Evan Carmichael advises Chris on launching a bicycle billboard advertising startup. Start with free trials targeting businesses already using outdoor media, then use small-scale tests to prove revenue gains before raising prices. Founders should handle early sales themselves to validate the product and gather feedback, not hire salespeople yet.
Questions this video answers
Offer a free trial on a small scale to demonstrate increased revenue, target advertisers already using similar mobile/outdoor media, build the service around direct customer feedback, and gradually increase pricing as results are proven.
No. Founders should handle early sales themselves to validate product‑market fit and build a track record before hiring dedicated salespeople; outsourcing at this stage is premature.
Chapters
Hi, I'm Evan Carmichael. Welcome to another edition of #AskEvan. In today's video, I'm going to answer 2 questions from one of my forum users, Chris, who is a new entrepreneur, and he wrote in. He's from England, and he said he's trying to launch a bicycle billboard company. And his first question was, what would it take to convince your business to adopt a new advertising medium that you haven't used before? So Chris, quickly for this one, I think for me it would be a small test. I get pitched a whole bunch of times on trying out different products or services, and most of the time I say no unless I see, you know, real potential value. But I won't pay for anything until I see that it's working. I'm a firm believer in not spending money till you're making money. So for me to try out your service, I'd have to do a free trial. I'd have to, you know, see that it's working on a small scale, and if it is and I'm getting, you know, increased revenue and it's driving me business, then I'd going to spend and hopefully spend big with you because what you're doing is really working. So especially now since you haven't started this thing yet and you don't have any track record, I would say you have to do some free trials with some businesses. Look at who else is already advertising on kind of mobile, if you're looking at the buses for example going by, the benches, who's advertising there already and start to try to go after those types of companies because they're already kind of understanding the importance of doing it. Start on a free trial, build up momentum, show that it's working You know, offer them a couple months, then, you know, have pricing at the beginning, you know, then you start ratcheting it up as you see they're getting results. So that's how I would do it. Kinda sucks at the first part, but for any entrepreneur, you gotta go out and get some clients. Even better would be to try to build around your client. I'm a huge advocate of trying to build around a customer. So before launching this business, I'd go and start talking to these customers and asking, is this something that's really needed? And how would you do it? How would we be able to provide the most value to you compared to bus advertising or bench advertising? And maybe they'll give you some ideas, and if they give you ideas, then it's gonna be a great idea because it's their own idea and they're willing to pay you to help them implement that idea. So I would go and start talking to customers as well and try to build a product or service that's gonna help, you know, help them out more than what you had in mind. And maybe similar to what you had, But chances are they're gonna wanna change it or add tweaks, and they're the customer, so if they're gonna pay you to do it, why not? So that was the first question. Second question was, would you recommend outsourcing sales for small startups? And usually my answer here is no, mostly because you don't know if your product or service is gonna work, and that's your job as a founder to go out and start talking to customers and show that you have something that people are actually gonna be able to use, right? It's hard to attract a salesperson to join a company with zero track record, and you don't know if your service is something that people are going to want to take on or not. So before you get too sold on how your, you know, bicycle advertising system is going to work, again, build around the customer. It's your job as a founder to go out and make sure that you have a viable product or service. Go start talking to customers, see if they like your idea, get their feedback, make changes and tweaks, show that what you can deliver is something that's going to be value-add. And then once you're confident in that, you're able to bring on a salesperson who can, you know, do a better job going out sales, expand your business, and you have some track record that they're gonna wanna come on board and help you out with. So that would be my advice. You might be able to have somebody kinda help you generate a couple leads or do some research for you, but I think it's gonna be on you at the start to go out and also prove to yourself that what you have is a viable business and something that you're gonna, you know, plant your stake in the ground and spend the next couple years building. So hopefully that helps. If you guys like the video, please give it a thumbs up. It makes me want to do more of these videos for you. And if you have a question or if you have a comment on this video, I'd love to see it. If you want to leave it in the comments below. So thank you, and we'll see you on the next episode. ¡Gracias!
