The first failed business taught me a set of rules I should never break
I have this list of rules I follow from what am selling to the content I write.
In my early I was always wrong about it, I failed and hit bottom for one year, which made me broke for 2 times.
All those failures taught me many lessons and of them main wrong idea I followed was:
Idea > product > search for market/problem > solution for the problem > finding a way to reach them (I mean reaching them using social media and other channels to distribute).
It took me a while to come up with the reason that caused this, going to Reddit and listening to what pros were saying (well not all of them were pros, some were acting like pros to buying their cool jackets), although I can differentiate what is good and what is bad with my little experience.
With this, I just improved my business fundamentals and created a new version:
channel/distribution > problem > solution > business
What people I can reach? (and in my case, it was through communities like Twitter Sorry X, Reddit, and Tumblr), what problem do they have that I can solve? (Although I have little experience in the dev field, my abilities started with writing, so that's where I focus) If I can solve it How can I monetize it?
I began with the newsletter because that was painless and the impact I could make was huge, even tho I'm not the best, I have to believe in myself right...
Also before directly asking 2 or 3 questions to myself, I have some checklist that need to consider before getting myself involved in any.
Checklists:
- is there a problem
- is the problem painful enough ($$?, urgent, important)
- is the problem frequent enough (weekly vs once 8 years?)
- are there enough people with the same problem (500 ppl vs 20M)
- how hard is it to reach people with problems (channels)
- is the market saturated by big brands (healthy competition is good)
- is the solution at least 3x better than the current substitute for any segment of the market?
- does the solution-business model work (subscription, cross-sell, upsell, partnerships, sponsorships, grants, etc)
- is there a segment that can be the early adopters?
- is there a road to other bigger segments?
Simply make sure all these have a checkmark!
Hope it was helpful!
The Selfish Mind, Talk about self-improvement, freedom, happiness, and other small pieces you may miss while moving toward achieving your goal.
Hi @AkshayRaveendran thanks for sharing this. I am in the journey of trying my first project and I am trying to make sure I am doing the right things. When you mention that your process is: "channel/distribution > problem > solution > business" - can you elaborate exactly what it means for "channel/distribution" to be first?
Does it mean you start by looking at distribution channels for a particular industry and then you explore the problem they have?
Thanks!
That is exactly what I mean, For instance, take the productivity subreddit as an example, that's your channel/distribution. Your audience is those who want to achieve a good result in working more productively, and they want to talk about their pain points to find a good solution that makes it easy for them.
See, having a distribution channel first in hand helps you understand your audience better than anyone and it is the first thing you should have to run a successful business for the long term in my opinion and in my experience.
Got it! Yeah that makes a lot of sense. I am a software engineer, and what happened to me on the past was that I created an app and then when it was done I didn't know where to let people know about it - starting with a channel, you kind of already have where to advertise your app when it is done I guess!
Thanks for the insight!
Yeah simple as that, Don't forget to nurture your audience in that community with valuable content before asking for anything. Give something first and then ask that's a motto I follow.
Hope you have a good day:)
Thanks for sharing. i have a very different feedback, a bit of creative criticism so take it in that spirit. You mentioned your ability is writing but i already see a bunch of editorial misses. I am not sure if it was intentional or genuine gaps, but in any case if you dont watch out it will seep in to your product and services
great tips, thanks for sharing!
Muchas gracias:)
This is a good article. I always have a tough time balancing -- trying to access the market/distribution without anything valuable (like the product) vs. creating the product and then trying to access the market (and being frustrated).
Glad this route works for you.
Regardless of pre/post product, any tips on building tests to understand how and to what degree you can reach the market?
product or service? Who is your target market? In the project I am working on right now, I approached 10 potential customers and pitched them my service, when 7 customers signed up (one got it from word of mouth) I knew I had something going. No freebies, full-priced products.
Cool. What is your service? I have a product to help people record their life story over video.
Share your product... Let me seee
Viography.co
Awesome! I'll definitely try it:)
Thanks for sharing your entrepreneurial journey! Your pivot from 'Idea > product' to 'channel/distribution > problem > solution > business' is a valuable lesson.
I'm curious to hear more from you – what specific challenges did you face in identifying your target audience and their pain points? How did you overcome them, and what strategies worked best for you in this process?
Definitely a better way of doing things, thanks for the checklist!
Loved the user-centric change of direction. Keep it up!
Thank you for the tips ! Nothing better than to evolve thanks to experience and failure
Nice insights. I'm happy you were able to find out the mistakes.
Thank you for sharing your valuable insights and the checklist you've developed from your experiences
Great tips Akshay, experience is important for building and marketing next products and to decide if it can make good profits
Failure is a good teacher and the experience is precious. Thank you!
Thanks for sharing an Interesting Checklist:
Glad it was helpful... Now go out there and create some values in ppls lives mate:)
Thank you for your kind insight :)
Glad it was helpful:)