I’ve been mulling over my idea to create a new business startup, kind of like a “WPCurve for Facebook Ads” (and eventually Twitter and other social media paid ads).
View Day 1 – The Idea where I shared how all the different elements of the idea came together…
In Day 1 in Dan Norris’ excellent book “The 7 Day Startup: You Don’t Learn Till You Launch” he lists out
The 9 Elements Of A Great Bootstrapped Business Idea
- Enjoyable daily tasks
- Product / founder fit
- Scalable business model
- Operates profitably without the founder
- An asset you can sell
- Large market potential
- Taps into pain or pleasure differentiators
- Unique lead generation advantage
- Ability to launch quickly
So while you want to ensure that your idea can scale without you having to work IN the business, the truth is that you’ll probably be working IN the business initially, so you need to enjoy the daily tasks.
Enjoyable Daily Tasks
I love setting up and running facebook campaigns, it’s something about the combination of the creativity and the geekiness of it all, so that’s a tick for number 1.
Product / Founder Fit
I think there’s a good product / founder fit, even more so than in my current business model because I would rather get paid a little by a lot of people rather than getting paid a lot by just a few people.
Scalable Business Model
No 3 is definitely a yes, as I can teach my methods / systems to either apprentices or outsourced staff, or indeed, hire in PPC experts once the business really gets going.
An Asset You Can Sell
Will I be building an asset I can sell? With recurring revenue, a valuable mailing list, an automated marketing system and a founder who doesn’t need to work in the business, I should jolly-well coco that it’s going to be sellable.
Large Market Potential
The market has to be at least as large as that for WPCurve, as what do all those WordPress users need after a website, but traffic and potential future client or customer eyeballs to look at their websites and to optin, if not buy!
Then there are all the Hubspot, Infusionsoft, aWeber, ConstantContact and Mailchimp users, all hungry for traffic too. I can very easily see how to get in front of a very large market indeed. Not to mention Warrior Forum users….
Pain / Pleasure Differentials
Moving onto number 7, I can still remember the pleasure I felt when I realised that the Facebook ads skills I was learning meant that I never had to wait to test a new business idea again! I could run instant, affordable, qualified traffic to a new business immediately, to test the idea, the freemium offer, the main offer…the headlines, the sub-head, the price even.
The pain my customers are feeling is that they won’t get taken on by the usual media buying agencies as their ad spend is too small, while most of them don’t have the time to learn the techniques I have learned from the several high level training courses I’ve undertaken over the last couple of years. They certainly don’t have the time to keep up with all the changes that seem to happen almost weekly, as the Facebook ad platform catches up with itself.
People are paying for traffic already, be it via expensive SEO agencies who promise the earth and deliver nothing (more often than not), or training products that most people don’t complete. I’m quite unusual in that I’m a 9 on the Kolbe Index Quick Start, which means I take massive action, very quickly. I’ve ploughed through all the Facebook Ads training courses in double quick time, once I grasped the potential was as great as the early days of Google Adwords.
My combined skills of art college visually orientated background, copywriting, split testing, OCD tendencies, and general geekery, all came together in a perfect storm for Facebook Ads.
The only thing slowing me down recently in building an agency was my introversion, which leads to a reluctance to go out networking, do meetings in person, etc.
As long as I make it clear I’m driving Likes and Clicks only at Levels 1 & 2 and limit the number of high level 3 clients who want Landing Pages and Split Testing, I should be fine. Then I can hire an account manager to host the catch-up meetings so I’m free to get with the creative / geeky / business bits I like.
Unique Lead Generation Advantage
I even have a unique lead generation advantage as I can simply use Facebook Ads themselves, to target and get my own ads in front of all the above interest groups. I can also re-market to any visitors to my website, thus showing them the potential for doing the same to their website visitors.
Ability To Launch Quickly
Do I have the ability to launch quickly? Yes, I do, as I have a LeadPages account, I can buy a domain and hosting, setup a bare bones website, attracting opt-ins using my own Infusionsoft account ,and PayPal for the initial payments.
So, the idea is solid, what’s Dan saying about Day Two then?
If I’m going to do this over Christmas and New Year, I’d better get motoring!
Day Two is all about the minimum viable product and I’ve pretty much got that worked out from the Facebook Ads services I’ve been supplying.
Your average client wants/ needs
- Pages Likes (demographic info & background interests)
- Website Clicks (testing offers & building mailing list)
- Re-Marketing (getting your offer/ new offers in front of website visitors that don’t buy)
They also need a landing page, thank you page and mailing list, but many will have that set up already. A standalone thank you page is required so that you can see which ads convert to clicks/ leads/ sales.
Often the ads that get the most cheap clicks are not the ones that convert to sales.
I’m glad to see that Dan thinks the easiest/ best business to create a MVP for is a service business, so my idea’s still holding up.
He also wants us to make a clear offer, that people can pay for, by the end of the week. I think I’ll offer a strategy/ setup call, but charge a $100 deposit, refundable if you don’t go ahead, so that will weed out the people who don’t read the page but just book time in the diary hoping for the “magic button” bit of advice that will make them successful overnight. There’s lots of that about!
Tomorrow, it’s getting closer to Christmas Eve, but I’ll be choosing my business name!
Day One | Day Two | Day Three | Day Four | Day Five | Day Six | Day Seven
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