🔨 How to build a startup in 2023. Here are the tools!

(2 minute read)

Hello! 🙋‍♂️

Entrepreneurship is about doing. Let’s get moving!

👀 In today's newsletter:

⚡ This is what I would do if I had an idea that I wanted to pursue. The checklist!

🚀 It’s 2023. This is how people prove out ideas and start businesses in the modern age.

1️⃣ Whether you have an idea or not, you need to make sure you are doing one thing: Solving a Problem. 

You need to be a problem solver.

Put another way: You need to go where the demand is.

One way that people try to solve a personal problem is by going to Google. People look for answers on Google.

🤑 Searches on Google show intent from potential buyers.

There are a few places you can go to find the volume of searches people input into Google, each month, for whatever solution they are seeking:

☝ Google Keyword Planner

✌ SearchVolume.io

Example:
Let’s say you have a new idea to help people manage their domain names. You can input ‘Domain Management’ and other variations of this phrase into these tools to find out the monthly search volume.

😨 Hmm. Seems kind of low, right? Less than 1000 people per month search for this. If you are wanting to build a huge scalable tech business, this might not be the correct niche for you.

💡 Let’s say you just want to start a small sideline.

Example:
You live in Morocco and have access to amazing handmade rugs. You believe people in the United States would love to buy these. You would like to know how many people are actively looking for these goods you can source.

So, you search ‘Rugs from Morocco’ on these tools and discover:

😁 Hey, not bad! There’s up to 10,000 people (every month) actively searching for Moroccan Rugs! You might be onto something. You might want to take the next steps.

2️⃣ Now, we need to verify there really is demand for this.

✅ Determine who your target audience is. Who is the most likely buyer for your product or solution? For the ‘Domain Management’ idea, one likely target audience is tech entrepreneurs.

✅ Ok, where do they hang out online? Go find them and start talking with them.

✅ Two quick ways to find your target people are:

☝ Facebook Groups

✌ Reddit

✅ Join the communities there and start a discussion about the problems buyers are facing. In this case, with managing their domain names.

👉 Do the same thing for the ‘Moroccan Rug’ idea. Who is the target buyer? Perhaps you want to target interior decorators first. Find them online and start the conversation.

3️⃣ Time to Gather User Feedback and Build Something.

I have always been a fan of creating a FREE landing page to gather user interest and feedback. You can make a really professional looking one with Google Forms.  

We have made several, in the past, for our ideas. Here is one below.

I wanted to find out if Bitcoin investors would be interested in other collectibles. I received 35 replies and learned a lot from this test group.

🕶 Tip! Your landing page should have these elements:

✅ A very brief summary of what you are working on.

✅ Quickly explain why they should care and how this benefits them.

✅ A super quick one-liner about who you are.

✅ A place to gather their email address or phone number!

✅ Open ended questions about the main problem they face in the market and how they are solving it now.

When you begin these initial conversations, direct people to your Google Form and you’ll have a nice record of their feedback and contact information.

⭐ If you continue to see that your intuition is correct around your idea, it’s time to keep moving forward.

4️⃣ When you are ready to build a more professional landing page, or website, check out: Bubble

If these early signals are telling you that you should pursue your idea, I would go here to create a website. You can do it yourself, and not have to hire anyone.

(affiliate link)
Bubble is a no-code website builder. They have an interface that makes it easy to build any website or mobile app. Apparently, huge companies are using Bubble to build their corporate websites (Lyft, HP and more).

They even have a section of free templates for you to choose from, so you can select a template, edit in your information and you’ll be rolling.

So, now you’ve put yourself out there and you have created a home to showcase your product or solution. This should be the foundation you need to get started.

There are many resources out there about growing a business. We’re concerned with proving out an idea and getting to this point only.

5️⃣ When you are ready to grow your online business.

Not many of us are to this point yet, but there are some really cool tools for this stage.

✅ SEO.ai is pretty cool. They use AI to help you write content for your website. They use AI to uncover high-searched keywords that your site might rank for - and they help you write content to rank for those keywords.

✅ Jasper.ai is another great tool for writing content. We all get writer’s block, and this tool can help you write the copy for your website as well as your blog posts and other marketing materials.

✅ Pictory.ai is a video content creation tool. All you have to do is type text and it will turn it into a video. Great for explaining what your startup does!

(sponsored)
✅ Fiverr.com is a place where you can hire anyone to do anything. Marketing, website design, video editing. Anything. Good talent, for low prices.

✅ Acquire.com Hey we can all dream, right? When it’s time to sell your startup, this is the place. Alternatively, if you have NO IDEAS of what you want to do — maybe you want to buy a startup and run it.

That’s it for today. I hope this helps you get started!

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