What just three short years ago seemed like the next great thing may no longer make sense in this new “Age of Value”.
Entrepreneur.com looks back at businesses that went from “hot” to “flop”:
There are some important lessons in these tales.
Even in the best economic times there’s a fine line between a trend and a fad. When times get tough, a hot idea can fizzle out just as quickly, so do your research and take careful consideration.
My take — always look for a business with legs. Start a business that you can imagine will be valuable to customers for years and even decades to come.
Ask yourself these questions:
- Does my business idea offer value that people will desire over the long term?
- Is the source of the opportunity a fundamental change or a permanent shift in technology, society, demographics, or market structures?
- Do I have a niche that I can protect indefinitely, or will I soon see a flood of new competitors?
- Is my idea just a temporary fix to a market problem that will soon be replaced by something better?
- Is my product or service something that people will need even if the economy weakens?
I just did a phone interview with someone from Inc. magazine yesterday.
My business was in the Inc 5,000 last year, and we are in the “green” category. So this reporter was doing a story about green businesses to see how they are doing in the current environment, and whether or not we were changing our marketing to more of a “value” proposition instead of just “green for the sake of green.”
The truth is, I am wondering if “green” is a trend into a fad, and if it will be like the 1970s, where solar and organic living and things like that almost disappeared, as least as far as the mainstream is concerned.
Are we going to see a huge pullback like that? Or has green gone mainstream enough this time that it can sustain itself and continue growing.
My business makes sense in other contexts than just “green for the sake of green,” so we’ll be able to move forward regardless. But I can’t help but wonder how it will go next. I’m not going to just drink the Kool Aid and say that green couldn’t possibly be a fad — I’m keeping an eye on what’s actually happening and not just what I want to happen.
They had some national poll lately, and when they asked a group of people about the most important issues to them, global warming came in dead last.