Strangely, no one is lining up outside the body butter and toothbrush rental stand. How odd? Who would have guessed such an idea wouldn’t take off? After all, you have a huge selection. So, there are plenty of choices. Yet, no one is interested. Something’s amiss here and you can’t quite put your finger on it. Even Good Business Ideas are Not Guaranteed Winning Strategies Okay, so the headline says it all. It’s a totally ridiculous business model. There’s not a person near or far interested in renting body butter or a toothbrush. Yet, people do come up with some strange concepts to sell and are surprised when they don’t pan out. You’ve created something unheard of. You’re passionate about it. You believe in it. You’ve also spent an insane amount of time figuring the whole business out down to the tiniest detail. By now, you can talk about it for hours — and to top it off, it actually is a great idea. But for some reason, you can’t sell it. So, what’s the problem? —Forbes.com On the flip side, there’s no guarantee a really good idea will widely succeed. Even the best concepts run into problems. In other words, solid products and services aren’t immune from the realities of the marketplace. Put another way, there is no straight path from unknown to sensation. How to Test a Business Idea So, how do you know if a business idea is worth pursuing in the first place? How can you determine if it’s something which has a real chance of making it in the free market? Try these suggestions to establish a baseline: Look for successful competition. Everyone wants to believe their idea is “new.” But, that’s usually not the case. In-part or whole, it’s likely been done before. So, look for examples and see how they fared. Test different versions several times. There’s no such thing as perfect. Meaning, your business idea isn’t without some sort of flaw. Even if you’re really confident in what you’ll offer, it could perform better or worse, depending on a few tweaks. Offer a variety and see which works. Explore the industry to gain an understanding. It’s certainly true good ideas are boxed out of the marketplace because they aren’t allowed. Perhaps it’s too heavily regulated or there are just too many obstacles to make it feasible. Think about how it can scale and adapt over time. If the business can’t scale up to meet demand, that’s a big, red flag. And, if it’s not able to evolve with the changing times, that too, is a big obstacle. Think about creating a Minimum Viable Product (MVP). Ok, what the heck is an MVP. A minimum viable product (MVP) is a concept from Lean Startup that stresses the impact of learning in new product development. Eric Ries, defined an MVP as that version of a new product which allows a team to collect the maximum amount of validated learning about customers with the least effort. This validated learning comes in the form of whether your customers will actually purchase your product. A key premise behind the idea of MVP is that you produce an actual product (which may be no more than a landing page, or a service with an appearance of automation, but which is fully manual behind the scenes) that you can offer to customers and observe their actual behavior with the product or service. Seeing what people actually do with respect to a product is much more reliable than asking people what they would do. If the business can’t scale up to meet demand, that’s a big, red flag. And, if it’s not able to evolve with the changing times, that too, is a big obstacle. How do you test a business idea to ensure it’s a viable one? Please share your thoughts and experiences by commenting! Interested in learning more about business? Then just visit Waters Business Consulting Group.

In case you haven’t yet heard, a new type of communication technology is on its way — 5G. It’s the fifth-generation cellular system, coming to replace 4G, the fourth-generation. And, it promises to deliver a whole new level of speed. Some experts forecasts speeds of 100x greater. In fact, it’s so fast, the wireless connections will easily rival hard-wired connectivity of the old system. So, it’s no wonder carriers and handheld device manufacturers are ready to get it out into the marketplace. Trouble is, it will take some time to roll out. But, that isn’t stopping two companies from getting-in on the action ahead of time. What Consumers Need to Know about the AT&T and Apple 5GE Marketing Campaign Recently, AT&T started to display “5GE” on select Android phones. Then, this week, Apple joined in, doing the same for some of its iOS devices. The problem is, “5GE” isn’t 5G tech. It stands for “5G Evolution.” This sleight of hand isn’t new. We want results, and we want them now. Your customers want the same thing and are willing to pay for it. A temptation could arise to promise them quick results when you know that’s not going to be the case. This kind of short-sighted thinking hurts your business in the long run. —Entrepreneur.com Companies have done this type of thing before. Of course, it’s misleading, to say the least. Customers might think they’re on a real 5G network, via a real 5G device. Although, the move hasn’t gone unnoticed. Rival T-Mobile posted a short video mocking AT&T, with a caption reading “didn’t realize it was this easy, brb updating.” Others have also joined in, rightly criticizing the move. 3 Real Costs of Deceptive Business Practices Now, the word will most definitely spread and people will catch-on to the ruse. So, it’s important to look at the impact of such misleading marketing and what it can really do. Here are the three biggest effects of deceptive marketing: Customers suffer. Needless to say, customers obviously suffer because such tactics instill a strong sense of distrust. If a business puts out misleading claims, when discovered, customers won’t trust it. What’s more, they’ll also become skeptical about other things. Businesses suffer. While the sleight of hand might payoff in the short-term, the long-term consequences can be quite severe. Word of mouth will spread and that could prove enough to bring about the demise of a business. Employees suffer, too. When a business tries to fool its customers, the employees will take the brunt of the blow-back. It’s not fair for employees to suffer undeserved consequences. What else would you add to the list? Please share your thoughts and experiences by commenting! Interested in learning more about business? Then just visit Waters Business Consulting Group.