THE FIVE DEADLY MISTAKES - #4

#4 - Being Overly Attached to Your Initial Idea (it will change)

This is a tough one. Entrepreneurs, including myself, tend to fall so deeply in love with our initial concept, product idea, or target market, that we can wind-up sending the business into a nasty tail spin. Resist this with every fiber of your entrepreneurial being.

What if you find out that your initial idea isn't compelling enough? What if it doesn't solve the complete customer problem that it was intended to solve? Should you throw the baby out with the bath water? Of course not. So, how about an exercise in changing your perspective? How about getting a fresh look at the problem?

Okay, so here's story from the book "Thinkertoys" by Michael Michalko. Back in the 1950s, experts proclaimed the ocean freighter industry was dying. Costs were skyrocketing and delivery times kept getting pushed back later and later.

Executives at the shipping companies kept focusing on ways to cut costs while ships were sailing. They developed ships that went faster and needed fewer crew members to run.
It didn't work. Costs continued to spiral out of control and it still took too long to get the merchandise shipped.

Then one day, a consultant changed the perspective. Rather than ask the question: " In what ways might we make ships more economical while at sea?" executives asked: "In what ways can we reduce costs?"

Ships are big money-sucking machines when they aren't at sea actually doing their job -- shipping merchandise. And when aren't they working? When they're sitting in port being loaded and unloaded.

So, the industry came up with way to preload merchandise on land. Now a ship comes in, the container carrying the cargo rolls off, a new container already loaded with cargo rolls on, and the ship heads back to sea.

That one innovation saved an entire industry. And it happened because shipping executives changed the way they viewed their problem.

Creativity Exercise -- Change your perspective (http://www.theartistsoul.com/)

So, how can you change your perspective and solve your business/marketing problems?
Try what the shipping industry did and change the question.

Instead of looking at a narrow part of the problem ("In what ways can we make ships more economical while at sea?") broaden the question ("In what ways can we reduce costs in general?")

Here's another example:

Maybe your question is "how can I land more clients?" What if you started broadening the question:

* How can I find more customers?
* How can I grow my business?
* How can I make more money from my business?
* How can I make more money period?
* How can I tweak the product to fit the needs of a more focused customer group?

Maybe one of those questions is a better place to look for a solution. Because maybe one of those questions is the "real" question you want to solve, but since you never took a step back to look at the big picture, you've never discovered the right question to ask. And, if you don't ask the right question, your intuition and experience will never give you an answer that actually solves your problem.

For more ideas about using your creativity check out http://www.theartistsoul.com/

Your intitial business idea will change. Your start-up business is dynamic and you must also be dynamic along with it. Mark your calandar to spend at least a few hours per quarter honestly assessing the business and asking "how can it be improved?" Also, use your advisors!

As entrepreneurs, often we let our egos run the show. Don't forget, ultimately, the customer runs the show because they make the choice to pull money out of their wallets and put it into yours.

What else can you do to ensure you don't make this mistake?