I discovered it the hard way, and it took me ten years of “failed” entrepreneurship and over-work to finally understand that you can’t really be happy unless you’re doing something that benefits other people. To put it in business terms, you can’t be successful until your work is valued by someone else, which is why starting with the person is so i

4. What does your group think about similar products on the market? If

Focus on your customer, not your competitor. One of my mentors, Kevin Nations, has his own rule of pricing that I like: Find out what the customer wants, find out what solving their problem is worth to them, then charge them a little bit less than that.

The key to your product probably won’t be that it’s new. It’ll be that it’s different, even if it’s just in one small way.

All examples, podcast interviews, and case studies can be downloaded for free at www.Capitalism.com/best.

There are two types of entrepreneurs: those who drive the vision and those who build. It is incredibly rare for one person to be both a Visionary and a Builder. Visionaries are highly energetic and highly emotional; they come up with new ideas. In contrast, Builders are stable, organized, and calm. Visionaries make horrible managers, so people usua

People will always pay a premium to solve their specific problem. That’s why we choose brands—because they are for us. This is why you absolutely must hammer down the “who” behind your product. If you can speak directly to your target market, you can charge twice the price while creating loyal fans.

There’s a common startup model called “scratch your own itch,” and it involves finding a problem you yourself have, solving that problem, and then allowing that solution to form a business. That’s what inspired Suzy to start Poo-Pourri.

7. What will be products two, three, and four? Do you know what your follow-up products