My business didn’t pass this SIMPLE test. Then it failed.
If the answer to this simple question is “no”, then yours probably will too.
Do you have a business or want to start one?
If you have a budding or thriving business, this question will undoubtedly still be important to you as you continue to grow and iterate to remain a strong contender in your space.
If you are planning to start a business based on an idea for a product or service that you believe will be super popular, please ask yourself one very important question and be absolutely honest with yourself when you answer it.
I repeat…
If you are planning to start a business, please ask yourself this question every single day…
Well, we’ll get to it soon, but I’d like to give a quick summary of how I started a business without asking myself this very important question and how it failed, even though it seemed to be on track for great success.
I recently closed down my business (a business that I had hoped to grow and sell for a bunch of money, of course) that had been losing money since day one. I didn’t sell it. I lost lots of money.
Ouch.
When people hear that I am no longer selling the product I created, I get lots of “oh, I’m sorry to hear that! It was such a great product!” and “what happened? I thought you were killing it!” and so on.
I’ll often give the answer of “yeah, we just never recovered from the pandemic” or “thank you! I really enjoyed it too but retail is so tough to break into!” or some other pleasant and appreciative reply. As I look back on it now though, I realize that I tried to start the wrong business based on the wrong product and it was for one primary reason; My answer to the most important litmus-test question for a successful startup business was NO.
From the outside, it seemed that I had the formula for success.
These 5 factors all gave me a false sense of confidence that I’d be successful in my venture:
- The product itself was cool (a small glass-bottle shot of Organic elderberry-based “tonic” for immune-support during cold & flu season) and in a few retail locations I sold my first case in just a few days, which is very quick in the retail space.
- My brand name was powerful (Haymaker, pow!) and people loved it. Though, there were always a few folks who would ask “Hey, how’s Hay Market doing?” It’s Haymaker… and great… thanks.
- I even had the forethought to go out and get a job as a sales rep in the industry that I’d be selling in (natural and organic food retail) prior to launching the product.
- I had the support and financial backing of a close family member who truly believed that Haymaker would take off and thrive.
- Shortly after launching, the largest distributor of natural and organic food products in the U.S. reached out and asked to carry my product and help me get into markets all across the country.
Some days I would ask myself; “with all of this going for you, how could you possibly fail?”
The answer to that question lies in the humble beginnings of the product I created and got excited about. Well, excited about the prospect of selling lots of it and making a nice profit, anyway.
A few years back, a friend gave me a bottle of this elderberry syrup that they sold in the health food store where she worked. It was great stuff. I started taking a spoonful of it nearly every day and I loved the flavor and I believe that it really helped me stay “cold-free” more than I would have been otherwise during cold & flu season.
One day, I was taking the bottle from my cupboard and had the crazy thought “you know, this stuff is so great; I wish I could have a little shot of it in my pocket every day to take with me wherever I go so I never forget to drink it.”
With that thought and my entrepreneurial spirit in full swing, I found myself 3 years later quitting my job to dive headlong into the business I had started based on a small bottle of an elderberry syrup recipe that I created to be as similar to the product that I loved as possible.
However, and here’s the kicker, I didn’t really love the flavor of the product I had created and I still preferred to take the original product I was given years before, which was still being sold (albeit in much larger bottles only) in local health food stores.
In short, I hardly consumed my own product; the product I was trying to sell to the world and the product that I had built my entire business upon.
Have you picked up on the question and answer yet?
Well, here it is…
If you are planning to start a business (or want to grow your current business), please ask yourself this defining question every single day…
Do I love this product/service enough that I would be a consistent customer of this company if it were owned and run by someone else?
Boom. That’s it.
For me, the answer (from day one, mind you) was a resounding NO.
What an idiot.
NO, I had no desire to buy my own product when I walked up to the counter at my local coffee shop and saw a beautiful display of Haymaker bottles sitting right there at checkout.
NO, I was not addicted to the formula in my little bottles the way I was addicted to the product that inspired the whole damn business idea.
NO, I didn’t love, love, love what I had created and wanted the world to love enough to purchase proudly and consistently.
No. I would not be a customer of my own business. Wow. It really is as simple as that.
In conclusion:
If I can save you the wasted time, wasted money and wasted energy of starting a business that fails, it will bring me more satisfaction than owning my own company ever did.
Please, ask yourself the question above and answer it like Derek Sivers does when anyone asks him if he wants to do anything…
“If my answer isn’t HELL YEAH… It’s NO.”
Thank you for reading!
Jason.
