Why You Should Only Focus on Proven Services
One way entrepreneurs fail early on is they create a product or service they think will sell well, but have not tested. This article explains why you need to only create products or services that are proven to sell.
Life can be tricky, and this can be doubly true for entrepreneurs. One of the keys in life is to learn both from your own mistakes and from the mistakes of others. Other entrepreneurs have already learned through the “school of hard knocks” that just because a product or service sounds good on paper that doesn’t mean people want it. The logic behind a product might be sound and it might even solve an essential problem. Yet, people may still reject the product or service that you are trying to sell.
Sure It Seems Like a Great Idea, But…
Just because a good or service seems like a good idea that doesn’t mean you should be the one to create that good or service. The time to build a service or product is when it is already proven as something that your clients or customers are willing to pay for. Outsiders may tell you that an idea is simply fantastic, but until there is proof that people are willing to pay for something what you have is a whole lot of risk.
Easy Methods for Deciding Whether to Offer a Good or Service
Confused by how best to proceed? Don’t be. Here is a rather simple yet effective exercise: pretend for a moment that you already have your products and services in place. Now pretend that you are trying to make a sale. Are your potential customers interested in purchasing your pretend service or product? How certain are you that they will buy?
In some cases, you can get an even better idea of how successful the new product or service would be by simply saying to your customers, “We may be offering X soon. How interested would you be in X?” If you are met with an incredible amount of enthusiasm, then your risk definitely goes down, especially if the response is nearly universal.
Only Build an Infrastructure Once Demand Is Established
When you start your company, your first priority should be on selling instead of building the infrastructure for creating a new product or service. Building the infrastructure to support a new product or service is expensive or at the very least time consuming. Your most precious resource, after your mind and your determination, is your time.
Step one always must be to try and sell a good or service and see if there is real, tangible interest. Once you have accessed the overall interest level, you can move on and actually invest in the nuts and bolts of creating what your business offers. Don’t invest your money or time until you know the demand is there! That is a recipe for disaster and a lot of unnecessary pain.
First Focus on Establishing Demand
Focus on establishing demand. Then progress to create goods and services that you know people want. This is your best course of action. There are two ways to learn. The first is through experience. The second is from the mistakes of others. So establish demand and then move forward. You’ll be glad you did.
All of these factors point to the third reason why entrepreneurs fail. They build unnecessary infrastructures. Years later they find that they have dedicated a tremendous amount of energy and money building something that not wanted.
Don’t let this be you. Instead, be sure to invest the time and research necessary to know you’re doing it right. Then you can proceed with confidence and start seeing exciting results that pay dividends for years to come.