Do You Know What Problems Your Customers Are Experiencing?

I had an interesting conversation with an entrepreneur today. I love her and I patronize her business. She is very talented and makes me feel good about the way I look.  (She is a hairdresser and colors my hair, styles my hair, and cuts my hair as necessary) While I was under the faucet, I told her I knew a way she could make millions. Obviously, she was interested.  After I told her a problem I experienced regularly regarding hair color, she realized there was a potential market! We brainstormed over hair color, shampoos, foils, glaze and a great blowout, during which time she posed a couple of problems with my proposal. She needed a chemist/scientist for formulations, (yes, but maybe she could experiment until she could afford one), it wouldn’t be easy, (nothing is ever easy, besides, if it was easy, someone would have already invented the solution to my problem) I told her, she provides a great service and she can keep doing that, but if she could provide a solution to my problem, a problem that women the world over experience on a regular basis, she would be providing something so much bigger than the service she provides.  I also brought up that hair color today was as advanced as it was, simply because someone had responded to a solution to a problem. Now maybe it is more difficult to solve this particular problem, and maybe it will never be solved, but the entrepreneur that succeeds is the one looks for and implements solutions to the problems that exist for their customers.

xo, jan