You got a startup inspiration? And then what?
If you are like me, your thoughts are always wild, and inspiration may come at any time. Maybe your inspiration is generated when you take a shower, or when you are driving, or when you are reading. In short, inspiration is always everywhere. For most of us, getting good inspiration is not the hardest thing in starting a business. What makes us scratch our heads most is what we should do after we get inspiration.
A few weeks ago, my good friend Greg Hartle and I had a great time at the Startup Weekend in Southern California. Greg and I are both speakers at this event. I remember the topic of his speech at the time was: What should I do next?
If you are not familiar with Startup Weekend, let me introduce it to you. This is a 54-hour event. In this event, everyone can come on stage and share their ideas and ideas about business, applications, products, or services. The founders can freely combine and transform their inspirations into enterprise. The best thing about Startup Weekend is that there will never be a lack of creativity here. Therefore, if there are similar entrepreneurial activities in your city, I highly recommend you to participate.
The not so good thing about Startup Weekend is that after the event, no one knows how to transform the inspiration into a real product or company.
When Greg got on the podium, he took out a combination lock from his pocket. He held the code lock in one hand and the microphone in the other hand, then handed the code lock to an audience next to him and asked her to open the lock. Greg told her that if she couldn’t open the lock, he wouldn’t stop speaking and leave the stage.
The audience immediately began to twist the turntable on the password lock, put the lock in her ear to listen, and then continued to turn the turntable. She even took out her phone and searched for “how to open the password lock” on Google. While the audience was busy, Greg began to talk about his views on entrepreneurship.
A few minutes later, Greg asked the audience how the lock was unlocked. Her answer was “I’m working on it.” Greg gave her a suggestion that many entrepreneurs are familiar with: “Work harder.” So she continued to try her best to open the combination lock.
After a while, Greg gave her another suggestion: mobilize passion. She accepted the suggestion, stood up and shouted, cheering for herself.
After a few minutes, Greg gave another suggestion. This time he said: “There are many other people around you, let them help you.” After that, the audience immediately greeted the people around him, formed a team of six, handed them the lock, and asked them to make suggestions together. After receiving the code lock, everyone started to rotate in different directions. At this time, Greg gave the last piece of advice: “Maybe you need more money to open the code lock?” He took some out of his pocket. The cash was handed to them (one of them took the money and put the money in his pocket. This move amused everyone in the audience).
Greg gives 4 suggestions to people who try to open the lock. They are hard work, enthusiasm, teamwork and money. For entrepreneurs, these four factors are the most important factors to ensure the success of entrepreneurship. However, as you might imagine, in front of a combination lock, none of these four things can be effective.
Finally someone in the crowd shouted: “Tell them the password!”
Greg smiled.
He took out a piece of paper and said to these people: “Try these three numbers: 34, 20 and 6.”
After only a few seconds, the code lock was finally opened.
Action
Entrepreneurs are all actionists, which is great, but to transform ideas into products, it is not enough to just take the first step. You have to analyze and adjust. You must know that the conditions for success are different for every company and every idea.
Unlike opening a password lock, there is no password for starting a business. And even more unfortunately, hard work, enthusiasm, teamwork, and money can’t guarantee the success of a business.
So how can we transform ideas into real business through analysis and adjustments?
The first thing you need to do is consumer surveys . If you have an idea, you should also know who your potential customers are. Find these people and tell them your ideas. I suggest you do your homework before talking to them so that you can answer their questions.
The next step is feedback analysis , carefully analyzing the information you get from these potential customers. Does this product have a future? Does it have defects that must be fixed immediately? Are people interested in it? Does anyone say to you: “I want to buy this product today!” or “I want to provide you with financial help!” “?
After the analysis, adjust your product accordingly. This is not to make you abandon the previous plan, but to make your product more in line with the needs of consumers.
Then you should develop a “ Minimum Viable Product “ (Minimum Viable Product). It is the most basic version of your product or service. You can show it to potential consumers, see their reaction, and understand whether they are willing to pay for such a product.
If they are not satisfied, you have to find the reason. Is it overpriced? Or is it the wrong product direction? You need to analyze the feedback from potential consumers again .
You should also share the most simple and feasible product with your family and friends around you and see what they think. Don’t persuade them to buy your product, all you need is feedback. Even if they are not your target customers, there are other people around them who may be interested in your product. You can ask them to help you promote it or introduce potential customers to you.
In short, the more people you reach, the more analysis and adjustments you need to make. You may need to adjust the original plan and strategy. You may need to completely overthrow the product prototype and start over. You may need to change the target customer group. Only by making constant adjustments can you always be on the right path.
Orrett Davis, the organizer of Startup Weekend, once said:
“Don’t be afraid of failure, you only need to succeed once.”
Getting ideas is just the first step in the entrepreneurial journey. You may make many mistakes and take many detours in the process of starting a business. But eventually you will find the password that succeeds.
Unfortunately, no one can give you a success password now, and everyone’s password is different
