Starting a Business Without a Product to Sell: Dumb or Brilliant?
My sister has been talking about starting her own business for a long time. But she never talked about strategy or timelines or planning—she was focused on how awesome it would be to be her own boss.
Perfectly understandable, right? Sure, but starting a business is all about planning and thinking aghead. After talking about it for months and not nailing down any of the details, an opportunity came up to rent some space at a new mall.
My sister and her partner had to make a very quick decision: take advantage of a great opportunity to get into a mall that’s new and promising at a good price or wait until they actually had something to sell?
They thought about it and decided that now was the time to take action. Without having a product or service—not even an idea!—they signed their names on the dotted line and made a down payment on the space.
When I heard this, I was floored: how could she do something so risky?
She was basically putting money towards a business but she had nothing to sell. Not even an idea—nothing!
This did two things: it got them started and it put some pressure on them.
Getting Started
Talk is cheap, and my sister realized that the months of talking and thinking of starting a business weren’t leading anywhere. She needed to take a first step, some kind of action, to get started.
So she did. Sure, it was risky, but you have to start somewhere.
Pressure
Think about it: my sister would have a space at a mall in a month or so with nothing to put inside. Nothing to sell!
I’d be nervous and scared out of my mind. And she was, but the pressure set a deadline and forced her and her partner to nail down the details—they had to.
Without this pressure, they might’ve kept talking about starting a business for six more months without doing anything about it.
The End Result
In the end, they decided to open a toy store. During my end-of-year vacation I went to check it out and I was very impressed.
She’s a designer, so the place was imbued with her aesthetic—it was clean, organized, and had personality. Not only that, they opened just in time for the holidays and they made a killing.
She’s learning on the go but is making good decisions and so far it’s paying off.
What does everyone think of this strategy of putting money down and taking that first, risky step without even having a plan or an idea? I don’t know if I could do it, but I give her credit for taking action and getting started.
So far, it has been a wise decision. Oh, and she’s her own boss now too—mission accomplished.
Image by Magic Madzik
January 11th, 2010 at 11:15 am
Depends. If it is something simple like a blog, then its not stupid. This is because you could develop you brand and content and maybe a future product or e-book can then become a result of the direction.
January 11th, 2010 at 4:10 pm
I liken this to buying a stock without any research. You might have a good run up (like she did with the holiday season) but it could just as quickly go south. She might change her tune when she has to pay the rent during slower months.
I’m actually surprised the mall would lease to someone with no business idea or plan, usually they like to make sure to have a variety of businesses. Maybe in this economy they’ll take anyone with a heartbeat and a checkbook!
January 13th, 2010 at 6:40 am
I’m a nervous person, so I tend to over analyze things. I think sometimes it’s good to go by the seat of your pants, but I don’t know about that with a business!
January 20th, 2010 at 1:17 pm
Actually I just finished reading Built To Last (you can find it at Amazon http://bit.ly/6imWF) and I was surprised to read that many of the visionary companies profiled within it started out the exact same way. So there might be something to it.