How To . . .
Beware: Packaged Business Startup Products
Think of all the time you’ll save and the headaches you’ll avoid if you don’t have to research and actually learn what starting a business is all about!
What you may be overlooking, however, are gigantic business creation problems and voids.
How is the seller’s motivation, previous business experience, knowledge, and lack of understanding about your specific business subject going to impact the fundamentals of your new business?
Here are the specific shortcomings I see in the typical pre-packaged startup products that I’ve reviewed:
1. What is the seller’s motivation? These products are designed, first and foremost, as a moneymaker for their owner. He sells you his system, makes his profit by getting your money upfront, and often could then care less whether you (his customer) ever make a dime.
2. Usually, the “cookie cutter” business that you’re buying is a one-size-fits-all model. OK, maybe you can make a few sales in the beginning, but soon the market becomes totally saturated for your product and there are no new customers looking to buy your offering. How many startup packages has he already sold?
3. None of these systems take into consideration the business operating skill of the owner.
I know a very savvy business investor who controls millions of dollars in a private venture capital fund (for new business startups.) He once told me his philosophy on finding great startup companies to invest in was to “bet on the jockey, not the horse.”
I don’t know if that is good advice for picking the winner of a thoroughbred race, but I believe it can be applied to a startup business because so much of what happens in the business is directly related to the owner, his skills, persistence, judgement, experience, and ability to overcome challenges and obstacles in everyday business execution.
What was he saying? It’s this: the subject or topic of a new business is usually not as important to financial success as the skill and know-how of the operator.
My years of daily experience in small business development lead me to the very same conclusion. Some people just seem to know how to make business after business thrive … they have the Midas golden touch when it comes to making money.
Of course, it goes without saying that good businesses have to have products or services that are valued and in demand.
But the greater variable in business sustainability and profitability seems to be the skill and ability of the owner to successfully execute his/her operations.
4. Most business packages are doomed from the start because the purchaser is not given the tools and help needed to be a good business operator.
Enticing sales pitches thick with emotion appeal to the greed and laziness that exists in most people. These types of promises can be hard to ignore.
Let’s face it; we’ve all been fed the great lie about how easy it is to own a profitable online business.
It is that anyone can get rich very quickly by simply following some online system laid out for the owner who will then follow along and mindlessly reap huge financial rewards.
The underlying lie is disguised as “kick back as the cash rolls in.”
That just won’t happen. Oh sure, there have been exceptions here and there. But basing the success of your business on an exception is never a good startup strategy.
5. Here’s another pitch you see online quite often: “All you have to do to make money on the Internet is plaster your ad in front of enough people. Even if only a tiny percentage of them buy, the Internet is so massively huge, you’ll still make millions!”
Yeah, right . . . what a load of horse do-do!
Your ad can actually be sent to FFA’s garnering millions of forced hits and not one order will ever be executed. I know this happens all the time online.
Don’t be fooled by thinking in terms of the vast numbers of online shoppers all around the globe just waiting for your offer. Getting your ad noticed and acted upon is never easy and very often it’s quite expensive.
6. People with no business development experience or expertise create many of the packaged business systems.
Some guy reads some articles or books on starting a business, regurgitates a few points in his offering, and automatically crowns himself an Internet business guru. Beware of such and steer clear.
7. Finally, let me tell you a key component of small business startup success regardless of the business subject: most profitable online businesses (the vast majority, in my experience) are run by an owner with a very distinct and genuine passion for the subject of his business.
A successful gardening site on the Internet, for example, will most likely be run by someone who loves gardening – who eats and sleeps the business – and who would probably be considered an expert gardener by all those that know her!
The operator of a successful online business will have passion for gardening and would probably enjoy spending time in that hobby or pursuit even if she wasn’t getting paid to run the business.
Can you see why “canned” business systems and packages that dictate the subject (and niche) of your business will invariably fail?
If you don’t have passion for the topic, you won’t commit the time and energy your business requires, especially in the early lean periods that most companies experience!
If you don’t enjoy the subject of your business already, operating your company on a daily basis will become nothing more than a distastefully boring job.
Isn’t that what we’re trying to get away from?
If you don’t have passion for the topic, you won’t commit the time and energy your business requires, especially in the early lean periods that most companies experience!
Please understand that I’m not saying every “business in a box” product is a scam. I can’t say that because I have not had experience with the hundreds of different products that are in the marketplace currently.
What I am saying is that you need to be very careful if you are planning on starting a successful Internet business with one of these products because they are not typically geared toward YOU or your strengths, abilities, desires, skills, or past experience.
To your online success,
Steve Browne
www.SteveBrowneDirect.com