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Non Technical Hacker Seeking Support in Defining the Next Step

I have been following IH for about a year now - during this time I have been working on a product idea that would help local, small service-based businesses (Plummer, roofers, lawn care etc) deploy a website through an intuitive process, designed with fundamentals of SEO and maximizes lead conversions - and most importantly, helps manage and track leads..

I'm a technical marketer and my passion is identifying unique and simple solutions to big problems. I have a ton of work into this idea, however my would be co-founder is unable to continue the journey due to life and work requirements.

My life mission is to control my own time and break away from the 9-5, while having fun doing it. I'm not giving up, but I'm not sure what my next step should be and I could use some help from the community.

Here is where I'm at:

  1. Identified the problem (and have experience solving it through traditional methods)
  2. Researched market potential.. it's big - there is definitely a gold nugget to be found
  3. Researched and interviewed potential customers
  4. Built mockups / wireframes / flowcharts and even a pretty medium fidelity prototype using powerpoint.
  5. Conducted several user interviews with mock-up with positive results
  6. TBD...

I know I need to talk to more of my customers which I will- however I'm trying to avoid paralysis by analysis. I know there is major potential here, some research and some is the vision (you have to go with your gut sometimes right?) -

So what should I do next? Build a landing page and try and get sign ups (seems logical)? When should I find someone to build a working prototype? Should I find a co-founder (if so has anyone had success doing this with IH?) or should I hire a remote developer for the initial build?

Any and all feedback / encouragement appreciated.

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    @ZachHack You dont sound like your in the newbie stage. You know what you want to build and why you want to build it. All I have to say is do it, build it, invest in your self and get the thing built. You dont need to talk about it or do any landing pages, get the product done, you already have the marketing chops to help it grow from there!

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      Thanks for the motivation @mhunzi!!

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    You should probably start putting something concrete up already, like a landing page. Is a website your final product? You can start with WordPress and use a few plugins that would start telling people about your services and about yourself. That should be your next immediate goal.

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      Thanks @kaishounachi. It would be a webapp and/or eventually a mobile app that generates a website optimized for small, serviced based business owners.

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      @balban Good suggestion! I have been offering this service to businesses for years now. I build wordpress websites for local businesses currently. Over the years I have simplified the format and design to maximize conversion rates. Each site I manage has about a 6% conversion rate to leads. The problem now is they get so many leads that they don't have a way to manage the leads and all CRM systems are overly complicated for them and require way too much training and specialization to implement into their workflow. The idea is a simple website generator that distills down the fundamentals of local marketing and CRO, but the money is in the leads and giving them a simple way to manage those leads.

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      @webapppro not dreaming of riches - just freedom from the daily grind of a 9-5. I would be happy making half my salary as long as I control my time. Thanks for sharing!

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          Zach appears to have a different approach, he's not creating a marketplace but instead a site builder for tradies. Is that right Zach? Now, I run a web dev company and when we need work we do a bunch of prospecting and a good portion of these calls are to these types of businesses. Its tough trying to show the value of a website in this space but id happily share some insights if you need more.

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            Thanks for the @Kerranm Simply, yes. However like how razor companies sell you the handle for very cheap.. they make money off of the razor. The difference is that the site builder would be the "handle" :)

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          It's a great video! A couple things, it's not about the idea its about the execution, right? It's not really the same idea. It's the same market though, similar customers but how we would go about solving the problem is different.