When It's Time To Dump Your Business Idea

future-technology

Continuation from yesterday…..(How Test Your Service Business)

The steps above will help you determine if people love your cooking and/or your food items. If they do, you are free to move to the next stage. If you are unable to get traction it might be time to adjust your recipe until you do or it might be time to shift to the next idea.

With your initial in-depth idea scan and minimal level idea implementation stages now complete, it is time to make a decision on what to do next. In reality and based on the results above, you will have three alternative options.

Both of your test stages went incredibly well. People love your product or service and they can’t get enough. Orders are rolling in and you are getting repeat business. You can now see a clear picture of how you will go about growing your business.

If that is the case, it would be prudent to go ahead and to jump into your new business venture head first. Perhaps on a full-time basis if your immediate income from the business can support all of your needs. What that future business development cycle means is different for everyone. The rule of thumb is as follows. Attempt to grow your business as fast as possible, for as long as you maintain a fiscally responsible stance. Never forget, the primary cause of business failure is financial mismanagement or overextension/overexpansion during the growth cycle. In other words, grow only as fast as your finances allow. Everything else will take care of itself.

Your product or service did OK, but nothing to brag about. This is where you might have gotten somewhat of a positive response, but not what you have expected. Perhaps a few orders and a few positive reviews. Yet, the response was not nearly as good as what you have anticipated. You have tried to twist your product offering and your marketing campaigns in a million different ways, but that didn’t improve the outcome. Now, you are unsure of what to do next.

If that is the case, it is difficult to give advice without first knowing the details of the underlying experiment. With that said, ask yourself the following question.

Do you love this project? Are you ready to dedicate at least the next 10 years of your life to this project on a full time basis….all while going though failures, setbacks and disappointments?

If your answer is YES: Figure out a way to make it work. Keep adjusting your product or service offering until you hit the mother lode. Keep changing your sales and marketing until you figure out what works and what doesn’t. It is there, in one form or another; you just have to find it. Remember, it took James Dyson over 15 years to perfect his vacuum cleaner. It might take you just as long to find your final solution. Yet, if you love your project, that sort of a time investment shouldn’t be a problem.

If your answer is NO: It is time to move on. It is as simple as that. If you do not have a clear solution to your problem and if you are not willing to make a sacrifice, shut the project down and concentrate on identifying the next BIG idea.

Your tests failed and you don’t know what to do next. This scenario represents a trap where a lot of Entrepreneurs get stuck. They try for years to make a success of a project that cannot possibly get any traction. Don’t be a fool. Cut your losses and move on. Whether you love this project or not is irrelevant at this stage. If you cannot get any traction at all, shut the project down immediately and concentrate on finding your next BIG idea. This step alone will save you a tremendous amount of time, money and frustration. Keep repeating the process until you find the idea that works.

To Be Continued Tomorrow…...(Why Am I Seeing This On A Financial Website?)