On Tuesday, my partner brought in some mail from the letterbox.
There was one letter that got my attention.

I immediately opened it because:
a) It’s handwritten
b) It implied that it was someone who lived near
c) It had no stamp, so it must have been dropped in our letter box by hand
What I found inside made me smile even more.

A letter from three founders starting a new business with a photo and their business card.
One of the biggest lessons I’ve found from building a few companies now is that you need to do things that don’t scale in the early days.
This can look like:
-
Staying at your customers’ houses – Airbnb
-
Asking your friends to buy your product – Amazon
-
Bartering with a landlord to host an event where you invite the entire community to check out your potential gym – Our gym in Central Otago
Hand-delivering letters to your potential customers is an example of this, and as a result, the lads at Bolt Bins now have my business when I need a skip.
If you are new and looking to get traction, personalise your offering as much as possible.


