. . . The purpose of this post is to get you inside your potential customer’s mind and out of your own. Last time, we discussed creative adaptation for your home enterprise. By now, you may have a sketchy idea or two. Or, you may have a community of people in mind and wonder if your product or service would fly with them. We’ll deal with all that in this post. I’ll start with how you can avoid the most common mistakes that threaten to kill your initiative, and I’ll end with the market research How-Tos. . . .
. . . What are your kids doing with their toys or homeschooling supplies to make them more fun to use? Are you dismissing the idea as something that would never fly as a family enterprise? Think again! This next example is about creating a widget that’s more fun than beneficial, but you’ll get the idea. I’m sure you’ve all seen the plastic shoe craze with Crocs™ — the ones with the holes in them. Entrepreneurial parents, Sheri and Rich Schmelzer, took their kids’ creative adaptation seriously to the tune of $20 Million buckaroos. They invented the Jibbitz™ Charms to put in the holes. . . .
. . . To overcome our debilitating, pessimistic outlook and penchant for over analysis, we have to take action in order to launch any successful family enterprise. The entrepreneurial life is a true vocation. In order to answer this call, we must correspond with God’s Grace with prayer, due diligence, and action to overcome our fear and inertia lest we squander our talents for the service of others. In the Parable of the Talents, Christ was harsh with the servant who risked nothing and merely preserved the original sum. We have been entrusted with much . . . Throughout this journey, many of us lose confidence and slip back into paralysis from fear or a “why bother” pessimism. This feeling of hopelessness deepens into depression and anxiety when our career options run out in our salaried work. We paid our dues, and life wasn’t supposed to look like this. . . .
