I hope I’m not clogging up the list too much with my OGP updates. There will only ever be 8 of them and then I’ll be done, so if anybody’s bothered by it, I guess you’ll only be bothered very temporarily.
Here’s a summary of day 2:
http://www.jasonswett.net/operation-get-profitable-day-2-of-8/
Hi, Jason - best of luck with your operation. Out of curiosity, how did you stumble across such a niche market? Does a family or friend work in a salon?
Jason, interesting stuff.
Are you familiar with Patrick McKenzie? If not, find him on these Internets at http://www.kalzumeus.com/
He talked last weekend at MicroConf Europe about his market research in massage parlours massage clinics. (He also learnt the importance of nomenclature). He went to 10 or so in Chicago, asking how much for a 45-minute massage, then asking to speak to the manager/owner, offering to pay that money not for a massage, but to chat with the owner for 45 minutes about the business. Well, I didn’t take notes, so I guess I’m getting the story quite wrong in the details, which is why I think you should send Patrick an email asking if he could share this strategy with you. He had something like a 90% success rate in getting to talk to the manager, all of which but one refused his money, and all which happily handed over their email to be sold later on his then-vapourware product.
Anyways, it sounds like his approach would be entirely suitable for you.
Hy Jason,
As this is all a series of blog posts I think it’d be better if you just updated one thread rather than create 8 which are just links to your blog. That way they’d all be in one place and not 8 different threads.
So modify the title here to remove the days and just make this the main thread.
Good idea, @ian. I feel a little silly for not having done that in the first place.
@thegrandbonce Yes, my wife got a job at a salon in 2010. Their software was horrible, like this ugly Windows desktop thing with really confusing interfaces, and the competing products seemed of similar quality, so I figured I could build something better, or at least easier to use.
@SteveMcLeod Yeah, I’m actually a huge patio11 fan. I’ve heard him tell that story, although in my experience so far it’s not even necessary to offer to pay for the service. If they’re too busy right then anyway, my money doesn’t matter, and I’ve never had a not-busy person refuse to talk to me on account of not being paid for their time. It’s amazing how welcoming and forthcoming everyone has been.
Respect for sticking it out, being honest and I’m rooting for your success (see what I did there?)
Ah! Like hair roots. Thanks for the encouragement. I’m hopeful that one of these OGP-generated prospects will convert.