There are many ways to come across ideas for side projects or new businesses. It can happen at random moments during the day, when you see something at a coffee shop or during your commute.
But these can be unpredictable and, because of the way we perceive things, we tend to remember the idea itself and ideas require validation. We forget to focus on the problem that spawned that idea.
What if you could get people to hand ideas to you systematically, telling you exactly what problems they have?
I'm going to focus on a specific way of finding problems and ideas that involves cold-calling, which helped me get 100+ leads, 30+ problems and generated 3-4 potential ideas.
Have you ever picked up your phone intending to call a business (or potential customer) to try to sell them something but immediately got anxious and just hung up the phone?
I used to do this a lot. I taught myself web design as I wanted to help local businesses grow (and make myself some $ in the process), but as soon as I picked up the phone to call a business I panicked. I had no idea what I was doing, what I was going to say or even how to get through to the right person.
Finding A Solution
That is until I found a way to beat the nerves thanks to 1) a lot of practice and 2) a strategy that makes the business owner want to talk.
As I became better at it, I spoke to more businesses and came across other problems that required more than just a website revamp. From hearing little nuggets (of pain points) dropped on a call, I became curious to see how I could speak with a bunch of business owners and find patterns (that could lead to side project ideas).
The Progress I Made
I managed to cold-call 100+ business owners, discovered over 30+ problems they had which helped me come up with 3-4 SaaS ideas. The businesses I spoke to included accountants, law firms, electricians, contractors, restaurateurs, barbers, mechanics, property developers, plumbers and more.
What about the problems? These ranged from not having enough time, not generating enough income, problems with storing data, to having difficulty finding quality contractors and attaining higher-value clients.
If you’re struggling to come up with ideas for your next side project or business, the strategy I used can help you find problems to solve. This post goes into detail about that strategy and how you can start finding ideas by reaching out to businesses.
And you know what the best part is? These calls will form early validation proving that there is indeed a real need, rather than you having to aimlessly chase an idea for months without knowing if a single person cares about it.
Preparing Your List Of Businesses
Before you can call businesses, you need to put together a list of people to call!
How do you find people who are likely to talk to you and give you information? Start with your local area. Local people are more receptive to speaking to people from their own neighbourhood or community. Search for businesses in Google Maps or Yell and note down those who might be interesting to speak to. Make this list as varied as possible so you can gain a wide range of insights.
Use a template to track your calls
To make things easier, you can use this Google Sheets template that I’ve used in the past. No need for fancy CRMs. Keep it simple at this stage.
Here comes the difficult part: actually making those calls! Before you can even pick up the phone, you need to do a few things first:
- Prepare a basic script to fall back on
- Research the business you’re about to call
- Get into the mindset
Knowing What To Say
A script is something often used in sales and in customer service call centers to ensure employees don’t deviate. It’s a great tool to keep your mind focussed through all of the uncertainty that comes with cold calls.
A script is something often used in sales and in customer service call centers to ensure employees don’t deviate. It’s a great tool to keep your mind focussed through all of the uncertainty that comes with cold calls.
At the same time, a script here is not like what actors use. You do not want to sound like a robot. Your script is your GPS, helping you know where to go and how to get back on track if you’re lost, but when driving you must keep your eyes on the road. Similarly, you need to keep your head in the conversation.
Templates you can use
There are many templates you can find online for sales cold calls but the conversation is very different if you’re doing idea extraction (or even lead generation).
To make things easier, start off with this idea extraction script (from page 4), as well as this problem interview script generator by Justin Wilcox (of Customer Dev Labs) that I used previously, as well as this . There’s a lot of overlap but these cover the main questions you’d need to go over.
Customer development is key
Also, it’s worth reading about customer development tactics in general to understand how your conversation should flow. Here’s a great article by Ash Maurya on interviewing potential customers about the problems they face (but bear in mind it’s not for cold calls).
Do Your Research On The Business
Business owners will hate you for calling them, interrupting their day and immediately jumping into a sales pitch. Remember, this isn’t a sales pitch, so you will need to let go of any preconceived ideas or solutions you may have. This is solely about finding out the pain points businesses have and how you can help them.
Understand how they do business
Take a few minutes going through their website, if they have one. If they don’t, use what you can find on Google, Yell/Yellow Pages and whatever resource you used to find them initially. Ideally, you want to know the owner’s name and use this, because they will be more receptive to your interrupting their day.
Learn to build rapport
You want to know what problems they are solving with their service and get a little comfortable with speaking about it. I’m not saying you should spend hours researching the sector but should be able to chat with them, as this builds rapport and makes it easier for them to open up.
Get Into The Mindset
Speaking with random people who you have never met before can be anxiety-inducing. What makes it worse, though, is when you’re actually trying to sell them something. At this stage, when you have no ideas, it makes it a little easier.
Become the student
If you do have ideas floating in your head, it’s best not to go into this process thinking about the amazing products you can't wait to build. Bringing that up during the conversation can affect the information you receive before you’ve had a chance to properly analyse it.
When you speak with the business, you’ve got to show that you’re just learning the ropes of their industry and are curious to know what business is like. Remember, you are not selling, you’re just learning. You’re interested in potentially helping them solve their problems but actually, right now, you want to soak up knowledge.
What Are You Waiting For?
Armed with your research, your script and your new mindset, you can get started and tackle those calls! The idea is to come out of the process with a list of at least 50 businesses to call and 1-3 pain points per business.
Remember to focus on their problems
Once you’ve connected the dots and seen the patterns, you’ll not only have a bunch of problems to solve, you’ll also have a list of potential early adopters! At this point, you can finally start to work on your solutions! If you’ve done all of this and have even come up with an idea, make sure to complete your business lean canvas to put your ideas onto paper.
What's next?
I hope to share more posts in the future on how to find patterns for good side project ideas, what to do to get started and how to build an MVP.
Already have an idea or MVP?
Finally, if you already have an idea or an MVP, why not see what your revenues, costs and profits will look like with a simple financial model template?
What strategies do you use to find ideas? Please do share them in the comments section!
Really good article, thank you for sharing. It can be such an intimidating thing to spend a bunch of time talking to actual businesses. I'm willing to bet most people think it's just easier to just build the product first before you go talk to businesses so you have something to show / sell (I know this because this is exactly the mistake I made on my first product).
But this is the absolutely the key ingredient to develop belief (and later conviction) about whatever you end up building.
Thanks for the kind words, Jonathan. It really is and I totally get why people struggle with it. Like you suggested, the harder point is going out there, so only those who are willing to brave it sooner will have the best chance of succeeding.
Tribe of Five looks great. I believe strongly in accountability and try to reflect often with the help of friends. BTW, check the link in your bio as it seems broken?
You are totally right. Those who are brave and bold and willing to put in the work will have the best chance for success. There is no other way that it will work out in the long term.
That is why I'm not afraid anyone will "steal" my idea. I have conviction they will never out work me and be as passionate as I am about this project.
Thank you for pointing out the broken link! Much appreciated and fixed now.
I'm really excited (and have been for quite some time) about the potential that Tribe of Five has to offer. But more than that, I am very curious to learn more about how accountability has already helped various people get better.
I'd love to know more specifically about how you've taken advantage of accountability. How has it helped you stay on track? What has it helped you achieve? And how often do you tap into your accountability buddies for help / support? Happy to chat more over email too!
PS - good luck with FinMod. It's a little too early for me to think about financial modeling, but I've bookmarked it and plan to give it a try when the time is right.
Great attitude! It'll help you along the way to have that passion.
For me, I think one aspect of accountability that helps me stayed focused and follow through is the pressure of letting someone else down, which can lead to disappointment. It has lead to achieving monthly goals (as the sessions are usually monthly) as well as longer term objectives.
I'd be happy to chat more over email or jump on a call and share experiences on accountability and other things. Email's in my bio - feel free to shoot me a message :)
Love your work Sarwech!
I actually created a web-app to help myself with cold calling and sales, and the response from other sales people has been great.
I thought it might be able to help you with future cold calling or other Indie Hackers that want to plan out their calls:
https://SalesWolf.io
"Sales Wolf" is a GREAT name!
Thank you :) Why do you say that?
A wolf intelligently and persistently pursues its prey (often in teams).
I like the intelligence and persistence part, but I definitely don't see prospects as prey! Thanks for the kind words though!
Yeah I'm not sure if they're prey...but you can say that wolves are very versatile and able to dominate in almost any territory. So this product enables people to do that with their cold calls ;)
Thanks Michael! That's a great idea and something I think could be very useful! Have you considered offering a lower package (perhaps with a limited number of scripts) to indie hackers who are just trying to find ideas? The community here might like it ;)
Thanks Sarwech. I'm currently upgrading the site and that includes the pricing (it will be lowered to cater to a wider audience). I will also take your feedback on board.
There is a 14 day free trial though :)
Awesome, I'll definitely check it out first when I need to do more cold calls! Good luck :)
Sounds great, good luck to you too :)
It's a few years since the article was published, but still really great. Thanks a lot. Currently I'm cold messaging people to find the problems, but the response rate is quite low.
Wow, this takes me back haha.
Glad you found it helpful, Nicholas. Yes cold messaging is a more scalable approach but it’s also easier for your prospects to ignore.
The important thing to remember is you want to learn from them.
Keep at it though and good luck!
This is a very interesting article with great advice thanks @sarwech.
Specially the interview templates it will help us a lot for sure in idea extraction/ validation.
By the way I am just testing a new business idea for indie hackers trying to extract idea from a target but they don't have a good target contact list. It's called 500first and it's all about getting good quality targeted leads. If you are interested please give a try at https://500first.carrd.co/
Glad you like it. Thanks for the share, will check it out!
How do you go about convincing them to talk with you?
I've never done cold calling but the closest experience think I can think of is when recruiters call me. I know it sounds mean, but sometimes I am just not interested and want to get off the phone asap. Ive had people approach me for a meeting or chat for research or survey, but they offer to pay for the hour long call spent in the meeting. So those are the two contrasting experiences I have.
How do you strike a balance with the above?
That's a great question and one of the earliest problems you'll face. I actually hate sales calls from recruiters or market research surveys because they're usually handled poorly.
But when someone asks a few right questions immediately and shows an interest in you, rather than just what's in it for them, you kinda want to keep talking. With idea extraction calls, you'll find people love to talk about themselves and their businesses.
You do have to be accepting of the fact that not everyone will have the time or inclination to want to chat. Out of say 20 businesses I'd called, only 5 might actually be happy to have a conversation.
There are obviously also certain tricks you can use depending on who you're talking to (ie targeting local help). But, like sales cold calls, it really is just a numbers game, although I'd rate it as definitely an easier experience.
Let me know if you wanna talk further! Happy to share more ideas.
Hi everyone, I thought I'd share my recent experience cold-calling businesses exclusively with the Indie Hackers community first.
I'm curious to know what your experience has been finding problems to solve. How do you usually get ideas for side projects (or businesses) and have you done any cold-calls before?
(Also, feel free to ask me if you're unsure about anything or want clarification. Happy to go into detail!)
Cold calling is an amazingly effective tool if used properly. Especially for b2b while it's still working fine for b2c also. Anyway, when I was starting to explore it as a salesman, it was pretty tough. I always messed up with area codes until I found https://areacodes.net/323 , I wasn't confident enough to convince someone but practise does the job, you become better and better. I won't say that I am perfect at it now but I am much better.
This comment was deleted 4 years ago.