Are You Spinning Your Wheels and Forward Progress Has Ceased?

Most entrepreneurs are guilty of moving at a fast pace; so much so that they advance their product without gauging market intelligence. You see, most entrepreneurs are “the glass is half full” people. They come up with an idea, tell a few friends (who get excited, and of course they do they are friends), they  search the net to see if there is a need for their idea and then presto, a new company is formed.

I’ve learnt the lesson that at some point, preferably early rather than later, you need to stop and gauge market intelligence. To do this, you need to step out of your bubble, get away from your friends and trusted business colleagues and go out into the real world. You see, asking a complete stranger what they think of your product is the only way of knowing whether your product is viable. Sure it’s difficult to do because no body likes rejection, but better to find out your product isn’t viable early on than to produce and attempt to sell only to find out it’s a dud.

You really need to realize at what point you are spinning your wheels and forward progress has ceased.

When you have an idea, then you go on to establish a business, build a team, have a model made, and are truly convinced the world will be better off with this product, but no one is offering to buy it, you have some decisions to make. If you have done everything you know how to do, you might need either to give up your idea for good, or stop working temporarily, regroup and wait for a better time.

Recently a friend of mine and I developed a product. We believed (and still do) that the product was going to change the world. We ran the idea past a few friends and a select group of trusted business colleagues. They all loved the idea. We then went to only a few potential end users and they loved it. From there we commenced developing the product. I then started selling the idea to Venture Capitalists and Angel Investors. There was moderate interest but people weren’t clammering over the table to make me sign with them. I put that down to the economic climate. it wasn’t until I received an email from a contact; a person who was highly intelligent, well rounded in a business sense, but more importantly had nothing to lose by saying our idea stunk.

My contact had done some wonderful research. He did what we should have done more of. He asked end users whether they would use the product. He had some mixed reactions; some great, some neutral and some bad. But what he had recognized that we had failed to acknowledge was that there wasn’t a rush of people praising the idea.

I’ve always loved Mary Kay Ash’s phrase “A mediocre idea that generates enthusiasm will go further than a great idea
that inspires no one.” We had a great idea that inspired almost no one, other than the people within our immediate circle.

Now, I still believe our product has legs. But our timing is off. We need the market to catch up to us, and that means our customers need to be more educated with our technology (which is happening already, but hasn’t reached that tipping point). Once their is a demand for our product then we can re-visit our product, gain market intelligence and then if all is well, launch. But until then, I will move on to bigger and better projects

As I scan over my thoughts within this post, I realize how blinding an exciting idea can be to entrepreneurs. So take it from me. Go out on a limb and ask strangers what they think of your product. Ask 10, 20 or 30 people and if you don’t get an abundance of positive feedback then maybe your idea needs more work, needs to be put on hold, or scrapped all together.

And remember, even if a product or project doesn’t achieve its final goal, there is something to be learned from every experience. Sometimes the process is more valuable than the end result.