Build a better mousetrap

There are two ways to start a new business and have a chance at success:

First, you could come up with a revolutionary idea that no one else is doing. This is the typical dream….the billion dollar invention, etc.  Disrupt markets, change people’s lives, be a business hero and become wealthy.

Unfortunately, this is extremely difficult to do, and results in failure almost every time.  Why?  Because you have to teach a whole new way of thinking to your potential customer.  You don’t just have to sell them on your product, but you have to sell them on a whole new concept.  In other words, you need them to change, and you also need them to admit that what they have been doing/using/whatever isn’t good enough.  That’s tough.

The other way to go is to forget about trying to come up with a brand new idea, and just build an exceptional competitor in an existing space. This isn’t easy either (entrepreneurship never is), BUT–people already know they need the product, and your competitors have already taught them how to use it.

Now your focus can be on how to make the product, your customer service, your marketing, your targeting, EXCEPTIONAL.  What can I do to make the existing market choose me?  How can I wow them?  How can I focus on a new niche, dominate it, and expand it?

Don’t invent the segway.  Build a better mousetrap.

** Of course there are exceptions.  And your idea might be one!  And yes yes yes it is disruptive, innovative and inventive thinking and ideas that drive society and create huge wealth.  I’m just trying to get the point across that you don’t need the golden idea to get the gold.  If you have it, GO FOR IT.  But if you don’t and you want to start a business, you’re in luck– the most likely avenue to success is still open.