MSME Digest with Kola Owolabi
As we conclude this series in this edition, I want to discuss what one can do when it appears that your product or service is failing in the market. We counselled in the immediate past post that you should try your product prototype (something that represents your product or service that you used minimal effort and resources to produce) on a few of your prospective customers in order to have the benefit of their opinion which will guide you in deciding whether you should pursue further development of that product or service. If after you have harvested feedback and made adjustments on the prototype many times and the feedback continues to be negative, what should you do? Does it mean that there is no hope for your idea again? Does it mean you should shut down and abandon the idea altogether and look for another idea to pursue?
I was in the same situation several years ago during my first foray in business. The lesson I learnt at the end of the day is “never take a setback or apparent failure in business personal”. It doesn’t mean that you have failed as an entrepreneur or as a person. In the case I mentioned, I was to publish a book. I had my manuscript and I approached a prominent printer to help with the printing. I raised the money he demanded as deposit and the process started. Midway, I got frustrated and had to abandon the idea. It was not the fault of the printer. I was wholly responsible for the failure of that attempt. I must have been overwhelmed by the size of the book, which was my first attempt in publishing. It was to come to over a hundred pages. I was so angry with the outcome that I vowed never to go into business again. I went back to employment. However, a few years down the road, I encountered a major secret about how to start business successfully, which is that when you want to start business, do so at a small level and take it up from there. I got to know that business start-up can be interesting and without stress if you take it bit by bit, what your mouth can take and chew at a time. A large plate of food can choke one to death if one attempts to gulp down the contents of the plate at once. But if one takes it bit by bit, one will be through the entire thing within a short time. My next attempt at publishing thereafter was a twenty four page book. It came out in record time and with absolutely no stress. The book became an instant hit. Other books followed.
Thereafter, I was able to help others handle publishing of their own books too with the experience I gained at that time.
Never take failure as personal; that is what this article is saying. Windows, the operating system that made Microsoft Corporation the largest computer software maker in the world was a market failure judging from the way the market received the first two releases. The company did not flee software development business altogether. The Windows software had a feature embedded in it that was meant to help harvest feedback from customers and users. When you are using the application and you stumbled on an error, you will receive a prompt that will ask you whether you wanted to report the error. Millions of errors were harvested that way and the feedback was used for further development of the next release of the software. A few more versions down the line, the company came along with windows 95 which was the turning point and made history in terms of the sales recorded by that version.
The game changer in one’s ability to manage apparent failure in business after so many tests of your prototype or Minimum Viable Product (MVP) is not to run away. You need to face the failure using the benefit of the feedback you had in the course of the market tests. We are all emboldened by the famous quote of Thomas Edison after going through ten thousand experiments that failed while perfecting his invention of the incandescent bulb. He said “I have not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work.”
Kola Owolabi is the CEO of David Solomon Consulting – He is a Fellow of the Nigerian Institute of Management Consultants (FIMC.CMC)He can be reached by phone or WhatsApp through 08023203198. You can also send reactions to the contents of this post or any question you may have to the same telephone/WhatsApp line.
