
Ask HN: If you were starting another business, what would be in your todo-list? - jessehorne
I&#x27;ve been trying to get a business of my own started since I was around 16 years old. Life didn&#x27;t really go how I expected it to go (I&#x27;ve heard this is normal). I&#x27;ve tried a few different times to start a variety of businesses and all of them have failed. I learn something every time but I&#x27;d really like a shortcut. So then it hit me, &quot;I should ask people who&#x27;ve been there before!&quot;.<p>My business-attempts have involved SaaS, Gutter Cleaning, Car Detailing, contract Web Development, and so on... Usually, I&#x27;d have some sort of plan laid out, but most of that plan involved building a really nice website. That isn&#x27;t all it takes to succeed, though, as I&#x27;ve learned.<p>If you were starting a new business with low funds (assume less than ~$1k), involving any effort you&#x27;d pursue, what would your Todo-List look like?<p>How would you prioritize your list? How much time would you put into each item?<p>I know this is a vague question, which is okay because I&#x27;m looking for vague answers. Even vague answers to this question would lead me to a more accurate understanding of this sort of process.<p>Thanks in advance!
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breck
I haven’t seen a better checklist than this:
[https://blog.ycombinator.com/how-not-to-
fail/](https://blog.ycombinator.com/how-not-to-fail/)

The two things I would note is that 1) it’s really hard to make something
people want—-you need to be good at your craft and have a team that
complements each other 2) NPS score is a great way to measure whether you have
done that.

~~~
jessehorne
Excellent! I haven't seen this before, surprisingly!

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this2shallPass
This article might interest you: [https://www.startupgrind.com/blog/the-
startup-framework-to-v...](https://www.startupgrind.com/blog/the-startup-
framework-to-validate-your-idea-before-you-spend-1/)

Summary: Clearly identify a problem, issues with existing solutions, and that
it's a priority worth paying for among potential customers.

------
DoreenMichele
A business needs paying customers. That's the thing you need to somehow figure
out.

Everything else is details.

~~~
jessehorne
Straight forward. I like it. That leads me to several other questions...which
may be out of scope.

~~~
DoreenMichele
Ask away. I spun my wheels a whole lot before I had any clue what I was doing.

~~~
jessehorne
I really appreciate your time. I'll try to phrase the questions as best as I
can! With a computer repair business that I tried to start, one thing that
would get me a couple of clients a week would be Craigslist ads. I ended up
having a handful of clients and all of them were older, between 50-70 years of
age. It's hard to scale lead growth with that strategy alone, because I had no
idea how many people were seeing the ad that could have benefited from the
service. I wish CL offered some sort of data like that.

If you were starting a lone mobile computer/printer repair/installation
business, what other strategies would you use to get clients? I feel almost
silly for asking the question but I'm curious to hear your response.

I know that with Facebook ads, you can design your campaign to receive certain
results, such as a page like or website visit. Do you think facebook ads would
be another strategy or something to employ later on, or is the business
example above not something that FB ads would be good for?

Have you ever employed a strategy to get customers that isn't in every
"Strategies to get customers..." article that you can find on the web? I've
rarely found an article online that went beyond the basics of a handful of
common strategies. I found more in detailed "success stories" where people
described unique actions they took which ended up leading to their success.

Was there a book that changed the way you'd market? Anything and everything is
welcome and appreciated. This was sorta rushed because I have a deadline to
meet with a project but figured I'd put my thoughts out there and see what
comes of it!

~~~
DoreenMichele
_I ended up having a handful of clients and all of them were older, between
50-70 years of age._

Let me suggest you find other ways to reach the same demographic. I assume
people aren't mailing you their computer. This sounds like a local business.

Make a list of local senior housing projects, senior centers, etc. Design up a
paper flyer and print a few because that's the absolute cheapest way to do
local advertising. Go knock on doors and ask if they have a bulletin board and
if it would be okay to leave a flyer with them.

Use tear off tabs to both help potential clients retain the contact
information and as an informal tracking mechanism. Periodically replace the
flyers when the tabs are gone or nearly gone.

Make a list of places that accepted your flyers. Follow up periodically.

Expect your flyer, your contact list and other details to evolve over time. As
you hit on some successes, think about which things worked and make some
guesses as to why. Ask yourself how you might replicate the piece of the
formula that you think worked in order to further improve on what's working.

Then repeat the process of trying a thing, thinking about the results it got
and trying to improve on those results.

 _Was there a book that changed the way you 'd market?_

Starting in my teens, I read a lot of books and articles over the years and
even attended free classes from local Chambers of Commerce. I knew a lot in
theory. In practice, I spent a lot of years failing to make money in an
entrepreneurial fashion.

While desperately poor, I began collecting recyclables to help cover my
expenses. I learned a lot from that.

My background had inculcated me with broken mental models. Merely reading
about how you were supposed to do business resulted in me spending years
pursuing "window dressing" instead of pursuing customers.

I registered my fictitious business name with the county. I set up a business
bank account. I had a spiffy leather briefcase. I said "yes" to a free trial
of office equipment I didn't need. I bought a nice desk and office chair.

None of it resulted in paying customers.

There are things that are highly regulated where you absolutely need to jump
through the right hoops before you can reach out to your first customer. But
if you are doing something that isn't highly regulated, you need to figure out
a product or service people will pay for and then find ways to connect to
customers.

That's it. That's the crux of it. Then iterate on your successes and view your
failures as learning experiences.

If it's regulated, you need to add in some steps to make sure you are in
compliance. You always should do a little googling to check pertinent laws for
your jurisdiction anytime you try a new thing to make sure you aren't
overlooking some legal detail.

So, for example, you sell X locally and you know how to do that successfully.
You decide to branch out to online sales. Now you need to research sales tax
when selling out of state plus details of shipping.

They both have logistical and legal components. For starters, you should look
up if it's even legal to mail it (across state lines, to another country,
whatever). It may be perfectly legal to sell locally but illegal to mail it.
Some people ship first, learn it's illegal after the fact. Oops.

~~~
jessehorne
This was an excellent response! I am extremely grateful you took the time to
write this up. It gives me a lot better understanding of things and is
inspiring some new ideas. I'm curious about your experience in collecting
recyclables. I've been in some interesting/desperate situations as well! I
used to go to dumpsters around local apartment complexes and pick up furniture
and what not and re-sell it. My biggest single find was a large antique mirror
that I sold for $300! A lot better than cans.

You can read more about that situation here...
[https://blog.usejournal.com/my-story-as-a-homeless-
developer...](https://blog.usejournal.com/my-story-as-a-homeless-
developer-5874731c42ed)

~~~
DoreenMichele
I was homeless at the time. I feel like there's a lot of downside to me trying
to get into the specifics.

Suffice it to say it paid cash the same day, which gave me immediate feedback
on which actions were profitable and which weren't. This helped me develop
solid mental models that generalized concerning where to invest time and
effort in developing an income.

