Failing, growing businesses
There are three logical steps to building a business:
- Identify the benefit or problem of your target customer
- Build a product that delivers that benefit or solves that problem
- Expand from that position
Whilst I claim this is logical, on reflection point three can be considered one of the most important in business; not for the successes it leads to but the failures it explains.
When expanding- how many businesses forget steps one and two?
Their product creeps away from the real wants or needs of customers.
Teams develop a myopic focus on developing new features for products that add little or no value to the customer. They expand into new markets, adapting to fit these new consumers but neglecting their existing customer base.
It’s not the most dramatic way to kill a company, it’s a slow, mysterious death. Cash might be king, but the value proposition is the king maker. You can pump more cash into your business, but you’re building a business on the fact you offer value to someone. Forget this, and try to grow away from it and you’re destined to fail.
So, when thinking about your growth- stop and think. What want or need of my consumers am I solving? How does this impact the wants and needs of existing customers? It might just save us a lot of time, effort, money and heartache.