3 ms·

Have some skill where you can do X and it will cause money to happen for the client. Use existing knowledge of some narrowly specific type of business to give

by glimcat 13y ago

Have some skill where you can do X and it will cause money to happen for the client. Use existing knowledge of some narrowly specific type of business to give you intimate knowledge of the unique concerns those people have, how they talk about it, and what boundary conditions are going to affect which solutions do and don't fit well (e.g. gourmet pizza joints near college campuses, or heritage language schools to steal a previous patio11 example). If you don't have that sort of knowledge already, talk to people until you do. If you do have that sort of knowledge already, keep talking to people anyway because you still have plenty more to learn. Use knowledge of this specific customer to find, approach, and pitch clients who are a good match for your target customer. If you don't know how to find them, you don't know them yet. Then, pitch them: "You can have me do X which will cause money to happen for you." "I'm aware that you have concern_a and concern_b, which I will handle using specific_approach, whereas generic_person_235089 doesn't even have a clue about these important_issues." LISTEN to what they say, then use it to refine your ability to select potential clients and to improve your future pitches. Easy, easy, easy hack: remember the words they use to describe things and use EXACTLY those words when pitching them. Run 10 pitches, review, repeat with another 10 target customers. Make money. Then, go read tptacek's guide to scaling your practice: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4247615 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4247615 P.S. It's okay to be a generalist on the back end. It's not okay to be a generalist when you pitch. Address a clear, specific problem for a clear, specific target customer using clear, specific language which shows sensitivity to the issues as THEY see it and talk about it. 98% of people pitch by talking about things that are really their problems, not the client's problems. Actually, saying 2% of people clear that bar is probably being too generous. If you aren't sure, a good trick is to ONLY use language that you've heard come out of a customer's mouth.

chii 13y ago
where do you find these people to talk to? any specific location/meetups? i would think that the enterprise clients that can pay for such professional services don't tend to go to language/startup meetups.
- glimcat 13y ago
  For my particular geographical location, tech meetups are pretty much a wash. Also I usually prefer to target non-tech clients which will care about results vs. wanting to debate choice of database. Also, meetups are mainly good for random socialization and free beer. Sometimes networking, but often only incidentally. You need to get way more targeted than "tech people in my area who also want socialization and free beer." Scrounging at meetups is the last resort of people who don't know who their customer is yet. Being able to find your customer is one of the first things you have to learn about them. And to start out, go about it like you would trying to find any other thing - just, be a lot more determined and creative about it than you would trying to find a local pizza joint to order from. Say you want to land a heritage language school as a client. Where can you find these people? Where can you find their clients - who might be happy to talk to you at length about which schools in the area are best for people who are concerned about heritage language education? * Get on Google, Google Maps, Yelp and search for heritage language schools my_city. * Check forums and trade publications relevant to heritage language schools. If you don't know them, find out while you're learning the other stuff. * Track down bloggers who write about heritage language education, see if they mention any specific schools / issues, research those. Connect with any users you find in e.g. comments, guest bloggers, etc. * Guess that many people who are customers of heritage language schools are second or third generation immigrants. Where else can you find these people? Are there churches, community centers, or local shopping resources that also target them? Find your customers - by way of their customers or competitors if necessary. All of the above probably have something useful to teach you about making your business succeed.
  - lazerwalker 13y ago
    How do you recommend finding a niche like "heritage language schools"?
    - glimcat 13y ago
      Try a few and see which people you enjoy working with. You also want people who will (1) be happy paying you real money if you can reliably produce value, and (2) be more or less content to let you be the expert as long as you're on the ball about producing value and communicating effectively. You do NOT want cases where people will complain that $20/mo is too expensive, or that a $3 business app doesn't have enough features. Once you pick an area or two that you have interest in, your first steps should be trying to track down and connect with people. Can you do that? If not, it's probably a bad domain for you. Then, customer development interviews. Learn about them before you work with them. Existing domain experience from previous stuff you've done in your career is a good starting point. Never worked around real estate agents but have intimate knowledge of how to sell construction companies? That should tell you something about where to look first. It's a matter of applying conditional probabilities, really. Want to work with barber shops but find that's too general? Okay, what about hipster barber shop owners in their early 30s with a master's degree in English Lit? Now it's suddenly way too specific. Somewhere between the two, you become the ONE person in the city who is right for THEM.

by glimcat 13y ago

chii 13y ago

where do you find these people to talk to? any specific location/meetups? i would think that the enterprise clients that can pay for such professional services don't tend to go to language/startup meetups.

glimcat 13y ago
For my particular geographical location, tech meetups are pretty much a wash. Also I usually prefer to target non-tech clients which will care about results vs. wanting to debate choice of database. Also, meetups are mainly good for random socialization and free beer. Sometimes networking, but often only incidentally. You need to get way more targeted than "tech people in my area who also want socialization and free beer." Scrounging at meetups is the last resort of people who don't know who their customer is yet. Being able to find your customer is one of the first things you have to learn about them. And to start out, go about it like you would trying to find any other thing - just, be a lot more determined and creative about it than you would trying to find a local pizza joint to order from. Say you want to land a heritage language school as a client. Where can you find these people? Where can you find their clients - who might be happy to talk to you at length about which schools in the area are best for people who are concerned about heritage language education? * Get on Google, Google Maps, Yelp and search for heritage language schools my_city. * Check forums and trade publications relevant to heritage language schools. If you don't know them, find out while you're learning the other stuff. * Track down bloggers who write about heritage language education, see if they mention any specific schools / issues, research those. Connect with any users you find in e.g. comments, guest bloggers, etc. * Guess that many people who are customers of heritage language schools are second or third generation immigrants. Where else can you find these people? Are there churches, community centers, or local shopping resources that also target them? Find your customers - by way of their customers or competitors if necessary. All of the above probably have something useful to teach you about making your business succeed.
- lazerwalker 13y ago
  How do you recommend finding a niche like "heritage language schools"?
  - glimcat 13y ago
    Try a few and see which people you enjoy working with. You also want people who will (1) be happy paying you real money if you can reliably produce value, and (2) be more or less content to let you be the expert as long as you're on the ball about producing value and communicating effectively. You do NOT want cases where people will complain that $20/mo is too expensive, or that a $3 business app doesn't have enough features. Once you pick an area or two that you have interest in, your first steps should be trying to track down and connect with people. Can you do that? If not, it's probably a bad domain for you. Then, customer development interviews. Learn about them before you work with them. Existing domain experience from previous stuff you've done in your career is a good starting point. Never worked around real estate agents but have intimate knowledge of how to sell construction companies? That should tell you something about where to look first. It's a matter of applying conditional probabilities, really. Want to work with barber shops but find that's too general? Okay, what about hipster barber shop owners in their early 30s with a master's degree in English Lit? Now it's suddenly way too specific. Somewhere between the two, you become the ONE person in the city who is right for THEM.