This transcript was generated from the episode audio and may contain minor errors.
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Welcome to a brand new month, month two of 2020, also known as the Year of Interaction. And today, this is the weekly classroom segment. All right, so last week, we talked about deciding on an idea. I showed you a tool, the Cytosol Selector, at least a modified version of it, that you can use to eliminate ideas that aren't a good fit for you at any particular time, as well as reduce your indecision, which is often the real problem. Now, of course, no tool can help you if you just want to remain stuck.
So don't do that. Join us on the road to implementing profitable ideas, which is what we'll spend 2/3 of the year on, maybe even 3/4, or I don't know, whatever the next fraction is. Okay, math isn't my strong suit. That's why you don't come to me for math lessons. Now, once you've got your idea, I wanna save you even more time, because I've seen and experienced myself that people tend to make the same mistakes over and over, especially when they're starting this process for the first time.
That's what we're gonna look at today, those common mistakes. I'll show you seven of them, and as a bonus, you'll actually hear how to avoid them. Don't skip that part. Okay, let's jump right in. Seven common mistakes that people make in the idea phase.
Number one, trying to serve all the people all the time. Now, this should be self-explanatory, and yet I hear it all the time. You're talking to people and they have an idea, and I'm like, great, who is this for? They're like, well, I could help all kinds of people. It could help this group of people.
It could help that group of people, you know, different ages, different backgrounds, different professions, on and on and on, and it's not just about demographics, right? Because I often talk about how psychographics are more important, shared beliefs, shared values, et cetera. But the point is, often hear from people who are like, this product can serve everyone. Well, guess what? It's not gonna serve anyone.
If you try to serve everyone, you're probably gonna end up serving no one. So it's not possible to be all things to all people, narrow it down. Number two, not having a clear revenue model. Okay, I try to stress this also. Like, remember what I said a while back about how will your idea make money?
Always ask that question. Whenever you have any sort of idea for any type of product or service, or you spot some inefficiency or problem, again, it's not just what is the idea for the product or the service? How will this idea make money? And if you don't know, then don't proceed. Honestly, like if you don't know, don't move forward at that point.
Think long and hard about that question before doing anything else. It really isn't optional. If there's a lot of creativity to this whole process, you can do it lots of different ways, work at your own pace, et cetera, but you have to have a clear revenue model. Again, a revenue model is just how will your idea make money? Number three, unclear messaging.
We haven't actually done copywriting or anything yet, but still, you should have an elevator pitch. Like, what is your idea in one sentence? And if it starts with, well, you know it's a long story, or it's complicated, then that's not good. Most likely your idea isn't that complicated. You just can't explain it well.
Or you haven't thought it through enough to where it is a concise, succinct idea. Maybe you don't know it well enough yourself, and you need to. In episode 918, I talked about this thing called the grandmother test, which I then had to go back and clarify. I got a couple of emails, and just to clarify again, my grandmother was one of the smartest people I've ever known, but still, she didn't know a lot about e-commerce or podcasts or blockchain. This wasn't her thing.
So if your grandmother or grandparent is pretty savvy about your topic or tech stuff in general, whatever it is, then think about somebody else you know who is off the grid or otherwise completely disconnected from the topic your idea fits in. And then the question or the test is, can you explain it to this person in a succinct manner? Because it shouldn't be too complicated or complex, and if it sounds like it is, there probably is some way to simplify. Number four, not thinking enough about fulfillment. So later we'll have an episode all about workflows and designing a systematic process for how buyers can have a well-executed experience, which is gonna help you provide better customer service.
It will be easier for you and less stressful. It will help customers talk about your service more because they've had a good experience, and ultimately it will lead to more sales for you. So for now, don't worry about the workflow thing. Just think through how the logistics will work for whatever it is you propose to sell. How will you sell it?
How will people pay for it? And what needs to happen for them to receive what they pay for? What was that number four? Here's number five, not having a good answer to the question, why should anyone care about this? This is one of these hard truths.
The more you can be cold-hearted about your own idea, the more you can kind of step back because you're very attached to it. It's your idea, I understand. But the more you can step back and look at it objectively, the better job you'll do in polishing it to make it more compelling and interesting. So it's kind of this thing where you have to be of two minds, because I really want you to believe in your idea. I want you to believe, no matter what anyone else says about it, okay?
But it's also good to put on your skeptics hat, at least from time to time, to really understand any objections or weaknesses. So make sure you have a good answer to that question. Why should anyone, let's say somebody who doesn't know you, why should that person care about your idea? So that's five, five mistakes in the idea phase. In a moment, I'll give you the final two and also your assignment for the week.
Each classroom episode has an assignment. But first, I'd like to thank our sponsor for making this whole series completely free to you. [Music]
Number six, in our list of mistakes you want to avoid in the idea phase. Number six is not asking, what if this succeeds? What if it really works?
And you may have already thought about the possibility that your idea fails. Okay, that happens, it's part of life. But you should also think about what happens if your idea succeeds and works really well. How can you grow if it takes off right away? So part of that is thinking about fulfillment.
It is thinking about, okay, how does this work if I put this out there and all of a sudden, people want to sign up for my consultation? Am I prepared to do that? Have I thought about shipping? If it's a physical product that I'm sending out. From time to time, we have a story where somebody's project actually works much better than they expect and it can actually be difficult.
And this is a good problem to have, to be clear. It's kind of like the problem of how do I pay my taxes if I make a lot of money? But it is still something to think about. Okay, number seven, not having any sense of urgency or scarcity. As you think about your idea, of course, you want to think about that revenue model.
You want to think about fulfillment. You want to look at it with a skeptical eye and say, why should people care, et cetera? You also want potential buyers to think, I need to have this now. Not, oh, that's interesting. Maybe one day I'll come back and look at it.
Okay, so there are some different ways to introduce scarcity and look at urgency. We'll have an entire classroom episode on this topic when we come to the marketing phase. I just mention it now because it's good to keep it in mind as you work on making your idea come to life. If you don't have a great answer yet, that's okay. But maybe there's a built-in way you can include this element from the beginning.
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So there you go, seven common mistakes. And your assignment is to test your idea against this list and see how it holds up. In brief, are you trying to serve all the people all the time? Well, in that case, your answer should be no, right? It should be much more specific.
Do you have a clear revenue model? Hopefully yes. Do you understand your idea well enough to be succinct, to explain it in a couple of sentences? If not, spend some time on it. Have you thought through fulfillment?
Do you understand how buyers can pay for your product or service and how they can receive it? Do you have a good answer to that skeptical version of yourself that asks, "Hey, why should I care about this?" Have you thought through what happens if it really takes off? And have you considered the element of urgency or scarcity? In case you were driving along or running along or otherwise on the go, you can get a list of these seven common mistakes along with notes for this episode and every classroom episode this year at sidehustleschool.com/classroom. I'll be back tomorrow with an all new case study.
Got some listener questions coming up as well in addition to another Throwback Thursday segment. You'll never guess when that episode is coming out. It's gonna be, well, it will be yes after Wednesday before Friday. All right, this has been episode 1,129. Once again, my name is Chris Guillebeau and this is Side Hustle School.
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From the Onward Project.
