Create and Validate your Product

As we grow we tend to have interesting ideas pop into our mind, interrupting our thoughts. Ideas that

tend to bother us nudging us to do something that may not necessarily be in the line of our daily activities. Remember that moment as you walked down the street you noticed something that made you think you were seeing it for the first time; you probably ignored it for a while as you refocused on what made you use that route. But later in the day or late at night you remembered the whole scenario and wanted to do something about it.

It could have been the way the newspaper vendor attended to his customer, how the shoe shine boy sat looking lonely without a single customer, the arrangement of dresses in a clothing store or even the young man who sat by the restaurant window watching out for his expected date.

Such thoughts tend to drag along ideas of how things should be done in our opinion. Those ideas could be turned to businesses that could earn us the kind of living we desire. Sometimes we use such ideas to bring along our dream businesses or careers. When it comes to actualizing the ideas or dreams into real businesses we sometimes get stuck.

We find ourselves in a state where we know what we want to do but we don’t know how to do it. Have you found yourself stuck at such a position in life? You know for sure that you have a dream to put up a business that will help solve a certain problem, you actually are sure that your kind of solution is viable, but you are not able to shape it in a way that it comes out as the product you want to sell to the people.

In 1919, a Polish-American man known as Stephen Poplawski began to design a blender that would make easy the process of making malted milkshakes that were sold at Soda fountains. He must have wanted to make the process more manageable for those who served in the Soda fountains. It was not until 1922 when he patented the same product. Mr. Poplawski is one of the many inventors who saw a need, had an idea and actualized it.  Today the blender has found its way into many modern homes and businesses where its services of liquidifying certain solids are needed. It took Stephen Poplawski to believe that there was a way of making malted milkshakes that would be faster and more effective than the methods used before so as he could tirelessly work towards this specific machine.

He believed and saw the blender into being!

What is that idea that nudges you daily to actualize?

It takes a nagging idea to make a good business; but how do you actually convert that idea into a real business? You may need to answer to yourself some questions that will guide you through:

1.       Who are you?

Like Stephen Poplawski, you have to be a strong believer in problem solving; simply making life better for other people around you, yourself included. You must have an eye that sees people’s needs, a heart that desire to make that solution and a mind willing to hang on that thought long enough to break the problem into small definable pieces that you can solve one at a time, gather together the bundle of solutions to come up with one elegant answer. Your solution is what people buy.

2.       What Problem Do You See Around You?

It will take you being a CLISS kind of person to build the product that people will want to pay for.

·         Curious about the people around you,

·         always on the Look-out for ways to make life more exciting for others,

·         willing to Internalize people’s anxieties,

·         Internalizing those problem,

·         Simplifying them into easy to analyze problems

·         building a Solution that wows the people

3.       How do the people involved want the solution?

While designing the product that is so awesome, enticing the people to the pay for it you need to define exactly whom you are targeting to use that product. The target market may be extended as more people put into use that product. Stephen Poplawski may not have had in mind his blender in a modern kitchen, but it surely did find its way there making more money to the blender traders.

You should consider:

·         Ability: Products eligibility for problem solving

·         Like-ability: its elegance such as suitable size, shape, taste, weight, colour

·         Sell-ability: aim at Wow-ing the customer

The product ceases to be a hobby, it is now all business aimed at solving people’s problems, making them to willingly shift your money from their pockets into yours!

4.       Why should they care about your kind of solution?

Once the product is completed at least to a point that you can show it around to the target market, it is time to sell it. At this point it may just qualify for a minimum viable product that gives people a hint of what you are working at. You may need to give it out as a free sample, though this may not necessarily be the case for other products. Your ability to educate the target customers on your product’s suitability to solve their problem will earn you money.

Be confident and have the right attitude to enable you accept correction and face client’s reactions while presenting your product to the target client. This will enable them to first buy “you” then pay for the product.

5.       Who will you walk with in this process?

This is the team that helps you keep focused on developing the product and making a good income out of it as you solve people’s problems. Remember, you are an entrepreneur; an entrepreneur solves people’s problems while at the same making profit.

Your team is composed of:

·         Mentor: This is someone who quizzes your thinking inciting you to keep innovating. He pushes you to keep focused to your goal while pointing out possible routes to your success.

·         Micro-finance: as a startup the micro-finance will understand you better than already grown banks. They guide you into proper handling of your finances; saving, granting loans and investing.

·         Family: these are people who point out painful truths in their perspective. It is your responsibility to prove them wrong or join their creed where you deem necessary but always believe in yourself!

Have a wonderful time solving problems and making money at it!

#magwealth