Let’s break down how you can go from idea to minimally viable product (MVP) to your first customer in 4 steps:

Step 1: Research

One of the best indicators that you have a product or service that people will pay for is if there is already a product or service people are paying for that is similar.

If you are starting off — I recommend a service based offer like teaching others a skill or a short course that helps a customer get from point A to point B quickly.

For example, teaching bootcamp grads how to write unit tests. Perhaps a NextJS crash course. Public speaking for shy software developers maybe?

A service-based offer does not scale easily. That’s ok.

Your goal is to ensure your service works, get customer testimonials and great results. Eventually you will see trends and common issues. This is when you commoditize your service into a course, book or recording so that others can benefit without paying the high price for 1 on 1 time.

1 on 1’s should be high priced (reasonably). It ensures the customer takes the program seriously and prevents you from dealing with flakes and generally attracts better customers.

Step 2: Make an offer they can’t refuse

I started my business on Instagram with less than 500 followers. I’ve grown to ~10k with a few lucky viral posts. You can follow me at BrianJenneyCode if that’s your thing.

My offer back then?

“I work with software engineers to crush their next interview without doing 100s of LeetCode problems. We don’t stop until your hired”

I got my first 3 customers this way.

You don’t need a large following to start making money. You need a good offer.

A good offer should make a guarantee with an outcome and reverse the risk in the customer’s mind.

My new product is my Not Another Course offering which I guarantee will shorten your path to senior software engineer through practical exercises you won’t find anywhere else.

This offer needs some work and I think the product actually offers too much. When I re-package it, it will be sold as a developer survival guide to get through the first 6 months on a new job. All the additional material will focus on this very specific goal.

Step 3: No one knows you exist… yet

I scaled my LinkedIn from 1k to 25k followers with some luck, consistency and barely any viral posts.

Same thing with my Instagram. I have 2 viral posts which netted 90% of my followers.

Consistency > intensity every single damn time.

I barely make any money from either account. I have made lots of amazing connections, business deals and landed speaking engagements. I like writing there and I don’t plan to stop.

Likes ain’t cash my friend. You can’t have 0 followers either.

Start on some platform. IG, TikTok, LinkedIn. Whatever.

Your posts should speak about the topic related to your service. Show your expertise, give a sneak peek behind the scenes on what your building and ALWAYS have a call to action.

Encourage them to book a call with you to discuss their problem and IF they are a good fit, explain your solution and ask if they’d be interested to learn more. If they are, the conversation should turn to your offer, the specifics of your program and finally the cost.

If your product is a course or app, a link to the site is sufficient.