I’m fascinated by the Jewish culture. They have many incredible ideas about forming a profitable business.
One of their core ideas is the concept of “The Soul of a Business”. The actual creation of a business is extremely important. You’ll often hear from so-called experts that you should just get started with your business. “Ideas are dime a dozen”, they say.
The Jews teach us that, just like when a child is born, the conception of a business is of great importance. Yes, you can change a business later. You can change its name, its website, its logo, even its identity. However, wouldn’t it be a lot better to just get the idea – the soul – of the business right first?
What if you could pick the right idea right from the start? What if you nailed down the marketing? What if you chose the best name for the business? What if you picked the right monetization strategy? I can guarantee you that if you focus on the birth of your business, you’d be a lot more successful in the long run than if you simply started “taking action”.
Don’t take action until you nail down the concept. Focus on the idea first. Choosing the right market, the right monetization strategy, the right marketing strategy, and so on takes a long time. Don’t rush this process thinking that your idea is brilliant. Think it through. Share your idea with others and see what they think. Try to think through your entire idea and be ruthless with it. What can go wrong? Why should someone buy from you? How tough is your competition?
You will find that often the best course of action is to just let go of your idea and look elsewhere. An idea that might have made you very excited at one point, might have several flaws that makes it not worth pursuing.
The most important factor for success of any business is the market itself. Which market are you going after?
Some markets are a lot more profitable than others. In general, the larger the market, the more opportunities it has for specializing in something which you can dominate. Always try to specialize. Don’t be the generalist who wants to serve everything for everyone.
When you nail down a market, then comes the planning phase. This is accomplished by finding your purpose. What change do you want to bring to this market? Remember: finding the right market comes first. Finding your purpose comes second.
When you know what you want to change, then comes the planning stage. How will your business accomplish this positive change in the life of your customers? The Jews believe that great businesses are built on serving others. Listen to their advice. The better you can serve your target market, the more profitable your business will be.
Make excellent service the focus of your business and you will get very far. Focus on serving others and giving them exactly what they want and you won’t go wrong. To know exactly what your customers want, you have to listen to them.
It’s not enough to start a business and start listening to them after you start it. You won’t get great responses that way. What you want is to ASK your prospective customers what they want. Don’t be so direct, though. Ask them what they don’t like about their current provider. Ask them what could be done differently. You’ll often gain incredible insights when you follow this strategy.
If you’re looking to create an online business, I suggest that you use surveys. There are many free or cheap survey services out there. Ask as many questions as you can. Get to know your customers like the palm of your hand before you even choose an idea.
At this point you might realize that your customers are very different to what you envisioned, and that’s fine. You now have the option to continue pursuing your idea or to look elsewhere.
If you determine that creating the business is the right path for you, you create the business based around the needs of your market. What you learn from your prospective customers is of extreme importance, because the business is built for THEM, not for you. Your customers are everything. Listen to them. Figure out what they want, and they will reward you with their business.
Once you nail down the idea after listening to your market, you are ready to continue creating your business. The name, the colors, your products, and so on should all be created with your market in mind. Remember the four parts of any successful business by importance:
- Market
- Marketing
- Design
- Functionality
It doesn’t matter which business you’re creating. The market comes first. Marketing comes second. The design comes third and functionality comes last.