What is Fail Fast? Fast Idea Validation and Follow Through

[DeletedUser63433]

Hi Fastlaners,

If your like me, you've probably failed before. I actually wanted to kill myself the first time I had a business go under.

Spoiler alert... I'm still alive.

Now I am fast-laning with my new approach to online business. Over the past 4 years I have tried and failed. Now, I have a better understanding of business and how to go about market research, brand creation, and product launching.

However, I don't want to just launch anything and bust my a$$ to make it work. I want to enter the market in a way where I can really build something valuable.

Think RX bar: great niche, entered the market before anybody else sold for millions.

So how do I plan to find my gap in the market and build the business of my dreams in an era where there are soooo many online products already?

Well I read the book "crowdfunded" and have been really interested this past year on product validation. I figured out that I can't create a product, put the money and time into it, and expect to see it blossom. This is because the online space is so saturated. Even if I pursue something with a higher barrier to entry, it still can fail.

So what if the business fails? All that time went to waste. From experience, it takes at-least 3-4 months from concept to creation to get a physical product business up and running.

So I am limited to trying out 3 businesses a year if I am lucky and 3rd time is not always the charm.

I like Gary V's concept of using is marketing agency as a "machine" for launching new businesses.

I am starting to do the same thing! My idea is to cut the time spent on seeing if a business opportunity will work down from 3-6 months, to 1 month. Now I go from 2-3 businesses a year to 12.

This of course all starts with the idea/concept. I read another book I highly recommend called "choose yourself" and I took some lessons from that book to help me come up with better ideas.

My basic way of going about this is:

1.) Hire a product mockup specialist. Someone who can render 3d photos of a physical product based on a cad design. Something that looks almost like a real product.
2.) Hire product designer. Someone who can quickly draft a product from my napkin sketch.
3.) Landing page creation, with email signup and checkout page for a $1 reservation for my product. So If they like the product they can put down a $1 today and get 35% off when it's launch time.
4.) Start with online forums and ads, to drive traffic to site.

Of course this is going to vary, perhaps for certain niches that I am interested in but not super knowledgable about, I will do extra qualitative research to find new features to add.

People have good ideas!

So what does everyone think about failing fast?

What do you think about validating your product or business idea before putting all the time and money into it?

Does anybody have resources for me to checkout?

Does anybody have a business idea they have been looking to try, but not sure where to start to get it going?

 

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[Johnny boy]

I think a lot of young newbies on here have an idea and waste SOOO much unnecessary time instead of just running some ads and testing the market FIRST.

I like to test quickly.

With that said, there's not a one-size-fits-all system for testing, and each type of business needs to be grown differently.

Do you currently have a marketing agency that you will use as the machine for launching new businesses?

 

[DeletedUser63433]

I think a lot of young newbies on here have an idea and waste SOOO much unnecessary time instead of just running some ads and testing the market FIRST.

I like to test quickly.

With that said, there's not a one-size-fits-all system for testing, and each type of business needs to be grown differently.

Do you currently have a marketing agency that you will use as the machine for launching new businesses?

Specifically, physical products.

I'm a marketer so I will be running ads myself. My focus is on the Google platform.

The thing is, it's hard to understand how to test the market. This is why I creating mockups and creating the landing page as if the product were created.

How do you test the market?

 

[Johnny boy]

Specifically, physical products.

I'm a marketer so I will be running ads myself. My focus is on the Google platform.

The thing is, it's hard to understand how to test the market. This is why I creating mockups and creating the landing page as if the product were created.

How do you test the market?

I'll use one of my businesses that deals with online products as an example.

I met a mutual friend who invented a sock that doesn't fall down. It has silicone strips inside of it and you can wear the sock all day without it falling down. I couldn't find a single similar product no matter where I looked. I told him I'd help him sell the socks since it was such a good idea but he wasn't getting sales.

To sell them, I'll be approaching tons of influencers in the men's fashion space and trying to work out affiliate and advertising deals.

If I was going to test the market before they even existed, I would pay for a dozen or so IG ads by paying IG influencers.

Since the socks already exist, I can just send them to the influencer. But that's how I would be selling that particular product. I wouldn't do the same thing for many other products. Like I said it isn't one-size-fits-all.

Google PPC was super cool back when it came out. So was blogging. Not so much today.

 

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[Deleted50669]

I think a lot of young newbies on here have an idea and waste SOOO much unnecessary time instead of just running some ads and testing the market FIRST.

I like to test quickly.

With that said, there's not a one-size-fits-all system for testing, and each type of business needs to be grown differently.

Do you currently have a marketing agency that you will use as the machine for launching new businesses?

I always assuming running ads before having the product to offer is a good way to have your idea stolen.

 

[Empires]

I always assuming running ads before having the product to offer is a good way to have your idea stolen.

Ideas aren't worth anything. People aren't going to steal your idea from seeing a Fb ad. The feedback is worth way more than the small risk someone copies your idea.

Plus the harder an idea is to copy, the better. So try not to have something easy to copy.

 

[The-J]

I think a lot of young newbies on here have an idea and waste SOOO much unnecessary time instead of just running some ads and testing the market FIRST.

Precisely this. With a landing page and a few hundred bucks in ad budget you could know whether or not there's a market for what you have to offer in like, a week.

But you're testing out OFFERS, not business models. The offer is just one part of it.

I always assuming running ads before having the product to offer is a good way to have your idea stolen.

You're gonna get your idea stolen by one of the 10,000 consumers who saw your ad once? Doubt it.

 

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