Episode 40 Getting Ready for Launch – Your first 100 Customers

Constraints lead to Creativity.

If you are a minimalist entrepreneur the early stages of launching your business is all about constraints. You need to focus on doing one thing well and avoiding the temptation to try to do everything at once. Scope creep where a project or product launch becomes unwieldy due adding just one more feature, and wouldn’t be nice if we could do this. Sahal Lavinga uses this check list to keep things manageable.

·     Can I ship it in a weekend? Most prototypes of a product offering should be capable of being developed in 2 to 3 days

·     Will it make my customers lives a little better?

·     Is it likely a customer will be willing to pay me for this solution?

·     Can I get feedback quickly?

This first product does not need to be pretty. Maybe the best example of a popular but not pretty solution is Craigslist. It’s never been pretty but it has always worked. So not being pretty has been no impediment to growth. An unpretty but effective solution will sell. A pretty but ineffective solution will not.