Comments on: Just Because You Like To Do It, Doesn’t Make It A Good Business Idea

By: Top 135+ Personal Finance Posts for 2009 (That can be used 2010 and beyond) | Finance Blog

Tue, 05 Jan 2010 18:43:47 +0000

[...] Sometimes people make the mistake of trying to make a business from a hobby. Sometimes this can work but keep in mind that just because you like to do it, doesn’t make it a good business idea. [...]

By: Top 135+ Personal Finance Posts for 2009 (That can be used 2010 and beyond)

Top 135+ Personal Finance Posts for 2009 (That can be used 2010 and beyond) — Mon, 28 Dec 2009 17:29:51 +0000

By: The Financial Blogger » Blog Archive » Financial Ramblings – I Feel Like having the H1N1 Edition

Sun, 29 Nov 2009 15:55:38 +0000

[...] Just Because You Like To Do It, Doesn’t Make It A Good Business Idea at Four Pillars. [...]

By: Friday Links - Canadian Finance Blog

Friday Links - Canadian Finance Blog — Fri, 27 Nov 2009 10:02:03 +0000

[...] Four Pillars suggests that just because you like to do it, doesn’t make it a good business idea. [...]

By: thomas

thomas — Fri, 27 Nov 2009 04:09:08 +0000

I actually noticed this recently with people around me that run their own business or are self employed. Sure they are great are doing it but when it comes to the business part of it, they suck.

Whats worse is they turn around the next month and complain they cant pay bills while the last client they did business for, they charged it just barely above cost and made up some emotionally based reason for doing it.

By: The Financial Blogger

The Financial Blogger — Fri, 27 Nov 2009 03:07:32 +0000

I’ve seen many people thinking they would succeed based on this idea.

Passion is one thing but you need to be able to market your product and this product/service must solve needs

By: Shevy

Shevy — Fri, 27 Nov 2009 02:09:17 +0000

I saw a show called Dragon’s Den the other night where people try to persuade the panel of expert business people to invest in their companies.

One lady had something called, I think, Woofstock (which I believe she said she had trademarked). It was a dog fair she’s been running back East for the past few years. It attracts tons of people with their dogs, a couple of hundred vendors, etc. but she wants to make it bigger, start charging (admission has been free) and maybe run it in various cities (kind of like Creation runs SF cons in cities all over North America, with various actors appearing at them).

The guy who is CEO of Boston Pizza offered her money for 50% of her company and she declined because she didn’t want to lose control but he told her he needed 50% because she had a great idea but wasn’t making any money (she admitted it was successful in every way except financially and one of the guys said “the only way that counts”). He had the organizational abilities she lacked but she didn’t go for it. This is the same kind of thing. Without the business plan it’s just a hobby.

By: Smac20

Smac20 — Thu, 26 Nov 2009 22:37:37 +0000

How true this article is to real business failures. There are dreamers and there are do-ers. You need to find a middle ground to be successful or realize which pool you fall into and hire the opposite. If you’re a dreamer hire a do-er and your risk of failure will diminish significantly.

By: Financial Samurai

Financial Samurai — Thu, 26 Nov 2009 19:13:58 +0000

I think it’s important realize that nobody really cares for your product more than yourself.

It’s the same thing with a blog.

By: Thicken My Wallet

Thicken My Wallet — Thu, 26 Nov 2009 18:55:36 +0000

To state your excellant post another way- what problem are you solving in the world with your business? If your product/good solves no problem, the set of people having their problem solved is really small or the set of people having their problem solved have no money (or a combination of all three- see every eposide of Dragon’s Den), then its a great idea fraught with execution challenges. Mainly, who the heck will pay for this?

To take it one more step, and as you also pointed out, even if your business solves a problem if you cannot convey the value of your business easily, you are dead in the water.

Friends and family are NOT good sounding boards unless they are owner-managers as well. They are your hot list- they will buy anything from you at least once b/c they love you. Employees also think differently than owner managers (its a huge gulf in thinking that anyone who starts a business needs to overcome) so their advice, while well-intentioned, is sometimes not the most prudent ont.

Go ask a person in business- one in marketing and one who has built businesses at the very least- whether what you like doing will actually fly or not (or whether the idea flies with the resources you have).