What’s the difference between

Baking a Cake & Making a Business?

Nothing and everything!! Allow me to explain. Let’s say you want to make a great cake, and you’re already to go. You’ve got the cake recipe, you’ve got all the right ingredients, but instead of putting the frosting on last, you put the frosting on first and place that in the oven.

Howz that cake working out for you?

You see, you can have everything right and ready to make a cake and be JUST ONE STEP OFF AND it’s a whole new game (translated-your results will suck). I see that same thinking in many start-up or emerging businesses today. I look at the business and ask, “Why are you putting the frosting on your business now”? You haven’t even blended the batter. The eggs are still in the frig etc. From working with thousands of entrepreneurs over the years, I have seen several mistakes happen over and over again.  Because I see these mistakes repeatedly, I just want to throw out some simple step by step stuff here that can really help save you time and money in your business NOW.

Too many business start-ups and emerging companies never reach their initial vision / goal of where they think they can go because of THE SAME REASON, what is it?

They fail to find out if they even have a viable business to start with! 

Ok, so you wake up and you HAVE THIS GREAT IDEA and now you’re going to start a new business. You’re getting the “right people on your bus” (http://www.jimcollins.com/author of “Good to Great”), raising any required start-up capital, and executing on what you think is going to make you the next millionaire next door.   

STOP RIGHT NOW!

Before you go any further, do this. Find EXACTLY 12 people that honestly care about you

AND could use your service or product

AND could buy it if they wanted to right now for what your terms and conditions are for a sale.

(NOTE) If you can’t find 12 people that really care about you, you may want to work on your people skills a wee bit before you build your business

NOW, just ask them this ONE SIMPLE QUESTION:

I am starting a new company and I will be selling cat juggling equipment at a better price than anyone out there. What would STOP A GUY / GAL LIKE YOU FROM BUYING IT FROM ME when I am ready to sell it to you in 3 weeks?

If more than half of the twelve (that would be 7 for the math challenged) close friends begin their objections with a shopping list the size of my 5 year old daughter’s Christmas list of all reasons why they won’t buy it from you, it’s NOT ready to launch. No need for Madison Avenue market research here. These are your closest sphere of influence, and they will most likely tell it like it is. Don’t try and explain why it’s the best cat juggling equipment, how you lose less cats than your competitors, how it’s PETA-approved, and how cats everywhere would prefer to be juggled my you and your equipment. It may be as simple your idea is JUST NOT AS HOT AS YOU THINK!

This is just one VERY SIMPLE way to say that you will be testing your product or service to see if you can sell it at the price at which you can be profitable. So here’s my process and counsel to those that ask me.

New Idea Action Steps:
1. Create your strategic plan, not necessarily a business plan, but a plan that says: here’s what we’re doing, here’s how we’re doing it, here’s why we’re doing it, and here’s who were doing it with.
2. Test market your product or service to prove it will sell. Ask yourself these three questions to really know whether you’re even close:

A.     Am I solving a BIG problem for a lot of people?

B.      Does this problem have a lot of PAIN associated with it, and if they do NOT get my service or product, will their PAIN continue?

C.      Am I positioned as one of the best possible people to solve this problem for them?

If you come out of that “A.B.C. filter” not looking good or not feeling good, and the twelve people you told about your new business reacted like you were trying to recruit them for al-Qaida, you may want to rethink your new hot company. Don’t you know enough people that love you enough to tell you the truth? Don’t’ hate the messenger BUT value the message, this one could save you tons of time and money.

For further information about this author or his marketing strategies and tactics, email Michael Besson at Michael@MichaelBesson.com. Michael Besson is the founder of www.eBizChanger.com  and Innovative Business Group in Las Vegas Nevada.

He can also be found at www.MichaelBesson.com. Michael Besson has been serving start up and emerging company clients delivering bleeding-edge online & offline marketing, strategic planning and business development consulting services since 1994.

This entry was posted on Thursday, January 21st, 2010 at 7:25 pm and is filed under Articles & Video Blogs. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.