Fresh Start Monday #022: Building an MVP dog business in one day
Boulder, CO has a high demand for dog-related services. After seeing immediate success on Rover, I've contemplated whether or not to start an Off Leash Dog Walking Business for the last two months.
I talked to my coach about the pros and cons and asked friends for their opinions. I said I would build a website, but I procrastinated.
Articles like this: https://www.nytimes.com/2023/01/22/style/dog-walkers-six-figures-100k-nyc.html won't let me get the idea out of my mind.
Does that sound similar to an idea in the back of your mind? It might be an Etsy shop, starting a Youtube channel, or building a product. Ideas we can't let go of but seemingly too complex and time-consuming to get started.
On Saturday night, I realized another half weekend flew by with no real traction. I grew tired of talking about a dog business with little to show. I decided to build an MVP.
MVP stands for minimum viable product and was popularized by Eric Ries in his book "The Lean Startup." It's a product that has enough features to attract early customers and receive feedback before making further investments.
What was my MVP?
I created a landing page: www.offleashdogwalks.com
I used carrd.co and started building from a template. None of the buttons work yet, but I'm satisfied with the layout. I bought a domain. ($12 a year) For Carrd, I paid $19 a year for the ability to use a custom domain and collect payment from my website.
One day, $31 later, this side business feels real. I shied away from sharing this idea with potential customers, but now I have a place to direct them.
This week I'll refine it and add a form when a customer makes a purchase. Yes, I can do a million other things, like adding a scheduling tool or adding more sections, but it's an MVP.
Creating this forced me to decide what services I wanted to offer and how much time I wanted to dedicate to it.
It also created uneasiness within me. What was I waiting for? If this is what "starting" is, why did I spend the last two months in my own head about it?
Applying it to your life
What's your version of an MVP?
What's the barebones version of what you want to do?
Block off a day this weekend or an evening and challenge yourself to create something public facing.
MVP's are an antidote to overthinking and perfectionism when confronted with turning your big ideas into reality.