MBA2582 Q&A Wednesday: How Do I Build a Business When Everyone Says It Won’t Work? - The $100 MBA Show

Summary

The $100 MBA Show: MBA2582 Q&A Wednesday – How Do I Build a Business When Everyone Says It Won’t Work?

Podcast Information:

Title: The $100 MBA Show
Host/Author: Omar Zenhom
Episode: MBA2582 Q&A Wednesday: How Do I Build a Business When Everyone Says It Won’t Work?
Release Date: February 5, 2025

Summary:

In episode MBA2582 of The $100 MBA Show, host Omar Zenhom tackles a common entrepreneurial challenge: building a business amidst widespread skepticism. Drawing from his extensive experience of over two decades in entrepreneurship and having successfully bootstrapped multiple multi-million dollar businesses, Omar provides practical, actionable advice to aspiring business owners facing doubt from their circles.

Introduction to the Challenge

The episode begins with a question from a listener named Hasan: “How do I build a business when everyone says it won't work?” (00:31). Omar acknowledges the courage it takes to pursue an unorthodox business idea and reassures listeners that skepticism is a universal experience among successful entrepreneurs.

Shifting the Goal from Proving the Idea to Achieving Success

Omar emphasizes the importance of shifting focus from validating the idea itself to achieving overall business success. He states, “Your goal isn’t to prove your idea is right. It’s to become a successful, profitable entrepreneur” (02:10). By prioritizing success over the correctness of an idea, entrepreneurs can remain adaptable and open to pivoting when necessary.

Avoiding Emotional Attachment to Ideas

A critical lesson Omar shares is the danger of becoming emotionally attached to a business idea. “If you’re emotionally attached to your idea, you might ignore clear signs that it won’t work” (03:15). Instead, he advises entrepreneurs to seek objective evidence that their solution meets market needs effectively.

Validating the Business Idea with Evidence

Omar outlines a three-step process to validate a business idea:

Validate the Problem (04:00)
- Ensure the problem you are addressing is significant and widespread.
- Use tools like Google Trends or Exploding Topics to gauge interest and existing solutions.
Validate the Solution (05:30)
- Confirm that your solution offers a substantial improvement over current alternatives.
- Gather real-world feedback to ensure your solution is desirable and effective.
Validate the Market (07:00)
- Assess whether there is a viable market size to sustain and grow the business.
- Analyze competitors as indicators of market demand.

Real-World Example: Webinar Ninja

To illustrate these validation steps, Omar shares his experience with Webinar Ninja, his software company launched in 2014. Recognizing the fragmented nature of existing webinar tools, he pre-sold the software by creating a simple landing page offering early access. This approach demonstrated market demand and provided essential seed capital. “People were willing to pay $250 as a deposit to secure a license before the product even existed” (06:45).

Action Steps for Entrepreneurs

Omar provides actionable steps for listeners to validate their business ideas:

Create a Landing Page: Develop a simple webpage explaining your product or service and collect email addresses to gauge interest.
Pre-Sell the Product: Offer early access or accept deposits to test market willingness to pay.
Engage with Potential Customers: Conduct one-on-one interviews or surveys to confirm the viability of your solution.

Proving Profitability

Omar stresses that a business without a clear path to profitability is merely a hobby. He advises entrepreneurs to ensure there is sufficient demand and willingness to pay. “If your business idea doesn’t have a path to profitability, it’s not a business, it’s a hobby” (08:04).

Ignoring Unfounded Criticism While Valuing Constructive Feedback

Omar highlights the importance of distinguishing between constructive criticism and unfounded doubt. “Ignore opinions that aren’t backed by facts” (12:15). Entrepreneurs should seek feedback from their target market rather than relying solely on friends and family, who may not represent their actual customer base.

Persistence Despite Skepticism

Acknowledging the emotional toll of entrepreneurial skepticism, Omar encourages resilience. “Building a business when everyone says it won’t work is challenging, but it’s not impossible” (14:00). He shares personal anecdotes about losing touch with some friends and family during his entrepreneurial journey but underscores the necessity of focusing on the right customers.

Conclusion: Focus on the Right Customers

Omar concludes by reiterating that success hinges on attracting customers who believe in your solution. “You don’t need everyone to believe in your idea. You just need the right customers to believe in it” (16:20). By building an evidence-based case, proving market demand, and maintaining resilience, entrepreneurs can overcome skepticism and achieve business success.

Notable Quotes:

“Your goal isn’t to prove your idea is right. It’s to become a successful, profitable entrepreneur.” – Omar Zenhom (02:10)
“If you’re emotionally attached to your idea, you might ignore clear signs that it won’t work.” – Omar Zenhom (03:15)
“People were willing to pay $250 as a deposit to secure a license before the product even existed.” – Omar Zenhom (06:45)
“If your business idea doesn’t have a path to profitability, it’s not a business, it’s a hobby.” – Omar Zenhom (08:04)
“Ignore opinions that aren’t backed by facts.” – Omar Zenhom (12:15)
“Building a business when everyone says it won’t work is challenging, but it’s not impossible.” – Omar Zenhom (14:00)
“You don’t need everyone to believe in your idea. You just need the right customers to believe in it.” – Omar Zenhom (16:20)

Key Takeaways:

Focus on Success Over Validation: Prioritize building a profitable business rather than proving your idea is flawless.
Evidence-Based Validation: Systematically validate the problem, solution, and market using data and real-world feedback.
Adaptability: Be willing to pivot or abandon ideas that don’t meet market needs.
Constructive Feedback: Seek feedback from your target market, not just your immediate social circle.
Resilience: Maintain persistence in the face of skepticism by focusing on results and customer validation.

Final Thoughts:

Omar Zenhom’s episode provides a roadmap for entrepreneurs navigating the rocky terrain of skepticism. By advocating for a data-driven approach and emphasizing the importance of market validation, Omar equips listeners with the tools necessary to build resilient and successful businesses. This episode serves as an essential guide for anyone looking to turn their business ideas into reality, even when facing doubt from others.

Learn More: For additional insights and over 2,500 business lessons, visit 100mba.net and subscribe to The $100 MBA Show on your preferred podcast platform.

Transcript

Jim (0:00)

And we're back, folks. It looks like Jim from sales just got in from his client lunch and he's got receipts. His next meeting is in two minutes. The team is asking, can he get through his expenses in that time? He's going for it. Is that his phone? He's snapping a pic. He's texting Ramp. Jim is fast, but this is unheard of. That's it. He's done it. It's unbelievable.

Ramp Ad (0:20)

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Omar Zenhom (0:31)

What do you do when everyone around you says your business idea is doomed to fail? Should you fight? Should you prove them wrong? Or is there wisdom in their doubts? In today's Q and A Wednesday episode, we get into a question from Hasan that dives into this exact dilemma. How do I build a business when everyone says it won't work? My promise in today's episode is to uncover the truth about validating your business idea. We want to avoid blind faith. We want to build a case that proves your concept. Your idea has real potential. Welcome back to the A Hundred Dollar MBA show. I'm your host, Omar Zenholm, where we deliver practical business lessons three times a week. Monday, Wednesday, Friday. My job is to help you take action so you can start, grow and scale your business. Today's episode is Q and A Wednesday. If you have a question you want to ask, by the way, just go ahead and ask it over@100mba.net Q and we'll answer it right here on Q and A Wednesday. Today's question is from Hasan and Hassan asked, how do I build a business when everyone says it won't work? First of all, Hasan, congratulations on having the courage to think differently, to go against the grain. The world's most successful entrepreneurs have all faced skepticism at some point. But here's the key. You can't rely on gut feelings and ignore criticism. You just can't. Okay? You need to validate your idea with facts you can prove. But let's back up a bit. One of the things I had to learn the hard way is how to get my mind right when it came to my ideas, my business ideas, and the advice I would give myself. I can go back in time is don't fall in love with any particular idea. This is one of the biggest mistakes entrepreneurs make, including myself, like I just mentioned. But here's the thing. One of the best ways to change this is to change your goal. Your goal is, isn't to prove your idea is right. It's to Become a successful, profitable entrepreneur. That's what we're aiming for here. That's what winning looks like is having a business that's successful, that's making us money, that's giving us financial freedom, it's giving us everything we want out of that business. It's not to be right. It's not so that we have the right idea. If the idea I have is a disaster and it won't get me to my goal, which is being successful, then forget that idea. You know, f that idea. Who cares about the idea? The idea doesn't matter. You're in search of the truth. You're in search of what's going to work. If you're emotionally attached to your idea, you might ignore clear signs that it won't work. The best business isn't the one you love the most. It's the one the market loves the most. The market matters. And that's why we need to show proof the market loves what we have. We need to show evidence that this is actually something that people want and will be successful. So fight for success, not for any particular idea. By the way, this makes you a way better leader and listener. So that when you're with your team and they're sharing ideas or they're even contradicting what you're saying or maybe disagreeing and say, hey, I think we should go another route, you are open to those ideas because you're trying to get to the path that's going to get you to success faster and more reliably. You're checking your ego at the door. And by the way, you hired this person to do this to help you become successful. So it's not about the ideas you should be fighting for. It's which idea is going to help us succeed. And this applies to like the business idea, the product or service, or any idea in marketing and sales, and any part of any decision that we're trying to make in our business. So what should we do instead? Well, that leads me to tip number two. Build an evidence based case. To know if your idea has potential. You need evidence, you need proof. This isn't about hunches, it's about data. So we're going to validate three things. The first thing we're going to validate is the problem. Validate the problem is this problem that I'm trying to solve. A problem people are actively trying to solve. Okay, so how do you do this? Well, you look for proof. Are people searching for solutions online to this problem? Are they already spending money on alternatives or Other solutions that are not so great use tools like Google Trends or Exploding Topics. Great, great tool to figure out if these ideas, if these solutions are being researched. The second thing we want to validate is the solution. Does your solution actually address the problem better than what's already out there? There's no point in trying to launch a product or service that's inferior or at best the same as the competition. Then you're just like fighting for scraps. You don't want to be in that battle. This is where testing and feedback comes in. I'm gonna give you an example in a moment of all these validations, in a moment how to do them. But we want to test in the real world and get feedback to see if the solution actually addresses the problem enough for people to want to pay for it happily. Number three, validate the market. Is there enough money to be made in this market? Is there enough money to make your business sustainable and profitable? Okay, this is important because we don't get into a business and go after a market that really doesn't have enough tam, which is total addressable market. For example, if there's only a thousand people that want this solution and you want to make $10 million, it's going to be quite hard for you to serve a market that small. So how do you do this? Well, you look for competitors. Yes, competitors are a good sign that money is being spent in this space, that there's enough people giving away or taking their dollar out of their wallet and giving it to companies so that they can have a solution to that problem. So let me give you an example of how I implemented this in my own business. My software company, Webinar Ninja, that I started back in 2014, that I built and scaled to over 30,000 users over 10 years. And then we recently got acquired by a big company called Pro. When I started Webinar Ninja Back in 2014, I noticed people were already running webinars but are struggling with the existing tools. In fact, they were using several tools to pull off a successful webinar. In order to run a webinar, you have to market the webinar with landing pages, collect email addresses, send out emails so that people know where to go. You have to have a live stream. You need to record that live stream, you need to send out that replay. You need to see some statistics. You may want to have some sort of interaction during the actual webinar. So as you can see, there's a lot of moving parts, a lot of pieces of software coming together to make this event happen. So what I decided to do to make sure that people actually want when I'm creating a better solution to running webinars is I pre sold webinar Ninja before building it. I created a simple landing page and offered early access to people. And this helped me prove two things. This is what I mean by gathering evidence, making sure I have facts on my side. Again, I did this to prove two things. People wanted a better solution like they were looking for it and when they saw it, they're like, hey, I want to try this out. And they're willing to pay for it before it's even in existence. So people put down $250 in my case as a deposit so that they can get a spot to get a license to my software when it was ready in four months. So the learning here and the action step for you to take action right now is to run a quick test. Create a simple landing page explaining your and collect email addresses to gauge interest. By the way, a landing page is a simple page on a website where it's just describing what you're offering. Give me your name and email address as like a waiting list. This is a good kind of primer. And then when you have the email addresses, you can make an offer to them and say, hey, would you like to pre buy or would you like to get early access? Please put a deposit. This is a rubber meeting the road and you can see people are willing to pay for it.