Chitty Chitty Bang Bang and Business Plans

Why Failing at Business Plans Made Mr. Potts Fail at Life (well mostly)

Even with a really good idea, businesses can still be doomed to fail. Businesses don't want ideas, if they did, Mr Potts from Chitty Chitty Bang Bang would have been a billionaire from the get go.Businesses want money. Crazy right? And in order to do that, most of all, a business plan needs to be marketable. Let's be honest, Mr. Potts was an ideas man but not a realist. He got lucky with the flying car but the other stuff, when put onto a market, is worthless.

Mr Potts Doing His Thang

Take this breakfast making contraption for example https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RBJGpNTP_lY. While pretty much one of the coolest things you will ever see in your life, its not going to catch on. This is because he didn't follow all the basic steps for making a business plan...

1. He didn't start with a problem: If he had gone out and interviewed people who cooked in their own home, they might have been able to tell them that they had no problem cooking simple foods like eggs and sausages in their own home. What they actually wanted was for their food to stop sticking to their fry pans. He also might have discovered that people generally wanted more space in their kitchen and did not want it to be taken up by a bulky, intricate contraption which is only able to cook two types of food! 
2. He didn't Identify Customers: The customer for this product are people who really really really like eggs and sausages, all the time for every meal and can't be bothered spending the time making them. This is an almost nonexistent market (pretty much just the Pott household) and should have been assessed before even beginning to make it.
3. He didn't Justify Competitive Value: This isn't as relevant to Mr. Potts because he failed to address a problem and a customer in the first place. But, this step is really important and involves thinking about what you could offer which would make people choose your product over existing products. 
4.  Ideas: To be honest he doesn't have a problem with ideas. He has one beautiful mind. Dat lateral thinking.
5. I guess he kind of thought about distribution: I'm going to use another example for this because it's my blog and I can do what I want to. I want to talk about the  toot sweets. Great idea to bring the toot sweets to a candy factory. Instant loyal customer base right there. 
6. Revenue: Where does the money come from, how much is needed and when? Be specific Mr. Potts, you're  never going to get anywhere in life if you don't think of all this stuff.
7. Costs: Not once in the interview with the sweet factory owner did he mention price. And the boss blindly accepted this. Some day someone's business is going under...
8. Resources: Did you know that if Mr Potts had a partner that businesses would be much much much more likely to invest in his ideas? If you're alone in thinking an idea is good, investors will question why that is...

You Forgot to do Market Research on any of your Products Mr Potts!!

Once you do have an idea, its important to validate it. Ask around and then answer these questions...

can you find customers?

do they have this problem?

is it important?

will they pay for it?

what are the key features of that solution?

Of course you should never people directly if they will buy your product because they will most likely say yes. People like saying yes. But in reality people are lazy and if they don't have a major problem with something, they won't change it. This is why its so so important to do your research! 

Mr Potts Should have Tried a Lean Set Up 
This is all about doing as little as possible to get the maximum possible output in order to attract in investors attention. Investors do not need to see finished prototypes Mr Potts! All they want to see is that the idea has potential and low risk! Ventures don't usually fail because the invention doesn't work, they fail more often because people don't want to buy it. 

WISE UP MR. POTTS!