Step One
Visit Lake Louise during shoulder season when no canoes are available for rent.

Step Two
Rent a canoe on Facebook marketplace. (We ended up finding a 24 hour rental for $100 CAD. This is particularly amazing considering canoes typically rent for $150 CAD an hour on the lake.)

Step Three
Take the canoe out on Lake Lousie, capture some stunning photos, generate interest.

Step Four
Monetize interest by either proactively asking if people would like to rent the canoe, fielding inquiries (inbound leads) on where you got the canoe (mentioning that it’s available for rent), or charging for people to take the iconic red canoe photo (which ironically was our first sale, $25 CAD!).

Step Five
Adjust your price as demand indicates. We started at $100 CAD minimum for 2 hours but quickly realized people didn’t want to rent for that long and we could make more by charging for shorter time periods, nailing down $65 CAD for a half-hour as a good price.

Step Six
Repeat steps four and five further qualifying your audience. We identified Canadian Goose jackets as a high likelihood customer and sought out additional areas of improvement (offering professional photos, etc).

Step Seven
Take your $500, cover costs of $100 CAD for the canoe, and look for the next demand in the market.