Avoid Delusion

I’m not quite the fan of Dragons’ Den that once I was, but I did enjoy reading the twelve tips to running a new business from one of Dragons that comes from a retail background on the beeb’s website.  One particular pointer featured this joyous rant that instantly rang bells from when I help people sell their new products:

“Everyone is going to want one,” they tell me. Well, I don’t want one, so not everyone wants one. “I have given this to 20 people and they all said they would buy one.” How much did they pay you for it? “Nothing.” That’s why they took one. “I have done my market research,” they say. No you haven’t, you’ve given things away. Beware of all these ways in which people delude themselves. 

The value in getting a proper, legitimate, fairly paying customer is priceless.  And so many new pushes let this slip from their thinking.