580. How to know if you have a good business idea

You're going to find that what you think the world needs and what the world actually thinks that it does need are two very different things because you guys have different perspectives, you have different paradigms, you have different struggles.

Welcome to the Earn your happy podcast. I'm Lori Harder, founder of The Bliss Project, 3 Time Fitness World champion, fitness expert and cover model, turned self love junkie, lifestyle entrepreneur and author. Each week I'll bring you a guest or a thought that will help you bust through your fears, connect to your soul and get focused and clear so you can elevate your life, business and relationships. We don't wait until we're ready for someone to tell us we're good enough. We take what we want and we anoint ourselves, get ready to earn, own, and unapologetically rock your happiness every single day. Are you with me?

Here we go.

Foreign.

Welcome back to he said, she said, where I sit with my husband and we discuss usually business topics, sometimes other topics.

Isn't this supposed to start with me saying, and we're back, and then you kind of get into that?

I think it's whatever we want.

All right, no rules. So what are we talking about today?

So today our topic is how to know if you have a good business idea or not.

Okay, number one, I love this one because I'm an idea machine. So are you, actually. That's like the curse of the Sagittarius, isn't it? Is. We are crazy idea machines.

Oh, God, no shortage of them. It's painful, actually, because the second I get a good idea, I'm like, wait, this one's better. Maybe I should do this. But now I'm super clear that I have to take one idea and run with it, run it all the way through, and that these other ideas are for you guys or for our mastermind members.

Yeah, I don't wanna get off on a tangent, but I teach this all the time. Like, you can have lots of good ideas and they can all be equally good, but you can't chase them all at the same time. You really have to build one, Build it so far and so deep so that it has momentum and it is self sustaining, so that you can then reinvest the momentum, the income, the clients, the lessons from the first one into the second one. Once it has momentum, then build the second one as deep as you can. Then, you know, reinvest the money, the momentum, everything from the second one and you kind of get the picture. But you can't chase a bunch of chickens at once.

I just did A podcast today with the founder of Liquid Ivy. And I. I bounced off the theory that I have with him of we get these ideas that are like, goosebump ideas, right? You're like, this is the idea. And I told him, I'm like, I want to hear how you feel. I fully believe that when we get those goosebump ideas, if we actually decided to just take them and run with them, like, run him into the ground, exhaust all options, that I think that that would be a successful idea. And he was like, absolutely, 100%. Because there's something to be said about just never quitting. He said the. The relentless pursuit of something. He's like, yeah, it'll change a thousand times. But we both fully agreed that if it's a good idea, which we're going to run through it and you take it to the end, no matter what, it's going to work.

Yeah, absolutely. And this is a question that you and I have a lot of dang experience on, because not only have we pursued a lot of ideas or a lot of ideas, but we coach hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of entrepreneurs over the past couple years. And the number one question, we tend to get even from people that just like DM us, hey, is this a good idea? And so we came up with a bit of a framework for people to be able to run this through. And I'm sure that's the framework you want to take them through today.

Absolutely.

Of how to know if you have a good business idea or not.

For sure. I wanna start out with saying that, you know, there are plenty of ideas that don't seem like good ideas in the beginning, and sometimes those are the best ideas. But there is some things that you can run them through in order to know if they would be a fit. Because I just have to say I've had a ton of people tell me that a lot of my ideas are like, maybe it's not good, or maybe the product, the market's too saturated, or there's too many books on the market, there's too much alcohol on the market. There's always going to be too much. But you also have to look at. And we'll talk a little bit about this. Look, a rising tide raises all ships. So if something is doing really well, there is a reason, but you have to watch why and where and where it's shifting. So with that said, Chris, number one is to choose a problem that you are excited about solving day in, day and day out.

Oh, okay, wait, we talked about this on a walk today. And why is it important to choose a problem that you are really excited about solving and that you're most excited about the outcome of what you're producing? Because.

Because everything becomes a job. And you know, it's sandwiches daily. So you better make sure that you get a couple nuggets of peanuts in that shit sandwich that you like.

I'm not kidding you. I think the number one reason that entrepreneurs gain weight while they're building their business is because they eat some of my shit sandwiches.

I'm positive I had like four today.

Oh, was that what that smell was?

Might have been.

Okay, so anyhow, number one is crucial. You guys choose a problem that you are excited to solve now and tomorrow and in a few years from now. Because everything, no matter how wonderful it is and how exciting it is in the moment, everything becomes a job. And this is not to discourage you. No, this is to make you realize that this, this fairy tale where most of you quit once, it's not fun anymore.

Right.

That's not when you quit. You need to keep the vision of, wait a minute, I'm excited about solving this problem for people in the long run. And that's what you grasp onto.

It's what we always say, Chris. You can either solve problems you're excited about and you enjoy and you get a great outcome, or you can solve someone else's problems that get you an outcome that is a paycheck that never changes.

Yep. And it's so true. Okay, so number one, choose a problem that you are excited to solve now, tomorrow, and in the future.

Number two, start with scaling in mind.

Oh, okay. Thank you, thank you, thank you. You want to know where most people hit a roadblock?

I do.

I'm burnt out. I've got no time left, I've got no energy left. Oh, this is not a judgment. This is what we hear. And this is speaking from experience. Right. This is almost like a rite of passage that you get into business by trading your time for money. But you only grow a business by deciding that that's not how you want to show up, that's not how you want to live and learning to scale. And so number two is you need to start by making sure that your business is scalable in the long run. Now, this doesn't mean, by the way, let's be crystal clear. You take the low hanging fruit in the beginning, you take the income you can get in the beginning. So this doesn't mean you don't start by coaching. You don't start by laboring, you don't start by doing the things where you're trading time for money. What it means is you don't start this business unless you see a phase two where you can scale it, where you are not trading your time for money, but you are now leveraging other people's times or products or, you know, you name it. So that is scalable, so that you're not sitting there hitting the ceiling.

Yeah, this is, that is like so important because a lot of people start a business as a coach, as a personal trainer, as whatever you name it, whatever. That, that kind of like.

Whatever.

Yeah, whatever.

That kind of like first phase is.

Of starting a business. And a lot of times they'll get stuck there because they don't see that they never started picturing themselves as the next level. Right. So you don't position yourself. You know, I think in business people should, in, they do. But I think we should talk more about positioning even as far as like how you're feeling, what you're thinking, how you're talking, how you're showing up, you know, what you're speaking into life. Because I know that with our businesses it was always like, here's what's coming next. And the more that I spoke it out, whether I felt confident about it as a personal trainer, talking about launching a big women's empowerment event, whether I felt confident or not, the more I spoke into life like, this is what I'm doing right now and this is what I'm transitioning into, the more that it was reality for me. So you don't want to pigeonhole yourself by just thinking, oh, I'm just a coach or oh, I'm just trading my time for money on this. Even though that's vital in the beginning, you have to build up that confidence within yourself. Like, that's why it's so important.

Right?

Like, you got to get that low hanging fruit, number one. Because if you're afraid to even do the low hanging fruit, it means you can't even think of a phase two. So you got to build up some confidence there. You got to get the experiences. Pretty soon you're going to know what every single person you know is going to come to you and ask for and what their pro like. At this point, Chris, you and I can pretty much know and predict what every single entrepreneur's question in fear is going to be.

Oh, my God, yes.

And that's only from thousands of hours, right?

Yep. Of, of, of coaching them. And here's the thing. There's nothing wrong with being a solopreneur Most people start there. But when you're a solopreneur, right, you're just working by yourself, trading time for money. What's going to happen is one of two things, and probably both. You're either going to run out of. Run out of time and energy, or you're going to run out of the ability to raise the price on the service that you're exchanging. And so those are two ceilings that you cannot navigate through without actually having a true business. And the difference between a solopreneur and a business is if you were sick or away or on vacation or down and out for a long time or even, you know, took your foot off the gas for quite some time, a business would keep running and producing revenue. A solopreneur is just really a worker without a boss. Yeah.

And, you know, I think that we both have been burnt out from just trading time for money and being like, okay, if we want to make more money, we definitely have to spend more time on this, which can also equal losing your best friends and getting a divorce. So those are all things that we all want to mitigate from the beginning if we can. It doesn't mean you're not going to have those nights and you're not going to work so hard and you're not going to have that year where you want to bang your head against the wall. You will, because I think it's the only way to bust through to the next level. But I believe that you can pivot a lot sooner than most people do.

Yep, absolutely. What's number three?

Number three, do the research. Like, know what you're getting into. Know where your people are. Do you have the audience? Does your audience buy? If not, where are they? How will you acquire them? Okay, before you get into this, what I want to ask you, how many times do we see people say, I have this great idea, or I, I created an e course, or I created a course, or I wrote a book. That one just slays me. I wrote a book. How do I get it out into the world? Or I have this book idea. How do I get it out? And I'm like, great, your book idea. And all of these ideas are great, but where are you going to pitch them? Where are you going to sell them? Do you have an audience? No, I don't.

Well, here's the bottom line. Before you come up with your product or your book or your widget or your coaching or your whatever, poll your audience. Ask them what they want. This kills me. You guys have the answers for Free by simply creating a poll on like SurveyMonkey and sending it out, or an Instagram poll, or, you know, dipping into a couple of Facebook groups and saying, hey guys, I'm thinking about starting X, Y and Z. Do you like X, Y or Z better? And get feedback from your would be customers. Because you're going to find that what you think the world needs and what the world actually thinks that it does need are two very different things. Because you guys have different perspectives, you have different paradigms, you have different struggles. And so that's why I see it all the time when people create a XYZ course and it doesn't sell. And I say, well, can you show me the data where you polled your audience or you polled a group and they said that this is what they were looking for. And like, well, no, I just figured that this would sell. I figured this is what people needed. You don't know what's in people's minds. You don't know what people need. You have to ask them what they need and then they'll give you the answers to the test. And that's what you go create.

Make sure it's enough. People don't just listen to like three of your friends who are like, yeah, I think this is like a big need right now. Or like even 10 people get into a group or keep doing that survey until you have like some pretty solid data. Even if you do it for a month straight, like two or three times a week or even more. Because in the beginning you're just going to get people who are just kind of like, you know, answering it to answer it. And then sometimes you need to train your people to even answer that survey, right?

Well, yeah, you do. And like even what you did, if I can disclose with the alcohol company, we thought we knew what flavors people wanted. And then we dipped into other people's massive groups and dropped a couple polls in there and we found out what they wanted in terms of flavor profiles. I was surprised were in the opposite order of what we thought people wanted. And it saved us from, you know, a massively expensive mistake in launch. So you guys have to pull your audience or borrow an audience to pull. That's your perfect demographic.

Yeah. So crazy. I had no idea I was so confident. In my gut, I'm like, no, these are the best. Here's the thing, you guys, I even want to share. We even think some of our flavors that are coming out later taste even better than the ones that are coming out, even though they're all mind blowing. But that's how hard of a decision it is, is that I'm like, well, why wouldn't I just put out what we think are the, like the ultimate flavors, even though we're obsessed with these too, but we'll have those come out later. And it was like, it doesn't even matter if they don't buy your first flavors because they're not interested in that flavor profile or whatever that is. So it was like, oh my God, I almost put out a product that people may not even go to purchase or give a try. In the beginning, the key is to get them to purchase. So if you can't get them to purchase even one time, then it's not working. You don't have a good idea.

Yep. Even if you have a good idea, if you can't get them to purchase it and experience as a good idea, then that's the same as a bad idea. You guys get what we're saying? So it's not what you want, it's what your audience wants. And that's why number three is do the research. Pull your audience or borrow one to pull. So summarize the three for us.

Number one, choose a problem you are excited to solve daily because everything turns into a job.

Yep.

Number two, start with scaling in mind.

Yes.

Number three, do the research.

Yes. Guys, please run all your ideas through these three things. This type of framework will save you time, it'll save you energy, it'll save you money, and it'll accelerate your business growth, it'll accelerate your happiness, it'll accelerate your income, it'll accelerate absolutely everything that you're trying to build this thing for from the beginning.

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You.

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I'm not even sure about the time that this is being put out if we have master spots left, but do you want to talk about it? Our fast foundations?

Yeah, real quick. At the time that we're we're recording this. We have less. 10. Less than 10 spots left. Literally sold 81% in the first 24 hours is nuts.

So it probably isn't available, but if by any single chance it is, you can go to Fast foundations dot com. Otherwise, you guys, we would love to just hear what your biggest takeaway was. So make sure you tag at Chris W. Harder. Why can't we tag just Chris Harder?

Because just Chris Harder is someone who already hit squatting on that name that I have to get it from.

Oh, I thought it was the porn star still.

No, no, he actually doesn't have Chris Harder. He has something else, like. Oh, like Chris Harder, male burlesque or something.

Oh, well, never mind. That joke went down the drain. Yeah, there's a Chris Harder that's.

But if you Google Chris Harder with your adult safe search off, don't do it anywhere.

I mean, do it if you want to, but don't do it if you don't want something on your computer.

Poll your audience.

See if they wanted to poll your audience. Anyhow, make sure you tag Hrisdel W. Harder. And at Lori Harder, Let us know what your biggest takeaway was and what your business idea is. That would be fun.

Oh, my God. Share your business ideas with us. We're actually willing to be like, good idea, bad idea. Or maybe go ask your audience this or that. We'll give you a little bit of insight. And like Lori said before, go check out Fast Foundations with an S at the end, fastfoundations.com because right now there's a few spots left, and if there are a couple, when this comes out, we want you, the person who's excited by this concept, to freaking grab it.

Okay, you guys, until next time, have a good one.

Thank you guys so much for spending this time with me on the earn your happy podcast. I am so glad that you stopped by. If you could take one second to share this episode with someone you think would love it, that would be absolutely amazing and we would be forever grateful. Also, please leave us a review if you feel so moved by going to itunes and leaving us an honest thought and honest comment. Tell us what you think. Tell us what you want to hear more of. It would really help us out on our journey to helping thousands and thousands of people. Until then, don't forget to earn your happy. Thanks again, guys.

Bye. Bye, Sam.