Startups, Entrepreneurs, and Advice
From left-handed guitars, innovative gardening tools, and solar barbecue grills, I get a lot of requests for guidance and advice for startups and new businesses. Discussions about starting a business and launching a product come via my website multiple times per month. I love these conversations – especially when I can be helpful and when a new client is open to advice and learning from my experience.
This post summarizes some of the key questions I initially ask entrepreneurs who pay me to advise them. These engagements can last months – but they almost always begin the same way. The eight questions below are a sampling of how we start.
I hope this list is helpful if you are toying with a new venture like marketing guitars to people who are left-handed.
Eight Questions for Startups
- THE PRODUCT OR SERVICE: Describe your product or service in one sentence explaining to me what it is, who it is for, and how it is different. (“My left-handed guitars are perfect for lefty’s who can’t use a conventional guitar– and need one built for how they play.”)
- PAST ACTIVITY: How have you tried to market it in the past? How successful was that approach?
- WHY: What was the motive for trying to sell this product or start your business? Is it based on solving a problem you personally experienced?
- GOALS: Are you trying to build a business or make money on a few transactions? In other words, what’s your vision for this work? Is this a hobby or are you serious about starting a business?
- RESEARCH: Have you shared this product for feedback with people who do not love you or know you? For example, what type of research have you done in the marketplace with at least 100 consumers?
- CUSTOMER ACQUISITION COST: If you want to sell online directly to consumers, do you have any idea what it might cost to acquire a customer to buy from you? Have you tested ads on Instagram, Facebook, or Google ads/search?
- INVESTMENT: What type of investment are you willing to make to grow this product/service into a successful business?
- MARKET SIZE: How big is this addressable market opportunity? What do you know about the competition and what other choices consumers/businesses have instead of your product.
After getting answers to these questions, I quickly learn a little about what they have done and what they hope to do.
Three Key Thoughts:
Often, people underestimate how critical it is to be better, faster, or cheaper. They have no idea why this matters so much. When Amazon started selling books online, they offered 10X more choices for consumers – and an easier way to browse and find books than a bookstore. Of course, browsing for books is a joy and pleasurable activity. But sometimes, people want to quickly find a book that isn’t stocked in most stores – and they love the convenience of finding it while sitting on the sofa.
Another typical response is they believe if I build it, they will come. I hate to burst a bubble, but this is rarely true. Most products from startups must use some form of paid media to get in front of the right people and enough people. If you make a physical product, you might need to order 1,000 of them from a manufacturer – how are you selling them? How will you explain your value proposition or what’s unique about what you do? Yes, social media is free – but that doesn’t mean it will get you enough eyeballs to learn about your brand.
You can test your idea BEFORE you spend a lot of money to order inventory. A past client of mine tried some Facebook ads to market a product BEFORE she bought $50K of inventory. She quickly found out how expensive it is to acquire a customer with a few thousand dollars. And she learned that what she was marketing not that different, unique, or special. She believed it was – but consumers who didn’t know her didn’t think she had anything worth paying for. The paid ad test helped her learn quickly. We also did online consumer research that reinforced what we learned in our ad test. She ended up ditching the idea – and going back to rethink the product.
The Startups Samba
Are you thinking of starting a business?
Before investing heavily in making something physical or hiring engineers to code, test the concept to see if you have something better, faster, or cheaper. And, are you confident in demand for what you want to sell?
If you don’t have something better, faster or cheaper, – your guitar may never get played, your granola may go stale and your garden may never bear fruit.
You can set up a time to chat with me about your marketing challenges using my calendar. Email me jeffslater@themarketingsage.com Call me. 919 720 0995. The conversation is free, and we can explore if working together makes sense. Watch a short video about working with me.
