What’s your MVP – no, not most valuable person – the Minimum Viable Product
I was recently on a Facebook Live program with a business colleague who was talking about how so many small business owners come up with hundreds, if not thousands of ways to delay a launch.
Some of those delays can include things like, “I need a logo” or “I don’t have a website up yet.” In truth, some businesses need to have one or both of those as a minimum viable product in order to launch. Take our web hosting business, CCNJHost.com, for example. Without a website, we cannot launch our business because how would clients look at us if we didn’t have a site? Our logo didn’t matter much – it was a piece of art that could have been any number of things – we’ve gone through several changes to the logo over the years, but that was not mission critical to our business.
As you are thinking about what it is that you need in your business, remember – not everything is mission critical to get the product/service launched. There are some things that are very helpful, but not required to launch. Another example – when I was interviewed on a radio program up in Boston, my minimum viable product was a working phone line, my voice and a rough idea what I wanted to discuss. Things that were critical included a bit more of an idea on where I wanted to go, what I wanted to touch on to make sure that people knew what I do and where my expertise lay and how to contact me after. A desired piece, which wasn’t able to have been met in time, was an ebook that people would have been able to get. Truth be told, I’m still working on that, but I didn’t have to hold up the interview because of the missing book!
Look in your business – or even life – as to the things that you think are absolutely critical to be done now. How many of those items on your to-do list must be done before you leave the office today? How many of those tasks are going to get you more customers? Focus on the big picture – everything else eventually falls into place.
If you’d like to find out more, and see how we can help you work out your MVP, I invite you to get a no-cost 15-minute business coaching session with me.
Jennifer Glass
CEO, Business Growth Strategies International, LLC
https://www.bgsillc.com/