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Imagine
if you could spend all day with the people you enjoy the most. Who would they
be? Now, imagine if you could add value to these people you care so much about,
enrich their lives, and get paid to do it!
For
many of today’s most successful entrepreneurs, this is not a figment of their
imagination. It is their reality because they begin by identifying the
customers they want to serve. You can too!
Begin by identifying the people you want to wake up every day and trade your life to serve. This simple first step will ensure you will feel fulfilled and rewarded as you begin the time consuming process of launching your business.
2.
Talk to your customers.
You have identified your ideal customer. Now you have two options: you can guess what products or services they want, or you can go talk to them and ask them what they want. Seems like an obvious choice, right?
The
reality is that too many businesses guess what their customers want. This is
the reason the majority of startups fail. They do not understand the needs of
their customers.
To
set yourself apart, talk to your customers. Ask questions with the goal of
identifying a problem that is deep and painful. Once you find a pain that is
consistently shared among them, you know you can take the next step.
3.
Let your customers create your business.
Your
customers are marketing geniuses, as they can tell you the exact solution to
solve their pain.
I
followed this process myself. After launching my podcast The Mentee, I
interviewed my listeners to find a pain they wanted me to solve. They told me
they wanted to learn how to find their own high-level mentors and create a
seven-figure network. Then they told me what specific topics they wanted to
learn and in the process wrote the content for me. The ideas I received from
them were far better than the ones I came up with by myself!
4.
Presell your product.
At
this point, you need to identify how much you should charge for your solution.
Remember, your customers are marketing geniuses. Ask them, “If I were to bring
something like this to market, how much would you pay for this?†Then ask them
to pay for it upfront.
You
can incentivize them to jump on board as a beta-user or founding member by
adding additional value to them. Here are a few ways:
Giving
them intimate access to you as the founder. They will be able to give feedback
on the development of the solution so it customized to their needs. This really
helps you too.
Offer
to lock this introductory rate in for the life. One key point, they must
actually pay for it up front and not just say they would pay for it. It is easy
for a customer to say they are interested in something. This is not enough
validation to launch your business. If they are willing to put their money
where their mouth is, then you have validated your business and locked in a
customer base.
5.
Launch the business when you have sufficient funds.
Once
you have pre-sold enough to cover your startup costs, you are ready to take
action and build the business. This reduces your risk by not having to fund the
launch yourself. It also allows you to start with a strong customer base that
you can work closely with to ensure the product is exactly what they are
looking for.
6.
Create your MVP and let your customers improve it.
Your
job is to get a minimum viable product (MVP) to your founding members. If you
have done a good job setting expectations, these members are expecting to give
you feedback to enhance the product, so don’t worry about it being perfect. Let
them help you make it better! You will end up with a better product, and they
will feel emotionally tied to you and the solution.
7.
Scale your business.
Now
it is time to scale the business. A few ways you can do this is by investing in
marketing and considering affiliate relationships and joint ventures. You can
confidently invest in these areas because you have a product that was created
for your ideal customers, by your ideal customers. This means you are not
guessing it will work -- you know it will work because your customers told you
so.
If
you are ready to take the plunge into entrepreneurship, follow these steps to
guarantee your success and profitability.
Host of The Mentee Podcast, Medical Device Salesman, Entrepreneur, Real Estate Investor Geoff Woods, a medical device salesman by day, is the host of The Mentee Podcast where he documents his journey from employee to entrepreneur and highlights conversations he has with his high-level mentors. Woods's passion is helping others accelerate their success by surrounding them with the right mentors and the right ideas
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