I watched An Oliver Roland’s video  and I want to share this with you.

First, I don’t advice you to stop your studies to create your business until you are sure that your business idea is working. The idea is to do an experiment with the most low cost possible. Use the minimum of time and energy to test your idea in real conditions (sales).

The Lean Startup method

It’s a method that has been created in Silicon Valley by Eric Ries who wrote a book “The Lean Startup” . This method avoids common mistakes such as :

You think your idea is great, you spend a lot of time and money. You do everything for your product is perfect. After months or years of work, you discover that nobody is interested in your product, nobody wants to buy it.

The Lean Statup’s concept is to do the opposite approach. It’s to put in the market as soon as possible what is called the « minimum viable product ». This means you’re making your product/service in its most « light » aspect as possible, the most minimal to test it in real conditions in the market. What I mean is make sales with a minimum investment in money and time.

If, for example, people in your entourage often request you to do a task because they’re unable to do and you, you have do it easly. Make a test, do an ad in a newspaper or in social networks to see if people are willing to pay you to do this task.

Once you have your business idea, ask yourself : « How can I test it in the field with my first clients in the most simple way with the most savings in time, energy and money ».

It’s important to test. An example of a company that has invested a lot of money and failed. In the late 1990s, some people had a great idea in the United States. They said : « The Web is the future and in a few years people will buy many things even food ». They were so confident about this idea that they didn’t test it. They wanted, right away, be available throughout in the United States and have a very fast delivery infrastructure.

They spent billions of dollars to build special warehouses, specific trucks that allowed people to be delivered very quickly to win with the best quality service.

What happened ? The market wasn’t ready, they made a few millions turnovers. Compared to billions invested, it was very little. In less than 2 years, they have failed. This company was Webvan.

On the other side, in Great Britain, there is a company, Ocado, which had the same business model, being an online supermarket therefore deliver food purchases at the client but with a very different approach. Instead of being sure that the idea was great and put a lot of money, they began in one city with few resources. When they saw that it worked, they went to other cities. Ocado is now a company that still exists and is very profitable.

The same basic idea with 2 different approaches. That’s why it’s important to do a simple test. Asks yourself : « How can I do for my product/service is as functional as possible and provides most value to customers by an experimental version.

Create a part time business and with time, build your business gradually.

What is your business idea ?

-Steph

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