How I Went from Idea and MVP to Paying Customers in 60 Days
Business Model Canvas was still filled with all the details from my previous project. I shut it down recently (after spending €1500 trying to get to MVP and countless hours of my time).
I was sitting there, staring at this white sticker board and thinking: why am I doing this to myself?
I know we all get here at some point in our life. Asking ourselves why am I doing this to myself? Why I don’t just join others on the beach, or go clubbing, or watch a new series on Netflix instead of sitting for hours in a stuffy room frying my brain over calculations, plans, budgets, financials, customers, expenses and the list can go to infinity.
I guess we are all moved by the need to create something out of nothing, to make people's lives better, to make an impact on the world around us and the feeling of success.
In this article, you’ll find my journey and step by step actions I took to get from idea to MVP to paying customers in 60 day. Together with the tools I used and the hours/money spent.
I did not continue with this project. It required more and more financial input and more and more work. It was only a side project and I decided to pursue my own satisfaction rather than profit.
Without further ado…
Phase 1: The Idea
To move things as quickly as possible (and without going bankrupt) I needed to think of a business that has no inventory, no physical products, no office, no equipment, and no employees.
Also if I wanted paying customers from day one it had to be something essential, simple and familiar (so it doesn’t require educating customers).
And, something cheap enough so they are ready to pay and start using it straight away.
“Ideas are worth nothing unless executed.”
— Steve Jobs
I gave myself 48 hours to do the research and decide the most suitable business that will meet the criteria.
A platform that connects independent self-employed cleaners with customers.
Is it an original idea? No. Will it be the first of its kind? Definitely no. But an online marketplace for cleaning services sounded like a fair bet.
Supply and Demand Validation
Supply-side
I posted a job on a local Facebook group. By the end of the day, I received 52 messages from people looking to work as a cleaner. This was way more than I expected.
Demand-side
I researched all major and similar websites. Helping in Europe and Handy in the US. Both of them are offering various household services. Yet, the cleaning service is over 90% of the business.
I signed up for Helping (as a cleaner) and I was receiving 10–20 cleaning jobs per day for only one postcode area.
Once again, it was more than I hoped for, and together with other data I collected on cleaning services, I was clearly on a good track.
Tools I used to check the search volume, search trends, traffic and keywords
Google Trends (free).
SEMrush (freemium).
Phase 2: Building the MVP
To build the MVP I used a ready-to-go template, instead of building it from scratch (lesson learned from a previous project). They are always good enough to test the idea without spending a lot of money and hours into it.
I used Sharetribe. It doesn’t offer much flexibility, but it’s all-in-one marketplace software with fair pricing and you can pay as you go (and scale).
They allow you to customize your marketplace and connect other tools by easily embedding the code snippet directly on the website. They also have amazing customer support :)
Tools I used to make the marketplace fully functional
Namecheap VPN (€5.26/month) for a domain, hosting, and email provider.
Iubenda (€9.00/month) for Privacy Policy and Terms of Use hosting.
Stripe (1.4% + €0.25 per transaction) for online payments.
Validation.com (€16.88/month, 50% off the first month) for user ID verification.
Other tools I used
MailChimp (free up to 2000 contacts) and Sender (free up to 2500 contacts) for newsletter and marketing campaigns.
Crisp (freemium) and Wix (€12.50/month) for live chat and customer queries.
Wix for the blog (included with the website).
Wix Answers (€17/month) for customer support and Help Center/knowledge base.
Hotjar (free for 2,000 pageviews/day) and Google Analytics (free) for analytics and user behavior.
Canva (freemium) and Adobe Spark (€12.29/month) for graphic design.
ManyChat (freemium) for Facebook page automation.
Phase 3: Customer Acquisition
As with any marketplace chicken and egg problem is always there at the begging and the internet is full of advice and tips on how to crack it.
In this case, I started with the supply side. Explaining to everyone that signs up that the platform is new and won’t start until there are at least 50 cleaners. Most people were OK with that.
Supply
The reason I started with the supply side is that there was no quick way to get customers on the platform if there are no people ready to clean. This was actually relatively easy as Dublin is full of students that need flexible side jobs.
Again, I used Facebook groups to find people, and to speed up the process I also posted a job ad (paid) on Indeed.
These are the results from Indeed:
Demand
To acquire customers I experimented with Google ads.
And Facebook ads.
Also, I created a blog and experimented with inbound marketing tactics. For social media presence, I created Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest accounts.
At the end of a 2 month period, The Good Cleaners had 102 users of which 58 were service providers and 8 completed transactions.
Project name: The Good Cleaners.
Project type: Online marketplace, B2C, cleaning services.
Concept: Online platform that connects independent self-employed cleaners with customers.
Business model: Commission from each transaction.
Total time spent: 2 months, approx. 200 hours.
Conclusion
We are living in a time when it has never been easier (and cheaper) to start a business. But, you will need to be ready to work your ass off day after day, month after month before you start seeing any progress and return.
Surround yourself with people smarter than you and people that motivate you and inspire you and don’t attempt to do it alone. It is very easy to get depressed and burn out quickly.
Most importantly, do it. The worst it can happen is that you fail. Then make a better plan and do it again.
“A good plan, violently executed now is better than a perfect plan tomorrow.”
— George Patton
