The #Bizamo startup validation framework
Month #1 of the Bizamo Project has come and gone, and I’m over halfway through Month #2. Needless to say, I’m long overdue for an update.
The delay is partially because blogging has to take a back seat if I want to accomplish anything. But, if I’m being honest with myself and you, procrastination and all or nothing thinking (old buddies of mine) played a huge part as well.
I wanted to deliver a ton of content at the beginning of the project — the entire framework I was going to follow, detailed resource guides to help other entrepreneurs, and a weekly report of the exact steps I took on the business idea along with the outcomes.
But creating all of this content right away felt incredibly overwhelming, not to mention doing it while actually working on the first business and running my consulting practice to pay the bills.
So I put off the blog for a little. Then a lot. The longer I put it off, the more new info I wanted to share, and the more daunting of a task it seemed.
You might be thinking, “Why didn’t you just break it down into smaller chunks and do a bit each day?” Yeah….I forget about that option sometimes. All or nothing thinking, remember? So here we are…and I’m working on it! I started writing the Month #1 update but really felt like there needed to be more context, so here’s the “lead-in” post I initially intended to write (finally), and I’m promising myself I’ll finish writing the Month #1 update by one week from today (more SMART goals!). The resource guides will have to be an ongoing work in progress.
Where We At?
Here’s a quick summary of what’s happened so far in case you’re just joining us. I launched The #Bizamo Project in late January and shared how this whole thing came about on this here Medium channel. Then I shared my goals for the project and how I got off to a rocky start, ultimately starting on February 12th. I received a ton of great questions from people: how will this whole thing work? What does success look like each month? What happens if you get traction? So let’s break it down.
Monthly Framework
Each month I’ll attempt to validate a business idea that I can’t seem to shake. I’m following Ryan Robinson’s 9 Steps to Validate a Business Idea in 30 Days framework with a few modifications.
Week 1 is where I’ll choose one of my ideas from the backlog, develop a pitch, and form a group of potential customers to get feedback from. After gathering initial thoughts (plus more in-depth feedback from extra-enthused members of the group), I’ll reformulate the idea, strengthen the value proposition, and modify the pitch for a broader audience.
Week 2 is all about growth. I’ll create a landing page for the business and market the heck out of it to target customers in an effort to grow an email list as large as possible. Ryan’s post outlines a variety of tactics to do this, and at some point I’ll highlight my favorite methods. I’m allowing myself to spend up to $300 per business on marketing, but I’m quite frugal and am going to try my hardest to spend nothing 😜.
In Week 3, or as the list is growing, I’ll build the proof of concept. A lot of people confuse the POC with the MVP — and I’m not gonna lie, I do too. Essentially, I want to build something for people to see that will help them confirm they want *some form* of my idea. The POC should be quick and dirty so as to not waste time or money on something nobody wants. During this week, I’ll also set a validation goal (like a specific number of pre-sales or subscribers) and prepare to launch.
Week 4 is the validation test. I’ll take the proof of concept to my *hopefully* much larger email list and try to hit my validation goal. Then it’s decision time. If I hit the goal, 🎉PARTY TIME🎉, then what to do next? If I don’t, I’ll look at the data. Did I miss it by a smidge, or was I way off? Based on the findings, I’ll chuck the idea or bring it back with adjustments during a later month.
Choosing an Idea
The first step in Ryan’s process is “finding a profitable niche you care about”. His main suggestion is to focus on something you actually like doing/talking about/learning about, and not something you have no real interest in but heard it was a quick way to make some mula (coughBitcoincough).
As I started sifting through my ideas, I immediately noticed patterns in both the problems I wanted to solve, the customers/audiences I was most excited about interacting with, and the business models I was most attracted to.
Aside from Ryan, the guys (all guys, in fact) I’ve become aware of that have tried this type of rapid monthly validation experiment all had technical backgrounds and were easily able to whip up custom software. This isn’t a skill I possess today 😥 so I’m generally choosing ideas that I know I can execute on my own. Content-based websites, directories, newsletters, marketplaces, and service-based businesses are all things I feel confident in executing.
The list of ideas skewed heavily towards the Things to Do category. I love ACTIVITIES…..finding them, planning them, attending them, getting groups of friends together for them. I’ve always been the unofficial social planner for my group of friends and finally decided to explore this professionally when I launched CitySwarm, my previous company, where I sold all-inclusive Chicago “experiences” to a customer base of mostly young professionals.
While I definitely have a knack for planning logistics, my favorite part about the “things to do” category is bringing together groups of people and connecting the dots between consumers and businesses. I also love organizing information and aiding in discovery.
In fact, I have a near obsessive desire to organize information in the most effective way. Many of my ideas are simply around taking information that exists and delivering it in a way that makes way more sense to me (and hopefully to others).
But back to bringing people together, lots of the ideas are focused around connecting people and building communities. From startup leaders or small business owners who wish to share best practices, to enterprise companies who want to collaborate with startups, to craft beer lovers who want to check out the latest brewery, to freelancers who want to feel less lonely — it brings me great joy to connect people for a common purpose and I want to explore this.
Another theme that stuck out was professional/career development. This has always been a topic of interest for me, pre-dating my employment at CareerBuilder where I helped companies hire on a daily basis and built out multiple company-wide learning & development programs. I’ve always loved helping friends explore their interests and find jobs that make them happy. Ultimately, jobs/careers are a huge part of our daily lives and can lead to great happiness (or unhappiness, as the case maybe be); I like helping people steer the ship in the right direction.
Leveraging My Skills
Ryan’s second tip is to “build businesses that draw on your strengths, and don’t spend your limited time trying to correct your weaknesses”. As I mentioned above, I’m “non-technical”, meaning I don’t know how to code. While I DO hope to someday pickup this skill, anything I create online today will be pretty basic, utilizing existing tools.
However, there are some unique skills, assets, and traits I possess that I will be drawing upon during this journey:
- Hustle/resourcefulness — if I don’t know how to do something, I’ll figure it out or find the right person to teach me (or do it)
- Relationships — I’m well networked and can build authentic relationships easily
- Empathy — I genuinely enjoy listening to people, understanding their pain points, and finding ways to help solve them
- Creativity — I can tackle most creative tasks on my own, from brand strategy and messaging down to logo design, basic web design, etc.
- Ability to execute — I’m organized, have a strong attention to detail, and can follow through to $h*t happen
- Scrappy marketing & sales expertise — from dollar bills to email subscribers to event attendees, I can make things grow!
Common Questions and Considerations
The “set-up” is almost complete, yay! The last thing I wanted to do is address the most common questions I’ve been getting from people:
Entrepreneurs put their hearts and souls into their businesses and must use all resources necessary to make them successful. What if you don’t give a single business idea enough time or attention to flourish?
I am definitely already feeling this problem. Even though I’m only trying to *validate* a business in 30 days, is that really enough time to build a large enough audience to make the results significant? If I marketed a little bit longer would it tip the scale? If I spent more time, energy, and money on one single idea, would that make all the difference? Maybe…maybe not. BUT, since I started the project, I got off my ass and started doing stuff. I’ve made more progress in the past few months on my ideas than I have in the past few years. So that’s somethin’!
What if you want to spend longer than a month on something? Can you?
The rule was that I’m working on one business a month. Guess what? I already broke the rule and let business #1 spill over for two additional weeks. So here’s the new rule: I can break any rules I want. At the end of the day, this project is about learning and adapting — not sticking to hard and fast rules. If I feel like one business needs a couple more weeks, I’m going to roll with it. If, after a few months, I want to punch myself in the face because I’m so exhausted, I’ll take a break.
What if you actually get traction? Are you going to ditch the business and move on to the next idea, or stick with it?”
This would be a great problem to have. As noted in the previous answer, I’m sort of making the rules up as I go, so let’s cross that bridge when we come to it. In an ideal world, I think I’d attempt continue working on the business (and outsource/automate as much as possible) while still moving through the list of fresh ideas.
That could get really exhausting and unsustainable.
Or could it be awesome? I really have no idea. I won’t know until I try! Maybe I could hand projects off to a co-founder or manager? Maybe all of the businesses are a slow bake and can co-exist with dedicated monthly time towards each?
So that’s the plan! Within the next week I’ll post about Month #1 (finally), but if you want a sneak peak at the project, you can find Whoopla here.
Thoughts?
What do you think of the framework? Is there a step in the process I’m missing? Am I confusing POC with MVP? Wanna chat about one of the themes I noticed? Comment below or feel free to send me an email anytime at lindsay@bizamo.co.
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