The Smallest Business That Can Work
Before you build the company, build the thing. It sounds obvious. But somehow we often do it backwards. We get the logo. Build the website. Rent the office. Hire the team. Create the org chart. Then we start looking for the customer.
've always found that slightly mad.
What if you did the opposite?
What's the smallest version of this business that could actually work?
One customer. One product. One service. One founder. Maybe one other person.
Make that work.
Then ask what the next constraint is.
If you need another person, find one. If you need technology, build it. If you need money, raise it.
But don't build the infrastructure for a business you haven't proved exists.
There's something incredibly liberating about this.
It means you don't have to have everything figured out. You don't need the perfect team, the perfect website, the perfect office or the perfect five year plan.
You just need to make the next version work.
I think that's where a lot of founders get caught out. We're encouraged to think about the company we're going to build rather than the business we have in front of us.
But the two aren't necessarily the same thing.
The business in front of you is real. The company in your head is hypothetical.
So start with what's real.
Find the customer. Solve the problem. Create the value. Make it work.
Then grow from there.
That's what we mean when we talk about VillageAF helping founders grow big by thinking small.
Small isn't the opposite of ambitious.
Small is often where ambition becomes real.