I would add the caveat that you need to understand also differences between lack of growth and short term cash flow problems.

[...] my hapless entrepreneur from last week? He dug himself a giant scary financial hole because he was so in love with his vision of his product that he didn’t bother to get any [...]

As it happens, the next post in this series should help sort that out.

“This thing is so awesome it just has to work” is not a solid plan.

So so so so so true.

Exactly.

Although, to be clear in relation to what Judy said … if you build something and people don’t buy, it doesn’t necessarily mean that they didn’t want or need it. Just that it wasn’t pitched right.

Sometimes it’s the tiniest tweak in the copy, or a specific understanding about how to frame a concept, or taking out that one little metaphor that was creating cognitive dissonance.

But in order to be able to work on the small stuff, you have to be willing to spend the time and energy to tweak the hell out of things and to do usability testing and to not spend money that’s not really yours on fancypants stuff.

But wait, you just wrote a genius post about that. I have nothing to add!

Good points on real feedback and your recipe for results (build it, launch it, …)

One of my most effective managers used a simple test — “show me five customers that stand behind your idea.” I used to laugh, just five? … no problem. Surprisingly, that litmus test was smarter than I thought. It’s one thing to think you have a wild fire idea, it’s another to have five customers that stand behind it.

J.D. Meiers last blog post..How To Develop Your Intuition

Miguel de Luiss last blog post..Oliver Twist lives (2): Who will buy this wonderful morning?

Timothy Coote – Coote Libeaus last blog post..Simple.

Have belief in what you do, sure. Get excited. Get determined. But for god’s sake, don’t spend what you don’t have because you’ve fallen in love with your own product.

You need customers to fall in love too – and you have no idea if that’s the reality until you test.

JoVE, me too, I was put off of running a business for years because of that macho stereotype that you had to be willing to risk everything (health, house, marriage, all financial stability) for your business. What a load of garbage. The more businesses I see, the more I think that too much appetite for risk is a major negative for an entrepreneur. The willingness to take smart, managed, thoughtful risks? Sure.

Chris, these are such nice times to be timid, aren’t they? I’ve always been ultra careful about debt, etc. Makes things much more relaxing these days.

Mark, so nice to see you here! I agree–we don’t have to stay small, but we shouldn’t feel like we have to get big either.

Big is not necessarily beautiful. thanks for bringing the good word.

Mark Silvers last blog post..More about Easy and Hard in Business