Evan Carmichael advises someone building a labor marketplace app to skip building the app first. Instead, validate demand by collecting phone numbers from workers and texting them job offers in one geographic area, targeting retailers like Home Depot. Only build the app after proving the concept works and businesses will pay.
Chapters
How to market a new concept. So I got a great email from one of my newsletter subscribers, love you guys, Jerry, who wrote in to say, good morning, Mr. Carmichael. I recently came across your postings on YouTube and I've been following you ever since. First, let me thank you for your work and your assistance to the entrepreneur community. Thank you, Jerry. As a person who has failed in business many times, I've continued and pushed forward regardless. I don't want to waste your time, but I have a question and this may take a few minutes of your time. I've been in the transportation logistics field for Over 10 years, I've expanded and contracted a few times over the years. I've serviced retail clients such as Ashley Furniture, Home Depot, Sears, and a few others. But what I found is that most people or delivery contractors don't have a steady crew working with them. But the main issue is most can't find help at a moment's notice, which sometimes in this business is vital. I have an idea to create an app to help unskilled laborers such as those in construction or carpentry delivery services to link up with available hands and workers. I need to know how would I market this app? I don't want to charge right off because I want to build the network of unskilled labor first. Then as I get more exposure, maybe start charging a fee to the companies or business professionals who need immediate help. This is sort of like a staffing agency, only I want instant results for those who need help right away. How do I market this concept? Again, I love what you're doing. Keep up the great work, Evan. Jerry. So Jerry, this is a great question, and congratulations on having the guts to go forward and launch your own business around this area. I wouldn't start with an app. My number one rule for you here is start small. Number one is start small. Don't start with an app, okay? Because an app is going to cost you money, and what you need to do is test this thing. Is there actually a need for this? So you think there's a need. Is there actually a need? Will unskilled labor give you their, their contact information? And then will the Home Depot or Sears, whoever, pay you to make that service happen? Right, and you could start it without an app. Start it just by getting people's phone numbers, and you can send text messages to them. They're probably more likely to pay attention to a text than to an app anyway, but you could start that right now, right? You could start building your list of unskilled laborers and say, hey, if you ever want to do delivery services or whatever services last minute, I need people. Here's how much approximately you're gonna make from it. Give me your phone number and I'll text you anytime I get a job. That's how you start, and you build your list and you ask them for friends, and you start small. You're testing it, you see if it works, okay? Don't go spending money on an app that you lose time on, you're investing your dollars into, and you don't know if it's going to work or not, right? And so many entrepreneurs go down that road where they say, here's my new plan, I'm going to invest all these dollars and time into creating this thing, and then it doesn't work out. Where it's better to test it right away on a small scale as quickly as you can. So that's my advice. Start off, get their phone numbers, send texts, and it's manual, but if it doesn't work out, you're not dumping money into this thing, right? If it doesn't work out, it's just a little bit of your time wasted. Number 2: Start local. Start with a geographic area close to you is gonna be easy and ideal. And again, we're testing this thing out on a small scale, local workers, okay? You target the, you know, 10 local Home Depots and Sears and all that that are close to you and the local workers who are all around you, and you start with them. You see if it works. You see if you can get them to sign up. You see if you can get them to give you their phone number so you can send them text messages. That's going to be the easier side, right? To get their information, to say, hey, I may have a job for you. Hey, send me your number and I can send you a text when we have something. That should be the easier side. It's then, can you deliver to the Home Depot? So Home Depot calls and says, hey, yeah, we need 3 people to come and deliver this thing. Can you actually deliver? And so you test local, test small. You're gonna make some mistakes. You figure it out along the way. And then as you move up, number 3 is you prove the concept. You're going to make mistakes along the way. Home Depot is going to say, you know, you didn't get me my people in time, or they're the wrong people, or they didn't do what I asked, or they didn't speak English, or whatever the criteria is that they need. You're going to make mistakes, but you're going to learn from them and you're going to make it better. And maybe the solution is going to be, hey, we need an app for this. Maybe the solution is that the unskilled workers, they would love an app. And maybe the Home Depot guys would love to be able to log in and just press a few buttons and have some workers show up, right? Maybe that's the end solution, but you're not going to know that right now, right? Prove the concept, show that it works, and then you can slowly expand and see if, like, are the Home Depot guys even going to pay you for this? If you go out, you talk about marketing this concept, if you go out and you get some people a job They're going to spread the word for you, right? So in my city, Toronto, I have— we have a large Filipina community, and a lot of them are nannies. And we had a nanny for a while, and when there are jobs, they talk to each other. There's a whole community, right? There's a lot of Filipinos here. They love to share, and a lot of the jobs that, that are on the market, they never even get posted because they share and talk to each other. So if you get a few people in and you get them a job through a relationship that you have, they're gonna share, they're gonna spread that word for you and say, "Yeah, message this guy, email this guy, call this guy and get added to his list." And every time he has a job, he's gonna send you a message. So start small, start local, prove the concept, make your mistakes without spending a lot of money, and then invest in expanding this thing once you prove it in your local area, to go national and take over the world. Because that's how Jerry does. Believe. For those of you watching, like the video, support me by clicking on the link in the description, leave a comment, let me know what you think, and click on my face, subscribe to the channel. Thank you so much. I'll see you soon.
