See all the weekly standups here.

It’s been one full week since I started my agency, but I think I’ve learned more this week than I do in five regular ones. I’d like to take some time to discuss what I’ve learned so far.

git commit -m “New Agency, who dis?”

When you start a business, it’s best to have a plan. But how well thought out should the plan be? Should it be shorter than a elevator pitch? Or longer than an essay?

I propose that the best business plan is a succinct hypothesis that can receive feedback quickly.

You want to be able to test your idea against the market, and that means you have to stick your neck out and be willing to deal with rejection.

So what’s my hypothesis? What’s the soft, mushy, still warm core of Sharing Fiction?:

Businesses will want to attract more customers to their events using AR filters on social media.

Let’s break this down.

The Hypothesis, Deconstructed

• Businesses - Most businesses have a social media presence, maybe not a large one, but one for sure. They’ll want an easy way to engage with users.
• attract more customers - The central goal of every profitable business is to be able to attract more leads/customers/clients. It doesn’t matter how good your product is if nobody uses it. NB: See: the entire field of marketing.
• events - Coronavirus aside, the more people at an event, the better generally. More people == more word of mouth == more attention to the brand == more present/future sales. AR filters will help increase hype for events, and increase the camaraderie of those that attend.
• AR filters - AR/VR is in a weird space right now. The Oculus is crushing it in the VR space, Magic Leap was a major flop, and no one really sees a “killer app” coming out anytime soon. Alongside this are new, accessible AR Photoshop-esque studios like Lens Studio (Snapchat) and Spark AR (Instagram). These Studios allow anyone with a pulse and an account to make filters. These filters are what Bud Light is to Budweiser. They run on phones and only do silly things like turning your eyes purple or something.
• Social Media - Yeah, it’s still a thing. We all have our qualms with it, but it’s a very powerful tool. Filters are inherently viral (I’ll write more on this subject at a later date), so using them to increase awareness is a smart play, imo.

Getting out the Door

By far the most important step in any journey is the first step. The only way to find out if you are growing turnips or potatoes is to dig up the dirt and see what’s down there! NB: do turnips and potatoes even grow in the same environment?

The most important lesson of the week: get started.

Expenses

Getting “out the door” wasn’t that expensive, surprisingly. I purchased a domain on Google Domains for $12, and then bought a gmail suite account so I could get an offical domain for my email instead of using a regular gmail account for $6 monthly.

For the meetings I guess you could say I spent around ~$6 on gas.

So in total, my first full week of business cost me $24. Not bad!

Clients

I’ve had two client meetings this week! I won’t mention their names yet, but one is a museum and the other is for the redesign of a drink product. As a founder, it’s my duty to act like I know what’s going on, even if I really don’t. I have a general idea of how I want the phases to go from concepting > contract signing > design/development > release but it’s still very rough around the edges. Currently, I’m taking note of what went well in meetings, and what doesn’t; so I’ll be able to offer a better service to my clientele.

Cool Apps

• Loom - I’ve been using Loom to record outreach calls to businesses; they feel much more personal than email and are easier to craft, imo.
• G-Suite - Docs, Sheets, Drive, 30GB of space, a branded email. Nice.
• TeuxDeux - My secret weapon is a to-do list. I don’t know how anyone gets anything done without one.
• Hugo - This site is built on Hugo. Not fully sure of my thoughts on it yet, but it is very performant.
• Netlify - The go to deployment for static websites. Makes website updates as simple as git push.

Spark AR Learnings

1. In order to use the Audio module in your scripts, you need to have an Audio Player Controller in your Assets.
2. The Multi-Controller patch can be used to make an object trigger a ton of different noises.
3. You can create sprite sheets from GIFs using this website.

A-Ha Business Moments

1. Value is the name of the game. Who are you offering value to? Why?
2. You don’t need to be the best when just getting started. Learning is a part of business.
3. Reach out to people. You won’t always get anything back, but the opportunities you do get are worth their weight in gold.