It sounded like a good idea at the time. A great idea. The best idea in the world.
I’d be able to do what I love while being my own boss and making a good buck in the process.
My enthusiasm was so unconditional that I happily plunked down $800 for postage stamps. Then I folded the inserts, stuffed the envelopes, stuck on the address labels, and sealed. It’s a miracle I didn’t get poisoned from envelope glue, considering that I licked 1,600 envelopes.
This was back in 1985, when I was 22 years old. My plan was to syndicate a column called “American Folks.” I had just graduated from journalism school, and I loved to write. Each weekly column would profile some neat person from small-town America. Newspapers would pay me five bucks per week.
Inside each of those 1,600 envelopes were three sample columns, a compelling sales letter from yours truly, an order card, and a postage-paid mail-back envelope. A slam dunk, right?
Oh, I got slammed alright.
After waiting for a week, then another week, then another week, I finally received my first order. It was also my last order.
Out of 1,600 prospects, I got one measly customer. That’s a 0.000625% success rate — and by “success,” I mean “failure.” I would’ve had more success selling cow droppings.
All that hope. All that work. All that money. All for nothing! My confidence took a serious beating. I vowed never to do anything entrepreneurial again.
Fortunately, the taste of envelope glue wore off, and so did my vow. I began to cook up new ideas, but something was different. I had learned a big lesson from the American Folks debacle: Don’t get so swept away by your great idea that you neglect the most important person of all. That would be the customer.
In your case, do you know who your customers are? Do they want or need what you’re so eager to provide? Can you deliver something that’s new and needed — or at least different and better than what’s currently available? Will your idea rev people up to such a degree that they’ll put their money in your pocket to get what you have?
Customer research doesn’t have to be some drawn-out process. Even a little bit can provide crucial intelligence.
If I had chatted with ten editors and publishers when my idea was still on the drawing board, I would have saved myself a lot of time, money, and heartache. Who knows, I might have gained insights that could have been used to reshape the idea and produce a viable, moneymaking product. Or I might have come up with an entirely different concept.
So let my American Folks pain be your learning gain. Do some down-to-earth customer research early on, before you’re far forward with your super-fantastic idea. If you’re already far along, don’t panic. Just put on the brakes and do your research now.
And if your endeavor involves envelopes, you’ll want to use the self-adhesive variety!
