Peddle, then Balance
It is difficult to balance a bike that is not moving. It is also difficult to optimize a product or service without market response or feedback. Building a great product or service before it sees the light of day is a great idea. To build a product or service just to hide it on a shelf because of fear of failure or fear of it not being perfect... this is a sad outcome.
Some people carry product or service ideas in their heads and never actually test their ideas in real life. Turn that diamond in the rough over in your brain and it may get slightly more polished. But if it never gets the chance to interact with other people and hopefully improve their lives, how will you know what features to tweak or improve?
As obvious as it may seem, here are the steps:
Ideate
Build a prototype
Improve on the prototype (several times if necessary)
Give yourself a pep talk (that feeling in your stomach that your product or service isn't fully optimized is correct).
Ignore the above feeling for now.
Launch your thing.
Listen carefully when customers make suggestions.
Improve
Get more feedback.
Improve even more.
Repeat the cycle.
Once your thing is launched, and your first customers' lives are actually improved, that knot in your stomach will likely leave. Let's shorten the above list:
Get on the bike.
Start peddling with one leg.
Then peddle for all you're worth, with both legs.
Balance the bike. Unlike balancing a real bike, which feels like second nature once you've done it once, balancing a business requires many skills. These can be acquired through learning, practicing, and/or hiring.
My team and I have been working on a new brand and e-commerce store. We are expecting to launch miniShed.ca around March 15, 2024. There is a little bug in my stomach that questions whether or not it will be a success. We will never know if we don't give it a go. So a go we'll give it. Peddle, then balance.
