Should you build a better mousetrap?
I’m often approached by people who’ve come up with a new technology or business idea, the spark of which was them seeing the need for themselves and/or their business. Sometimes there isn’t a solution for their problem. Other times there is, but it just isn’t the right solution. So, when is it time to build something versus customizing something that already exists, or just learning to work with what’s already out there.
Listen to this new 6-minute episode for some thoughts on when it’s time to build versus buy.
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– Should you build a better mousetrap? Listen to this episode and find out. Very often, I have people coming to me with new ideas that they have for their industry, sometimes for a different industry and they’re looking for my advice as a consultant, as a business coach on those ideas. And sometimes, they’re completely different, there’s just nothing out there, and that’s why they want to build this thing, this new idea here. And then sometimes, it’s an incremental difference for something that’s out there. And sometimes I scratch my head and go, “Gee, I don’t know that the upside of that is worth the investment of doing it.” Now, if you’re all in on it, I’ve seen people go all in on an idea and they make it and they run with it and that’s great, but a lot of times I see people and say, “You know what, this is good, I can make that better,” and then they spend a lot of money, sink a lot of money, sink a lot money, without seeing if there’s a need by other people, if other people perceive it the way that you do.
Because if you’re building it for yourself, that’s one thing. There’s a certain expense there, you’re building it for yourself, and the return for your investment is you’re going to get what you want. If you’re building something that you’re going to sell to other people, then the question is, is there enough of a demand out there? History is littered with failures of great ideas that were either at the wrong time or there just weren’t enough customers that were looking for it. I remember trying to build an online learning platform, and maybe it was the wrong timing for me but I think we got up to 12 members and that was it. It took a lot of time, took a lot of investment, and we got to the point where we had to pull the plug and say, you know what, there just isn’t the demand for this particular thing right now, and we moved on to something else. And then there are other times where you say, “You know what, I don’t need to build this. Maybe I’ll partner with somebody that already has this to a certain degree, or maybe somebody might want these ideas just as suggestions for their platform and they didn’t realize that enough people might want it and they can just add it on to what they have.”
I remember in a previous job, we were looking to get a CRM system, a customer relation management software system. And I thought we should just go get one and customize something that was out there. The bosses thought, “No, we want to own this. We want to own the technology.” And it was just being done for us. And they spent a lot of time. I think we spent, it was over two years working on this and then never got it to fruition. And it was because we were trying to build something from scratch that really wasn’t necessary. We could have customized something that was out there, and the reason that they wanted to build it themselves is they didn’t want to be beholden to this third-party company, what if they go under, then we lose our system there. And this was in the early days of Salesforce and had we gone with it, no, they didn’t go under, they actually got a whole lot bigger and we could have been better off just using a system now for two years instead of trying to build one where we didn’t have one.
So when is it time to build the better mousetrap? That really depends upon if you’re building it just for yourself or if you’re building it to sell to others. If you’re building it just for yourself, look around, can you get something customized that’s already out there, that’ll get you all the way or most of the way where you need to be? If you’re building it to sell to other people, you have to get outside your bubble because you’re going to have people close to you that might be, “Yeah, that’s great, sounds great.” A, will they spend the money? And B, are there enough people like them that you can return your investment and if you’re looking to make money on it, that you can actually make money because enough people see what you see and see the benefits that you see for versus what they’re doing? because remember, the cost of switching is not just the physical monetary cost.
The cost of switching is very often the emotional cost of getting off of a system that you’re familiar with, even if it’s not perfect, and working with a system that’s brand new and there’s pain and the learning curve and getting up to speed on that and timing of that, when do I do that in the off season? Is there an off season? When can I do that? So before you go and build the better mousetrap, I don’t want to squash your ideas, I think ideas are great, but before you go and do it, make sure that that gap between what exists and what you’re building is enough that is going to be worth that investment in money and time because it’s probably going to take a whole lot more money than you think. Probably going to take more time than you think. And speaking of thinking, I hope that gave you something to think about.
I’m Alan Berg. Thanks for listening. If you have any questions about this or if you’d like to suggest other topics for “The Wedding Business Solutions Podcast” please let me know. My email is [email protected]. Look forward to seeing you on the next episode. Thanks.
Listen to this and all episodes on Apple Podcast, YouTube or your favorite app/site:
- Apple Podcast:
- YouTube: www.WeddingBusinessSolutionsPodcast.tv
- Spotify: https://spoti.fi/3sGsuB8
- Stitcher:
- Google Podcast:
- iHeart Radio: https://ihr.fm/31C9Mic
- Pandora:
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