4 builders who never spoke to each other

Get something live in a single sitting

Domain, a hosted page builder and a way to take money is a day of work, and it is enough to start selling. The first store can do one configuration job with no options and a rough layout, and accounts can be created by hand from an invitation form while the numbers are small, which costs nothing and teaches you something about every signup.

The method

1. 01

   Go from idea to live list in a week: domain, newsletter, landing page, then tell people

2. 02

   Put the first storefront up on a cheap hosted builder in a single sitting and move to a heavier platform only once the business is proven.

3. 03

   Ship a store that does one configuration job and nothing else. Accessories, options and a decent layout can all wait until orders are arriving.

4. 04

   Open with a site and an invitation request form, then create the accounts by hand. While demand is small the manual work costs nothing and you learn from every signup.

What it returned

• 258

  Domain registered, newsletter started and landing page designed within a week, giving 258 subscribers in launch week

• 15

  Welsh recommends Stan Store, which he says gets a simple site live in under 15 minutes. He and Natoli both later moved to Kajabi.

• The first Matboard and More site was a wizard for choosing a matboard, a size and a quantity, with a rough layout and almost no options, and it took orders from day one.

• Bugfender launched with a request an invitation form, no charge and no registration form, and accounts were made manually in the database. Few enough people asked that it was not a burden.

Sources

• How Anthony built a $100,000 side business (in just 12 months)Justin Welsh · justinwelsh.me · Step 5: Use Stan Store to build your personal store · 2023-04-08
• How to grow an audience through curating contentNathan Barry · nathanbarry.com · iOS Design Weekly · 2018-12-03
• Bugfender: Scaling an Internal Remote Logger to €9,000/MonthJordi Giménez · failory.com · How did you build Bugfender? · undated
• Digitizing a Startup & Making $170,000/MonthMehdi Kajbaf · failory.com · How did you build Matboard and More? · undated