The True Story of How My Client Turned a Lack of Financial Resources into an Unexpected Strength
A few months ago, a gentleman named Christian engaged my coaching services to help him bring a new product to market. In our first meeting, he showed me a prototype of an accessory for musicians.
When he showed his idea to me, being a (very bad) musician myself, I immediately saw the utility of his idea and immediately told him so. We both agreed that he had a great idea on his hands. Now, the question before us was, how to make it a commercial reality.
Now, by the time Christian reached out to me, he had already made a few trips to Hobby Lobby and Joanne’s Fabrics to mock up his idea. And, as you all well know, Hobby Lobby is THE inventor’s Walmart, carrying any number of pieces, parts and doodads useful for home projects of all shapes and sizes.
Christian told me he was ready to find a fabricator and start manufacturing his new product. There was one problem, however. His prototype didn’t work very well! After speaking with him about the issue he decided to spend a little more time on perfecting his design and fix the flaw.
A few weeks later, Christian invited me to his home where he excitedly demonstrated his new, working, prototype. Watching him demonstrate his newer, better prototype, I could see he was as excited as a kid who had just completed the Death Star Lego set. We both were very happy and proud of what he had accomplished.
After he had finished demonstrating his now functional product to me, I told him,
“You did it! You solved the technical issue. Congratulations! Now all you have to do is design the product”
He looked at me quizzically making the same face that my dog makes trying to follow the plot of Magnum PI. The fact that I had just rained on his very proud moment was written all over his face.
You see, Christian thought that what he had was the final product. He hadn’t considered that further refinements of the design would be needed so that it is pleasing to the customer in terms of Look and Feel. He solved the technical problem of his product but he hadn’t considered the “Voice of the Customer” aspect of his new product idea. What he had in his hands was the final proof of concept and not necessarily a market-ready product.
It was at this point that Christian looked at his baby a bit more dispassionately, separating his pride of what he had created from what he was truly holding in his hand.
It was at that moment that he saw it: He saw this square piece of plastic in his hand as useful but not enticing; He realized that, indeed, he did have more work to do. But even in spite of the initial disappointment of that day, I explained to him that this all was actually GOOD NEWS.
I explained to Christian that had he not reached out for coaching, he would have fallen into two very real traps. He didn’t realize it until that moment, but he just saved untold gobs of future money.
The traps were:
Trap Number 1:
Going to market with a product that didn’t work very well. Had Christian immediately moved forward, he undoubtedly would have found a manufacturer who was all too happy to make his product for him ($$$). He would have ordered inventory ($$$) and would then market his new product ($$$$$$). But, because his product (as it was) was not visually enticing, he would likely have sold very few, sticking him with piles of unsold inventory sitting in his garage.
Worst of all, he would have had a very cheesed-off wife giving him the side-eye for months ($$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$).
Trap Number 2:
The second trap that Christian avoided during our coaching sessions was the idea that a product should not only solve a problem, but also be designed so as to create excitement in the customer. This is called User-Centered Design. There’s not much use in going to market with a product that doesn’t inspire people to buy it; Utility is simply not enough.
With a new mission identified, to continue his product design into something useful AND marketable, Christian returned to his drawing board wholly intent on perfecting his product.
Over the next several weeks, Christian began exploring different design options and other possible ‘must – do’s’ for his project.
Did he need a patent?
What about a Trademark?
Should he engage a professional engineering firm to bring his designs to life in CAD drawings?
I advised Christian that all these options were of varying utility, but absent any sort of way to rank these options, it would be largely hard to determine with any certainty the proper way to move forward. I told him,
Every action carries a cost. You should categorize and prioritize costs in rank order of importance.
So I reminded him that he should use the only metric that matters in business: dollars. It was time to do the due diligence to discover the cost of each and then plot a way forward. This would be a key step to determining commercial viability.
After a few weeks, Christian scheduled another meeting for us to discuss his findings. The actual dollar amounts are fairly immaterial for purposes of this discussion, but suffice it to say that the total dollars that these and other options that he explored surprised him and far exceeded his financial resources to execute immediately.
Now bear in mind, it was not the total cost that was the dangerous part of his efforts to bring his product to market. Costs can always be managed and planned for. No, it was his surprise that was the truly dangerous piece.
Why? Because had Christian NOT done his due diligence ahead of time and, instead, had merely put one foot in front of the other to bring his product to life, he would have been hit with incremental invoices until his resources were utterly bled dry (queue the wifely side-eye).
Measure Twice, Cut Once
The Motto of The Tradesman's MBA
In The Tradesman’s MBA, I quote John Steinbeck where a character asks how his friend went bankrupt, to which he replies:
Slowly at first, then all at once.
Had Christian not done his research, he would have been on a collission course with financial over-extension. He would have paid one invoice thinking that was the total cost of his project, only to be hit with a new invoice for some other step in the product development lifecycle. But, by doing his due diligence and planning first, Christian avoided this trap altogether! He avoided eventual bankruptcy and a pissed off wife by simply doing a little research and understanding the full scope of his project before the invoices started flowing.
Faced with this new information, Christian came up with a new plan. He decided to get creative and shave those costs down as much as he could all with the express purpose to not let his great idea die on the vine; to find some way to keep the ball moving down the field.
And he succeeded!
First: He learned AutoCAD on his own to create the engineering drawings himself.
Second: He bought, and learned how to use, a 3D printer so that he can “fail quickly” and prototype on his own without needing to rely on wait lists and unreliable prototypers.
Third: He refined and perfected his design so that it is cheaper to manufacture and modular to allow for easy customization by his (future) customers. Now he’s thinking about User-Centered Design!
All in all, Christian is using his lack of financial resources like a Kung Fu master and turning it into a strength. And I have to say that, of all my clients, Christian is the most creative and passionate about his project. Our sessions are always fruitful and end with concrete steps that can be taken.
While he was certainly disappointed that the costs to bring a new product to market were higher than he expected and that designing a product for the market was more involved than simply having a good idea, it was the lack of financial resources that forced him to get creative, make a better product and create a way forward. Well done, Christian!
You see, any fool can throw money at a problem. But the product always suffers as a result. Christian had the good fortune of NOT having the financial resources to sloppily solve his problems, he will now spend his time making a better product that is cheaper to produce and more enticing to the buying public.
Who can argue with that?
The Moral of the Story
It's tempting to use money as a tool to solve problems in business. But this is only rarely an efficient way to improve operations or reduce cost. Business owners are convinced by slick marketing that if only they had this piece of software, or that piece of equipment, all their problems would be solved, when in fact, this is rarely the case.
The real magic happens when a problem can be solved without spending a dime. All it takes is experience, skill and a little outside-the-box thinking.
R. Altomare
Founder, BreathEasy Business Consulting & Bookkeeping
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