00:00:11another edition of ask Evan in today’s
00:00:13video I’m going to answer questions from
00:00:15one my readers Ronald who wanted my
00:00:17advice on his new startup idea so what
00:00:19he is trying to do here is you want to
00:00:21sell software to international radio
00:00:24stations to help them broadcast a
00:00:27greater audience online and reduce their
00:00:29bandwidth costs and make it super easy
00:00:30to set up and use and reach that wider
00:00:33audience and he was asking you know this
00:00:36is what I want to start with do you
00:00:37think international radio stations will
00:00:38buy this thanks Ronald so Ronald I know
00:00:42not too familiar with international
00:00:44radio stations but it doesn’t really
00:00:45matter the best advice that I have for
00:00:47you is go and start talking to them find
00:00:50a potential customer see if they
00:00:52actually have this problem that you
00:00:54think they have and see if they’d be
00:00:56willing to pay you to solve it right the
00:00:58best way to start a business is around a
00:01:00paying customer the worst way to set of
00:01:03businesses think oh here’s a great idea
00:01:05I think people want to do it and you
00:01:07spend all this time and imagery creating
00:01:08something that at the end of the day
00:01:11nobody really wants now you’re in the
00:01:12software business so the only investment
00:01:14is going to be your time you know money
00:01:17buying things but still you know your
00:01:19time is valuable and hopefully you want
00:01:21to spend it in ways that will generate
00:01:22you know good return is something that
00:01:24you’re excited about working on as well
00:01:26so go talk to these guys go talk to
00:01:29radio stations smaller ones to start
00:01:31with people who will spend the time with
00:01:32you and try to find out if this is a big
00:01:35problem and build it around their
00:01:38specifications some personal experience
00:01:41I’ve had a software companies before and
00:01:43one of the big mistakes that we made was
00:01:45we had a software company and we created
00:01:48what we thought was a really cool
00:01:50feature and we spent months working on
00:01:52this one feature it was the most
00:01:53complicated feature in our software and
00:01:55at the end of the day once we released
00:01:58it we found out that our customers
00:01:59didn’t care about it you know they
00:02:01wanted a small portion of that at that
00:02:03work to be okay but we spent all this
00:02:05time creating this feature that we
00:02:06thought people liked but they didn’t and
00:02:08luckily we had enough other features
00:02:10that we were still
00:02:11able to sell our software and make some
00:02:13money from doing it but how much better
00:02:15would our top forbidden if we didn’t
00:02:17build this feature when we build other
00:02:18ones that our customers really wanted so
00:02:20the lesson is talk to your customers
00:02:21right before you start building
00:02:23something go talk to your customers to
00:02:24find out if they really want it or not
00:02:26and they’ll help guide your first
00:02:28generation and then your future
00:02:30generations as well you want to build
00:02:31everything around your customer base so
00:02:34hopefully that helps I want to also
00:02:36invite one of my friends Danny in e to
00:02:38share his advice for you and give you
00:02:40some extra feedback on what you can do
00:02:42to grow your business
00:02:53well Ronald it sounds to me like you’re
00:02:57an engineer and you have some expertise
00:02:58in the hardware and software
00:03:00technologies that would be required to
00:03:01develop this sort of Technology a sort
00:03:04of solution you know it’s very common
00:03:06for inventors for engineers for
00:03:09entrepreneurs who are focused on the
00:03:11product side to think about what is a
00:03:13really cool really valuable product that
00:03:15they could put together and then take it
00:03:18and start shopping around for who is
00:03:19someone who’d want to buy it what you
00:03:22really need to do because that can work
00:03:24but it leads to a lot of situations
00:03:26we’ve got entrepreneurs with products
00:03:28they put a lot of time and money into
00:03:29building with nobody who wants to buy it
00:03:32what I would suggest to you is start by
00:03:35looking for a need before you look for a
00:03:36product so look at the way that
00:03:39international radio stations are
00:03:40currently doing business how things are
00:03:42working for them how they connect with
00:03:44their audience and what is preventing
00:03:46them from taking the next step what are
00:03:49the next steps that they really want to
00:03:50be doing are they trying to reach new
00:03:51audiences are they trying to broadcast
00:03:54online what are the things are trying to
00:03:56go into and what’s missing for them to
00:03:58be able to do that and then develop a
00:04:00solution that is going to allow them to
00:04:02do that to overcome whatever it is
00:04:04they’re trying to overcome next it’s
00:04:07possible that want to buy this I don’t
00:04:09know I’m not an expert in international
00:04:11radio station business models but I can
00:04:16tell you that if you start with the
00:04:17product and then look for the need often
00:04:20you end up with a product and no sales
00:04:22whereas we start with the need and then
00:04:23build a product most of the time you’re
00:04:25going to have someone who’s going to
00:04:26want to buy it so I hope that was
00:04:28helpful to you Ronald and to everyone
00:04:30else was watching Russ Ronald if you
00:04:32have any further questions or want to
00:04:33explore this a little further you can
00:04:35find me a fire pole marketing com and in
00:04:39the meantime I wish everyone lots of
00:04:41success and I’ll see you all in the next
00:04:42video
00:04:45so run of a hope that was useful for you
00:04:48I hope my advice and danny’s from
00:04:50fireball marketing was was useful and
00:04:52you can go home and implement that into
00:04:53your business if you guys liked the
00:04:55video please give it a thumbs up and it
00:04:57also love to hear your thoughts and
00:04:58feedback if you want to leave a comment
00:05:00under this video and stay tuned for the
00:05:02next episode
”