Everybody has one.
It’s the answers to questions people keep asking you. It’s a service people keep suggesting you provide. It’s a product you’ve sold a few times. It’s a skill your employer values that other businesses would pay for. It’s a side project that somehow attracted interest before you really tried.
That’s your banana stand.
The name comes from Arrested Development. The Bluth family owns a small banana stand on a pier. Michael Bluth dismisses it because he is preoccupied with bigger things. His father keeps reminding him, ‘There’s always money in the banana stand.’
There was. Literally.
That joke gets at something serious, though: we are weirdly good at ignoring small opportunities because they look too ordinary.
We want the clever idea. The big launch. The business model that makes people lean forward when we explain it.
Meanwhile, somebody has already offered to pay us for something much simpler.
That matters because starting small gives you information. Someone asks for your help, and that tells you there’s a problem. Someone pays you, and that tells you the problem matters enough to shell out for the solution. Someone comes back for more, and that tells you that you might have something worth building out.
None of that guarantees a business. But it’s way better evidence than an idea sitting in a notebook.
The Banana Stand is for people in that position. You’re not necessarily running a business yet, but you’re past idle curiosity. Something is there. You want to know if it deserves more of your time, money and attention.
So start with what’s already there.
What do people ask you for? What have they paid you for? What problem do you solve competently? Where have you already seen some sign of demand?
Your first business doesn’t need to be impressive. It just needs to work.
Before you go searching for something bigger, take another look at the banana stand already sitting in front of you.
