When our last job, project or start-up is nearly over, we may need some good ideas for a new business venture. In this next series of blog posts, I'll explore this challenge from an unusual perspective: where we coming from and what comes to mind in those spaces.
In this first section, we'll explore the how difficult it is to come up with good business ideas when we need money. We may be thinking we need to make more money than before or to make lots of money in a hurry. We usually don't realize it, but we're coming from a place of lack when we've got revenue, income and profitability on our minds. We're assuming we would not bother with another business if we were already rolling in dough. We going to the trouble because we're in need of a bigger bankroll. We're in a space where very few ideas come to mind for launching a new business, and the few that do aren't good.
When customers realize we're in business for the money, they know to shop for bargains. They assume they could pay too much and look for the cheapest provider. They don't care much about features, quality or long term investments. They want to save money now as if they're following our example of being money-minded. They're more concerned with how much they saved right now than how much they missed out on by paying too little. These customers seem easy to please so long as we can save them some money.
We're in big trouble when we rely on offering lower prices to satisfy the customers. Rival enterprises can come along and beat our price if they run a bigger operation with economies of scale. They may also sell below their own costs if they've been able to milk a cash cow in another market which gave them the cash reserves to spend on this price war. Competing on price amounts to a failed negotiation where no nuanced value was established in the minds of the customers. We'll be struggling for survival against incredible odds on the brink of going out of business.
When we're in the space that's attractive to bargain hunters, our power supply is pitiful. We're lacking in the courage, creativity and confidence we need to succeed. We're feeling needy, insecure and apprehensive about getting exploited. We don't have what it takes to put down our foot or to define what's fair game on our own terms. We're poised to placate customers to excess and offer discounts we cannot afford. We're assuming we have to make a big sacrifice to get any business because we're not worthy of increasing success, respect and quality customers. We're coming from a place of perpetual lack.
The kinds of customers we'll attract in this space will appear to us like a bunch of losers who have nothing to lose by treating us like losers too. They will think of themselves as needy for a special price. We'll lose out on making the money we sought by offering better bargains and cheaper prices than the competition. Those customers cannot win in their worlds either. They barely show up on their power supply meters while wallowing in perpetual lack as well.
It doesn't have to be this way. We can come from other spaces where better business ideas to come to mind as naturally as those bad ideas come to mind in this space of lack and survival. In the next post, I'll explore the space of quality products that command premium prices.
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