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.
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