In 2017, we launched Nimble Bar Co and decided to go galivanting across Canada with it.
We had no idea what we were doing or selling.
We thought we knew what people wanted.
We got together and ‘brainstormed’.
We figured…
- Restaurants need videos! We’ll make ‘em cool videos…
- People want fancy cocktails! We’ll go do parties and make ‘em cool drinks…
- People want drink content! We’ll create weird videos of cocktails in the wilderness…
- People want to see ‘behind the scenes’’! So I’ll do a jog every day and share what we’re up to (I still have PTSD from this)…
While that was all *a bit* true. None of it was true enough to build a business.
(+ the combination of all those ‘services’ was confusing AF)
And as Donald Miller says, “If you confuse, you lose.”
So how did we figure out what our market actually wanted?
Well we went through this epic 14-step market research proce—-
Just kidding.
We asked lol.
- Folks wanted to know how we learned to bartend
- They wanted to know how we got our first bartending job
- They were looking for ways to learn to make drinks
In other words, they wanted to do what we had already done.
We were blind to that.
We figured, “What’s the big deal? We’re just bartenders.”
So we made a bartending school. Simple.
As for the cross-Canada trek? Let’s just say It was an expensive lesson that..
- The best ideas don’t come from your brain. They come from listening to your market.
- Most people underestimate the value they can impart (even when they’re only 1 step ahead of their customer).
- You only fail if you quit. If you fail, and don’t quit, the failure becomes a good part of your story.
Fun way to get an education. 👨🎓
