Hello Reader,

Some quick housekeeping:

👉 I'm writing this newsletter early because I'm out of town. If you reply, I won't see it for a bit—but I promise I'll read it ASAP!

👉 If you've been meaning to check "finally do SEO" off your marketing to do list, you'll want to check out what I'm calling Summer of SEO—we're reteaching our SEO workshops live, offering an "audit-palooza," and a few other fun things, including a free workshop I usually teach in other people's programs. If this sounds up your alley, sign up to get notified here.​

Last week, I briefly mentioned the idea of minimum viable products (MVP), and while I talked about this concept in my newsletter quite a few years ago, my thinking on the subject has evolved significantly.

Fortuitously, I was talking to my friend Sara this week and she gave me a lightbulb moment by calling what I'd refer to as "MVPs" as "low fidelity" and that just hit the nail on the head—that's exactly the best framing I've ever heard for this concept.

And since I received a couple of replies (thank you!) asking what this should look like, and because I've been thinking about this a lot as I'm considering a side project, I thought I'd dive into what a solid MVP can look like for small businesses and consultants.

The stars have aligned, as they say, to revisit this subject!

If you're not familiar with minimum viable products , it's a concept borrowed from the tech world, and is a version of a product (or for our purposes, a service) that has just enough features to be usable by your audience. Basically, this approach allows you to validate your concept prior to investing in the full build out.

When we started our now-retired Design in a Day program, we did so with this approach. (You can read a blog post about this old service, if you're interested.) It gets a bit meta, because we created an MVP for a productized service that was effectively developing an MVP website. For that, the stack of resources was pretty minimal: a landing page, a scope of work, a launch email, and an Instagram post. (I look at that now and I'm just shaking my head—we could have been much more effective off the bat, but live and learn!)

Now, if I were launching a new service, side project, or whole new business, I'd do things a bit differently.

• Legal foundations: I'm not an attorney, but my own business lawyer Nequosha is a very smart woman who has impressed upon me and the rest of her clients the critical need for protecting yourself legally before you start sharing. Because the stakes are so high, messing this up is a nothing short of catastrophic.
• A really, really small website (with a blog): I really believe that if you're a brand new consultant, coach, or service provider you need no more than a three page site, plus a blog. Those pages would be a homepage that follows my magical homepage formula, a contact page, and an optional services OR about page. And don't forget the blog—this is non-negotiable! Interestingly, my first website basically had everything I could do or had done on it. A year or two later, I changed it to being a one pager and my blog. Guess which one was more profitable and attracted more right-fit leads? Did I mention that the blog is essential?
• A newsletter—with a plan for how to use it: I often tell folks that if I could wave a magic wand and change anything, it would have been that I started my weekly email on day one. Would it have kind of sucked? Probably! But it also would have been a way to build relationships from the get-go. When I started this business back in 2008, it was socials, socials, socials—emails were going to die. And so even though I had years of experience telling me that newsletters (email and before that, print) worked, I believed that hype.
• A way to take payments and manage finances. Okay, I had this from the start, and it was fine (a now-defunct software called Outright that was actually really great). Now, if I were a new consultant, I would probably do something slightly more robust such as Dubsado or even something a bit fancier for the financial backend if I had big contracts like The Collective. (Note: I am an affiliate with both but I recommended them prior to becoming an affiliate; the second is only for US-based businesses.)
• Some kind of framework or model. This is one of those things that seems like an "I'll get to it when I can" thing until you actually do it and then you wonder why you waited so long. Even if it was a rough, "here's how I do my thing" it will make connecting with the right (emphasize on the word right) audience so, so much easier—and weed out misaligned folks in the process.

It would be that simple.

In terms of marketing, I'd focus on three areas:

1. The aforementioned blog
2. Networking, especially locally if I was offering a service
3. The newsletter to engage folks from the first two areas

Notice I don't say, "Launch your service with a Google Doc!" This is a tactic I typically recommend against as it misses some key trust factors (ie domain names and a seriousness element that most clients need).

You can take this super simple setup and adapt it if you're launching a new service or a side project like a course. Some of the nuts and bolts will be different, but the essence would remain the same: a proper online home, a mailing list, a way to handle money, and a documented why/how.

Do you regret getting to complicated with launching or thing? Or did iterating over time make sense to you from the beginning? I'd love to hear your story!

Talk soon,

Sarah

P.S. I finally have a bit of space in my schedule and have opened up some strategy session spots for May and June. (I was limiting them to just three or so a month since January.) You can grab one of my ask me anything style 1:1 sessions right here. ​