Why Finding a Location for Your Business First is Not a Smart Move – Here’s Why

So may business idea kana, pero may kasunod ka namang problema. Ito ay ang paghahanap ng “pwesto”

Marami nagtatanong sa mga negosyo group na:

“Saan ako makahanap ng magandang pwesto?”

“May idea na sana ako na inenegosyo ko pero di ako makahanap ng magandang pwesto”

Let me tell you this now: Finding a location first before proving your business is a risky idea – Parang bumili ka na ng karwahe bago pa dumating ang kabayo mo.

The traditional and most common method in starting a business is this:

1. Get a business idea
2. Look for a location
3. Buy inventory
4. Register and etc…

This method of starting a business is risky and wrong.

There is a 90% chance that you will lose all of your hard-earned money in your business in just a couple of years or just months even.

In every business there is always risks involved, you may not avoid risk but you can always reduce it.

Our restaurant business started this way:

1. We got an idea to start a restaurant business from a suggestion of a relative
2. We got loans from banks and cooperatives
3. We looked for a location to set up our business there
4. Then our restaurant opened in July and after a few months it failed – we wasted a lot of our borrowed money and we were in debt.

The main reason why looking for a location first is wrong is because your business is not yet proven to the market.

Meaning di ka sigurado kung papatok ba ito sa masa o hindi.

THE RIGHT THING TO DO FIRST

Before spending your hard-earned money on finding a location your unproven business you must prove it first by VALIDATING your idea, and if it is valid that the time to START looking for a location for your business.

HOW TO VALIDATE A BUSINESS IDEA

We can validate our idea in 4 steps

1. Build a prototype of your idea
2. Get Feedback
3. Improve
4. Get paying customers

To explain the steps more understandable, I will use the example above which is our restaurant business and reenact what we should’ve done instead.

1.    Build a prototype of your idea

A prototype is the early version of your product. This is necessary because this will be the model of your finished product.

Ex. Sa restaurant business namin, ang main product naming ay batchoy. So Dapat nagsimula muna kami magluto ng batchoy sa bahay namin.

2.    Get Feedback

Getting feedback is crucial because the information on the feedback will be used later on when we make changes and improve our product.

It’s important not to take feedbacks personally because it’s not about you they are talking about, but it’s about your product.

Ex. After naming magluto, dapat pinasubok namin ang lasa ng batchoy namin sa mga tao at kunin ang feedback nila tungkol sa lasa at magpasuggest kung ano ang dapat iimprove.

3.    Improve

Based on the feedback of your customers. Focus on changing what they like and don’t like about the product.

Improving your product will evolve your prototype into a final product.

Pagkatapos naming magather ang feedback nila gagamitin naming ang nakuha naming information para maimprove ang lasa ng batchoy namin at kapag nakuha na namin ang panlasa nila may final product na kami.

4.    Get paying customers

This step is the ultimate idea validator because this step secures that your idea is viable – meaning people actually want your product.

If people actually buy your product then congratulations, your idea is valid and you now have a business!

Dapat nagpatayo muna kami ng maliit na pwesto sa bahay namin at doon lang namin iseserve ang customers namin, pansamantala, at kapag may mga customers na bumili at bumabalik at maganda ang feedback nila, yan na ang oras para maghanap ng pwesto.

TIME TO FIND A PWESTO

After you have validated your business idea, you are now ready to find a “pwesto” for your business. It’s that simple.

Validating your idea first saves you a lot of time and money in building an unproven business that will fail in the future.

I know na karamihan sa inyo hindi gusto sundin ang mga steps na ito dahil nyo gusto na magsimula mag benta kaagad. Pero mali ho yun, at madidisappoint lang kayo sa huli kung walang bibili sa inyo at masasayang lang pera nyo sa pagpapatayo ng negosyo.

It’s better off to fail early by knowing first if your idea is valid rather than failing later after you spent P 100,000 already and that you might not be able to recover like what happened to our family business.

SUMMARY

Before finding a location you have to validate your idea first.

To validate your idea you have to 1) Build a prototype of your idea 2) Get Feedback 3) Improve 4) Get paying customers, after you have done the 4 steps, you are now ready to find a “pwesto” for your business.