What Smart Start-ups Do That Dumb Ones Don’t

The typical way most entrepreneurs start a business is the following:

1. Choose a product to sell or service to offer (based on the industry or hobby they know best)
2. Choose a name for the company and create a logo
3. File  Incorporation or a LLC paperwork
4. Write a business plan
5. Get funding
6. Build a website, business cards, find office space, etc.
7. Launch the company – i.e. flip on the open sign.
8. Wait for the money to roll in… in other words hope for the best

And, this is the way Smart Start-ups do it:

1. Find a hungry market
2. Figure out why they are hungry and what kind of food they’re looking for
3. Study the players in the market (to copy the good things and avoid the bad things they’re doing)
4. Test the waters. This is the most visible difference between smart and dumb start-ups. Smart marketers know that it’s all about testing the market fast and invest as little as possible.
5. If the offering doesn’t convert sales, the Smart Start-up gos on to test the next market. The second most important difference between them, the Smart ones find the audience first and then they create the product they want.
6. If the offer converts, this is when the Smart Start-up starts thinking of it as a business. And that is because he has a real business, he knows it’s time to improve the product offering or processes. 
7. Finally, this is when the Smart Marketer get his fancy website and business cards. Because he knows he’s investing in a business, not in an idea.

Biggest Takeaways

Don’t fall in love with a product or service. You want to become a successful business owner; the product that gets you there is irrelevant (that is, unless you’re very passionate about something and don’t care about money as much as you care about doing something you love [which I completely believe in, BTW]).
 
* Find the market first and develop a product or service for them. Listen to them and give them what they want.
 
* Fail fast, fail cheep.  Test the market as fast as you can with as little money as possible. Don’t create what you think is a perfect company and then launch it; launch it first and if it works, perfect it.

Zeke Camusio
http://www.TheOutsourcingCompany.com/blog