3 builders who never spoke to each other

Make the first product deliberately small

Scope the first thing so it can be built and sold inside weeks, not most of a year, and accept that it will not look like anyone's idea of a big business. Charging real money for something tiny converts you from a person with ideas into a person with customers, and the reputation compounds into the bigger product later.

The method

1. 01

   Scope the first product to something you can build and sell inside a week to three months, a WordPress theme, say, or a short book, a set of icons, a course on video.

2. 02

   Scope the first product so failure would be affordable: a few weeks or a few months part-time, not most of a year.

3. 03

   New creators should sell something tiny first rather than writing a four-hundred-page book and only then discovering nobody will buy it

4. 04

   Solve one of your audience's small, simple needs first; you do not have to attack the large complicated ones to have a real product.

5. 05

   Shelve the ambitious product and instead make something small that you charge real money for, so you convert from someone with ideas into someone with customers.

What it returned

• 40

  Sacha's 40-page book took about three weeks; Nathan's 125-page book took just over three months part-time

• $3

  Sacha Greif's short UI design walkthrough took a few weeks to write, started at $3 and $6, later moved to $6 and $12, and took $6,663 in its first 24 hours

• $20

  Dan Martell's line that getting even one person to pay a dollar means you have made it online; the first thing Jason Fried sold was a FileMaker Pro database priced at $20; Justin's Product People interviewees repeatedly said they wished they had started smaller.

• Justin cites Derek Sivers on how starting small directs all your effort at real problems for real people.

Sources

• Making The Leap | Corey HainesCorey Haines · corey.co · So what’s the plan? · 2020-09-14
• The Freedom LadderJustin Jackson · justinjackson.ca · Build something bigger. · undated
• How to startJustin Jackson · justinjackson.ca · How to start · undated
• I wasted 4 years of my life doing thisJustin Jackson · justinjackson.ca · I wasted 4 years of my life doing this · undated
• It's not enough to build a product that people wantJustin Jackson · justinjackson.ca · In the beginning, focus on small wins · undated
• Join me as I create & launch a product in 24 hoursNathan Barry · nathanbarry.com · Small products · 2014-12-01
• How Nathan Barry and Sacha Greif Sold $39k Worth of eBooksNathan Barry · nathanbarry.com · Coming Up With An Idea, And Making Sure It’s Good · 2012-10-03
• Start SmallPreetam Nath · preetamnath.com · Start small, grow big · 2021-02-21