How to launch a side hustle in 11 days
You most likely have had dozens of ideas over your lifetime that were business worthy but you probably stopped at the idea stage, most people do. There is a chance that if you used effective iteration techniques, maybe it would have been more.
Transforming an idea to a business can seem like an overwhelming task. Iterating breaks it up into small bite-sized pieces making it manageable and less daunting. I want to share some tips and tricks me and my two friends used to launch Beersbee.shop in 11 short days.
Beersbee.shop launched on August 24, 2021; 11 days after we built our first prototype. Below outlines the key milestones we focused on to get us to launch:
Built a sellable prototype
Picked a name, logo & identity
Created an e-commerce website
We used three strategies to effectively get us to launch: 1) rapid communication, 2) defined minimal launch requirements and 3) quick decision making. Taking an iterative approach allows you know that everything achieved will be improved in the future. Below are examples of how we used these strategies and how you can leverage these approaches as well.
#1: Rapid Communication
Rapid, frequent and focused communication was vital to getting started. We each focused on different areas and kept an open dialogue to share ideas and progress. For example:
How does this logo look?
Thoughts on this how-to video?
What color do you like better?
How should we do [insert idea].
Below are things we adapted to enable rapid communication enabling us to progress faster. The key takeaway is to make sure you foster open, fluid and informal communication. This especially important during the early stages of any project.
Unplanned conversations: We didn’t plan a call on Tuesday at 8PM for 30 minutes. No, when one of us had something we needed input on, we picked up the phone or sent a text. Could have been 1PM on a Saturday or 11PM on a Wednesday. This informal communication style allowed us to move fast.
Constant communication: With three of us collaborating on the ‘idea’, there was progress being made every day. Constant communication provided the motivation to keep going. As one of us made progress, it motivated everyone else to do the same.
#2: Minimal Launch Requirements
This was probably one of the most important ‘tools’ we used to get us to launch. There is 100 things we can do with this idea. It is easy to get sidetracked and want to make something perfect. But perfection often gets in the way of progress. We collaboratively decided what was important for us to ‘launch’. In our case it meant creating a product to sell and then creating a way to sell it, online. Below are requirements we made:
Create a product 1.0: We first needed to figure out could we actually make a premium wood beersbee set. We nailed down the key components (dowl, spike, topper) and iterated to make a version we were proud of. This took about 3.5 iterations.
Simple website: We used SquareSpace which allowed us to standup a website in 1-2 days. It was easy to setup, customize and had all the features we needed to get started. Our website is made of primarily 3 pages: home page, product page, and how to play page. That is all we needed to get started.
Content: Content is pictures, videos, how to play, and descriptions were required for us to clearly explain the new venture and promote it.
#3: Make Quick Decisions
Quick thoughtful decisions allow us to keep the progress going without delays. There are decisions that will not have a major impact on the business, therefore they should not slow you down. Keeping in mind, that we can always iterate on these decisions at a later point. During the 11 days we even iterated on a few things multiple times. The key takeaway is to foster a quick decision making environment and do not spend time on making decisions that don’t make a major impact. When a quick decision is not appropriate, having a rapid/open communication channel will foster productive dialogue and help get you to a decision fairly quickly. Below are examples of decisions we made rapidly.
Quick decisions we made
Logo
Brand elements (color scheme, images, messaging tone)
Name
Product design
Product description
Supplies
Target dates
What we need to launch
Website pages
What’s next?
Now that Beersbee.shop is launched, you may ask what’s next? What do we do now? Are Beersbee Elite sets selling themselves? Our next phase will focus on pressure testing our business, scaling our sales, and capturing feedback from customers. While we launched the business in 11 days, we still have a lot of work to do; but by taking an iterative approach we will be there in no time.
Stay tuned for another update in the coming weeks!
If you have not already done so check out our new biz —— Beersbee Elite!