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Tammy Hawk-Bridges

Have a Small Business Idea? Here’s Some Considerations

Hi there I’m Tammy!Ready to learn about

marketing?!

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Hi there! My name is Tammy Hawk-Bridges. I provide marketing training and education for entrepreneurs.

I hope you’ll visit my website Perfect Marketing Equation - www.perfectmarketingequation.com and also follow me on Twitter @THawkBridges.

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If you enjoyed this presentation you can visit my blog and read the entire post:

http://www.perfectmarketingequation.com/small-business-idea-heres-considerations/

One of the worst things you can do? Create a business with absolutely no foundation other than it seems like a cool idea.

When I left corporate America and entered into the world of entrepreneurship I thought that being a smart business woman gave me a leg up. Boy, was I stupid!

I had a very cool idea, all my friends and family said so! But I did no research on my market. I didn’t know who my buyer was, and what’s worse I couldn’t reach enough of them to support my business.

So guess what? 13 months, tons of lost time, tons of lost money, lots of tears later – big failure.

Small Business Idea Ignorance

Surely you’ve seen Shark Tank - there are plenty of people out there that go hundreds of thousands of dollars into debt to support their baby with absolutely no market research! They’ll listen to no one! They’ll run everything into the ground and even jeopardize their family and relationships. It’s craziness!

Do NOT go out there and create an entire business without considering the most important part – YOUR BUYER!!!

• You can’t create a business just because you or your Mom thinks its a great idea!

• You can’t create a business just because you’re jumping on the train of an already existing fad – you don’t know how hard it is and you may get egg on your face.

• You can’t create a business that doesn’t serve a need or solve a problem.

Here’s a new flash – in order to make money you’ll need to reach and sell to enough people to support your business. Which brings me to another part of the equation you must learn about marketing! You have to know how to attract buyers to your business – especially in today’s world.

The Build it and They will Come is not going to happen, please trust that.

So before you go out and get a second mortgage on the house ask yourself these questions:

1. What problem or need does your business solve? How do you know for sure? What hard evidence do you have?

2. Who is your buyer? How do you know?3. How will you reach enough of those buyers to

support your business?4. Who are your competitors? What are you doing

that is better than what they’re doing?

You should never – ever enter into a business without having a very solid idea of how you’re going to reach enough people to buy your product. You should also never think that just because no one else is doing something that it’s wide open opportunity. In most cases, there’s a reason why no one is doing something, and those reasons may not be good.

Small Business Idea Failure

I certainly don’t want to discourage you from exploring going out on your own and having personal freedom. As a matter of fact my goal is the contrary. It’s my purpose and mission in life to help people escape the cubicle world and find their peace and personal freedom. I just don’t want you to do it badly, fail, lose your ass, or much worse.

Even large companies fall flat on their face with an idea. Look at the recent Google Glass fiasco! I read a recent article by Simon Reynolds on Forbes Why Google Glass Failed: A Marketing Lesson and he gave an overview of why he thinks it failed which as a marketer I think was spot on. Siimon explains that no one really knew why the Google Glass was so fabulous and Google certainly didn’t try to explain it. “Any product that needs the public to spend time working out for themselves why it’s valuable has already lost the battle.”

The harsh reality of it is, most start ups ( 8 out of 10) fail even with the best of circumstances! Many don’t fail as soon as they should have because they’re being backed with borrowed assets from credit cards and personal bank loans. (Notice I said personal bank loans – against homes or other assets, you can’t get a business loan without some hard criteria.)

Is Your Small Business Idea Valid? Here’s Some Ways to Make a Determination

Once again I want to tell say, please don’t think that I’m trying to discourage you! I just want to make sure you do it for all the right reasons. I’ve seen way too many do it for all the wrong reasons. It takes WAY more than a great idea to start a business!

I want to share a few simple steps that could literally save you from financial ruin! So before you go and take out a second mortgage on your house let’s see if your idea has any validity.

Step 1. Do a Google Search – Go to Google and do a search for the business you’re considering. For example, let’s say you’re thinking about doing guitar lessons and you live in St. Louis. So you would type into the search – guitar lessons in St. Louis, MO. What comes up? Take a look at the businesses that already occupy that space. How many are there? If there’s a lot of competition or it’s over-saturated that may mean it will be tough to get customers.

You MUST know who your competition is!

Step 2. Find Out Your Search Equity – Google has an incredible tool called the Keyword Planner which you’ll need a Google account to use. Then you’ll want to type in the same words you did in step one to see what the return is. In this exercise we’re not looking for competitors instead we’re looking for what potential searchers are looking for. So for example you’ll type in guitar lessons in St. Louis, MO to see if people are looking for that on the Internet. In this step you’re getting an idea of your search equity which in turn can be related to potential demand for your business.

If you know a lot of people are looking for guitar lessons, you know there’s opportunity. Because as you know, when people need something they typically go to the Internet to find it!

Step 3. No One is Doing it - If you find that no one looks your business idea and/or you don’t find any competition. Please don’t think, “Oh my goodness no one else is doing this, I will be the only one, I’m going to be soooooo rich!”

I don’t want to bust your balloon please believe me! I want you to have your own business! But I want you to do for the right reasons, not false ones. You have to consider that if someone isn’t doing something there may be a reason!

Step 4. What Problem Are You Solving? What Need are Your Fulfilling? – Just because Mom, your friends, or Uncle Bill says somethings a good idea doesn’t give you the validity to go out and start a business. You need to have solid proof that your business model idea is going to fill a space that’s in demand.

So please by all means explore your idea but please find out who your potential competition is and how they’re positioning the business. Also, find out what your search equity is which gives you an idea of demand and also make sure you’re solving a problem or fulfilling an established need.

If you can’t answer all these questions with raving yeses then you may want to reconsider and come up with a different idea.

As wonderful as the world of independence is ( I really enjoy it) it really is quite hard, you’re in for a tough journey. Don’t make it any tougher by creating a business that may not have a market.

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Please visitwww.perfectmarketingequation.com for many other marketing lessons for

entrepreneurs!

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Also check out these FREE training resources:

Design Your Own Marketing Strategy & Process:

www.perfectmarketingequation.com/marketing-strategy-blueprint-for-2015/

How to Find Your Niche:www.perfectmarketingequation.com/niche-marketing/

The Pajama Entrepreneurwww.thepjentrepreneur.com

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Also check out my Video Marketing Library for quick lessons on how to market your business!

www.perfectmarketingequation.com/marketing-videos/

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