation, university applications, or major transitions.
Workshops or group sessions
When many people struggle with the same issue, a small group format saves time and creates peer learning.
Guides, templates, or checklists
If you explain the same process repeatedly, it may belong in a written or recorded format people can use independently.
Courses built from real conversations
Not from assumptions, but from years of listening. The structure already exists—you’ve tested it live.

What makes these offers effective is not clever positioning. It is relevance. The work grows directly out of real needs, expressed in real language, by real people.

Free conversations are not a detour from building a business.
They are often the most direct route to building the right one.