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One question that I always get is "I don't know what product to sell." My answer now is always, that's not the right question. Thinking of the product first is backwards.
The question is, "who will benefit from my business?", "why do I want to start that business?" and "what business do I want to start?"
When you ask "who will benefit from my business", your answer should not be, "I would because I make money, then I get to buy stuff". The answer should be that your customer benefits. But is the customer truly benefiting? Think about this. Let's say you are selling a coffee mug. You put your brand name ABC on it. You want to sell it for $10, like everyone else's.
So now your customer can buy your $10 mug or a competitor's $10 mug. How do they benefit when they buy yours? Well if the competitor is ROGUE and your brand is ABC, we could say that their customer is benefiting because a ROGUE mug means something. It could signal that this customer is into Crossfit. Maybe he uses ROGUE equipment and likes the brand. However, if you just made up a brand name, then what does having a mug that says ABC mean to the customer. You don't build a brand by making up a name and a logo.
Let's compare your $10 ABC mug to another mug Super Happy Dragon Company, that is selling for $9. Now your customer is getting less benefit buying yours vs. the Super Happy Dragon Company. The Super Happy Dragon Company customer's benefit is that their customers will save $1 by purchasing their mug.
Now, let's say you improve the mug so that coffee stays warmer for longer in your special mug. Well this changes the whole "who will benefit from my business" question doesn't it. Now it's clear to you AND your customer that purchasing ABC mug will give them hotter coffee for longer. This is clearly a benefit.
On the other hand, instead of improving the mug, you go the branding route. You sell a regular coffee mug, but instead of ABC, you put a picture of Taylor Swift on it (just assume here that she's ok with it). Now it's clear again to you AND your customer that purchasing ABC mug let's our customer signal that he/she is a Taylor Swift fan. This is clearly a benefit.
When you ask "why do I want to start that business", your answer should not be, "to make money so that I can buy stuff". Maybe your answer is "to make money so that I can buy my mom a nice house", and while that is a noble reason, it's still not a real reason to start a business. Imagine if Nike's was, NIKE, buy our shoes so that I can buy my mom a mansion. Nobody would be NIKEs, because nobody cares about the CEO's mom's house.
Most people want freedom from a job, to be financial free, etc... These are all great internal reasons but you need an external reason. People won't buy from you because you want freedom. They buy from you when you solve an external problem. This is mainly the pain point question that MJ talks about.
I'll give you one of my super nichey pain points. When I'm riding my mountain bike deep in the mountains, I carry a firearm and bear spray. The problem is that neither of these can be deployed until I stop my bike and use both hands. So my "why do I want to start that business" answer is, because I need a way to easily access my bear spray with one hand and while riding.
As you can see, with that question answered, the answer to the next question "what business do I want to start?" is pretty simple. I want to start a business that makes easy access bear spray packs.
Ok, let's jump back to the "who will benefit from my business" question with regards to my easy access bear spray pack business now. They are thousands of biking backpacks out there. But none have a side opening or a method to hook bear spray to where you can reach around and grab it. Imagine the marketing, "With my new easy access bear spray pack, you can take your bear spray out in 2 seconds vs. 15". Isn't it pretty clear who benefits now? That could be the difference of life and death on the trail. Easy marketing right?
When you go through these steps, in the end it should be pretty clear how you are going to market your product. Using the example above, imagine the keywords you would use in a PPC campaign, imagine which influencers or youtuber you would pitch it to. It's pretty clear right? It markets itself. Can you already think of the videos that you can make on social? Content is easy when your product has a purpose.
The problem I see with most people trying to start a product business is that they never think, "how am I going to market this?" Amazon or Shopify is NOT an answer.
If you have read my bees thread you can see this process in action. To summarize it here, I'm trying to figure out a way to help increase the bee population. I haven't figure it out yet. But you will see that I'm going backwards. I haven't even thought about a product yet.
So let's run through the questions.
Who will benefit from my business?
In this case it is the bees that would benefit. Humans would indirectly benefit. Because I haven't figured it out yet on that thread, let's just assume that I decide that donating 50% proceeds to the USA beekeeping foundation(USABKF, I just made that up) is the best course of action.
Why do I want to start that business?
Because I care about the environment, nature and animals.
What business do I want to start?
So here's the incredible part! Does the product matter? The purpose of my business is to donate 50% to the USABKF. So now I need to figure out a product. It should be high volume because my goal is to donate as much as possible. So now I pick something. (As I look around my desk) Sunglasses! Bee Sunglasses! Now I source high quality sunglasses just like everyone else trying to get into the sunglasses market. But guess what? I already know how I'm going to market it and I'm sure you do too.
The question is, "who will benefit from my business?", "why do I want to start that business?" and "what business do I want to start?"
When you ask "who will benefit from my business", your answer should not be, "I would because I make money, then I get to buy stuff". The answer should be that your customer benefits. But is the customer truly benefiting? Think about this. Let's say you are selling a coffee mug. You put your brand name ABC on it. You want to sell it for $10, like everyone else's.
So now your customer can buy your $10 mug or a competitor's $10 mug. How do they benefit when they buy yours? Well if the competitor is ROGUE and your brand is ABC, we could say that their customer is benefiting because a ROGUE mug means something. It could signal that this customer is into Crossfit. Maybe he uses ROGUE equipment and likes the brand. However, if you just made up a brand name, then what does having a mug that says ABC mean to the customer. You don't build a brand by making up a name and a logo.
Let's compare your $10 ABC mug to another mug Super Happy Dragon Company, that is selling for $9. Now your customer is getting less benefit buying yours vs. the Super Happy Dragon Company. The Super Happy Dragon Company customer's benefit is that their customers will save $1 by purchasing their mug.
Now, let's say you improve the mug so that coffee stays warmer for longer in your special mug. Well this changes the whole "who will benefit from my business" question doesn't it. Now it's clear to you AND your customer that purchasing ABC mug will give them hotter coffee for longer. This is clearly a benefit.
On the other hand, instead of improving the mug, you go the branding route. You sell a regular coffee mug, but instead of ABC, you put a picture of Taylor Swift on it (just assume here that she's ok with it). Now it's clear again to you AND your customer that purchasing ABC mug let's our customer signal that he/she is a Taylor Swift fan. This is clearly a benefit.
When you ask "why do I want to start that business", your answer should not be, "to make money so that I can buy stuff". Maybe your answer is "to make money so that I can buy my mom a nice house", and while that is a noble reason, it's still not a real reason to start a business. Imagine if Nike's was, NIKE, buy our shoes so that I can buy my mom a mansion. Nobody would be NIKEs, because nobody cares about the CEO's mom's house.
Most people want freedom from a job, to be financial free, etc... These are all great internal reasons but you need an external reason. People won't buy from you because you want freedom. They buy from you when you solve an external problem. This is mainly the pain point question that MJ talks about.
I'll give you one of my super nichey pain points. When I'm riding my mountain bike deep in the mountains, I carry a firearm and bear spray. The problem is that neither of these can be deployed until I stop my bike and use both hands. So my "why do I want to start that business" answer is, because I need a way to easily access my bear spray with one hand and while riding.
As you can see, with that question answered, the answer to the next question "what business do I want to start?" is pretty simple. I want to start a business that makes easy access bear spray packs.
Ok, let's jump back to the "who will benefit from my business" question with regards to my easy access bear spray pack business now. They are thousands of biking backpacks out there. But none have a side opening or a method to hook bear spray to where you can reach around and grab it. Imagine the marketing, "With my new easy access bear spray pack, you can take your bear spray out in 2 seconds vs. 15". Isn't it pretty clear who benefits now? That could be the difference of life and death on the trail. Easy marketing right?
When you go through these steps, in the end it should be pretty clear how you are going to market your product. Using the example above, imagine the keywords you would use in a PPC campaign, imagine which influencers or youtuber you would pitch it to. It's pretty clear right? It markets itself. Can you already think of the videos that you can make on social? Content is easy when your product has a purpose.
The problem I see with most people trying to start a product business is that they never think, "how am I going to market this?" Amazon or Shopify is NOT an answer.
If you have read my bees thread you can see this process in action. To summarize it here, I'm trying to figure out a way to help increase the bee population. I haven't figure it out yet. But you will see that I'm going backwards. I haven't even thought about a product yet.
So let's run through the questions.
Who will benefit from my business?
In this case it is the bees that would benefit. Humans would indirectly benefit. Because I haven't figured it out yet on that thread, let's just assume that I decide that donating 50% proceeds to the USA beekeeping foundation(USABKF, I just made that up) is the best course of action.
Why do I want to start that business?
Because I care about the environment, nature and animals.
What business do I want to start?
So here's the incredible part! Does the product matter? The purpose of my business is to donate 50% to the USABKF. So now I need to figure out a product. It should be high volume because my goal is to donate as much as possible. So now I pick something. (As I look around my desk) Sunglasses! Bee Sunglasses! Now I source high quality sunglasses just like everyone else trying to get into the sunglasses market. But guess what? I already know how I'm going to market it and I'm sure you do too.
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