It seems like everyone has a million-dollar idea. Schemes to get rich fast, businesses to change the world.
But only one in five businesses survives past their first decade.
So what’s the secret for that one business that succeeds? What actually is the million-dollar idea?
Simple.
It’s all about the product.
And I’m here to tell you how to find the product that will make YOUR million dollars—or more!
When you look at some of the most successful businesses in the world—Apple, Microsoft, and CVS to name a few—you may notice that they all have something in common.
They provide people with something they need. Phones for communicating, computers for completing tasks, medicine for keeping us healthy; they’re all things that are necessary for daily life.
So, we have step 1: make a list of things that people need.
We don’t need to be as multifaceted as the companies I’ve listed above. They all grew from specific beginnings, and their success with one product lead to their eventual diversification.
Think of all the things that people use in their daily life. Write them all down. It can be as broad as stress-relief or as narrow as head-ache medicine—it doesn’t matter! Just list everything that comes to mind.
Then we are ready to move on to step 2: narrow it down based on specific areas of need.
Everyone needs medicine, but what kinds? People use phones every day, but what for?
As a new entrepreneur, you need to choose a sector that appeals to a relatively small bisection of society—but not too small!
For example, multimillionaire Timothy Ferriss made his fortune selling vitamins for athletes.
He started with a basic need: vitamins, then narrowed it based on a specific demographic that needs vitamins (athletes) and produced a vitamin that was appealing to that demographic.
The specification of your sector based on a smaller audience not only ensures that your business is noticed by people in need of what you offer, but also ensures that you aren’t lost amongst the competition over providing products that everyone wants or needs.
At this point in the process, if you come across something in particular that interests you, stick to it!
Because that brings us to step 3: choose a sector that excites you.
No matter how good an idea is, if you don’t believe in it, neither will customers. On the other hand, if you are excited by your own product, you will give it your all.
Though emotions can be a dangerous thing when they mix with money, passion is the foundation to success for an entrepreneur.
Now that we have that settled, step 4 is to choose a specific product.
This product has to meet a number of qualifications.
1. It has to be cheap to produce.
2. You should be able to sell it for a much higher price.
3. It should be easy to make—and make lots of.
4. It requires replenishing or upgrades.
These are the absolute rules for choosing a successful product that will propel you to your fortune.
If your product is cheap to make but can be sold for a lot, that means a bigger profit margin for you.
Along the same vein, if your product requires lots of time to create or can only be made in small quantities, you run into a supply and demand problem that can crush your business before it ever takes off.
And then there’s the fourth rule, which is one of the most common and most fatal mistakes made by entrepreneurs.
If you create a product that doesn’t need replacing, upgrading, maintenance, or some other sort of update, your business is automatically set to self destruct.
This is because there is always a ceiling to your profits, which is decided by the number of consumers that exist for your product.
If your product can be bought once and never again, your business is unnecessary and doomed to fail once you have reached that ceiling.
But, if the product must be replenished, fixed, or updated after a certain amount of time, you will continue to make a profit even after you have reached that ceiling.
Just look at Apple and Microsoft. Why do you think they come out with new phones, computers, and software updates? Because it brings consumers back for more.
This may seem like a lot to take in, but if you can follow this process, it really is the holy grail to starting a successful business.
So start making your lists and narrowing it down!
Before you know it, you’ll have a product in mind that can take the world by storm as the next booming billionaire business, delivering a fortune right to your bank account.
