It’s all about words…
Hey, folks.
The more I create content for this joint, the more I’ve come to realize that the baseline for every single business idea is…
WORDS.
Words are the very first thing that transforms an “idea” in your head into a real thing out there in the world.
Whether you speak those words to someone or write them out and someone reads them, it’s WORDS that are the very first step in an idea becoming a reality.
Without words, you’ve got nothing.
Once the words are audibly or visually published, you have something to work with.
Until then, you’ve got nothing.
But publishing your words for the world to see can be pretty intimidating.
What if they suck? What if your first draft is sloppy, incoherent, and laughable?
Well, chances are, it will be.
Almost all first drafts are.
But you can’t get to the 10th draft without writing the 1st draft.
You don’t always have to show the world the initial drafts, but you do need to get them out of your head in one form or another.
And the fastest way to find out if your idea sucks or not is to let other people (besides you) see or hear it.
So whether you wait until draft #2 or draft #12, you won’t really know how genius or crappy your idea is until you see how other people react to it.
And that’s why I push hard on the idea of developing thick skin and just making stuff happen.
Put your ideas into written or spoken form and get them out into the world.
Even if it’s just in front of a few trusted friends at first.
Get some feedback from live, breathing humans. No amount of contemplation will ever beat real human feedback.
Once you’re able to observe a real human take in and process your idea, you’ll have a whole slew of adjustments and changes you can make to the words you just watched them process.
Then, once you’ve done that, you can show them the revised version and see how much better it landed (or not).
This is all feeling a bit abstract at the moment, so let’s bring it down to earth.
Let’s say you can’t stand the idea of showing your idea to a group of people you know. You’re afraid of sounding dumb and think people will laugh at it.
There are sites where you can pay to have real people take a poll about an idea you might have.
One of them is PickFu.com. There are a lot of them out there, and I have no idea if one is vastly better than another, but this is the one I came across first, so I decided to give it a whirl.
When I was trying to decide on the title of the free book on my home page, I ran a poll to have real people react to and decide which title was best.
As it turned out, I decided I didn’t like any of the titles I ran the poll with, so it ended up being rather worthless. BUT I did get to see firsthand how fast results came in and what sorts of things people had to say about it — which was insightful.
Here’s a screenshot of my poll results:
Pretty interesting, ain’t it?
You could run a poll about absolutely anything. And the more money you pay, the more results you get.
Now, this isn’t a foolproof way to test an idea. Sometimes they might serve your idea to a group of people that doesn’t really represent who your target audience might be.
So you could get a ton of positive feedback from people who claim they would spend money on whatever your idea is — and then, in real life, when rubber meets road, their wallet stays shut.
Or you could get all kinds of nasty feedback on an idea, but in real life, there might be a completely different audience than the ones who took your poll that would actually love it.
The point is, a poll website like this just gives you a rough lay of the land.
You can take the results with a grain of salt and either pivot based on the feedback or scrap an idea altogether.
For $100 or less.
Here are a few ideas off the top of my head that someone could use to gauge interest on a polling website such as PickFu:
A subscription service where someone comes to your house twice a year and deep-cleans and deodorizes all the appliances your cleaning lady doesn’t touch (dishwasher, washing machine, dryer vent, fridge coils, etc.)
A “Total Home Exterior” company that handles lawn care, fertilizing, pest control, snow plowing, gutter cleaning, and holiday lights — all under one annual contract.
Short-term light tower rentals specifically for backyard parties, weddings, and graduation events.
Marquee letter rentals for weddings and events (LOVE, MR & MRS, last names, etc.)
A “Home Watch” service for snowbirds that checks on properties while owners are in Florida.
A niche website focused entirely on youth flag football drills and playbooks.
A local newsletter that only covers positive community news and small business spotlights.
A land-clearing and brush-mulching business focused exclusively on residential homeowners instead of commercial jobs.
A mobile garage organization service that builds custom shelving for those black-and-yellow storage bins everyone owns.
A service that deep-cleans and restores outdoor patios and decks once per year as a subscription.
A tree company that offers an instant online job-cost estimator tool on its website.
A digital course teaching homeowners how to remodel a bathroom step by step without hiring a contractor.
A done-for-you backyard pickleball court layout and installation service.
A “Dad Skills” membership community teaching basic home, car, and money skills to young men.
A niche site dedicated to helping brand-new youth baseball coaches run organized, fun practices.
A hyper-local “Best of Grand Rapids” site monetized with affiliate links and local sponsorships.
A kids entrepreneurship club that helps 8–14-year-olds start tiny neighborhood businesses.
A service that installs decorative ceiling beams and coffered ceilings in bedrooms in 48 hours or less.
A mobile pet wash service that comes to your driveway on a monthly subscription.
A “Friday Night Lights” rental business that extends outdoor events past sunset.
And the beauty of PickFu (or similar platforms) is you don’t just ask:
“Is this a good idea?”
You can ask things like:
Would you pay $250 for this service twice per year?
Which name sounds more trustworthy?
Which version of this offer makes more sense?
What concerns would stop you from buying this?
Now you’re not just daydreaming.
You’re collecting ACTUAL reactions.
And reactions are way more useful than opinions floating around in your own head.
Tomorrow, I’ll continue my rant about how words are so important when it comes to business ideas… because I seem to have gotten lost on a polling tangent with this one.
Like I tend to do sometimes.
And I’m out of time right now.
To be continued tomorrow.
C-ya then,
Kurt
