Rethinking the Process
Sharp Home Gyms Episode 3
Over the summer, I spent three days in Utah, nine days in Hawaii, two days in Iowa, and eight days in Washington D.C– that’s over three weeks out of state between work and a honeymoon. Another three weeks were spent doing wedding setup, a bachelor party, and getting married. The remaining week and some change was split between seeing my family in Central Oregon and recovering from jet lag. All of that to say, it has been a fantastic summer– one I will never forget– but I’m excited to put my head down and get back to normal life.
If you haven’t checked out the last installment of this series, you should go do that now. The synopsis is that I have social media pages, a website, and an idea, but no leads or customers after an $88 Facebook ad. The most important task at this stage is laying the foundations of credibility so that a potential lead will turn into a customer ASAP. Near the end of the summer, I had some shifts in thinking.
The first shift relates to the market I’m in and the service I provide. When it comes to entrepreneurship and business, I believe specialization always beats versatility. Apple blew up because they got really good at building the most beautiful, user-friendly devices in the world. Ford was a major success because they got really good at mass-producing an ultra-complex machine. Even though Amazon is “the everything store,” it’s successful because it specializes in the service of getting anything to your door by the end of the week.
Every successful business specializes in one thing and offers other benefits around it. I want my one thing to be building home gyms. So rather than “Sharp Home Gym Consulting & Design,” it’s just Sharp Home Gyms. I’m going to keep it simple and focus on building first-class home gyms that fit the customer's space, budget, and goals.
Consulting was a big part of my original idea, but the more I think about it, the less valuable it sounds for a few reasons. First, consultants outside of extremely niche areas of expertise are overrated. Most of the information anyone needs to know can be learned from public sources. Of course, some consultants are super important– my friend’s husband does nuclear engineering consulting to ensure new power plants don't melt down. But for the ordinary person, ChatGPT is the best bang-for-your-buck consulting of all time and will only continue to get better. I probably wouldn’t hire a home gym consultant even if I didn’t know a lot about home gyms, so I won’t try to get you to either.
There is significantly more value in building a space that improves the customer’s life. ChatGPT can create a floor plan and equipment recommendations; it might even be able to give installation instructions, but it can’t give you the time, tools, and expertise to make the installation painless. That’s where I come in.
Rather than offering a specific consulting service, it will be lumped in as a small part of the home gym construction service. My original idea consisted of three service levels, with basic consulting at the bottom and construction at the top. The new idea is one continuous process with three steps:
Step 1:
A free 30-minute introduction call to learn about the customer and their needs
Ends with an offer for a $125 3D mockup of a home gym in their space
Step 2:
A 30-60 minute call to explore the mockup, go over the equipment list, and talk about what the project could cost
Ends with an offer to proceed with the build. If the offer is accepted, the mockup cost is applied towards the installation– effectively a $125 discount or a free mockup, depending on which way you look at it
Step 3:
We proceed with ordering equipment and installing it
I provide a 60-day warranty on the installation
This new business model is better for everyone involved for a few reasons. The customer gets value by confirming whether or not a home gym is right for them without paying exorbitant rates for an interior design specialist. They also have the choice to proceed rather than pay for two completely separate service levels. It’s simple, has continuity, and makes for an experience that builds trust.
From a business perspective, more value to the customer means less work marketing and selling (salesmen make up for poor marketeers, and marketeers make up for poor product designers). As stated earlier, custom floor plans and equipment lists take 5 minutes to generate in a ChatGPT conversation– that’s a hard service to sell. With this model, I’m selling a home gym installation. Mockup fees are a backstop for lost time and software expenses if the customer doesn’t proceed with an install.
Of course, there are still problems to solve and questions to answer with this new model, but I believe it is categorically better.
I would love to hear your thoughts! Email me at justin@sharphomegyms.com or send a message by visiting sharphomegyms.com/contact