09: When you light a firework, make sure it's pointing up

If taxidermy is taking something dead and trying to sanitise, stuff, and reposition it into something beautiful again, then today’s edition of ProblemKit is more like fresh roadkill.

However, if you have the stomach for it, there’s a surprising amount of nutrition in the recently deceased.

A key objective for ProblemKit is to develop a system that helps anyone create instant entrepreneurial momentum from a standing start.

I care about this because the fog that surrounds the very first steps into entrepreneurship can be paralysing, and I hate that feeling.

So here’s the good news: ProblemKit works.

‼️ But here's the warning label: a bit like a crooked backyard firework, momentum without careful attention to direction can be very, very hazardous.

In PK08, I presented four criteria for avoiding weak problems. On the subject of intrinsic interest, I said:

Problems are intrinsically interesting when something about the problem or the process of solving it would give us energy, rather than take it away.

Wowza, do I wish I had taken my own advice.

See, when you’re keen to get moving and you've mastered the art of finding hidden problems, it can be all too easy to pick one that looks valuable and tractable without it being intrinsically interesting to you.

Don’t do that.

Skip this step and watch in horror as your easy problem suddenly becomes fiendish. 👹

🦧 In the wild

In PK06, I advocated for picking a small problem to break the cycle of only doing ‘big stuff’ that so often burns us out.

So I started a sweatband company, and I called it Sweat Lickers Limited.

Easy enough? Probably.

Questionable? Yes.

Refreshingly different from what I know? Absolutely.

Is the problem solved by sweatbands intrinsically interesting to me?

Well… not exactly.

Now, if you read PK06, you’ll know that I actually overlooked this step on purpose because I wanted a way to expand the territory of problems I thought it was ok to work on.

Boy oh boy… did I get the medicine I needed!

I also learned a hard truth:

• Making sweatbands: easy
• Making differentiated sweatbands: medium
• Making differentiated sweatbands without industry experience: hard
• Making differentiated sweatbands without industry experience and without being intrinsically interested in the problem they solve: fiendish 👹

A short post-mortem for the morbidly curious

Highlights

• Using ProblemKit, I spun up a differentiated business in an industry unknown to me within a couple of days, rooted in a problem I’ve experienced first-hand. I think everyone should have this experience at least once in life.
• I pre-sold a handful of bands. After spending my last six months in startup land, where revenue has the equivalent status as Mewtwo in Pokémon, that first sale is intoooooxicating.
• I got rapid, hands-on experience with brand strategy, pattern design, textile garment development, Shopify store setup, SEO, photoshop, hiring freelancers, finding manufacturers, and so much more.

Lowlights

• I know that UK manufacturing isn’t as vibrant as it once was, but I was adamant about making my sweatbands where they were first produced by Fred Perry. It turns out that the British textile industry is under A LOT more strain than I expected, making it virtually impossible to squeeze in as a newbie with no relevant connections and a laughably small budget.
• When you’re new to an industry, it takes A LOT more time and money to move forward; everything is 10x slower or harder. I underestimated this. While my setup budget was ambitiously small, I couldn't allow myself to recklessly overspend in uncharted territory. A month before my deadline, I hit my damage-control spending cap and called it a day.
• Refunding customers is not fun, save for the fact that having them in the first place is a privilege.

And so that’s it for Sweat Lickers! This is a difficult one to let go of, but knowing when to stop is at least as important as knowing when to start.

Where next? Stay tuned for another homemade firework.

🛸 Misc.

Curious about taxidermy?

I'm not.

But if you are, here's a Mouse Taxidermy Workshop Manual I found on Amazon.

For Margot Magpie, the challenge of murine taxidermy was clearly an intrinsically interesting problem.

Be like Margot.

Wishing you lots of problems,

Alex

P.S., Interested in getting a coach? I'm coached by Neil Mackinnon