Unrequited love..a pretty word for a very ugly feeling. Yes, I lived it. In fact, it was my first experience in the whole game of boys and girls at the tender age of 14.
His name was Ian. He was my lab partner in Computer Class. We laughed so hard together. We hung out. We went biking together. I really had a great crush on him. He was the first guy I wanted to go out with (Bryan Adams wasn’t available). Enter my best friend Marlene. She was pretty and thin and knew how to ski. She had a hip family who seemed so much cooler than mine. I shared every agony of my young crush with my best friend Marlene. Imagine my shock when things completely went off the rails and Marlene and Ian started dating each other, seemingly overnight!
My first ever experience with love was that despite how well I thought we fit, my love didn’t want me. You’ll be happy to know that fast forward to university where Marlene was living a very mundane and quiet existence in the same residence block as mine at U of O and I was swimming in parties, good friends and hot boyfriends. We would occasionally nod to each other politely but other than that, she would forever remain my cautionary tale about broken trust. In hindsight, how do you expect any 14-year-old to prioritize friendship and principles over the young excitement and bursting hormones of a first love?
So now when I see businesses that are based on unrequited love, I literally cringe. Because unfortunately there’s a lot of it going around. According to one study 42% of businesses fold because there’s no market demand for them. They are no different than when I thought and assumed I had so much to offer to my first love Ian and he had no use for me.
How do you know your business is an unrequited love story? Here are some things to watch out for:
1. You’re not getting enough clients – this is the number one sign.
2. People love your business idea but nobody is actually willing to pay for it.
3. You’re not getting any referrals or you’re getting referrals for something you don’t do.
4. Very few people Google the need around the solution you provide- you can actually check this through Google Adwords.
So if your business is a sad unrequited love story, turn it around and find a specialty that the market is actually willing to pay what you want to make. You can’t do this by guessing. You have to do the market research to let the market tell you what it wants from you. Check out my 2-Day Market Demand Intensive which I created exactly for this purpose.
Don’t let unrequited love defeat you. Go where you’re loved and needed. Look at how it worked out for me!
Want to find out if the market needs you? Follow me on Twitter, friend me on Facebook, watch me on YouTube or connect with me on LinkedIn –and let’s talk
chala
market demand
