The Number One Mistake People Make When Starting a Business

As I promised last week in my anecdote about entering entrepreneurship at age 10 (read the story here), I wanted to give you a quick and dirty way to understand if you’re in a position to successfully start a business, and share the number one mistake that blocks success! I say “successfully” because literally anyone can START a business. Go to your state’s online registry, find a name that hasn’t been used, submit your $$’s, and there you have it, you’ve “started” a business!

But to truly be successful (i.e. have real live people, give you real live money, for a real live product or service…..), you need to AVOID one mistake at all costs.

So… what is this confounding, crucial mistake that most founders make?

They start a business WITHOUT getting *crystal clear* on what problem they’re solving.

That’s it.

They fall in love with their product or service, or maybe even the vision of being self-employed and living a #boss lifestyle, but fail at understanding the number one thing every successful business requires: a problem (a problem that people are willing to part with their hard-earned money to solve).

So, now that you know this is the number one mistake entrepreneurs make.. How can YOU go about avoiding the same thing?

The Two T’s™: Talk and Test ~ over and over (and over) again

First: Talk.

I mean this very literally. In order to understand if you have a real problem that people will pay money to solve (to create a viable business), you need to go out into the world and talk to the people who you *think* might be experiencing the problem. I say *think* because everything in business is a hypothesis, which I’ll get back to in the second step (“test”).

Your number one role in the “talk” phase? Listening. That’s it. Come into the conversation with some general questions, but listen at least 3x more than you talk. That way you get to hear straight from the proverbial horse’s mouth if they think about the problem in the same way you do. Every conversation you have will inspire you to look at your hypothesized “problem” a little differently, and will give you invaluable insight into what is REALLY the problem, and even what types of things your future customers would most likely pay for.

Second: Test.

As important as the first step (talking) is, don’t spend too much time here because ultimately everyone will have an opinion, a perspective and a suggestion. So once you get a clear enough idea on what the problem ACTUALLY is (and how you think you can uniquely solve it), get to testing! 

Testing just means actually putting something out into the real world and measuring how people react. It’s ideal if you test several times (and continue to over the course of your business) to be able to compare outcomes! That way you know if something is really “more” or “less” popular or viable. :)

Testing can look like launching a newsletter on the topic and seeing how many people sign up, using Facebook or Instagram ads to drive traffic to a landing page on the topic and testing different problem/solution statements, or straight-up launching an offer (easier with a service than a product to launch rapidly) and seeing if anyone is willing to pay for it! 

My personal favorite way to test is to launch an offer to a closed community (friends + family, existing email list, social media following), and just seeing how much organic interest there is in what you’re selling! 

The absolute BEST way to test something is to attach a price tag. You can benchmark your prices to what you see in the market, based on your level of expertise and the offer  you’re making, and get to work delivering on your value! 

Testing also means you’ll get real live feedback on your product or service from people using it - this is the BEST DATA POSSIBLE.

So, there you have it, the number one mistake people make when they want to launch a business, and two ways to AVOID said mistake.

If you’re all pumped up and want to learn more about starting a business, I HIGHLY recommend following my online business mentor, Amy Porterfield, and downloading a few of her podcast episodes to get your wheels turning.

Here’s one of my favorites, on a tried and true strategy for launching an online business, specifically:

Comment below if you have other tips for entrepreneurs just starting out, or questions I can answer for you as it relates to my own journey in business! I love talking shop. :)

Xo,

Julia