Knowing what to do is different from actually doing it.
For example, Dave Ramsey, founder of an eponymous personal finance empire that produces books, conferences and a radio show, has some interesting advice about meeting one’s financial goals: he often says knowledge is only 20 percent of the battle; the other 80 percent, he says, is reforming the habits of the person you shave with. All the information in the world will prove useless unless you can change your behavior.
A similar principle applies to starting a business. Unless you can muster the courage to sell something to your first customer (and persistence to sell to many more), all the classes and business-planning software in the world won’t help you.
Let’s stop there for a moment: the advice above is the kind with which people easily agree but assume applies only to others. If you have harbored a business idea that failed to become a business, it applies to you. If you have composed a perfect business plan but shielded it from the light of day, take note. If you think your idea will take off only once you’ve found a sympathetic investor or Oprah producer, listen up: you need to find your first customer. Here’s how to do it:
First, try to figure out everything about this first customer. Think about the town in which he lives, the income he earns, his family’s size, and the values he holds. If you struggle to conjure his picture, think of the customers who buy from other businesses in your industry. If your customer is a business, think about that business’s size, the number of workers it employs, its location, and the customers it serves.
Once you have a clear idea of the customers or business clients to whom you will sell, you can give some thought to how to reach them. You can speculate about the websites they frequent, the newspapers or trade magazines they read, the blogs they follow, and so on.
Once you know where your customers are, you’ll have to craft a marketing message that resonates with them. As you work on this, think about why a customer might buy from you. Hint: if your answer is, “People like cupcakes and I bake good cupcakes,” start over. The key is to identify the needs that go unmet within your target market. People who want cupcakes already know where to find them.
To simplify the message-crafting process, let’s think about the qualities that often attract customers to a particular product or service: they look for things like quality, variety, ease-of-care, craftsmanship, promptness, comfort, convenience, and cost. Give some thought to which of these you can offer. Contrary to what you might think, the goal is to find which of these qualities you can omit from your message. For example, if you use the highest quality ingredients, your price will likely rise to a level that repels those seeking low-cost goods.
Now that you have found your target market, identified those of its needs you can meet, and devised a message that succinctly conveys your business’s benefits, you’re ready to sell. Return the business books, leave your plan alone, and abstain from any further research. It’s time to turn your idea into a business and promote that dreamer you shave with to CEO.
