When it comes to creating new products or services for your business, a common roadblock for business owners is where to start. Should you spend a lot of money? Should you hire someone? The best place to start in the product creation business is to start with a product with low overhead.
When we started The Business Blueprint, one thing that I wanted was a great intro video to put on our website. I felt like having a really professional video made us look good and was a great way to connect people to our message. We didn’t spend a ton of money on it but it was significant for a newer business.
We hired a team to help us with the video and then went to the studio and created it. We got the finished product within a couple of weeks and put it onto our website.
Within three months, we decided we didn’t like the video.Â
Here’s why:
Reason #1: In just three short months our message and the way we were interacting with clients was really different. The clarity that we had really helped us develop our message which was great but it also made for a video that didn’t fit our message.
Reason #2: We decided to introduce our business differently which included redesigning our website. As our message changed the way we interacted with people on the web also changed and we had no use for the video that we had created.
Reason #3:  This is a small reason but in a few short months after the video came out, I lost over 30 pounds. Don’t get me wrong, I am not complaining about that but the person in the video was not a good representative of where I was at.
The moral of the story is to create new products and services that have low overhead. This is crucial for newer business owners who might not be sure on the direction they are heading in for the long term. We spent a decent amount of money on a video that we used for about 3-4 months.
Look at products that are easy for you to create, don’t cost a lot of money and don’t require new team members to put together. This is why a book is a terrible initial product for your business. It takes a lot of time to create, can be expensive to do it right and requires a lot more help to put together.
What are the low overhead product opportunities that you can take advantage of? Put together a list of potential products and spell out the end result that you want your clients to achieve by using your products.
Great points.
Also, I’ve made a conscious decisions to be conservative when it comes to products that tie my business into recurring costs such as tools, maintenance, support, etc. when unnecessary.
Derick,
Also a critical point. You don’t want to tie yourself into a product/service that becomes too difficult to manage and that doesn’t play to your strengths. Thanks for stopping by.