Previously, on Janne builds a business with next to no capital:
After thinking that the hardest part was done (which was true.. until it wasn't), I realised that I had a LOT of recording and editing ahead of me if I wanted to finish 50 pages' worth of content for the MVP by the end of September.
It was getting frustrating to record at home, because of the noise outside of my apartment most nights. I tried staying late at work to record in an empty meeting room, but none of the audio was usable as there was too much background noise created by the HVAC. The audio I did salvage I edited... which led to the discovery that actually, I find audio editing very tedious, especially when there's so much of it to do.
So I procrastinated. A lot. All through August, basically. And I got scared. The combination of the end technically being in sight but still having a mountain of work to slog through brought on a sudden influx of self-doubt. I was questioning the entire thing — is the business a silly idea, would I even be able to pull this off, who do I think I am, yada yada.
Then as September rolled around, I got a cold and then got Covid back-to-back, which put me out of action for weeks. Most importantly, it took a full five weeks for my voice to return! Not ideal for someone who has a lot of audio recording to do.
Anyways. Here's the good stuff:
Before I got sick, I managed to complete one page (two posts), audio and all, and got some early feedback from someone I trust. Their feedback was valuable because they were able to affirm certain things I'd been thinking about, while pointing out issues I hadn't considered before.
Most importantly, I readjusted the goalposts. Which means my MVP for the trial is now 12 pages (24 posts) — about half of what I originally planned. It’s going to run shorter, likely just the two months of December and January.
A friend of mine put me on to a recording space I can use, not far from home, which has been great. I was just there on Thursday night to record the last of the audio I need for my new MVP.
As of today, 29 October 2022, I have completed editing all the audio for the 12 pages.
What's left?
I need to load the audio onto the trial website and proofread the Korean text — originally I had asked my Mum to look over all the Korean, but it kind of fell off her radar. Luckily, the adjusted MVP means that the Korean has been less daunting to go through myself, so I’ll be able to finish this tonight with the help of my best friend, Korean spellcheck.
I've got the initial survey written out on a Google Form to collect EOIs, awaiting refinement. And I need to script, record, edit and upload a video to my dusty old Youtube channel. I still have no idea how many people will even see it, let alone sign up.
But hey, here we are.
I also received some good advice from my brother that when it comes to developing the first iteration of the business after the MVP trial, I should be thinking mobile app-first and not website-first. I’m still undecided, but I'll figure it out.
Three things I’ve learned:
When you’re doing your own thing, you can make things up. I can magically halve my MVP and it’s fine. No-one’s going to know the difference. Amazing.
I now detest the numbers 38 and 39. A note to future Janne: Double-check that you’ve recorded all 40 sentences, while you’re still in the studio. Triple-check that you haven’t missed any sentences out when doing the rough cut. Having to go back and re-record or re-edit is super downbuzz.
When exporting the audio for each sentence after you’ve edited them, make sure the filename begins with the first few words of the sentence. At first I was just picking out key words from the sentences, and while it would have made for some great found poetry, I’d rather spend less time scrolling through my Amazon s3 bucket.
Until next time,
🎧