Ideas run rampant in my head all day, every day. Many of them are business ideas like how to improve this, how to add more sales to that, a spin-off of so-and-so… you get the idea.
This morning at 6:19 am, as I lie in my bed with the flu needing to cancel my chiropractor’s appointment, an idea strikes me worse than a coughing fit: “Wouldn’t it be great if I could just text a number to cancel my appointment?” Then I remembered how bad my neck had been hurting since I hadn’t slept in 3 nights. “I will need to reschedule so I’d still have to call or email them.”
I began research on existing platforms for scheduling software. If this sort of software is available, I want to share it with my chiropractor (and a number of other businesses I frequent) because I think it would be helpful. After 15 minutes I couldn’t find anything other than mass texting apps, reminder text apps, and other apps that aren’t quite what I’m looking for.
This lead me to the conclusion that an app needs to be built. Why, you might ask, don’t I build it? I simply don’t have the resources nor the desire to start a project of this magnitude. Plus, I’m not greedy. I like sharing my business ideas. You probably won’t pick this idea and run with it, either. But you might read it, get your own gears grinding, and come up with your own idea.
Here’s how the ideal scenario would look from a text message standpoint. I don’t have the technical background to explain what’s needed to build this sort of platform, I only have the end goal in mind. It would need to tie into whatever scheduling software is being used by the organization and it would need to be automated (the MVP could be manual; very inexpensive to test). It would be nice to be able to include a way to customize the messages for each business. Beyond that, I haven’t dug into the details, that’s for someone else to run with.
If this already exists, it is hard to find and they need a new marketing person or an SEO company. If it doesn’t, maybe you’ve found your new side project. I want no claim to this, if you have the ambition and the resources, go for it. I am, however, always up for talking about new business ideas and how to launch them. In the mean time, I need to get some orange juice and make a phone call to my chiropractor. Hope your day is better than mine is sure to be!
