Your First 30 Days in Business: A Practical Action Plan

Days 1–7: Find a problem people already care about

Start with people you can actually reach. If you want to sell lunch boxes, speak to workers near your planned delivery area. Learn what happens on a normal workday before designing a menu.

1. Day 1: Choose one reachable group, such as office workers within a short delivery route. Write down where you can speak to them.
2. Day 2: Set your limits. Start date: ___. Hours available each week: ___. Maximum test spending in your currency: ___.
3. Days 3–5: Hold five short customer conversations. Ask about the last time the problem happened, their current solution and what it cost them in time or money.
4. Day 6: Compare three ways customers currently handle the problem. Include doing it themselves or leaving it unresolved. Record why each option appeals to them.
5. Day 7: Choose one recurring difficulty. Complete: «I help ___ deal with ___ by providing ___.» Keep your notes as evidence for that choice.

Days 8–14: Make the offer easy to buy

Give the buyer a small, specific decision. A freelance marketer might offer five product photos and five captions for a neighbourhood shop. State exactly what is included, when it will arrive and what it costs.

1. Days 8–9: Fill in an offer card. Buyer: ___. Deliverable: ___. Price: ___. Delivery date: ___. Exclusions: ___. How to order: ___.
2. Day 10: Estimate the direct cost of fulfilling one order, including materials, packaging, delivery and any transaction fee. Record your labour hours too. Money left after direct costs must still cover other business expenses.
3. Day 11: Create one honest sample. Show the actual product or a clearly labelled demonstration of your service.
4. Day 12: Walk through the order process from enquiry to handover. Write down payment arrangements, delivery expectations and cancellation or return terms.
5. Days 13–14: Ask three suitable buyers to explain the offer back to you. Find out what information they still need before deciding. Revise the confusing parts.

Keep the working record in a spreadsheet such as [Google Sheets](https://workspace.google.com/products/sheets/). A basic table is enough for this exercise. Someone still needs to enter each conversation, payment and expense; the tool cannot make an incomplete record reliable.

Days 15–30: Ask for orders and review what happened

1. Days 15–17: Pick one route to buyers, such as local business visits or an existing social page. Aim to put the offer in front of ten relevant prospects. Explain its relevance to each person.
2. Days 18–21: Answer questions and fulfil any initial orders. Accept only the volume you can deliver well. Where appropriate, ask people who declined what held them back.
3. Days 22–24: Follow up with buyers. Ask what helped, what disappointed them and what would prevent another purchase. Log the actual hours needed to complete each job.
4. Days 25–27: Change one thing based on a repeated objection. You might clarify the package or adjust the delivery window. Keep records from before and after the change separate.
5. Days 28–30: Count offers made, enquiries received and paid orders. Review delivery time and total spending. Choose one next-month priority with a measurable target.

• Customer log: date ___; customer code ___; source ___; offer made ___; response ___; order value ___; payment received ___; next action and date ___.
• Expense log: date ___; purpose ___; amount ___; related order ___; paid or still due ___.
• Month-end cash check: money received ___; money paid out ___; difference ___. Track unpaid customer invoices and outstanding bills separately. This cash difference is not a profit calculation.
• Continue cautiously when people pay, delivery is manageable and the price can cover the work. A few orders are useful evidence, not proof of a large market.
• Revise the offer when interested buyers repeatedly name the same obstacle. Test one targeted change.
• Pause and reassess when conversations reveal little need, orders lose money or the experiment reaches its spending cap.

Go further with the AI Builders community

For real examples, peer feedback and discussion, start with the Azerbaijani AI builders community through [AI Builders resources](https://abcommunity.org/resurslar). Bring the result of your 30-day experiment to the community. If you are exploring artificial intelligence for your business, describe one repetitive task and ask how others have approached it.

• Use this post outline: «I tested ___ with ___. I spoke to ___ people and received ___ paid orders. The main obstacle was ___. My next change is ___. What am I missing?»
• Remove customer names and contact details. Turn one useful response into a dated action for your next experiment.