My co-founders and I are building a small company trying to help small businesses tackle annoying admin tasks that no one wants to it, but has to.
My problem is I have no connections in the space. I need to find the most “hair on fire” problem but can’t find enough owners to talk to. Anyone else run into this and could steer me towards what they did when starting a business?
I’ve tried offering $10 coffee cards, but most people don’t answer emails these days.
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This is a tough ask, because they don’t know what they want you to do for them. If they think of something, they don’t want to educate you and then pay you for your first attempt at solving it. Their process would be to go out and find a ready provider with a track record of doing it.
Social media influencers have unfortunately shifted from lying about making money running dropshipping or Ad agencies, to now lying about making money as AI business process consultants. Small-medium businesses are about to get flooded by startups without related industry experience offering to solve all their pain points with new AI solutions. I predict that will cause fatigue and businesses will become even less likely to engage with any general offers of business optimisation.
It’s best to steer well clear of all of it unless you have a real focus on one specific thing you’re trying to solve and know thoroughly.
You might get useful ideas by searching for what businesses are already asking for or more likely what they’re complaining about. Then come up with a way to provide value and pitch that thing - it shows you know the industry and have spent time focusing on a solution
Connecting with small business owners to understand their pain points and validate your product idea can be challenging, especially when starting from scratch. Here are some effective strategies to reach out to potential customers and gather valuable insights:
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online communities and forums
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Attend industry events and conferences
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Utilize social media platforms
Firstly try those strategies and then go with others.
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Edit: Not trying to sell them anything in any way either, just get advice - but people are so busy it seems.
A good keyword research can help you identify the problems and also ads library can help you spy on your competitors and see what problems they are tapping into.
Ads library? I’m not familiar
why not network with business owners, join the Chamber of Commerce and attend functions? Got to be other networking groups too.
Great advice. Thank you
Admin tasks is a pretty wide bucket. What in particular are you looking to help with? HR, bookkeeping, IT backups.
I would waste time talking to you unless I thought you could help with my specific problems
I appreciate your gusto but I really think you’re gonna be battling uphill on this one the entire time. “Small business owners” are way too large of a demographic, so maybe figure out a niche business where you could help those operators with niche solutions.
Your intentions are good but a $10 coffee card is not compelling for me to help you start your own business. I will consult someone on how to start their own version of what I do for tens of thousands of dollars, but otherwise I’m laser beamed focused on my own brand OR taking mental breaks like this and zoning out.
Call them Join a BNI group
You need to tackle a *specific* problem otherwise nobody knows if you are well-versed enough to do be considered to do their “busy work”.