In this solo YouTube talk, Evan Carmichael emphasizes the critical importance of testing every aspect of a product‑based business before committing large resources. He answers a viewer’s question about which t‑shirt design to launch first, illustrating how small‑scale, on‑demand printing lets entrepreneurs validate demand, gather market intelligence, and avoid costly over‑production. Carmichael shares a personal anecdote from his first software company, where a feature built without customer validation wasted months of development time, reinforcing the need for data‑driven decisions. Throughout, he urges founders to stay disciplined, use low‑cost experiments, and only scale the ideas that prove profitable, while also encouraging audience interaction through comments and likes.
Chapters
Test. One of the most powerful words that you can understand for your business is to test. You want to test everything. Before you launch a product, you want to test it. Show that it works. See if people want to buy it. Before you launch a new marketing initiative, before you start spending thousands of your dollars on something, test. Prove to yourself that it's worth it. Stop wasting your money on things that have a low chance of working. Test it on a small scale and expand from there on the things that you know are working. I got a great question from one of my YouTube viewers, Ayo, who is launching a new clothing company and has various designs. Wants to know which design to produce first because they feel like, I don't want to overproduce and waste money like I mentioned in one of the videos. This is a great mindset, okay? This is really important because a lot of people who are starting product-based businesses, they go out, they think they have a great idea for a product, you know, you're excited, you have all that enthusiasm to get your company launched, and of course everybody's gonna buy this thing, right? You're so enthused and excited that of course people are gonna buy this thing. So then you make a huge order because it's also way cheaper right? Per unit, the per unit cost goes way down as you make big orders. So you decide to go for a big order. You fill your garage, you fill your basement, you've invested thousands of dollars into this thing, and it doesn't go anywhere. Your product was wrong. People don't want it. And it's at that point that a lot of entrepreneurs, they give up, they quit. You know, they've wasted tons of money on this project that didn't go anywhere. And so especially for product-based businesses where you have to put money down, You want to test on a small scale to show that there's demand for this thing before you go out and create large quantities. I didn't even know before I created anything. You're selling t-shirts? Show your design online. Have people order it online. Start with a company who can do on-demand printing. Even if you don't make any money off the first t-shirts, you're not losing money and you're gaining customers and you're gaining market intelligence to know which products are working and which aren't. I'd use one of the online companies that can print on demand. And again, even if you're not making anything, no profit off your first sales, you don't have a basement full of t-shirts that aren't selling and you're out $50,000 from your investment. Keep it simple. The cost per unit will be way higher in small quantities, but it's totally worth it because if it doesn't work out, you're not in the hole. And if it does work out, you can expand from there and you can start making them at lower costs and build your business up. For Ayo here, who's got this business with the t-shirts, put your designs online, see what people think, see which ones people are willing to order, and you'll find quickly that a couple designs are killing it and the other ones aren't. And it gives you the confidence and the intelligence to be able to go after the products that you know are working and expand from there. And for everybody else who's watching, if you have that same kind of business, a product-based business that's gonna cost you money to produce, make sure you get some research done first before you go out and create this thing, because it's gonna be a huge waste of time and money if you go in the wrong direction. I remember in my first software company We spent a lot of time on this one feature in our software that we thought was amazing, right? My partners were our target audience, so they knew the market. We thought they knew the market. They found it really helpful for themselves. We built this feature in, it took us a long time to build, and it turns out nobody cared. People didn't care about it. Now we weren't out any actual hard cost, but it was a lot of time, right? And when you're losing money, time is precious, right? I only have a certain runway before I have to think about maybe I should go get a job. Now luckily the software had enough other great things in it that people wanted to buy it, but we made the critical error where we didn't talk to our customers and really understand what they wanted before we built it. So make sure you have some data to back you up. Make sure you have some proof, some evidence, some money coming in before you expand on a path that could not only destroy your business but destroy your whole personal finances. And I know at the beginning it's so exciting and enthusiastic and you're, you're working off fumes, you're killing yourself, and it feels like nothing can go wrong. Don't get too caught up in the excitement that you make a decision like this that can sink your business. Okay, so make sure you're testing small, focus on the things that are working, and then invest into those to really blow them up. Believe. If you guys watching like the video, please give it a thumbs up below. I love seeing those come in, it makes me want to do more. And I want to hear what you think. Seeing your comments is the best part of my morning when I'm eating my breakfast. I load the comments and I love seeing them, so please leave a comment below, even just saying that you're watching. If you have a question, leave it in the comment section too. I'll make a video response. Thank you so much, and I'll see you soon.
