Maybe you’ve heard the analogy of somone with their hair on fire as an image used to demonstrate the idea that when developing a business offering you should find a critical problem and figure out how to solve it. If you haven’t heard the analogy it goes something like this:

If someone’s hair is on fire they’ll want a hose, they’ll pay you anything you want for it and it the details about the hose doesn’t matter. If you can put the fire out, the person will not care about the color, size, shape or other details about the hose. When starting a business, developing a product, or brainstorming an offering look for a problem that people have and solve it for them. Fix a critical problem and the consumer will not care about the details of the solution.

Great advice, right? I think so. But I think there are a couple elements missing from the picture. I think the hair on fire analogy needs expanding on. Here are a few things to consider:

1. As stated, find a critical problem and provide a solution for it.
2. As illustrated in the image, but not usually considered; the customer has to know about the problem. This fits the hair on fire analogy. If the user’s hair is on fire, they’ll know. Solving problems that nobody perceives as a problem means you have to spend time and money to educate the consumer. And, if the consumer doesn’t know they have a problem, they will not seek you out. You have to find them.
3. This one is not illustrated in the picture. There have to be enough people with hair on fire. Or, the small number of customers with their hair on fire must pay big. Make sure your market is large enough to sustain.

So, I think the new analogy should be to find lots of people with their hair on fire and sell hoses to them. That would cover the three points above.

There are other considerations, but I think those three weed out a lot of non-starter business ideas. Cost structures, risk, competition, etc are considerations. But, if you find an idea that meets the three requirements that I’ve outlined, I think you’ve got a great idea to start with… and if you need help with any of the execution, give me a call or send mean email.