I sold my first business when I was fourteen years old. That might sound impressive, but it’s not like it made me a millionaire. I sold my site, Clipartcenter.com, for $500. My next sold company, a year later, was a bit more lucrative at $2000.
I’ve begun so many different businesses over the course of my teens and twenties that it might be easy to think I’m some sort of creative mastermind. But really, all of my business ideas have been the same sort of thing. They follow a formula, and I believe the formula could work for you too. Here are my four keys – my formula – for business success.
1. Find something I like/want.
I liked clipart sites when I was thirteen. I liked stage design info when I was working at a church. I wanted a devotional for creative minds a couple of years ago. I identified those things.
2. Figure out how to make it for other people.
Once I’ve identified a need or desire, I figure out how I can make it for other people. This means make it easily scaleable. It also means I decide if I need to sell it or make it free in order to reach the most people. And I make sure that other people want/need it the same way I do.
Then I make it.
3. Find the people who will want it.
Then I identify where the people are who will want what I made. Where do they hang out? Clipart people were on Google looking for this stuff. So I found out how to be there. Church stage design people were on Twitter at the time, so I figured out how to reach them there.
If people are clumped together online or in person, figure out how to reach them where they all are.
4. Obsess over it, and don’t worry about money yet.
Finally, I obsess over making the product the best and reaching as many people as possible. I don’t necessarily try to make money yet in this phase. It’s nice when I can, but often my businesses require a bit of longterm investment before I see returns.
These four keys sound super simple because they are. It’s really just how the product ideation process should work. But sometimes we make it so complicated because we get too married to our idea or we feel self conscious.
It’s worked for me, and I believe it can work for you too. Try it!
But now your turn. What keys to business success have you used in the past? Or what are you trying? Share in a comment below.