new product development

People Don’t Want To Change

I temporarily reversed
a health condition
that kills people
in my family.

My family members
know I did this.

Not one person
has asked me
HOW I did this.

Because they know
they’ll have to change
SOMETHING
and they don’t want
to change
ANYTHING.

Even if it will give them
an additional decade or so
of healthy living.

THIS is how
resistant
people are to change.

F*ck, most people won’t wear
a little piece of cloth
over their pie-holes
to prevent themselves
from being sick
half a f*ckin’ year.

They WILL also resist
any change to their lifestyles
our products/services
cause.

Reduce the impacts
of your products/services.

Make any change
they cause
as easy as possible
for your target audience.

Expect some resistance.

Grab And Go Option

I recently enjoyed
a cruise with Virgin Voyages.

There were very few ports
on the itinerary.
There were restaurants
open almost all the time.

Yet one of the most popular
food sources
was the grab and go counters.

Passengers flocked around
self serve stations
offering sandwiches, sushi,
salads and other food
packaged in sealed tight containers.

I LOVED this option.
I could take one
and eat it anywhere on the ship
or store it in the cabin fridge
to eat later.

(I would take a berry box
every morning
to have as my dessert
after dinner.)

It was fast.
It was easy.
The food was great.

Can you offer
a grab and go option
for your products?

Review Your 2024 Goals

2024 is more than
50% over.

You had goals for this year.

Review them.

Are they still applicable?
Do you still want
to achieve them?

If the answer is yes,
take one small step
toward achieving one
today.

If you plan to start
a business,
perhaps decide
on a logo color
or an industry
you wish to play in
or the type of customer
you wish to attract.

If your goal is
to launch a new product,
select a font
for the packaging
or craft a list
of possibly raw material
suppliers
or devise three possible
taglines for the new product.

Take a small step
toward achieving
your 2024 goals.

Hate Threads

Every so often,
someone will start
a social media thread
by asking all the things
readers (customers) hate
about romance novels (products).

I’m always tempted
to read those threads.

If I know
what readers (customers) don’t like,
I can craft a better-selling story (product),
right?

Wrong.

Because there’s a hater
for every story (product)
out there.

There’s nothing I can produce
that will make everyone happy.

And reading those threads
annihilates
my confidence,
my joy,
my drive to create.

There are hate threads
in almost every industry.

Protect your passion
and your happiness.

Don’t read them.

Why Business Builders Should Listen To Immigrants

As business builders,
we are always searching
for better products/services
and
different products/services
for our specific markets.

You know who
likely has exposure
to different products/services,
different ways of doing things,
different approaches?

Immigrants.
Newcomers to our area.

And they often know
why their home country’s
products/services
or ways of doing things
are useful
and
the negatives
associated with
those approaches.

If you want to develop
a wide set
of different products/services,
surround yourself
with immigrants
originating
from all over the world.

Talk with them.
Listen to them.
Hire them.

Then tweak the information
for your specific market.

Learn from immigrants.

Reviewing Your Past Accomplishments

I spent a couple days
rereading some of the stories
I’ve written.

They’re good.
That’s why they were published.

Rereading them reassured me
that I could write
another good story.

They powered me up
to start that story.

If your a$$ is dragging,
consider taking a few moments
or a few days
to review some of your past accomplishments,
your past wins.

That might be
the energy and confident boost
you need.

Using The Past To Predict The Future

I often use
the past to help predict
the future.

I’ll look at past sales
for vampire romances, for example,
to help predict
how many sales
my vampire romance
might have.

In the past,
this prediction
was dang close.

Today?
It could be
business-flatteningly off.

The world has changed
significantly.

In the book world,
AI and COVID
has shifted the baselines.

But we are also in a new era
for climate
and pandemics
and politics
and almost everything else.

Being VERY cautious
when using the past
to predict the future.

The Right Amount

I stayed in a hotel
recently
that offered guest soap
that had the dimensions
of a regular bar of soap
except it was half as thick.

Because that is all
the average hotel guest would use
during a stay.

More is wasteful.

It costs the hotel
additional money to supply.
It creates more garbage.
And it doesn’t add value
to their guests.

More is not always better.

Figure out what your customer
needs
and offer your products
in that size.

The Value Of Repeat Business

It is tempting
to build a fast craptastic product,
market the heck out of it,
and then
ignore the customer complaints.

You have their money, right?
Why should you care
if they’re unhappy?

You should care
because caring
is the ethical thing to do
but also
because it makes good business sense.

Almost every marketplace
today
is crowded with sellers.

Finding customers
and convincing them
to buy from us
is costly
– in time, money, other resources.

Doing all that
to sell them one craptastic product
is a waste of resources.

Most of us
should want repeat business.

That spreads the cost
of finding that business
over multiple sales.

That second sale
has a bigger profit margin.

Build a product
and a business
that encourages repeat business.

Plant Many And Thin or Plant Few And Watch

There are two main schools
in the gardening world.

There are the gardeners
who sow a sh*tload of seeds
and then thin the plants
as they grow.

And there are gardeners
who plant only few seeds
and then watch those plants
closely.

Both schools of gardening
work.
Both can result in great harvests.

New product development
is similar.

There are those of us
who develop a sh*tload
of products
and then launch
the best of those products.

And there are those of us
who develop one product
at a time
and do our d@mnedest
to ensure that one product
makes it to launch.

New product developers in both schools
are successful.

But, as the processes for each
are very different,
it helps to know
in which school we belong.

Are you a new product thinner
or a new product watcher?
which school