Part 1 Overview of Experiment Planning: November 25-27

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I had the idea to start this experiment last Saturday, November 25th. Before I went public with the blog, I wanted to make sure I had a viable project opportunity.

So, to catch you up to speed, here is a basic summary of the process I went through to plan out the business I wanted to start:

First Step: Find a Problem to Solve That Will Make Sales Fast

There was no end to the ideas, but I wanted one thing to be my ultimate priority: what will make sales as quickly as possible?

To start, I brainstormed a list of typical problems for people in this area (Utah County) during the month of December. The reason being that if something is a current problem, someone is more likely to purchase a solution to it.

I considered doing an online product or service, but realized that the learning curve would be greater for me to set that up, so I decided instead to build the project locally.

Potential Problems I Could Solve

Among the prizewinner ideas were: scraping ice off windshields, giving rides to students during the snow, entertaining fussy kids at the mall, or providing a fun environment for people to come to while doing boring holiday tasks, such as addressing Christmas cards, wrapping presents, etc. If you think those are idealistic, you should see the entire list–maybe we’ll post that for fun later…

So, I settled on the “fun environment at the mall idea”, and decided to approach both local malls and determine what was available.

Report of Planning: Monday, November 27th

To be honest, Monday was not the most effective use of time. I spent a lot of time thinking more about what I could do, and probably also a lot of time questioning my experiment. You know, the usual fear spectrum– “what if this doesn’t work, what if it’s lame, what if I can’t make it happen quickly enough, etc.”

I also mapped out a quick “business plan”, which frankly, was only used that day, and hasn’t been relevant since. (I had good intentions, but it seems that especially for this experiment, that things would change too quickly to keep a formal plan.)

I did spend some time doing research on both local malls– the University Mall and Provo Towne Centre. On both websites, you can find leasing information, demographics on traffic, specs on current tenant stores, etc. I also set up appointments with both management teams for the next day– with the idea, believe it or not, that finding a space would be no problem and we could even get the mall to donate the cost. Now that is optimism!!

Later that night, I re-hashed the business concept with Rachelle Anderson, who is also involved with the project, and who has been an excellent co-worker for several months.

We changed it from being a “holiday-event center for bored shoppers with selling our products on the side” idea to that of being a “Secret Santa Delivery”, where we would offer 5 core holiday products (candy canes, hot chocolate, bundt cakes, Santa hats, and Christmas cards) that someone could purchase and have delivered to a friend by someone wearing a Santa Suit.

With the new plan in place, and the mall appointments set up, we were ready for the next step!

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