Avoiding Bad Products

All right, let’s get right into it.
Today, we’re going on a little mission.
I want you to think of yourself as a kind of detective, and your main case? It’s to hunt down
and stop bad products in their tracks before they can cause any trouble.
This is going to be your official detective’s guide.
You know, every good detective starts with the basic truths, right? And the number one truth
in business is right here on the screen.
Every single great company you can think of, it doesn’t matter if it’s the little shop on the
corner or some giant online empire, is built on one thing: a good product. That’s ground zero.
But here’s where things get a little more interesting. I mean, if it was just about finding a
good product, pretty much everyone would be a millionaire, wouldn’t they?
So the real secret, the clue that really separates the pros from everyone else, isn’t just about
finding the good stuff. It’s this, right here: the master skill is learning how to spot the traps,
the dead ends, the really bad ideas, from a mile away.
Because let me tell you, avoiding a bad product will save you so much time, so much money,
and a whole lot of headaches. And that’s our mission today, to give you the skills to do
exactly that.
Okay, so to crack this case, we have to know who we’re looking for, right? So let’s meet the
usual suspects. I like to call them the Bad Product Gang.
We’re going to build a profile for each one, so you can spot them in the wild.
Here’s our lineup. These three are the culprits behind pretty much every failed product idea
you’ll ever see: no demand, poor margins, and complicated delivery. Let’s go through them
one by one.
First up, we have maybe the trickiest one of all. We call this guy the Ghost Town Product.
You know, you build this beautiful online store, you stock all the shelves, but nobody ever
comes. It’s a really lonely and expensive mistake to make.
So what does no demand really mean? It’s actually super simple. It’s when you pour all your
time and energy into creating something that you think is just amazing, but then you launch it
and crickets. Nobody actually takes out their wallet to buy it.
So how do we dodge this bullet? Well, it all comes down to the question you ask yourself at
the very beginning. You see, instead of starting with “What do I want to sell?”, a good
detective starts by looking at the market and asking, “What are people already trying to buy?
What problems are they already trying to solve?”
And this quote just hits the nail on the head. It’s so easy to get fooled by your friends and
family saying, “Oh, that’s such a cool idea.” But likes and comments on social media, they
don’t prove a business is going to work. The only proof, the only real evidence that you’ve got
something, is when a stranger is willing to pay you for it.
Okay, onto our second suspect, and this one is super sneaky. We call it the Leaky Bucket.
This is when it looks like you’re making money because, you know, sales are coming in, but
your profit is just leaking out so fast that your bucket is always empty at the end of the day.
Poor margins just means that after you pay for everything – the product itself, the shipping,
your marketing – the little bit of money that’s left over, the profit you actually get to keep, is
just too small. It’s not enough to grow on, it’s not enough to reinvest, and it’s definitely not
enough to pay yourself.
Let’s look at the hard evidence here. In both cases, you sell a product for 50 bucks. But check
out the difference: with a good margin, your costs are low, maybe $15, so you pocket a nice
$35. That’s a healthy business.
But with a bad margin, your costs are sky-high, say $45. You only get to keep five bucks.
You’d have to sell seven times more product just to make the same amount of profit. That’s
just not sustainable.
So here’s the bottom line. This isn’t just a friendly suggestion. It’s practically a law of
business. If you don’t know your numbers, and if you ignore your margins, your business is
heading for trouble, no matter how many sales you’re making.
And that brings us to our final suspect in the lineup: the Obstacle Course. This is when
getting your product from point A to your customer at point B is just filled with hurdles and
traps and way too many steps.
What this really means is that every single order is a pain. Maybe the product is super fragile
and costs a fortune to ship, or it requires you to manually enter data, or you have to
coordinate with a bunch of different suppliers. Every little bit of friction makes it more likely
something’s going to go wrong.
I mean, just look at the difference here. On the left, you have a simple delivery: an order
comes in, the product ships out. Easy, clean. On the right, it’s a mess. You’ve got to manually
process things, package it yourself, figure out the shipping… Each one of those extra steps is
a chance for a mistake and a total drain on your time. Simplicity always wins.
And why is this so important? Well, think about it. When a customer gives you their money,
they are trusting you to follow through. A smooth, fast, easy delivery process doesn’t just get
them their stuff, it builds real confidence and makes them want to come back and buy from
you again.
All right, detective. We’ve profiled our suspects. We know what they look like, we know how
they operate. Now, it’s time to close this case and claim our reward.
And the reward for all this work is this simple but incredibly powerful checklist. Before you
ever commit to a product idea, just run it through these three questions: one, do people
actually want it? Two, is there enough profit in it? And three, can I deliver it easily? If you
can get a solid yes on all three, you’ve got a very strong case.
In the end, this is why we put on our detective hats today. This isn’t just some business
theory. It’s about protecting your most valuable resources: your time, your money, and your
own sanity. Every single bad product you decide not to pursue is a huge, huge win.
So I’ll leave you with this last thought. Now that you have the checklist, now that you know
the suspects, think about an idea you might have had. Does it pass the test? What bad product
are you going to avoid building, so you can focus on building a great one instead? Case
closed.