Seasonal Tile Inspiration
22-03-2024 | Milan Patel
Why Do Most Small Businesses Fail?
30-03-2019 | Neora
Because they do what you
are about to do!
You’re starting a business
the traditional way... a very risky process:
1. I have an idea.
2. I invest in my idea.
3. I develop my idea.
4. THEN find a market for my
product!
5. WRONG!
Why do I know this?
Because I’ve learned the
hard way, making this same mistake several times during my Working journey!
This advice will save you
money and potentially your new business!
Before you do marketing and
distribute your products you must identify which is the product that your
customers want. You need to meet a real demand, real needs of real customers!
“But Hector… I know there’s
a market for my product! I just need to set it on the store (distribution)
and it will fly off the shelves!”
“People are not aware that
my product exists (marketing), how could they ever buy it if they’re not
aware of it?”
Maybe… but this is what I
expect to happen:
1.- Distribution: You will need to burn
cash to move your products, set agreements with stores and since you are a new
player on the market you will need to finance the inventory to sit on the
shelves… burn more cash!
2.- Marketing: Did you know that
attention is the most valuable asset on earth? Don’t believe me? Why does
Facebook have a market cap of over $500 billion? Why is Google worth over $700
billion and it is free? Because they own the attention of millions of
people and businesses around the world are willing to pay millions in
advertising for our attention. Do you have the cash to burn to catch the
attention of your “potential” customers? Like millions of small startups, most
likely you don’t.
Here’s my point:
You are trying to PUSH sales.
That is very expensive! You will die sooner than later.
To answer your question:
What you need is to PULL sales!
You need customers to ask for your product. You need
to make them want it. Aren't we all tired of everyone selling us
something? People want value and when they find it they are willing to pay for
it!
As I often warn
people: Hard work is NOT good enough anymore!
You may distribute your
product or use the best marketing tactics and you will still fail! You
need strategy! STOP and THINK how you can make people WANT your
product!
Not easy right?
To answer that very complex
question you need to get out of your office, knock on doors and talk to
potential customers!
Show them your product, ask
for their most honest opinion. Ask the right questions, even if you don’t like
them!
Most importantly LISTEN TO
THEM!
With their feedback, go
back to work to give them what they want.
Repeat this process over
and over again until they beg for your product!
Until you find customers
who are willing to PRE-PAY for your product, you just have a worthless idea.
Not easy? Don’t like it?
Neora
19-11-2019 | Neora Inv