Mountains of Arizona
Partly Cloudy 49 Degrees
1:43 p.m.
I spent years looking for my “USP” in a bunch of different businesses. Nothing was ever good enough. Nothing was ever exciting enough (for me) to make me feel like I had “found it.”
What made me different? Who knew?
The funny part is that I was LIGHT YEARS away from actually having to answer a question like that. I thought the USP thing was a beginner question but it’s only something you deal with at a more advanced level.
I had skipped over what is really question NUMERO UNO for any business owner hoping to do anything but struggle:
What problem do you solve and for whom do you solve it?
A clear answer to that question can tell you a lot of things about your chances.
A good number of businesses struggle because they really have no good reason to exist.
If you’re not really solving a problem for the world, then you might consider aiming your skills at another endeavor. It will probably be a hard road to go out there as a solution in search of a problem.
If you ARE solving a problem, but one no one truly cares about, that’s going to tell you that the profit potential is probably not going to be too great. This is often the land of the commodity.
If you actually DO solve a problem but aren’t really sure where to find the folks who have it, that’s going to be a rough road too. You’ll probably live out the story of being the “most valuable undiscovered genius” on the planet. That’s frustrating.
Focusing on one simple question can help you get the fundamentals of your business right in a way that so many people never actually do.
What problem do you solve and for whom do you solve it?
There aren’t many marketing books that will help you figure out if you have a bad business. That’s not what they’re designed for. Which is why so many people struggle even with access to all of the latest and greatest sales and marketing materials.
Does the world need the business you have?
If so, get to work building it!
If not, get to work fixing it until it does.