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- Newsletter #00061
Happy Saturday!
I’m typing this from the passenger seat of our van as we drive as a family to the Iron Bowl (Alabama Auburn game). This will be quick, but densely packed with value.
Last week’s newsletter on FB Group growth hacking was one of my highest rated ever! Thank you!
Before we start, I wanna know what business ideas you want me to cover next. I put 24 ideas on this 1 question, anonymous form. Wanna let me know real quick?
I had a call last week with a 23 year old that blew my mind. I’m convinced this guy will be mega wealthy, and you’ll soon see why. In this email I’m gonna:
Tell you what he did to make money.
Tell you how you can copy him.
Point out the framework that enables this.
Kyler noticed that many apartments around him had washer/dryer hookups but no washers or dryers.
Why? Because 56% of Americans don’t have $1,000 saved for an emergency expense. That expense might be a washer and dryer. This is why laundromats exist.
But laundromats are all of the following:
Expensive
Inconvenient
Time consuming
Yes, families routinely spend over $100/month at the laundromat. Living in poverty is expensive. Enter, the washer/dryer rental business.
As far as I know, Kyler didn’t even know this industry existed! He just thought “Huh. That’s curious. Is there a business here?”
That’s the question I ask myself a dozen times a day about the world around me. It’s a gift, an illness, a sickness, a blessing and a curse. My hope with this newsletter is that your brain can start to work a little more like that over time. Seeing the world opportunistically and hyper-curiously is a spectrum, and don’t worry, you likely won’t get all the way over to my side of the spectrum.
What Kyler did next took about 3 minutes.
He went to Facebook Marketplace and posted an ad for a washer and dryer for rent for $60/month. Where’d he get that price from? “I want to be paid back within 6-2 months.”
He pulled the image off of Google Images. By the end of the day he had 18 inquires.
The beautiful part? He didn’t even own a washer and dryer to rent out! Most people might preface that last sentence with “The problem?” But no! It’s not a problem! It’s a blessing. Here’s the framework that I live my life by:
Be impatient with the small things and patient with the big things.
What are small things? Usually things that can be done in under an hour.
Testing an email campaign
Having a difficult conversation
Validating the viability of a business
And big things? Things that usually take months or years. One big one comes to mind:
Letting the business get big enough until you can afford to pay yourself.
Naval has a similar quote, but said much more beautifully: “Impatient with actions, patient with results.”
Kyler was impatient. He posted an ad. It’s so simple, but so beautiful. He didn’t design a logo or buy a domain name. He didn’t start asking friends and family what they thought about the idea. He found a customer an validated the idea all in one. All in 3 minutes!
But now he had to go buy a washer and dryer! Where do you think he found it? FB Marketplace of course! He went and picked it up for a few hundred bucks, and took it straight to his first customer!
HE HAD REVENUE WITHIN A FEW HOURS OF HAVING THE IDEA. And you know what? It wasn’t even an idea yet. It was a curious thought. An itch that he had to scratch.
That’s what this newsletter is: Giving you itches and ways to scratch them.
Where is he now? He has about 100 sets of washers and dryers. He hasn’t even been in business for a year yet.
Is it sexy? Glamorous? Easy? None of the above. Those things are pretty heavy, you know. He tried the more expensive models at a higher price point but they kept breaking. The old white trusty standbys are his bread and butter:
His competitor has 800 sets at $85/month That’s good money!
The default or theft rate is not nearly as high as you’d think. He’s had 1 set stolen and his competitor has about 8 stolen per year.
That’s about 1% loss rate per year.
He set up recurring payments in Stripe and signs 6 month contracts. Churn is very low and customer acquisition is pretty straightforward.
How to copy him? Do the exact same thing! See how much demand is in your area. Post a few FB Marketplace ads, both boosted and unboosted, at varying price points and with varying pictures.
Track it all in a Google Sheet.
Seek to get the leads on the phone so you can learn:
Why they need this.
Who they are. Are they moving? From the area? No?
What they expect to pay?
What have their paid in the past?
What level of service do they expect for X Y or Z price point?
How long of a contract are they expecting to sign?
You can do this by the end of the hour.
I’m having Kyler on my podcast next week to dive much deeper on the nuts and bolts of this. He’s got a ton of energy! Another thing you can do to copy him is subscribe below to watch or listen when it goes live:
Kyler could be a washer/dryer slumlord if he wanted. He could raise prices and enable predatory fees. But he’s a good dude. And you’re a good dude/gal. And I am, too. We’re not about that life.
I hope you learned something today. If you did, please share this newsletter with a friend with the link at the bottom of this. And hey, Roll Tide, ok?
How'd I Do Today? |
Your favorite toxic optimist,
Chris Koerner
chrisjkoerner
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