There's a very important word here on FLF. The word is "need." We know conceptually that "entrepreneurs" are supposed to "meet needs" or "solve needs." We hear it all the time on Shark Tank. "Guys, this product meets a need in the market." "People need this product."
I grant you that in some esoteric fields, proclamations like this are necessary: Maybe the contact lens tooling industry really does need your rapid cooling device. An average person wouldn't know that, only the engineers working in that industry would.
But in the cases of things like shoes, or clothing, or phone cases, or iPhone aps, if you have to tell people: "This product meets a need!" guess what? It doesn't meet a need.
Do you think Beyoncé Knowles or Leonardo DiCaprio ever have to explain to someone that they're attractive? Do you think that Lebron James or Maria Sharapova ever have to tell people, "I'm very healthy!"
Yet obese people who believe in the HAES movement insistently tell people all the time: "I'm attractive! I'm good looking! I'm healthy!" Guess why? Because they aren't any of those things.
You see this all the time on Shark Tank, and it makes you cringe so bad your toes curl up. An entrepreneur stands up and tries to explain to people who've built hundred million or billion dollar companies why there's an urgent need for an energy bar made out of cockroaches, an air freshener to drive away the tooth fairy, or a bath robe that says "latte" on it. Guys, nobody "needs" that stuff. You have buyers? Doesn't matter. Just because you have some sales doesn't mean you're meeting a need. This is important: The point of the "fast lane" was to take the FAST route to money.
You can make money without meeting a need. Fads, brands that focus on image rather than quality or innovation, they all do that. Some of them do very well. But if it were me, and I was about to start on my fastlane journey with a full tank of gas and an open road in every direction, there's no way in hell I'd settle for an idea that I had to convince other people met a need. You don't bet the farm on an inside straight.
Here's an illustration. A few months ago I was invited to a conference for business owners by a friend. The point was to present to them about managing their web presence. I wasn't there to make any money-I bought no business cards, had no pitch, was just doing it as a favor. In the midst of the presentation, someone asked a question about something that led to me mentioning a service I'd provided for a friend's business at one point. One sentence, that was all. Presentation concluded.
Afterwards, about 10% of the people there came up to me, not to talk about the topic of my presentation, but to ask about that service. Was it still available? How much was it? What kind of volume could I handle?
I went home. I started to get emails and facebook messages. Let me stress that I did not at any time give these people my email-they dug it up and started contacting me. A month later, I was still getting sporadic calls, during dinner, early in the morning. People wanted to know about that service.
This is how you spot a product that meets a need. If you had a flawless, "set-the-clock-back-to-eighteen" cure for baldness, do you think you'd have to make up awkward, urgent explanations as to why people needed it? You'd be a billionaire as fast as you could fill the orders. If you had a product that perfectly replaced gasoline for half the cost, do you think you'd have to take out a Super Bowl ad to get people to care about it? You'd be on the cover of the New York Times, for free.
When you are trying to push a product that doesn't meet a need, you'll need to spend tons of advertising money, and tons of time trying to convince people to buy. The thing about needs is that people who have them ALWAYS know what they are, even if they didn't think a solution existed. If you have to tell your target customer why they need the product (or tell them for more than 30 seconds), they don't actually need it.
When you've met a need, a real need, your product has explosive organic growth by word of mouth alone. Friends find out from friends, and people selling B2B see sales when companies watch their competitors suddenly leaping over a hurdle that's tripping them up, and want in yesterday. The time and money and aggravation you previously spent to convince your customer, you now spend collecting their cash. They advertise for you, because people who have a need are actively searching for the solution to that need all the time.
If you're starting on your Fastlane Journey, if you're taking the risk of starting your own business, you owe it to yourself to avoid doing the hard, fruitless work of convincing people to buy something they don't really need. Take your time, spot a real need, and the only convincing you'll have to do is to get your supplier to put their people on overtime. Invent a "Paint Brush Cover," not a dish towel with "Coffee" on it, then you'll see what fastlane speed is all about.
I grant you that in some esoteric fields, proclamations like this are necessary: Maybe the contact lens tooling industry really does need your rapid cooling device. An average person wouldn't know that, only the engineers working in that industry would.
But in the cases of things like shoes, or clothing, or phone cases, or iPhone aps, if you have to tell people: "This product meets a need!" guess what? It doesn't meet a need.
Do you think Beyoncé Knowles or Leonardo DiCaprio ever have to explain to someone that they're attractive? Do you think that Lebron James or Maria Sharapova ever have to tell people, "I'm very healthy!"
Yet obese people who believe in the HAES movement insistently tell people all the time: "I'm attractive! I'm good looking! I'm healthy!" Guess why? Because they aren't any of those things.
You see this all the time on Shark Tank, and it makes you cringe so bad your toes curl up. An entrepreneur stands up and tries to explain to people who've built hundred million or billion dollar companies why there's an urgent need for an energy bar made out of cockroaches, an air freshener to drive away the tooth fairy, or a bath robe that says "latte" on it. Guys, nobody "needs" that stuff. You have buyers? Doesn't matter. Just because you have some sales doesn't mean you're meeting a need. This is important: The point of the "fast lane" was to take the FAST route to money.
You can make money without meeting a need. Fads, brands that focus on image rather than quality or innovation, they all do that. Some of them do very well. But if it were me, and I was about to start on my fastlane journey with a full tank of gas and an open road in every direction, there's no way in hell I'd settle for an idea that I had to convince other people met a need. You don't bet the farm on an inside straight.
Here's an illustration. A few months ago I was invited to a conference for business owners by a friend. The point was to present to them about managing their web presence. I wasn't there to make any money-I bought no business cards, had no pitch, was just doing it as a favor. In the midst of the presentation, someone asked a question about something that led to me mentioning a service I'd provided for a friend's business at one point. One sentence, that was all. Presentation concluded.
Afterwards, about 10% of the people there came up to me, not to talk about the topic of my presentation, but to ask about that service. Was it still available? How much was it? What kind of volume could I handle?
I went home. I started to get emails and facebook messages. Let me stress that I did not at any time give these people my email-they dug it up and started contacting me. A month later, I was still getting sporadic calls, during dinner, early in the morning. People wanted to know about that service.
This is how you spot a product that meets a need. If you had a flawless, "set-the-clock-back-to-eighteen" cure for baldness, do you think you'd have to make up awkward, urgent explanations as to why people needed it? You'd be a billionaire as fast as you could fill the orders. If you had a product that perfectly replaced gasoline for half the cost, do you think you'd have to take out a Super Bowl ad to get people to care about it? You'd be on the cover of the New York Times, for free.
When you are trying to push a product that doesn't meet a need, you'll need to spend tons of advertising money, and tons of time trying to convince people to buy. The thing about needs is that people who have them ALWAYS know what they are, even if they didn't think a solution existed. If you have to tell your target customer why they need the product (or tell them for more than 30 seconds), they don't actually need it.
When you've met a need, a real need, your product has explosive organic growth by word of mouth alone. Friends find out from friends, and people selling B2B see sales when companies watch their competitors suddenly leaping over a hurdle that's tripping them up, and want in yesterday. The time and money and aggravation you previously spent to convince your customer, you now spend collecting their cash. They advertise for you, because people who have a need are actively searching for the solution to that need all the time.
If you're starting on your Fastlane Journey, if you're taking the risk of starting your own business, you owe it to yourself to avoid doing the hard, fruitless work of convincing people to buy something they don't really need. Take your time, spot a real need, and the only convincing you'll have to do is to get your supplier to put their people on overtime. Invent a "Paint Brush Cover," not a dish towel with "Coffee" on it, then you'll see what fastlane speed is all about.
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