No matter what business you’re doing, if you don’t know the secret I’m about to share with you, then you’ve wasted too much money getting your business off the ground. And if your business is still struggling, then you’re probably about to discover the major reason why it is not yet successful.
Despite being in business for nearly 18 years; I didn’t learn about this secret until a couple of years ago. The secret has empowered me so much that I’m now confident that if I apply the principle each time I take a new product to the marketplace, I cannot lose my money.
Incredible as it may sound, the secret is simple and so obvious that you wonder why everyone didn’t know about it. Or, if they knew about it, why they were not applying it. Truth is, if everyone who had a product or service in the marketplace had applied the principle, none of them would’ve experienced business failure.
Okay, what is this secret? The amazing secret, simply stated, is that you must find a customer for your new product ever before you produce a single unit of it. That is a powerful concept. When you fully understand the implication of that statement and compare it to what the majority of entrepreneurs were doing before now, you will discover the reason why many businesses fail even before they take off. And if you’re going to make it big in Nigeria, you must start by implementing this concept in your business from now on.
Let me describe the traditional way entrepreneurs launch a new business (or product) and compare it to this new concept and you’ll see the marked difference in both processes. In the past, when you got a new idea, the first step you took was to start looking for money to launch it. Once the money was in place, you went about recruiting staff, set up machinery for production, hired business premises, and negotiated with suppliers.
Next, you have an advertising agency to plan a promotional campaign for you. (Many new businesses don’t even give a thought to this aspect). And, pronto, your new product (or business) was about to be launched.
Let’s pause a bit and see what you’ve put into this new business in terms of money and effort. Depending on the size of the business, by the time you get to this point, you probably would’ve set your bank account back by a couple of million. That does not include your stress equity. You know, those sleepless nights when you’re either worrying if your product would be accepted in the marketplace or, if you’re one of those people who fall in love with their product, thinking of the millions that would flow into your bank account once the product is launched.
So everything is set. The next step is that you make your noisy entry (if you budgeted for the promotional campaign) or quiet entry (if you didn’t) into the marketplace. Both ways, the same result awaits you.
The only difference is that if you enter the marketplace quietly, it will be more hostile to you than to the business that made a noisy entry. At least the business that got everyone in the marketplace to turn their heads in its direction has created awareness for its product. The one that kept quiet about its arrival would have to wait until it was discovered. Unfortunately, many of such products never get noticed until they beat their hasty retreat.
Now, if you have an advertising budget that is as big as that of some giant telecom companies, such as Airtel and MTN, your product may, on the long run, be able to force its way into your consumers’ homes. But you can’t even bet on that. There were scores of products that tried to bamboozle the marketplace but failed.
PZ’s Minta Toothpaste is one example I can never forget. In the 80s, PZ pumped millions into advertising Minta but the company was forced to withdraw it quietly from the marketplace when consumers did not bite its bait. The same was the case with Merit, the lager beer owned by Guinness Nigeria PIc. It met the same fate in the marketplace as PZ’s Minta Toothpaste.
Too much money is wasted by companies trying to impose their products on the marketplace. And this is money they could have saved if they had known the secret that had just been revealed to you.
Now, let me show you how the secret works. First, you will go to the marketplace and do your due diligence. That is, you will sniff around and dig around until you discover a product or service that the marketplace is lacking. Once you’ve made this earth-shaking discovery (well, it is earth-shaking to you because it will make you lots of money), you will not rush to produce it.
Instead, you would hang around the marketplace a little while and find consumers who are prepared to buy the product or service that you discover there is a need for in the marketplace and probe the consumers to find out at what price they will be ready to buy your widget.
This is the big difference between the old system and this new one. When you’ve stayed back in the marketplace after discovering a genuine need, and you start investigating how many consumers are ready to buy your widget if you made it and the price they will be willing to pay for it, you have given yourself the greatest chance of succeeding in the marketplace.
Suppose you don’t find enough consumers who are ready to use your new widget. No problem. You simply would not go ahead to waste your time and money producing it. This means you have discovered upfront what people using the old system would learn later after pouring lots of money into production.
Another advantage is that knowing what consumers are ready to pay for your widget will also help you to determine whether you will have enough profit margin after selling it at the asking price of the consumers. If you find that there is no way you can make a profit after you deduct your cost from the selling price, you know that there is no point in carrying on with the production.
Let me give you one or two examples that will make this point clearer. Before cell phone service was introduced into Nigeria, it was an open secret that whenever such a service came, it would bring huge financial rewards for the investors. You didn’t need a crystal ball to see that. NITEL had turned telephone services on its head before it was privatized.
There were daily wailings from consumers for a better service. Neither NITEL nor the private telephone service providers were willing to render it. So it was obvious that there would be a stampede for any company that made telephone lines readily available for consumers who wanted them. That is why despite the imperfection of the Global System for Mobile Communication (GSM) companies, consumers have been flocking to them to acquire their phones.
The marketplace not only having the need for the GSM service, they were clamoring for it even before it was made available. There is no doubt that those who invested their money into the GSM companies are laughing all the way to the bank.
Another example. This one is about my experience in the marketplace. I created an information product that fetched me more than N400,000.00 within three days of my release and more than a million naira within nine months.
How was this possible?
First, there was a demand (a niche) in the marketplace for it. Second, I had pre-knowledge of the size of the consumers. Third, I knew the price these consumers were willing to pay for it. Fourth, I made sure that the product would deliver more than it promised. In short, it was the perfect product to fill a perfect yawning need in the marketplace.
What is the name of this product?
Export Success Golden Keys. Before I expended a single kobo on the production of this information product, I had taken care to ensure that all the key elements of taking a new product to the marketplace were in place. I was, therefore, not surprised that I got that excellent result.
Take my advice:
If you want to get rich, and you don’t want to grow premature grey hairs in the process, then follow this concept. It will save you years of uphill struggle in the marketplace. And success without sweat will be your reward.
Quote:
“You must find a customer for your new product ever before you produce a single unit of it. “If you want to get rich, and you don’t want to grow premature grey hairs in the process, then follow this concept. It will save you years of uphill struggle in the marketplace. And success without sweat will be your reward”
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