Hello Everyone,

If you’ve seen a Field of Dreams, then you’ve probably heard the saying, “If you build it, they will come.” This is the advice that inspires an average-joe farmer (played by Kevin Costner) to build the baseball diamond he’s always fantasized about. As the story goes, after a few bumps in the road and some soul searching, the prophecy is fulfilled, thousands of fans flock to the baseball field, and Phil Robinson receives a few Oscar nominations. But after all, this is only a story.

Unfortunately, Hollywood’s truisms don’t always hold up so well in the real world. As entrepreneurs it’s our job to think big and commit ourselves to achieving our goals, but transforming an idea into a successful venture is far more complicated than simply “building it.” It takes a long time to develop a cohesive vision, and even then, the vision will require constant re-evaluation, revising, and reworking.

If you’re not a fictional movie character and you can’t launch your dream business in a star-studded studio with a couple hundred extras, where do you start the building process? Modern technology has provided us with the answer–3D modeling. Ironically, this software, with its virtual capabilities and creative potential, is movie-esque in a way.

It doesn’t matter that we don’t have a silver screen budget and resources, because we have a green screen to work with. Rather than tediously changing the interior of a predetermined location, we’re using 3D modeling to plan our inventory and amenities. This approach will help us determine how much space our plans will take up, so we can adapt our template to the brick-and-mortar locations we will visit with our agent. It will also make it easier to predict how a specific property might perform with our concept, and to foresee potential problems.

In a way, 3D modeling allows us to create an idealised, Pixar version of the physical aspects of our vision. Furthermore, it will help us open our business quickly after signing a lease, because we know exactly how it should look. We can even use our 3D model in the video for our future Kickstarter campaign! While it’s true that the movies gloss over a lot of the difficulties involved in building something from scratch, technology can at least reduce costs, time, and frustration.

Now, lets talk about accessing and taking advantage of this software.

If you know nothing about 3D modeling at all, you will probably find that hiring a freelancer (as opposed to an interior design firm) is the most efficient and cost effective option.

Renders above are results of 5 weeks working closely with freelancer, BUT are not our final version! We have a bullet list of at least 20 major and minor changes, and it should be ready in 2-3 weeks from now.

In order to articulate your vision to a designer you will need to draw them a simple sketch, or create a preliminary digital version which you can create with a basic 3D modeling software, like MyFourWalls.

Unfortunately, your 3D model probably won’t match a Field of Dreams’ $84 million revenue at the box office, but it sure won’t require a $15 million budget. We’ve found that the ballpark price (pardon the pun) of a freelancer’s services is around $200 per month. This may seem like a lot, but your money will go a long way. Later, once we’ve found a location, we will be able to copy/move items around quickly and easily so that we can provide contractors with our printed renders and get an accurate quote. Who needs Kevin Costner’s acting skills, when you have the power to take the fate of your vision into your own hands and save a lot of time and money along the way?

Hope you guys found this helpful,
Vitaliy & Kseniia