She proved her business idea could be successful, but self-doubt threatened it. She had to overcome it, but how? The final chapter.
After weeks of collaborating, it was time to create a small package offering for idea-stage entrepreneurs to buy. I realized how crucial it was to spend time with potential customers. The people component in any business is getting customers. Taking time to understand their needs is the basis on which the success of a product or service depends. I felt grateful that I could devise a solution based on consistent feedback from people who might use it. Building a solution with potential customers was collaborative, insightful, and creative.
I learned that most industry experts starting a business guessed the problem their target customers had. They worked with assumptions about the problem they were solving. And this guessing game costs them time, energy, and money when creating products and services.
The solution I presented was an easy-to-remember framework that guided new entrepreneurs to solve a problem with a product or service before it's made or sent to market. I devised an effective method to examine real-life market needs and talk to customers directly so entrepreneurs can create something people care to buy.
The method looked promising. And I was ready to share it with new entrepreneurs as a guided one-on-one training program. But the discouraging thoughts were always coming up inside of me. I took a few minutes daily to reflect on why I felt so discouraged, even after all the work I had put in.
Through consistent journaling, I uncovered the source of my discouragement and criticism. I came to see these constant discouraging, nagging words were something my mother always did. I always had to try too hard to convince her so I could take up activities that I enjoyed.
Once I realized this, I consciously tried to disassociate from this negative thinking pattern. Every time these thoughts came up, I stopped and then carefully and intentionally reminded myself that there was nothing wrong with me and that I was a competent and good person.
I cultivated this new awareness, and it helped me. And I could see a change in me. Even though the negative voice lingered in my mind, it grew weaker and had less effect on me.
I knew I had more work to do to complete the validation process. I needed to professionally present my work to new entrepreneurs and invite them to buy the training. I sent a message to all new entrepreneurs I knew and told them about my one-on-one coaching program.
I told them how it could help them avoid the risk of no one buying their product and gain confidence in identifying a viable market of customers and solutions for them before making a product or service and sending it to market. I showed them the framework personally and gave them a roadmap that could help them pursue their new product or service with confidence. I then told them about my training and offered them to be the founding students.
The efforts paid off. One person purchased my offer and became my first customer. This moment of earning my first few dollars was inspiring to me. I now had a new way to break free from my current lifestyle, contribute and add value to others, and earn well. I can now say that this product is valid. Eventually, three more people joined the program. I worked with them devotedly and gave them all I could to help them.
I realized how good I felt when working and supporting new entrepreneurs. They were inspiring and energizing, and I felt so much joy in me to support their visions of creating world-class products.
We worked individually for weeks together, and I saw how this training created results for my customers. My customers felt supported and accountable and gained greater confidence after applying my framework.
One of my customers is a phenomenal nutritionist and a business owner specializing in plant-based food. He had guided a Christian community through lifestyle and health challenges in the USA to get healthy and fit by teaching them to include plant-based foods as their daily staples. He thought big about how to set a good foundation for his business. He was willing to work and get help to identify a viable market of customers for his product idea. After our work together, he generously shared his experience through a video review.
He said, "I really just wanted to move on. I just got tired of thinking, "Is this target audience viable? Do I have enough people? I wasn't sure."
"I really wanted to know - Can I use this target audience to trade a product? Can I build this as a foundation for my business? And I found out - Yes, I can."
"I found a market that already existed. Deepti's exercises really led me to that gold mine that I discovered - I don't have to create a market out there. There's one that already exists."
"Now I'm thinking, well what else will I discover just by having a built-in target audience?"
"By meeting Deepti and her showing me - this is what you have to do in brick-by-brick fashion - I was able to build confidence, and that's exceptional to me."
"Deepti, you led me to find my target audience quickly. And I think that's the work of a master when a person feels - "Hey, I can do this!"
Seeing him say this gave me confidence, and my discouraging thoughts faded. Instead, an unfading sense of joy and purpose filled me.
The Customer Confidence Program reached its completion, and the results were here. I served five customers with the framework I devised with my business concept. The other students, except one, completed the program and were happy with testing their idea in the market, sharing similar outcomes to mine.
I persevered and now reached the end of my business program. I conveyed my gratitude to the teacher, the team, and the participants. The students and I were a community supporting each other through this journey, and I could now move on with my newfound confidence to start my new business venture.
I did nothing for a few days and allowed myself to reflect on my journey. The experience was one of my greatest gifts in life. It not only helped me validate a product and create a business, but it also gave me options to improve my life.
I learned to embrace different ways of approaching life and business and found joy in taking less traveled roads that helped me make my way.
But most importantly, this experience validated my conviction. It proved to me that believing that you are competent is the key to opening new doorways of opportunities.
If I can experience this, then so can anyone. What is needed is conviction in your potential, and that conviction allowed me to move forward and do the right thing even when I felt like giving up. This approach is enough to increase your trust in life's overall workings and help overcome all the negative thinking so you can make your way.
Today, I'm honored each time I get to support someone's entrepreneurial journey. Those people who invest time and energy into their ideas are my heroes. It takes serious guts to do something you've never done before, and these new entrepreneurs in the making inspire me.
Deepti is a storyteller at heart, a lifelong lover of learning, and an advocate for empowering the visions of aspiring entrepreneurs worldwide. Deepti hails from Kolkata, India.
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