I ran into an old colleague in the supermarket yesterday. (No, no one got hurt.) We were discussing the current business climate and how our respective businesses are going. His is in a breakout stage right now, which means he feels a bit overworked but happy. He is working for a medical device company that does not make a unique product but has improved on current technology. Which got us into the conversation about what makes a successful start-up company and how do entrepreneurs discover new ideas.
The Secret Recipe
We are all bombarded through media about those who discover a break-through product or a completely new way of doing business. The pressure on most entrepreneurs, or would be ones, is to discover a fantastic new way to do business. Yet, there is tons of money to be made by improving existing products, services, and methods of doing businesses. In fact, if you review most of the break-through products of the last decade and they are improvements on products/services that were already out there. iPod: improvement on portable CD player and the Walkman. Notebook computers: improvement on the laptop. Facebook: improvement on MySpace.
These improvements represent a new direction on existing products/services that were not meeting a need by the market. That is what it all comes down to in the end… meeting an unmet need.
So, if you are looking to start a new company or create a new product it has to meet the following test:
- Will it meet an unmet need? This is the test that must be passed in order to have any success. It would do you no good to launch a buggy-whip business where there is not a need for them. You must do your research to make sure that there are needs that are not being met. If your product meets and exceeds those needs then you are well on your way to launching a successful business.
If it is so easy then why do most companies fail? Well, the answer to that question is a hydra of responses. It could be poor quality of the product, bad business plan, unsuccessful value propositions, et cetera. Regardless, most of the time it is because the unmet need has been overstated and not vetted. Think of Crystal Pepsi (I think I am the only person in the world that drank it) and New Coke. Both of those products were failures because the need was overstated in the research. There simply was not a need for them.
If you have a great idea, don’t keep it to yourself. Well, keep the secret recipe and all to yourself, but not the idea. You need to test if there really is an unmet need that your business idea will fulfill. That means that you need to seek out beyond your social circle to receive feedback.
This is the toughest part, because the feedback can be brutal. Yet, it is important as it helps you gauge how much desire there is out there for the services you wish to offer. It also helps you not be myopic in your vision.
Coming back to my conversation with my friend. We were both shopping for groceries for different reasons. It was time to stock up the fridge and cupboards for him. For me, I needed a few ingredients to complete a recipe I was trying on items I already had. Another trip, that when you add time and gas, was becoming costly. If only there was a website where I can plug-in the basic ingredients and it could spit out a recipe. Hey! That’s an idea!
How would you test if your business idea is ready?
About the author:
Erroin A. Martin is a Business Advocate with the Von Gehr Consulting Group, LLC, a business coaching and consultancy provider for business owners, executives, and entrepreneurs. He has fifteen years experience working within the pharmaceutical, manufacturing, natural resources, medical devices, software, technology, business services, and agriculture industries in various levels of leadership across six continents. He has led diverse teams in sales, marketing, planning, and in the Army. He currently coaches business leaders and physicians in the tools needed to plan for their success. Learn more about the Von Gehr Consulting Group, LLC at www.vongehrconsulting.com or call +1 203 433 8079. You can follow him on Twitter at @Erroin
The Von Gehr Consulting Group, LLC, was founded by Erroin A. Martin to provide business coaching, business consulting, and other services to companies both large and small. The primary goal is to have his clients be passionate about their business and reach the unachievable.
Erroin A. Martin 
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