Thread by @ImSamThompson

Building a micro-business in 24 hours.

Live on Twitter 👇

If you are like me, you probably have 437 random business ideas floating around in your head.

The best thing you can do with a new idea?

Take action on it FAST ✅

I'll show you exactly how to build an MVP in a couple hours and launch your idea.

First let's chat about....

The RULES 📑

1⃣ 24 Hours To Launch
2⃣ $250 Max "Investment"
3⃣ ZERO coding allowed

I am going to stress test some of the LaunchOS.co principles with ONE GOAL:

Show you how easy it can be to launch a new idea and test the market.

Next, let's talk about the IDEA 💡

I have been spending more time on #SMBtwitter lately chatting with guys like @stephenolmon @ConnorAbene & @StrongpointRich.

They are buying local small businesses BUT want to find more off-market deals.

& they need help finding them 👀

IDEA (p2)

I asked them about where they currently find THE BEST off-market businesses to buy.

Their response:

"Warm intro or cold outreach"

Warm intros are hard to productize but cold outreach is interesting...

I asked: "How do you find businesses to send cold emails to?"

Rich said "Hire a virtual assistant to manually scrape Google Maps or Yelp."

So I found a Yelp scraper and ran a few tests.

BINGO ✅

At first it was just to help out my friends but I think there is a market for this tool

& Rich said he would pay for it 🤷‍♂️

Let's explore THE MARKET 🤓

SMB Buying has been gaining a lot of popularity on Twitter.

Some of my favorite accounts chatting about it:

👉 @girdley
👉 @chrisxmunn
👉 @SMB_Attorney
👉 @Codie_Sanchez

Hundreds of thousands of followers in the niche?

Market feels solid ✅

So let's build an MVP 🛠️

If you have seen one of my other builds you know my go-to roster:

@webflow
@airtable
@zapier
@stripe

These are generally the bones of my no-code builds (even though @jack_kruger_ and I have been playing @bubble + @nocodebackend lately)

First, we need to outline the FLOW 🌊

💰 Customer Pays For Data
✍️ Form To Input Their Parameters
⚙️ Scrape The Data
📨 Email Them The Results

Pro tip: Keep it simple & optimize later.

We are going to track every order & dataset in this Airtable base 👇

I've heard good things about @TallyForms and decided to give it a shot.

This will combine payment collection + on-boarding form into a single step for the customers.

Then we use @zapier to send the data to @apify to initiate the scrape and @airtable to track the order status.

BOOM 🔥 automated data requests are firing (pic 1)

Now we reroute those results back into the Airtable.

I'm using the Apify generated "Dataset ID" as the unique identifier to search for the customer (pic 2)

Then update their Airtable record with the CSV download link (pic 3)

Here is a quick flow chart:

✅ @TallyForms is integrated with @stripe
✅ @zapier pushes data to @apify & @airtable
✅ Apify enriches Airtable record with CSV link
✅ @gmail sends customer a link to the data

Simple build = minimal upkeep = happy Sam

Created a new "view" in @airtable to track completed orders & set up automation send an email with the link (pictured)

I am just using my personal email to send these (if this turns into a "real" business I will make a custom email with domain)

Now onto the fun part 👀

MARKETING 😈

Found a domain that feels like a no-brainer.

At least until Yelp hits me with a C&D 🤷‍♂️ but we will cross that bridge when we get there hahaha

Domain cost $12.

Next let's build the website.

Found a dope @webflow template for $49.

Site will follow my standard LP outline:

🔥 Big Claim Headline
👋 Customer Call Out
📜 How It Works
✅ Features
❤️ Testimonials
💰 Pricing
❓ FAQs

brb while I write some copy 😅

Website framing is done and copy is coming along nicely.

Any ideas for my BIG BOLD CLAIM?

Going to load in some stock photos from @unsplash to add some context.

Realized it only been ~2 hours....steady progress.

Website is live ✅

👉 yelpdata.com

Last few things to do on the site:

1. Pricing Bullet Points
2. FAQs Section
3. Mobile Optimize

Then I had a few ideas about the data flow 👀

Just cleaned up the pricing section and made a quick confirmation page 👍

Going to explore Tally a bit more and see if we can make the on-boarding / payment flow a little smoother.

About ~3 hours into the build...

Made the on-boarding flow a simple 3 step form.

1⃣ Customer Info
2⃣ Payment Details
3⃣ Search Parameters

About to call it a night 😴

Will add 2nd pricing plan automations and do some more optimizing in the morning.

Speaking of.....

🚨 BETA TESTERS WELCOME 🚨

If you want to try yelpdata.com for free....

Just RT the first tweet of this thread 👇

I will send you free access in the AM

Good morning beautiful people 👋

Grabbed a coffee and sitting down to wrap this thing up.

Appreciate all the love + DMs.

Makes doing these way more fun 🤘

First thing on the list:

Building the $299 pricing option automations.

Then the free one for beta testers!

Added the @zapier automations for $299 plan and free plan for beta testers.

The entire business is run through 5 zaps 🔥

Built mini-lander for free tests ✅

Upgrading scraper so I can send out testing links.

If you retweeted this thread, be on the lookout for a DM from me 📲

I've been sending DMs but figured I might as well just make it public.

Test it here 👉 yelpdata.com/free

🔥 PRO TIP:

Be broad with your "search term".

Yelp doesn't give hyper specific search queries.

The search below failed 👇

Just say "plumbing" or "HVAC"

On that note....

MVP is DONE ✅

Not sure of my plan with this in the future.

Mostly wanted to show everyone what was possible with 7 hours of free time, $120, zero code and a little bit of coffee 🤷‍♂️

+ test out launchos.co LIVE 🔥

And as always....

Appreciate y'all for being a part of it.

Feel free to DM me 👉 @ImSamThompson

I try to stay active in the DMs to help out with whatever you are building.

And share this tweet with your friends/followers to show them what's possible 👇

And a special thanks to those who inspired the build:

@stephenolmon
@ConnorAbene
@StrongpointRich
@girdley
@chrisxmunn
@WilsonCompanies
@RegZeller
@barrettjoneill
@Codie_Sanchez
@SMB_Attorney

See y'all around the internet 🤘