Dear Friend,
When I was in secondary school, my
economics teacher used to say that the
number one reason why most small businesses
fail is because of lack of adequate capital. I
believed my teacher like most of us did. Why
not? He was my teacher and he knew it all.
There was no way I could…
Question His Authority.
What I have found out over the years since
I’ve been in business is that while having
adequate capital is vital and essential, it is not
the biggest reason why most people do not
make money with their businesses. I’ve come
across a lot of business owners that had access
to a lot of money but their businesses still
struggled in the market place.
So, was my economics teacher lying to us? I
won’t go that far. He was innocently passing
across what some other people passed across
to him. He had never done any kind of
business so all he taught us were mere
theories.
From my experience in business and consulting
for other small business owners, I’ve since
discovered that the reason why most
businesses do not make money and fail at the
end of the day is simply because…
They Do Not Sell What People Want To Buy!
Are you surprised? Don’t be. You see, the truth
about business success is that once you offer
people what they WANT to buy, your business
will make you more money than you can ever
spend. Lack of adequate capital will not be an
issue as customers and investors will literately
beg you to take their money.
Before you launch out with any kind of
business, you must ask yourself: do people
really want my product or service? If you
cannot answer that question with a straight
face, then do not bother to start the business.
Do not make mediocre assumptions like most
people do. Assumptions like “Every human
being must eat so I will sell food” or “every
human being must drink water so I will sell
water”, or “every human being must wear
clothes so I will sell clothes”.
Yada. Yada. Yada.
Don’t get me wrong. I’m not saying food,
water and clothes will not make you money.
What I’m saying is that you should not follow
general assumptions. Have you asked yourself
if people actually WANT the kinds of food you
want to sell? If you have not, you must have a
rethink.
I remember a lady telling me years back that
because we must all use salt to cook, she
would make millions selling salt. I laughed
really hard because I do not know the volume
of salt she would sell in her shop to make
millions. Come to think of it. If you organize a
big party, you cannot finish a bag of salt!
If you want to make a lot of money, you
should sell what people WANT to buy and not
what people NEED to buy. Products people
need to buy will make you decent money but
products people want to buy will fly off the
shelves…
Faster Than a Texas Tornado.
For those that are wondering what the
difference between a product people NEED to
buy and a product people WANT to buy is,
kindly give me an opportunity to explain. There
is a colossal difference between the two and I
will explain with an illustration.
Let’s assume you’re a mobile book seller and
you have just taken stock of two new books.
One of them is titled “How to easily pass WAEC
and JAMB” and the second is titled “How to
inexpensively relocate to Canada”. Let’s also
assume you are about to market the books to
group of secondary school leavers.
Before we go any further, let me ask you this:
if you have a son that has just completed his
secondary school education, what will you
advise him to do at that stage in his life? Pass
JAMB and go for his university education or
travel abroad to work? The obvious answer is
to pass JAMB and go to a university because
that is what he NEEDS at that stage of his life.
I want you to imagine a situation where you
can gather 100 teenagers that have just
completed their secondary school education.
Ask them what they will prefer. To pass JAMB
and go to a university of to travel abroad? I
can guarantee it that 90% of them will choose
to travel abroad. Why?
Because that is what they WANT!
Are you getting the picture? You have a bigger
chance of success when you sell wants. When it
comes to wants, human beings do not make
their buying decisions based on common
sense. We tend to buy emotionally.
Why do you think sports newspapers sell more
than business newspapers? We NEED business
news, but what we WANT is sports news. We
don’t care that these footballers we religiously
follow their careers are already multi
millionaires.
The lesson is simple: before you start that
business, make sure the product or service you
want to offer the public is what the really
want and not what they need
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