IN SHORT
- The handbook is a nine-page PDF: twenty-one ideas in seven groups, with an example under each one.
- It downloads straight from the page, with no email and no sign-up. It is written in Bulgarian.
- The ideas run in a direction: from introducing yourself, through helping a customer choose, to the work inside the company.
- Pick the one you need this week. The other twenty will still be there.
What is inside
Twenty-one ideas in seven groups, three to a group. Each one has a short description and an example from real work, so you can see what actually comes out at the end.
Nothing in the list needs a developer to describe. That is the filter we used while writing it: if an idea could not be explained to a person in two sentences, it did not go in.
| The group | What it is for |
|---|---|
| Introduce your business | A page that explains what you do, without waiting for somebody to build it for you |
| Show what you offer | A catalogue, a portfolio or a list of services that is easy to keep current |
| Help the customer choose | A calculator, a questionnaire or a comparison that answers using their own numbers |
| Prepare the next step | An enquiry, a request or a booking that arrives with you already sorted |
| Make working with customers easier | A portal where a customer sees their own things without writing to you |
| Tidy up the daily work | An internal board for orders, tasks or stock |
| Look at the next idea | Something small that tests whether the bigger thing is worth doing |
How to pick one of them
Three checks. You need it this week, you know exactly who will use it, and you can say in one sentence what it has to do.
The usual mistake with a first system is to pick the biggest idea on the list. It looks the most useful, which is why it gets chosen, but it takes the longest and shows nothing until late, and by then the enthusiasm that started it has gone. A small thing that works on Friday does more for a company than a large thing that will be ready one day.
That is what the three checks are for. "This week" filters out the ideas you do not really need. "I know who will use it" filters out the ones that end up opened by nobody. "One sentence" filters out the ones that are not yet clear even to you, and an unclear description is the slowest known route to nothing.
Where building it yourself stops
Before it meets real customers, check the sums, the forms and how it looks on a phone. Personal data, a separate login per customer and payments all need more preparation than an afternoon.
A calculator that adds up wrongly is worse than no calculator, because the customer believes it. A form that quietly fails to send looks exactly like a form that works. These things are only caught if somebody tries to break them on purpose, before a customer tries by accident.
The other boundary is legal rather than technical. The moment you collect personal data, give each customer their own login or take payments, the idea has stopped being a page. You can still build it, but not in an afternoon and not without somebody looking it over. The handbook says so next to the ideas where it applies.
QUESTIONS
Do I have to leave an email to get it?
No. The file downloads straight from the page, with no email and no sign-up.
What language is it in?
Bulgarian. Nine pages, about fifteen minutes to read. There is no English edition yet.
Do I need to know how to program?
No. The ideas were chosen so that they can be described in words. What you need is to know exactly what the thing has to do, not how it is made.
What if none of the twenty-one fits me?
Then use them as a measure. If your idea is roughly the size of one of these, it is probably a good first step. If it is far larger, look for the small piece of it that could go first.
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The handbook of 21 ideas - a nine-page PDF, downloads straight away
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