Quote made famous by Ray Kinsella (played by actor Kevin Costner) in the movie “Field of Dreams”.
Anecdotal observations surrounding the Cascade Campers demand has proven this famous quote to be true. It means bringing to market a unique, affordable product or service before anyone else! IMHO, Cascade was the first to do so in the United States for microvan camper conversions.
When I asked Larry A. of Columbus, Ohio why he bought a black Promaster City cargo van from CarMax but drove it 2300 miles from Columbus to Nevada City, California for a Cascade camper van conversion, he responded like many of us…it was the best price out there with all the amenities included in the $8K basic conversion package. Plus, you get to bring your own cargo van on the journey West! And use your van, up until the day it’s converted, which takes only one business day (9 a.m. to 6 p.m.). Larry brought along his sleeping bag, basic essentials, and enjoyed staying at state and federal parks during his 4600+ mile, round-trip journey.
However, a blogger, critical thinker at samuelmullen.com disagrees with the famous quote in “Field of Dreams”.
https://samuelmullen.com/articles/startup-fallacies-if-you-build-it-they-will-come/
He commented: “This story makes for a great movie, but when applied to business, “if you build it, they will come” will only end in disaster”.
“The idea is that you, as an individual or a team, work on a product and eventually release it to the world fully baked. The world, for its part, somehow finds your product, recognizes the obvious need for it, and then beats the proverbial path to your door”.
Why Doesn’t It Work?
“Finding product/market fit is the most difficult part of building any product. During this time you should be iterating quickly on your idea by speaking with as many customers, or potential customers, as possible. Without interacting with customers and discovering what their problems are…it’s impossible to build a product to solve those problems. It’s impossible even if you are the customer, because you alone can only provide a single perspective. Getting a variety of feedback about features, needs, and solutions is what will give your product width and depth”.
Ash Maurya wrote in Running Lean, “Startups that succeed are those that manage to iterate enough times before running out of resources.” Iterations require experiments, they require feedback, and they require measurements, which means they need customers”.
“Finding customers is hard. It’s hard enough that marketers invented the “Rule of Seven” which says, “a prospect needs to see or hear your marketing message at least seven times before they take action and buy from you.” (The Baby Boomer Entrepreneur) This explains the average conversion rates for web products:
Typical conversion rates are between 0.5% and 4% depending on your price range and customer base. What that means is that for every 1,000 websites visitors, between 960 and 995 will show up and leave without doing a thing”.
–Rob Walling, Start Small, Stay Small
I agree with Rob Walling concerning website visitors. I spent several hours researching affordable products I have previously purchased to make van life experience more comfortable & enjoyable. I don’t get paid for writing blog articles, nor is my YouTube channel (Micro Van Life) popular enough to become monetized. If anyone clicks on my Amazon links & purchases a product, I’ve elected to get rewarded with gift cards for van items, zero calorie Gatorade, and hopefully can give some cards away as gifts, if I ever reach that level of affiliate marketing. Dreaming big not small here. 😊
Today, I discovered a new micro conversion company located at 107 Diversified Drive, Villa Ridge, MO 63089.
About Us (our story) is located here: https://voyagerconversions.com/pages/our-story
Apparently, Voyager began their small, conversion business in 2020 during the Pandemic. One of their “selling points” is they include the price of a new Promaster City cargo van in their $39.5K Weekender camper price. An upgraded, wheel package is an add-on cost.
Thoughts of oligopolies, monopolies, and sole proprietorships popped in my head from long ago, when I sat or slept through two years of post graduate business courses to earn a MBA degree. Competition is part of Capitalism. It explains why gas stations often appear on the same street corners along with banks, fast food restaurants, and car washes. One entrepreneur takes a financial risk and makes his or her business successful. And along comes similar competitors to skim off some of the cream. And they all expect the cash cow (customer base) to stay healthy enough to produce yearly revenues instead of financial losses! Only 1 of every 5 new businesses will succeed. This statistic was often quoted in business colleges before the Pandemic of 2020. According to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics: about 20% fail in their first year, and about 50% of small businesses fail in their fifth year. Therefore, it takes a successful, small business with a strong customer base to last beyond five years!
Affordability
News Flash: not everyone can afford to buy a brand new vehicle! This eliminates those who already have a 5 year old or newer cargo van. Buying directly from a builder makes it more difficult to find the rare black, silver & red colors and/or PMC’s ALREADY FULLY LOADED like Janet’s SLT model she purchased in Georgia with an older, vintage station wagon trade-in. (Janet & her fully loaded SLT Promaster City van with Cascade Camper Conversion plus extras she’s added in the past year).
Cascade Campers have built something special while keeping down their costs and headaches. They don’t have to worry about manufacturer vehicle warranties, upselling different wheel packages, or restricting customers to new vans only!
Any thoughts on this topic? Please share your reason(s) for selecting a Cascade Camper conversion over other competitors.
Micro Van Life 