A few days ago, my daughter spent about 30 min explaining her go-to-market strategy in great detail…
She wants to sell her handmade hair accessories at a “place with lots of people walking by” (High traffic) and open an online store. Why online? Because she says there are lots of rich people online so she can charge “bills instead of cents” (Location/Pricing)
She says she’ll “tell the Internet about her shop by making daily YouTube videos” (Marketing).
“Then, I will wear my bows to school and all the kids will see it and want to buy it,” she reasons. (Product demo)
“My bows are better because every one is different and you can’t buy it anywhere else.” (Positioning/Differentiation)
“I’ll use supplies from my craft bin at home and get some free materials from school. (No overhead)
She managed to get a few friends to help her make these hair accessories for free. “So we can open our shop faster” (Free labor)
And she wants me to help her set up accounts online and keep track of money (Finances/Sales).
So far she’s stored all her products in our living room and will get Dad to mail out products to customers as needed. (Warehouse & Distribution)
She said she will make millions of dollars *soon* and buy us a new mansion. ?
But the next day she had Kung fu class and wanted to play Roblox on the iPad…then the day after, she got sick…then she wanted to watch Netflix and video call her friends…then the next day, we went out for Krispy Kreme donuts and a trip to the playground…then she wanted to play Nintendo Switch and then she had to do homework and chores and felt too tired and distracted to work on her business. ?
Moral is, anyone can start a business and come up with a plan…the hardest part of entrepreneurship is EXECUTION and DISCIPLINE in the face of distractions, excuses and other priorities.
This applies whether you’re 8, 18, 28, or 78 and you’re trying to start your own business.
I’m still proud of her for coming up with a fairly solid business plan though (despite having no business/marketing experience)…and I’ll give her a little nudge on Monday to keep working on her business.