Challenge

Starting the fist step from “I have an idea” to actually doing stuff is really hard.

There’s term and a whole discussion around people who only have business ideas, but never act on them:

“Wannapreneur”

While there are many different opinions on what differentiates a “Wannapreneur” from an Entrepreneur I think these 3 key aspects get you caught in the “Wannapreneur”-Cycle

  • Thinking and talking about your idea/s without actually acting on them
  • Consuming way too much Online Content ( Hi, GaryVee! )
  • Not charging money for your idea, meaning not seeing your idea as a business

To steer around this cycle I made a decision.

The “One Micro Startup Per Month”-Challenge

I wanted to challenge myself.

By doing a challenge I create a sense of urgency combined with a fixed deadline.

This helps me structuring my business ideas and actually moving forward up to a specific time.

There are so many ways doing a challenge.

I choose to adapt a frame-work I saw and liked.

Pieter Levels’ “One Startup Per Month”-Challenge

By adapting Pieter Levels’ Challenge to my own “One Micro Startup Per Month”-Challenge I took pressure of the mindset to create a whole functioning startup (or product) but rather focussing on a small specific issue.

How does the challenge work?

The challenge is suitable for digital or serviced based product ideas, which do not rely on external suppliers, or production of physical goods (although I guess it might work for 3D-Printing Topics if you have the equipment).

In short: Stuff you can create on your computer/laptop and put it online.

via GIPHY

The main goal of the challenge is to go from idea to shipping something to the target audience within 30 days.

For myself I did not set the goal of making money, but rather seeing traction, getting early feedback and chances to talk to people from my target group.

Personally I wanted to launch on Product Hunter, Reddit, Indie Hackers, as these sites are full of early adopters and people within very specific niches.

It’s important to keep in mind that flopping on Product Hunt does not mean failing with the product.

From my perspective having the clear goal of launching to an audience within a given time-frame will boost your motivation.

Which steps to take?

The main challenge is not building something, but actually exploring topics, audiences and problems they are facing.

It’s actually really hard, to find critical problems your clients are facing.

Nevertheless you have to start somewhere.

If you want to take a picture book approach, you will go with a framework like this one from Arvid Kahl.

Another approach would be to work on a problem you yourself are facing and create things from there.

There is no right or wrong here.

For me these 3 steps helped

🔬 Step 1. Find a Problem - Your / From a target audience

👩🏽‍🔬 Step 2. Explore the Problem by researching the market, forums, online communities

🖼️ Step 3: Create something, get feedback fast, early and often

What I did

I started off my journey exploring the topic of remote work and improving team morale and happiness.

After learning about startups I decided to go with my first idea called (discontinued) a website I started around Oktober/November 2020 as an example for the course I was taking.

After my course finished I decided to continue my work on this project and started my Micro startup Challenge.

I created an email list (mostly friends) and wrote about my progress.

Next?

I will publish my notes and e-mails on this website during the course of my “Flashback”-Series, starting with “Flashback No. 1 - How a power cut nearly ruined 3 weeks of hard work”

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