First ten customers: a test plan, not a promise
Who to qualify
- 10 Shopify freelancers or VAs who upload products for home-goods stores. Look for public portfolios that mention product uploads or catalog work. One freelancer can bring several stores, and they already bill for this work.
- 10 home-goods merchants with a visible new collection, where the product pages lack a size, material or care fact that the brand's own wholesale or line-sheet page shows.
- Qualify on one question: do their vendors send line sheets as CSV or Excel? If not, the drafts can't help. The check still works, but the offer is weaker.
In your private ledger, record only the business URL, segment, visible gap (with source and date), permission state, last permitted action and response. Don't buy lists. Never ask for store passwords.
Draft offer (send only with authorization)
Subject: A cited check for your next product batch
"Hi [name]. I'm testing Catalog Scout, a check for new home-goods product batches. It flags missing size, material, care and assembly, then drafts each missing fact word for word from the vendor's line sheet, with the row it came from, so you verify instead of retype. It never guesses; if the sheet doesn't say, it says 'ask vendor'. I noticed [specific public gap, with URL]. Could I run your next batch (export + line sheet) free? You keep the report either way."
Replace the brackets with facts you observed. Don't claim prior clients or results. This is a draft; sending needs authorization.
Pilot and conversion
- Get permission, the batch export and the line sheet. Run the check.
- Time your own review of the drafts, and record the minutes.
- Ask the client to mark each finding and draft: correct / already known / wrong / not applicable.
- Ask whether the drafts saved them time, and whether they'd pay $49 for the next batch of up to 50.
- Only take payment once billing and delivery really work. There's no payment link in this kit.
- Ask permission before quoting anyone or writing a case study.
Funnel assumption: 20 qualified contacts → 5 pilot batches → 2 paid batches. This is unmeasured.
Stop or adjust (kill tests)
After 5 pilot batches, continue only if all of these hold:
- 3 or more clients say the drafts saved time;
- 2 or more agree to pay for their next batch;
- your measured review time is 30 minutes or less per batch;
- winning each pilot took 12 owner hours or less.
If any one fails, update ECONOMICS.csv with the real numbers. If the Pilot-fails column is what you're seeing, re-scope (for example, sell to one freelancer with many stores) or stop. Never promise a sales outcome from a data check.