2 builders who never spoke to each other

Sell the work sitting on your hard drive

Go through what you have already produced, client files, illustrations, checklists, past talks, and look for the piece somebody would buy as it stands. Cleaning it up and exporting every format the buyer needs is a smaller job than inventing a product, and it converts you from someone with ideas into someone with customers.

The method

1. 01

   Go through the files you already have from client work and sell the reusable pieces as small products, even if nobody knows your name.

2. 02

   Polish the raw asset before selling it and export every file format the buyer will want.

3. 03

   Scan specifically for these candidates: a spreadsheet you use for calculations, a checklist PDF you follow before launches, photos that could be licensed, music usable on podcasts, and sketches a client never took.

4. 04

   Look through work you have already done, on your drive or in your published posts, for something that could be packaged and sold as it stands.

5. 05

   Scope the first offer as a process you can take one customer through inside an hour.

What it returned

• $10

  Darian Rosebrook, a designer with a day job and a new baby, found topographic map vectors and a set of Photoshop ink brushes on his drive, listed each at $10 on Podia, and made his first sales online despite being largely unknown in design.

• 50

  A reader told Welsh he saved lots of his posts but wanted them somewhere easier to reach, which became a swipe file of his 50 best posts, collectively viewed more than 21M times.

• Darian cleaned up his illustrations and produced .ai, .svg, .png and .jpg versions.

• Justin's own list came out as his web page essay, the podcasts he hosted and guested on, his newsletter and blog writing, his books and courses, the speaking and MC work he did at Laracon and at MicroConf, the MegaMaker Club, and Transistor.

Sources

• Do you even want to be "a bootstrapper?"Justin Jackson · justinjackson.ca · How to figure out what's worth pursuing · undated
• What's on your hard drive?Justin Jackson · justinjackson.ca · Learn from Darian Rosebrook's story · undated
• Unconventional bootstrapping: round 1Justin Jackson · justinjackson.ca · What should you teach? · undated
• How Anthony built a $100,000 side business (in just 12 months)Justin Welsh · justinwelsh.me · Step 4: Create a process you can walk your Ideal Customer through in 60 minutes or less · 2023-04-08
• I Spent $40.93 and 10 Minutes to Generate $7,500 in SalesJustin Welsh · justinwelsh.me · Step 1: Find anything on your computer/your social media that already exists and could be valuable. · 2022-11-12