The Cheap First Move: Why You Do Not Need a Perfect Plan to Build a Business

In this episode, Chris Koerner explains a simple truth about entrepreneurship: the most successful ventures rarely start with a business plan or a product launch. Instead, they begin with a cheap first move. This is a low-stakes, high-leverage action that tests market demand before you risk any capital. By focusing on getting customers before perfecting a product, you avoid the paralysis that often comes with traditional startup advice. For an aspiring founder, the advantage is clear. By treating your first attempts as experiments rather than life-defining commitments, you lower the barrier to entry and gather the data needed to pivot into more durable work. This is not just about starting a side hustle. It is about building a feedback loop that identifies profitable niches that others, blinded by professional standards, ignore.

The Hidden Advantage of Unsexy Entry Points

The most consistent pattern in Koerner’s case studies is the transition from a low-barrier, gimmicky service into a professionalized business. This creates a lasting competitive advantage because most competitors refuse to enter these markets, viewing them as too small or beneath their status.

When Andrew started repairing brick mailboxes in Fort Worth, he was not building a masonry empire. He was solving a $400 problem that established contractors refused to touch. The payoff was not the mailbox repair itself. It was the access it provided. By being the only one willing to do the small, unsexy work, he gained the trust of HOAs, which eventually funneled him into high-value infrastructure projects.

> The first product or service you start with does not usually end up being the business. It is just what gets you started, what gets you going.
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> -- Chris Koerner

This reveals a fundamental dynamic: the small job is a Trojan horse. It buys you the right to be in the room, the right to be trusted, and the right to be asked, "Can you fix this other thing too?"

Why the Obvious Fix Often Fails

Conventional wisdom suggests that you should perfect your product, register your LLC, and build a website before seeking customers. Koerner’s guests do the opposite. They seek the customer first, often before they have the equipment or the final product.

Tim, who launched a brush-clearing service, won a $21,000 contract before he purchased the specialized mower required to do the job. This is the ultimate hedge against market risk. If no one had hired him, he would have saved himself the cost of an expensive, specialized machine.

> You are one uncomfortable conversation with a stranger away from your dreams becoming fulfilled.
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> -- Chris Koerner

The market responds differently to those who lead with a proposal rather than a product. When you approach a client as a problem-solver, like Tom treating vending machine placement as enterprise software sales, you shift the dynamic from a commodity transaction to a partnership. This allows you to command higher prices, such as charging $4 for a bottle of water in a captive-audience environment like a hockey rink.

The Downstream Cost of Perfect Scaling

A recurring theme is the willingness of these entrepreneurs to abandon businesses that, while profitable, create operational headaches. Both Tom and another entrepreneur scaled appliance rental businesses to over 60 customers before shutting them down.

This is not failure. It is systems thinking in action. They treated the business as a temporary vehicle to generate capital or prove a concept. When the hidden costs, such as the labor-intensive nature of moving appliances or the complexity of managing inventory, outweighed the benefits, they liquidated the assets and moved on. The takeaway is that the first business is often just a tuition-paid education in how to identify the next business.

> You either win or you learn. And if you learn that nobody cares that is the best thing you could learn because it means move on to the next idea.
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> -- Chris Koerner

Key Action Items

• Validate Before You Build: Post a listing for your service on Facebook Marketplace or local groups before you buy the equipment. If you get inquiries, you have a business. If you do not, you have saved yourself thousands. (Immediate)
• The Founding Member Pitch: If launching a subscription or recurring service, offer 10 founding members the first month free. This creates immediate social proof and tests your pricing model with zero risk. (Immediate)
• Target Captive Audiences: Identify locations where people are stuck for 1 to 2 hours with their wallets, such as auto repair shops, dance studios, or sports complexes. Pitch them on a service or amenity that solves their boredom or hunger. (Over the next quarter)
• Leverage Unsexy Data: Use AI tools to monitor local government RFP sites for keywords related to your industry. This allows you to identify municipal budget cycles months before your competitors. (12 to 18 months)
• The Anything Else Upsell: Every time you complete a small job, ask the client, "While I am here, is there anything else that needs fixing?" This is the primary mechanism for transitioning from a one-off service to a recurring handyman or maintenance business. (Immediate)
• Embrace the Flop: If a business idea fails, treat it as a semester of college. Analyze why it did not work, such as wrong market density or wrong customer demographic, and document the lessons. This is a low-cost, high-value investment in your future business acumen. (Ongoing)