Hi Everyone,
I'm new to the forum and entrepreneurship in general. However, after reading through UNSCRIPTED and half of TMFL last month, I'm excited to have a playbook for kickstarting an unscripted business journey! I'll be documenting it here.
Brief Background:
I'm a 24yr old who's technically enrolled in a community college "Applied Associates of Science: Cybersecurity" degree, having picked "school" back up after dropping out at 18yrs old and working as a short-order cook for a number of years. I just go part-time and am chipping away at the degree since I had enough credits after dropping out to where not finishing it out would feel like a waste.
I used a curiosity for technology and some basic IT technician/programming/hardware skills as a vehicle to get out of the food industry three years ago without a college education, starting as a systems administrator, then a DevOps Apprentice for a failed startup, and some freelance projects.
Link to my "Intro" post if anyone's curious about some more of my "background":
www.thefastlaneforum.com
11/19/23 reply to a comment on my intro post:
After my UNSCRIPTED 1st read, and a portion of The Millionaire Fastlane , I immediately started bouncing around chapters & working on discovering/brain-storming anything that could potentially match and be worth pursuing further.
After a couple of hours of considering a ton of different aspects (skills, interests, domain knowledge, problems, issues, solutions, etc) and having fun brainstorming & refining ideas, I landed on one that I've since ran with & that sizes up somewhat well (from my, "minimal experience", opinion & best judgment at least.. lol) to the CENTS model
I've spent hours over the past week running with the idea, having no idea what I'm doing, but jumping through a ton of the considerations/practices in the "From idea to Productocracy" process. Market research, soft proofing, value skewing/consideration, Action => Assessment => Adjustment..
The "pond" and issue/need/want are in the food industry (with potential application to other industries too.. but trying to keep it super simple to start & have ONE specific target audience), where I'm obv a client (like most people I'd assume lol) but have also spent several years working kitchens. The solution/service/product is in the crossover/application of technology to the restaurant industry.
I've been working the past fourish days mostly on getting a simple v1 of "my" (company) site up, and then an "example"/demo site next. (Diving periodically into obsessive, distracted "research" of competition, tech stack considerations, solution ideas, etc.) I'm trying to return again & again to the objective of keeping it as simple as possible, to begin with, as I can super easily want to over-engineer the crap out of the technology/web application/solution that will be the core of what is making life easier for my target audience & what I'm offering.
With both sites up (Which will be done within the next week), and a more refined-straight-forward offer of what I can do for the "target audience," how, and answers to any questions that might arise. I'll be good to go on getting some "harder" proofing by engaging the target audience to further determine the "NEED".
Luckily, the web application MVP (the core of my service) isn't anything super groundbreaking, and I'm guessing it would take a month max for me to develop. (Potentially needing some outside assistance from a front-end developer). I need to change my username bc I'm seriously not a tech genius or even that good at coding at all, (simply an interest) & don't want to come across as thinking I am.. lol. barley graduated HS not going to lie.
Latest Update:
Honestly didn't want to retype the above section and copied most of it from that comment two weeks ago.
As this is my first time ever even thinking of starting a business, I really am just shooting for the fences (taking action) and have no idea if anything is "right" or "wrong", but I am thankful for all the guidance in the books and on the forum, and am counting on adjusting as I learn from experience/mistakes.
I've since completed both websites (My "company" and the mockup site template for prospective clients).
I went and spoke to a prospective client I know personally, who runs his own restaurant. I didn't necessarily "Bomb" it, but definitely left the interaction with some improvements that can be made for interacting with potential clients I want to work with moving forward.
Main lesson/(note to self): Approach with a "Curiosity" attitude rather than a "Can't wait to provide you with help that you haven't even asked for yet" attitude. Especially while in "testing" phase of determining the NEED. Business owners are typically terribly busy individuals and understandably are cautious when it comes to any innovation/change in whatever system they already have in place (even if it's a system that can be massively improved)
Regardless, I got in touch with him and made an effort. Got his current phone number and have a website mockup that I built for him ready to go. I will be sending that out tomorrow morning with the message that I crafted. Also, as part of the "proofing" of this idea, I figure I might as well also just have some questions to ask any "prospects" that I come across. (3 location restaurants I've identified so far)
Also, by the way, idk if it's the correct terminology, but whenever I use the word "prospects," I just mean people/businesses that fall into my "ideal customer" category of who I envision helping with this solution/product/service.
Sidestory:
I was at the gym the other night while kind of manic (4am), and at the end of the workout I was talking to a friend of mine in the sauna about career/job/education/skills stuff since he just recently enrolled in community college at 25yrs old while working in kitchens, feeling lost, and trying to figure life out while being bombarded by every opinion under the sun (common early-20s experience I'd assume). But anyway, this other guy in the sauna overheard us talking and chimed in as he has run his own food cart for 6+ years and grew up in an area where the options were primarily: go to a trade school, work a chemical factory job, or get into oil rig work.
I used this as an opportunity to ask him some questions about running the food cart and told him a little about this "idea" I had recently. The guy ended up giving me his number, told me my idea definitely sounded like it had potential, and wanted me to help him out with some stuff on his website for his business.
He's not someone that falls into my "ideal prospect client" category, as his business already has a bunch of good systems setup, but I'm definitely going to get back to him and help him out, bounce ideas off of, and get some feedback from him.
Moving forward:
Anyhow,
Hopefully, this isn't too long as an initial post, but the objective is to add to it as I go through proofing this idea to a point where I can confidently say that either A. the idea isn't really a good fit and it's time to go back to the drawing board and start sprinting on something new or B. The idea is matching up well with CENTS and has potential that's worth continuing to focus on.
I definitely don't want to just pivot and jump from idea to idea without actually seeing them through. But equally, I don't want to be "beating on a dead horse," per se.
Also, I apologize if my tone isn't incredibly enthusiastic; there's some personal stuff I've been dealing with that has my "feelings" kind of out of balance at the moment. But starting this article on the forum is part of my "goal chain," so regardless of "feelings," still doing my best to take action, get small wins, and stay on course!
I forgot to mention I've primarily just been working on this solo and not discussing it with anyone who has experience doing this kind of thing. I'm not sure if that's a big mistake or doesn't really matter. But I'd love to make connections and have other like-minded people to talk to! so feel free to shoot me a message if you have any questions or suggestions or just want to say Hi!
-Ivan
I'm new to the forum and entrepreneurship in general. However, after reading through UNSCRIPTED and half of TMFL last month, I'm excited to have a playbook for kickstarting an unscripted business journey! I'll be documenting it here.
Brief Background:
I'm a 24yr old who's technically enrolled in a community college "Applied Associates of Science: Cybersecurity" degree, having picked "school" back up after dropping out at 18yrs old and working as a short-order cook for a number of years. I just go part-time and am chipping away at the degree since I had enough credits after dropping out to where not finishing it out would feel like a waste.
I used a curiosity for technology and some basic IT technician/programming/hardware skills as a vehicle to get out of the food industry three years ago without a college education, starting as a systems administrator, then a DevOps Apprentice for a failed startup, and some freelance projects.
Link to my "Intro" post if anyone's curious about some more of my "background":
INTRO - Intro/First-Post - Cuauh_Tech
Hi everyone, I'm very excited and thankful to have found this community. Reading through "The Millionaire Fastlane " was also incredibly refreshing, having spent a good amount of time navigating personal development material that personally didn't align or feel very genuine. Relationships...
www.thefastlaneforum.com
11/19/23 reply to a comment on my intro post:
After my UNSCRIPTED 1st read, and a portion of The Millionaire Fastlane , I immediately started bouncing around chapters & working on discovering/brain-storming anything that could potentially match and be worth pursuing further.
After a couple of hours of considering a ton of different aspects (skills, interests, domain knowledge, problems, issues, solutions, etc) and having fun brainstorming & refining ideas, I landed on one that I've since ran with & that sizes up somewhat well (from my, "minimal experience", opinion & best judgment at least.. lol) to the CENTS model
I've spent hours over the past week running with the idea, having no idea what I'm doing, but jumping through a ton of the considerations/practices in the "From idea to Productocracy" process. Market research, soft proofing, value skewing/consideration, Action => Assessment => Adjustment..
The "pond" and issue/need/want are in the food industry (with potential application to other industries too.. but trying to keep it super simple to start & have ONE specific target audience), where I'm obv a client (like most people I'd assume lol) but have also spent several years working kitchens. The solution/service/product is in the crossover/application of technology to the restaurant industry.
I've been working the past fourish days mostly on getting a simple v1 of "my" (company) site up, and then an "example"/demo site next. (Diving periodically into obsessive, distracted "research" of competition, tech stack considerations, solution ideas, etc.) I'm trying to return again & again to the objective of keeping it as simple as possible, to begin with, as I can super easily want to over-engineer the crap out of the technology/web application/solution that will be the core of what is making life easier for my target audience & what I'm offering.
With both sites up (Which will be done within the next week), and a more refined-straight-forward offer of what I can do for the "target audience," how, and answers to any questions that might arise. I'll be good to go on getting some "harder" proofing by engaging the target audience to further determine the "NEED".
Luckily, the web application MVP (the core of my service) isn't anything super groundbreaking, and I'm guessing it would take a month max for me to develop. (Potentially needing some outside assistance from a front-end developer). I need to change my username bc I'm seriously not a tech genius or even that good at coding at all, (simply an interest) & don't want to come across as thinking I am.. lol. barley graduated HS not going to lie.
Latest Update:
Honestly didn't want to retype the above section and copied most of it from that comment two weeks ago.
As this is my first time ever even thinking of starting a business, I really am just shooting for the fences (taking action) and have no idea if anything is "right" or "wrong", but I am thankful for all the guidance in the books and on the forum, and am counting on adjusting as I learn from experience/mistakes.
I've since completed both websites (My "company" and the mockup site template for prospective clients).
I went and spoke to a prospective client I know personally, who runs his own restaurant. I didn't necessarily "Bomb" it, but definitely left the interaction with some improvements that can be made for interacting with potential clients I want to work with moving forward.
Main lesson/(note to self): Approach with a "Curiosity" attitude rather than a "Can't wait to provide you with help that you haven't even asked for yet" attitude. Especially while in "testing" phase of determining the NEED. Business owners are typically terribly busy individuals and understandably are cautious when it comes to any innovation/change in whatever system they already have in place (even if it's a system that can be massively improved)
Regardless, I got in touch with him and made an effort. Got his current phone number and have a website mockup that I built for him ready to go. I will be sending that out tomorrow morning with the message that I crafted. Also, as part of the "proofing" of this idea, I figure I might as well also just have some questions to ask any "prospects" that I come across. (3 location restaurants I've identified so far)
Also, by the way, idk if it's the correct terminology, but whenever I use the word "prospects," I just mean people/businesses that fall into my "ideal customer" category of who I envision helping with this solution/product/service.
Sidestory:
I was at the gym the other night while kind of manic (4am), and at the end of the workout I was talking to a friend of mine in the sauna about career/job/education/skills stuff since he just recently enrolled in community college at 25yrs old while working in kitchens, feeling lost, and trying to figure life out while being bombarded by every opinion under the sun (common early-20s experience I'd assume). But anyway, this other guy in the sauna overheard us talking and chimed in as he has run his own food cart for 6+ years and grew up in an area where the options were primarily: go to a trade school, work a chemical factory job, or get into oil rig work.
I used this as an opportunity to ask him some questions about running the food cart and told him a little about this "idea" I had recently. The guy ended up giving me his number, told me my idea definitely sounded like it had potential, and wanted me to help him out with some stuff on his website for his business.
He's not someone that falls into my "ideal prospect client" category, as his business already has a bunch of good systems setup, but I'm definitely going to get back to him and help him out, bounce ideas off of, and get some feedback from him.
Moving forward:
Anyhow,
Hopefully, this isn't too long as an initial post, but the objective is to add to it as I go through proofing this idea to a point where I can confidently say that either A. the idea isn't really a good fit and it's time to go back to the drawing board and start sprinting on something new or B. The idea is matching up well with CENTS and has potential that's worth continuing to focus on.
I definitely don't want to just pivot and jump from idea to idea without actually seeing them through. But equally, I don't want to be "beating on a dead horse," per se.
Also, I apologize if my tone isn't incredibly enthusiastic; there's some personal stuff I've been dealing with that has my "feelings" kind of out of balance at the moment. But starting this article on the forum is part of my "goal chain," so regardless of "feelings," still doing my best to take action, get small wins, and stay on course!
I forgot to mention I've primarily just been working on this solo and not discussing it with anyone who has experience doing this kind of thing. I'm not sure if that's a big mistake or doesn't really matter. But I'd love to make connections and have other like-minded people to talk to! so feel free to shoot me a message if you have any questions or suggestions or just want to say Hi!
-Ivan
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